The 32 Best Xbox 360 Games

• by McKinley Noble & Dan Tennant
• December 23, 2009 20:00 PM PST

Spending a little extra time with your Xbox 360? Wondering which games are worth your holiday cash? From Borderlands to Halo to Mass Effect, GamePro sorts through hundreds of titles to bring you 32 of the best Xbox 360 games that we've seen on the console so far.

Are you looking for more top-tier video games? Missing your favorite must-have title? GamePro's editorial crew has every one of your consoles covered in our new "Best Games" series, including comprehensive countdowns of The 24 Best PS3 Games and The 28 Best Wii Games.

• 32
• Red Faction: Guerrilla

Taking the gameplay of the Red Faction series from its first-person shooter roots to a third person perspective, Red Faction: Guerilla is possibly the first sandbox game to introduce fully destructible environments. We mean fully destructible. As a member of the titular resistance force, your mission to destroy the Earth Defense Force's stranglehold on Mars means smashing a sledgehammer against every building in sight. Thanks to the Geomod 2.0 engine, steel towers and iron monoliths crumble like graham crackers in truly impressive fashion, which only gets better during the 16-player online mode. Add Gears of War-style action with Grand Theft Auto mayhem, and you're looking at one of the best Xbox 360 games around.

• 31
• Brutal Legend

If we've said it before, we'll say it again: why didn't any of you buy Psychonauts? Luckily, Double Fine Productions and Tim Schafer are a team that absolutely refuses to say die, as their love letter to heavy metal hit gamers like a musical thunderstorm. From the amazing landscapes to the hilarious writing, Brutal Legend shines through and through as a masterpiece among miscreants, especially given the variety and charm of the gameplay. It wasn't enough that this 15-hour romp through the World of Metal was such a unique and memorable adventure, but Brutal Legend raised the bar even higher with star talent like Jack Black, Jennifer Hale, and the undisputed Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne. Rock on, Mister Schafer. We're ready for an encore anytime you are.

• 30
• Guitar Hero 5

At some point, you've got to wonder, how long will Guitar Hero be around? Judging by the most recent installment of the series, your plastic guitars and drum kits aren't going to be collecting dust anytime soon. Over 85 tracks are in store for the musically-minded gamer, as well as a few tweaks that should've been implemented in the series long ago. Any band member can play any instrument, Career Mode frees up the restrictions on difficulty, and (finally) you're able to play any song, any time you want, right from the beginning. That means if your drum skills can't pass Nirvana on Expert, Guitar Hero 5 will actually let you switch to bass guitar and tone thing down to Hard or Normal. Even better, Xbox 360 gamers have the option of importing their Xbox Live avatar onto the stage, just as an extra bonus. If you're still ready to rock, Guitar Hero 5 is one of the best Xbox 360 games that can carry a tune.

• 29
• Crackdown

Rarely has a game made you feel so powerful as Crackdown. It flew off the shelves because of the Halo 3 Beta key packaged with it, but it didn't take long for gamers to realize that there was more than one gem inside the box. Every time you level up, you can't help but marvel at your own magnificence, and that's before you can run faster than speeding traffic, leap tall buildings, and drive morphing cars through a living, breathing city. The story might stink, but the sheer joy of Crackdown's sandbox world more than makes up for it. Some would say Crackdown was a better open-world game than even Grand Theft Auto IV, and that's saying a lot.

• 28
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2

It's the best Rainbow Six that's ever existed, bar none. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 sports visuals powered by the Unreal Engine 3, which means the neon lights pop, the slot machines sing, and the characters move with the strength and grace that Team Rainbow always deserved. The controls and cover system are smooth as a bullet casing and completely intuitive. And the co-op game is as polished as the single player experience and twice as thrilling. Accept no substitutes and suffer no fools: Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is one of the best Xbox 360 games you'll see bearing the Tom Clancy title.

• 27
• Dead Rising

One word: lawnmower. Dead Rising gives you dozens of ways to hack, slash, burn, and smash an endless legion of zombies into bloody oblivion. Then it lets you go outside and grab a lawnmower. As sure as dead corpses will rise and gorge themselves on human flesh, grinding undead bone beneath a happy red snapper just never gets old. And, on the off-chance that it does, the game's hilarious and inventive achievements (i.e. "Raining Zombies: Knock at least 30 zombies aside with a parasol") will keep you grinning all night long.

• 26
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

"Massive" isn't a big enough word for the fourth incarnation in the popular Elder Scrolls role-playing series, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. As you traversed the world of Cyrodil, you could truly create a life of your own -- mine caverns, learn trade skills, fight bandits... the scope alone of what's possible in Oblivion is simply astonishing, and this amazing adventure is still unprecedented in both size and scale. If you're looking to get immersed in a deep fantasy, your ticket to a new world is hidden in one of the best Xbox 360 games yet.

• 25
• Shadow Complex

Shadow Complex has no illusions about its gameplay, with liberally applied amounts of Metroid and Castlevania peppered throughout this impressive DLC title. Layered with a labyrinth of caverns, hidden items galore, and rich graphics powered by the Unreal Engine, Chair Entertainment sought to create the pinnacle 2.5D side-scrolling experience, while throwing in a few healthy doses of shooter action via first and third-person perspective. If you've ever felt restrained by Samus's limited powers in cramped caves, get ready to feel like anything's possible with a grappling hook and a good explosive. In fact, Shadow Complex is worth the price of a full retail disc product, making its value as a downloadable title that much greater.

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