Image via Complex Original
The Xbox One has arrived in all its armored truck-shielded, Mackelmore, Ryan Lewis, and DeadMau5 soaked glory.
The event last night at the Best Buy Theater was, as most events of this type normally are these days, a gesture of excess and pomp surpassing the ribbon cutting at your local Radio Shack. Celebrating late-stage capitalism, Microsoft sold the very first Xbox One at the stroke of midnight in what doubled as a blood pact between Microsoft and the first person to take home the new console.
That person is actually now the sole property of Marc Whitten and Major Nelson. Yes, the Xbox One is here but that's no reason to let our collective ADD navigate us away from the Xbox 360. The console has served us well for the better part of a decade and in the eight years since its launch, we've seen some of the most innovative leaps in the medium. We've collected the greatest Xbox 360 titles played by our staff over the past eight years, and while Microsoft is surely to shift focus to the Xbox One, the 360 isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
The Xbox 360 was an overheating, red ring of death giving console that brought millions of people countless hours of happiness. And we loved the console despite its flaws. And while the introduction of the 360's younger, homelier sister isn't going to win any design awards, the Xbox One is going to be around for at least another decade. That's Microsoft's plan at least.
Take a Bow: The Greatest Xbox 360 Video Games of the Last Generation
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Bulletstorm
Year of Release: 2011
In lesser hands, the concept of Bulletstorm's kill-a-thon gameplay would still have been mindless fun. As a collaboration between People Can Fly and Epic Games, Bulletstorm was one remarkable interpretation of a thinking man's shooter.
The game's inventive weapon set exhudes the kind of imagination you would normally expect from a studio like Ratchet & Clank's Insomniac Games. Learning how each weapon works is easy. The challenge is in learning how to pull off high scoring kills and chain them to additional kills.
Again, this is from Epic Games, so Bulletstorm's art direction is otherworldly, but still relatable, not that all different from the Gears of War series. The difference is that Bulletstorm's world is a literal paradise (actually a resort) gone to hell.
While Bulletstorm's multiplayer feels tacked on, we appreciated the game's attention to the single player mode, something that we fear we'll see less of in this next console generation.
Crackdown
Year of Release: 2007
"Skills for kills, agent." With those words, Crackdown announced itself as a profoundly empty and kind of dumb game. There are only the barest wisps of a plot, leading to a clunky and hamfisted reveal you can see coming a mile away. Despite being set in the sandbox of Pacific City, the game never really seems to live or breathe: the bad guys get lines up for you to kill, the civilians get in the way and the buildings are just there to jump around on.
But good Lord: that jumping.
What Crackdown understood long before games like Saints Row IV and Infamous adopted its tricks was that a sandbox doesn't need complicated missions or convoluted stories to work. It just needs shit to pick up that makes you stronger, faster and a better jumper, and it needs a lot of it. The game's collectable orbs put the "crack" in Crackdown, and leaping from building to building finding them provided a raison d'etre far more compelling than most games' stories. Neither ambitious nor profound, Crackdown asked only to divert you, much in the way of earlier addictive games like Pac-Man or Asteroids.
As games grow ever more cinematic in scope and intent, Crackdown is a reminder of simpler pleasures.
Injustice: Gods Among Us
Year of Release: 2013
Whether you're a fan of DC comics or even fighting games is practically irrelevant to your enjoyment of Injustice: Gods Among Us. That's what players learned when they picked up a controller and started playing. Whether you're playing by yourself, with a friend, online, or just training, there is simply so much to do and discover in Injustice that it practically transcends its genre barriers to appeal to a huge number of players. And if you are a DC or fighting game fan, particularly of Mortal Kombat, then you'll like Injustice all the more. Besides, who doesn't enjoy kicking Superman's ass up and down with dozens of different DC characters?
'Splosion Man
Year of Release: 2009
One of the knocks on the 360 was that it was nothing more than an outlet for repetitious action titles and mundane shooters. 'Splosion Man was that app that proved the console had heart.
This bargain buy was an XBLA released 2.5D platformer that allowed you to spontaneously explode (makes sense) in order to reach the end of every level. It was old school-style gaming with an innovative twist (that's pretty impressive in 2009). There was also 50 co-op exclusive levels (another old school throwback).
In an era where developers cater to gamers who'd rather play with a stranger across the country than a friend on their couch that was a welcome addition. It had all the depth of a full-fledged platformer, though you could pick it up on sale for 400 Microsoft points ($5). And, if you took the offer, you got booked for misdemeanor theft.
Shadow Complex
Year of Release: 2009
If you want to know how different the indie gaming landscape was in 2009, one indicator would be to refer to Chair Entertainment's Shadow Complex. Today we have quite a few MetroidVania indie projects, Kickstarter-driven or otherwise; Shadow Complex helped establish the standard of what could be done with a standalone release.
It only takes a few hours to beat, but it manages to take a simple wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time premise and gradually escalate it into a ridiculous adventure where our everyman hero gets upgraded with futuristic gear and power ups. And these enhancements are gained through esquisitely-designed levels, where backtracking is a joy, something you can't say about every adventure game. It is a 2D game but Shadow Complex also has its well-placed moments where you fire along the z-axis, adding literal depth to the gameplay.
Bayonetta
Year of Release: 2010
9 times out of 10, the differences between 3rd party Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games are negligible. That was not the case with Platinum Games' Bayonetta, which is plays flawlessly on Xbox 360, not so well for the PS3 at its initial release.
Directed by Hideki Kamiya, Bayonetta feels very much like a spiritual successor to the original Devil May Cry. It's an especially rare action game in that it has a high degree of polish and style with a great deal of substance to match, something that even the revived Ninja Gaiden series can't lay claim to. Its lead character, who caters to the ladies-with-glasses demographic, does have the skeletal structure of an alien, though it manages to make her all the nimble and agile.
We are eagerly anticipating Bayonetta 2 on the Wii U and we wonder how it will feature homages and easter eggs in the same way the first game did with Sega properties, given that this sequel is coming from Nintendo.
Battlefield 3/4
Year of Release: 2011/2013
With both Battlefield 3 or Battlefield 4 in their stable, EA's foray into the realm of first-person shooting has been met with its fair share of praise, and the same retread criticisms that dog most any FPS title. Yes, the multiplayer is spectacular, and yes, the single-player campaign is decidely lacking.
They are, at this point, almost axioms. But strip away the critical noise, good and bad, and you'll find yourself entrenched in a truly world-class, world war title, pitting global superpowers against one another on the largest of scales. Both the third and fourth iterations of the Battlefield series sought to challenge the stranglehold that games like Call of Duty and Halo had on the market by creating the most realistic FPS title possible, setting players in anywhere from Paris to New York City to Shanghai.
While they may not have overtaken their competitors, you can certainly make the case that EA got themselves a seat at the grown-up's table with these two games. Enjoy that slice of the FPS industry pie, EA. You guys have earned it.
Burnout Revenge
Year of Release: 2006
Burnout Revenge is a blend of all the things we love about automobiles in the gaming world.
It offers the mayhem of a Grand Theft Auto or Twisted Metal experience with an attention to detail that echoes the Gran Turismo series. Whether you wanted to tear up your opponent in the Road Rage, Eliminator, or Burning Lap modes or just go on a world racing tour in the single player setting, Burnout could appeal to racing fans everywhere with its diverse array of vehicles and unfiltered, motorized melee.
The track design was absolutely impeccable as well, taking you from the Motor City to Hong Kong, as you sought to establish yourself as the ruler of the road. EA had no trouble getting our engines going with this one.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Year of Release: 2013
Michael Biehn should be on postage stamps.
The only actor that's fought both a Terminator and Xenomorphs, the decision to have Biehn voice Mark IV Cyber Commando, Sergeant Rex Power Colt was a perfect on an atomic level. The self-referential parody of all things 80s was released as a stand alone sequel to Far Cry 3. The FPS is adept at referencing everything from American Ninja, Predator, Lethal Weapon, and everything else that made action films of the 80s that standard bearers for consumerist excess. The retro throwback shooter was easily one of the cheekier releases of 2013.
Braid
Year of Release: 2008
It doesn't take a big budget to make a big game. Johnathan Blow's Braid proved that to everyone when it dropped for the XBLA in 2008, low on flash but high on substance.
The game's puzzles were elaborate and well-constructed, the plot line was complex and rewarding, and-though Blow has often come off as pretentious to his critics and fans-the underlying philosophy of the game is a rare treat for the thinking gamer. The game allowed you to bypass puzzles if you so choosed, and Blow openly discourage the use of walkthroughs to help players get through the game, saying that, "unearned rewards are false and meaningless."
NHL
Year of Release: 2006-Present
Say what you want about Madden. Say what you want about NBA Live or NBA 2K. Low-key, neither of them can hold a candle to the world's most underrated sports game: NHL. IRL, the NHL took a huge hit in popularity with the 2004-05 lockout, crippling much of its casual fan base, and almost permanently relegating it to fourth-tier status for TV ratings everywhere.
Sadly, it follows that its video game affiliate would suffer the same fate as a byproduct. NHL is one of the best sports game available on the market, arguably second to the inassailable FIFA series, yet people are still more hesitant to pick it up than any basketball or Madden title. Blending nuance and raw power in a way that other sports just fail to match, NHL answers any gamer's athletic criteria with every subtle deke or bruising cross-check across the ice. Get your skates on. It's time to play some puck.
Dragon Age Origins
Year of Release: 2009
When you stepped into Ferelden, the setting of BioWare's mystical, heroic fantasy, Dragon Age: Origins, you couldn't help but think of BioWare's original adventure of might and magic, Baldur's Gate. Indeed, the company's co-CEO, Ray Muzkya, has gone so far to describe Dragon Age as Baldur's Gate's spiritual successor, and for fans of the franchise who felt starved for the title's addictive, hack and slash blend of swordplay and sorcery, this was a welcome return to form for BioWare.
Alliteration aside, though, Dragon Age was epic in every way we want a game founded on the medieval themes of wizardy and knighthood to be. Mature, gripping, and sprawling in length, the game invited you to explore every nook and cranny of Ferelden, playing upon the instinctive curiosity of fantasy and RPG gamers to create a one grandly detailed experience. Whether you were a magi, an elf, a human or a dwarf, an unforgettable adventure awaited on the road ahead in Dragon Age.
Super Meat Boy
Year of Release: 2010
When Super Meat Boy hit XBLA in late 2010, it was an arcade experience like pretty much nothing else out there. Aside from being one of the darlings of Indie Game: The Movie, Meat Boy made quick converts with its lightning fast, insanely challenging levels and blissfully precise platform. Also, you play as a piece of meat trying to rescue your girlfriend (a bandage) from a fetus in a top hat. Beat that.
Limbo
Year of Release: 2010
Indie developers have a lot of advantages over bloated triple-A studios, but there's one in particular that can make their games stand out: the ability to take an idea and run with it. The ideas behind Limbo are simple, but the game that they resulted in is a disturbing and memorable experience. In Limbo, you guide a young boy through a gauntlet of horrors and decaying environments on a quest to locate and rescue his older sister. With a child's persistence, the boy battles giant spiders and dies a thousand million times. But perhaps what's most striking is Limbo's foreboding but unforgettably beautiful grey aesthetic.
Halo 3: ODST
Year of Release: 2009
How do you mix up such a well-defined series as Halo? Halo 3: ODST took a novel approach to telling a Halo story while balancing a very human story. ODST takes place during the battle on Earth featured in Halo 3 while succeeding in the over-the- top explosives the series is known for while throwing in equal parts mystery and some cleaver non-linear story telling.
Making it one of the top Halo games. Players find themselves a lowly rookie on his first mission out, split from his group. Gamers control the rookie at night, navigating the occupied city and taking out squads of patrolling enemies is urban short-range combat. When the rookie finds a clue to one of his lost squad mates the player jumps into the controls of the other marines and play through the huge battles that the lost rookie has been separated from. The story brings it all together in the end summing up a tight and rewarding story.
Halo 3: ODST has the perfect mix of tough enemies and open combat while switching back to quite urban sneak attacks that makes the player feel truly alone with no Master Chief there to bail them out.
Saints Row
Year of Release: 2006
Way back in the day before the Saints Row series was having gamers control the president in combat operations against the anal probing alien invaders – that’s pretty much the plot of Saints Row IV – the original game was putting a new spin on what Grand Theft Auto III had introduced as the “urban mayhem” game.
Many reviewers tended to write-off the star of this series by saying it was simply a GTA clone, but anyone who played Saints Row can tell you that that’s not the whole story. The thing about Saints Row; it may have been a clone, but it was so, damn, fun! It took the idea of GTA and made it even bigger, bloodier and crazier. While controls and set-up are nearly the same, players earned their missions in a very different way.
As four gangs battled for the city the only way to become the biggest thug in town was to cause the most mayhem, beatings and blowing shit up. This earned players respect points that they could spend on getting bigger missions and bigger prizes. Keys open doors kid. Is Saints Row a GTA clone? Yes. But it manages to do some things much better than Rockstar’s 3D original. This game is great fun and improved many of the problems and limitations –hard to believe – in GTA III. If you want to take a trip down memory lane before the generations move on, grab Saints Row on the cheap and blow some stuff up.
Castle Crashers
Year of Release: 2008
Given the fundamental meaninglessness of video games (I mean, what has catching ALL the Pokemon ever gotten you?), it's weird that there are so few triumphs of style over substance in the medium. But Castle Crashers gets everything just right.
Developer The Behemoth didn't revolutionize the 4-player brawler, but they more or less perfected it by adding acquirables like new weapons, cute little companions and RPG-lite skill upgrades while seasoning the world with pitch-perfect touches. There was the soldier weeping and performing CPR on a fallen comrade in an early level, and the moment when what looked like the first big boss got flattneed by an even bigger boss.
Add all of these things together and you end up with something much more than the sum of its perfectly crafted individual parts. In spite of the game's relative simplicity, it absorbed hours of replay because the little loops of gameplay and reward were kept constantly spinning. A near-perfect game.
Borderlands
Year Of Release: 2009
Author Name: Mike R
Shoot, loot, rinse, and repeat. Turn in a quest, level up, get a new quest, do it all over again. These are the simple formulae that sustains Borderlands players over hundreds and hundreds of hours. They're always searching for a better gun, something that shoots more rockets or adds acid to its incendiary rounds. And more often than not they'll find one. Gearbox made big promises about Borderlands, saying it would have essentially unlimited combinations of guns. And then they actually delivered on that. It's a video game addict and gun nut's dream come true. And it's funny as shit, too.
NBA 2K11
Year of Release: 2010
NBA 2K11 marked a pivotal moment in 2K Sports' long-running basketball franchise. With the cancellation of EA's NBA Elite 11, NBA 2K found itself alone in the serious hoops market, a position which could have led to stagnation.
Instead, 2K Sports went all in with a bounty of content built around the game's greatest player, Michael Jordan. From his likeness to his legacy to his signature moves, Jordan has long been the holy grail of video game basketball, based in no small part in his perplexing omission from many games during the peak of his career due to a marketing deal he struck outside of the National Basketball Player's Association.
He wasn't in NBA Jam -- except as Roster Guard -- and pseudo Jordans cropped up in everything from NBA Live to early editions of NBA 2K, where he could be eerily recreated by diligent users. But when 2K Sports went legit, they did it big, including classic Bulls rosters and matchups with classic opponents in the biggest moments of Jordan's career from the Flu Game to the Shrug. Playing as Jordan was a thrill, but the attention paid off elsewhere as well. As with any game that arrives in yearly installments, every new edition is greeted half with cheers proclaiming it the best yet and half with groans about how much better last year's was.
But with passing years, it's become apparent that 2K11 was maybe the series' highwater mark thus far as a complete basketball package. The games play out with balance and a push-pull tug that's been futzed with more and more as the series has begun to turn towards the next generation of consoles. Balance -- that sense of controlling an inerrant machine that hums on all cylinders, of being capable of a one-to-one connection between controller and action -- is, at least in sports games, nearly the entire battle. NBA 2K11 came as close to giving you that as any basketball game ever.
Fable II
Year of Release: 2008
Gamers who got their hands on the original Fable for Xbox were treated to something really unique. A streamline RPG experience that was heavy on action and choice. When Fable II dropped years later for the Xbox 360, the original seemed like little more than a demo. The game’s world is rich with content and packed full of side missions outside the main story, many of which could stand alone as games themselves. That paired with a morally based character development system left almost every player with a slightly different story.
Beyond the tight story and moral challenges Fable II got way too deep for a little Western role playing game. Where as Japanese role-playing games are notorious riddled with overly complex storylines and metaphysical twists and turns that sometimes become incoherent, Fable II took a very practical approach. Within the real-time night and day system the culture of world effect how players acted, get missions and which quests a player could take. As the hours, days and weeks of the world of Albion ticked by shops would open and close as the world changed, giving it the feeling of being truly alive.
Ultimately Fable II is so successful because it offered so many options for the player to adventure and explore. Exploration without the worry of missing out or messing up the varied morally based endings. Players could follow the golden path straight to the end or spend days, or weeks roaming the woods of Albion.
Dark Souls
Year of Release: 2011
The sleeper success of the demanding and deep action RPG Demon's Souls might have been deemed a fluke and written off by video game historians of the future, if not for the even greater success of the even more challenging Dark Souls. A spiritual sequel that expanded beyond the PS3 to Xbox 360 and PC, Dark Souls is everything Demon's Souls was and more. The game demands a lot from players. But to those who are willing to put in the time to master the combat, explore the environments, experiment with the equipment, and learn the game's many, many quirks, it gives back just as much, if not more.
Mass Effect 3
Year of Release: 2012
The controversy surrounding the ending aside Mass Effect 3 was a fitting way to cap a trilogy that set a high standard. It's all the fun of fighting in an intergalactic war without the lingering night terrors and PTSD.
The title was built around tactical team-based cover shooting and features some serious depth. What type of depth? Well, it's worth plowing through twice as you'll want to see everything that the differing "rogue" and "paragon" points have to offer.
If ever the letters R-P-G scared you into thinking you're in for hours of scroll down menus and watching cut scenes do the fighting for you then you may've missed this title. If that's true then go out and get it now for a Franklin.
Gears of War
Year of Release: 2006
Way back in 2006, the still-fledgling Xbox 360 needed a system seller. With Halo 3 still a couple years out, Microsoft was looking for its next big thing and Gears of War is about as big a game as you could conceivably have hoped for.
Luckily, Epic's beefy manly-man shooter was more than just a pretty tech demo for the developers' newly updated Unreal engine – it ushered in an entire new genre, the cover shooter, which replaced corridor shooting with combat "bowls". That's to say nothing of the multiplayer, which, aside from its grossly satisfying carnage, unleashed the potential of an iconic new weapon that would go down in history: the chainsaw assault rifle known as the Lancer.
Dead Space
Year of Release: 2008
The first of the franchise, EA's original third-person survival horror title was also arguably its best, and when it comes to the entire catalog of the Xbox 360, few could match the emotional intensity and gripping paranoia of Dead Space. Think about it: you're the only living human alive on an interstellar mining ship infested with the alien Necromorphs.
Not only do you have to deal with the crushing loneliness and terror of the Ishimura, but also the unbearable emptiness of space. Did anyone here see Gravity? In its own way, that shit was terrifying. Now just imagine being stranded in space like that for a moment, but then try and contemplate that scenario if you're trying to avoid being a lunchtime snack for some extraterrestrial psycho-mutant. Sandra Bullock wouldn't have stood a chance.
Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
Year of Release: 2012
Minecraft was around and popular for years among PC gamers before it hit consoles on Xbox 360, and by then its secrets had already been uncovered and conquered by many. But even then playing splitscreen on a big living room TV with a friend, collaborating in that shared space, felt fresh, to old and new players alike. There's something indescribably satisfying about conceiving of a plan, gathering and processing the materials, and creating something unique, even if that thing is just a big tower, a water slide, or a giant dick in the middle of the desert. That's the true joy of playing Minecraft, and the Xbox 360 version captured that flawlessly.
Tomb Raider
Year of Release: 2013
Tomb Raider wasn't a return to form for Lara Croft, it was a complete reimagining! Gone were the swooping cameras, the side flips, and the double-fisted uzis. In were more modern sensibilities in tune with the PS3's Uncharted games, which is funny, since Tomb Raider is one of the series that influenced Nathan Drake's adventures in the first place.
Featuring an interesting story that was part cult leader mysticism, part Lost rip-off, a young Lara Croft was beaten and bruised as she mowed down wave after wave of bad guys who all seemed to die in awkward positions. And through it all was still the thrill of discovery as you uncovered hidden tombs and artifacts. We wouldn't be mad at all if this reboot continued on the Xbox One. We wouldn't be mad at all.
Fallout: New Vegas
Year of Release: 2010
Two years after developer Bethesda dropped the follow up to one of the best loved and fan obsessed series, Fallout 3, they dropped another tight bombshell with New Vegas. Fallout: New Vegas is more action oriented than its predecessors but continues the extreme moral decisions that haunt players of the series.
New Vegas takes place four years after the end of Fallout 3 and contains lots of juicy content for fans of the classic Fallout 2. While the story is short and sweet, it acts as an introduction to the game world at large where players are then turned loose on an enormous map of seemingly unending quests. Far from sticking to the straight creature invasions of town and saving children from harm you’ll be helping a cult launch themselves into space, protecting mutated cows from invisible mutants and battling drugs and power than overshadow the main story in scope and detail.
New Vegas offers a tighter, more centered story than Fallout 3 and throws players into an incredibly action-packed wasteland they won’t mind getting lost in.
Bioshock: Infinite
Year of Release: 2013
BioShock was a breakout hit from a visionary developer who wanted to change the way we look at games by bringing powerful storytelling to gaming.
Ken Levine, brought us into a whole new dark world that featured powerful elements of history, politics and uncomfortable questions about our own humanity. Not to mention that players got to storm around a world full of characters driven mad with power while shooting fireballs and electricity out of their hands. The ability to balance a great story and fun gameplay is a rare mix that BioShock successfully pulled off. Irrational Games began BioShock Infinite’s development as soon as it finished the original BioShock.
Dishonored
Year of Release: 2012
Sure, Dishonored dropped multi-platform with little difference between versions on the PS3 and the 360, but we played it on the 360 first. Dunwall was one of the most original and visually stark environments we've ever had the pleasure of skulking about in, and was perfect for Corvo's story of revenge. The game may have been on the shorter side, but in a year that was packed with sequels, the original IP from Bethesda brilliant.
The mix between stealth, magic, and swordplay over shadowed the brief campaign. Multiple releases of worthwhile DLC were dropped and expanded the replay value of the title exponentially.
Batman: Arkham City
Year of Release: 2011
It took a quarter of a century but we finally got a AAA Batman game when Batman: Arkham Asylum was released in 2009.
Two years later, Developer Rocksteady improved on the formula with Batman: Arkham City. Not only did Batman: Arkham City have an engaging main quest (that was expected) but it was also the rare open-world game with side missions you'd actually want to do. Sure there were hundreds of Riddler trophies, but you also had storylines that ranged from a tenuous alliance with Bane, to hunting down Deadshot, to getting drugged to Arizona State levels by the Mad Hatter.
It actually made you feel like Batman entering this putrid shithole of a prison and putting out crimes one-by-one at your leisure. It also had stealth that allowed you to plan attacks by isolating henchman. And free flowing combat that was complex looking yet easy to pull off.
The Orange Box
Year of Release: 2007
The greatest deal in the history of great deals, for the low, low price of one game, we got three in the form of The Orange Box, with each game being a winner in its own right.
Sure, Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 provided us with plenty of good times, but the standout title of the lot was Portal, which revolutionized the whole landscape of both puzzlers and first-person "shooters" at the same time. And while The Orange Box was indeed multiplatform, it belonged on the Xbox, as multiplayer was never Playstation's strong suit, and Team Fortress 2 just felt right on the 360. A deal so good, we're wondering when we're going to get seconds. And hopefully, Half-Life 3 will be in that package.
We can dream, can't we?
Fallout 3
Year of Release: 2008
In 2008 Fallout was a long dormant series that hadn't seen a real success since Fallout 2 for the PC a full decade earlier. Any familiarity with the series' past didn't matter, though. In this new, entirely 3D-rendered rendition, you could play how you saw fit throughout an irriadiated Washington, D.C. without caring what had come in previous games. More importantly, you could do just about anything you wanted. No one forgot the first time they stepped foot into the post-apocalyptic town of Megaton, deciding whether or not to nuke it shortly thereafter. The series' trademark choice was as prominent as its '50s charm, reviving a fantastically brutal sci-fi world you could approach however you saw fit. Truly a classic.
Resident Evil 4
Year of Release: 2005
You can't go wrong with Resident Evil 4, you just can't.
The 360, especially in its later years, received a lot of flak for being a system that many considered having very few exclusives. And while that may have been the case, games like Resident Evil 4 helped lessen the pain (Though, don't believe the hype about this being converted to HD, because it wasn't. Not in any visible sense, anyway).
In fact, we can't help but prefer this version to all others that came before it. The controller played a big part in that, as we just love the 360 controller. It's one of our favorites. The story, which starred Leon Kennedy, was both creepy and cheesy at the same time, and the gameplay was stellar. It's a turning point for Resident Evil, and probably the last great game in the series. But you already knew that.
A great game made even better with the XBox 360 controller.
Alan Wake
Year of Release: 2010
Remedy has always had an interesting take on storytelling, whether it's the noir tinges of Max Payne or the more tradtional horror tale that is Alan Wake about a Stephen King-alike (Wake knows it – King is mentioned in the opening monologue) who, seeking seclusion in the Pacific Northwest, must confront an eerie town of shadowy horrors using light to ward off an encroaching darkness. Luckily Remedy is also pretty damn good at game design – not to mention art direction – making Wake one of the seventh generation's most interesting horror titles.
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Year of Release: 2010
Call of Duty: Black Ops was an achievement for Activision and Call of Duty for multiple reasons. It proved that there was more to the franchise than Modern Warfare and World War II. And it established Treyarch as a studio that could keep up with Infinity Ward.
For story mode junkies, Black Ops helped give minor cohesion to the other COD games by having shared characters while introducing new ones who would have resonance in the near-future setting of Black Ops 2.
It was also an unusual Cold War game that certainly had its fair share of chapters in Southeast Asia, but also took you to other parts of the globe, like Russia and the depths of The Pentagon. And it's at the Pentagon that we meet some of the best game-rendered versions of John F. Kennedy and Robert McNamara.
Last but not least, COD: Black Ops offered some darn engrossing zombie themed modes that were almost as entertaining as Red Dead Redemption's Undead Nightmare.
Assassin's Creed II
Year of Release: 2009
Watching the saga of the original Assassin’s Creed play out was painful for fans and critics alike. The game seemed to have infinite potential, but it was wasted on repetitive gameplay, false promises of freedom, and unsatisfying story elements. Thankfully the sequel changed much of that.
It helped that the environments in Assassin’s Creed 2 were infinitely more beautiful than those in its predecessor. The move to a recognizable era of Italy was brilliant, and it’s rarely been more rewarding to explore a game's environment just to see what there was to find.
But it was more than that; the story, the writing, the sci-fi bookends, the combat, the items, the side quests—everything in Assassin’s Creed 2 was superior to what was in the first game, and to this day it remains arguably the best title in the series.
Max Payne 3
Year of Release: 2012
The continuing saga of the embittered, old, drunk, bald, fat, and still not remarried Max Payne saw us head to South America for one more shot at redemption. The current gen graphics and updated shooting mechanics were a welcome refinement from Max Payne 2 and who doesn't enjoy bullet time?
Fez
Year of Release: 2012
Fez is a game that a lot of people had been waiting a long time for – a strange and totally interesting indie before indies blew up revolving around a 2D protagonist with a magical hat that could rotate the world in three dimensions. Amazingly, it's also a game that one hundred percent lived up to the hype that developer Phil Fish inadvetertently stoked through his attention to detail (among other things, see also Indie Game: The Movie over five years. In end, Fish delivered a game so devilishly, ingeniously innovative – to this day it boggles the mind thinking of how he came up with some of the tougher puzzles – it's easily one of the best adventure games ever made. It's a shame there won't be a sequel.
Borderlands 2
Year of Release: 2012
The original Borderlands defined what gamers would come to expect from the future of first person role-playing games. With its incredible cell-shaded graphics and rich, cheeky storyline it grabbed us and wouldn’t let go.
Borderlands 2 took everything about the original and made it bigger and better. With an epic campaign lasting nearly 60 hours, the world is full of weird characters and back-stabbing hillbilly murders. To truly enjoy the madness of Borderlands 2 you have to be okay with going up against ridiculous odds, dying often and wading through the blood of the hatchet-wielding midgets who’ve come to call.
New and engaging characters and a massive amount of quality downloadable content make this game one you could play for years and not get tired off. Where Borderlands 2 really hits its stride is as a cooperative game. Playing with a friend or group is the most rewarding experience you can have in Pandora. The different player classes make your roving bunch of co-op murders the meanest thing on the map.
The effect of rolling into a bud guy hideout and moping-up with a swift team is great. Shoot and loot.
Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Year of Release: 2011
The great divide between PC gamers and console natives has always been one of the enlightened looking down on the great unwashed masses. PC gamers consider themselves the master race capable of adapting to shifts in technology faster than console owners. And they're right.
The advantage, of course, is console owners have a massive library of titles, most of which don't get ported to the PC. When the sequel to The Witcher dropped on PC, most thought consoles wouldn't have to guts to the title justice. Good to see everyone was wrong.
The Witcher 2 brought hardcore fantasy, RPG to the Xbox 360 without dumbing down any of the game's details. The Witcher 2 was universally praised for its difficulty and brilliant dialogue. The whole thing felt like you were playing an interactive fantasy metal simulator.
The Walking Dead
Year of Release: 2012
Voted by many as the Game of the Year in 2012, The Walking Dead did something that very few games have ever done before before or since--it made us feel something.
Not only that, but it was a point-and-click adventure, which is a genre we haven't seen nearly enough of in the past few years. Controlling Lee and protecting his little partner, Clementine, we made decisions, we grieved, and we saw our ultimate outcome over the course of five episodes. What made The Walking Dead especially unique is the fact that we actually had to wait for the next scenario in our dystopian adventure.
It was like waiting week after week for each new episode of the show or a month between each new issue of the comic, but infinitely worse, since it was over the course of many months. We can't wait to see what Traveler's Tales has for us next in The Walking Dead saga. And by that, we mean a full game. Not just a quick diversion.
Left 4 Dead 2
Year of Release: 2009
It's impossible to talk about seventh-generation consoles without mentioning zombie (or, in this case, zombie-like) gaming. Whether you were burning the midnight oil crushing through the undead in Call of Duty's Zombies mode, or you were taking on a entire game proper like Left 4 Dead 2, these flesh-eating, brain-hungry baddies have ruled the roost as video gaming's most prominent villains for a few years.
But with Left 4 Dead 2, Valve created a distinctly horrifying experience of taking down these savages, setting us in a post-apocalyptic world characterized by destruction, mayhem, and just about every other chaotic phrase that comes to mind. But with a new arsenal of melee weapons and firearms, this environment was your twisted playground, filled with
Portal 2
Year of Release: 2011
The praise for Portal 2 in the two years since its release has reached the point of becoming ad-nauseum, but it's also been no less true.
Valve Corporation showed us the distinct joys of puzzle-platforming with the first Portal title, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that a company as innovative as them would somehow manage to top themselves on the second go-around. Navigating the wise-cracking Wheatley's puzzle universe with GLaDOS by your side, the game served as a logical sequel to the storyline and spirit of the original. Simply put, the characters were better, the writing was funnier, and the challenges were even more difficult to wrap your head around in the second, wormhole-hopping iteration. What else was it going to be other than a massive success?
Red Dead Redemption
Year of Release: 2010
In many ways, Red Dead Redemption is an evolution, not a revolution. Built on the bones of GTA IV, it nevertheless better that game both mechanically -- with more satisfying shooting (especially int he cinematic Dead Eye mode) and horses that handle better than Liberty City's squirrely cars -- and narratively -- delivering a more compelling and engrossing story with a genuinely tragic end than any full Grand Theft Auto release has managed so far, including GTA V.
But what makes RDR one of this generation's best games is encapsulated in one moment. After hours of play steeped in turn-of-the century, Old West ambiance from six-shooters to poker games to cattle rustling, John Marston rode towards the border of Mexico in pursuit of head bad guy Bill Williamson, a terrifically elusive and worthy opponent. As he descended a long hill towards the San Luis River with the setting sun painting the desert crimson and coral, the game's superlative soundtrack fell away and opened up under the acoustic fingerpicking of Jose Gonzalez's "Far Away."
The startling presentation of such a modern musical cue was as revelatory as any in video game history, both disruptive and perfect, an all-too elusive instance of wonder at both the moment and the craft that went into it.
Gears of War 2
Year Of Release: 2008
One of the biggest knocks on Gears Of War 2 was its plot. Like porn we really don't buy Gears of War games for their plots. If that's the worst you can say about a game then it almost certainly nailed graphics, gameplay, etc.
Plot in gaming is a bonus. Gears of War has always been about mowing down massive amounts of Locusts by yourself or, preferably, with a friend. And as someone who grew up in an era where high scores meant something, chalk me up as a huge fan of "Horde" mode. Teaming up with a buddy while doubling down on melee kills (via chainsaw, of course) to a custom soundtrack...if that doesn't sum up this gen, then I don't know what does.
Mass Effect 2
Year of Release: 2010
Right at the very end, Mass Effect 2 goes off the rails by putting you, more or less, on rails. Without spoiling to much, it involves a giant space skeleton.
Given the amount of attention and reprobation leveled at Mass Effect 3's ending, it's amazing this isn't a bigger deal, but maybe that's just a testament to how overwhelmingly strong everything that came before it was. While the original introduced a compelling universe and a cast of complex characters, it also bogged the player down in fetch quests and convoluted inventory management.
Some may have cried foul when Mass Effect 2 streamlined the RPG elements, but what the game gave up in mechanical depth it won back tenfold in story and emotional resonance. The individual plights of the crew you slowly assembled over the course of the game were almost universally moving, from the tortured eugenics of the conflict between the Krogans and Salariens to Jack's very personal fight against the scars of child abuse.
Yes, your decisions mattered in these stories, but they were often most affecting when you felt powerless to help. Games have been threatening to grow up as a medium and start telling stories that aren't possible in film or literature for years now, but Mass Effect 2 felt like one of the first to resonate at the level of great storytelling.
Halo 3/4
Year 0f Release: 2007/2012
Halo was the defining franchise of the original Xbox, and while the same may not be true for the 360, it still remains the case that Bungie's (and then 343 Industries') baby delivered a quality gaming experience twice-over for the seventh-generation of gaming.
You can make the argument that Halo 3 is actually the best game of the entire series, and you'd probably be right. With the Forge and saved film features, a new dimension of detail was added to the already-revolutionary multiplayer modes and, while reviews were mixed for the game's single-player campaign, we all know that the option has always been secondary when playing any Halo title.
All in all, the third entry of the series established itself as the best for continuing to develop the formula of success that its two predecessors had set out in years past. When development changed hands with the fourth iteration of the franchise, much of the same praise flowed in for 343 Industries' first take with the series, and some even felt that its increased emphasis on narrative and plot from the previous three games actually made it the favorite of the four. We won't go so far that, but we will say that 343's debut has us excited about what's to come for the series on the Xbox One.
Much of what makes Halo so great was preserved in the fourth episode, but it also made us realize that a new set of hardware specs is a necessary change in order for the franchise to stay fresh. But even if it was essentially more of the same, Halo's worst day is still the best for most other games out there.
The bar remains as high ever for FPS titles on the Xbox.