Anthony Gore’s Picks
I’ve never owned an original Xbox. Hell, even though I owned both a GameCube and a PlayStation 2, I’d say that entire generation was a bit lost on me. Back then I was playing video games solely for Resident Evil and professional wrestling games, so I missed out on a lot of great titles. Luckily, my horizons have expanded a great deal since those days. That said, I’m coming at this series from a slightly different angle than Jason. All of the games I’ll be talking about are ones that I never got to play and would love to have the opportunity to try. I’ve narrowed that list down to just five, so let’s get it started.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
This is a bit of a safe pick, but having spent some time with Oblivion and a substantial amount of time with Skyrim, I’d love to see where some of their features may have blossomed from. Judging from what I’ve read, Morrowind seems very similar to the games that followed it. I’d still love to see a reboot or re-imagining that followed the Morrowind storyline and let me visit Vvardenfell. Outside of that, there’s honestly not much more I can say about The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, except it’s an Elder Scrolls experience I haven’t had and would love to play it someday.
Crimson Sea
Crimson Sea is a third person shooter with light RPG elements from publisher and developer Koei. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t even aware of this game until I started doing research for this article. After reading about it and seeing it in action, I knew it had to be on this list. In battle you can use a laser weapon for short-ranged attacks, a variety of guns to cover long range, or Neo-Psionic powers (sort of “magic” attacks) with a variety of effects (from offense attacks to stat buffs to stopping time). Each weapon also has three customizable parts that change up that weapon’s stats, which you can purchase throughout the game. Crimson Sea has been compared to the Dynasty Warriors series, but it still seems like it has enough variety to make it a worthwhile game to check out. It even got rather positive reviews when it was released. It’s too bad that Microsoft did such a piss poor job promoting Crimson Sea, forcing Koei to jump ship and release the sequel exclusively on PlayStation 2.
Magic the Gathering: Battlegrounds
This may seem like an odd pick, but if you’ve been a reader of GAJ for a while, you might remember some of my Magic the Gathering work. I absolutely love that game and the lore behind it, so I want to experience all it has to offer. It is a little bizarre that a collectible card game would spawn a real-time strategy game, but Battlegrounds actually received decent reviews upon release. While the actual gameplay is completely different than what fans of the card game would expect, there are plenty of nods to the source material and I’d be very interested to see Magic the Gathering: Battlegrounds make another appearance, in one form or another.
Jade Empire
Over the years, BioWare has emerged as one of my favorite game developers, mostly thanks to their work on the Mass Effect trilogy and the Dragon Age series. One thing I’ve always wanted to do is dive into some of their earlier work and a remastered version of Jade Empire sounds like a great place to start.
Jade Empire is an action RPG with real-time combat and features many of the systems that BioWare has become known for, including heavy emphasis on dialogue and story, as well as moral decisions. If you’ve played another of BioWare’s games, Knights of the Old Republic, then you should be right at home with Jade Empire as many of the systems are similar. As with many of BioWare’s games you can choose to be male or female on your journey and as you make your way through the adventure you can learn and develop of variety of fighting styles.
To me, Jade Empire sounds like more of what I love about BioWare games and it would be great to see it updated with either a remastered version of the original or even a proper sequel. Either way, I’d love to one day get the opportunity to try it out.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
As a Resident Evil fan (and horror fan in general) I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for survival horror games. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is one of the few games in the genre that I’ve wanted to play that I’ve yet to be able to. The game plays as a first person shooter and is based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft (if you couldn’t already tell from the name), more specifically his novella the Shadow over Innsmouth.
There are a couple of things that I find very intriguing in regards to the gameplay of Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. The first is the lack of a HUD. I’ve grown so accustomed to knowing exactly how much health and ammo that I have in games that not having those conveniently displayed sounds like it would make for a far more immersive experience. And in a horror game, for me, immersion is crucial. The other interesting aspect about Call of Cthulhu is the use of a sanity meter. As you witness unsettling or upsetting events or environments, you’ll slowly start to go insane. This can lead to hallucinations, which will not only affect what you see, but the way the game controls. If left unchecked, this can lead to permanent insanity and even suicide.
In some circles, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth has been called on of the best survival horror games ever made. It really is a shame that Headfirst Productions went bankrupt before they had a chance to do more with the series (there were actually two more games slated to be released). Just writing about it, makes want to go out and find an Xbox just so I can experience this little gem.
