Was the sun setting or was it rising? I didn't know anymore.

I walked down the street, alone. If one saw me they'd say I was lost in thought, though there was nothing in my mind. That day, whatever day it was, I was an automaton. Alone, emotionless, merely moving each foot in front of the other.

I looked up and there were two women walking in the opposite direction coming towards me. I remember that one was an old French woman. She was Armenian, but from France. The other, a young Persian woman holding the hand of her daughter.

I didn't even glance at them, I kept my gaze fixed straight ahead. The old French woman stopped and greeted me, she was holding a broken, dirty and battered pen. The young Persian woman and her daughter stopped and smiled, saying hello. I stopped and acknowledged them, but I didn't want to speak, words were inconsequential. The only thing that mattered was that I keep moving.

The old French woman turned her hand and pointed at one of the homes lining the street. I'll never forget what she said to me, this woman who I had only just met on the street, her accent a mixture of Armenian and French, "Everyday of my life, everyday that I have spent in this country, for everything I have sacrificed, I have always walked down this street. It has been one of the few pleasures that I have had. There used to be people who lived in that home. I would walk everyday and see them. There was life in that home. But now it's empty and my heart grows heavy."

I told her that I had never been down this way before. I smiled a fake smile, ready to leave. I wished her well, and started to walk away.

The Persian woman called out to me by the name of Neon, but I kept walking. She said it again, but I kept walking. She paused for a moment and then spoke my name. I turned, and there were tears in my eyes. For some reason, the words of the French woman, they let everything out.

She smiled at me empathetically. Her daughter said, "Do you know what your name means in Persian?" I just stood there, gazing at her, my eyes full. "It means Calm. The name suits you, I had heard that you never panicked, that you always keep your cool, and now I know it suits you, Mr. Calm. It definitely suits you!" She smiled, such an innocent smile.

One. Two. Three. Four. Four tears, one by one, rolled out of my right eye. I spoke to the three of them through gentle sobs, "He is the greatest man I have ever known in my life.... I don't know, if I can be strong anymore, I don't know if I can be stro...."

The Persian woman came up to me, she held my cheeks, "Why? Why do you have to be strong? You've shown how brave you are."

I tried to control my breathing. I knew the end was coming, I could feel it. I spoke softly, still with gentle sobs, "I stopped the world from turning. I left everything. And now, he asked me what's happened to him, he told me how heavy his burden is, and the pain I feel in my heart... it's nothing compared to what he must feel. It's nothing."

The old Frenchwoman came up to me and offered to me the broken pen she was holding. "For you, so that you may never have to hold a sword."

The young girl echoed her mother's question, "Why do you have to be strong, Mr. Calm?" She asked it with genuine concern on her face.

"Because a man...." But I couldn't finish speaking.

Her mother held my shoulders, "I will pray for you. I will pray like I have never prayed before."

I knew I was going to die, the tears I shed were not for me, they were for him. I looked at the three of them, and I smiled. I smiled, four tears still on my cheek. The old French woman wiped them off. "Be careful."

I knew the end was coming. I could feel it.

I turned away and took a step. I thought for a moment and turned back. The women still looked at me. "Be careful ladies. They say there's a tiger around these parts."

The Persian woman's daughter ran up to me and tugged my arm. "Come this way with us, please! Where you're going, you can't come back...."

I smiled and patted her head. I turned and continued to walk away knowing that the end was near. I knew then that I would die. This was the beginning of the inglorious end.

The Final Act- "Explode"
Reviews 47 to 50

They are so, like, the best band, like EVER!

EEEEEEEEKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THESE GUYS ARE LIKE BETTER THAN RADIOHEAD AND INTERPOL COMBINED!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm still waiting for one of the other two losers to come out of the closet, though.

Gotta git to work, now, bye!

The Xbox is a completely different console that should be held in a completely different light from the Xbox 360. Did I mention that they're completely different consoles that should be held in completely different lights? Look at the Xbox and you can see that Microsoft tried to experiment with the system, with Xbox Live, with their first-party games. It wasn't because they wanted to put out wierd games or anything, but just that being new to the console business meant one thing: establish an identity. They worked their asses off with the Xbox to establish that fanbase, to establish their name and to give us the singular vision of the Xbox 360. I'm fairly certain Sony, Nintendo and Sega probably had to do the same thing when they first started out, but there's one difference: when those three started out at their respective times I wasn't playing games, but the Xbox brand was one I could experience first-hand. Also, be prepared to see some major Xbox games not make the cut.... Ohooohooo, KotOR, Jade Empire, Riddick and Doom, I'MA LOOKIN' ATCHOO!!!!!!

10. Project Gotham Racing- Microsoft's first big racing hit. Project Gotham Racing started, well, really damn good. It would later be eclipsed by newer entries as Bizarre went and made the games better and, again, better (though people say #4 wasn't as good as 2 or 3). But PGR started off with a bang. It launched alongside the Xbox in 2001, helping round out the greatness of the launch line-up (notice how good games are remembered more at launch when they complement a killer-app, in this case, Halo?) as the one racing game you needed on the Xbox. There were four different cities to race in: San Francisco, New York, London and Tokyo. There were four difficulty levels and you started at Easy and ranked your way up with different and more complex tracks in each city (four for each difficulty level). Add in Kudos challenges (the main meat of the game) and various other modes, with well over 30 cars and you have an excellent start to a soon-to-be killer racing franchise. Kudos were introduced as a rewards system for skillful driving and it has become a signature part of the series. Rack them up to help you unlock new cars, win in one-on-one races, get first in a street race, etc. PGR is still a spectacular racer. Sure, I'd rather play the sublime PGR3 over the original any day, but that doesn't change the fact that back on the Xbox one racing game helped start it all.

9. Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge- Why do we not have a Crimson Skies 2? This is a question that is, without question, a very important question. Crimson Skies has charm, a ridiculous amount of charm. Hell, it's like Indiana Jones, IN A MUTHERF'ING PLANE! Maybe I'm a sucker for flying around and shooting stuff, but this alternate-reality gem of a game, where gangsters fight, not in streetfights but in dogfights, where your base is, if you're way cool, a giant dirigible in which you store all of your, yup, planes with which to fight in said dogfights. The action is smooth, the characters are slick, the story is very summer-adventure, and the gameplay is some of the best shooting action you'll come across. I know when Xbox Live first launched in 2002, most people thought it was the bomb and that few games could top MechAssault. Well, let's just say, I didn't get Xbox Live until Halo 2... (sorry!) but I bought it a few months before, and really, Crimson Skies was my first and only online game until Bungie's (second of their three) magnum opus (all three are actually) came out on November 9, 2001.

8. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind- Normally, sequels tend to be not as good as the previous entries, but most Xbox games prove otherwise (in fact, almost all of them except for Gears of War). Sure, I'd rather play Oblivion with it's WAY better combat system, and easier to follow map to get to where I need to go to. But that doesn't mean I don't want to give props to Morrowind. My first "next-gen" RPG back in 2002 and my first personal purchase after the console's launch in 2001. I love fantasy, and Morrowind provides that in an almost never-ending world of gameplay. But it's Morrowind's much deeper depth of freedom that puts it ahead of Oblivion in some respects. At one point in time, I decided to forget the quests, I already joined every guild and betrayed almost all of them, but I knew I'd be remembered as a wanderer in the world of Morrowind. I simply ran and explored, met new faces and interesting new areas that I had never come across (mostly because I never knew where the hell I was going), so I left the world and entered the wild. I killed and maimed to survive took up quests from strangers in the woods and carried on in my journey. Then one day, I stole from a Dark Elf. He didn't take too kindly to that, so he tried to kill me. Sorry, champ, but my archery is off the chain. I shot him dead. Then the game pops up a new message that I've never seen before, one that takes up the screen itself. It told me I'd killed a character more valuable than anyone to the future of Morrowind, and that I had two options: Reload the game or continue on in this doomed world. I guess you can call me the Harbinger of the Apocalypse in Morrowind. WHOA!

7. Soul Calibur II- Remember when it was two words? Then #4 came and stuck the two together to give us SoulCalibur. Yeah, when the hell was Soul Calibur one word? NEVER! That's one of the myriad reasons why the fourth entry further helped the franchise lose it's foothold as the greatest 3D fighter around. Though SC3 also helped in demolishing the name. In fact, it's really all about Soul Edge, Blade, Calibur and Calibur II and the two calibur's are easily the best of the best. The first may have really done 3D fighting proud, moreso than really, any other fighter around, but the second was the game to play. More characters than ever before, more arenas than ever before and the same deep gameplay that, much like Namco's other figher, Tekken, is accessible to beginners and a joy to masters. Taki is my girl, and with her lightning fast moves you will know COMPLETE OBLITERATION! Add in the various different weapons which made you constantly have to change your strategy of play and you've got one of the best fighters around. Now, we all know that fighters are all about the VS play, but SC2 also had a damn lengthy single-player. And I played it a lot. Aside from being the best way to unlock new weapons it also told a pretty decent tale (all in writing though) and provided over 50 missions... than you unlocked over 50 missions after completing the first 50. Sure, they were always, beat up these guys, but when the game is SC2, "beat up these guys" is the best kind of mission ever!

6. Dead or Alive 3- Let's get a few things straight: 1.) Dead or Alive is awesome 2.) The DoA girls are really busty, perky and fight just as well in actual fighting outfits as they do in schoolgirl uniforms and bikinis... which is really cool 3.) The DoA levels are really awesome 4.) These are the sickest launch graphics ever 5.) Dead or Alive is awesome. You want to talk about rounding out a great launch, look at Dead or Alive 3 as the other, perfect, complementary piece to the puzzle. Killer-app in Halo? Yup. Great companion games to it in Project Gotham Racing and Dead or Alive 3 (along with some other games, but these two are my favorite launch games)? Yup. The action is fast. It's brutal. It's furious. And sometimes, it's kinda kinky. But boys like kinky (I was twelve when I bought DoA3, and yes, you do get to see Christie taking a shower), so Itagaki knew what he was doing. But what really seperates Dead or Alive from the pack is the reversal heavy gameplay. Oh, it pays to be on offense, but you can quickly turn blind offense right on your opponents ass with a well-timed reversal. I love it, I love it, I LOVE IT! Dead or Alive 4 may be the best in the series, but Dead or Alive 3 helped, just like Project Gotham Racing and to a much more significant extent, Halo, to create an identity for the Xbox, and a good launch should do just that. Oh the way I loved sending people flying off of the levels and continuing the fight elsewhere. Dead or Alive is awesome, this is truth. And oh yeah, TWO FIGHTING GAMES CRACK THE TOP 10!!!!!! WTF!!??

5. SSX Tricky- I often despise sports games. They just don't do it for me. Tony Hawk... BORING (and this was during the time of TH2 and 3), real-life sports? BORING. But SSX Tricky was a different beast altogether. It's a little-known fact that I almost bought a PS2 THRICE, but never did so. And had a I bought the system back in 2000 or 2001 before the Xbox days, SSX would have been one such game that I bought. But Tricky found it's way onto the Xbox and my life was complete. We played THE HELL out of this game. Everyone who touched it. We had contests to see who could score the highest on each mountain run often scoring in the MILLIONS just for a chance to brag and boast to one another. Yes, SSX Blur on the Wii was a ridiculous disappointment, but no SSX can top Tricky. That funky DJ announcer, the wicked racers and their wacky rivalries and friendships, different types of boards for different events and some awesome, AWESOME tracks. Dude, we didn't race to see who would get first, no one cares, we wanted to stay on that mountain and trick off of ever bump, sign, fence and ANYTHING even if it wasn't a part of the track, WE F'ING TRICKED OFF OF IT. SSX Tricky is hands-down, the best sports game I have ever played... ever... ever, ever, ever. Ever.

4. Ninja Gaiden- What's this you wonder? The game which inspired my username? What are you talking about? Because I'm talking about the single-greatest action game ever made. I know Ninja Gaiden came out in 2004, but five years later I still stand by the sentiment that there is no finer action game than the original reboot of Ninja Gaiden. Gaiden II is good, but it's nowhere near as good as the original. The sickest action ever, some of the toughest boss fights (Alma...) ever, some of the sickest graphics for the Xbox, ever. Ninja Gaiden came at the start of 2004, and as I've made clear many times, Microsoft and it's Xbox completely dominated every other console in terms of overall quality in 2004 and this was one of the major reasons. You couldn't button-mash. You couldn't let your guard down. Every single fight in the game was a fight to the death, from every random peon to the toughest of bosses. The game started strong with Murai as the first boss and from there, it didn't let go of your balls until you beat the game. I mean, this game is freaking hard and you will learn to love it! My personal favorite weapon of this 3D franchise was first put to amazing use in the first Ninja Gaiden. Nothing beats the Vigoorian Flail for combos, NOTHING.

3. Panzer Dragoon Orta- I look at the few good Japanese game released on the original Xbox, many of them I own, from Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden, Otogi, Shenmue and then a few others that were released like Phantom Dust. These are all damn good games, but when I look back at how much I love them, well, some of them didn't make the list. I wish they did, I mean, there aren't ENOUGH games like Otogi which is based completely on Japanese nightmares. But the best one always comes down to Panzer Dragoon Orta. This is, and I've said this before, the very best on-rails shooter ever made. Yes, it's better than Star Fox 64, and trust me, nothing is better than Star Fox 64. Panzer Dragoon Orta is simply the best of the best, with a beautiful and fully realized world, it tells a fantastic, and I mean this, it really does, tell a fantastic story and has some of the best boss fights ever. But that final level is all one boss fight and it is one of the best boss fights ever. The beautiful visuals help bring the game and it's unique locales to life. One of my favorite levels, ever, is in this game. Eternal Glacies is the epitome of beauty. If only they'd hurry and make a sequel because the world's best and most underappreciated on-rails shooter deserves more praise than I can ever give it.

2. Halo 2- Yeah boy! The second coming of the Messiah! Master Chief returneth, baby and he is here to haul some Covenant ass WITH PURPOSE! Depending on what type of person you are, Halo 2 is either significantly worse than the original Halo since you can't improve on perfection, significantly better than Halo because you can always perfect a flawed original or just as good as the first Halo because perfection will always remain as just that: perfection. I fall squarely into the third category. Halo 2 is spectacular. The campaign may not be as good as the original Halo, but the multiplayer, the online play itself, that's where the kings roll. We're talking the first genuinely fantastic online game on a console. Anyone who argues otherwise is a moron, I don't want to hear it for UbiSoft's stupid shooters from back in the day, or the Unreal Championship garbage that was played. No, the first true online FPS was the second coming of the Chief and you really could play in any way you wanted. Customize your games, do what you like, Halo 2 gave options never before done in a shooter, especially on consoles, and while Halo 3 took these ideas and flew to ridiculous highs with them it was Halo 2 that successfulyl put them online. Yeah, the online was the main meat of the game, but the campaign was no slouch either. Sure, it ended on a cliff-hanger, though I screamed in joy at the thought of "finishing this fight" back in 2004 (and that joy turned into Halo 3, the best of the best), there was meat to this game. A lot of the negativity towards Halo 2 is just because of that ending, but those same criticisms overshadow the extremely ambitious story. Halo 2 told two tales that intertwined, crossed paths and eventually became one story in Halo 3 (though the focus returned to the Chief in the third game). Civil war, humanity discovering, well, I don't know if it'll count as a spoiler or not so I won't mention it. Halo 2 is a spectacular shooter, it is as much the reason to own the Xbox as Halo 3 is the reason to own the Xbox 360, and in the pantheon of great shooters it simply is one of the best ever made. Some people may disagree, but those same people better remember GameSpot's 2004 Reader's Choice awards where Halo 2 was the user's choice on this very site, beating out even Half-Life 2. It is a premiere shooter and if you haven't played it yet you don't deserve to talk about shooters, ever.

1. Halo: Combat Evolved- Did the title of the blog give it away? Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, it's a trifecta of awesome, but on a console where there's more than one of these two fantastic games one has to drop to number 2 and the other can take the top prize. So if Halo 2 is as good as Halo: Combat Evolved and it takes the game online why is the original ahead? Because Halo: Combat Evolved is the Xbox. I remember walking into Fryes as a 12 year-old looking at games wondering what game to get, and then two guys walk up to the Xbox racks and one of them says, "There's that Game of the Year man...." You know it, baby, you f'ing know it! It's because Halo: Combat Evolved outgunned Grand Theft Auto III, wowed more than Metal Gear Solid 2 and provided more bang for your buck than Final Fantasy X that the Xbox became known. It's because Bungie found themselves creating a game that completely tossed a console in for contention as one of the big boys of gaming, and this console, because of Halo, outsold the GameCube. Some people call Halo: Combat Evolved a revolution while more jaded PC gamers say, it's no revolution, it's been done before. Then let me correct everyone by saying this, Halo: Combat Evolved is the Renaissance of gaming. By bringing over the core PC values, fine-tuning them to make them work on a console and then outgunning those same PC shooters. If you play Halo: Combat Evolved today you should get an appreciation for the fantastic AI of the time that set the tone for how enemy AI should play out in the future. You should gain an appreciation of the two weapon maximum which meant any enemies' weapon on the floor was fair game and depending on the two weapons you had it changed how you played the game. You should gain an appreciation for the beautiful alien world which set the tone for the rest of the alien technology in future Halo games and to an extent, Mass Effect and mainstream sci-fi. You should appreciate the story for being more gung-ho, Band of Brothers meets Aliens that has never been properly replicated by any other shooter ever. You should gain an appreciation for the implementation of co-op which almost every shooter now includes. You should gain an appreciation of vehicles which now almost every shooter includes. You should gain an appreciation for the controls which now EVERY SHOOTER uses. You should gain an appreciation for the FPS genre which Halo helped shape as a modern masterpiece. You should gain an appreciation for the Halo series which has never, ever provided a bad game in it's trilogy. Trust me when I say this: There is nothing like Halo and we have moved on to the point where there will never be anything else like Halo. It stands with Doom and Half-Life as one of the games which helped shape an entire genre. Love it or hate, you still know you love it. I have no qualms saying this, Halo Combat Evolved is my favorite game ever made, and it is the best I have ever played.