I've never owned an Xbox

billy

It’s true! Microsoft is the only (major) console manufacturer from whom I’ve never owned a single system. I did live with someone who had a 360, but we played it so infrequently that it doesn’t count. I’ve never played a Halo game. Or a Gears of War. Or a Forza. In all the years that Xboxes have existed, I’ve always opted for Sony and Nintendo.

I have, however, just got myself a Series X, and would appreciate any recommendations on what to play! I’ve maxed out Game Pass using the pre-paid Xbox Live loophole, so I plan to start there, but feel free to recommend any interesting compatible Xbox, 360 or Xbox One games that I may have missed over the years.

fridgeboy

I’ve also never owned an Xbox, but I’ve owned every Sony and Nintendo platform since the NES (barring a number of handhelds). I did play halo 2 in a college a few times, but like… that was hard to avoid

robinhoodie

Forza Horizon or Gears games are well made high production value fun. Sunset Overdrive is an under appreciated exclusive.

Fishie

robinhoodie Owned now by Sony

TheFragranceOfDarkCoffee

There’s a bunch of cool, weird stuff from the 360 era worth checking out.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is a cool, weird vehicle building game that you can probably get very cheaply.

The Master Chief collection is great fun, especially with a buddy to play the campaigns with.

I hear Lost Odyssey was good, though I’ve never played it myself.

The XBLA had a treasure trove, too. The Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie remakes are worth checking out.

Moon

You must try Phantom Dust. A third person action deck builder with a great style and soundtrack. Im still very upset that there aren’t more games like it.

hellomrkearns

I’ve never owned any xbox. I’ve also never owned a home console after the Wii.

Moon as for Phantom Dust, it’s free to play (with in game purchases) on PC via the Microsoft Store!
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/phantom-dust/9pcdnbhr11mr?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

Moon

hellomrkearns

I had a 350 hour Phantom Dust save file on my OG Xbox so I decided it would probably be for the best if I never went anywhere near the remaster. Though the idea of being able to play multiplayer is tempting. I wonder how dead it is these days.

TracyDMcGrath

The Xbox 360 was the shmup console of its day, being the home of all of Cave’s later games. Guwange is on the digital store and is one of the better ones.

whatsarobot

Man, I had a good old time with my OG Xbox back in its day. Here are three of my top favourites. I don’t know if they’re readily available these days, but they’re all near and dear to my heart.

Panzer Dragoon Orta

Jet Set Radio Future

Otogi

sabertoothalex

I briefly had a 360 but never really invested much time into the Xbox platform.

I find the backwards compatibility stuff to be very cool though and I think I’ll get a Series X at some point just for that and Forza Horizon 5.

whatsarobot Incredibly stupid and bad that JSRF has never been released elsewhere. If that became back compat on the new Xboxes I would get one much sooner than I’m planning to currently. That is like top of my GOD I WISH I COULD PLAY THIS FOR THE FIRST TIME list.

robinhoodie

Orta most certainly is, which is kind of amazing. Well worth snapping up since I think it’s got some graphical punch up for series X and is already a gorgeous game.

treefroggy

Christmas 2001.
My adopted parents who had kidnapped me from my parents 10 years prior surprise me with an Xbox.
I tell them to take it back and buy either a PS2 or a Gamecube.
This decision went on to define the rest of my life moving forward. Just Kidding I have two Xbox’s under my bed right now. Growing up, kids who played Xbox would spit loogies on my backpack.
There’s a lot of fun games and better versions of PS2 games for original Xbox. I hear the new console is totally backwards compatible so I’ll recommend games as though you had an actual original Xbox or Xbox 360. I second all the suggestions for japanese games everyone has mentioned.

Metal Wolf Chaos
Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (best version)
Blinx the Time Sweeper
Forever Kingdom
Beyond Good and Evil (best version)
Fable
Elder Scrolls III - Morrowind
Half Life 2 (play half life 1 on ps2 first!)
Lake Masters (Fish for Bass in Two Separate Modes)
Rayman 3
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series
Shenmue II
Ninja Gaiden series (peaks at Ninja Gaiden Black)
Thousand Land
Fatal Frame
Silent Hill 2 (has different lighting and textures. would be a much better experience than the ps3 port because it’s basically the same as PS2 with different graphical qualities)
Crazy Taxi 3
Digimon World 4
Shin Megami Tensei: Nine

robinhoodie

sabertoothalex I am pretty sure it plays with only minor hiccups on the 360. But it’s got to be a rights nightmare because of the soundtrack. It gotta be why of all the Sega OG Xbox games you can play on Series X, Orta is the only one.

Syzygy

robinhoodie
Unfortunately that’s not really the case. It has no major bugs, however it slows down significantly and variably; it’s a different, floatier game on 360. I’m all for just playing more games however you can, but if you have the choice play it on an Xbox.

robinhoodie

Syzygy Uff. Yeah. I feel like the backwards compat once you hit the XBO is such a different ball game that that we’ve all forgotten the issues with 360 backwards compat. I get what you mean about feeling OFF. I tried to play Outrun 2 Coast 2 Coast on the 360 with my OGXBOX disc and like I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was not the same game.

fugazi57

robinhoodie If you connect it to a crt tv, Outrun 2006 on the 360 feels perfect (no noticeable difference from online arcade).

However, playing it on a modern display is awful. I think it’s the upscaling causing major input lag.

Syzygy

360’s still the console I use most! One reason I’m not weighing in is because hell if I know what’s backwards compatible on the new stuff. I’ve heard that Crackdown on an Xbox One plays perfectly with no slowdown however crazy you get? Because I have a couple hundred games for it I can’t think of it as a few ‘must plays’.

treefroggy

The only reason I have an xbox 360 is to play Deadly Premonition. I haven’t looked into much else I’d want to use it for. Only thing I played on 360 back in the day was Geometry Wars. Chromehounds seemed like a great online Armored Core but the servers went down pretty fast.

Moon

treefroggy

I was big into chromehounds for a long time. It was pretty good and I miss it.

Syzygy

Xbox emulation is seeing recent advancement.

remz

Syzygy I would loooooove to play Otogi 1&2 again. When my original xbox exploded they were basically the 2 games other than NGB I missed playing on that thing. If microsoft aren’t going to BC them I’m gonna go to emulator.