XBOX Video Games
Xbox is the first console from Microsoft and the 6th generation gaming platform. It was released on November 15th, 2001 in North America and on March 14th, 2002 in Europe. It didn’t achieve great sales – especially in comparison to its biggest rival, PlayStation 2 – but it was successful enough to let Microsoft prepare another console (Xbox 360) and use it to conquer a large portion of the market between 2005 and 2006.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (XBOX)
Action 04 November 2003
A new installment in the bestselling series of action games. The game expands the ideas introduced in the third entry in the franchise, released in 2001. The game was developed by the authors of the previous installments who, after having been bought by the American giant, were transformed into Rockstar North. The game takes place in the 80's in a completely new metropolis called Vice City. The player becomes Tommy Vercetti, who was sent by his boss to establish a foothold in the city while taking care of the local gangs and corrupted police. The game has similar mechanics to its predecessor and focuses mostly on completing various non-linear story missions. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City added some new features, such as the possibility to use motorcycles and helicopters. The graphics, inspired by aesthetics of the 80's, were greatly improved as well. During the game, the player is accompanied by a varied soundtrack broadcast by several different radio stations.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (XBOX)
RPG 06 June 2002
The third installment in a legendary action RPG series developed by Bethesda since 1994. The story once again takes the player to the realm of Tamriel, this time to the east, to the Morrowind province. The player assumes the role of a prisoner released from imprisonment by the Emperor and given a secret mission. As it turns out, the protagonist may be the reincarnation of the legendary, treacherously murdered hero by the name of Nerevar, and his mission is to stop the reemerging evil that his previous self had once defeated. The player can chooses from ten available races and twenty-one character classes - thanks to the game's flexible character progression system the character development is influenced mainly by the player's preferred gameplay style. The player can freely choose which quests to complete and when. The game's fully 3D visuals are a big step forward in comparison to the previous installments in the franchise. Additionally, a special editor allows the player to modify the game world to a very large degree.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (XBOX)
Action 07 June 2005
The seventh installment in the controversial Grand Theft Auto series – one of the most popular game franchises in history that brought Rockstar Games company international fame. The series has been letting the player start as a petty criminal and work his way to the top of the criminal underground. This next part of the series is the biggest one so far, featuring world – the State of San Andreas – almost three times larger than Vice City. Among many innovations, there are several thing worthy of mention: improved AI of civilians, option to recruit gang members, increased number of interactive buildings, hunger factor, swimming, and new means of transportation (e.g. bicycles). On top of that, there game features numerous extra activities, highlighting the sandbox character of gameplay. The game features the atmosphere of the 1990s, apparent in both the graphics and the soundtrack available via the numerous in-game radio stations.
Fable: The Lost Chapters (XBOX)
RPG 18 October 2005
An expanded version of Fable, the 2004’s bestselling, Xbox-exclusive RPG by Lionhead Studios. The action once again takes us to the fantasy land of Albion, where the protagonist seeks revenge on those who assaulted Oakenfold, his home village. In the game, we complete subsequent story quests and observe how the main character evolves from a defenseless child to one of the biggest heroes of Albion. The gameplay is supplemented by the constant necessity to make moral choices that influence the appearance and alignment of the protagonist as well as the way the NPCs react to his presence. Compared to the Xbox original, Fable: The Lost Chapters introduces numerous new elements to the gameplay – the most important one is the extended story line, including an additional chapter taking place after the game's finale. Moreover, the game offers new missions and locations as well as previously unavailable items and spells.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (XBOX)
RPG 06 December 2004
The second installment of the bestselling RPG set in the popular Star Wars universe. Contrary to its predecessor created by BioWare, it was developed by Obsidian Entertainment. The sequel’s plot starts 5 years after the events of the first part and tells a completely different story, focusing on entirely new characters. This time around, we assume the role of the last Jedi knight, whose task is to rebuild the dissolved Jedi Order and restore peace and order in the galaxy. Starting out, we possess practically no abilities. While playing, we gradually regain our powers and lost skills. Gameplay mechanics are virtually unchanged — the developed introduced just a few minor enhancements. Apart from new powers and character classes, the game allows us to use two different weapon configurations and significantly expands our crafting and customization possibilities.
The Sims (XBOX)
Simulation 14 January 2003
A bestselling life simulator developed by Maxis, a studio that specializes in the genre (they've created SimCity, SimTown and other titles). The Sims enables the player to take care of a virtual family of Sims. During the game the player must take care of various needs of his characters – starting with typically physiological ones (eating, toilet, hygiene etc.), through social relations, to career. The player has great freedom in expanding his family’s house, which can be furnished with various items that will be useful for the Sims. The gameplay mechanics are based on very simple principles and lack any violence, making the game a good title for casual players. A specific humor and large number of funny animations of character’s reactions are worth mentioning.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (XBOX)
RPG 16 July 2003
A third person RPG title set in the Star Wars universe, one of the world’s most famous science fiction franchises. The game was created by BioWare Studios, mainly known for the legendary series Baldur’s Gate. The story of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is set 4,000 years before the events of the film saga, during the so-called Old Republic period. You take lead of a party of heroes representing three different races and several classes, and make your mark on the age-long conflict between Jedi knights and the Sith. The game invites you to visit 8 diverse worlds – some of them known from the films and a couple of brand new ones. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic features real-time combat with active pause, letting you adjust your tactics on the fly. As befits an RPG, you get to use a large arsenal of weapons and supernatural artifacts. Moreover, characters can be developed in multiple ways. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic constantly puts you up against choices between the dark and light side of the Force – these decisions will impact the way the story unfolds.
Ghost Master (XBOX)
Strategy 27 August 2004
A unique real-time strategy game by studio Sick Puppies. You play as the eponymous Ghost Master, who arrives in the town of Gravenville to terrorize and scare its citizens. The game features 23 kinds of wraiths, ghosts, and other spectral beings. Each of them has psychokinetic energy, unique powers and skills to use against humans, who can be affected by four kinds of stimuli: optical, auditory, olfactory, and thermal. You can phase through walls, create physical or spiritual peculiarities, or manipulate the environment's temperature. Your potential victims vary in terms of their lifestyle, character, and preferences, and they go on with their daily lives during the game — they clean, work or watch TV. Ghost Master consists of twenty missions involving various tasks, such as driving humans out of a given house or helping amateur sorcerers in finding the Book of Death. The production features pleasant colorful visuals with a humorous touch.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005) (XBOX)
Racing 15 November 2005
The ninth installment in a legendary racing game franchise created by Electronic Arts company. After two Underground games, featuring illegal night street races, the franchise went back to its roots, combining ideas from the two most recent titles with classic elements. The player’s goal is to climb to the top of a black list of the most wanted drivers. Again you get to explore a huge virtual city, taking on different racing challenges. These include circuit, sprint, drag, elimination, time trial, speed challenge, and police pursuit. After completing enough of these you can challenge subsequent drivers from the black list. Apart from elements typical for the series, such as licensed cars and diverse soundtrack, the game features complex car customization, both in terms of appearance and performance.
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven (XBOX)
Action 28 January 2004
A 3D action game that takes the players to the 1930’s USA, the time when criminal underground flourished. The game was created by Czech developer Illusion Softworks, mainly known for the highly acclaimed tactical shooter Hidden & Dangerous. The story focuses on a rookie gangster named Tommy, who takes his first steps on the path of criminal life by doing jobs for an influential mafia family. Gameplay comes down to exploration of a virtual city and completing a string of story missions, featuring many subplots. While playing, you will engage in street shootouts, bank heists, car pursuits, and assassinations. The creators did their best to recreate the evocative atmosphere of the USA in the 1930s, and implemented weapons and cars from that period. Insanity 2 game engine made it possible to generate interactive, bustling city with road traffic and changing seasons.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (XBOX)
Adventure 25 October 2005
A horror action adventure game. The production refers to the work of H.P. Lovecraft and the universe he created. In the game, taking place in the year 1920, we play as detective Jack Walters, who has to find a missing person. The trails eventually lead the protagonist to the bottom of the town's dark secret. The game focuses on traveling through various locations, fighting against opponents and searching for clues.
Syberia II (XBOX)
Adventure 29 March 2004
A sequel to the excellent adventure game created by Benoit Sokal and studio Microids. Syberia II continues the plot of the first installment - it presents the further adventures of Kate Walker, an American lawyer. Her intention of finalizing a contract led her to the adventure of her life. The game starts in the same place where the first Syberia ended – in the Russian city Romansburg. This time Kate decides to follow the trail of Hans Voralberg, the heir to an automaton factory, for her own reasons. The woman joins Hans and she helps him discover the mystery of the last living Mammoths. The greatest change in comparison to the first game lies in the quality of the graphics and the increase of the gameplay dynamics. Many new graphic effects were added, including dynamic shadows and an animated snow. Syberia II takes place in completely new locations that are much more different from each other than previously. During her adventures Kate will visit, among other places, the North-West passage and the village of the Youkol people.
The Sims 2 (XBOX)
Simulation 24 October 2005
A sequel to the bestselling human life simulation game – The Sims (2000). The Sims 2 was developed by Maxis Studio (SimCity, EA Land, and others) in cooperation with the Electronic Arts company. Players again take care of virtual characters leading them through their entire lives – from early childhood till elderly age. The main goal is to achieve as high Life Score as possible, which stands for how well a sim leads his/her life. When compared with its predecessor, The Sims 2 offers much more complex character creator and a wider array of available objects. A new, more efficient game engine allowed for presenting the life of the sims in fully 3D graphics.
Need for Speed: Underground 2 (XBOX)
Racing 17 November 2004
A sequel to Need for Speed: Underground, a best-selling 2003 game from Electronic Arts, which changed the shape of one of the most popular car racing franchises. The game takes you to a virtual metropolis that thrives after dark. For the first time in the history of the franchise, the city is completely open for exploration. As you ride around its streets you can challenge the drivers you meet on the way or learn more about the favorite locations of the street racing community. The gameplay mechanics did not change much; rather, the developers focused on an even more detailed recreations of licensed cars and car parts used for tuning. The game’s graphics were noticeably improved, featuring all sorts of new visual effects. The soundtrack keeps equally high level, as usually featuring songs by famous artists across a wide spectrum of genres.
Half-Life 2 (XBOX)
Action 15 November 2005
A sequel to the Valve Software's best-selling game that set new standards for the FPS genre back in 1998. Half-Life 2 is set several years after the events of the first game. Once again, the player assumes the role of Gordon Freeman – a doctor of physics who used to work in Black Mesa Labs, where an unfortunate incident opened a portal for alien life forms to invade the Earth. This time, the story takes us into a fictional City 17 and its immediate vicinity. The protagonist now works for a secret government organization. His mission is to repel the invaders from another dimension, in which he is aided by Alyx Vance – a young women fighting as a part of human resistance. The sequel introduces a technological revolution, employing the Valve’s proprietary game engine called Source. Its main advantage is excellent physics simulation, letting players destroy almost any element of environment and use various objects as covers or even weapons.
Worms 4: Mayhem (XBOX)
Strategy 29 July 2005
Worms 4: Mayhem is the next installment of the popular series dealing with clashes armed to the teeth, intelligent, talkative and at the same time extremely funny title worms. It is worth noting that the premiere of Worms 4: Mayhem is to a large extent linked to the celebrations of the decade of the whole series.
Jade Empire (XBOX)
RPG 12 April 2005
An action RPG developed by the creators of the Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights series. Initially, it was released solely for Xbox, then its expanded edition came out for the popular PC platform. The story of Jade Empire takes place in a fantasy world based on Chinese mythology. In the game, we assume the role of one of six characters — all of them students of a famous martial arts teacher called Master Li — that have to hone their skills under the supervision of their mentor in order to become true legends. The story is non-linear and is distinguished by the mechanism of making constant choices between good and evil, therefore each interaction with the environment, each conversation with an NPC, and even a fight influences the further plot progress and our character’s development path. The game offers fully 3D graphics with third-person perspective view and a real-time combat system that requires combining individual strikes into complex sequences.
Halo 2 (XBOX)
Action 08 November 2004
A sequel to bestselling shooter franchise from Bungie Software, which debuted 2001 as one of the launching titles of the Xbox console. We meet old friends from the first Halo, such as Master Chief or Cortana, who now try to protect the cradle of humanity against the assault of aggressive Covenant forces. The game reuses the best features of its predecessor while taking players to a completely new environment, filled with even more interesting and complex locations. The arsenal has been expanded along with list of available vehicles, and the capabilities of enemy artificial intelligence have been significantly improved. Also, the second Halo introduces environmental destruction, resulting in an even more realistic world and forcing players to use various tactics. Multiplayer options have been expanded with the addition of new game modes.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (XBOX)
Action 14 November 2002
The second installment of the video game series following the adventures of Harry Potter based on the books written by J.K. Rowling. Young wizard, who is about to start his second year at Hogwarts, is bound to encounter new challenges.
Forza Motorsport (XBOX)
Racing 03 May 2005
A racing simulator developed by Microsoft’s internal studio - Turn 10. Serving as a response to a competing franchise - the popular Gran Turismo series, Forza Motorsport offers an impressive number of 200+ licensed car models from several manufacturers, divided into a number of classes and sub-classes. Each available car can be profoundly tuned – not only visually, but also mechanically. Effects of customization and damage to the cars are depicted during races due to a special system that calculates the performance of the car in real-time. Competitions take place on multiple and diverse tracks, among them both fictional street circuits as well as real tracks from all around the world. Apart from the career mode, the game features an online mode.
Doom 3 (XBOX)
Action 03 April 2005
The third installment of the legendary FPS series by id Software which set new standards in the genre’s development back in the mid-90s. The action takes place in a secret research facility of the UAC corporation on Mars, where the protagonist, an ex-marine whom we control, begins his service. Shortly thereafter, strange things begin to happen: the lab comes under attack, the communications with the HQ are severed, and the people we encounter turn into bloodthirsty monsters. It turns out that a space-time portal was opened as a result of an experiment, which led to a demon incursion that we have to repel. Compared to its predecessors from the past decade, Doom 3 offers not only fast-paced and incredibly bloody action but also quite extensive plot as well as a number of horror elements. The game also features high-quality graphics.
Still Life (XBOX)
Adventure 03 June 2005
A classic adventure game produced by Microids, which is responsible for the creation of the "Siberia" series. "Still Life" presents a script that could be successfully used to produce a classic action film.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (XBOX)
Action 08 November 2005
Another virtual adaptation based on a book belonging to the series written by J.K. Rowling. The series revolves around the adventures of Harry Potter and his two friends: Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.
Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (XBOX)
Action 01 March 2005
Brothers in Arms is a tactical action game, which is the debut part of a special series on military themes. The product was developed by developers responsible for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, James Bond 007: NightFire and PeCet version of Halo: Combat Evolved. The main character is the brave sergeant Matt Baker, who actually participated in the Second World War.
KAO the Kangaroo: Round 2 (XBOX)
Adventure 15 April 2005
A continuation of a three-dimensional platformer developed by the Polish studio Tate Multimedia (previously known as X-Ray Interactive). Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2 returns to the titular hero, who once again embarks on a demanding journey all around the world to save hundreds of animals that have been abducted by an evil poacher and his band of thugs. The game sees us travel through 20 varied levels in five different worlds filled with difficult obstacles as well as numerous vehicles and objects. Moreover, our hero has to face over 30 types of opponents that can be dealt with seven different weapons, including a tail slash or a boomerang. Fortunately, Kao is supported by other animals, including a pelican or a whale. As always, the levels are full of different collectibles and hidden bonus sections.