Xbox 360 Must-Have Titles

Submitted by George Walker on December 7, 2006 – 2:54 pm12 Comments

The Xbox 360 has been out for a year now, and I’ve played a lot of games at this point. I thought I’d lay out some of the titles I think are the must-own games for this platform. These are the games that you’ll want to buy if you’re thinking about picking one up for Christmas.

Games that don’t require Xbox Live

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (94 on gamerankings) – this is easily the best (and one of the only) single-player RPG’s on the platform. It does have its flaws, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find them without spending hundreds of hours on the game or being a hardcore RPG aficianado. There is plenty to do and many different ways to enjoy this masterpiece.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance (84 on gamerankings) – More RPG goodness, this time in a more Diablo-like form. You control a stable of Marvel heroes from the awesome (Iron Man) to the obscure (Moon Knight), including a few of your favorite X-men. The character management and powering up is quite fun, as you can select several different ways of leveling up each character. You can also create and name your own super-team and gather in-game resources to trade-in for special team bonuses. Fun on many levels.
Splinter Cell: Double Agent (85 on gamerankings) – It may not be the best in the series, but it’s certainly much better than Pandora Tomorrow. For 3rd-person stealth action, Splinter Cell can’t be beat. The multiplayer is not terribly satisfying in this version, but the single-player is pretty dang fun, with a fairly good degree of replayability.
Condemned: Criminal Origins (83 on gamerankings) – This ones probably a little on the violent side, but if that doesn’t bother you, this has a great story and some interesting gameplay mechanics.
Viva Pi?

Eric

You forgot Dead Rising

Subnet6

Nice list, although a bit short. I would ask why dead rising is not there and why Marvel UA IS there?

Also, very smart to break it up into LIVE required or not.

Balrog

I agree with DR. And why not Call of Duty 3?

http://www.thebbps.com Harpua Scorpio

Maybe because Dead Rising is completely not friendly to most people who play it. Horrendous save system, frustrating controls and those nagging text problems.

Jill

Don’t you dare leave out Kameo. It’s an awesome game with awesome graphics! And where is PGR3 ?

James

Honesty, Gears of War does not require Xbox Live. I’ve enjoyed the Single Player on each difficulty much more than any multiplayer experience. It should be on both sides.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance and no Dead Rising?

Big.Daddy

Another vote for Dead Rising. Even given it’s problems, it still should have made this list.

Weyoun42

I agree with James. I don’t have a Live Gold account and don’t really care for online play with games. But, Ghost Recon and Gears of War were awesome on their single player merits alone. I would call them Live Enabled over Live Required.

DouggyD

Lumines Live, not Lumines II…

http://gamernode.com TheSmokingManX

Personally, I’d knock Splinter Cell, Call of Duty and GRAW from the list, and add Dead Rising, Rainbow Six Vegas and Kameo.

Kidding! Only kidding. Like people don’t already know Kameo is a must-have.

http://www.digitaldesignetc.com Gymkata

I think the only glaring omission is Rainbow Six Vegas. I thought I would be addicted to Gears of War for longer, but RS:V has not left my console since I bought it.

http://www.aeropause.com George

Dead Rising is good, but does require an HDTV to read the text. And like was said above, not Xbox-n00b friendly.

RS:V didn’t overwhelm me. It’s certainly better than some of the other Rainbow Six\Ghost Recon turds that have been laid on the Xbox, but it just didn’t do anything for me. Although, I’m willing to admit that I may be in a very small minority, as RS:V now outnumbers Gears of War on my friends list.