Going back a long time, its kind of interesting to look at how the game business evolved, or more accurately grew up. Atari and the NES were for kids. 16 bit era added a layer of complexity to keep older kids interested. In the mid 90s, Sony’s Playstation kept teenagers playing with more mature games. As the Atari and NES kids grew up it would take a big evolutionary leap to keep games in their lives and into the dorm rooms. Thats what I think of the original Xbox: the first console built for dorm rooms.

Xbox was orignally short hand for “Direct X Box” as Seamus Blackley was convinced that there was no way the Playstation 2 (then still in development) could compete with the power of a PC. And thats basically what the Xbox was. Stock parts assembled in a massive case: off the shelf 733 Inten Pentium III chip, nVidea graphics card, and custom Windows NT operating system. The controllers ports were basically just USB with a custom plug.

For the Nintendo kids, it was another competitor to take away their already diminished market share. Sony didn’t sweat and kept plugging away. Dreamcast was on its way out the door by the time Xbox launched. Xbox represented a strange new competitor, since it had been generations since a US based company had done well with video game hardware, outside of Microsoft who touted that they already had the world’s biggest game platform in the PC. Launch titles seemed calculated to the older audience: Project Gotham Racing, Tony Hawk 2, Madden NFL 2002, Dead Or Alive 3, and Halo headlined the November 15, 2001 release date. Only Oddworld seemed appropriate for a younger crowd.

Xbox was a success, and seemed to actually inherit some of the Dreamcast legacy. Its controller was remarkably similar, right down the the 2 huge ports for memory cards. Sequels that might have appeared on Dreamcast instead went exclusively to Xbox: Crazy Taxi 3, Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Shenmue 2, and Sega GT among others.

But the true effect that Xbox had wasn’t in the living room (though it did have 4 controller ports and plenty of games to support them), but online. When the console launched in 2001, broadband internet wasn’t widely available. Halo supported LAN play, by connecting 2 or more consoles together to double the number of players.

In 2002, Microsoft launched Xbox Live, the first premium online game service on a console. Sega had tried online with Dreamcast and Saturn, but dialup wasn’t a good experience and providers that supported the consoles were few. Xbox by comparison required little set up: just a router or a direct connection to your cable or DSL modem and code you redeemed with a prepaid membership kid (or credit card). Headsets were standard, as typing to chat during games would take you off the controller. A single login for every game, and the ability to make up a friend list to see when others were online and what they were playing made for a very tight early community.

The first two years of Xbox Live were highlighted by Ghost Recon, Mech Assault, Crimson Skies, and a variety of sports games. It was a pretty good time, but there was always an emptiness: Halo, the systems best reviewed and highest selling game, did not support the service.

November 9, 2004 was the release of Halo 2. It sold by the millions, becoming the banner game for the console and Xbox Live service. It stayed the most popular game for 2 years after release, a feat unlikely to be ever repeated by another game. The epic single player was only the beginning of the experience, as a robust multiplayer with optional map packs offering unlimited replay.

Sadly, it would be less than a year later that Xbox would begin to decline. Conker Live And Reloaded was the last game Microsoft published for the original Xbox in June 2005, and the successor system, Xbox 360 would release to an instant sell out in November the same year. Third parties continued to support the console for the next few years, and Madden 2009 became the last game to be released in August 2008. On April 15, 2010 Microsoft deactivated the original Xbox Live servers, thus finally ending all support of the box that put them on the map.

Xbox had just 4 years from release to the release of the Xbox 360, an extremely short time for a successful system. The very things that made the machine quick to design and build ended up making it too expensive to produce, which is why Microsoft rushed the next generation to market. Yet, in that time it went from a laughable black box with a terrible pitch and a controller for giants, to the world leader in the next chapter of console gaming with Xbox Live.

Join Zac, Zero, aDam, and Sean as we reflect on the drama, joy, and pain of Halo’s story and online multiplayer. Jetpack optional.

Direct Link: Cool Beans: Halo Reach & Retrospective

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Its true, this is the last 24 hours to play Halo 2 on Xbox Live before Microsoft shuts down multiplayer servers. Tonight, Bungie studios is going to be tracking all players who log on to play the game in Matchmaking and will supposedly be adding a reward to those players who also move on to play the next game in the series, Halo: Reach. If you want to participate, make sure you’ve downloaded or installed all the maps and updates (available free right now) and simply log in.

In your walk down memory lane, you may want to check out “Better Than Halo: The Making of Halo 2” from Eurogamer, which looks at the complete development with candid interviews from the developers.

Some Powet players will surely be online tonight, check the Halo Appreciation Mega Thread on the forums.

Microsoft has announced they’ll be shutting down online gameplay servers for all original Xbox games, including ones that are compatible with XBox 360. Star Wars Battlefront, Counter Strike, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Conker Live & Reloaded, and Halo 2 will no longer have online gameplay available.

Marc Whitten from the Xbox Live team posted an open letter to the community this morning detailing the closure and vague promises that shifting resources will allow new features in the future.

Those who don’t want to give up the original Xbox games or its community should check out XboxConnect, which has run unofficial servers for years.

Until that day comes, Powet will likely plan at least one last outing for Halo 2 so keep an eye out for a future game night.

GunValkyrie takes place in an alternate version of the early 1900s. During the late 19th century, a scientist named Dr. Hebbel Gate harnessed the power of Haley’s Comet to advance technology and help the British Empire take control of Earth. Recently he has gone missing but not before cutting his daughter’s head off, placing it a life support unit, and stealing her body (an act which will surely guarantee his nomination for father of the year). Making matters worse, entire colonies are disappearing and being replaced by bug-like creatures. Therefore it is up to the military force Team Dolphin to find out what’s going on.

Players take control of one of two characters, Kelly O’Lenmy or Saburota Mishima, both of which have their own weapons and abilities. The two characters also have their own difficulty levels, as Kelly is geared towards players who play on the medium difficulty and Saburota is recommended for advanced players. You often choose which character to play as before the start of each level. The two have upgradable weapons and armor, which you’ll need because the game can be very difficult. The game’s dual analog control scheme is different from other third-person shooters, so there is a very steep learning curve. Those who master it will be rewarded with some very trippy visuals which do a good job of complementing the stunning backdrops. One level in patricular has players scaling a structure as an alien creature broadcasts Dr. Gate’s voice.

GunValkyrie was a one-of-a-kind action shooter on Xbox, with some fans even comparing it to Metroid. It’s anime-inspired atmosphere made it unique. It’s too bad that Sega never decided to follow it up. Maybe Microsoft will make it available on Xbox Live’s Xbox originals.

Looking back, one has to wonder, what made Halo so popular? The game didn’t have any fancy cel-shaded graphics, huge-chested women, celebrity voice talent, RPG-like stat development features, merchandising tie-ins, or licensed soundtrack. Its story was familiar (stop the alien invasion) and it didn’t even have any online multiplayer (as this was released before Xbox Live), yet it managed to outsell even Super Smash brothers melee! As an first person shooter, Halo didn’t do anything that hadn’t been done before, so what was the big deal? Then it hit me, it was NOTHING. Halo didn’t have a gimmick. It just did what other FPS games did better than anything else at the time. From gameplay was fluid, the narrative flowed together throughout each level, the enemy A.I was intelligent, the vehicles handled well after you got used to them, and the splitscreen multiplayer was fun, and you could connect Xboxes together to bring in up to 16 players. Thanks to this solid first entry, Halo would soon take its place alongside Doom and Half-Life as one of the all time great FPS games.

Also coming with this update will be Xbox’s own virtual console! Original Xbox games will be available for 1200 Microsoft points ($15). The launch lineup will be the original Halo (obviously) Fahrenheit, Fable, Crimson Skies, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex and Burnout 3: Takedown. Compatibility with Xbox Live is expected for those titles that supported it (Crimson Skies, Burnout).

Those in Europe will be pleased to find out they’re finally getting Video Marketplace. Now they too can finally download episodes of South Park for $2 a pop.

In a little more immediate news, Screwjumper is now Xbox Live Arcade’s 100th game. To celebrate this as well as 2 years of the service they’re promising a surprise new game next Wednesday that is a “sequel to Xbox Live Arcade’s most successful game.”
I haven’t checked the numbers in a while. That could be early hit Geometry Wars, the card game Uno, or even this year’s best selling classic arcade title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

No matter what, there seems to be no shortage of downlaodable content on Xbox Live these days, which is frustrating since I’m still trying to clear Halo 3, haven’t touched Orange Box yet, and Assassin’s Creed comes out this week.

“REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 5, 2007 — Microsoft Corp. today announced a plan for Bungie Studios, the developers of the “Halo®” franchise, to embark on a path to become an independent company. Microsoft will retain an equity interest in Bungie, at the same time continuing its long-standing publishing agreement between Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie for the Microsoft-owned “Halo” intellectual property as well as other future properties developed by Bungie.

The critically acclaimed Xbox 360®-exclusive “Halo 3” achieved $300 million in global sales in its first week. Released on Tuesday, Sept. 25, “Halo 3” is the fastest-selling video game ever and already one of the most successful entertainment properties in history.

“Our collaboration with Bungie has resulted in ‘Halo’ becoming an enduring mainstream hit,” said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios. “While we are supporting Bungie’s desire to return to its independent roots, we will continue to invest in our ‘Halo’ entertainment property with Bungie and other partners, such as Peter Jackson, on a new interactive series set in the ‘Halo’ universe. We look forward to great success with Bungie as our long-term relationship continues to evolve through ‘Halo’-related titles and new IP created by Bungie.”

“This exciting evolution of our relationship with Microsoft will enable us to expand both creatively and organizationally in our mission to create world-class games,” said Harold Ryan, studio head for Bungie. “We will continue to develop with our primary focus on Microsoft® platforms; we greatly value our mutually prosperous relationship with our publisher, Microsoft Game Studios; and we look forward to continuing that affiliation through ‘Halo’ and beyond.”

Bungie Studios will remain in its current location in Kirkland, Wash….”

What this means for Microsoft competitors Sony and Nintendo remains to be seen, but this is big news any way you slice it. More info as it becomes available.

As mentioned before, another part of this game’s popularity has to do with the modding community. There are several mods ranging from new deathmatch maps to full game conversions. One of the more popular mods, “Gary’s Mod” allows players to simply spawn objects in a sandbox environment just to play around with the physics system. Another mod is an attempt at recreating the popular N64 game GoldenEye. Of course when you’re through with the main game, there is plenty of more material coming to keep fans occupied. Episode 1 was released this year, continuing Gordon Freeman’s quest. This fall will see the release of Episode 2, along with the source engine based Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers can grab a special “orange box” containing the main game, as well as all the extras mentioned above. Whichever way you decide to get it, don’t miss out on the chance to play one of the best FPS games ever.

System Requirements
Processor: 1.2 GHZ or better
OS: Windows 98 and higher (including Vista)
Internal Memory: 256 MB RAM
Storage: 4.5 GB
Graphics: DirectX 7 or greater
Internet connection required for verification
DVD-ROM drive (unless obtained from Steam)

Read on for the full list.

The full list includes:

• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Breakdown
• Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
• Call of Duty 3
• Cars
• Crash Bandicoot 5: Wrath of Cortex
• Dai Senryaku VII: Modern Military Tactics
• FIFA Soccer 2007
• Full Spectrum Warrior
• Guilty Gear Isuka
• JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future (Stand alone disc only, Sega GT disc not compatible yet)
• MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf
• Mercenaries
• NASCAR 2006: Total Team Control
• NFL Fever 2004
• Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee
• Panzer Dragoon ORTA
• Phantom Dust
• Reservoir Dogs
• Return To Castle Wolfenstein
• RugbyLeague 2
• Sonic Riders
• Soul Calibur 2 (Updated)
• Star Wars Republic Commando
• Street Fighter Anniversary Collection
• The King of Fighters Neowave
• The King of Fighters 2002 & 2003
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 07
• Tony Hawk’s Underground
• Ultra Bust-A-Move
• Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict
• Xiaolin Showdown

This first thing that strikes me about these maps is some of the weapon choices. Tombstone’s default start is the Battle Rifle, and with good reason as its too big to use SMG or Plasma weapons to start. The Sentinel Beam also makes a return appearance in Desolation. 2 Halo mainstays are completely missing from the weapon set: Plasma pistol and Sniper Rifle. This can be changed easily in a custom game, and I’m sure Tombstone will become a popular sniper map, but its kinda odd for them to be missing. Neither map supports vehicles or turrets from what I can tell, which further narrows the gameplay. I think the designers were trying really hard to bring orignal Halo multiplayer into Halo 2

Also, neither map feels like Halo 2. While any of the original maps felt like they were plucked from the single player campaign, these look more like arena maps more common to Quake. Tombstone in particular has lots of hallways and ramps everywhere, and it doesn’t have the organic feel of Halo 2. It is a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved’s “Hang ‘Em High” map, and its still really fun to play capture the flah, oddball, and King Of The Hill, but the geometric nature and screwy structure choices seperate it from a map like “Turf” where the art style kept you within the Halo universe even in the free for all multiplayer games.

Ultimately the maps appear well worth the money as they will add some new life to the game and its been a good 2 years since I’ve grabbed a flag and had no idea where to take it and thats a fun feeling. Just don’t expect a new classic like Lockout, Terminal, or Relic. The best way to play these maps will be with friends, so send a friend request on Xbox Live to me, and we’ll get in some games in the upcoming Powet.TV Game Night for Halo 2 on April 28-29!

So what do you think of the new maps? Was a throwback to Halo: CE welcome in the last days of Halo 2? Leave a comment below!

Halo innovated in a lot of ways over the very cookie-cutter FPS genre. One way they very clearly did not innovate was the exploding barrel. The Bungie Weekly Update confirms that newer, prettier “fusion cores” will be present in Halo 3, along with newer, prettier explosions when you shoot them.

Good News! Theres an auto-update coming soon to Halo 2 that will enhance Banhammer functionality to dispatch cheaters quicker. This will pave the way for the new maps on April 17th! Matchmaking playlists will be updated to include the new maps on April 24th!
Bad News! Rankings will be set back to ZERO with the update. Sorry, Sean, you’re going to have to work your way up Rumble Pit all over again. This reset will make matchmaking easier with the smaller, but still dedicated player base. I feel less bad about dropping from a 23 to a 20 in Team Slayer a couple weeks ago, but the last time stuff was reset there it was pretty quick to rank up, so I’m not sweating this too much.

Public Beta still hasn’t been dated, but a new video documentary should hit Xbox Live before it starts.

This week there was also a re-release of Halo: Ghosts Of Onyx in paperback.

If you really can’t wait to check out this great movie you can go ahead and import the Dead or Alive DVD from Amazon UK. Note that this movie is region 2 and PAL encoded so it won’t work in all DVD players. If importing’s not your thing then you should just get yourself in the mood by buying a Dead or Alive video game from the normal Amazon and help support the site.

Learn about how Hitomi is technically a guy and other trivia about this movie after the jump.

The basic tournament starts with a selection of 16 people and is narrowed down by half in each round. In the first round of those 16 people 15 are positively identified either as characters named earlier in the movie or in a name label on screen as they’re shown fighting in a match.

The 16 participants in the Dead or Alive tournament

The only character on that list that does not identify to a name is Hitomi. The only character on screen that does not have a name associated with them is this fellow in the yellow jump suit:

Hitomi is, logically, the guy on the left

The real reason for this is that Eliot and Hitomi were afterthoughts in this movie. The character of Eliot is not credited and Hitomi is credited as the female mentioned in the video. They just threw the names in there for people who don’t really have scenes knowing most people wouldn’t bother to pay enough attention to it. Eliot’s name was probably only put in there in post as he doesn’t resemble the character he’s meant to portray. This movie was clearly never intended to include anyone past Dead or Alive 3. Lisa, Eliot and Kokoro are the 3 characters who first appear as playable in Dead or Alive 4 and they are not in this movie.

Eliot on the left, Ryu Hayabusa on the right

Also please note that I actually recorded this video about a week and a half ago and Eric Roberts hadn’t appeared on Heroes yet so I’m well aware that his washed upness may have wavered ever so slightly lately. Now don’t get me wrong I think Eric Roberts is a cool guy and all but I mean… it’s Eric Roberts!

Also speaking of hitting hard times please note that Robin Shou, who played Lui Kang in Mortal Kombat 1 appears very briefly in this movie as a pirate and you can see Tina beat him up early in this review.

For confirmation of the June 22nd 2007 theatrical release date just visit this site, choose “Current films” and click on the picture of Ayane (she’s the one with the purple hair).

The game would eventually come to be known as Fable, and unfortunantely, most of the cool stuff mentioned in the paragraph above would not come to pass, due to Molyneux’s tendency to make promises that he is later unable to deliver on. However, Fable still turned out to be an excellent open world action RPG, even if it is “Elder Scrolls light”. Much like most recent “Greatest Hits” editions, The Lost Chapters adds in new content that begins after the main game is finished.

You played as a nameless, voiceless hero who lost his family in a huge battle. Your father was killed, and your mother and sister were taken captive. Years later, you train to become a hero, completing sidequests while searching for the truth about what happened to your family. You interact with townsfolk, use a variety of weapons, and even purchase real estate. The game is short and easy compared to most other Xbox RPGs, but for $20, it’s an excellent purchase. WIth Fable 2 on the way for Xbox 360, Lionhead may get another chance to deliver on it’s promises.

In 1983, director Brian DePalma created a film starring Al Pacino that would forever change the way we would think about drug dealers, cocaine, Cubans, immigration, and pelicans. This film would be known as the story of a man named Tony Montana. It was the chronicle of his journey from yet another Cuban refugee looking for the American dream to the biggest drug dealer in all of Miami, all the way to his violent end as a desperate man consumed by a coccaine-fueled blind rage. This film would be the stuff of legends, serving as inspiration to entire generations of rappers, actors, gangsters, and other entertainers. This film is called Scarface. Nearly 2 decades later, Tony Montana’s story would continue on as a video game courtesy of Vivendi Universal.

Taking place in an alternate universe where Tony manages to not only survive Sosa’s wrath (the first level of the game even takes place during that fateful final scene. tip: look behind you as soon as the game starts!), but make his way to safety where he plots revenge. However, he must first regain the empire he lost, and that means making drug deals, purchasing new store fronts, laundering money, and going to war against rival organizations. After the mandatory training sequence which takes place during TOny’s days in the army, you’ll be treated to a pretty wicked intro recaping events from the film. You’ll spend much of this game building your reputation, and purchasing things from your exotics catalog. These items range from simple decorations for your mansion to cars and boats, (which your driver can deliver to you at any time) and even henchmen which you can take control of.

If for nothing else, this game will be remembered for being the first to have a ’swear’ button. By hitting this button, you’ll either make a wisecrack or send out a profanity-laced taunt. Why would you want to do this? Intimidating someone or taunting a dying enemy will cause your ‘balls’ meter to fill up faster. (I swear I’m not making this up.) A maxed out ‘balls’ meter will allow you to trigger Tony’s infamous “Blind Rage”, which briefly puts you in a first person view, gives you unlimited ammo for whatever weapon you’re carrying at the time, and restores a small amount of health for each foe you kill during this period of time.

As one would suspect, this game takes several pages from the Grand Theft Auto playbook. This would be expected though, as GTA is in no small part influenced by the film, so it would be surprising if Scarface didn’t share any similarities with Rockstar’s franchise. Like the other big GTA-inspired game that came out this fall however, this game addresses some of the shortcommings from GTA. The aiming system for starters, allows you to lock on and manually adjust your shot for precision shooting. ALso, this game does an excellent job of making you feel as if you’re building an empire instead of being a mere henchman. Every investment you make has a benefit. Stores act as fronts to distribute your coccaine, and companies you own unlock extra features.

Also worth mentioning is that it’s hard to simply cause random chaos. Tony’s moral code prevents him from shooting innocent civilians. DOing things like driving crazy and flashing your weapon will increase your police visibility, too much of which will bring the boys in blue down upon you, and it’s much harder to evade them than in GTA. In fact, the game is over if you don’t get away from them in a certain amount of time. Your only option is to pay them off to avoid heat. The golf-swimg mechanic used to govern everything from money laundering to drug deals is also pretty intense as well. A well timed release of the button can decide weather you make a good deal or blow thousands of dollars on a drug deal gone wrong.

Fans of the film or even GTA will be smart to add this to thier collection. With Scarface, the days of bad games based on licenced properties are slowly comming to an end. It might not be by the end of 2007, or even by the end of 2008, but soon the day will come when our favorite movies, TV shows, comic books, and novels are treated with the respect they deserve, and developers with start to put as much effort into the gameplay as they do with the atmosphere of the game.

The headset is built relatively solid and feels a lot like many of Motorola’s bluetooth offerings. In fact, if you wear a bluetooth headset, you’ll feel right at home here. The design is fairly simplistic and like a bluetooth headset, it features a minimal amount of buttons. You’ll find a ‘power’, ‘find’, ‘volume up’ and ‘volume down’ button on the piece, nothing more, nothing less. It has a padded earpiece and a rubber loop that goes behind the ear. It’s very light, about the same weight as your standard bluetooth headset and it features an adjustable boom mic. I know I keep saying “bluetooth”, but this headset apparently runs on an RF signal, just like the controllers.

The headset is very easy to set up and can be used right out of the box. It comes fully charged (the battery is supposed to last for 8-hours total) and connecting it to the Xbox is a snap. Simply turn on your 360, press the “find” button on the front of the console, then the “find” button on the inside of the microphone, lights will blink and a light on the headset will go solid along with “ring of light” on the front of the console and you will be instantly connected. The four lights on the inside of the headset indicate how much battery life is left (which can also be seen in the 360’s guide blade, next to the controller’s battery indicator) and what player the headset is assigned to.

So, why would you want the headset? Well, it’s much more comfortable than the traditional headset, it offers better sound quality and it’s much smaller than the pack-in headset. The downsides are the hefty $60 (USD) price tag and the fact that it’s not really necessary if you’re happy with your pack-in headset, which comes free with the premium console (which most people have) and again free with the camera. The price is a bit high, considering that the camera was $40, it offered an extra headset, an extra month of Live Gold and two arcade games for free to download, Totemball and Uno. With the headset, you get just the headset, and extra ear-piece (in case you break or lose the one it comes attached to) and its AC adapter.

Pros:

• Very, very comfortable.
• Easy set-up.
• Decent amount of battery life.
• Nice design, can be worn on either ear.
• Highly improved sound quality
• Four headsets can be connected at once.

Cons:

• Hefty price tag.
• No pack-ins like the camera had.
• Unnecessary accessory for some.

Overall, I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a better alternative to the standard headset. It’s WAY more comfortable and offers more freedom of movement than the standard headset and the sound quality has to be heard to be believed. Despite the controller being wireless, the wire to the headset undeniably got in the way, you feel so much more freedom with this headset and playing is more comfortable.

Not to be confused with the mid-90’s video game “The Lawnmower Man” based on the movie of the same name, this is a simulation where you race lawnmowers. Not only that, but it’s officially sanctioned by the U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association.

I can barely contain myself thinking about this game, so I’ll let this passage from the website describe it:

What happens when you turn a household chore into the wildest mowtorsport to hit the nation in years? Grab your helmet, bore out your cylinders and get ready for the ultimate MOWdown!

Lawnmower racing is sweeping the country in a grass-roots movement that brings all the excitement of open wheel racing to a dirt-in-your-face, spine-jarring new level.

* Race against legends like Bobby Cleveland, George Herrin, Mr. Mowjangles and Sodzilla.
* STA-BIL Circuit, Free Mowin’ and multiplayer modes.
* Unlockable upgrades including engines, chassis, jerseys and more!
* Learn more about real lawnmower racing in the “Mowpedia.”

It’ll be available this tuesday for XBOX and PC for only $19.99, making this an ideal future candidate for the $20 GOTW.

In 2000, Capcom and it’s biggest rival SNK combined thier forces together to make one of the biggest fighting game crossovers since, well, Marvel vs Capcom.  The result had lots of potential, but the point system made the gameplay painfully unbalanced.  Thankfully, it was followed up upon a year later with what to this day remains the biggest 2-d fighting game ever.  Lots of cast members joined from both companies’ various catalogs, from Fatal Fury and Street Fighter to Samurai Showdown and Darkstalkers, and even lesser known games like Rival Schools and Last Blade.  Capcom adopted SNK’s playing system well and managed to integrate it’s own.  With the 6 grooves, players could play thier favorite characters how they wanted.  In short it was fighting game bliss.

A side note, the Xbox version is the only version with online play, and it was one of the first games on Xbox Live.

For all of you whining about original IPs dying out, here ya go. An original IP from the creators of the phenominal Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic. Jade Empire is a nice take on the old RPG conventions. It’s set in a mythical land not unlike Ancient China, and you take the role of one of several customizable characters, each with thier own abilities and attributes as you try to find out the secret behind your past. You’ll gain several abilities throughout the course of the game, such as magic, weapons, and th eability to change your form. Just like in KOTOR, you can choose to be a good guy or a bad guy, but soon, the choices won’t be that easy. You can also enlist the help of several followers who will add thier own might and muscle to yours. The combat system is thankfully all real time, with the ability to preform basic strikes, power attacks, blocks, dodges, and even combos.
I can’t understand for the life of me why this game didn’t take off as well as it should have, but it’s still solid. I found a copy of the limited edition at gamestop for 12 dollars! This is an excellent game for RPG fans looking for a break from the same old conventions. WIth Bioware exclusive to Microsoft, this game is a sign of things to come, particularly thier upcomming 360 sci-fi RPG Mass Effect.

2 years and dozens of copycats later, Rockstar released a sequel. It didn’t push the boundaries as the first game did, but it gave gamers more of what they loved about the original Max Payne. The bullet time was improved slightly, and the plot was just as riveting as the first. It’s only bad point is it’s short length. The game can be completed in a weekend. Luckily for PC gamers, tons of downloadable content extend this game’s replay value a lot. Hopefully Rockstar will give us a sequel that will be a bit bigger. Until then, action game fans looking for a good plotline can’t go wrong here.