Microsoft has shifted almost their entire design focus toward the Xbox and their efforts were clearly apparent with some of the best first-party titles of any console system in the history of consoles. If you ever needed a reason to buy an Xbox you'll have about a dozen of them before the year is over..

Here's a peek at a few of the exciting Xbox games we can look forward to this year and next.

Conker: Live & Reloaded
Gaming’s notoriously naughty squirrel—Conker—arrives on the Xbox with a bang in an all-new Xbox Live-enabled team-based shooter, Conker: Live and Reloaded.

The game features intense Deathmatch and Campaign story line modes via Xbox Live and System Link, and players can compete as one of six combat specialists across multi-mission campaigns covering Old War and Future War. The warfare promises to deliver the non-stop action, humor, and innuendos Conker is famous for.

Also included is the critically acclaimed single-player game, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, completely recreated for the Xbox with stunning graphics and unparalleled attitude.

Yes, we covered this title last year and no, the game is still not coming out this year. Look for it in March, 2005.

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Jade Empire

Step into a deep, rich story in the tradition of BioWare-developed Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™. Sinister events upset the peaceful harmony of an isolated martial arts school and draw you into a story that unfolds with drama, action, and adventure. Confront wild outlaws, evil magicians, demonic incarnations, and other foul villains that protect the Jade Empire’s darkest secrets. Stare in awe at the sweeping views of the lush environments, sheer vertical drops, and overpowering scale that provide the visual backdrop to the story.

Using the knowledge gained in crafting multiple story-based roleplaying games, BioWare sends the player on a journey to become a martial arts master. Choose a character with a unique appearance and quirks, a custom voice set, and a powerful combination of ability scores and fighting styles. Choose to act for good or evil, and rule with an iron fist or a velvet glove. Your decisions will affect your reputation—a reputation that precedes you throughout the land, changing the course of interaction with other characters and followers. Take the role of a master of martial arts, build and develop a fortress, regale the populace with tales of bravery and honor, and recruit followers to your cause in an interactive, living world.

Master fighting styles and mystical powers in a tale that matches the tempo and fury found in Hong Kong cinema favorites like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the Bruce Lee classics. As you journey through Jade Empire, you can upgrade your combat style or learn entirely new styles to tailor a character for his specific gameplay preferences. Select from more than 30 different fighting styles, each with its own unique moves, speed, power, and form, ranging from punches and kicks to weapon strikes, mystical powers, and even transformations into supernatural monsters!

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Halo 2

Halo 2 is the sequel to the highly successful and critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved. In Halo 2, the saga continues as Master Chief—a genetically enhanced super-soldier—is the only thing standing between the relentless Covenant and the destruction of all humankind.

I was one of the lucky few to slip into the press booth for some hands-on CTF action with Bungie and some other reporters. We played a specially prepared beach front map that featured the new Warthog and some hovercrafts and some of the best Live gameplay I have ever experienced on the Xbox. We already know the single player game is gonna rock but the multiplayer is really going to seal the deal when Halo 2 invades stores on November 9 - YES - that date is confirmed.

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Forza Motorsport

Are you passionate about cars and racing? Then, Forza Motorsport is your game. Own, customize, and race your favorite cars in the most technologically advanced and realistic driving sim yet. Collect models from more than 60 top car manufacturers, including Mazda, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, and Dodge. Trick out sport compacts with real-world body kits, rims, spoilers, decals, side skirts, fender flares, and hood scoops. Add motorsport decals and team paint-schemes to supercars, GT racers, and exotics. Transform production cars into racetrack monsters.

Take your car to the garage and install alternative engines, suspension kits, bolt-on superchargers, brakes, rims, racing slicks, and more. Fine-tune gear ratios, fuel-mapping, forced-induction pressure, tire temperature and pressure, and ignition timing for the ultimate setup. Use race earnings to buy upgrades and aftermarket parts, so you can transform real production cars into high-performance racers. On the track, experience an impressively accurate simulation, while putting your performance-tuned creations to the test against the online gaming world on Xbox Live.

Train your own A.I. “Drivatars” to use the same racing techniques you do, so they can race for you in competitions or train new drivers on your team. Drivatar technology is the foundation of the human-like A.I. in Forza Motorsport.

The graphics are astounding and cars and tracks are subject to permanent damage. While cars can be fixed, every paint scrape and skid mark you every put on a track will be kept there, permanently stored on your Xbox hard drive and overlayed onto the base tracks each time you play. Three years from now you can brag about that paint scrape on turn three.

There were dozens of racing games at E3 this year but only one of them earned our Best of Show award and Forza was it. This game literally runs laps around anything that is out or coming out this year with more innovative features than you would ever expect in a racing game.

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Fable

Fable is a ground-breaking role-playing adventure game from Peter Molyneux, in which your every action determines your skills, appearance, and reputation. Age and evolve a hero or villain through the actions you choose and the path you follow—be it for good, evil, or in-between. Ply the way of the sword, and see your muscles bulge. Weave the dark arts, and witness power crackle at your fingertips. Skulk in the shadows, and watch your skin bleach.

Create your life story from childhood to death. Grow from an inexperienced adolescent into the most powerful being in the world. Choose the path of righteousness or dedicate your life to evil. Through deeds and actions, build a name for yourself across the land. Recruit allies and followers. Gain glory or notoriety. Make friends and enemies. Interact with a living world of people, places, and event all reactive to you. Hero or butcher? Who will you be?

Muscles expand with each feat of strength; force of will increases with each work of wit. Obesity follows gluttony, skin tans with exposure to sunlight and bleaches bone-white by moonlight. Collect battle scars as you duel with a world of cunning foes and deadly creatures. Master an array of deadly weaponry as you hone the art of blade-craft. Hunt your quarry using subterfuge and stealth. Weave death from the elements, as you harness the dark arts of the arcane.

Once you finish your adventure, go back and try the experience again, forging your character and thereby a new tale with unexpected twists and turns, new skills, powers, influences, allies and enemies.

Easily, one of the most impressive Xbox titles on display and our undisputed winner for Best RPG of the show. This game will not only change the way you play RPG's, it might just change your life.

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