What we were buying 5 years ago

5 Years ago this is what I was losing sleep over the new line up of titles on my newly launched Xbox360 ah how we have all aged..........


Kameo: Elements of Power


Commendable for its ambition but rememember for its failure, Kameo: Elements of Power seemed a little too keen to please. The garish colours and busy design reeked of an overeager attempt to show what Xbox 360 could do, and the keen attempt to show technical progress clashed with the archaic gameplay. Not worth bothering with these days. If you want a 3D platformer by Rare, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts fits the bill better.
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Perfect Dark Zero


It was supposed to be the crown jewel in Microsoft's launch line-up but Rare's FPS was a limp, uninspiring affair. It shared the same gameplay as the original Perfect Dark on Nintendo 64 but had none of its charm. The result was a boring, drawn out affair that was saved only by the highly customisable and surprisingly fun multiplayer. Even so, nothing about Perfect Dark Zero has endured, and its superior predecessor is available on Xbox Live Arcade.
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Condemned: Criminal Origins


The mixture of melee violence, horror and detective work ensured Condemned would stand out in any line-up at any time of the year. As part of Xbox 360's launch line-up, it was sensational. There have been plenty of survival horrors on 360 since then not to mention its own sequel, but none of quite captured the visceral violence married to the up, close and personal horror that Condemned did. Even now, it still has the power to send a chill up your spine. And that department store level... cripes.
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Call of Duty 2


This was the HD showcase for what Xbox 360 could do. The action on screen, the crisp visuals and the billowing, towering clouds left by smoke grenades lent themselves to the first not-possible-on-Xbox visual moment. Revisiting it now, post-Gears of War, post-Halo 3 and post-Call of Duty, it's not quite as impressive. Likewise, the gameplay didn't make the visual strides. Still, it's a damn fun FPS and if found cheap, well worth playing through.
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Need For Speed: Most Wanted


With its reputation at a low following its mediocre last-gen output and with little known model Josie Maran roped in to flutter her eyelids at you during the cutscenes, there didn't seem to be much purpose or poise for Most Wanted. Yet it proved the hidden gem of the line-up, building solid gameplay around its strong structure. Now it's a little dated and rough around the edges, not to mention the game's length demands full commitment rather than a casual race around. Still, it remains the most pleasantly surprising Need For Speed title on 360.
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Project Gotham Racing 3


One of the standout titles at the time of its release, PGR3 has been made redundant by the wealth of racing titles that have followed since including its own sequel. Still, it has earned its place in 360 folklore by popularising the concept of DLC, replay channel and Geometry Wars Retro Evolved, a hidden bonus in PGR3's garage. Not worth a purchase now but its importance can't be denied.
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Tony Hawk's American Wasteland


At the time, it was criticised for being a PS2 game with 360 clothing on, offering HD sheen and online gameplay but little else. Yet given the traumatic overhaul that the Tony Hawk series has experienced, from Project 8's fussy controls to Tony Hawk Ride's failed experiment, American Wasteland is now positioned as a retro throwback to the glory days of the series. It wasn't a particularly strong outing but it's a blast of nostalgia for older Hawk fans who miss the style of the earlier, stronger output of the PlayStation and early PlayStation2 era.
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Still play CoD2 from time to time i love the MP on it. My old clan used to have regular nights playing private matches, maybe something we could look into?

Condemned scared the living shit out of me though... dont judge me i was only 16

Kameo was just bizarre and ive never played the rest

or like me straight away you never made the step up right away so was stuck with the old xbox which had halo 2 halo 2 & halo 2.
when i did go next gen my 1st game was rockstars table tennis where is that classic in your list eh contract

Without sounding like a smart arse Table Tennis came out 2 weeks after release would love to get back in to Call of Duty 2 have not played it on my new gamertag as I was not on live up until last November

PGR 3 was the first game i played on my 360 and the first game i played online on the 360. Its was awesome back then, i love it.

I played Need for Speed most wanted on my ps2 before i bought my 360, i loved it so much i rented it and played it again on the 360. I also did the same with Fight Night round 3, which also came out early in the 360's life.

PGR Kameo COD2 and Condemned were all bought and enjoyed at outset here

Great release titles that still hold up today


PDZero is a sack of shite thats so frustrating that its still on my to be finished list 5 years later


Great topic contract fella btw

C0NTRACT2KILLER wrote:Without sounding like a smart arse Table Tennis came out 2 weeks after release would love to get back in to Call of Duty 2 have not played it on my new gamertag as I was not on live up until last November

Sure we can sort something out for CoD2

Didn't get my 360 until 2007. I actually only tried Kameo a couple of months back.....didn't like it at all. Same with Perfect Dark Zero. The re-release of the original Perfect Dark is head and shoulders above it. I liked COD2 though....only did the first couple of missions though. Out of all the COD games on 360 (inlcuding COD classic), I've only ever finished the story on one of them, despite owning them all. That one being MW2.

C0NTRACT2KILLER wrote:
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland


At the time, it was criticised for being a PS2 game with 360 clothing on, offering HD sheen and online gameplay but little else. Yet given the traumatic overhaul that the Tony Hawk series has experienced, from Project 8's fussy controls to Tony Hawk Ride's failed experiment, American Wasteland is now positioned as a retro throwback to the glory days of the series. It wasn't a particularly strong outing but it's a blast of nostalgia for older Hawk fans who miss the style of the earlier, stronger output of the PlayStation and early PlayStation2 era.

I used to love the series. 4 was the last good one, but was a sequel too far in my opinion. Things were rubbish for a while but I picked up THAW and it was pretty decent. Stripped right down with none of the Bam Margera dogshit to worry about.

Also, of my 110 maxes, this was the first.

Out of the initial release titles I got :

CoD2 - Still the best CoD in my book, I love the WWII setting and it's the only CoD I've ever bothered to finish on Veteran difficulty. Multiplayer was excellent with balanced weapons and no stupid perks or modding.

Kameo - I actually really enjoyed this and tried to get all the "score x amount" on each level achievements but cannot for the life of me manage it on the level where you're bumbling around the forest. It had a lovely child like charm with warm likeable characters and gameplay that was easy enough to pick up but difficult to master. I'm still also hoping for a sequel at some point.

PGR3 - Not sure what they did to this but it just wasn't PGR2. The latter is easily one of my most played games ever and I'm not even any good at racing games. It felt like they'd seen what Forza had done and tried to replicate some of that, it felt less fun to play and more like a chore. Thankfully they put the fun back into the series with PGR4.

Perfect Dark - I even got the Special Edition of this and man what a huuuuuuge disappointment! I had high hopes for it after reading all about Goldeneye but it just didn't "feel right". I finished off the final boss eventually but never got the achievement to pop up. Hated the multiplayer too and just kept going back to CoD2.

Quake 4 - Now this is what a proper FPS should feel like. Big chunky weapons with loads of gibs and viscera and a lovely solid feel to it. Single player was good with a nice story and some wickedly hard bosses. Multiplayer could've been excellent but was let down by some serious lag and a very poor interface. Ditch the lag and include bots and it'd still be a winner now for me.

As a measure of how good they are, in my eyes, I still own CoD2, Quake 4 and Kameo and will happily play any of them online with other like retro minded folk.

Saber wrote:Still play CoD2 from time to time i love the MP on it. My old clan used to have regular nights playing private matches, maybe something we could look into?

Condemned scared the living shit out of me though... dont judge me i was only 16

Kameo was just bizarre and ive never played the rest

LOL I was 20 and it scared the crap out of me... Now 5 years on and it still scares the crap out of me. I can't play it, find it hard enough watching it being played by the other half lol

I didn't even touch P.D.Z's single player lol played what i could of the multiplayer and that was it.
I wasn't there on day of release but the first online game i think i played was The Outfit, that was fun while it lasted.. got to a point where i was up against the same ppl so moved onto something else.

I remember buying Condemned on launch and not being savvy enough to alter brightness settings so gave up on it for bieng too dark. Finally bought it again last year and it still scares the bejeezus out of me, especially the level in the shopping mall where the attackers pretend to be mannequins and suddenly come for you It is definitely one of the few launch titles to stand the test of time

Burnout Revenge was another one I bought close to launch and the first game I played online , shortly followed by FIFA RTWC, I really didnt like playing online in those days

C0NTRACT2KILLER wrote:Without sounding like a smart arse Table Tennis came out 2 weeks after release

You only sound like a smart arse if you get you facts right! Table Tennis came out about 6 months after the launch of Xbox 360 on May 26th 2006 .

God, I didn't even get my Xbox until March 2007. Back in 2005 I was still on World of Warcrack.