by: John Olin

February 22, 2006

The games below are the ending of the first generation of Xbox 360 titles, and the beginning of the second generation—the section of games that is released for a system that normally begins to display why you plunked down so much money for the thing in the first place. You will find that the poor ole’ original Xbox doesn’t have much to look forward to in terms of innovations, or exciting new titles, except perhaps one very well done multiplatform title. Before I start, I thought it would be interesting to look back at our “Ten Most Anticipated of 2005” and our “Top Ten Best of 2005” to see how well the list compare:

Top 10 Most Anticipated titles of ’05 (Link to Article Here
10. Forza Motorsport
9. Star Wars: Republic Commando
8. Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict.
7. Pariah
6. Kameo: Elements of Power
5. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
4. Doom III
3. GTA: San Andreas
2. Conker: Live and Reloaded
1. Jade Empire

Xbox Evolved’s Top Ten Games of 2005 (Link to Article Here
10. Stubbs the Zombie
9. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
8. Jade Empire
7. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
6. Burnout Revenge
5. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
4. Forza Motorsport
3. Call of Duty 2
2. Condemned: Criminal Origins
1. Project Gotham Racing 3

As you can see the list for anticipated of 2005 has some pretty fantastic titles. Aside from Pariah, which we eventually gave a 7.2/10, and Conker: Live and Reloaded which, was a nice title, but could have been so much more. Still, as you can see by the bolded titles to show that that title made it to the best of list after the title was released, shows that four out of ten titles living up to the hype and being considered great, even amongst the advent of Xbox 360 shows a lot. Surprises such as Stubbs the Zombie on Xbox, and the four Xbox 360 titles however, show that at any time during the year a stellar game can pop up, surprise you, and become one of the best games of the year. Interestingly, enough Kameo: Elements of Power was on our anticipated of 05 list for Xbox, only to come to 360. While it is a fantastic title, it still couldn’t compare to the titles the entire Xbox Evolved staff selected later on.

This year is no different—some titles we expect to make our best of 2006 list, but we also expect quite a number of surprises later on into the year. The only difference is, we are going to see most of the new list(s) being dominated by Xbox 360 titles. Still, don’t be surprised when you see what may become a stellar title developed by Bioware on the next page, or a Splinter Cell, or believe it or not, more than one RPG! So turn the next page and find out what Xbox 360 titles you should be keeping an eye on (for now) for 2006.