OG Xbox Journey: OXM Disc 4

On 03/31/2021 at 07:43 PM by KnightDriver

This was the demo disc for the March 2002 issue of The Official Xbox Magazine. It has demos, trailers, a behind-the-scenes video, tv ads, and gameplay highlights. I find it a cool trip down memory lane to watch these things again. Here are some more details..

OXM4

Demos:

Arctic Thunder - This is a snowmobile racing game. You have loads of pickups and can fight the other racers along the way. It seemed pretty good. I don't think I ever played it back in '02.

Blood Wake: I did play this back then and both then and now I find it a bit frustrating because, well, boats and water. Boats are cool but waves make shooting at targets imprecise. The mission in the demo was an escort one. Not a good way to showcase a game in my opinion but it was somewhat fun fighting other boats. I lost the mission because I didn't get enough of them in time and lost too many of my ships. Typical.

Project Gotham Racing - This is a well-done racing game. It's all about precision racing, however; no crashes, no competing against other cars, just clean racing. When the first Burnout came out soon after, I had found my style of racing game.

Features:

Xbox Unleashed: Video of a Xbox event where gamers came to play and get free Xboxes. Also plugs galore for OXM.

Making of The Thing Trailer: Interesting but I didn't finish the game when I played it. There are interviews of the people behind the trailer who were part of a company separate from the developer.

Top Ten Plays of the Month: The Halo highlight showcased the overpowered pistol and the weak spot of the Hunters. It only got to #2. #1 and several others went to a racing game with destructible environments. I forget the title at the moment.

Halo Legendary Ending: It seems incredible to me anybody can beat Halo on legendary. Some levels dish out so much damage it's just difficult to survive. The special ending is Sgt. Johnson on the Halo ring fighting an Elite when the PIllar of Autumn explodes. They hug and the Elite grabs his butt. Funny, but was it all worth it for that? Plus, how does Sgt. Johnson then survive to be in Halo 2 and beyond. It seems impossible. Whatevs.

Extras:

Trailers for Hunter The Reckoning and Yager. I liked Hunter The Reckoning a lot and my friend and I played it co-op all the way through. It's a hack 'n' slash game. Yager is a flight combat game. I think I played it a bit one time. It was okay.

Microsoft TV Ads: Halo, Dead of Alive ("she kicks high" comment from two guys ogling the female fighters. I still make that comment as a joke out of context now and again but watching the two guys in the ad now gives me the creeps), Project Gotham Racing, Oddworld: Munch's Odyssey, Amped and NFL Fever.

Onto the next piece of software out that same month, Spy Hunter.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

03/31/2021 at 07:46 PM

I played a hell of a lot of Project Gotham Racing. I used to spend a lot of time making custom soundtracks on the Xbox for that and Tony Hawk.

KnightDriver

03/31/2021 at 07:53 PM

Kudos to you. I liked the faster, crashier action of the Burnout series.

I don't think I ever made a custom soundtrack. I think probably because I was always playing alongside my friend and our music tastes don't exactly coincide. I guess we could've used headsets but we were, and still are, used to commenting on each other's games while playing.

Cary Woodham

03/31/2021 at 10:47 PM

I liked the arcade version of Arctic Thunder because the machine would blow cold air on you as you raced. It was a nice way to beat the heat in a hot summer arcade!

I reviewed a Dead or Alive game once. You know, if you can get past all the fan service, it's a good fighting game. Now, the Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball games, now those were horrible. My favorite DOA characters are Tina, Helena, and Ayane.

My brother Jeff LOVED Spy Hunter when he was little. He'd play the old one on one of my arcade game collections for hours! That's a long time for a five year old! Later when the 3-D Spy Hunter games came out, we had to get those and he played them a lot, too. Definitely one of his favorite old school arcade games!

04/01/2021 at 09:11 PM

I forgot Arcade Thunder was in the arcades. I remember that one.

DOA was a good fighting game. I even played a little bit of DOA beach volleyball. You could play some good volleyball but it was pretty boring after that unless you like to collect outfits for the girls.

I was a huge fan of the original Spy Hunter arcade machine. I had one in my home town I used to play all the time. I haven't found a really satisfying console version of it yet. But, I've heard this first 3D Spy Hunter game isn't too bad.

04/02/2021 at 08:25 AM

I've played much better volleyball games than DOA Beach Volleyball. Like Beach Spikers for GameCube. It was made by SEGA, and you could dress up your characters to look like Ulala from Space Channel 5, so that was cool.

All the other stuff you did in the DOA Beach Volleyball game wasn't fun either. One time I bought a purple flower and wrapped it in purple wrapping paper and gave it to Ayane, who has purple hair. Well she didn't even accept the gift! That's so mean! I could give my Animal Crossing villagers garbage and they'd gladly accept it. Ayane was just being a butt!

Yeah nothing beats Spy Hunter in the arcade. My local Pizza Inn had it for the longest time, and when we went there (at least once per week), it was THE game to play. It was so popular that they added Spy Hunter 2 later on, which was one of the only times I ever saw it. The arcade sequel isn't that good, though. But yeah, that local Pizza Inn had a knack for bringing in really obscure arcade games. It's one of the only places I ever saw Bomb Jack! Anyway, the 3-D Spy Hunter games are good, too. I remember them being kind of hard later on, though.

04/02/2021 at 07:24 PM

DOA Beach Volleyball clearly wasn't for the gameplay but for ogling the women. I believe they did a second one and one for the PSP. I'd like to try Beach Spikers sometime.

I had a Spy Hunter cabinet in a little deli or pizza shop, I forget which, on my bike route to my summer job. I'd always stop there on my way home and play it. It was like my driving practice just before I got my license. I think that might explain my somewhat reckless driving after that. Never had an accident though. I'm thankful for that.

I never saw the Spy Hunter II cabinet but I played it on a collection later. Yeah, I didn't like it as much as the first one.

PixlBit