PixlBit

A launch sequence ensues, Thunderbirds style. 

This is the OG Xbox I use these days, handed down from my buddy MK years ago. Where my own standard edition went is anyone's guess. Initially, I had some trouble with this one. I had some extreme screen flickering and dropouts using both AV and component cables. Last year, MK got me a HMDI converter that got rid of the dropouts but not all the flickering. This week, I swapped cables (both AV and power) and adjusted settings until I finally got the flicker down to almost nothing. Finally, I could settle down to play some games. 

Halo Combat Evolved - I played this nearly to the end but got a little annoyed with fighting the Flood forms and stopped. It was a combination of them coming at you from every direction, being bullet sponges, having to scrounge for weapons with ammo, and a rather slow regenerating shield. It never really bothered me before, but maybe I was just getting tired near the end of that day I was playing it. I played on normal difficulty. In the past MK and I beat it on Heroic and he claims he did it on Legendary, but I contest that. Heroic is crazy enough. Legendary would require a four-player co-op, imo. Still, fun as heck. 

GTA: Vice City - Well, it works, unlike my PS2 copy. It was a lot of fun driving around the city listening to the crazy radio DJs and doing missions. One thing I didn't like much was the fighting/shooting. There's something really jank and clumsy about it. How the heck do you actually aim anything? I just punched a lot. It'll take some more plays to get me to put up with, and learn, the fighting controls. The story and dialog is top notch and very funny though. 

Halo 2 - I finished this. So fun. It's everything that Halo CE was but boosted above and beyond. One of the very first things you are told is that now you now have Mark 6 armor with a faster recharging shield. Music to my ears. I love listening to the background chatter of your troops as you play. There's always one latino character who spouts Spanish phrases like, "Mira, a Mark 5!" (from Halo CE - means, "look, a mark 5") or "La Bamba!" (the chief) when you rescue some troops. I found that scared Grunt with extended dialog too. The story in Halo 2 is complex and engaging. I'm reminded of all the Halo novels I've read and enjoyed that came out around the games. The game ends on a cliffhanger that feels like part 1 of a 2-part story. We had to wait unitl 2007 for part 2 in Halo 3. 

Ninja Gaiden Black - Oh man! This plays great but it will test you right from the getgo. I found it odd there wasn't any kind of tutorial or practice area for learning fighting moves. Trying to wing it in a room full of ninjas is not going to work in NGB. Whatevs. I'll probably trade it. 

Burnout 3: Takedown - Mama mia! I didn't want to put this down but my buddy MK was taunting me a bit too much, and I took a break out of frustration. Both he and I played this a ton back in 2004. I'm so glad I managed to fix my Xbox enough to eliminate the flicker because it's ruinous for this game. Speed is the thing. . .  and crash junctions, and elminator races, and time trials, and road rage. I love the way the game is arranged in World Tour mode. You get a DJ, lots of early 2000s rock music (reminds me of Road Rash with 90s rock), and a huge variaty of race types and tracks to work through for rewards. The whole feel of the game reminds me a lot of Forza Horizon in a way except that it's not open world. Clearly the FH team took notes (and I think some of the Critereon devs went over to the FH team as well). 

NCAA Football 2004 (and eventually Madden 2004) - I created a character. He was a medium sized LOLB (not a "laugh out loud bumbler", which is what I was, but a "left outside linebacker") on the Penn State Nittany Lions. I started Dynasty mode (full season play) and tried to control just my character, but I couldn't really figure out how to get him in the starting lineup. I ended up just trying to learn how to play everthing in my first game against the Temple Owls (another team local to me). This game plays very well. I turned things down to easy mode where the AI runs a lot of stuff. You just pick plays and take control of whoever has the ball on offense (I used the Ask Coach feature to choose plays most of the time), and choose whomever you want on defense. It was fun. I just have to figure out how to do this single player career adventure I want to do. 

Project Gothan Racing 2 - Even though this is a more precision racer where you are tasked with NOT hitting things, unlike Burnout, I kind of enjoyed it. I ran through every mode trying to rack up bronze medals for everything. I missed a few but unlocked alot of cars and races along the way. I think it's very good. I somehow did the best in the cones trials where you weave in and out of cones on various tracks. I think it was because I could drive a little slower. Some cars are hard to handle at high speeds and you don't even want to tap a guardrail during a race. Fun though. 

Bookworm - Somehow I have a Xbox Live Arcade disc that came with PGR2 and booted it up just to see what was on it. I imagine you can't sign in to Xbox Live anymore from OG Xbox, so I didn't try, but there were a bunch of demos on the disc and one was Bookworm, so I played it for quite a while. I kind of wish I still had my first Xbox with the handful of Xbox Live Arcade games I bought there on it. Maybe I would've had to sign in to play them though, I'm not sure. It was on an old account I don't have anymore. It was some nostalgia thinking about the very early online gaming for consoles. 

Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay - I love the setting, story, characters and developer Starbreeze Studios for this game but could never get deep into it until now. I guess I'm getting past my reluctance to play stealth in games. Good thing about this, though, is there is a good amount to fisticuffs and some shooting to mix it up. Plus, Riddick is very good at stealth, meaning you are nigh invisible when you go into that mode. A lot of other games make it quite a delicate situation to sneak around. I'm not saying it's easy, but you can disappear into the shadows a little more securely in this game. And if you do get seen, you can do some quick takedowns to compensate. Controls are great, story's great, dialog is top notch. The voice cast is surprising. Vin Diesel, Ron Pearlman, and Michael Rooker were the ones I recognized right away. I hope to get much farther in the game next week, hopefully finish it for once. 

Purchases

I got a copy of Crimson Skies ($5) and Return to Castle Wolfenstein ($10) for my Xbox last weekend. There are a handful of others I'm still looking for. 

More OG Xbox to come.