You’re going to own an Xbox 360 controller attempting forward to you for your residing room and a console hungry to entertain you. It’s an older console, advantageous. But it indubitably silent has a ton of gargantuan video games.
This record was revealed on April 21, 2016. We’re re-posting it as of late in honor of the Xbox 360’s twentieth anniversary.
As of April 2016, Microsoft has ceased production of the Xbox 360 console. It had a gargantuan travel—crimson rings and Kinect 1.0 however—and it got a ton of gargantuan video games. These dozen video games own occupied our Bests record for a protracted while, and at this point there’ll perchance by no intention be one more update. (By no intention advise by no intention, though!)
Right here are our solutions for the 12 ideal video games on Xbox 360. Revel in.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Sad Flag
After years of modifications each minor and main, the Assassin’s Creed series had begun to feel in a rut. (As an illustration: We’d had Assassin’s Creed II on this record since its inception.) In the end this one year, with the pirate-themed Assassin’s Creed IV: Sad Flag, the series has taken a significant and unequivocal step forward. It doesn’t lose all of the series’ infamous habits—hi there apply missions—nonetheless it indubitably improves many longstanding complications with better stealth, more straightforward-to-navigate cities, and sidequests that in point of fact feel savor they lend a hand own your personality extra considerable. Top of all, it adds naval fight and a gargantuan Caribbean overworld that own the sport feel savor, in the words of Luke Plunkett, “Wind Waker for grown-ups.”
A Right Match For: Pirate fans, historical past buffs, anyone who’s ever desired to drag up alongside a British frigate, clutch a rope and swing from one deck to the opposite sooner than fighting your intention up the deck to steal on the captain. So in most cases, anyone who’s ever desired to be a pirate.
No longer a Right Match For: Those that quiz precision controls. The on-foot controls in Sad Flag are perchance the appropriate of the series, nonetheless they’re silent a far shout from the do apart a third-individual stealth/platformer ought to be. It’s time for a crouch button, Ubisoft.
Read our overview.
Borderlands 2
With a unbiased appropriate better, wackier, lootier Borderlands, Gearbox has proved that their hybrid RPG/shooter franchise isn’t appropriate a one-hit wonder. Three years after the first beginning, Gearbox do out a Borderlands 2 that doesn’t appropriate own thousands extra guns. It’s extra complex. It’s even got coronary heart. And but Borderlands 2 silent manages to strike a balance between being extra soulful while maintaining the slapstick, own-no-excuses-for-itself humor for which the series is necessary. The characters you meet are usually borderline (if not paunchy-blown) psychotic, nonetheless in the loveliest of how. Enemies are appropriate as raunchy as they’re diverse. It’s sparkling, it’s demanding, it’s meaty, and it’s a joy to play with up to some associates in co-op. It’s furthermore got TONS of extra, downloadable drawl material to lend a hand you busy as soon as you attain the main sport.
A Right Match For: Avid gamers who desire a fun co-op trip to play via with associates. There are quite loads of quests, quite loads of guns, and plenty laughs to be had.
No longer A Right Match For: Those that favor to burn via a sport without complications. Borderlands 2 would possibly maybe maybe even be magnificent demanding, in particular without backup. And ought to you aren’t prepared to exhaust a while churning out sidequests, you appropriate would possibly maybe maybe maybe well score yourself on the tail-pause of the sport without the chops or stats to achieve without getting burnt out.
Read our overview.
Burnout: Paradise
Automotive destruction’s by no intention looked as arresting as it does in Criterion’s hi there-velocity racing sport Burnout: Paradise. You’re tasked with riding in opposition to site visitors, scraping in opposition to civilian automobiles and shoving opponents into signature crashes called Takedowns. But, Paradise furthermore deserves reward for a seamless integration of multiplayer the do apart dropping true into a showdown would possibly maybe maybe even be quick as tapping a button.
A Right Match For: Avenue racing fans. Even as you occur to’ve ever pulled up to a stoplight and imagined what it’d be favor to burn rubber on a wide-open stretch of asphalt—and live on any ensuing mishaps—this is your sport.
No longer a Right Match For: To tune the specs of their rides. It will most likely maybe well be Paradise nonetheless these aren’t right-world automobiles. You would possibly maybe maybe maybe well’t enact considerable extra than swap out paint jobs, so these looking to achieve modifications to brakes, shock or engines will need to gather their grease-monkey repair in totally different locations.
Read our overview.
Enormous Theft Auto V
Enormous Theft Auto V is an excellent crime sport. No longer ideal, nonetheless impressive. The game affords gamers one in all the richest, most arresting open worlds we’ve ever been ready to play in. In this case, the panorama is a fictionalized version of Los Angeles and the California barren region. Go any place on this gargantuan sport. Purchase a automobile, airplane, truck, bicycle, boat or tank. Head off in any route. You’re sure to search unprecedented sights and stumble into some form of factual and presumably violent time. The game appears very unbiased appropriate even on the primitive Xbox 360 hardware. It furthermore plays better than any GTA sooner than it. GTA V’s modern, swappable three-protagonist draw creates the feel of a upright ensemble sail, though crazy man Trevor steals the screen.
A Right Match For: Avid gamers who favor to enter a sport to destroy the foundations. GTA is silent at its ideal when it’s a playground for digital misbehavior.
No longer a Right Match For: Someone who can’t abdomen the sport’s mockery of, neatly, magnificent considerable each person.
Read our overview.
Brothers: A Fable of Two Sons
Brothers: A Fable of Two Sons came out of nowhere this one year, dazzling each person with its extraordinary lend a hand a watch on blueprint, desirable (if straightforward) puzzles and devastating ending. Can sport mechanics be emotionally affecting? Looks to be yup, they’ll also be. It’s a pleasing, short sport with almost no elephantine—and no topic the indisputable fact that the two main characters don’t keep up a correspondence in a language anyone would possibly maybe maybe maybe set apart, they silent arrange to talk a gargantuan deal of context and backstory. You’ll by no intention factor in your thumbs and your controller triggers the equal intention.
A Right Match For: Individuals buying for one thing assorted, folk who savor extraordinary controls schemes, fans of primitive-college fairy tales.
No longer a Right Match For: Those hoping for a protracted sport—it’s a few hours long and affords no right replayability—folk who savor their characters to talk right languages.
Read our thoughts.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Bethesda Softworks’ hit characteristic-playing sport does nothing so considerable as mumble a extensive, Tolkien-styled possibility role to its gamers. The high-altitude climes of Tamriel feel alive with wonder and threat. The flexibility to customize your warrior outcast with a unique mix of mystical skills and melee mastery feels as paunchy as Skyrim’s horizon.
A Right Match For: Dungeon & Dragon gamers. Adventuring in Skyrim feels savor spinning your individual chronicle legend, as songs of your feats unfold digitally from town to town in a sport world that reacts to your actions. You would possibly maybe maybe maybe well exhaust weeks meandering in its charming sidequests, leaving the main legend.
No longer a Right Match For: Those that play with urgency. The drive to slide and look for overpowers the drive to total in Skyrim. Even as you occur to’re the roughly participant who wishes these two vectors to meet in a meaningful intention, you’ll compile The Elder Scrolls V a bit frustrating.
Read our overview.
Gears of Battle Three
Gears Three fills the marquee role held by Bungie’s Halo video games and with factual motive. Fable Games’ scifi shooter threequel represents hardcore shooter nirvana: a tightly-polished marketing and marketing campaign that plays gargantuan solo or coop and among the crucial appropriate multiplayer came across any place. Furthermore, the sport’s been robustly supported with each marketing and marketing campaign and multiplayer DLC designed to deepen an already hearty beginning, in particular with the addition of loads of the appropriate maps from Gears of Battle 2
A Right Match For: Dedicated on-line shooter enthusiasts who play daily. The extra you play, the extra Gears Three rewards you.
No longer a Right Match For: Those that want deep personality construction or intriguing legend structure. Gears video games own the least bit times been meat-and-potatoes via station
Read our overview.
Halo: Attain
Bungie created the appropriate goodbye that you just would possibly maybe maybe maybe well be factor in with a “remaining” Halo title that each appears forward and backward in the blockbuster FPS franchise’s historical past. Pairing up a neatly being draw equal to that of the first Halo sport with all-recent abilities savor jetpacks and holographic decoys makes the decade-primitive series feel simultaneously acquainted and fresh.
A Right Match For: Sci-fi fans. To play a Halo sport is to be presented to an gargantuan fictional universe. Attain locations you within one in all the Halo-verse’s pivotal battles and imbues its lead characters and environments with extra personality than in old video games.
No longer a Right Match For: Someone who wishes Grasp Chief. The Spartan you lend a hand a watch on in Halo: Attain isn’t as invulnerable or considerable because the Xbox mascot and the feel of definite weapons gets tweaked compared to old video games.
Read our overview.
Mass Extinguish 2
Mass Extinguish 2 was the person that made you advise. Its predecessor drew gamers in with gargantuan world-constructing and a demanding storyline, nonetheless it indubitably was furthermore a clunky, rough-hewn slab of a sport. BioWare’s 2010 apply-up polished the fight, presented characters who’d change into fan favorites and streamlined the overall trip to a magnificent point of curiosity. The first sport made you ought to need to trip your complete sci-fi movement and drama, nonetheless the 2nd sport made it loads more straightforward to enact so. Pack in a extensive sequence of hundreds of and typically terrific downloadable drawl material packs and also you’ve got one beefy, galaxy-spanning chunk of video sport to play.
A Right Match For: Followers of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Indulge in George Lucas’ signature introduction, Mass Extinguish’s fictional cosmos has multitudes of tales to expose. The extremely factual put up-marketing and marketing campaign DLC chapters show gamers to facet reviews centered on each recent and acquainted characters, appropriate savor Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy and the opposite Star Wars extensions. Overlord, Lair of the Shadow Broker and the opposite add-ons indubitably made it feel savor thousands and thousands of small lives had been at stake in Shepard’s fight in opposition to the Reapers.
No longer a Right Match For: Those that want closure. Mass Extinguish 2 tells quite loads of microscopic reviews, nonetheless the main account arc is silent genuinely a quandary-up for the 2012 apply-up.
Read our overview.
Crimson Dreary Redemption
Crimson Dreary Redemption, basically the most assured work by the makers of the Enormous Theft Auto video games finds its success by shedding the trappings of the stylish-day world and giving gamers a gargantuan digital Southwest to trot in quest of revenge. When your lonely ambles gather shattered by an ambush or the plea to pause an unjust striking, it’s a bittersweet adrenaline travel unlike the leisure in recent video video games. Silence, then gunfire, then extra fleeting silence as soon as more.
A Right Match For: Admirers of killer endings. The denouement for the turn-of-the-century saga stands as an emotionally considerable attain that can stand amongst the cowboy cinema that inspired it.
No longer a Right Match For: Followers of brevity. Redemption’s station takes a protracted amount of playtime to unravel and also you’ll typically feel equivalent to you’re doing busy work in the nooks and crannies of its spaghetti Western sport world.
Read our overview.
Portal 2
Name it the Superman 2 or Empire Strikes Back of video video games. Valve’s apply-up to a common improves on the humor, characterization and puzzle-solving of its predecessor to mumble a tight, centered trip paunchy of poignancy and humor.
A Right Match for: Comedy fans. The voicework alone—performed in stellar style by Stephen Service provider and Ellen McLain—will own you snigger out loud nonetheless the brain-teasing puzzles and embedded gags lend a hand the chuckles coming even when all the pieces else in the sport goes silent.
No longer a Right Match For: Mediocrity fans. Those that argue with Portal 2‘s greatness are savor other folk complaining that diamonds came from grime. Their argument is invalid.
Read our overview.
XCOM: Enemy Within
There it’s: proof that a multiplatform sport released in 2012 can recapture the glories of a 1994 PC traditional. The re-imagined XCOM delivers graphical upgrades and interface refinements equivalent to you would request nonetheless what indubitably makes it advise is the added attachment that you just would possibly maybe maybe maybe well be very neatly be feeling to the battles and the troopers who fight them. Even as you occur to’re all in favour of picking up the sport now, gather Enemy Within as a alternative, as it incorporates the favorite sport besides the terrific 2013 expansion. It’s offered as a standalone for consoles, so guarantee to rob the recent version.
A Right Match For: Effectivity fans. This version of human-vs-aliens warfare streamlines gameplay compared to its predecessor. And the importance of quilt in fight and brilliant deployment of perks makes you lend a hand in mind every decision intensely.
No longer a Right Match For: Those that want skirmishes. The fight in 2012 XCOM can stretch on intention longer than is vital. This skill that of the battles require fascinating engagement, you would possibly maybe maybe maybe feel chained to a session.
Read our overview and our overview of basically the most up-to-date expansion.
How has this record modified? Read lend a hand via our update historical past:
Substitute 12-9-13: With a recent one year comes an up to the 2nd bests create and with it, the probability to coast lend a hand and enact a one-time overhaul of every record. After considerable arguing and debating, many modifications had been made. Gone are Batman: Arkham Metropolis, BioShock, Dishonored, Spacious Avenue Fighter IV, NBA 2K12 and Assassin’s Creed II. Taking their do apart are: Borderlands 2, Portal 2, Assassin’s Creed IV: Sad Flag, Brothers: A Fable of Two Sons, Mass Extinguish 2 and Enormous Theft Auto V
Substitute eleven/13/12: As promised, we’re swapping out older factual video games from recent factual video games. Goodbye, Lego Star Wars III and Toy Troopers: Wintry Battle; hi there, XCOM and Dishonored
Pronounce: 12/28/12: We’re bumping up this record of Xbox 360 Bests for these other folk who can own appropriate gotten an Xbox 360 at some stage in this holiday season. Some gargantuan video games own come out for the draw since the final update—savor A ways Sob Three, Halo four and Name of Obligation: Sad Ops II. Kotaku’s editorial crew regarded as these video games nonetheless couldn’t attain a consensus as as to whether they deserve a job appropriate but. We’re conserving our eyes and minds open as recent releases lend a hand hitting Microsoft’s platform.
Want extra of the appropriate video games on every draw? Test out our total directory:
The Top PC Games • The Top PS4 Games • The Top Xbox One Games • The Top Nintendo Switch Games • The Top Wii U Games • The Top 3DS Games • The Top PS Vita Games • The Top Xbox 360 Games • The Top PS3 Games • The Top Wii Games • The Top iPhone Games • The Top iPad Games • The Top Android Games • The Top PSP Games • The Top Fb Games • The Top DS Games • The Top Mac Games • The Top Browser Games • The Top PC Mods