The Xbox 360 gave us one of the most wonderful racing games of all time, and it makes me sad to think about what we've lost

When I think about the Xbox 360 it's hard to not want to go back. I get this feeling whenever looking at old games, my memories of the experiences inseparable from my memories of life at the time. There's one game (series, really) that sticks in my mind more than any other, charting my path from a wannabe to an established member of the games press - that might sound like an odd moment in time to be fond of, but from an early age I desperately wanted to make a career out of games media, and the 360 era is when this solidified into reality.

The Xbox 360 was a beast, competing with the best PCs at its time of release, games were hitting their big-production peak without costing the earth and people's livelihoods, and we were still getting new entries in the greatest racing game series ever created: Project Gotham Racing. Boiled down to its most basic elements, PGR gave you cars (not all fast ones) and gorgeously recreated real city streets, and asked you to do laps as quickly and as flamboyantly as possible. What a joy.

PGR3 arrived alongside the console in 2005, delivering the kind of new-gen experience that we've rarely seen since. A simply breathtaking game that showcased just how much of a leap the Xbox 360 was over what had come before - the game the gif was born for, so much so that I occasionally still look at some, that feeling of seeing the future rushing back in a low-res couple of seconds. A true unsung launch game hero. And yet, it's not even the best PGR to release on the Xbox 360.

That honour goes to PGR4, a game so unbelievably good that I rarely want to write about it, the act of remembering making me tremendously sad for the games we've undoubtedly missed out on since the series was canned - the studio, Bizarre Creations, was bought by Activision, developed the underrated Blur (and that James Bond game), got closed down, and I felt like I lost part of my soul.

I've never played games as much as I played Bizarre Creations classics Formula 1 (PS1), Metropolis Street Racer (Dreamcast), and PGR2 through PGR4 (I didn't get on with the original Project Gotham Racing, sorry). Before I go on and on about PGR, I must give MSR a special shout out. Switching back to my earlier point of how these games came with me through my journey into games media, I won a copy of MSR by writing a review of another game for an online retailer. Thus my writing career started, albeit sporadically and mostly earning a £1 store credit for each submission.

PGR4, then. After becoming obsessed with PGR2 and making PGR3 my most played Xbox 360 launch title (by some margin), my interests and work came full circle as I sat down with Bizarre Creations at the 2007 Leipzig Games Convention to see and talk about PGR4. More than anything else I remember the devs (my coverage is now long lost to time, and I can't remember who I spoke to, sorry) being so incredibly passionate about what they were creating - so much so that even watching them explain what went into implementing the music transitions on the menu screens was exciting.

There's often an argument made that this series isn't really lost, that its DNA can be found in the Forza Horizon series, but I don't agree. I am a huge Forza Horizon fan, don't get me wrong, but PGR was different. It took one idea, city street racing, and perfected it. It wasn't a sim and it wasn't an arcade racer, it struck a perfect balance between the two with a handling model that no other series has managed to better. PGR4 didn't go for excess, it offered a pure experience built around your ability to drive fast and with style, and I absolutely bloody loved it.

I've said before how I have a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog on Mega Drive on my shelf that I see when I walk into my home office. Seeing it gives me pangs of ageing, a life that's running away from that care-free and optimistic childhood. On the same shelf I have copies of all the PGR games (the only physical Xbox 360 games I still own), and when I look at them I see where I was and where I've got to. I wouldn't trade my life now to go back, but I would take a slice of that gaming world that felt ever so slightly made just for me.

The Xbox 360 turns 20 years old on 22nd November, so we've put together a week of coverage that looks back on Microsoft's most successful games console.