[Fury]

Leave xbox or console bashing or vs. PC discussion outside of this topic, please.

I've lately gained some interest in buying an Xbox 360, specifically the new black Elite version. I'd like to ask you what you think are the best games currently available or are coming to Xbox 360? I have my eyes set on Mass Effect already, which is my primary reason for thinking of buying Xbox 360, but just one game does not quite justify buying a console.

[Gloriano]

Depends what type games you like, gears of war is pretty good Crackdown is quite fun too then there is lost planet haven't played myself but did read it's quite good and battle station midway seems to be quite fun.

[jr2]

Burnout 3.. fun smashing cars off the road & speeding along at 140-200 MPH  EDIT: Oo, sorry, XBOX360.. Burnout 3 is XBOX, but I'm sure they have a version for 360, and if they don't, 360 is backwards compatible with XBOX if you have a hard disk with it.

[NGTM-1R]

Oblivion.

[Inquisitor]

Burnout 3 will run on the 360, Burnout 4 for the 360 actually fixes the problems they had with the regular Xbox and PS2 versions, so 4 (aka Revenge) is a better bet for 360 owners, its purdy.

Xbox 360 specific games:

Action/GTA style:
Crackdown: good, but a little short
The Outfit: completely worth 15-20 bucks, a little campy, ww2 action, good coop.

Lost Planet: I liked the demo, but the reviews fell short of the exp[ectations set by it, so I never played more than the demo

Lots of people liked THQ's SAint's Row, the demo was meh for me, but multiplayer was supported and supposedly quite good.

Shooters worth owning:
Gears of War - Between this and Fight Night (below) one of my all time favorites on the system so far.
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (#2 is supposed to be excellent, not tried it yet)
Rainbow Six Vegas (loved it, multi is great, single player is good, and its purdy, I think Gears is a better game, but, R6 is tasty)
Call of Duty 2 (and when you finish, trade it in and get CoD 3, 3 has much better multiplayer support).
Quake 4 is probably worth owning for 20 bucks if you can find a multiplayer game, great nostalgia, collectors edition comes with full version of Quake 2.

Wife/girlfriend friendly game:
Viva Pinata (drug trip gardening game with pinatas)
Hexic (puzzler, comes free on the HDD)

Racing games:
Need for Speed Most Wanted
Test Drive Unlimited (possibly my favorite it does of things right)
Burnout Revenge (aka Burnout 4)
Project Gotham Racing

I have heard good things about Moto GP, but earlier versions were too hard for me, so I wimped out.

RPG:
Phantasy Star Universe (has a decent singple player campaign, very jp, and its online is an MMO-lite)
Final Fantasy XI (if you like MMO)
Oblivion (if you haven't played it on the PC)

Fighting games:
Fight Night Round 3 - possibly the best fighting game i have ever played.
DoA 4- Meh, I traded it in, I was very dissapointed with it and I loved earlier installments, your mileage may vary.

And my brain has stopped funtioning, I am trying to picture my game shelf with the 260 games in it, and blanking out a coup0le of good ones, so I can post more when i get home. of the "must have" Xbox 1 games are on the BCL though, so the library is pretty decent and varied. Halo 1 and 2, Crimson Skies, Star Wars Battlefront (taken as a multiplayer game only), The KOTOR series. Xbox Live Market place also has some great gems, ranging from classic to new.

[NGTM-1R]

I forgot Gears of War. Something went wrong with the storyline (it feels like they chopped most of it out at the last minute), but the gameplay is superb, and it's well worth getting. The visuals aren't bad either, but this is one of those rare games that could stand purely on the merits of how fun it is to simply play.

[Inquisitor]

Gmes I missed:
Table Tennis: Yes, I really think this is fun, especially if you can find it for under 20 bucks.
MArvel Ultimate Alliance: absolutely a blast.

Mediocre games I still own and am not sure why:
Perfect Dark Zero
Farcry Predator

Xbox1 games that I have that are on teh BCL that may be worth it for you:
Forza Motorsport
DoA3 and DoA Ultimate (Ultimate has online play) both better imho than DoA4 and probably cheaper
Soul Calibur II
Fable (if you haven't played it on the PC)
Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory - some really excellent multiplayer modes
Jedi Knight Jedi Academy: I bought this purely for split screen lightsaber fighting, and I think its under 10 bucks now anyway.

That's it for the 360, from my library, I like racing games and shooters, with a side of action and RPG on the Xbox, it seems to be its sweet spot, there is a marked dearth of solid RPG's and the action games always left me wanting something. There are some good platformers out there, I am told, I hate platformers though. My good friend played through the 360 Tomb Raider game and had nothing but nice things to say about it.

[phreak]

the longer i play oblivion, the more bugs i keep encountering.  The guy that sells the skingrad house is dead and some sigil stone in oblivion is stuck and i can't remove it.  It still is a good game, but the first bug is a major showstopper since he comes up in the theives guild quest line as well.

Gears 4tw. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEhBfoUiQjg

[Ulala]

I'm looking forward to Resident Evil 5.

[Deepblue]

Gears of War
Crackdown
Viva Pinata
GRAW2
Oblivion/Shivering Isles
Geometry Wars
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Worms
Alien Hominid HD
Lumines Live

Are all pretty much must owns. Make sure you pick up the demos first anyway though.

Stuff to look forward to:

Guitar Hero 2
Mass Effect
Forza 2
PGR4
Blue Dragon
Fable 2
Assassins Creed
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
Devil May Cry 4
Too Human
Stranglehold
BioShock
Halo 3

Among many other games that are looking good.

If you need a friend, my GT is "Echo Eagle".

[Ghostavo]

Shivering Isles is out already? 

[Deepblue]

Shivering Isles is out already? 

On XBL.

[Ghostavo]

Have you tried it? How does it fare against say... the last mission of the thieves' guild? 

[Deepblue]

I'm ashamed to admit I don't own Oblivion yet. I'm waiting for a price drop on that sucker, but its been at $60 forever.

(I own: GRAW, Gears of War, Viva Pinata, and Crackdown + Hexic HD (incredibly addicting little game))

[Fury]

Good suggestions, thanks.

How do you play shooters with a gamepad anyway? I've tried that a few times on PC and it just doesn't work. I take that Xbox 360 does not support regular USB keyboards and mice, at least so google says...?

[Deepblue]

It does support keyboards, for text input that is.

Using gamepads with shooters requires you to learn to move with more subtlety and nuance than you otherwise would with a keyboard, as movement becomes more important (and easier) as accuracy decreases in importance.

[Inquisitor]

It takes some getting used to, the dual analog sticks replace wasd and the mouse, and you may want to start off with some of the aiming aids turned on, until you get used to it.

Once you get used to it, at least IMHO, its very natural, but it does take some time.

[IceFire]

I'm looking forward to Forza 2 and my brother is looking forward to Fable 2.  That might propel us to get a XBox 360

[Inquisitor]

I mentioned this in the Midway thread, but I should say it here: I am really enjoying Battlestations Midway. Its what I had hope Star Trek Legacy would be in terms of gameplay (apart from various canon violations).

[Windrunner]

I bought myself  X360 just beacuse i wanted to play Gears of War, awesome game BTW. Recently i bought Call of duty 3 antoher awesome game. BUt now i have my sight on Mass Effect, a game perfectly suited for us Sci-Fi nerds