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21 – Project Gotham Racing (#94, not owned) 

A 2001 arcade style racer focusing on precision driving developed by Bizarre Creations, who was responsible for Geometry Wars, and Blur among others. I’ve bounced off this series a few times but got lured back in by playing PGR2 to see the first iteration of Geometry Wars in the garage. After liking PGR2, I’m now interested in revisiting the first in the series. 

22 – Fable and Lost Chapters (#95 owned, #144 not owned) 

Developed by Big Blue Box, a studio owned by Lionhead in 2004. I mostly remember interviews with Peter Molyneux about it from the time. He was the premiere hype master supreme. Is it Xbox’s Zelda killer? Not at all, but it should have been more of a mainstay in the Xbox library - their console defining RPG. We got three Fable games, but since 2010, nothing until this year’s release sixteen years later (I'm not counting Fable Heroes). Lionhead got gobbled up by Microsoft and digested, but some of the original founders went on to be part of interesting new studios like Media Molecule and Two Point. Both MK and I played the heck out of Fable and the Lost Chapters, beating them with both good and bad endings. Lost Chapters seems to be something to reaquire since it contains substatial additions such as new areas and quests. I also learned Danny Elfman wrote the theme to the Fable. I did not know that. 

23 – Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War (#110) 

This was the first Wolfenstein game made after Wolfenstein 3D by Gray Matter Studios with advice directly from id Software. Gray Matter subsequently worked on Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (a fav) and then were merged by owner Activision into the great developer Treyarch in 2005 to work on COD3 (another fav). MK and I played this a lot back in ‘01 and I’m excited to play this FPS again (and did).  

24 – Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (#129) 

A third-person shooter by Midway utilizing psychic powers. In MK and I’s endless search for another shooter to play, we had a lot of fun with this one. You can easily pick things up and throw them around with your mind. Haha! I just realized how to get around that turret, shown in a one second clip in this trailer. Silly me, just block it with a mind held crate. 

25 – Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance (#132, not owned) 

Developed by Snowblind Studios who also made two Champions games based on Everquest, Justice League Heroes and LotRs: War in the North, all of which have a similar style, and which I’ve played and liked. The key to BGDA’s fun is co-op which is how MK and I played and completed it way back. The digital version out there today has only local co-op which was a big disappointment when I downloaded it. We always played it online co-op so we could play on our own screens. This is, via link cable on the OG Xbox. It’s still fun solo, but nothing like with friends.   

26 – TimeSplitters Future Perfect (#139) 

The third TimeSplitters game and the last. Campaign co-op mode was a feature I always looked for to play with MK. We did so and also each played this solo several times back in 2005. It’s a FPS. Timesplitters 2 and Future Perfect are still available digitally.  

27 – Call of Duty 3 (#143, not owned), Medal of Honor Frontline (#172, not owned) 

Might as well bundle the WWII FPS games MK and I used to play. COD3 is by Treyarch and MoHF is by EA's LA studio. We probably played COD3 on 360 because it’s from 2006. It was the second to last WWII game we played a lot of. The last one was 2008s COD World at War. COD went to a modern setting and cover-based rather than the run-and-gun style MK and I played with the Modern Warfare series. Same with MoH. The last one we played was Airborne in 2007. Now I’d like to explore COD Black Ops (also Treyarch made), at least the first two, and maybe a more recent MoH sometime.  

28 – Marvel Ultimate Alliance (#152, not) and X-Men Legends I & II (#159, #119, not either) 

And I'll bundle the other isometric view action RPGs not called Baldur's Gate MK and I used to play co-op. All three of these were made by the great Raven Software. I remember all of them being fun.  

29 – Sid Meier’s Pirates (#193, not owned physically) 

A remake of Firaxis's 1987 game with a 3D view and other improvements and additions. MK and I both played the heck out of this and still play the digital version. It has a great combination of gameplay elements: sword fighting, business management, life simulation, real-time ship-to-ship battles, a dance rhythm mini-game, and a turn-based land battle system. My favorite part was navigating the Caribbean islands and continental ports.  

30 – Links 2004 (#203) 

This is the last of Microsoft's Links series of golf games that goes back to 1990, but it's the first one to come to a console. I played this on a whim a few years ago and found another gem of a sports game that appeals to both me and MK. It has the right balance of simulation and arcade gameplay. I could never get into the PGA Tour series after the first three or four when it was renamed Tiger Wood’s PGA Tour (1998-2013), which had a much more straight simulation style.  

Wasn't 2004 a great year for games? And that is 21-30 on my ultimate OG Xbox playlist. Whata u think?