You’ve an Xbox 360 controller ready for you in your lounge and a console hungry to entertain you. It’s an older console, certain. However it nonetheless has a ton of nice video games.
This listing was revealed on April 21, 2016. We’re re-posting it immediately in honor of the Xbox 360’s twentieth anniversary.
As of April 2016, Microsoft has ceased manufacturing of the Xbox 360 console. It had an awesome run—crimson rings and Kinect 1.0 however—and it acquired a ton of nice video games. These dozen video games have occupied our Bests listing for a protracted whereas, and at this level there’ll most likely by no means be one other replace. (By no means say by no means, although!)
Listed here are our suggestions for the 12 finest video games on Xbox 360. Get pleasure from.
Murderer’s Creed IV: Black Flag
After years of modifications each minor and main, the Murderer’s Creed sequence had begun to really feel in a rut. (For instance: We’d had Murderer’s Creed II on this listing since its inception.) Lastly this 12 months, with the pirate-themed Murderer’s Creed IV: Black Flag, the sequence has taken a significant and unequivocal step ahead. It doesn’t lose all of the sequence’ dangerous habits—whats up observe missions—however it improves many longstanding issues with higher stealth, easier-to-navigate cities, and sidequests that truly really feel like they assist make your character extra highly effective. Better of all, it provides naval fight and an enormous Caribbean overworld that make the sport really feel like, within the phrases of Luke Plunkett, “Wind Waker for grown-ups.”
A Good Match For: Pirate followers, historical past buffs, anybody who’s ever wished to tug up alongside a British frigate, seize a rope and swing from one deck to the opposite earlier than combating your approach up the deck to tackle the captain. So mainly, anybody who’s ever wished to be a pirate.
Not a Good Match For: Those that demand precision controls. The on-foot controls in Black Flag are most likely the very best of the sequence, however they’re nonetheless a far cry from the place a third-person stealth/platformer must be. It’s time for a crouch button, Ubisoft.
Learn our assessment.
Borderlands 2
With a good larger, wackier, lootier Borderlands, Gearbox has proved that their hybrid RPG/shooter franchise isn’t only a one-hit surprise. Three years after the primary launch, Gearbox put out a Borderlands 2 that doesn’t simply have 1000’s extra weapons. It’s extra advanced. It’s even acquired coronary heart. And but Borderlands 2 nonetheless manages to strike a stability between being extra soulful whereas retaining the slapstick, make-no-excuses-for-itself humor for which the sequence is thought. The characters you meet are sometimes borderline (if not full-blown) psychotic, however in essentially the most endearing of the way. Enemies are simply as raunchy as they’re various. It’s colourful, it’s robust, it’s meaty, and it’s a pleasure to play with as much as 3 buddies in co-op. It’s additionally acquired TONS of additional, downloadable content material to maintain you busy when you end the primary sport.
A Good Match For: Players who desire a enjoyable co-op expertise to play by with buddies. There are many quests, loads of weapons, and loads of laughs available.
Not A Good Match For: Individuals who need to burn by a sport simply. Borderlands 2 could be fairly robust, particularly with out backup. And in case you aren’t keen to spend a while churning out sidequests, you simply may catch your self on the tail-end of the sport with out the chops or stats to complete with out getting burnt out.
Learn our assessment.
Burnout: Paradise
Automotive destruction’s by no means seemed as horny because it does in Criterion’s hi-speed racing sport Burnout: Paradise. You’re tasked with driving towards site visitors, scraping towards civilian automobiles and shoving opponents into signature crashes known as Takedowns. However, Paradise additionally deserves reward for a seamless integration of multiplayer the place dropping right into a showdown could be fast as tapping a button.
A Good Match For: Avenue racing followers. In the event you’ve ever pulled as much as a stoplight and imagined what it’d be prefer to burn rubber on a wide-open stretch of asphalt—and survive any ensuing mishaps—that is your sport.
Not a Good Match For: To tune the specs of their rides. It could be Paradise however these aren’t real-world automobiles. You may’t do way more than swap out paint jobs, so these eager to make modifications to brakes, shock or engines might want to get their grease-monkey repair elsewhere.
Learn our assessment.
Grand Theft Auto V
Grand Theft Auto V is a powerful crime sport. Not good, however spectacular. The sport offers gamers one of many richest, most stunning open worlds we’ve ever been in a position to play in. On this case, the panorama is a fictionalized model of Los Angeles and the California desert. Go anyplace on this huge sport. Seize a automotive, aircraft, truck, bicycle, boat or tank. Head off in any course. You’re sure to see extraordinary sights and stumble into some type of good and possibly violent time. The sport seems superb even on the outdated Xbox 360 {hardware}. It additionally performs higher than any GTA earlier than it. GTA V’s progressive, swappable three-protagonist system creates the texture of a real ensemble journey, although loopy man Trevor steals the present.
A Good Match For: Gamers who like to enter a sport to interrupt the foundations. GTA remains to be at its finest when it’s a playground for digital misbehavior.
Not a Good Match For: Anybody who can’t abdomen the sport’s mockery of, properly, just about everybody.
Learn our assessment.
Brothers: A Story of Two Sons
Brothers: A Story of Two Sons got here out of nowhere this 12 months, stunning everybody with its unusual management scheme, good (if easy) puzzles and devastating ending. Can sport mechanics be emotionally affecting? Seems yup, they are often. It’s a pleasant, quick sport with nearly no fats—and even supposing the 2 predominant characters don’t talk in a language anybody may perceive, they nonetheless handle to speak quite a lot of context and backstory. You’ll by no means consider your thumbs and your controller triggers the identical approach.
A Good Match For: Individuals searching for one thing completely different, those that like bizarre controls schemes, followers of old-school fairy tales.
Not a Good Match For: These hoping for a protracted sport—it’s just a few hours lengthy and provides no actual replayability—individuals who like their characters to talk precise languages.
Learn our ideas.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Bethesda Softworks’ hit role-playing sport does nothing a lot as ship a large, Tolkien-styled chance area to its gamers. The high-altitude climes of Tamriel really feel alive with surprise and risk. The power to customise your warrior outcast with a singular mixture of mystical expertise and melee mastery feels as broad as Skyrim’s horizon.
A Good Match For: Dungeon & Dragon gamers. Adventuring in Skyrim looks like spinning your individual epic yarn, as songs of your feats unfold digitally from city to city in a sport world that reacts to your actions. You may spend weeks meandering in its fascinating sidequests, leaving the primary story.
Not a Good Match For: Those that play with urgency. The drive to wander and uncover overpowers the drive to finish in Skyrim. In the event you’re the sort of participant who desires these two vectors to fulfill in a significant approach, you’ll discover The Elder Scrolls V a bit irritating.
Learn our assessment.
Gears of Battle 3
Gears 3 fills the marquee spot held by Bungie’s Halo video games and with good motive. Epic Video games’ scifi shooter threequel represents hardcore shooter nirvana: a tightly-polished marketing campaign that performs nice solo or coop and a few of the finest multiplayer discovered anyplace. Furthermore, the sport’s been robustly supported with each marketing campaign and multiplayer DLC designed to deepen an already hearty launch, significantly with the addition of most of the finest maps from Gears of Battle 2
A Good Match For: Devoted on-line shooter fanatics who play on daily basis. The extra you play, the extra Gears 3 rewards you.
Not a Good Match For: Those that need deep character improvement or intriguing story construction. Gears video games have all the time been meat-and-potatoes by way of plot
Learn our assessment.
Halo: Attain
Bungie created the very best goodbye doable with a “last” Halo title that each seems ahead and backward within the blockbuster FPS franchise’s historical past. Pairing up a well being system just like that of the primary Halo sport with all-new skills like jetpacks and holographic decoys makes the decade-old sequence really feel concurrently acquainted and contemporary.
A Good Match For: Sci-fi followers. To play a Halo sport is to be launched to an expansive fictional universe. Attain locations you inside one of many Halo-verse’s pivotal battles and imbues its lead characters and environments with extra character than in earlier video games.
Not a Good Match For: Anybody who desires Grasp Chief. The Spartan you management in Halo: Attain isn’t as invulnerable or highly effective because the Xbox mascot and the texture of sure weapons will get tweaked when in comparison with earlier video games.
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Mass Impact 2
Mass Impact 2 was the one which made you imagine. Its predecessor drew gamers in with expansive world-building and a tense storyline, however it was additionally a clunky, rough-hewn slab of a sport. BioWare’s 2010 follow-up polished the fight, launched characters who’d grow to be fan favorites and streamlined the general expertise to a effective focus. The primary sport made you need to expertise all of the sci-fi motion and drama, however the second sport made it loads simpler to take action. Pack in an enormous variety of various and infrequently terrific downloadable content material packs and also you’ve acquired one beefy, galaxy-spanning chunk of online game to play.
A Good Match For: Followers of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Like George Lucas’ signature creation, Mass Impact’s fictional cosmos has multitudes of tales to inform. The extraordinarily good post-campaign DLC chapters expose gamers to aspect tales centered on each new and acquainted characters, similar to Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy and the opposite Star Wars extensions. Overlord, Lair of the Shadow Dealer and the opposite add-ons actually made it really feel like thousands and thousands of little lives have been at stake in Shepard’s battle towards the Reapers.
Not a Good Match For: Individuals who want closure. Mass Impact 2 tells loads of small tales, however the primary narrative arc remains to be basically a set-up for the 2012 follow-up.
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Pink Lifeless Redemption
Pink Lifeless Redemption, essentially the most assured work by the makers of the Grand Theft Auto video games finds its success by shedding the trimmings of the modern-day world and giving gamers an enormous digital Southwest to roam in quest of revenge. When your lonely ambles immediately get shattered by an ambush or the plea to cease an unjust hanging, it’s a bittersweet adrenaline rush in contrast to the rest in trendy video video games. Silence, then gunfire, then extra fleeting silence once more.
A Good Match For: Admirers of killer endings. The denouement for the turn-of-the-century saga stands as an emotionally highly effective end that may stand amongst the cowboy cinema that impressed it.
Not a Good Match For: Followers of brevity. Redemption’s plot takes a protracted quantity of playtime to resolve and also you’ll typically really feel such as you’re doing busy work within the nooks and crannies of its spaghetti Western sport world.
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Portal 2
Name it the Superman 2 or Empire Strikes Again of video video games. Valve’s follow-up to a basic improves on the humor, characterization and puzzle-solving of its predecessor to ship a decent, centered expertise stuffed with poignancy and humor.
A Good Match for: Comedy lovers. The voicework alone—carried out in stellar style by Stephen Service provider and Ellen McLain—will make you snigger out loud however the brain-teasing puzzles and embedded gags hold the chuckles coming even when all the pieces else within the sport goes quiet.
Not a Good Match For: Mediocrity followers. Individuals who argue with Portal 2‘s greatness are like of us complaining that diamonds got here from dust. Their argument is invalid.
Learn our assessment.
XCOM: Enemy Inside
There it’s: proof {that a} multiplatform sport launched in 2012 can recapture the glories of a 1994 PC basic. The re-imagined XCOM delivers graphical upgrades and interface refinements such as you may anticipate however what actually makes it sing is the added attachment that you simply really feel to the battles and the troopers who battle them. In the event you’re contemplating selecting up the sport now, get Enemy Inside as a substitute, because it accommodates the unique sport in addition to the terrific 2013 enlargement. It’s bought as a standalone for consoles, so make sure to purchase the brand new model.
A Good Match For: Effectivity lovers. This model of human-vs-aliens warfare streamlines gameplay when in comparison with its predecessor. And the significance of canopy in fight and intelligent deployment of perks makes you take into account each choice intensely.
Not a Good Match For: Those that need skirmishes. The fight in 2012 XCOM can stretch on approach longer than is important. As a result of the battles require energetic engagement, you may really feel chained to a session.
Learn our assessment and our assessment of the most recent enlargement.
How has this listing modified? Learn again by our replace historical past:
Replace 12-9-13: With a brand new 12 months comes an up to date bests design and with it, the possibility to return and do a one-time overhaul of every listing. After a lot arguing and debating, many modifications have been made. Gone are Batman: Arkham Metropolis, BioShock, Dishonored, Tremendous Avenue Fighter IV, NBA 2K12 and Murderer’s Creed II. Taking their place are: Borderlands 2, Portal 2, Murderer’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Brothers: A Story of Two Sons, Mass Impact 2 and Grand Theft Auto V
Replace 11/13/12: As promised, we’re swapping out older good video games from new good video games. Goodbye, Lego Star Wars III and Toy Troopers: Chilly Battle; whats up, XCOM and Dishonored
Be aware: 12/28/12: We’re bumping up this listing of Xbox 360 Bests for these of us who might have simply gotten an Xbox 360 throughout this vacation season. Some nice video games have come out for the system for the reason that final replace—like Far Cry 3, Halo 4 and Name of Responsibility: Black Ops II. Kotaku’s editorial workforce thought-about these video games however couldn’t attain a consensus as to whether or not they deserve a spot simply but. We’re retaining our eyes and minds open as new releases hold hitting Microsoft’s platform.
Need extra of the very best video games on every system? Try our full listing:
The Greatest PC Video games • The Greatest PS4 Video games • The Greatest Xbox One Video games • The Greatest Nintendo Swap Video games • The Greatest Wii U Video games • The Greatest 3DS Video games • The Greatest PS Vita Video games • The Greatest Xbox 360 Video games • The Greatest PS3 Video games • The Greatest Wii Video games • The Greatest iPhone Video games • The Greatest iPad Video games • The Greatest Android Video games • The Greatest PSP Video games • The Greatest Fb Video games • The Greatest DS Video games • The Greatest Mac Video games • The Greatest Browser Video games • The Greatest PC Mods
