What are the Best Games to Buy for the XBox 360?

These are just my personal opinions and experiences regarding the best xbox 360 games. I haven't played every xbox 360 game. I probably haven't even played that many of them, but I've played enough to write an article on what I think are the best xbox 360 games out there. If I've missed one of the games you love, feel free to comment about it down below.

You'll see by my selections that I prefer first-person shooters and role-playing games or games that have both elements. Racing games are a distant second.

This entry really refers to the entire series of "Halo" games, especially considering the original came out for the XBox not the XBox 360. Still, the original "Halo" was pretty unique and when it came out, it immediately ascended to the throne of "best Xbox 360 game of all-time". Aside from presenting a great science fiction story, the split screen battle play against opponents either on the same television or on separate televisions was incredible. The series continued on and the game mostly remained the same, but those of us who bought and put the original "Halo" in for the first time won't soon forget the experience.

The company responsible for the game, "Bungie" did a terrific game that I used to play on my old Mac called "Marathon" and there's a lot of "Marathon" in "Halo". We used to play "Marathon" at work over our network and "Halo" expanded on the thrill of that whole idea too.

This really refers to the whole "Forza" series. I owned an original Playstation and one of the best games on that console was a racing game called "Gran Turismo". It was so cool because of all the cars on it and all the modifications that could be made to the cars. It was also amazing because of its realism. When the XBox first came out, there was just no comparable game and it was kind of sad.

The "Forza" series changed all that. From the racing mechanics to the choice of cars to the environments, "Forza" had it all. When "Forza 2" came out for the 360, the realism was improved to what seemed near photo quality at the time. Hundreds of hours were spent going through the various trials and tournaments and buying new cars.

What to say about "Gears of War"? If "Halo" was the ultimate third-person shooter, then "Gears of War" was "Halo" on steroids. Again, a great overall story characterized the single player campaign, but the real joy of "Gears of War" was going online with one's friends and battling it out. Everyone I know loved the realism of "Gears of War" - the ability to tuck and roll, hide behind objects, and shoot one's gun over those objects, and generally take cover. No longer could one just run around firing all over the place and expect to survive. No, you had to get behind something and think somewhat strategically. And then there was the chainsaw at the end of the machine gun. Oh what joy to wait for one's opponent to emerge, walk up to him, and cut him in half.

My best memory of "Gears of War" was being outnumbered two-to-one on a map and hearing my opponents laugh about how they were going to hunt me down. Then they got too close to each other on a bridge and I hit one in the shoulder with the torque bow while the other was right next to him, taking them both out with the subsequent explosion. The cheers that went up from my dead teammate were as rewarding as anything I can remember.

Once you bought "Forza" you'd think all other racing games would be pointless, but not "Project Gotham". This one differed from "Forza" in its approach. There are fewer cars in "Project Gotham" and less modifications, but there's also a kudos system that motivates the driver to drive with a certain flair. Add in the spectacular locales and you have a recipe for great fun.

Though overall I like "Forza" just a bit better in its approach, "Project Gotham" is the next best thing, using rewards to motivate the driver as well as new tracks.

If there's a more frightening game for the 360, I'd love to know what it is. I generally play my Xbox in the basement, by myself, in the dark, with full surround sound. Never has there been a game that's consistently scared the crap out of me like "Dead Space". It's basically "Alien" in terms of the story. There's a guy on a ship and there are aliens crawling all over it. What's fun about the game are the environments. You can walk into a hangar where a hole has been punched in the wall and start floating all over the place, for instance. Then there's the weapons. Of particular interest is a cutting weapon that allows one to slice off pieces of approaching aliens.

However, what sets the game apart is the jump-out-of-your-chair antics; the way the aliens and the music combine to instill pure fear. It's definitely like watching a horror movie where somebody is jumping out from behind some piece of furniture every few minutes.

I'm a sucker for a good role-playing game and "Dragon Age" delivers as well as any. I'm also a fan of the "Elder Scrolls" series, but something about the gameplay in "Dragon Age" really attracted me. Bioware is known for creating a certain kind of game where your choices define how the story unfolds. "Mass Effect" is another Bioware game that could certainly be on this list and one that I have played and enjoyed.

I just really liked the world created in "Dragon Age". Its vastness is awesome. Considerable attention to storytelling detail is present even though it's a story that can be completed in almost any order.

I've played "Fallout 3" and "Fallout: New Vegas". The series is another role-playing game not unlike "Dragon Age" except you roam around an environment in post-apocalyptic America. The atmosphere is very much one of the stars of this series.

I will admit that it took me a little while to appreciate the "Fallout" series and a bit of time to get into it. I like the character interactions, but can find some of the conversations to be somewhat tedious. However, I enjoy a lot of the different subplots and adventures and the open world nature of the game offers the gamer a lot of variety. There's plenty of fun to be had acquiring and finding stuff and discovering new locations on the very large map.

Yet another first-person shooter slash role-playing game. This one also excels at creating an environment that's as fun to explore as it is to engage in combat and find stuff. In fact, I'd say the world of "Bioshock" is very much the star of the game.

The game is set in the city of Rapture, which is built underwater, we learn, by Andrew Ryan. The environments are absolutely gorgeous, so it's almost enough just to walk around and look at stuff. However, the game play is also creative. For instance, you can shoot bees from your hand. How many games can you shoot bees from your hand? And then there's the mystery of the story, which really keeps things hopping. It's got all the elements of a great game, which it is.

While I'm picturing Portal 2, this also refers to the original game which was released on XBox 360 as part of "The Orange Box".

The "Portal" series is a fantastic puzzle game with an overarching story that's both hilarious and engaging. The basic concept of the game is that the player has a gun that shoots portals - an orange one and a blue one. Go in the blue portal and you come out the orange portal. This simple idea spawns a vast array of puzzle challenges that are incredibly fun. For instance, what if you put a blue portal on the floor and an orange portal at the bottom of a well and you jump into the well and through the orange portal? Well, you shoot up and out the floor. And what if you put the blue portal on a wall? These kinds of questions are how one solves various puzzles in portal. Then add to that the story of a sadistic robot and a testing facility and, well, you have the makings of one of the greatest game series of all-time.

Another role-playing, first-person shooter. "Borderlands" takes one of the basic joys of the role-playing, hack-and-slash game and expands it the nth degree and that's loot collection. "Borderlands" is filled with loot, most notably, weapons. There are literally millions of weapons in "Borderlands" and the act of killing something and finding that thing's weapon becomes obsessive. Now, add to that some great humor, good storytelling, and wonderful artistic design, and you have the makings of an absolutely compulsive game. Not only that, there are four distinct character types in the game with different skills, so the game can be played over and over again with different characters for a different experience.

A late addition to this list. I love hack and slash RPG's, but Dark Souls is like no other game. Usually in an RPG, you find stuff, you kill stuff, and the excitement is going on to the next big monster, killing it, and getting some cool sword as a reward. Dark Souls takes this concept to a whole different level. In Dark Souls, there's virtually no explanation as to how to navigate the game and virtually everything is brutally difficult. You die and die a lot. While that might sound frustrating to some people, the game is an absolute blast. Everything you do in the game involves an investment and there is real risk/reward to the choices you make, which gives the game a very real sense of peril. As if it were a real scenario, if you go blindly into the fray swinging your sword wildly, you'll die. Every single sequence in Dark Souls is like that.