The 20 Best Xbox Games You Never Bought

XIII
Developer: Ubisoft Paris • Publisher: Ubisoft
OXM Rating: 8.8, Holiday 2003
Copies Sold (as of Feb 2006): 121,500

What It Was: A cel-shaded first-person shooter based on a French comic book.
Why You Didn’t Buy It: Apparently, David Duchovny is the videogame equivalent of box-office poison. The dreary-sounding X-Files actor lent his voice to the player-characters in XIII and Area 51, and both games sunk faster than our confidence at a Playboy Mansion party.
Why It Still Rocks: It went all-out and completely embraced its cel-shaded style. The devs didn’t simply build an FPS with inky outlines around the characters; they used comic-book panels to tell the story, to show enemies approaching, and even for gruesome frame-by-frame sniper kills with a crossbow!
Backward-Compatible With Xbox 360?: Yes

Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict
Developer: Epic • Publisher: Midway
OXM Rating: 9.3, March 2005
Copies Sold (as of Feb 2006): 145,300

What It Was: The last and by far the best of the multiplayer-centric Unreal franchise on Xbox.
Why You Didn’t Buy It: The first Unreal Championship — developed by Digital Extremes under Epic’s supervision — left Xbox gamers cold, so few people were looking forward to Epic’s in-house–developed follow-up.
Why It Still Rocks: (1) Over 40 impeccably designed levels. (2) Awesome melee combat. (3) Fatalities in a shooter. Can we get a “Hell yeah”?
Backward-Compatible With Xbox 360?: Yes

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System
Developer: Swinging Ape • Publisher: VU Games
OXM Rating: 9.0, November 2003
Copies Sold (as of Feb 2006): 101,100

What It Was: A charming, fresh, and highly polished action game that featured a rich gameworld, vehicles, platforming, great boss fights, and all-ages humor.
Why You Didn’t Buy It: This game should be a million-seller, not 50 Cent: Bulletproof. But Swinging Ape’s genius didn’t go completely unrecognized — they were purchased by Blizzard and were working on the “indefinitely postponed” StarCraft: Ghost.
Why It Still Rocks: Glitch’s tether arm, the ability to shoot off different bits of enemies, the washer-collecting, memorable characters, and a stellar (if offline-only) multiplayer mode.
Backward-Compatible With Xbox 360?: Yes

Thief: Deadly Shadows
Developer: ION Storm • Publisher: Eidos
OXM Rating: 8.6, July 2004
Copies Sold (as of Feb 2006): 93,400

What It Was: The third iteration in gaming’s pioneering stealth series. It stayed true to the spirit of Thief, right down to the medieval steam-punk atmosphere and the sarcastic wit of anti-hero Garrett.
Why You Didn’t Buy It: Though we love the Thief series for being unabashedly hardcore, the mainstream Xbox audience probably didn’t appreciate just how stealthy it really was: You can’t start running and gunning (with what? Arrows?) if you get bored.
Why It Still Rocks: Other than Splinter Cell, there simply isn’t a better stealth experience on Xbox. You could spend 30 hours with the game cleaning out every level, stealing every bit of loot, and knocking out everyone with your trusty blackjack club.
Backward-Compatible With Xbox 360?: Yes

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