Xbox 360 BC: The Best Ones

Battle Engine Aquila
Atari/Lost Toys, Gamepage, Play.com page, 480p support

Our Rob still has a soft spot for Lost Toys' mech 'em up. Almost completely overlooked at the time of its release in February 2003, it was pitched as "a hardcore shooter with the added depth of a full-scale war going on around you in real-time". Mr Fahey certainly enjoyed himself, praising the freeform level design, awarding it a respectable 8/10 and observing that, "you keep on finding cool new things to do". It's not a title without its flaws (steep learning curve being one of them), but it's nevertheless a title that demands to be rescued from bargain bin hell.

Ninja Gaiden/Ninja Gaiden Black
Microsoft/Tecmo, Gamepage, Play.com page, widescreen and 480p support

"You've never played a game that's simultaneously as gorgeous, entertaining, inviting and downright hardcore as Ninja Gaiden," bellowed an excitable Tom when Tecmo's action opus hit the Xbox in Spring 2004. Simply put, "it's one of the finest action games ever made," said he, with uncharacteristic simplicity. And you know what? The person writing this article still hasn't bothered to play it. Sometimes, we deserve physical pain.

Don't make the same mistake - it's available for under a tenner and works on 360!

Forza Motorsport
Microsoft, Gamepage, Play.com page, widescreen and 480p support

"There's no getting away from the fact that Forza is a sublime achievement," was our opening gambit in our 9/10 assessment of Microsoft's long-awaited answer to GT. Better still, we reckoned, "In many ways, this is Microsoft's finest achievement on Xbox." Blimey.

Given that these words only date back a year, not much has happened in between to change our minds, and it stands to reason that if you're a driving game fan that this has to be right at the top of the list of Xbox games to take for a spin on the 360.

But why did we (and everyone else) love it quite so much? It's just a beardy racing sim, right? Wrong. Designed with breathtaking skill, it manages to unite all comers by ticking practically every box imaginable, being fun and accessible without lacking depth, and even manages to stretch the Xbox's technical capabilities to previously uncharted territory. Throw in brilliant online play and a vast array of single-player content and it's an absolute steal for under a tenner. Get it up and running on the 360 and start looking forward to the sequel, out this Christmas.

Halo
Microsoft/Bungie, Gamepage, Play.com page, 480p support (Halo 2 also supports widescreen)

It's frankly hilarious that people still make references to that review over four years on, but it's hardly surprising. Love it or hate it, Halo was and is an iconic game for the Xbox, and probably made the difference between success and failure for Microsoft. There had been plenty of excellent sci-fi shooters on the PC stretching back years, but Halo was the first FPS to really drag the genre into the mainstream, and remains the number one selling game - not only in its category, but on the entire platform. More importantly, it finally disproved the theory that consoles were ill-suited to the genre and got an entire generation into a style of game and a control system that had struggled to make headway.

Part of the reason was, obviously, that the game was bloody good. Those first two levels are still indelibly etched in the memories of millions of gamers in a way that few games ever manage. Built on cunning AI, the "30 second of fun over and over" formula never got dull, with fire-fights that were among the most dynamic and believable ever seen; in fact most of Bungie's competitors still haven't caught up in this regard.

The other reason it did so well, of course, is that it looked bloody brilliant at the time of its late 2001 debut in the US. For the first time, here was a console capable of rendering a world to the kind of standard that PC gamers took for granted. The fact that millions of gamers bought the machine just to play this game says a lot. Funnily enough, it looks really dated these days, but there's still a lot to admire about this landmark title.

The sequel - as good as it is - was something of a letdown in terms of its curtailed single-player campaign. Online, though, it was a different story, helping to set the standard for Xbox Live in a way that still hasn't been matched - never mind beaten. With both available for under a tenner, there's little excuse not to add them to your collection if you've got a penchant for shooters.

Manhunt
Rockstar/Rockstar North, Gamepage, Play.com page, widescreen support

Sickening and depraved, or another in-joke? Whatever your take on Rockstar North's controversial title, there's actually a semi-decent game in there somewhere, if you can look beyond the gratuitous close-up death animations and their incessant need to make the player feel as uncomfortable as possible. Putting a claw hammer in the back of someone's head is not exactly our idea of fun, but once you put yourself in the shoes of someone playing for their very survival, there's something curiously compelling about it all. God help us.

Medal of Honor: Frontline
Electronic Arts, Gamepage, Play.com page, 480p support

If you thought our 8/10 review of Halo was funny, the plot thickened with our 10/10 review of EA's finest WW2 shooter. Ok, it was good, but not that good, After the excitement of Allied Assault on PC, EA was on a roll, and the arrival of this in summer 2002 impressed everyone with its incredible opening Omaha beach sequence. Ok, so it tailed off after that, but it still remains EA's best attempt.

Pro Evolution Soccer 5
Konami/KCET, Gamepage, Play.com page, 480p support

Little needs to be said about this apart from that it's still the best footy game around, it's still badly presented, still has awful music and commentary [the Japanese version excepted - Tom], still has terrible menus and is still lacking a widescreen option. But until Konami get around to doing its 360 version later this year, we've got this to keep us going.

Quantum Redshift
Microsoft/Curly Monsters, Gamepage, Play.com page, widescreen and 480p support

While Sony was busy running the WipEout series into the ground on the PS2, the chaps behind the legendary original formed Curly Monsters and took the concept to new heights with the blistering Quantum Redshift. Shame, then, that Microsoft didn't really believe in the title enough to give it a proper push, and even greater shame that the studio imploded shortly after the game flopped dismally at retail. If you're hankering after a decent futuristic racer, look no further.

Any more for any more?

There are an absolute stack of other titles we'd also highly recommend if you missed out on them the first time around, or fancy reminding yourself of some old favourites. In no particular order, here are some of ours.

• Red Dead Revolver - 16:9/480p, Gamepage, Play.com page
• SSX 3 - Gamepage, Play.com page
• Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic - 480p, Gamepage, Play.com page
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 - Sith Lords - 480p, Gamepage, Play.com page
• Colin McRae Rally 04 - 16:9/480p, Gamepage, Play.com page
• Fable/Fable Lost Chapters - 480p, Gamepage, Play.com page
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - 480p, Gamepage, Play.com page
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow - 480p, Gamepage, Play.com page
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 - 16:9/480p/720p, Gamepage, Play.com page
• XIII - 480p, Gamepage, Play.com page
• Amped - 16:9/480p, Gamepage, Play.com page
• Dead or Alive 3 - 16:9/480p, Gamepage, Play.com page