As I mentioned in my Oblivion post, I got my Xbox 360 early in its lifecycle and absolutely loved the system. While I’ve had mixed feelings about Microsoft and Xbox for the past decade and a half, I will always have a soft spot for the Blades era of Xbox 360.
I have a pretty substantial 360 collection (4 consoles and hundreds of games), and decided to take it out of storage last weekend. I grabbed a stack of non-backwards compatible games that I hadn’t really played much (or at all) to dig into, and got the console set up in my office.
Booting up the 360 I realized I was only about 5000 achievement points of 100,000.
I know no one really cares about achievements anymore, but there was a time when I did, quite a bit actually.
Since 2006 my primary platform has moved from Xbox 360 to PlayStation 4 to Steam, so my rate of Xbox achievements has dwindled in recent years. But 2026 is the 20th anniversary of the 360 and it seems as good of time as any to break into a six-figure Gamerscore. (The three months of GamePass I received with my recent purchase of a ROG Ally (more on that in another post) will also help get me there).
Over the past few days I’ve dug into a handful of not-exactly-beloved 360 games, starting with a forgotten licensed third-person shooter.
Star Trek (Digital Extremes / 2013)
From darkSector developer Digital Extremes (ok they also made the Unreal games and Warframe) comes this very of-the-era Trek game.
Set between the first two films in the Kelvin timeline, this is essentially a Gears of War style co-op third-person shooter that looks like Mass Effect, with a bit of Metroid Prime scanning thrown in for good measure.
The production values are excellent, with well-rendered likenesses of the films’ cast (who mostly voice their characters as well). It’s a late-in-the-generation release, and honestly still looks pretty good imo.
It plays exactly how you’d expect a game from this era to play. There’s cover-based shooting, ledge-hanging traversal, and some clunky ship combat sections. It’s solid! I’ll probably play more.
Less solid is another licensed shooter from the era…
007 Legends (Eurocom / 2012)
On paper, Legends seems neat: a series of stages where you play through a condensed version of Bond films, one per era, but all starring digital Daniel Craig. It’s odd, and the sort of thing you can really only do with this franchise.
The gameplay is pure PS360-era Call of Duty: mostly reflex snap shooting galleries with occasional QTEs and frustrating “cinematic” sections.
The game definitely could have used a bit more time in the oven. I’ve encountered a bunch of minor glitches, combat encounter difficulty is very inconsistent, and some mechanics (gadgets, stealth) feel very undercooked.
But when the game delivers on its premise, it’s great as a modern-ish celebration of the franchise. I’m definitely going to play more, despite the game feeling like a waste of potential (I don’t blame the devs (R.I.P. Eurocom); I’m sure this was a case of Activision and the license holder rushing the game out the door before it was ready in order to meet the “50 Years of Bond” milestone).
Project Sylpheed (Game Arts, SETA Corporation / 2006)
And now for something completely different.
Tangentially related to Game Art’s Silpheed shmups, this is a console-style aerial combat game that feels like a cross between Ace Combat and Star Wars Rogue Squadron.
What I’ve played has been solid; we’ll see if it continues to hold my interest once it gets hard/unfair (as these kinds of games always seem to).
It’s been great returning to the 360. Despite missing some bells and whistles, the console still feels relatively modern and snappy (especially after having spent quite a bit of time revisiting the PS3 last year). It’s a console I will always have fond memories of, and one that I really don’t mind going back to on my path to 100k.
All screenshots captured by me via off-screen photos
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