Every console needs some kind of killer application to get it off the ground, and many of the best games of the season will arrive on the 360. But not all of them deserve to be deemed true next-generation games.

If you're going to spend a lot of money on a new console, you expect something tangible when you buy it, not just a promise of better games to come. But even with only a promise, Microsoft will sell but every machine it makes this fall. Still, it needs riveting games like "Halo,'' which will be noticeably absent this time, to sustain sales.

Going into its preview event in Amsterdam last week, Microsoft promoted "Perfect Dark Zero'' as its next "Halo.'' In my view, Microsoft's "Gears of War,'' an action-horror sci-fi game from Epic Games, looked better than "Zero,'' but it won't be appearing until 2006.