Don't Forget the First Xbox

Eurogamer wants to remind us that, before Microsoft's next-gen console, they had this large black box which was sold in stores. A few games were even made for it. They've come up with two lists, one detailing the twelve finest exclusives to grace the system and another to highlight poorly-selling but highly-entertaining 'cult classics' you may have missed the first time around. From the 'best of' list: "Halo made the Xbox - without it, Microsoft would have had a much tougher struggle in the console market, and it's really telling that five years on, almost everyone would still rate the first game as one of its top titles. Unsurprisingly, Halo spawned countless imitators, and the market is awash with the corpses of space-marine-shoots-aliens games which simply didn't resonate with the gaming audience in the same way. The reason is clear; Halo wasn't just a success because people want to be a space marine and shoot aliens. The game was the complete package; it had stirring narrative, great characters, epic, sweeping scale, and absolutely fantastic, haunting music. It may not have brought much to the table in terms of gameplay innovation, and many PC FPS fans turned their noses up at it for that reason - but the production values and the understanding of how to create an involving, cinematic experience which Bungie brought to bear were unmatched."

Comments

Re:Huh

[ectal]

Um. Halo has more to do with the 1994 title Marathon ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_(computer_ga me) ) than with Doom. And at the time Marathon came out, there was no FPS out with a story that came anywhere near Marathon's. And who made Marathon? Bungie.

Halo is, in spirit, just a re-working of this earlier title. I'd actually say Marathon had the better storyline. But Halo definitely wins the gameplay prize.