I got the Xbox for Christmas from my lovely wife Elizabeth in 2002. I had initially wanted a PS2. I heard a little about the Xbox and thought it was a little strange the Microsoft would bring out hardware! A friend of mine showed me his Xbox and I thought that it might be worth a try, but given the choice, I would still prefer a PS2.

Well, my Elizabeth went and got me one anyway! She bought me a Xbox for Christmas! I had my brother round for the holdiays that year and on Christmas day we played all day long on Halo. We loved it. We did the old routine we had always done since the days of the Nes, we took it in turns with lives!!

I remember thinking it was the most action packed and fun game with a good story since Metal Gear Solid on the PS1. It was awesome and I really got into the whole scifi story being the huge geek that I am!

I then went and got Splinter Cell and was blown away by the graphics. As the wasn't really that many games out for the Xbox at that time, I really had no choice but to play the games I had. I really got in Splinter Cell and started quite liking the Xbox.

Then Xbox Live came out. I didn't get it immediately, but a mate of mine did. I got it and then a week later and then my brother in law got Xbox live and we all had Rainbow Six. It was awesome. We had all played the single player and thought yeah, not bad game. But then we got online and started playing.

It literally, took over my evenings and weekends. We mainly played Garage, City Streets Large, Airports 1 & 2 and Carnival. We all got really quite good. Then Black Arrow came out and we lapped that up aswell. Overall, it has been a great series. I made lots of friends and played in tournaments etc. When I think of Xbox, I think very much of RainbowSix 3!

Obviously, I enjoyed Halo 2, if a little underwhelmed given the Hype, Fable, and Knights of the Old Republic which I absolutely loved.

Overall, the library on the Xbox was very small, but there were some really great experiences to be had. So much so, in my opinion that it stopped me buying a PS2 until very late on. Perhaps it made me miss out on even better games? Probably, but I still cannot feel nothing but fondness for my old Xbox!!