Never before has a console had so many good quality titles since its inception. We haven't had any difficulty selecting eleven games that are worth a try. For that matter, we should note that there are already more than twenty-five titles currently for sale and almost 250 are being developed. Even better, since its launch, the Xbox can draw on several hits that alone justify the purchase, like Halo, Amped, Dead or Alive 3, and even Max Payne.

HALO

Promoted by Microsoft for almost two years, the flagship title in the first series of games for the Xbox is without a doubt HALO, developed by Bungie Software. An audacious bet for the creator, because it deals with a heart-racing, first person shooter game, a genre very connotative of the PC and difficult to adapt to a console. For that matter, the game was originally planned for a microcomputer. The first test to pass will therefore be the mastery of the character that you play through the controller. Frequent console users will likely have few problems; at worst, they'll have to give up a few reflexes acquired on other platforms. If on the other hand, you are a PC addict, you will probably have a little more difficulty getting the hang of it...

The first shock Halo has in store for you will probably be the quality of its graphics. The images are perfectly smooth, the backgrounds are as varied as they are beautiful, the special effects are superb, and the fluidity is incredible. Halo is a true technological showcase for Xbox. The bump mapping and the dynamic lighting effects are perfectly mastered and the console's anti-aliasing is a marvel. In the bargain, the game's sound quality in version 5.1 challenges the graphics quality for first place. Result: your will get an eyeful and an earful!

The adventure begins in a vast spaceship, where your character, a cyborg officer is dragged out of his hibernation chamber by a nonchalant engineer. You don't have enough time to get your feet on the ground before you are urgently ordered to the bridge and the deafening sound of an explosion resonates through the gangways... You are going to have to fight a crowd of vindictive aliens: the Covenants. Your first objective will be to find a way to prevent their ship from landing on Halo, a ring-shaped planet that seems to be at the core of the Covenants' interests.