Since we're getting so close to the launch of the first of the next-generation consoles, the Xbox 360, we've decided to take a look back at some of the games that have helped to make the Xbox a worldwide phenomenon. Our editors have sifted through all of the titles that have landed on the system, then argued and brawled with each other until we came up with the 25 games that best embody the spirit of the system. Don't agree with our rankings? See something we missed? Just want to compliment us on our hard work and dedication to our readers? Drop us a line and let us know what you think! 
FableRounding out the bottom of our list -- and squeaking in because there's frankly a dearth of good Xbox RPGs -- comes this nutty little number from game designer Peter Molyneux. Forget everything you heard about the game before it was released: this is one title that definitely didn't live up to the hype. It was not the dynamic living world that early previews promised. But at the same time, as a straight-up RPG, it was pretty entertaining. You could definitely play out the role of a hero or mess with people's heads by performing the blackest, darkest deeds you could think of. And your choices reflected themselves in your character, who could look pretty scarred and twisted if you played it right. Er, I mean wrong. Either way.
What really brought
Fable together is a nice elegant system of combat and missions. The fighting felt
good, and the magic system allowed you to create some pretty vicious combos. You could run around like the Emperor from Star Wars electrocuting all in your path, or you could be a heavy with huge armor and a massive sword, or you could do both at once. Although you could finish
Fable off in a few days of dedicated play, the different strategies and range of good and evil give this title a good deal of replayability.
Fargo (Executive Editor): Fable is really a victim of its own hype. Maybe it was just a way too ambitious project to begin with -- I wished that the team had not spent so much time messing around (and discarding) all those grandiose ideas and had just focused on cranking out more basic content. Still, it was a blast zipping around with my bald (but artfully mustached) ranger, firing off my bow and then knocking people back with devastating magical barrages.
RPG fans might also want to check out
Morrowind. The controls are frustrating and the pace is slow (it didn't make our list for a reason), but from a standpoint of "stuff to do" it offers a lot. All told, we wish there were more great RPGs on the Xbox.
Delsyn (PC Editor): Under-promise, over-deliver; it's basic Dale Carnegie. This is one time, though, when you have to blame the hype directly on the developer, not the publisher or those e-e-e-evil marketers. I'm a big fan of Peter Molyneux. He's an incredibly talented game designer and he thinks bigger than almost anybody else in the business. While that's an incredible gift, it's also his biggest weakness.
Fable is a prime example of that. Molyneux promised fans the moon and the stars the way he always does, and what we got was a fun RPG that just didn't live up to the expectations set by Molyneux himself.
It's a damn shame, too, because
Fable is a remarkably fun game. Is it one of the best RPGs of all time? No, but it's certainly one of the best available for the Xbox, and I can tell you I had a great time building up my plate-wearing tank guy. I usually like playing spell-casters, but when I noticed that my character was getting scarred up from all the close combat, my goal suddenly became to turn my warrior into a walking mass of twisted scar tissue -- with a bad haircut, three wives, and one husband.
Fable let me do things like that. Now if we could just complete the greatest quest of all -- getting Peter Molyneux to stop talking.
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