Be Excellent To Each Other

Ok, a lot of us on here have got Xbox 360s, but I'm not sure how many of us had original Xboxes, back in the day. I did, so I wanted to start a thread of recommendations for games that were released for it, but run (and run well) on its successor.

I'm going to ignore the fact that a lot of these games were released for other formats, because some of us only have room for one console under our telly, and it might be worth including multiformat stuff.

I'll kick it off with the ones I own (plus any I can think of that I've owned in the past):

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Burnout 2: Point of Impact
If you like arcade racing games, then this really should be near the top (if not the top of your list. I absolutely love this one, and you should too.

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
Excellent arcade flight game in the vein of Blazing Angels and Ace Combat, but set in an alternative 1930s where planes and zeppelins are the main form of transportation. Available on XBLAH, but see if you can dig out a physical copy in your local games emporium - it should be cheap as chips.

Call of Duty: Finest Hour
The first Call of Duty game developed for home consoles. This is probably only of interest to fans of the series, as the graphics look rather dated by today's standards. It's still CoD though, and gameplay-wise, it stands up to its sequels well.

Doom 3
Let's not argue about this one. I like it, but probably more than I should. It gets utter contempt for the torch gameplay mechanic, but I think it's a stroke of genuis and adds to the claustrophic atmosphere. A solid remake of a classic.

Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City & San Andreas
I don't need to say anything about these, do I? If GTA IV was your first taste of the series and you liked it, you could do worse than checking these out.

Halo: Combat Evolved & Halo 2
See above, but replace GTA IV with Halo 3.

Fahrenheit
Gets a bit silly towards the end, but I really enjoyed this. Billed as an 'interactive film', it's slightly different from normal adventure games as it has branching story lines, and well worth the few pounds you'll pick it up for.

IndyCar Series 2005
A faithful representation of the sport, although the graphics are quite agricultural by today's standards. For fans of the sport only, methinks.

Links 2004
Probably the best golf game I've played - Tiger Woods eat your heart out.

Manhunt
Gruesome stealth-em-up from the makers of GTA. Very atmospheric, and one of a handful of games to actually scare me in some places.

Max Payne & Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Excellent third-person shooters, with the stories told in dark graphic-novel cutscenes. Very bleak and not to everyone's tastes, but I loved them both.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
A military sandbox game where you play a mercenary contracted to kill various generals from different nations. I'd akin this to Crackdown more than any other game. I feel this was somewhat overlooked as was one of the last games to be released for the chunky little brick.

Outrun 2
Wonderful arcade racer, probably already known to most on here, but included to aid my completist nature.

Psychonauts
Psychadelic 3D platforming game from legendary game designer Tim Schafer. Some of the precision jumping parts can be a pain, but well worth persevering with.

Serious Sam
Hectic FPS where you're inundated with enemies from start to finish. The Xbox version includes about six or seven episodes. There were so many times I thought I'd finished the game, but it carried on.

Silent Hill 4: The Room
The only game from the Silent Hill series I've played,so I can't compare with its predecessors. A good survival-horror game with some interesting gameplay mechanics and atmosphere.

The Simpsons Hit & Run
A must have for any fans of The Simpsons and Grand Theft Auto. Some excellent humour, even if the game isn't all that challenging for hardcore players.

The Suffering
This starts out as what appears to be a generic third-person shooter, where you play an inmate attempting to escape a prison, but in a David Banner-esque style, you get to turn into a giant monster when made angry! Worth a play for the pennies.

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That's about it from me, over to you guys. Remember, don't leave anything off if it was released on other platforms, as for example, I've never owned a PS2.

I'm also sure that some of you will disagree with my picks, but it's all IMHO, you have to agree.

For a full list of compatibility, see here.

Mercenaries was brill. Mercs 2 is out soon.

Sid Meier's Pirates! is super-awesome - one of my all time favourite games.

Panzer Dragoon Orta has also been working on the 360 for a while and it's absolutely wonderful, especially if you're a fan of the series. It refines the gameplay of the first two Saturn games, whilst having a plot that essential sequels Panzer Dragoon Saga.

Indiana Jones And The Emperor's Tomb - well, I liked it.

I quite liked the gameplay, but it lacked any charm or character at all, and progressing the storyline was pretty repetitive.

Metal Arms - Glitch in the System - Fun, fun fun! This is perhaps the only game I've ever played all the way through, twice! It is actually funny (sometimes) and challenging throughout and I really have a soft spot for Glitch. I'm sure I've mentioned this game here, or on the other forum but it's great!

I'll second Pirates. Also, Still Life (doesn't appear on that compatibility list so I don't know if it'll work) was pretty good too - Adventure/Puzzler set in present day and er, in the past.

It's really really good. Like you say funny in places but my kind of "sandbox" game in that you need to get from point A to B but the weapons at your disposal meant any strategy was viable and I'd often just to back to the beginning of a level to try it a different way;

i.e. you get grenades that turn enemies against each other so you can lob that at one of the huge fuck off robots then sit back and watch the fun then pick off the weakened survivors or you could sneak behind one and use your tether to take control of it and HULK SMASH everyone to fuck.

Also the some of the most satisfying gun sounds and explosions in any game I have played.

I'm guessing that if it isn't on the list, it probably won't (unless if the list is out of date).

Sounds interesting - I'd never even heard of it. *puts on list to look out for*

Glitch is a cool game, but I got stuck and never went back. I really should.

Myp - it's on the xbox originals program on Live, but I got my disc for £3 in GameStation.

Ah sorry - I thought it was a list of all the Xbox games and then showing how compatible they were. You know, when I planned on buying my 360, I always intended to play original Xbox games on it (I've got about 100 or so) and how many have those have I tried since getting one? Er, none.

I refuse to buy the Xbox Original games on LIVE for the price they're selling them at the moment, especially when the discs are still pretty readily available.

No, if the game's compatible in any region, it'll say, but if it's not on there at all I'm guessing it's incompatible in every region.

Ooh, this reminds me. If you ever see a copy of IndyCar Series 2005 then let me know. I traded in my copy when I bought my 360 and I've regretted it ever since as I haven't managed to find another one that works (the two I've bought since have been scratched to fuck).

I purchased Crimson Skies for the princely sum of 4 pounds from Game just last week...tis splendid fun.

I quite enjoyed Star Wars Republic Commando, in a cheapo game sort of way.

Oh, and I LOVE Conker : Live and Reloaded, it has Conker's Bad Fur Day remake in it which is a bloody classic game!

Am I the only one that thinks Conker is one of the worst games on any format ever and relies entirely on jokes a 3 year old would find insultingly juvenile?

Yes. I don't mind admitting I chuckled quite a few times, the Scarecrow at the start made me laugh, as did the Cogs. And clanging a robot's balls with a pair of bricks.

I have simple tastes.

The official list says it is, though.

So it does! I don't know where I got it into my head that it was. You've saved me approximately £4.

Am I allowed to say 'Just get an Xbox you fool'?

I'd believe the Microsoft page over the Wiki, personally. I linked the GB version of the compatability list, and it appears on there.

So that's where I got it from. I'll update the link in my first post to the official site (I didn't originally post it as it's blocked from work).

MrD: you can if you like, but that wasn't the point of the thread.

Star Wars: Battlefront or the second one of it. Great shooters, both of them.

Awesome as it is, and it really IS, a little known fact is that it's also very spikey on the difficulty curve. It's one of the few games I have played through twice, as well, and that was after restarting it on easy after getting stuck about two hours in on Normal. I went back and played it on Normal after finishing it on Easy. It is a brilliant brilliant game with fantastic action, amazing weapons and a laugh out loud script with excellent voice acting. Anything that has Rip Torn doing a voice should be a must have game

Burnout 3: Takedown works really well. To my eyes, better than on the old Xbox.

I stuck Blinx on for the missus but it ran really slowly in places, so she can just play it on the xbox that's sat, ooh, 6 inches above the 360.

GTA3 insists on being run at 480p in the dashboard. If it isn't, the screen sticks at a 4:3 aspect and all is squished. Back to the black box then.

Fable runs ok... just ok. And moving the controls around makes certain spells harder to cast. Grrrr

All in all, I'm keeping the Xbox 1 connected

GTAIII runs fine for me on my widescreen LCD telly. In fact, I've had no problems with the Xbox Originals that I own. In fact, some of them upscale and look a lot nicer than on my old setup.

what res are you running at? Have you got widescreen switched on in-game? I hope it's not just me

720p. Not sure if it's switched on in-game. I'm just using the default.

that might be the difference. But to be honest, I didn't try 720p. I went 1080p > 480p. Elitist bastard that I am

My TV only outputs 720p, so there's no point me trying 1080p.