Nick, Julian, and Esteban explore the notable games and lasting impact of the Xbox.

The Homebrew Impact
 

While the Xbox never achieved a market position in its lifetime that even came close to approaching that of the PlayStation 2, many of its features absolutely drove the direction of the industry for the coming generation. I speak specifically about the onboard storage and Ethernet port, two features that have become staples of modern systems. It's almost incomprehensible to imagine a system today without the ability to store game saves, downloadable content (DLC), and other profile information right on the system itself. The Xbox was the first console to marry a couple of the popular PC standbys to the home console market.

At the time of its release, the Xbox opened a whole new world up for players. Users could load music onto their hard drive by ripping CDs, and in many games, play that music during gameplay. It was the first bridge that connected the operating system of the device to the games, showcasing a new dimension of functionality that was never before possible.

Of course, when used in conjunction with the Ethernet port, the Xbox acted as the first DLC-capable system, giving publishers the ability to expand console games like a PC. Both the hard drive and Ethernet port features were put into place as a means to accommodate Xbox Live, which as we all know now, is a wildly popular service that's nearly required to get the most from the Xbox's successor, the Xbox 360.

However, this fusion of PC-to-console also opened up a new world to the homebrew and mod communities. The Dreamcast had previously held the crown for king of homebrew, but the Xbox made it easier and better than ever with both its hard drive and Ethernet capabilities. It wasn't long after release of the system that the homebrew scene figured out how to use the game Splinter Cell to gain access to the boot loader, and partition the hard drive to include Linux. While the mod unfortunately aided the piracy scene, it did some great things for those who chose to mod their systems as well.

Xbox Media Center (XBMC) still stands as