The top five 360 must haves

I've recently just went back to education, and as much as I love my PS4 I can't afford to spend £50 on a game any time I want to play. So after skipping the last generation mostly (last time I owned a console was 2007) I've purchased a 360. So far it's a magical relationship, and I've recently picked up GTA IV: Complete Edition, PGR4, Max Payne 3, Red Dead Redemption, Dead Rising Collection & Hitman Absolution.

So Microsoft peeps, what would be your top five games of the generation?

I have trouble with Top 5 lists because there are just too many, but I'll mention some of my favorites from last gen

Mass Effect 1-3

Dragon Age Inquisition

Dead Space 1-3

Silent Hill Downpour and Homecoming, Silent Hill collection(all of the Silent Hill games basically)

Halo 3,4

Forza Horizon 1, Motorsport 4

LA Noire(best Detective game ever created imo)

Bioshock

Battlefield 3, Bad Company

Dead Rising series

Castlevania SOTN(its a rereleaae), Lords of Shadow

TMNT 1986

SHhadow Complex

There must be so much more but those are some off the top of my head

Halo CE

Halo 2

Halo 3

Halo 3: ODST

Halo Wars, only if you like RTS, if not then Halo Reach

@rosinmonkekyx17: Would it be a bad time to mention that I'm not a fan of Halo? However, I've only played 3, and I don't think I gave it enough time. Which game would you say is the best to purchase first so I can give the series another shot?

Dead Space 1&2.

Mass Effect Series

Bioshock

That should tie you over for a few months.

LOL, last thing you should do if you're going back to school is get an Xbox 360, so much of my time in the last decade was wasted on it =P

Anyhow, one great thing the Xbox 360 had going for it was nice bite size games in the Xbox Live Arcade titles, I'll make a second list below for that, but premium titles:

• Mass Effect 1 - 3
• Dead Space 1 - 3
• Gears of War 1 - 3 + Judgement
• Catherine
• Halo 3, ODST, Reach, and Halo 4
• Bayonetta
• Vanquish
• Binary Domain
• Beautiful Katamari
• Deadly Premonition
• Portal (as part of Orange Box) & Portal 2 (stand alone)
• Bioshock 1, 2 and Infinite
• Left 4 Dead & Left 4 Dead 2
• Battlefield Bad Company 2 (check to see if people still play online or there servers still up)
• Lost Planet 1 + 2 (Lost Planet 2 check to see if servers still up and if people play competitive and co-op still)
• Dead Rising, DR2, and Case West good to see you have this
• Max Payne 3 and Red Dead Redemption good to see you have this too
• Batman Arkham Asylum & Arkham City
• Mirror's Edge
• Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare & Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: World At War
• Saints Row: The Third
• Assassin's Creed series (start from first or second, then go forward)
• Tomb Raider (2013) for sure, also Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld if you're a big Tomb Raider fan or were
• Ghostbusters
• Brother In Arms: Hell's Highway
• X-Com
• Civilization Revolutions
• DMC Trilogy
• MGS Collection
• Fallout 3 & New Vegas
• The Elder Scrolls Oblivion and Skyrim
• Far Cry 3
• Just Cause 2
• Doom 3 BFG
• RUSE
• Crysis 2

Okay, excessive, and man I'm sure I"m leaving tons of other great stuff out, but damn if there weren't so much goodness on the Xbox 360, anyhow, you're in school, so maybe nice cheap XBLA downloadable games are right up your alley, games that don't cost a lot and don't require a huge amount of your time to enjoy, like:

• Geometry Wars Retro Evolved and Retro Evolved 2 (I prefer Retro Evolved 2 by far)
• Toy Soldiers & Toy Soldiers: Cold War
• Battlefield 1943 (if people still play and servers still up)
• Boom Boom Rocket
• Fez
• Rez HD
• E4: Every Extend Extra Extreme
• Lumines Live!
• Dishwasher 2: Vampire Smile
• From Dust
• Portal: Still Alive (stand alone XBLA version)
• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
• Marvel vs Capcom 2
• Earthworm Jim HD
• Pac-Man CE DX+
• Galaga Legions
• Doom & Doom 2
• Wolfenstein 3D
• Duke Nukem 3D

Not in any order but...

Lost Odyssey

Sega Rally Revo

Forza 3 or 4

Red Faction Guerrilla

Blur

Narrow it down to 5 is kind

Mass Effect Trilogy

Deus Ex Human Revolution

Fallout 3

The Elders Scroll Skyrim

Halo Reach

Assassin's Creed II

FarCry 3

Splinter Cell Blacklist

X-Com Enemy Unknown

Batman Arkham City

• Orange Box
• Mass Effect Trilogy
• Bioshock
• Red Dead Redemption
• Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary

Honourable mention to Portal 2.

Dead Rising 1.

Halo 3.

Mass Effect 1.

Lost Renmant.

Gears Of War 2.

Not in any particular order. Games I've played and think graphics and gameplay were pretty awesome.

Rage

Borderland 1&2

Crysis 2&3

Red dead Redemption

BioShock Infinite

Dishonored

Thief

Batman Arkham City

Yeah, Red Faction Guerilla is such an underrated game.

@ryan78134: Idk...I'm pretty much a Halo fanatic

Almost all these Halo's are dead now, no multiplayer on 1 or 2, barely anyone on 3, ODST, well people have different opinions on it (only fun with friends :D) Halo Wars if you like RTS

Well, IMO, Halo 2 or 3 have got to be my favorite, but that's only due to multiplayer :P

Kameo

Halo Reach

Mass Effect series

Gears series

Arkham Asylum/City

Highly recommend you start with the first... get the Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition. It's brilliant (talking about the campaign though, don't know anything about MP).

I loved the MP on RF, I used the rhino power up to knock over my enemies and finished them of with my hammer when they're on the ground, its just so satisfying. Just like using the baseball bat in Saints Row 2's MP.

The Orange Box

Dead Rising

Halo 3 and/or Reach

Forza

Fallout 3 and/or New Vegas

@ryan78134: Oooh, I got this one! These are 360 games any 360 owner MUST HAVE!

Halo CE Anniversary, 3, Reach, 4

Fable 2, Anniversary

Gears of War 1, 2, 3

The rest I'd give to 3rd party stuff which is still good and most function better on 360 because you don't have to install them like most PS3 games.

@ryan78134: If you're willing to give the series another shot, I'd highly recommend Halo Reach. Fully customizable main player, firefight mode, multiplayer is still a blast if you like couch multiplayer with some of your buds. More moves, powers, and assassination kills to boot! I still play from time to time!

Or Halo 4 which had an awesome campaign mode but it's useless for anything else seeing where the online players went and 343i took out all the fun stuff.

@ryan78134:

1. Halo 3

2. Halo ODST

3. Halo Wars

4. Halo Reach

5. Halo 4

-----

Alternatively:

1. GeoW 1

2. GeoW 2

3. GeoW 3

4. GeoW: J

5. Fable 2

Forza Motorsport 3

Project Gotham Racing 4

Red Dead Redemption

Gears of War 3 (easily my most played game)

Other top games:

Forza Motorsport 4, Mass Effect 3, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Borderlands 2. Plus many XBLA games (including the awesome N64 Banjo games).

This thread is most likely going to get locked :P

Excellent thread. I have an Xbox One but I kept my 360 and I've been buying tons of games for it that I missed. I used to be into multiplayer games mostly and for some reason now I am craving the opposite, single players experiences which I skipped many of the past generation. It's been awesome so far, specially at the prices you can pick up most 360 games for (on Amazon/eBay).

This thread helps tremendously.

Here are some games I didn't get to play back then but just ordered:

Skate 3

Sonic All Star Racing Transformed

Alan Wake

Star Wars Unleashed (1st one)

Final Fantasy XIII

The Sims 3

Thinking about picking up:

Sonic Unleashed & Generations ( need some more convincing)

Fallout: New Vegas (NOT sure yet as FO games feel dull to me, its just Vegas drawing me in as I love the city and it might be the perfect FO because of it)

Hydro Thunder: Hurricane

CS: GO (NO I don't have a gaming PC so thats why)

Crash Mind Over Mutant

Dark Souls

Lost Odyssey

Blue Dragon

Dead Rising (Shame on whoever doesn't list this)

Fallout 3

Alan Wake is brilliant and an exclusive, I'm surprised noone has mentioned it yet to be honest.

Another great game for last gen is Spec Ops: The Line

Burnout Paradise and Need For Speed: Carbon if you like more arcade-style racing games over PGR and Forza.

Sonic Generations is great, Unleashed is horrible.

I don't know about top 5 but here are some really good games GTA V(obvious one), Gears 1-3, BioShock 1-2 and Infinite, Assassins Creed 2, Batman Arkham Asylum and City, LA Noire(Its a hit and miss with different audiences), Dead Space, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Skyrim, Fallout 3, and Mass Effect 1-3. I'm forgetting some but this should be a decent start.

For me:

Halo3

Ninja Gaiden2

Forza4

Lost Odyssey

Dead or Alive 4