Your Best Xbox Live Games - Games experiences?

[webdanzer]

As fast as these Live games flare up and burn out, I was curious to see which games left an impression with you guys. I'd like to see what games you recall having the most fun with online...for whatever reason. I'm not asking for the best games, necessarily, just your most enjoyable times online on Xbox live.

In rough order for me:

• Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
• MotoGP
• Colin McRae 05
• Star Wars Battlefront
• Inside Pitch
• NHL 2k5
• Pro Fishing Challenge

[sportdan30]

Lets see. There hasn't been many I've played online so this should be quick and painless.

Burnout 3
Toca 2
ESPN NHL 2K5
College Hoops 2K4
Halo 2

[Leebo33]

- Inside Pitch (first online baseball game and a lot of SR people were playing it)
- Links 2003
- Most online basketball games
- NHL 2K5
- MotoGP
- ESPN Football

[pk500]

Great thread, Web:

In alphabetical order:

Colin McRae Rally 2005
Ghost Recon
Ghost Recon Island Thunder
IndyCar Series 2005 (when it worked)
Midtown Madness 3
Moto GP
Moto GP 2
NASCAR 2005
NHL Rivals 2004
Project Gotham Racing 2
Rainbow Six 3
TOCA 2

Note any trend? Just about the only games I play online are shooters and racers. I prefer the community aspect of those games rather than one-on-one contests. Plus I'm better at them than team sports games.

Man, I would love to see a mini-revival of Midtown Madness 3 among DSP cats. I never have laughed so hard while playing any game -- sober or f*cked up -- on XBL. We're talking navel-rattling laughter.

Take care,
PK

[Zeppo]

Interesting topic! I hesitate to rank these, but here are some of my favorites:

ToCA: The league was a heck of a lot of fun while there was heavy participation, and I've had some great experiences in random games (played a lot of guys from Ireland and the UK for whatever reason), and Poker Night get-togethers.

NHL Rivals; true multiplayer sports gaming: The 3 on 3 pond hockey was incredibly fun, and two on two NHL-style hockey online remains my top sports-gaming XBL experience.

SC versus mode: SC:PT simply blew me away when it first arrived, and I haven't tired of the unique versus gameplay yet. I think the changes and adjustments made in the new version, as well as the excellent new maps, simply raise the bar.

Rainbow Six 3 Co-op; Mission mode and/or terrorist hunt in both RS-3 and BA is still a lot of fun for me, and when it was new to me the co-op experience really shone.

SW: Battlefront: When that game first arrived, many nights I would log on to see 10 or 12 DSPers on in that game. With Web's excellent connection, those few weeks of heavy play were top-notch. Nothing like having 16 DSPers in one game going at it.

GR:IT Poker Nights: Those regular get-togethers were consistently good times, even though I usually was terrible and didn't know my way around a lot of the maps. The combination of tension and action in the spawn-enabled siege games was the best, with the second and third attempts at the target often being from a previously un-tried direction, time ticking away, etc. etc. Great stuff!

[Jayhawker]

The three games that have made Xbox Live Worth it for me are:

Project Gotham Racing 2
Halo 2
ESPN Football 2K5

PGR2 just nails the experience down. Racing online is siulky smooth, while updating the leaderboards enhances the single player game immensely. It is cool to see how you match-up with everyone else on your friends list for each circuit.

Halo2 took a real chance by changing how you jumpo into games online, and hit homerun. Great modes, smooth gameplay, and perfect utilization of the headset.

ESPN Football was great, but they stopped a bit too short. The online league pages are great, but the lack of divisions and customized schedule is a real bummer. Overall the game plays great online, though.

[webdanzer]

NHL Rivals; true multiplayer sports gaming: The 3 on 3 pond hockey was incredibly fun, and two on two NHL-style hockey online remains my top sports-gaming XBL experience.

Doh! Add this one up around the middle for me, too. I forgot how much fun I had with Rivals for a while. Good call, Zeppo.

[mixdj1]

1) Splinter Cell vs mode
2) Halo 2
3) Ghost Recon Poker Nights
4) TOCA
5) Moto GP
6) PGR2 @ the Ring
7) Rainbow Six 3

And hopefully I'll be adding Forza to the list soon.

[Brando70]

ESPN NFL 2k5 -- the league thing was great, I had a blast playing even though we folded before the end.

GR and GR:IT -- I actually liked Island Thunder online better than GR2. The maps were huge and varied, and Ubisoft went nuts with the downloadable content.

Project Gotham 2 -- the perfect implementation of online play IMHO. Live aware, downloadable ghosts, and a smooth, fun racing experience. It's the only game I've ever really regretted selling.

Online tourneys in College Hoops 2k5 -- this game had a lot of online problems, but I had a lot of fun playing in a few tourneys. Bill Abner and I had a tremendously thrilling Indiana-Ohio St. game.

[XXXIV]

1)TOCA2.....Just pure fun....league was great...Poker nights I love when I can get there...The joy of PK telling you what a f*** up you are when you screw up a turn is priceless....
2)MGP2......My favorite XBOX game..I used to go online every night when game was new...I never really got good but It never stopped being fun.
3)ESPN NFL...league was cool...random games with DSPers even better
4)ESPN NHL...Still enjoying the league
5)R63....When it first came out it was nice dying before I could say whats up?

[Slumberland]

Midtown Madness 3 - I forget which mode it was that I liked in this, not the racing one, something to do with grabbing something and getting it to checkpoints. Loved it.

Ghost Recon: Island Thunder - No comment needed, really. Siege with re-spawns. Bring it back, Ubisoft bitches!

TOCA 2 - I no longer own this game, 'cause I lost interest when it stopped being random poker nights and there was just that ongoing league type thingy. Now you guys go and start doing poker nights again!

NHL Rivals - I can't believe this is the only game in the Xbox's life span to take that multiplayer approach on Live.

SW: Battlefront - I've only actually played this game for two days, once back in September on a rental and yesterday when I found it used. I have some problems with it, namely the lack of 'feedback' you seem to get when you're hit or when you die (it often just comes out of nowhere), but I'm a big SW nut, and all the bots and ships do a great job of making it look like there's more going on than there actually is. It's great when there are a lot of people fighting over a clogged hallway... a la the opening of Star Wars.

[Atxj]

For me it would have to be...

Rainbow Six 3
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
ESPN College Hoops 2k5
Halo 2
Ghost Recon/Ghost Recon 2

[athletics_fan]

My most fun experiences on XBL were:

1. Project Gotham Racing 2

2. Ghost Recon: Island Thunder

3. Rainbow Six 3

4. Halo 2

[Spooky]

Great thread!

In order of favorites:

1. The first Ghost Recon. WOW! I pulled all-nighters playing this when it first came out. Too fun! My girlfriend would even stay up and watch (and even play a bit).

2. Tie between Splinter Cell: PT and Rainbow Six. Gotta love the terrorist hunt 4 player co-op in RS. But that damn addicting, yet frustrating Spies vs. Mercs in SC is too great!

3. Halo 2. Just such a GREAT integration with LIVE.

4. Star Wars: Battlefront. Too bad this game didn’t come out earlier on in LIVE history. It would have had much more of a following/ impact.

5. Midtown Madness 3. Some classic sessions with that game.

6. TOCA. I tend to get frustrated with racers online, especially playing with some of the serious racers here. But most of my time with this was very fun.

7. Inside Pitch. I still think this game implemented the best pitcher/batter interface for online play. A true chess match and tons of fun!

[laurenskye]

Rivals was without a doubt the most fun.

[Slumberland]

Hey, remember when we all used to play Ghost Recon and Island Thunder on Xbox together? That was fun...

[Spooky]

Hey, remember when we all used to play Ghost Recon and Island Thunder on Xbox together? That was fun...

I agree.

[pk500]

Hey, remember when we all used to play Ghost Recon and Island Thunder on Xbox together? That was fun...

The first three years of Xbox Live, between its launch and the launch of the 360, were my fondest memories of console gaming. By far.

I had more fun with you cats than should be allowed by law.

"F*CK YOU, CARL!"

"PASS THE PUCK, JACK!"

"Let's pump a clip into Neckthai's dead carcass!"

"Stay tuned next week for the next episode of the smash TOCA series, 'Symmons Plains.'"

"ZEPPO, THE F*CKING KOREANS ARE COMING AT US IN WAVES ACROSS THE RIVER!"

[XXXIV]

I started a list but there are too many that are so close together that I didnt wanna leave any out.... so I narrowed it down to...

Just playing games on Live, wether it was one on one or in a bigger rooom, with a huge group of dumbass dorks

[RobVarak]

Whoa! Nice thread resurrection.

GR was great until they decided to turn it into a mech game or whatever the hell it is now.

Updated all-time list?

GR
Shadowrun
Abner's NFL 2k5 league
FIFA 09-11 OTP and Online Clubs
Zeppo's WE leagues
GoW
Red Faction was short but very, very awesome when we did get a game going.
Red Dead Redemption

[Teal]

My best Live experiences are long ago, in a DSP far, far away, and involve a trend I'm already seeing here:

-Ghost Recon (Spooky was the sneakiest bastard on the block in that one, sniping like crazy and never being seen...)
-Ghost Recon: Island Thunder
-Ghost Recon 2, if for no other reason than listening to PK scream like a drunken monkey in that survival mode in the trenches, with s*** flying everywhere
-Rainbow Six 3-again, cue PK doing 'laundry' again, blowing up a room full of his teammates while giggling like an idiot in the corner...
-Operation Flashpoint-yep, PK again, doing a swan dive from a helicopter, oh, and...F*CK YOU, CARL!
-Red Dead Redemption-whether blowing up horses with the explosive rifle, or blowing up teammates with the explosive rifle, or running over Alex with a horse multiple times, or getting our geriatric asses kicked in public MP matches, that game never disappoints.
-Gears of War-some genuine, gut-busting laughter came out of that series.

[Jimmydeicide]

NHL 2k3- Grogs league the first and most fun.
Operation Flashpoint- Just epic fun laughs.
Halo for a while.

All on Xbox wow.

I know its not xbox but our Race nights on any platform were and still are always at the top for online gaming especially when we were doing weekly Rfactor.

360 i guess im over it now only jumping online on certain occasions when im in the mood but nowadays it will be Fifa or NHL.

Rob i gotta play more online fifa with you boys make sure im not left out for 12 i'll have it day one this year so ill be signing up.

[pk500]

Operation Flashpoint- Just epic fun laughs.

Forgot about that one! GREAT online experience.

Remember when I jumped out of the chopper without a parachute? And remember the scenario my cousin ProvoANC created where we had to drop into the warlord's compound and kill the warlord while he was working under the hood of his Sedan de Ville? And I nearly gave Piggy a virtual BJ because he was the only guy who could fly a chopper, and he rescued my sorry ass countless times.

VERY good times.

[Jimmydeicide]

Yeh just sitting in that chopper bullshitting while pigpen was probly sweating his balls off trying to keep that thing in the air... must have been like a bunch of wild kids in the back of a family van on a vacation road trip for piggy.

[pk500]

Yeh just sitting in that chopper bullshitting while pigpen was probly sweating his balls off trying to keep that thing in the air... must have been like a bunch of wild kids in the back of a family van on a vacation road trip for piggy.

LOL! Great description.

There was more than one time when -- f*cked up out of my mind -- I panted, "THANK YOU, PIGGY, I F*CKING LOVE YOU AND WANT TO BEAR YOUR LOVE CHILD" after he landed a chopper, sometimes under fire.