How To Download Xbox 360 Games For Free

The Xbox 360 is a console that divers an unabridged generation of gamers and inspired some of the best Xbox Ane games. The console is approaching its 20 th anniversary, and there are still plenty of titles worth playing.

GTA , Far Weep , Borderlands , Halo , Mass Consequence , and BioShock are only a few of the franchises that made the Xbox 360 then memorable. We take created a definitive list of the best Xbox 360 games so y'all tin can revisit some favorites, add together some classics to your collection, or go an idea of where to start if you're new to that platform.

Mass Effect 2

Mass Upshot 2 stands equally the pinnacle of BioWare and EA's ambitious infinite odyssey role-playing franchise. In the serial's "dark middle chapter," Commander Shepard explores exotic planets, recruits daring crew members, and records more Citadel advertisements. The story starts with a blindside, as the protagonist Shepard is brutally killed, only to be rebuilt by Cerberus — a sort of paramilitary organisation with a potent political agenda.

The "Paragon/Renegade" organisation from the first game returns, and you find yourself making dozens upon dozens of decisions that can influence the rest of the plot. The gameplay has been cleaned upwardly, and it feels much smoother and quicker than the original. Coiffure assignments feel more of import than ever every bit you face bigger and more varied foes while exploring numerous alien environments. Plus, with Mass Result: Andromedain the wild, information technology'due south equally proficient a fourth dimension as any to revisit the residue of the serial.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Before its release in 2011, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim became i of the most hyped games of all time. Somehow, like the LeBron James of video games, it lived upwardly to the hype. One of the virtually memorable fantasy open-world games ever created, Skyrim is filled with gorgeous scenery, from rushing rivers and lush pino forests to sky-scraping mountains and rolling meadows. You can explore your own way, or follow the path of the Dragonborn as you lot learn to speak the linguistic communication of dragons, which have returned after lying dormant for thousands of years. And don't forget to use some of the all-time Skyrim mods to enhance your gameplay.

Read our full The Elderberry Scrolls V: Skyrim review

Portal ii

Praised by critics equally 1 of the best puzzle games of its time, the original Portal combined brain-teasing puzzle elements with night, incisive humor and an enjoyable story. Somehow, Portal 2 improved upon the original in every way possible. As in the first game, player-grapheme Chell completes a serial of devilish puzzles utilizing the iconic Handheld Portal Device, now with the goal of escaping a labyrinthian surreptitious facility, Aperture Science. Hilarious new characters with superb voice acting and several new tricks help guide y'all at a perfect pace: The game never feels overly difficult, and each success ferries you through to more challenging puzzle chambers. The sequel as well introduces a strong cooperative campaign that allows for 2 players to place four portals simultaneously, enabling developer Valve to explore some inspired puzzle blueprint.

Read our fullPortal 2 review

Ruddy Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption is as close to perfect equally it comes. The Wild Due west story places you in the shoes of John Marston, a former outlaw who is hellbent on finding his onetime cronies afterward a run-in with the FBI. The open-earth gameplay from the Grand Theft Auto programmer thrives on the rich story and a cast of memorable characters while offering a melange of remarkable activities built on the best western cliches around. The top-notch writing and voice acting inRuby Dead Redemption lend a sense of authenticity to Mr. Marston and his contemporaries, and even though the game doesn't concord up extremely well visually, it'south not hard to find yourself immersed completely in the wild, wild west.

Information technology's worth noting that the Game of the Year Edition is too a skilful buy since information technology includes the superb Undead Nightmare expansion DLC. And if y'all've packed away your Xbox 360 already, the game is fully backward compatible with the Xbox One — the perfect game to play to ready yourself for the prequel Red Dead Redemption 2, which released in 2018.

Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City may be the best superhero game always concocted. The enthralling story pulls yous in from the moment yous hear Mark Hamill as the Joker, only to follow it up with superb puzzles and fighting mechanics that take advantage of a slew of iconic weapons from Batman'southward arsenal. The follow-up to 2009's Arkham Asylum finds the Dark Knight trapped in a section of Gotham City that's been condemned, abandoned, and populated past prison inmates, including several iconic Batman villains, each with their own plans for the Bat to thwart. Arkham City follows the aforementioned "one-night game" blueprint, as Batman has been poisoned by the Joker and must observe a style to cure himself before the end of the night.Arkham City is also host to the game'due south fell, philharmonic-based combat system and Batman's several gadgets (which assistance make traversing the dangerous city a fiddling less stressful) just further its lasting appeal.

Read our total Batman: Arkham City review

Grand Theft Auto Five

Yous know what to expect with Grand Theft Machine: Drug dealers, cars, and a colorful cast of characters. The serial'southward seventh total-length installment is no unlike, showcasing a fantastic script that's centered around 3 complex characters in the stunning city of Los Santos. You lot can choose to lead the three protagonists through gripping story missions, explore a jam-packed world filled with a welcome sense of joyous nihilism, or even carry out elaborate heists with a niggling help from your friends in the game's wild multiplayer way.

A return to San Andreas County meant a render to the series' trademark absurdity. Where Grand Theft Auto Iv'due south Liberty Urban center (and its storyline) felt gritty and slow-paced,GTA V puts its foot on the gas and never lets upwards. From harrowing car chases with Franklin to rampaging massacres as Trevor, the game provides numerous set up-piece moments for its three playable characters to become along with its crass humor and massive open world. Its multiplayer mode Grand Theft Motorcar Online has likewise shown a surprising amount of resilience, still absurdly pop more than 5 years after its initial release — especially when you add in the best Grand Theft Automobile 5 mods.

Read our full Chiliad Theft Auto Five review

Telephone call of Duty iv: Modern Warfare

Over the years, Call of Duty games take earned a sort of stigma: Annual releases with increasingly similar campaigns and multiplayer take soured many players on the brand. Every bit the game that kicked off the tendency, however, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, shows why so many fans have returned to series over and over, fifty-fifty as the formula grows stale. From its riveting opening sequence to its epic conclusion, this masterpiece hits all the right notes and introduces characters that personify Call of Duty.

Modern Warfare's 3-act entrada is packed with memorable moments: Hunt downwardly terrorist leaders in the Center East, command the skies from an AC-130 gunship, and work to foreclose a global holocaust — these might seem like cliches now, but they weren't before the release ofModern Warfare. The game too popularized a customizable class-based multiplayer system that has gone on to become a de facto standard for the genre. If y'all don't want to spring for Telephone call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered on Xbox One, the original 2007 game is backward compatible, as well.

BioShock

From the moment you brainstorm playing this Organisation Shock-inspired kickoff-person shooter,Bioshock feels like a mystery wrapped in intrigue that you won't want to stop playing for a single minute. The game's brilliant sound design and (at the time) incredible graphics assistance build ane of the most unique gaming environments out there. The underwater city of Rapture'due south eerie, '50s-inspired fine art style and the sound recorders scattered throughout the metropolis create a real sense of history in the ruins of a utopian social club that somehow took a terrible turn for the worse.

Dark Souls

If you are the type who enjoys a leisurely gaming experience, skip Dark Souls. The game is one of the virtually ruthless titles of all time. The genre-defining activeness-RPG revels in killing you — over, and over, and over again — until you acquire from your mistakes. Afterward, it kills you once more for skilful measure. Full of epic, frustration-filled boss battles and find-your-ain-way exploration aided only by short messages left past other players,Souls is as punishing to all who dare to play it. The massive campaign is likely to bring players more than pain than pleasure, merely the thrill of defeating an enemy you once saw every bit invincible is tough to trounce. Be careful, though, every bit yous might spend three weeks in your basement trying to beatDark Souls and even so come up out praising the dominicus.

Read our fullDark Souls review

Fallout 3

Fallout iii could have been a disaster. Picking upwardly the scraps left over from developers Interplay and Blackness Isle Studios, Bethesda blended the apocalyptic globe-edifice of the first 2 games with its own existent-time, get-go-person gameplay to create a game like, in many ways, to the company's Elderberry Scrolls serial. The upshot was a massive success, and the innovative "VATS" combat system helped to add a layer of strategy never before seen in first-person shooters.

In the years following its release, the spinoff Fallout: New Vegas received similar acclaim, every bit did the more than contempo Fallout four, but it is Bethesda's showtime entry that holds a special place in our hearts. War never changes, and thankfully, neither does Fallout 3.

Halo 3

Halo ii raised the bar for first-person shooters, but Halo 3 perfected information technology as one of the best Halo games of all time. With the improver of a four-player online co-op game, its multiplayer suite is nearly unmatched in terms of overall quality, from its revolutionary ranked versus social multiplayer organization to its armor customization choices. Moreover, the game still looks gorgeous in 1080p and features the introduction of Forge mode, which allows the histrion to customize the multiplayer maps to create unique game types. Blowing upwards aliens (and other players) is nevertheless rarely as fun.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Taking the reins of the long-dormant XCOM franchise and delivering a successful turn-based strategy game on a home console seems like a job that a developer wouldn't wish on their worst enemy, simply withXCOM: Enemy Unknown, Firaxis somehow made a modernistic classic out of a honey retro franchise most defending the Globe against conflicting invasion. The series' legendary difficulty was kept intact in the soft-reboot, making smart use of a constant, looming "countdown" clock to keep players from getting as well comfortable, even between missions. Setting your squad members upwardly for a perfectly executed attack is extremely rewarding, but there are few things more heartbreaking than having to watch your soldiers permanently fall — peculiarly if you named them after friends and family unit.

Read our totalXCOM: Enemy Unknown review

Dishonored

A perfect blend of over-the-summit action, an phenomenal setting, and stealth that rivals the mighty Metallic Gear Solid franchise, Dishonored is the ultimate "choose your own take a chance" book. With numerous ways to complete the game'south missions, supernatural assassinator Corvo Attano can sneak his fashion through buildings without existence seen, appoint every guard he sees in a swordfight, or even summon a swarm of rats to devour unsuspecting enemies earlier they accept a gamble to react. The game's splendid stealth-action gameplay loop is baked into one of the virtually creative settings we have seen in years — the steampunk-inspired city of Dunwall — which is filled with enough surprises to make a 2d or tertiary playthrough essential. The fun in Dishonored largely comes from player experimentation, with a multifariousness of special ability combinations and creative non-lethal solutions. You tin can play through the unabridged game without killing a unmarried person … if you're creative enough.

Read our total Dishonored review

Bayonetta

Platinum Games' Hideki Kamiya might not be in the Devil May Cry business concern anymore, but the serial' spiritual successor,Bayonetta,is a faster, crazier precision brawler. A witch and martial arts master, Bayonetta doesn't make the same corny jokes as Devil May Cry's Dante, only this game sharesDmC's penchant for the ridiculous. Bayonetta has guns strapped to her loftier heels, and a suit made out of her own hair that can exist used to take downward enormous bosses.

Limbo

One of the virtually acclaimed indie games e'er,Limbo puts yous in control of a immature male child in a bleak, blackness-and-white landscape. Throughout this relatively brusk 2D platformer, y'all'll solve puzzles to make your style through a deadly world total of spike pits, spinning gears, and behemothic spiders. The game's incredible audio direction lends to the eerie ambiance that pervadesLimbo, and the game proves to exist one of the best "option upwardly for five minutes" titles in being. Limbo is a perfect escape from the busy, loud, HUD-filled games nosotros are used to playing.

Chiliad Theft Auto Iv

1000 Theft Auto III first brought players to New York City proxy Liberty Metropolis in 2001, just information technology wasn't until the next generation and Grand Theft Motorcar IV that we were able to run into the metropolis in its true gritty glory. Protagonist Niko Bellic is a complex character, haunted by the memories he made in Eastern Europe while simultaneously trying to begin a new life in the United States. He'southward surrounded by the best supporting bandage the serial has ever seen, with standouts like Little Jacob and Brucie Kibbutz serving as foils for Bellic's measured personality. Cousin Roman and his many quotes have become running jokes since the game's release nearly a decade ago.

What makes K Theft Automobile IVa classic isn't its cast of characters or fifty-fifty the unprecedented level of freedom information technology gave to players, just its dark and pessimistic view of the fabled "American Dream." You can do anything yous desire as yous roam Liberty Urban center, but you — and Bellic — have to exist prepared to face the consequences.

Far Cry 3

Mixing exploration in a gorgeous tropical isle with tight gainsay, emergent stealth moments, and some of the all-time "popcorn" scenes nosotros accept seen in a game to date, Far Cry 3 is a rollercoaster ride from the beginning of its fish-out-of-water story until the credits roll. The game reinvigorated the serial, spawning iii more than games: Far Cry 4,Far Cry Primal, and the upcoming sequel Far Cry 5. There is something undeniably special about Far Cry 3, though, and its dark, dangerous, and incredibly fun world. Just hearing the "definition of insanity" monologue is plenty to have united states of america itching for some wind-surfing and big game hunting, following by a good for you dose of explosions.

Read our full Far Cry 3 review

Borderlands ii

The firstBorderlands introduced us to the globe of Pandora, a bandit-infested wasteland of a planet filled with secret vaults, guns, more than guns, and even more guns. The sequel took everything that madeBorderlands a boom hit and improved on it twofold.Borderlands 2 is bigger, badder, funnier, and more colorful, making it one of the premier cooperative gaming experiences out there.Borderlands ii introduces new, more various guns, more legendary loot, and a new raid boss for the brave. The environments are varied and (thankfully) much more colorful than the original, and the Game of the Yr Edition — which includes all the downloadable content, the best of which isTiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Go on— is worth a look for but a few bucks more than.

Halo: Reach

Following the release of Halo 3 and its spinoff Halo 3: ODST, information technology appeared that Bungie'due south first-person shooting franchise had come to a close. Just the studio withal had one more than story to tell, and Halo: Reach represents the culmination of all the passion and feel its developers had gained since beginning piece of work on Halo a decade earlier. Ditching the Master Chief in favor of a group of Spartans tasked with defending the planet Reach against an immense alien strength, the story is a tragedy where we already knew the ending, merely it was the emotional and harrowing journey along the way that made the story then special.

Halo: Reach also happened to have ane of the best multiplayer modes in the entire series, with new character abilities and weapons that offer a twist on the established formula. The Forge World region as well allowed players to make their ain fun, and information technology packed in the archetype map "Blood Gulch" for some nostalgic fun.

Rock Band three

Guitar Hero serial may have ignited gamers' passion in the rhythm and music genres, but Harmonix'due south Rock Band turned it into a worldwide phenomenon. With the excellent guitar controls of its former serial as the base, Harmonix added drums and vocals to create the ultimate party game, loaded with songs from a variety of musical styles to keep nigh everyone entertained.

Follow-upwards games added boosted features, including a keyboard peripheral, but it was the original game that stands out in our memories the most. Rocking on the guitar while your friends butcher drums and vocals on Nirvana'south In Bloom never gets erstwhile, and the game's swell unmarried-histrion way made information technology almost as much fun to play alone in your room every bit it was in a grouping.

BioShock Infinite

BioShock Infinite chose to (virtually) completely abandon its famous setting, Rapture, which made the previous two games in the serial famous. In identify of a story warning of the dangers of Randian Objectivism was a tale of nationalism gone wrong, with a floating city on the brink of destruction at the hands of a crazed prophet. Your part in the story as indebted gambler Booker DeWitt isn't made immediately clear, but over the 10 or so hours it takes to reach the ending, revelations not only change your perception of past events, but the universe itself.

Information technology's just icing on the block that BioShock Infinite is also a tremendously artistic kickoff-person shooter, blending pseudo-scientific powers with traditional gunplay and the new "Skyhook" device, which allows Booker to quickly escape danger or fifty-fifty deadfall enemies. By the time you accomplish the game'south fantastic conclusion, your heart will be pounding and you'll want to experience the entire story again.

Read our full BioShock Infinite review

Gears of War three

Gears of War three is the apex of Epic Games' thrilling trio of cover-based shooters. Prepare to brand sacrifices and uncover the past in the last chapter for Marcus Fenix and his crew. The harrowing campaign is both brutal and emotional, spanning a diversity of beautiful environments and providing tons of epic set-slice moments. The game also features a robust multiplayer suite, with fantastically designed maps to support the unique, cover-based gameplay. Its longevity lies in its vast number of achievements and the expanded difficulty settings — not to mention the waves of enemies to slaughter in the updated Horde manner.

Read our total Gears of War three review

Call of Duty two

In 2005, the Xbox 360's showtime-party launch lineup wasn't peculiarly impressive. Perfect Night Zippo and Kameo failed to make much of an touch on, butCall of Duty 2was admittedly a "must-buy." The World War II shooter's excellent single-player campaign put players in the shoes of Russian, American, and British soldiers in their boxing against the Germans, consummate with famous historical moments like the D-Day invasion.

Call of Duty two'due south multiplayer was where the game shined, nevertheless, with great gunplay and an emphasis on boring, methodical gainsay that nosotros no longer see in more contemporary shooters. With no killstreaks or customized gear to worry about, all that stood between y'all and your opponent was your skill on the controller.

Dead Rising

With the Resident Evil series losing some of its campy sense of humour in favor of all-out, action-packed horror, Capcom had a void that needed to exist filled, and Keiji Inafune's Dead Ascent was simply what the dr. ordered. Heavily inspired by George Romero's classic film Dawn of the Dead, the game places photojournalist Frank West in a shopping mall overrun with zombies — not mutated, zombie-like monsters, but honest-to-god zombies.

The master depict of Dead Ascension isn't simply the enemies you're fighting, however, but what you will be fighting them with. In addition to guns, baseball bats, and explosives, Frank can go after zombies with a chainsaw, cutting them into a fine bloody mist, and he has a expert time doing it. This is one game where the protagonist is non scared of what'southward in forepart of him, and his carefree mental attitude toward the apocalypse is 1 we merely recently saw a return in Dead Rising 4.

Assassin's Creed Alliance

Assassin's Creed II stock-still many of the original historical action-stealth game's flaws — its poor pacing, repetitive structures, and boring characters — but it was 2010'due south Assassinator's Creed Brotherhood that stands as the best Assassin's Creed game of the Xbox 360 generation. Further developing Ezio into a veteran assassin attempting to take down the corrupt Borgia family, the game'south story reaches a thrilling climax dissimilar annihilation else in the serial, and great characters similar Leonardo da Vinci provide enough of humor as the story moves forward.

Where Assassin'south Creed Brotherhood bankrupt new ground, however, is its Brotherhood system, which allows Ezio to call recruits for help during missions, or ship them out on their own adventures to gain loot and experience. Signaling for an assassin to drop from the sky and murder an unsuspecting target is e'er a thrill, and it's a feature that has been abased in more than recent games.

Read our full Assassin'south Creed Brotherhood review

Rayman Origins

Ubisoft'due south Rayman series had fallen into relative obscurity, with the spinoff Rabbids starring in several games while the limbless hero was left sitting on the sidelines. That inverse with Rayman Origins, an inventive 2nd platformer that built on the simplicity of the before games, just with a gorgeous cartoony visual fashion and some of the best level blueprint the genre has ever seen.

The game was fabricated even better past a whimsical soundtrack, hilarious enemy designs, cooperative play, and its accent on perfect execution and continued momentum is something we oasis't seen outside of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. A sequel, Rayman Legends, is also bachelor for Xbox Ane, calculation special musical stages on top of the established Origins formula.

Read our total Rayman Origins review

Saints Row: The Third

The Saints Row series leaned into its sillier elements with its second game, but it was Saints Row: The Third that sent the series off the deep end in a truly glorious way. With the 3rd Street Saints now living their lives as celebrities, their endorsements have caught the eye of a nefarious organization known equally the Syndicate, setting the stage for a war that will decide the fate of Steelport.

Saints Row: The Third is goofier than its predecessors, with ridiculous open-world commotion to rival the Grand Theft Automobile series and cooperative play to brand things fifty-fifty more than hectic. At that place is no other game on the market that allows you to pummel your enemies into submission using an adult toy — peradventure that is for the all-time.

Read our totalSaints Row: The Third review

Mark of the Ninja

Developer Klei has long been known for its gorgeous Saturday-morning-cartoon fine art style and eclectic mix of genres, and it was at the absolute elevation of its game with the 2nd stealth platformerMark of the Ninja. Blending the platforming of classics like Ninja Gaiden with the hardcore stealth of Splinter Cell, the game requires farthermost precision if you desire to complete it, with simply a tiny window of fourth dimension available before enemies spot you and blow you to smithereens.

While we haven't received a sequel to Klei's masterpiece withal, the game has inspired its share of imitators, including the three Assassin's Creed Chronicles games. Those lack Mark of the Ninja'due south gorgeous visuals, however, which is what ties the whole game together.

Braid

A surreal puzzle game with a twist, the object of Complect may exist to save a dryad in distress while navigating six story-volume worlds, but the clever puzzle pattern and mature story render information technology more enjoyable than your average Mario knockoff. The music and watercolor-like world you lot inhabit are bewitching, and the increasingly sophisticated use of time manipulation is vivid, to say the least.

Skate

At a fourth dimension when Activision's Tony Hawk series was at the summit of its popularity, Electronic Arts had the guts to claiming it with a skateboarding game of its ain. Skate ditched many of the arcade elements constitute in its competitors, instead focusing on a realistic and relentlessly challenging version of the sport, complete with great skating personalities like Rob Dyrdek.

As with whatsoever skateboarding game worth its common salt, Skate included a killer soundtrack of hardcore punk and hip-hop tracks, with artists like Bad Brains, Amanuensis Orange, Blackness Flag, Dead Prez, and Rick Ross clarion in your ears as y'all attempted a sick kickflip that ultimately ended in a faceplant on the pavement.

Battlefield 3

Electronic Arts and Dice went head-to-head with Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in 2011 with Battlefield 3, and the game managed to show a generation of first-person shooter fans what they had been missing. Blending environmental destruction with vehicular combat and enormous maps — even on the aging Xbox 360 —Battlefield iii delivered a multiplayer experience that was bigger, louder, and more engaging than anything in Modernistic Warfare 3, and its "just in Battleground" moments are nonetheless impressive six years later on.

But the Battlefield 3 campaign shouldn't be knocked, either. Taking a more realistic approach to modern combat and America's function in the Middle East, the short story mode is all the same a roller coaster ride, and it ends with a bittersweet moment we weren't expecting from a commonly bombastic franchise.

Read our full Battlefield three review

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

The Xbox 360 gave players the take a chance to experience graphics more than lifelike than anything they had seen before, and about of the system's launch games took advantage of this technology to its fullest extent. Then there was Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. Originally included as a bonus game in Projection Gotham Racing ii, the retro-inspired shoot-'em-upward game was simple, challenging, and addictive. It helped usher in a new wave of small-scale games on the Xbox Live Arcade platform when there was still a distinction between these titles and larger AAA games, and its popularity eventually led to two excellent sequels. Retro-style games are all the rage these days becauseGeometry Wars' beautiful polygonal explosions helped pave the way.

L.A. Noire

Fifty.A. Noire has developer Rockstar on the box, only the 3rd-person shooting and thievery fabricated famous in the Grand Theft Machine series play a very pocket-size part in this menses piece. Largely an investigation and dialogue-driven adventure game, 50.A. Noire's post-war America is dark, depressing, and morally ambiguous, with the constabulary forcefulness occasionally taking action that brings them downward to the level of the criminals they're trying to lock away.

Where Fifty.A. Noire shines is in its complicated rock-newspaper-scissors interviewing system, which makes use of performance-capture faces that allow the player to option up on visual cues to decide if a doubtable is lying or telling the truth. Correctly determining when someone is trying to mislead you and pointing to the evidence in your notebook is incredibly fulfilling, and calling them out on a lie just to walk dorsum your accusation and repent ii seconds later allows for some brilliant, unintended one-act.

Read our total L.A. Noire review hither

Splinter Cell Blacklist

The Splinter Cell series has undergone its share of makeovers since it began in 2002, gradually irresolute from no-frills espionage into the character-driven revenge tale nosotros saw in Splinter Prison cell Conviction. With Splinter Cell Blacklist, Ubisoft Toronto managed to create the best of both worlds, with a stealth-activity gameplay loop that allowed for players of all types to enjoy Sam Fisher'southward latest journey. From no-kill "ghost" runs to all-out assaults, there is no wrong way to play Blacklist, and its campaign is infinitely replayable as a result.

Blacklist as well saw the render of cooperative missions, likewise every bit the unique Spies versus Mercs competitive multiplayer mode, which is every bit addictive and chaotic as e'er. No piece of the game feels similar an afterthought — instead, they work harmoniously to create one of the most complete games we ever played, and one that is badly in demand of a sequel.

Read our total Splinter Cell Blacklist review

Assassin's Creed Ii

The Assassinator's Creed series has had so many ups and downs over the years. Thankfully, if you ever forget why you lot've been returning to the franchise all these years subsequently, Assassinator's Creed II will help you rekindle your dearest affair with the series. Enter the Animus to wing beyond rooftops and take down villainous Templars as Ezio Auditore, another ancestor of Desmond (one of the master characters from the first game).Assassin's Creed II is arguably the crown jewel of the franchise, with iconic cities painstakingly re-created and splendid subplots featuring Leonardo Da Vinci. Though later entries would certainly better on some of its systems, ACII remains the tightest entry in the series with the best balance betwixt crazy sci-fi and hush-hush history. After all, Ubisoft did decide to build an entire trilogy aroundEzio.

Dead Space

Capcom expanded on the action elements introduced in Resident Evil 4 in the game's sequel, resulting in a game that, while well-designed, lacked the horror that made its earlier games great. Visceral Games was there to fill that void, however, with Dead Space. The scientific discipline-fiction horror game had all the tension of Resident Evil, and its Necromorphs were far removed from the zombies we had seen populating and so many other games in the genre.

What made Dead Infinite stand out from the pack, however, was its violence. Gruesome and unrelenting, failure to consummate a section of the game — sometimes just by making a small mistake — would event in an animation showing protagonist Isaac killed in a gloriously over-the-top manner. It encouraged adept play, if only so you wouldn't take to picket your head get ripped from its body once again.

The Walking Dead: A Telltale Series

Telltale Games earned a reputation over the last generation for its excellent story-based gamble games, covering franchises like Borderlands and Batman with keen success, merely information technology was The Walking Dead that helped elevate the studio to superstardom. The grim, emotional tale of Lee Everett and the young girl Clementine helped to separate the game from the other action-packed zombie games on the market, and Telltale had the guts to impale one of its leads in the finale, even as the second season continued the storyline.

Ditching the gritty, realistic look becoming increasingly popular past 2012, The Walking Dead's comic-similar art fashion helped make it feel like one of author Robert Kirkman's books come up to life, and its simple gameplay mechanics hateful that it's playable by gamers of all skill levels.

Read our full The Walking Dead review

DmC: Devil May Cry

Creating an alternating, rebooted universe with a new version of Dante was a bold motility for Ninja Theory, just information technology paid off completely in DmC: Devil May Cry. The stylish action game features the same corybantic combat and grotesque enemy blueprint equally the original four titles, merely its grounded characters and macabre tone was more in line with contemporary blueprint trends than we had seen before. Dante is still a smartass, but his emotions no longer feel exaggerated, and the supporting bandage around him fits the story perfectly.

Though DmC drops the action to xxx frames per 2d instead of the usual 60, you tin inappreciably tell in the heat of gainsay. Almost of Dante's classic moves, including the "Stinger," brand their return, and his skills are put to the test in each of the game's glorious boss battles.

Read our full DmC: Devil May Cry review

Tomb Raider

Simulated is the sincerest form of flattery, and when 2013's Tomb Raider reboot was get-go announced, its similarities to the Uncharted series were apparent — ironically, Uncharted received much of the aforementioned comparing to earlier Tomb Raider games when it was introduced. Crystal Dynamics didn't just copy Nathan Drake's adventures, but instead, used them every bit the starting point for a harrowing, depressing, and exhilarating action-take a chance, filled with a degree of character development for protagonist Lara Croft that we but hadn't seen before.

With a large focus on stealth, puzzles, and environmental platforming, Tomb Raider isn't as adrenaline-fueled as Drake's excursions but it doesn't demand to be. Even its quietest moments are opportunities for you to take in its scenic world, and it'due south ane we weren't ready to get out by the time the credits rolled.

Read our total Tomb Raider review

Forza Horizon

The Forza Motorsport series has a dedicated agglomeration of fans eager to race on the latest and greatest tracks with new supercars, but the games don't have much appeal to non-gearheads. With Playground Games' Forza Horizon, that changed in a big style. Throwing you lot into the mountains of Colorado with dozens of races and challenges to complete, the game is a true open-world racer, allowing y'all make your own fun instead of forcing y'all downwards a narrow progression system.

The spectacle moments in Forza Horizon are amidst the best on the Xbox 360, at one signal tasking you with racing an airplane to the stop line, with its trail swooping and twirling in the sky above y'all as yous slam the pedal to the metal. Forza Horizon doesn't try to be "Forza, merely in an open up world," but instead exists as its own entity — it's both relaxing and exhilarating, and it's a perfect game for those new to racing simulators.

Read our full Forza Horizon review

Trials Evolution

This generation'due southTrials Fusion may have introduced freestyle tricks and additional challenges to the established motorcycle-platforming formula, but it was the Xbox 360's Trials Evolution that saw the series at its acme. With a lineup of courses that tested your endurance as well every bit your mastery of the game's sensitive controls, in that location is something here for just about any blazon of player, and the "Trials Bays: entrada fashion makes the game incredibly fun solo.

But it is when you throw some other player into the mix that Development begins to smooth. Racing confronting an opponent and taunting them as they fail at an objective that you managed to clear is ane of the best feelings in the earth, and managing to take first place in the legendary "Gigatrack" volition accolade you bragging rights for at to the lowest degree a few weeks.

Read our full Trials Evolution review

Alan Wake

Remedy Games developed a reputation for moody, atmospheric action games with an emphasis on sympathetic characters not found elsewhere in the genre, and its long-delayed Alan Wake is perhaps the best example of this. Starring a thriller author who discovers his own novel — one he can't recall — while searching for his missing wife, Wake must uncover the truth all while being hunted by mysterious spectral creatures. With the apply of traditional weapons as well equally a flashlight capable of destroying the creatures, the game's twist on third-person shooter hasn't been replicated since, and its horrifying setting remains one of Remedy's best creations.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

After decades of an ever-expanding Castlevania universe, Konami decided to reboot the series, and it tasked Spanish studio Mercury Steam with delivering a new take on the Belmonts and Dracula's eternal battle. The result was Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, a game that teased its more than sinister themes throughout an engaging action-gamble game that, while spooky and incredibly entertaining, felt like a Castlevania in name only.

That inverse, notwithstanding, when players saw the ending, which completely changed how the rest of the game was viewed. A final twist concerning Dracula and the game's main grapheme, Gabriel Belmont, was the perfect conclusion to Mercury Steam's masterpiece, and it'due south one that couldn't exist topped in either of the game'southward sequels.

Fable Ii

The original Xbox game Fable was hyped by Microsoft and developer Lionhead as one of the well-nigh aggressive office-playing games of all time, with an unprecedented level of world interaction and histrion option, only the game failed to live upwards to fans' expectations. This wasn't the case with Fable II, which expanded on gameplay systems as well as the fantasy world of Albion. With a significantly larger world to explore, deeper choices, and the aforementioned knack for the goofy, craven-filled amuse of the original game, it remains the series' loftier betoken.

Brothers: A Tale of 2 Sons

Developer Starbreeze is best known for its intense first-person shooters such equally The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, and then the emotional risk game Brothers: A Tale of 2 Sons came out of left field. Only that didn't hateful the unique tale was any less impressive — its miss of exploration, which has the player command both brothers simultaneously, with unproblematic and effective storytelling is something we rarely seen in video games, and its gorgeous art style underlined the game's pathos with its simplicity.

Read our total Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons review

DJ Hero ii

The music game craze has certainly died downwards in recent years, merely during the Xbox 360'due south heyday, information technology didn't go much amend than DJ Hero 2. The game congenital on what made its predecessor so great, including its unique turntable controller and room for role player creativity, and its setlist includes hits from artists like The Jackson five, Busta Rhymes, Damian Marley, Rihanna, The Crystal Method, and even Donna Summer. For those more interested in serving as MC for a DJ Hero 2 party, there's fifty-fifty an option to rap and sing along to the in-game tracks.

Read our total DJ Hero 2 review

Fight Night Champion

Electronic Arts introduced story modes into its Madden and FIFA series this generation, merely its Fight Night series was a pioneer a half-decade earlier with the massively underrated Fight Nighttime Champion. After former Olympic boxer, Andre Bishop is framed past police force for a law-breaking he didn't commit, he must piece of work through the boxing ranks to gain back command of his life, beginning with a blank-knuckle fight against neo-Nazis in prison.

The game'southward narrative fifty-fifty affects the gameplay in fundamental areas, with Bishop'south broken hand beingness unusable for the later rounds of a fight, for case, and the simplified punching controls make it easier to execute strategies than in previous games. No longer allowing players to rely on ane or two haymakers to win a round, you must make efficient use of your jabs and hooks if you want to knock your opponent to the map, but you tin but every bit easily get put on your back if you tire yourself out too early.

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

Before near-future scientific discipline-fiction became the gaming industry's latest trend, Ubisoft bankrupt new ground with Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. Taking place over but a few days, the game finds Captain Scott Mitchell and his team fighting off an enormous coup in United mexican states City. Outnumbered and racing against time to keep the entire land from falling apart, Mitchell must make use of team tactics and advanced armed forces weaponry to stay live.

Unlike the most recent Ghost Recon games, which have largely automatic your squad's tactics so you can focus on shooting, Avant-garde Warfighter makes you finish and recollect before every appointment. Failing to position your team correctly before a fight can lead to a quick death, but it just makes victories feel that much more than awe-inspiring.

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Developers had tried and failed for years to adapt the South Park animated series into something worth playing, with racing games, shooters, and even dance games among the botched attempts. Simply it was Obsidian that finally realized the hugger-mugger to a skillful South Park game is embracing the show's simple animation, and with S Park: The Stick of Truth, the studio perfectly captured the look of the show, complete with all the gross humor we have come to expect.

The Stick of Truth is more than just a faithful accommodation, however. It'southward a wonderful office-playing game, with old-schoolhouse turn-based combat and classes inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien, mixed with plenty of crazy elements you'll only find in a South Park game. In 2017, The Fractured but Whole premiered as a sequel and came with a free boosted copy of The Stick of Truth.

Read our total Due south Park: The Stick of Truth review

Viva Piñata

Every bit its name suggests, Rare Studio aims for unique game ideas, and the eccentric Viva Piñata is a piece of work of genius. Yous'll be tasked with raising a herd of live piñatas in this colorful and (almost) family-friendly life simulation game.

In addition to growing the colony, you'll be in charge of protecting it from predators. Somehow, Rare managed to create a precious stone that is engaging enough for adults to enjoy but elementary enough for children to play

You might want to continue the kids away though, due to the game's breeding mechanism. That's correct—expanding your piñata population requires convenance two existing creatures in a mildly pornographic sequence underscored with smooth jazz. It'due south weird, it's uncomfortable, and it's everything nosotros've come to know and beloved from Rare. That, plus the out-there grapheme designs and merry soundtrack make Viva Piñata one of Rare'due south strangest offerings still.

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