An End of an Era  

  
On April 15 of this year the Xbox LIVE service, which has been a part of the classic Xbox console since 2002, will no longer operate on it’s founding console as Microsoft pushes its online service forward to greener pastures.  I cannot help but feel somewhat saddened that I will be unable to revisit some of the great gaming experiences that the original Xbox had to offer.  Now personally I rarely went back to the original scene, but I did like knowing that if I wanted to, that I could. 

Now that in a few short weeks I will no longer be able to go there, I have been taking the time today to gather some of the downloadable content from some of my favourite games.  Now it has been going fairly smoothly except for a couple of bumps in the road.  One has been the constant console updates, the other was the false impression that all the DLC was free.  Because of that assumption I am now the not-so-proud re-owner of DLC packs for PGR2 and Links 2004 to the tune of $30 real-life dollars (groan). 

Fortunately not all the downloadable content is pay, in fact most of it is free.  So Over the last few hours I have been grabbing content while I still can.  If you still have some Xbox games kicking around but have not visited them in a while, in particular back-compatible games on your 360, now would be a good time to get what you can while you can.  Here is a list of what I have been grabbing or I recommend you take the time to grab: 

Halo 2: I do have the Multiplayer Map Pack disk so that has not been a DLC priority.  But if you do not have the disk, grab those classic maps. 

Splinter Cell (Series): Co-op and multiplayer maps from Chaos Theory and Pandora Tomorrow plus the missions from the first Splinter Cell are available now.  Why still download?  You can still set up a system-link co-op game for instance, plus the Splinter Cell DLC missions are actually pretty good. 

Ghost Recon / Rainbow Six (Series):  Lots of DLC maps and co-op gameplay.  I loved these old-gen Clancy-games. Classics! 

Amped 2:  Still the best Snowboarding video game ever created has a mountain available as DLC. 
  
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: If you are enjoying your Mass Effect 2 right now, you may want to check this precursor to the Mass Effect series in its entirety.    

Phantom Dust: Yes, Phantom Dust 

There is plenty more games out there that you can keep alive with split-screen and system link, but be careful of packs that still carry charges.  For me, the above are the essentials.  What games do you want to preserve DLC from the last gen?  I would like to here your input.  As the sun sets on Xbox LIVE for the vintage Xbox, lets not let it go quietly into the night.

Source: SUPERGHOST's Haunted House of Xbox    
Twitter: @superghost