The
PlayStation 4 already is in the hands of more than a million gamers and
the magical (when it works) Xbox One is coming soon. That means the generation of consoles that arrived in 2005 with the release of the Xbox 360 is, after eight years, finally coming to a close.
To say a lot has changed since the Xbox 360 came along in 2005 would be putting it mildly. We began this last console generation with a relatively stable definition of a videogame as a product -- a disc that you paid $60 for that never changed. As this generation comes to a close, we expect radically different things from our games and there are many ways to make, distribute and pay for them.
With that in mind, we at WIRED are looking back over the past eight years and choosing the games that set the trends. They might not have been the
best games (although some of them are), but they had massive impact. These are the games that broke barriers, changed the landscape and served as signposts for changing times. They are the most WIRED games of the previous generation.
Above:
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
Originally included as a mini-game on the Project Gotham Racing 2 disc for the first Xbox, Geometry Wars was updated and re-released alongside the Xbox 360 as part of its initial Xbox Live Arcade downloadable games offering.
Retro Evolved was the first Xbox Live Arcade game with a soul. It was surrounded at first by old games like Gauntlet and Smash TV and a couple quick-and-easy PopCap Games ports. With Xbox 360's on-disc launch library lacking in killer apps, this was the first game I'd ever played on a high-definition TV, and I couldn't get over the hundreds of colorful on-screen enemies, exploding particles and gorgeous, rippling background special effects. I'd lean in dangerously close to my 27-inch, 720p monitor and declare, "You can't even see the pixels!"
It also didn't hurt that the game was incredibly fun. I spent so long chasing high scores that my eyes would literally water. More than once, my eyes dried out and I lost a contact. The game's thumping theme song still gets stuck in my head sometimes.
More than that, though, Geometry Wars was a symbol of what the Xbox Live Arcade service would become. Before Pac-Man Championship Edition, N+ and Castle Crashers, it was a beautiful, original, bite-sized game available to download for cheap, the first in what would become a flood of many more to follow.
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Ryan Rigney
