Top Ten Xbox 360 Games Of All Time

Want to know what the best ever Xbox 360 games are?

Worried you might have missed out on one of them?

The era of the 360 may be coming to an end, but there's still plenty of titles worth playing now.

I don't have the time or patience to play online, so this article will look at my favourite single player Xbox 360 games ever!

Not only my favourite game on the XBox 360, but IMO the best video game of all time!

Why?

Well, I'm glad you asked me that:

• You get to play as Batman through a great story in an open world setting.
• There's so much to do it can seem bewildering but you're never bored.
• You get to play both beat 'em up and stealth sequences (which both work really well)
• It's the only game I know where there is a real reason for finding all the hidden items and solving all the riddles: you level up (for even more cool gadgets) and you rescue hostages.
• It's one of the few games where I can be bothered to play all the outside the story challenge levels (and I do that again and again).

However, it's not just the fact that you get to play with all the cool gadgets, it's the fact that it makes you feel like Batman.

It's the closest anything has come to that experience and the acting is so good from all the characters, that I think it even beats the movies...!

If you would like to know more then read my review.

The original Batman game that came out before Arkham City.

The team at Rocksteady Studios burst onto the scene with this game and took both critics and Batman fans by storm.

If you haven't played either game then I suggest that you play this first.

It will involve you more in the story and you can get to know Mark Hamill's take on the Joker, which is absolutely top notch.

I even prefer Mark's Joker to either Heath Ledger or Jack Nicholson, that's how good he is!

Needless to say that before Arkham City became my best game of all time, this was!

The best Star Wars game ever. Period.

...and not a Jedi in sight.

Ok, so I cheated a little bit and allowed myself to put in an XBox 1 game.

However, I couldn't leave it out of my list for sentimental reasons, and it is one of the few XBox 1 games still playable on the XBox 360 via a downloadable patch.

Every now and again I still crack this one out of the box.

You get to play as a crack clone commando, but more importantly, as the lead of a team of 4 (crack clone commandos).

No, the graphics aren't the best ever (they are several years old now anyway) and the story isn't that amazing and there isn't any multiplayer to speak of.

But: the gameplay of ordering around your squad and the character of the 3 men you command is absolutely brilliant.

The lines they come out with are crazy and often funny, so you get very attached to them.

Also, there is a great mechanic where if you get 'dropped' by an enemy, there is a period of time where you have a view looking up from the floor while your men are still fighting.

If you can time it right so that one of your men gets to you without getting shot down himself, then he will revive you so you can carry on.

What a game!

I used to play Dungeons and Dragons and other, similar role playing games when I was a teenager, but I've never really been able to get into the genre when translated to the video games medium.

I tried Knights of the Old Republic on Xbox 1.

I've started Mass Effect multiple times, but kept stopping. I eventually managed to finish it, but it was a bit of a slog for me.

I even tried Bethesda's previous game, Oblivion: great game, but over-complicated rules for how to create your character and level up.

I was about to give up on the whole RPG thing and accept the fact that I was an "action gamer" through and through.

Then I tried Skyrim and I was enlightened!

Skyrim seems to hit the nail on the head and allow me to explore a massive world packed so full of stuff that you can do almost anything (except climb trees, as my wife pointed out... lol)

The world itself is the real star, with environments and dynamic weather that make you stop and look: there is real beauty here and real artwork on show.

The attention to detail is truly staggering for such a massive world ...and when I say massive, I mean massive!

Other then your avatar's race, you don't have to decide what kind of character you want to be up front.

You can just play as you like and the game will grow and respond to your choices.

I am so impressed by this system that I started two completely different characters to test it out: one a warrior with a bit of magic; the other a pure mage with more firepower than you can shake a stick at.

Sure enough I have found a completely different experience with both characters.

Some folks, particularly RPG veterans of the series have called it "dumbed down" (some people like numbers and stats, after all), but for me this is the perfect blend of action and exploration.

If you've never played this type of game before, then give it try.

Just make sure you allow it a few hours to sink it's teeth into you: it's slow to start, but then suddenly, you're hooked!

My favourite FPS (First Person Shooter), second only to Half Life 1, which I played to death in my PC gaming days.

The things I love about Half Life are that despite not having the most amazing graphics, the atmosphere is brilliant and it tells a story implicitly without shoving it down your throat.

The best weapon in the game is also the most original ever: the "gravity gun".

You use this to pick up objects and throw them at enemies as well as to solve various physics based puzzles.

This means you have to think as you shoot, particularly when you are in a low ammo situation.

What's more, The Orange Box is incredible value for money.

Probably the best value bundle pack I've ever seen.

It contains:

• Half Life 2
• Half Life 2 Episodes 1 and 2 (both big additions to the main game in and of themselves)
• Team Fortress 2 (multiplayer game, if you are that way inclined)
• Portal

If you've never played Portal, then you really should pick it up if you can.

It was originally a fan made 3D puzzle game, but the term "puzzle game" doesn't do it justice.

It's a highly original take on the Half Life world, totally consistent with it, and very, very funny!

It's also available separately to The Orange Box, if you already have Half Life 2

Ninja Gaiden holds a very special place in my heart.

It's an all out action game where you fight strange and mysterious armies and beasts from one part of the game to the next.

It's unquestionably the hardest game I have ever played.

It's startlingly addictive but it's utterly merciless.

Even from the start on the normal difficulty, it will kill you if it can.

Completing just the first boss is an achievement, but slowly, ever so slowly, you start to get the idea.

Tough, but oh so rewarding.

I will leave you with the words from GamesRadar in its article about 101 Greatest Gaming Moments which is a startlingly accurate assessment of the game:

"Ninja Gaiden doesn't respect you; it doesn't even like you. If it gave out combo ratings, every one would be a 'D', because nothing you can do will impress it. But it's gaming tough love; combined with the punishing difficulty, the sense of achievement when you do triumph is all the sweeter.

In a game where beating the very first boss will make you want to pull your shirt over your head and do a lap of honor, actually getting through to the end is a gold-medal, tell-your-grandchildren, monument-erecting mark in gaming history."

This was the game that re-defined the shooter genre.

Sometimes, you don't want to have to think too much, just run and gun and have a blast.

Modern Warfare delivered this in spades and perhaps for the first time, truly made it feel like you were in the middle of a battle zone.

It also felt like a Hollywood blockbuster in its presentation which made it fun too.

There were plenty of moments in the game when you thought "wow, did that really just happen?"

It was also the first game in a long time to break with the tired old World War 2 tradition that was starting to plague the genre.

I never played this online, but picked it up for the single player when it was cheap.

I still play it when the mood takes me.

I played Assassin's Creed 1 and enjoyed its combination of gameplay and Sci-Fi techno-babble.

However, it did come under some criticism from a number of quarters for being somewhat slow, with little to no variation between the different mission types.

Then Assassin's Creed 2 came out and right from the start it was "wow!"

This game was huge and packed with so many things to do, both in action and in thinking/puzzle sections.

The character of Ezio was also likable, at least once I got past his slightly irritating teenager-style starting point.

It really did feel that they had answered all the criticisms and they have continued to add to the formula with each successive iteration.

I have to admit to being a little bit "Assassined out" at the moment.

Having worked my way through No. 2, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and now part way through Assassin's Creed Revelations, so I think I will wait for Assassin's Creed 3 to come down in price before I have another go.

However, for all the bells and whistles they keep adding to the series, it's the core gameplay that I still enjoy.

Working out an approach to a target, taking out guards as you go and then making a dash for it afterwards is great.

The feeling of running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop, then climbing up a tower only to jump off into a haystack far below just never gets old for me!

There have been many attempts in video games to put you in the role of a Jedi and I think I've played all of them at one time or another.

However, this was the game that finally managed to nail the experience.

You get to use cool force powers and wield a lightsaber, without the controls being clunky and it's all-out Star Wars action from beginning to end.

It even has an opening sequence where you get to play as Darth Vader!

So being a Star Wars fan (in case you hadn't noticed), this one had to go on my list.

It has a great long story, with some great twists and even manages to link into the movies in some unexpected ways...

I have mixed feelings about the sequel Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2.

It seemed to polish the graphics and improve the controls to be even better than before, but the story mode is much shorter and breaks off very, very suddenly just when it feels like it's getting going.

Hmm, not sure what happened there...

I'll have to go back to the first one again and see what I think then!

This is actually the newest game in my collection and I am only part way through.

I include it here partly because it's excellent and partly because it's more or less the only game of its kind on the Xbox!

Aliens have invaded earth in a good old fashioned Sci-Fi 'B' movie plot and you are the one tasked with kicking them back off the planet.

I like it because it's so different and original in this day and age.

From the people who brought you Civilisation, it's a remake of a turn-based strategy game from 1994, with updated game engine and modern graphics.

The graphics won't wow you when you compare it to the likes of Skyrim or Gears of War, but that's not the point.

This is a thinking man's (or woman's) game where every choice you make counts.

It operates on two levels:

Most of the game is on a hybrid 3D-top down tactical view where you direct individual soldiers (starting with 4, but you can upgrade to 6) across the landscape.

You have to stick to cover and use the different abilities of the soldiers to work as a team, or they'll all die horribly.

The rest of the game is at a strategic level where you build up and base, conduct research, upgrade your soldiers and build satellites to help protect different countries of the world from alien incursions.

Satellites turn out to be crucial, because they keep the money coming in and lower the panic levels of the different countries.

-If a country's panic level gets too high then they leave the "council" along with their funding.

If too many countries leave, then it's Game Over!

It's a great balancing act between all these things, but there's one thing that's really weird:

When I read reviews about the game they all talked about how you get attached to your soldiers ...and they were absolutely right.

In my third mission, I put one rookie in a place where he was suddenly found out of cover and the next minute, zap!

He was down and there was nothing I could do about it.

I was kicking myself for about 10 minutes afterwards and I knew it was my own mistake, not some random glitch.

I was a lot more careful after that!

Here are a few others that didn't quite make my "Top 10" list, but are still excellent games in their own right.

"That can't be right, he's missed out [insert name of game here]!", I hear you cry.

If you think I've missed a brilliant game that really should be on this list, or you just want to confirm that these games are all fantastic, then let me know!