Let's Talk Favorite XBox Games

The XBox might have the highest ratio of good games among my systems, after the N64. There were duds, or games that were good but had certain features that wore on me after awhile (Burnout 3 and that damn elastic AI), but I can make a Top 5 without even touching any number of games I really love. Neither of the GTAs make it, nor any of the DOAs, or Secret Weapons Over Normandy. For that last one, blame the terrible, terrible, wingman AI. Anyway, the Top 5:

5. Crimson Skies: The High Road to Revenge
4. Max Payne
3. Beyond Good & Evil
2. Phantom Dust
1. Thief: Deadly Shadows

Let's see. A flight combat sim, a 3rd person shooter, an action/adventure game with a bit of old school platformer and fighting mixed in, an RPG (sort of), and a stealth action game. Despite the number of enjoyable games, this has always been a really easy Top 5 for me to put together. I can pull any of these games out and start over and have a good time. Phantom Dust might be the lone exception, since it takes several missions before you're able to create your own arsenals to take into battle, which is a lot of the fun, mixing and matching.

I was looking back over those posts, and in the Thief one, I mentioned it was one of three games vying for the top spot, the other two being Phantom Dust and Max Payne. I'm not sure when it started happening, but sometime within a year of that, I felt like they sorted themselves out, Max Payne dropping father behind first, then Phantom Dust. It's only recently (within the last couple of months), I concluded Beyond Good & Evil should move ahead of Max Payne. It's close, but I think the variety of gameplay elements give it the edge. It might not hurt that Beyond Good & Evil never had any subpar sequels to tarnish its rep somewhat. I can't speak to Max' most recent adventure, but I know Max Payne 2 was lousy, which made the original look better and worse. Better because it's easy to see how it could have turned out, worse because I think it showed some limitations of the game. It really is about shooting and bullet time, with some hardboiled narration thrown in for good measure. I like all those elements, but within a single franchise, there's perhaps only so much you can do with them before it gets stale.

I don't know when I might get to the PS2. The problem there isn't finding five games; it's figuring out what their order is. *Shrugs* Something for me to think about during the many hours I'll spend driving this week.