Best of the Platform: Xbox 360

[thl]

A good friend of mine finally broke down and bought a 360. He asked me for a list of must-have picks. Since I've only had my console for about a year and have still only played a handful of titles, I am having a hard time coming up with anything that feels authoritative. can the thumbs help!?

Here's the context: my buddy has no ps3 and doesn't play games on his PC but does have a wii and did have an original xbox. Here's my current list of recommendations:

-Orange Box

-Fallout 3

-Shadow Complex

-GTA IV

-X-Men Origins: Wolverine

What do you guys think?

[Murdoc]

Mass Effect, really at this point my 360 is now my mass effect box, I'll blow the dust off of it when the sequel comes out, but to be fair it's my favorite game experiance in the last decade, so I think it's awesome.

[Patters]

ODST, CoD 4, Far cry 2, Forza 3, Burnout paradise.

[Garple]

Fable II, Shadow Complex, Trials HD, Rez HD And I second basically all the games that were already mentioned.

Also: 'Splosion Man but only if he's already into 2D platformers.

Edited November 12, 2009 by GrouchoClub

[juv3nal]

Absolutely Mass Effect & Shadow Complex.

Castle crashers is good times if you can get a bunch of people & controllers in the same room. Not so much fun to go through it single player though.

[toblix]

Braid. The Motherfucking Bat Man.

[Scrobbs]

Trials HD and I would suggest Burnout revenge over paradise easy.

[twmac]

I'm avoiding anything that can be found on PC.

Oldies (should be able to find them cheap so you can be safe that you didn't spend much money if it turns out it isn't for you):

Dead Rising

Condemned: Criminal Origins

PGR4

Earth Defense Force 2017

Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts

Crackdown

Mass Effect

Beautiful Katamari (if you haven't played any previous ones)

Virtua Tennis 3

Virtua Fighter 5

Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise

XBLA:

Dishwasher: The dead samurai

Rez HD

Castle Crashers

Braid

Splosion Man

Trials HD

Shadow Complex

XNA/Indie:

Weapon of Choice

I MAED a GAM3 WITH ZOMBIES IN IT !!!!!111

Beat Hazard

New games:

Gears of War 2

[Jayel]

Crackdown is probably my favourite console game ever. It alone justified my xbox360 purchase.

[mikemariano]

I stopped buying PCs years ago and became a Mac partisan, so when Half-Life 2 came out for I bought an original Xbox. When The Orange Box came out I bought an Xbox 360, so I agree with your thinking there. All the Valve games are lots of fun, and the Xbox experience doesn't feel like a "cheap" port.

The only game I really hated that gets universally praised is Bioshock. It might be up your alley, but I got tired of the monotonous combat and playing LucasArts's Pipe Dream over and over again.

Also, there's no shame in buying a Halo game. Apparently (according to this site's podcast) ODST is very good; otherwise I'd say Halo 2 for single player (most intentionally stupid plot, least intentionally stupid maps) or Halo 3 for multi-player.

[Scrobbs]

Lucasarts' Pipedream? I'm sure it came out on the 16 bit machines and wasn't made by them.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Gears of War (1 and 2)? And where's Rock Band, already?

Also, BioShock.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Lucasarts' Pipedream? I'm sure it came out on the 16 bit machines and wasn't made by them.

What are you talking about?

[Scrobbs]

Correct, I'm talking nonsense. I mean Pipe Mania, which did come out on the 16-bit machines...as that is the mini game in bioshock.

[brkl]

It was actually LucasFilm Games. :fart:

The original developer was The Assembly Line for Amiga ;D

[Garple]

It was actually LucasFilm Games. :fart:

The original developer was The Assembly Line for Amiga ;D

You're a towel.

[Scrobbs]

The original developer was The Assembly Line for Amiga ;D

That's the fellows!

[ThunderPeel2001]

That's the fellows!

But LucasArts (LucasFilm Games) renamed it to Pipe Dream. I loved it as a kid!

[mikemariano]

Whoa, sorry for the derail.

I didn't mean to slight

. I just didn't enjoy

over and over.

thl, as to your original question, it's difficult to think of a "definitive" Xbox game in the same way as, say, a Nintendo system. On the Wii, you can say, "Oh, everybody has Wii Sports/Mario Kart/Mario Galaxy." The flagship Xbox brand is Halo, but Master Chief just isn't as iconic as Mario.

Actually, when it comes back for Season Two, I think 1 vs. 100 is an iconic Xbox title. It's fun to watch and fun to play along. Even when the trivia questions make me feel old.

[Moelman]

Exclusives:

Mass Effect

Halo 3: ODST

Fable II

Others:

GTA IV

Rock Band 2

Resident Evil 5

Modern Warfare

Far Cry 2

Orange Box

[thl]

Thanks everybody! A few things:

-so I have a few votes for Halo ODST. Is that better than Halo 3 in halo fans' eyes?

-Scrobbs: why Burnout Revenge over Paradise? I have to say that I'm not much of a racing game fan but have enjoyed the variety of Burnout Paradise. I haven't tried Revenge though. Is it basically the same without the open world?

-mikemariano: I played Bioshock on PC. I heard (I think on one of the idle casts) that the plumbing minigame is basically impossible in later levels on consoles. I can definitely see that since it seems designed with the mouse in mind. I also feel that game is a tad overrated but the multiple inclusion in this thread has convinced me to pass it on to my buddy.

-is Far Cry 2 good on console? Again, I have it for the PC so I'm not sure how the xbox version plays.

Thanks again for all your inputZ!

[Scrobbs]

-Scrobbs: why Burnout Revenge over Paradise? I have to say that I'm not much of a racing game fan but have enjoyed the variety of Burnout Paradise. I haven't tried Revenge though. Is it basically the same without the open world?

It was just more fun for me. You could retry each race without going round to the start line again (although I believe that was fixed in a patch).

I suppose one thing is that in Revenge, there was the section of road, with a few different way to the finish, but no matter which way you went, you'd always get to the finish. The ability to go wrong because of the open world nature kind of ruined some races for me...then again, if the 'retry' function has been added, it might remove the pain of racing in Paradise.

But anyway, I had far more fun with Revenge. Played it for months, whereas I played Paradise for far less. Revenge should be available for about 2 pounds, so its defo worth it just for that!

[Garple]

It was just more fun for me. You could retry each race without going round to the start line again (although I believe that was fixed in a patch).

I suppose one thing is that in Revenge, there was the section of road, with a few different way to the finish, but no matter which way you went, you'd always get to the finish. The ability to go wrong because of the open world nature kind of ruined some races for me...then again, if the 'retry' function has been added, it might remove the pain of racing in Paradise.

But anyway, I had far more fun with Revenge. Played it for months, whereas I played Paradise for far less. Revenge should be available for about 2 pounds, so its defo worth it just for that!

I second this. Paradise is great, but for a beginner, I'd start with Revenge. It's linear nature will be easier for your friend to have fun with...also the game encourages you to drive agressively more than Paradise does (and doesn't penalize you for it) which makes for an arcade-y experience that's probably will feel more responsive and fun to someone just getting into games.

ODST has the firefight mode which is good for a newcomer, I would imagine, because it allows you to practice and hone your skills in Halo combat and also provides good co-op multiplayer, so you can jump in with him and help him to have a more fun frustration free experience as he's learning the ropes. Anything with good co-op would be a good pick if you're going to be able to spend time playing with him (Gears of War 2's Horde Mode, for example).

Edit: the other thing about Revenge, is that you can jump into any event at any time (and you especially have tons of freedom with that in multiplayer: any event on any track etc). It's the most fun I've had multiplayer in a driving game since Smuggler's Run on the PS2 and it's still a game I pull out often when people come over.

[juv3nal]

The retry thing was eventually added to Paradise, but it's totally buried like 4 steps deep in this little menu thingy. Total pain to use.

[gdf]

I'll give you my top five.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

Grand Theft Auto IV

Mirror's Edge

Bionic Commando Rearmed

Crackdown

There are a few other excellent titles.