In the dog days of summer, along came Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and it blew most everyone who played it away. Much like a certain other exceptionally good Xbox game, Halo, Knights started development for the PC, but somewhere along the line developer BioWare, publisher LucasArts, and Xbox manufacturer Microsoft all agreed that it would be great if Knights debuted exclusively on the Xbox. In hindsight, it's hard to argue with their logic--the game made a huge splash. Though in some ways similar to previous BioWare role-playing games, Knights was like nothing that many console gamers had ever experienced before, what with its incredibly good combination of compelling, choose-your-own-adventure-style story-driven narrative and free-form, open-ended gameplay. On top of that, Knights does some of the most interesting things with the Star Wars universe that we've seen in a long time, and its setting--4,000 years prior to the movie prequels--gave the developers plenty of creative license to come up with some really interesting characters and situations.

Another reason Knights is the obvious choice for Best Xbox Game of 2003 is that it's just a huge game. Expect to play it for about 40 hours the first time through, but once you've made it all the way to the bitter end of this epic tale, you'll have seen scarcely half of what the game has to offer. We bet it's not uncommon for the average player to immediately start Knights of the Old Republic over from the beginning after finishing it once--the storyline and situations diverge so wildly depending on the decisions that you make along the way, that it's hard to resist playing through this game multiple times just to see it all.

The quality and care put into most every aspect of Knights of the Old Republic are plainly obvious. The game features countless hours of expertly recorded speech and includes a cast of characters that are arguably as interesting and memorable as some of the Star Wars favorites. Also, the game's highly refined combat system delivers some spectacular-looking battles that are also highly strategic and entertaining. Knights of the Old Republic even has some addictive minigames in it, for good measure. Perhaps the best thing that can be said for this game is that it captured the attention of those of us who wouldn't even count ourselves as fans of the Star Wars universe or of the role-playing genre--it's just that good, which is why Knights of the Old Republic deserves to be called the Best Xbox Game of 2003.