Xbox 360 Games - ranked by preference

Release Date: August 21, 2007 (NA)
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: 2K Marin
Genre: Shooter - First-Person

I was a new owner of an Xbox 360 when BioShock came out, and looking for some exclusive titles to warrant my purchase of the system. I got BioShock, knowing full well that I generally get bored with first-person shooters....And popped it in, pretty much ready to dismiss it. Next thing I knew, several hours had gone by, I needed to get to sleep before work, and I was still having trouble putting the controller down. I've heard first-person shooter veterans voice their disapproval of this game, but I absolutely love it. I'd gladly venture to the depths of Rapture again today without any hesitation.

Release Date: September 10, 2007 (NA)
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Genre: Adventure

I love Oblivion. The Game of the Year Edition of Oblivion included a few new add-ons, including the very entertaining 'Shivering Isles' expansion, which is an add-on that lasts longer than most stand-alone commercial games. It's the Oblivion I loved, plus a tad more.

Want to know what I think of the regular game? Read on to the next entry...

Release Date: March 20, 2006 (NA)
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Genre: Adventure

The best thing about Oblivion was when I realized that I had put over 60 hours of gameplay in....But had never finished the first mission of the main story yet. I had gotten so caught up in exploring this massive world, doing side quests, and taking part in fisticuffs with the residents of the world (including the wildlife...nothing beats boxing a bear) that I had forgotten that there was an actual main story to be found. Oblivion may be sandbox-style gameplay at its finest.

Release Date: March 20, 2006 (NA)
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: BioWare
Genre: Adventure

Mass Effect started out kind of rocky with me. When I first played through it, I thought it was so-so...And eventually got bored. I played it again a year or so later and really found myself enjoying it a lot. That second time was enough to motivate me to visit the game a few games again since then, and each time I enjoy it all the same. The first Mass Effect is still my favorite in terms of gameplay, story, and exploration. The two sequels just don't live up to this one, in my opinion.

Release Date: October 27, 2008 (NA)
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Genre: Adventure

Like the concept of Oblivion, but want to use guns and explosives? Fallout 3 is for you. While I prefer Oblivion to Fallout 3, I can't deny that I have a soft spot for sneaking a landmine into the inventory of an unsuspecting Super Mutant I managed to sneak up on. I honestly can't get enough of the Elder Scrolls and Fallout style of games....Even if they do seem to only get buggier and buggier with each release.

Release Date: February 12, 2009 (JP)
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Genre: Fighting - 2D (with 3D models)

When I heard that Capcom was bringing back Street Fighter, but in 3D, I immediately thought of the Street Fighter EX games, which weren't terrible, but they weren't anything to get excited about, either. Then I played it and realized that even though the characters were all in 3D, the fighting still played like it was on a 2D plane...Which resulted in fantastic Street Fighter action that us old fogeys remember from the early 90's, but on a platform that allows a brand new generation to fall in love with hurling fireballs across the screen at an opponent.

Release Date: April 29, 2008 (NA)
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar North
Genre: Action

Grand Theft Auto IV was an extremely anticipated game when it came out...And while I loved the characters, story, and game as a whole...In some respects it felt like a step back. Half the fun of previous GTA games was the ability to take over the city. Granted, that wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to allow that in this story, it still felt like something was missing when playing. That minor gripe aside, GTA4 lives up to any and all hype it received. If you haven't played it yet, give it a try. It's an easy game to lose several hours in.

Release Date: October 10, 2007 (NA)
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Valve
Genre: Compilation

The Orange Box, for a few months, was an exclusive compilation for the Xbox 360 that was worth the price tag of the system alone. The terrific port of Half-Life 2 mixed with the decent Team Fortress 2 and wonderful Portal equated into one of the best compilations ever made. It's also the compilation that forced another first-person shooter into my small list of FPS games that I love, with Half-Life 2 getting the nod. Portal also made its debut here, reminding everyone that the cake is a lie.

Release Date: October 11, 2011 (EU/AU)
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom Vancouver
Genre: Action

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record successfully blends the best of the original Dead Rising with the best of the second Dead Rising to create the absolute best game in the series to date. More than a simple re-telling of the story found in Dead Rising 2, Off the Record is very much its own game with new psychopaths to kill, new areas to explore, and a new final boss to battle that results from an interesting twist of the story up to that point. I enjoyed Dead Rising 2 a lot. I enjoyed Off the Record a lot more.

Release Date: June 12, 2012 (NA)
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
Genre: Action

Lollipop Chainsaw is everything I wanted it to be - a cheesy B-movie-like game that actually plays well. The Onechanbara games came close to that, but fell a little short in the gameplay department. Not so with Lollipop Chainsaw, which I enjoyed my time with so much that I wanted to start a new game immediately upon beating it. The game does begin to get repetitive after a while, but the game is at a near perfect length of 4-5 hours and ends once that feeling of repetition begins to appear. The jokes are also pretty comical now, but nearly all of them are based on today's pop culture, so folks playing this ten years from now will likely not get many of the references. All that said, I'm a huge fan of this game and I'm hoping that this isn't the last time we get to help Juliet murder hoards of zombies.

Release Date: September 9, 2008 (NA)
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Electronic Arts
Genre: Sports - Hockey

Kind of how I talked about MLB 10 earlier, NHL 09 was the turning point of the NHL franchise to bring it back to being the undisputed number one hockey game on the market. With new features like the Be a Pro mode, NHL 09 turned the franchise from a struggling one, competing with the NHL 2K series, to what was probably the absolute best sports game released in 2008, and one that left 2K's hockey franchise in the dust.

Release Date: September 24, 2010 (EU/AU)
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Blue Castle Games
Genre: Action

I liked the original Dead Rising, but for some reason or another, I just could never get myself fully invested in the title. I was afraid that Dead Rising 2 would end up with the same results. I was incorrect. I found myself loving just about every minute of this game. The story was pretty fun to follow along, but the beauty of this and the other Dead Rising games is that when you're sick of following the story, you can just run around and mindlessly kill zombies...And be rewarded for your efforts with stat bonuses and the like. The only aspect I missed from the original Dead Rising was the photography gimmick...But Capcom later remedied that with Off the Record.

Release Date: February 17, 2010 (NA)
Publisher: Ignition Entertainment
Developer: Access Games
Genre: Adventure - Horror

Deadly Premonition is best described as a sandbox-style horror game, where you've got free roam of a quiet, little town known as Greenvale. I absolutely love this game, despite my rating for it. It's just so charming and interesting from beginning to end...It's hard, even with its faults, not to love it. The problem is that it does have faults, a decent number of them, most in the combat department, and that bogs the game down a bit, hence my rating for it....But I still love it, faults and all.

Release Date: September 18, 2008 (JP)
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Developer: Bandai Namco
Genre: RPG

Eternal Sonata is absolutely beautiful. There aren't many games that have graphics and an art design that just leave me in awe...But Eternal Sonata did just that; I was just in awe looking at the bright, colorful art design of the game. Graphics alone don't warrant this placement on the list, though. Eternal Sonata is also a solid game to go along with its pretty face. It might not be the greatest RPG of all-time or anything, but it was one of the best available on the 360 at its release, and it still holds up pretty well today.

Release Date: October 13, 2008 (NA)
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Redwood Shores
Genre: Action - Horror

Dead Space is a fun action game...But if you were to classify it purely as a horror game, it disappoints. The scares are predictable and the concept of dismembering your enemies really lessens any scare factor the monsters in the game have, since you know that you'll be chopping off their limbs shortly after you meet them. It's still very fun and worth playing through, but don't expect to get the willys when playing it.

Release Date: January 25, 2011 (NA)
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Visceral Games
Genre: Action - Horror

Dead Space 2, to me anyway, was just more of the same in regards to the first Dead Space. It's a solid action game, but predictable scares and a focus on totally dismembering your enemies really takes away any sense of fear that one might have. What exactly do I have to be scared of when I mutilate everything that gets near me? Just like the original Dead Space, it's a very solid action game and fun in that respect, but as a horror game it falls a bit flat.

Release Date: December 7, 2006 (JP)
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Mistwalker
Genre: RPG

Blue Dragon was the first game developed by Mistwalker, a development studio created by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and a few other former Squaresoft employees. It's not a bad game, but it's also not a game at the level we were used to seeing from Sakaguchi's Final Fantasy games. That said, the game feels like a throwback to the days of old, but without a whole lot of modern-day touches to it aside from the beautiful graphics. It's still fun and fans of turn-based RPGs will likely enjoy their time here, just don't come in expecting something revolutionary or you may end up disappointed.

Release Date: May 14, 2010 (EU)
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Remedy Entertainment
Genre: Adventure - Horror

Alan Wake is a survival horror game that isn't overly great, but still a solid Xbox 360 exclusive title. The idea of using light to repel enemies was a fun aspect that helped add a little suspense to the game. I enjoyed the panic I felt when I was about to die and frantically tried to make it to a light source before the enemies around me finished me off. The story is a little faulty, but overall this is quite the good horror game, just short of great.

Release Date: August 8, 2006 (NA)
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Genre: Action - Horror

Dead Rising was a technical achievement when it came out for not only the sheer number of zombies that often appear on screen with you at once, but also for the number of items that you could grab and use from the environment...Just about everything you saw, you could use as a weapon. It also had a unique leveling-up mechanic that allowed you to build up your stats, making the game easier to beat the more you played. Can't beat a certain boss fight? Kill some more zombies, rescue more people, beat more psychopaths, and you'll level up and potentially gain a new ability or another slot to your health meter. It could get repetitive at times, but it was also very, very fun.

Release Date: October 16, 2007 (NA)
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
Developer: Now Production
Genre: Action

Beautiful Katamari is just as fun as the other Katamari games...Except this one feels a bit like more of the same. That's not saying that this is a bad game, it just feels like you've played it already. If you're like me, and a Katamari nut, that won't bother you a whole lot, but folks who got their fill with the previous Katamari games and are wanting more might walk away disappointed with this entry in the franchise.

Release Date: March 28, 2006 (NA)
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Genre: Fighting - Wrestling

Rumble Roses XX is not a horrible wrestling game by any means, on the contrary, I think the fighting engine is solid and I'm a huge fan of the heel/face system as well as the ability to add/remove muscle to each wrestler, as doing so has an effect on their movesets. With so many great ideas, this should be a must-play game...Unfortunately, the game modes aren't there to keep you coming back for more, which ultimately takes away from the game as a whole.

Release Date: October 26, 2010 (NA/AU)
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Lionhead Studios
Genre: Adventure

I was disappointed with Fable III as a whole. The series gets more simplistic in gameplay with each entry in the series...Which is okay. I get it, they're trying to get a more mainstream audience for the game. But this entry did the unthinkable for me...It took away all the fun of being bad. I couldn't even steal right off the bat, I had to learn the skill. In the end, this was the first Fable game that lead me down the path of good...And quite frankly, good is boring. That said, this is a decent game, just not as good as either previous entry in the series.

Release Date: November 9, 2006 (NA)
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Rare
Genre: Strategy

Viva Pinata may be a very simple strategy game, but I enjoyed my time with it a lot. Not only does each pinata look absolutely beautiful, each one is loaded with personality. The simplistic nature of the game might be better suited for an iPhone game with touch controls and a more casual audience, but I think Rare did a pretty good job with this title. If you like non-stop action, then this game may not be your cup of tea, but if you want a nice, relaxing game to play, this is a nice one to pop into your Xbox 360 to enjoy.

Release Date: February 7, 2008 (AU)
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Bizarre Creations
Genre: Shooter - Third-Person

The Club took me by surprise. I didn't expect much from it, but it delivers a unique third-person shooter experience for this day and age. The way the game plays harkens back to the days of old, when folks were popping quarters in arcade machines, as you're not playing to finish a story, you're playing to get the top score. It's not incredibly deep, but it doesn't need to be. For what it is, it's quite fun.

Release Date: December 14, 2006 (JP)
Publisher: D3
Developer: Tamsoft
Genre: Action - Brawler

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad, like the Wii game in the series, is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. This game is a bit better than the Wii one, however, due to the fact that there aren't any unresponsive motion controls to hold it back. That said, Onechanbara plays just fine...It's the repetition that holds the game back as it gets very repetitive very quickly. But for a game to pop in your 360 for a few minutes every now and then for some cheesy entertainment, it's quite nice.

Release Date: August 3, 2006 (JP)
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Hudson
Genre: Action

Who here likes Bomberman? That's a good amount. Who here wants to see a darker, edgier Bomberman? A lot of hands went down. Okay, who wants a darker Bomberman with the fun gameplay thrown out the window so we can replace it with gameplay that is much less appealing? One hand is still up....Oh, it's the guy who was in charge of development of Bomberman: Act Zero. Can someone show that man the door? Bomberman: Act Zero is just a mess. It's admirable that they tried to give the beloved franchise a facelift with something new, but if they were a doctor and this was their facelift, they should be expecting a lawsuit for malpractice.