The 32 Best Xbox 360 Games

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

• 16
• Street Fighter IV

Capcom had one steep mountain to climb with Street Fighter IV. How could they go back to the style of the industry-changing SFII while retaining the advanced gameplay from the underrated Street Fighter III? Would the series really stay in 2D? Somehow, the development team managed a perfect KO on all counts, as the new look and feel of SFIV showed that the World Warriors were still the baddest group in town. With a large mix of SFII veterans, new challengers and Alpha cameos, the fourth Street Fighter not only got a graphical overhaul, but the classic fireball-throwing action was whipped into shape so that players of all type could throw a good beatdown. Street Fighter IV outdid itself on the charts, and it's also a damn good revival of the 2D fighting scene.

• 15
• Forza Motorsport 3

It's no understatement that racing simulators are built for only the strictest of car fanatics. That's why Forza Motorsport 3 is the Holy Grail for anyone who spends hours trying to shave seconds off of their best lap times. Packing almost 10 times the graphical power of the series' previous title, Forza Motorsport 3 also breaks the bank with over 400 customizable cars. Four hundred. With the ability to detail every single nut and bolt on your chosen ride, from 1970s Mustangs to the classic 1985 Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT Apex to the newest Mitsubishi Lancers, your personal garage can be anything you want it to be.

• 14
• Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age: Origins may not win any beauty contents, but underneath the game's surface lies one of the best games to ever hit the Xbox 360. BioWare's spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate gives you the free reign to truly choose your own destiny in a dark fantasy adventure that may surprise you with Hollywood-level voice acting and a truly weighty plot. Depending on your actions, party members will thrive under your leadership, abandon you for greener pastures, or fall in/out of love with your custom-created warrior. Even your character's race can play a part, as NPCs will react to your lineage and actions in context with your social status. An epic tale that spans days and days of gameplay, your war against the Darkspawn will immerse you in a massively detailed world that only BioWare could create.

• 13
• Braid

Why Braid? Because there's never, ever been anything like it. From the moment Braid loads, there's no menu to push through or cutscene to watch. You simply enter a world that exists somewhere between a dream and a painting. It's the Super Mario of the night, a bright and merry and dark and brooding platformer that isn't really a platformer at all. It's just a series of puzzling scenes that leave you awestruck over and over. Once you've beaten it, you might never pick it up again, but while you're playing it, you know it's something special.

• 12
• Dead Space

Visceral Games pretty much dethroned Capcom's longstanding undead-hunting franchise Resident Evil as the king of the survival-horror genre when they released their blood-curdling masterpiece in terror, Dead Space. Heck, this game wins the crown just based on the gruesome beasties reminiscent of those from John Carpenter's The Thing. It wasn't the fact that Dead Space approached survival-horror in an all-new way -- the game actually borrowed quite a bit from Resident Evil 4 in terms of the way you move around and combat enemies -- no, what made Dead Space so terrifying was the dread-soaked atmosphere, the mood of being alone in space, and the disgusting mutated passengers infesting the mining ship you're stuck on... passengers that only get grosser and more frightening as the game progresses.

• 11
• Fallout 3

Bethesda's Fallout 3 presented players with a truly unique concept: the ability to play the game more-or-less however they wanted, allowing for the game itself to play out in an almost infinite number of ways. Sure, this was done before with games like Grand Theft Auto, but never on this scale. You can play Fallout 3 conservatively, carrying out sidequests and trying your hardest to make the best decisions possible. Conversely, if you're in a particularly diabolical mood, you can just run around like a maniac, blowing away everyone you come across, be them good or evil, man or animal. Of course, massacring everyone you meet in the game comes with its price, such as receiving negative karma points and ultimately altering the ending of the game. If you own a next-gen console, do yourself a favor a take this gripping Xbox 360 game for a ride.

• 10
• Grand Theft Auto 4

Like Rock Band, Grand Theft Auto 4's a tossup. If you've got the Xbox 360 build, however, you're a truly lucky gamer. Rockstar Games is still dishing out GTA goodness in the form of episodic content, with great characters and intense new side stories to explore. If you've been itching to get back on Liberty City's streets, try The Lost and Damned or The Ballad of Gay Tony. As if that wasn't enough reason to count this game among the best Xbox 360 games ever, there's always the fact that you can push people in front of trains, saw pedestrians down with helicopter blades, and drive your dinner date off a cliff. Be bad, be wild, and be a menace!

• 9
• The Orange Box

Talk about bang for the buck: The Orange Box includes five hit games from the FPS gurus at Valve Software, making this a must-have for any shooter fan. Not only do you get the award-winning Half-Life 2 and the follow-ups Episode One and Two, but you also get the butter-smooth online game Team Fortress 2. But the real jewel of this fantastic collection is Portal, a mind-bending puzzler that every gamer should experience at least once. Armed with one of the coolest weapons ever devised in the Portal Gun, you run through a series of deviously designed levels while the omni-present voice of GlaDOS gently coaxes you onward. Filled with delicious humor and addictive gameplay, Portal is worth the purchase price alone but lucky for you, there's four other amazing games to keep you occupied long after you've discovered the secret of the cake (hint: it's a lie).

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