As we are now drawing to a close of the 6th generation of gaming consoles, the Xbox has been replaced; the Gamecube and PS2 shortly will be replaced by their predecessors, but what a generation it has been.
We have seen only one 10/10 (though sceptical I may add) in this generation and 100's if not thousands of games ranging from 8.0 upwards.
This generation has been one to remember with the inclusion of Microsoft into the console war, and the Xbox making an impressive impact on the sales distinguishing itself as a worthy contender against both Sony's and Nintendo’s systems, producing franchises such as the legendary Halo series, Project Gotham Racing series, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell series and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic series, plus many more.
The Gamecube also has some worthy titles from its legendary Zelda The Wind Waker to revival of the Metroid Prime series to classic Mario Sunshine they were all there. Though this generation whatever Microsoft of Nintendo done nothing could stop Sony, with games such as Metal Gear Solid 3, FF X, GT 4 and many more the PS2 was a sure winner in this generation with over 70 million units sold than its competitors.
Though Im not here to talk about who won and who lost the 6th generation of consoles but I am here to talk about the games that defined the 6th Generation of console, below me are 3 games from each of the three consoles which I believe helped define the way in which games today are made and helped show of and define the 6th generation of consoles.
Xbox
Halo Combat Evolved
Upon the launch of the Xbox the PS2 had already been out well over a year, and was already selling millions worldwide. Nintendo was soon about to be launching there console the 
Gamecube just around the corner, and in this industry Microsoft were newsiest so they needed a game that could impact upon the industry and say to the world of gamers, look this is what we are offering you now come and get our console over Sony’s and Ninendos which were both proven developers in the gaming market, Halo Combat Evolved did this.
With wonderful sci-fi inspired graphics, amazing storyline, memorable characters, fluid gameplay and its sublime soundtrack Halo set its place in gaming history as one of the greatest First Person shooters of all time, not just of this generation. And still today after almost 6 years after its release it is held as the best first person shooter since the likes of the amazing Goldeneye and Perfect Dark Zero.
Ninja Gaiden
Almost a two years on after Microsoft had launched there console world wide they were soon to discover that the Japanese market went taking to there console very well, with the Gamecube and the PS2 both selling millions in there offering Japanese gamers exactly what they wanted Microsoft needed to do something if they wanted any chance of survival in the Asian Market, Ninja Gaiden was the answer.
When Ninja Gaiden launched back in 2004 it got cult status instantly with both the Japanese and basically everyone that owned an Xbox console and was old enough to play it. It had amazing graphics, fluid stylised gameplay heavily inspired from the Dead Or Alive series and was incredibly fun to play, it had its downfalls or downfall and that was you needed to be a gaming master to actually play and get through the games gruelling difficulty, though a year after its release Team Ninja answered all our prayers with the re release of Ninja Gaiden as Ninja Gaiden Black with the added easy mode just encase you need it.
Halo 2
Halo 2 is easily and still is today the worlds most highly anticipated game to ever be seen on this earth, but was all the hype necessary did it capitalise on all this, the answer is certainly yes.
Back when Halo 2 launched worldwide back at the end of 2004 there was mixed reactions from the Halo fans, the reactions on the whole were mainly possitive but the game had its problems, these came in the form of a too familiar Campaign to the first game, the story didn’t really evolve much and that it was said to be abit on the short side.
But these minor problems did not effect the commercial success of the game nor the fans response from the games release, it got extremely high reviews commercially across the globe, achieved numerous amounts of awards plus the fans loved it. Bungie came back in style to give us fans more of what we wanted from the series plus much more, all the noticeable improvements were there graphics, sound and audio but this time around there was multiplayer via Xbox Live, this is what distinguished this game from the rest and is still easily one of the best multiplayer shooters out there.
Halo 2 went to sell over 7 million copies and raked in up to 125 million dollars in the first day of release, making it one of the fastest selling games of all time.
PS2
Final Fantasy X
The anticipation of a Final fantasy title is immense and was no different with Final Fantasy 10, you half of the time have to stop to think before you read or play about the Final Fantasy games why there is so many of them, the simple answer is because they are all so good.
Back when Final Fantasy X was released the expectation for this title was immense, the last game in the series Final Fantasy 
9 though was still a great game in its own right compared to that of the Great FF 7 and 8 it isnt the game that all Final Fantasy fans are still going on about now about how great that game was, so Final Fantasy 10 needed to bring the game back to its unbelievably high standards, and that it did.
Yet again Square delivered by giving us a great cast of characters, amazing Cinematic’s, a great score and overall hours upon hours of fun ploughing through the games amazing storyline battling monsters, levelling up doing side quests, and anything you can imagine you can do it here, it is known as one of the best in the series and that it most defiantly is.
Metal Gear Solid 3
The Metal Gear Solid series Like the Final Fantasy series is one of Sony’s most loyal and trusted franchises, thanks to the success of the amazing MGS 2, MGS 3 has to deliver, a prequel it is but this is no game in the past what it was simply amazing.
In Metal Gear Solid 3 you took the role of Big Boss the person that Solid Snake was cloned from, it delivers and interesting insight into his time spent in the jungle telling and amazing story of love, hatred and betrayal with movie like qualities. Though the game did have its problems, like the metal Gear games before it had problems with its camera, as it is shown from a top down perspective instead of a standard 3rd person view to give you more awareness of your battlefield, the newly released subsistence gets rid of these problems however with the new 3rd person over the shoulder view included in the package
Kojima yet again pulls off an amazing experience that should not be missed.
Grand Theft Auto 3
The Grand Theft Auto series at this point wasn’t really a distinguished franchise, it had its moments on the PSone but felt dated and clunky even for then, Rockstar games for the PS2 completely reinvented its 3D action game from a top down perspective to a now 3rd person perspective giving you more control over the action, with this completely re defining the laws of the game smashing records and bringing a series to life GTA 3 is the start of something special.
GTA 3 is heavily inspired by movies such as the Godfather and Goodfellars having a very heavily influenced plot by the Italian Mafia, you play as an unnamed protagonist that has his voice box shot out by his girlfriend at the start of the game so is also a non talking nameless protagonist. GTA 3 set the standards for the games to come, giving you an completely open ended way of going about things in the city, whether you wanted to get on with the story you could do that, whether you wanted to go abnd kill some innocent civilians you could do that also, it gave you an infinite amount of freedom which was loved by both the media and the public and spawned of a long standing success for the games to come.
Gamecube
The Legend Of Zelda The Windwaker
Before the Wind Waker was released fans were upset, angry and felt cheated by Nintendo, due to the massive switch in graphical style from the tradional more gritty realistic style of graphics, to a more Japanese animie style cell shaded graphics emerged fans were upset and were sceptical about whether the game was going to succeed or not, come on now this is Zelda we are talking about.
When this game launched there was nothing else other than success that was written in stone that this game was going to achieve, the Zelda games are well known and loved for having
memorable characters, plots and great fluid action, this game was no exception and gave fans of the series something to be happy about after the relief of finding out that the graphical style does work, the game looks absolutely stunning and the art style that the game had was one of the best I have ever seen in a game to date, yet again the calibre and high standards of Zelda games continues to rise, game after game.
This got the series back on track and back to its high standards after the less than ground braking Majorras Mask launched after the amazing Ocarina Of Time.
Super Smash Brothers Melee
Super Smash brothers was an instant classic on the N64 it offered immensely fun single player brawls along with endless amounts of hours playing with your mates in multiplayer. Melee offered more of the same, with updated graphics, new game play styles levels and everything all fans wanted and longed for the sequel.
It is an essential title for all most any Gamecube owner thanks to its solid gameplay, stylish looks and its desirable charm that just oozes from it, an absolute gem of a game.
Resident Evil 4
If you was to mention that the Resident evil series was going to make its way onto a Nintendo platform 1 generation ago in a message board you would had gotten a whole array of replies ranging from NooB to more aggressive forms of reply that i cant mention here in case I get a banning anyhow, the talk of it was highly unlikely, but after the release of the Gamecube this was all changed after the re release of both Resi 1,2 and 3 with updated graphics the next game in the series couldn’t be too far away and that it wasn’t.
The thing about resident evil 4 is that it completely re invented the style of play that we came to expect from the Resident evil series, it offered a more up to date over the shoulder view camera rather than the fixed camera that had plagued the game for so long, the game was more of a shoot em’up that in previous instalments, but that doesn’t mean that the game wasn’t as good as it was before, that is simply not the case, as resident evil 4 is easily the best game in the long running series.
The Top 3 of them all
- Halo Combat Evolved | GS Score: 9.7
- Resident Evil 4 | GS Score: 9.6
- Grand Theft Auto 3 | Gs Score: 9.6
So that’s my choice for the top 3 games of each of the three consoles out there which I think helped distinguish this generation as one to be remembered, the Xbox 360 is already out and is selling ton loads, and has already got an impressive catalogue of games, the Nintendo Wii and the PS3 are just round the corner as well, so the seventh generation at the end of this month would have well and truly started for all of the three consoles and next gen becomes this generation.
Please comment on this and put your games that you believe helped distinguish the sixth generation of gaming consoles.