There's no doubt that many Xbox fans consider the Xbox 360 era to be the greatest in the history of the brand, and a large part of that is due to how many incredible games the console received in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
But out of the thousands of titles released on the Xbox 360, which was the very best? Metacritic seems to think it was Grand Theft Auto 4, which sits at the peak of the top ten with an incredible 98 average rating:
- Grand Theft Auto 4 (98)
- Grand Theft Auto 5 (97)
- BioShock (96)
- The Orange Box (96)
- Mass Effect 2 (96)
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (96)
- Red Dead Redemption (95)
- Portal 2 (95)
- Batman: Arkham City (94)
- Gears of War (94)
Of course, Metacritic ratings don't always tell the full story, so we need to consider some others as well. Halo 3 is an obvious candidate, as are the likes of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Dead Space, Fable 2, Dark Souls, Alan Wake, Oblivion and so many others. Seriously, what a generation this was!
We know it's going to be tough, but we want you to try and whittle down the list of 2154 Xbox 360 games into just one winner! Does Halo take the crown for you? How about Gears of War? Come and tell us in the comments below.
What was the greatest Xbox 360 game of all time? We're looking forward to these responses!
Comments 83
For me it’s either GTA V or Red Dead Redemption. Both are great games that pushed the console to its limits.
Trials HD ftw.
For me, it was the Mistwalker games: Blue Dragon, and more so Lost Odyssey!
Not going to lie, Lost Odyssey had me a little misty at times - especially the Thousand Years of Dreams writings. It was such an amazing game!
I was mostly a PC gamer at this generation, though. Most X360 games on the list I played on PC.
I played Mass Effect on PC as well as Gears of War on PC. Honestly, those weren't good ports.
I had a pretty beefy system back then, too - running dual Radeon 1900 via Crossfire and a pretty good AMD CPU as well - I don't remember how much RAM I was pushing at the time (been too long). But I also assumed everything could run at "Max settings". I have grown so much since then.
Bioshock fared much better and was amazing! Oblivion ran pretty decent, but I couldn't stand the Bethesda RPG formula and lost interest.
All Source games I played on PC as well.
Arkham Asylum I played on my ASUS ROG Gaming laptop (had a GeForce 660, I believe). It also supported PhysX for that game to really amp up the atmosphere.
Has to be Skyrim I spent so much time playing this with my best mate in party chat discovering stuff together sort of ha if not that mass effect 2 or gears 2 or 3
Fur me? There is no question. Shadowrun the first person shooter.
Oh my such underrated and underappreciated game. If they would remaster or make a sequel, I would absolutely be the first person to pre-order. And I never pre-order games.
Mmmmm the Xbox glory days the Xbox360
What a console and amazing selection of games and exclusive games, that were top tier AAA.
Definitely the best place to play third party games as well.
So hard to pick a favourite so I won’t.
Objectively, Portal 2. Subjectively, Fallout 3. By time played, Halo 3. If you average all three factors, Skyrim.
Seems fair, huh?
@GamingFan4Lyf so im not the 1st to mention Mistwalker. Hello kindred spirit
My favorite by far was Transformers War for Cybertron. Which is sad because without online the game is a shell of it's former self.
@CharlieChooChoo Lost Odyssey is way overdue a sequel or remaster.
Dark Souls
Lost Odyssey
Halo Reach
Gears of War 3
Lost Planet
Forza Horizon
Test Drive Unlimited
...
Many many more...
For me, it had to be Oblivion. That one game sold me on the entire system. That was the first game that just blew my mind with the freedom it offered. I also remember really loving Forza Motorsport 4 and the first Forza Horizon.
@FarmDog08 I'd say it still holds up pretty well when playing it via Backwards Compatibility.
Blue Dragon especially fares a lot better - all the frame issues and screen tear are gone!
AutoHDR adds a nice touch, too.
@CharlieChooChoo Those sequences were written by a famous contemporary Japanese author: Kiyoshi Shigematsu.
I never had a 360, in fact my first Xbox is the Series S. That said I played a ton of the backwards compatible SEGA games, the FF13 trilogy, the Metal Gear games, Silent Hill etc.
@GamingFan4Lyf Agreed on the Lost Odyssey part. Been streaming it on TikTok/Twitch and almost while live. Had some people talk about how they were getting choked up too.
Shame what happened to their third Xbox game and after though. Mist Walker had so much potential.
Portal 2 and 1 VS 100 obviously.
@InterceptorAlpha It is a shame that Mistwalker shifted to mobile games because I really enjoyed all the main console games it released.
As far as I remember, all of the console games it put out were well received by critics and players, but not necessarily commercial success stories.
Easy, but I'll give you my top three. No one is gonna agree on this, ah well, here goes...
1. Deadly Premonition
2. Crackdown 2
3. Saints Row the Third
Ok, 4, The Walking Dead
Got to be Red Dead Redemption for me. It is hard to pick just one. The 360 is in my top 2 favorite consoles of all time. The selection of games were outstanding. Gaming was just more fun in that Gen than in today’s for me. Call it age or just what dev’s are making now with the new tech. Maybe both.
Lost Odessey. Such a memorable title.
Oblivion is high up there too, for me.
There were a lot of great titles to choose from...
Skyrim! My favorite game of all-time.
@BowsersBuddy yeah i agree with the age thing. I also think i just don’t care for the shooter market like i used too. Fortnite and battle royal ruined my love for FPS games. I also really enjoyed achievements when they first came out. Now i wouldn’t play Barbie’s little pony just to get 1000G. But i did like them in the games i wanted to play. 360 was a amazing time in online gaming for me as well and some of that is age as those friends have moved on to being full time parents and jobs that don’t let them sit around on the weekends and do our 4-5 hours of Gears and Beers online. Miss the 360 day’s and hope MS can bring some of its charm back to consoles cause they would have something special that i think a lot of gamers would buy into. Look at the PS4 and PS5, they are 360’s. Before the 360 the PS was way way different.
It has to be Bioshock for me. The blend of story, environment, and combat was some of the best I’d ever seen. To this day there are still few worlds that match Rapture. I still constantly think about that game. It’s easily in my all time top 5.
Thats a solid top 10 list on Metacritic there. My personal favourites are Bioshock, Mass Effect trilogy, and the Batman Arkham games, still some of my all-time favourites to this day.
Batman Arkham Asylum and City ..and the mass effect trilogy
Honourable mentions Fallout 3, New Vegas,Bioshock and Red dead Redemption
Super-tough, but Id go with - for pure game physics, story, replayability - BioShock, followed swiftly by Oblivion…
Mass Effect 2.
The Mass Effect trilogy is the LOTR trilogy of video games. Amazing experience, interesting lore, galaxy, characters and continuation. Mass Effect 2 wins.
Great list. I'd say the answer to the question is : yes.
GTA 4, Bioshock and Portal 1&2 are all strong contenders, but it’s Deadly Premonition at #1 for me!
My first Xbox was the Xbox One, but I bought it because of the backwards compatibility. The game I enjoyed the most was Viva Piñata. My adult side enjoyed the Gears of War games the most, especially 1, 2, 3 and 4 (Xbox One). They are some of the best shooters ever made. That said, I need to play the Mass Effect and Bioshock games.
@JetmanUK Deadly Premonition is one of my favourite games, it's the closest we've gotten to a Twin Peaks game!
Lollipop Chainsaw is another underrated 360 title that often gets overlooked as just another simple fan service game.
Mass Effect Trilogy is probably a once in a lifetime event, still can’t believe what BioWare pulled off.
Hardwood Hearts, obviously
Way too many good games, but I'll try for a top 10 in alphabetical order:
Batman Arkham Asylum
Bioshock
Dead Space
Deus Ex Human Revolution
Dishonored
Left 4 Dead 2
Portal 2
Prey
Tomb Raider
Walking Dead (Tell Tale)
#1 has gotta be Bioshock, but those are all 10/10 games imho
Forza Horizon.
I have never seen a game nail it's aesthetic and theme like this first try. It set the bar so high that none of the sequels have come close to matching it's festival atmosphere, appearing more as maps for MMO racing instead.
A decade later the map is still fun to drive and has those trademark 360 sunsets that come very close to matching the haze of Fable 2. And the soundtrack is an exquisite mix, with repeated plays on Radio X in the UK and my car stereo.
Second would be Fable 2, a game that truly allows roleplaying without the game.mechanics getting in the way of every NPC conversation taking 10 minutes. (See: Bioware)
Not sure. Most of the major IPs don't care for (PS3/360 part 2) of current gen IPs. Played a few but even still I ignored most of them and they have sequels on PS4/Xbox One and current gen. I just don't care for them.
The left behind ones (mostly shooter one offs, the Japanese AAA ones that surprised me, sure I was used to Vanquish but Binary Domain, Front Mission Evolved, I only learned about Quantum Theory a week ago, just as much as the Gran Turismo clones of the OG Xbox/PS2 era I've researched, I'm still discovering many games in different areas from these eras via videeos or internet browsing devs/publishers what titles have wiki pages.
Many good western one off shooters as well, or certain duologies and trilogies that never got remasters/remakes at all the Army of Two, Legendary, TimeShift (Acitivision come on give us some backwards compatibility for Prototype, I bought it for that reason even if have a 360 to play it on, Pitfall OG Xbox, Singularity and more), Space Marine (am kind of interested in the sequel), Bodycount, Shadowrun playing the offline mode, Unreal Tournament 3, The Darkness 1 & 2, Lost Planet. Many I have on PS3/360 it varies but they are third party so they count. Finished a few not all yet.
I want to play Fracture, Inversion, Singularity and more if I ever see copies) have been interesting more so. Some old gen of Xbox OG, some new spins, some early modern.
Enslaved Odyssey to the West, Indies via bundles/demo disks.
Enjoyed Blur, PGR 3 more than 4. The Club (modern arcade shooter sigh would love to see a successor).
Forza Motorsport 3 & 4 are great. Halo/Gears were good. Love ODST's take on things. The atmosphere. Mission paths with few choices.
Eternal Sonata was good for a fair few hours, later parts just weren't doing it for me.
Portal 1 was good, 2 is fine but very above my understanding even as a platformer/puzzle fun into physics puzzles, flash games or console games.
Fable and others were pretty fair titles not really my thing but I appreciate what they offered.
Fair Japanese support like OG Xbox back then.
I still prefer OG Xbox/360 over Xbox One and Series because the exclusives, the support from third parties was just better. More interesting game design, types of games, even HD DVD while not much I mean it was still something.
While Japanese AAA support is something on Xbox One/Series consoles it's not the same and also especially from AAs they come too late or most don't suit the Xbox vibe/userbase according to devs so you barely ever see them or are too late to release so it's never a suitable option.
As I go for old AAA or current AA like experiences nowadays western or Japanese yeah it's a bit unsurprising why I have my Xbox One for third party particular titles or exclusives I don't mind have around.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
The OG Gears Of War, My favorite game of all time..
Obviously skate 3 is the best game on the 360
BioShock for me. That game is a masterpiece.
I'd say Forza Motorsport 4, Forza Horizon, and the 3 Skate games.
Gears of War for me. Loved the TPS, and the cover system done so well. And graphically it was just amazing at the time.
Not to mention I have a chain saw fetish with the lancer.
This is probably more what’s your favourite Xbox 360 game rather than what’s the greatest, but for me it’s either Black Ops 2 or Modern Warfare 2. I’ve only played 3 games on that top 10 and I would say Red Dead Redemption is the best on there.
Skyrim, period, invested more time on that one than any other game on 360. Even only game I personally used Kinect with (my kids loved the rest of the kinect stuff ofc).
Whole Mass Effect trilogy is amazing, but Mass Effect 2 takes the crown for me (tho, we played mp in 3 for YEARS).
Halo Reach is second choice.
Left 4 Dead 1. Nothing else.
Bioshock, The Orange Box and Halo Wars. All games I still play to this day (& now enhanced) on Series X.
How anyone can put GTA at the top of the 360 list is beyond me! Halo and gears of war is the 360.
Possibly Skyrim for me, despite how poorly it ran on console, and the fact load times increased exponentially as your save file got longer. It was certainly the one I played the most, despite the flaws.
But objectively The Orange Box is probably the most complete package. Half Life + Episode 1 + Episode 2 + Team Fortress 2 + Portal, something for everyone and all of it top tier.
Mass Effect 2 is also in with a shout. Although it nerfed a lot of the RPG aspects of the original it is a better all round game.
That's my top 3 today, not sure about the order. Plenty of other great games hard on their heels.
@somnambulance Love that approach! Great games.
@GamingFan4Lyf Frankly amazed we never saw a Lost Odyssey sequel, or anyone do something similar with the music and stories of the Thousand Years of Dreams. And I didn't know that about the author. Interesting.
@ozkrmz How could I forget Dark Souls was on X360 (probably because I played it on PS3.. but still!) That's ****** my list, thanks! lol
@NarutosBiggestFan 1 vs 100 was incredible and the biggest missed opportunity ever not bringing that back during covid lockdowns!
@GamingFan4Lyf I had an absolute nightmare with bioshock on pc! Crash after crash after crash. I don’t know how I managed to beat it thinking about it 😆
When I think of the 360 it’s the OG gears of war and halo 3. Nothing compares to them.
Got to be rock band 2 for me. The sheer amount of hours and fun I got out of that game with my friends is unreal
Easy....
Oblivion
Bioshock
COD: MW
Portal 2
Orange Box
What shocks me is they are mainly first person shooters which I don't really play anymore. Is that an age thing or has the quality of FPS gone seriously downhill?
Halo Anniversary.
Hi there fellow gamers.
I don´t think I can only mention ONE Xbox 360 game, since there were many great games that came out in that period.
Having said that, here are some of my personal favourites:
There are quite a few others, but these were/are kinda special.
Cheers and happy gaming
@FarmDog08 @CharlieChooChoo @Rmg0731 @GamingFan4Lyf
Hi there fellow gamers.
Glad to see more fans of both Mistwalker and rpgs in general.
I really wish they had more success with both 360 games.
Even tough I´m the weird gamer that enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII and it´s sequel, I still say to this day, that Lost Odyssey is the FF game that most FF fans wanted to play but couldn´t.
And Blue Dragon is no slouch either. It is still pretty good.
The fact can both are playable trough backwards compatibility on Series S/X is fantastic and any rpg fan should give them a go.
Cheers everyone and have a good one
Wow! Well this is difficult!
1. Dead Space 1 & 2
2. Gears of War original trilogy
3. Mass Effect trilogy
4. Bioshock
5. Portal
There are many, many more that I really enjoyed but right now cannot think of, but which may have made there way into my top 5. I think my top 3 wouldn't change though...
In no order..
PGR4
NieR
BioShock 2
Ninja Gaiden 2
Bayonetta
Geometry Wars 2
AC Ezio Trilogy
Vanquish
Killer is Dead
Deus Ex Human Revolution
All pro football 2K8.
Dear friend @themightyant
Visuals of Dark Souls was way better on Xbox360 (thanks to it's more powerful ATI GPU) than PS3. I immediately started playing on Xbox360 even though I was already platiniumed on PS3.
You know? I owe some my good friends (all around the world) to Dark Souls, because I met them in Lordran. We utterly enjoyed the jolly co-operation together and became really good friends afterwards.
It was so much fun to murder invaders.
Dear friend @Suspect64
I completed "Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary" at least twice, as 3D on my LG TV.
Thank for the reminder
Lost Odyssey. Although I hated the Treasure Trove achievement.
While games like Mass Effect 2 and Batman Arkham City got better critical praise overall the the originals I personally feel the first games were better because of the lasting impact they had at the time and being a huge step forward and I played both a huge amount at the time. Like several others have said the two Mystwalker RPGs are up there for me too Blue Dragon got very poorly received at the time for being too old in game design but that is what tends to happen with each new generation the older style gets seen as bad for a while.
Hard to say as such a great generation.
1v100 - Great game and its live service elements were ahead of its time and would work today.
Bioshock - Amazing game that never was topped by its sequels
Gears 2 - A sequel which improves everything with amazing online play to boot.
Geometry Wars - The og xbox live arcade game. Cheap, good and hard to master. Still play every now and then and still holds up. One of the few games the wife used to play on the 360 too.
Lost Odyssey - Wonderful RPG that for me ranks as one of the best.
PGR 3 and 4 - Some of the best driving and had many awesome sessions of Cat and Mouse and Last Man Standing with top end cars v mopeds 😀
Wow, so many amazing gamrs and I can name so many more. Great games and one of the best consoles ever.
My top 5 of that gen for me were Fallout 3, Skyrim, Bioshock, Dead Space and FF13. Such a great generation!
My favorite Xbox 360 titles were Rainbow Six Vegas 1&2, Call of duty 4: modern warfare, Skyrim, and oblivion
@TheIronChimp I forgot all about 1v100!!
@GuyinPA75 Dude, we played the crap out of that game. I still go on from time to time and play bots. Lol. Such an under appreciated game.
I would have to say Oblivion. I played that for 385 hours.
Halo 3, Bioshock, Gears of War..... Oblivion I had 4 character with over 300+ hours on each...the game kept locking up and I'd have to delete all my save data and start fresh
Fallout New Vegas!
My first proper online gaming experience was weekly horde sessions in Gears 2 with a bunch of mates, and a bottle of wine
So Gears 2 takes it for me!
Pretty sure Skyrim is the best game on the 360, Xbox One and Series X. Fallout 3 is close.
The Simpsons game
Project Gotham Racing 4 was the dogs undercarriage why is that not on the list???
Well perspective is important to note as not everyone has the same feel for games but I love survival horror. For me personally it has to be BioShock
CHROMEHOUNDS.
Lobby system was superb, I don't understand why it's never been repeated.
People used to disappear into Chromehounds, never to be seen unless you also played Chromehounds. Got called Crackhounds as a result.
I sorely miss that game.
The 360 was great! (One of my larger collections + the better multiplat versions)
1. Having Half Life 2 on Xbox & The Orange Box with the Episodes were as enjoyable! Valve needs to get to HL3 at some point!
2. Project Gotham Racing series
3. Bioshock
4. Forza Horizon & Motorsport series
5. Max Payne 3/Rise of the Tomb Raider
Also enjoyed the XBLA a lot!
And so many others:
Assassins Creed series, Blur, some COD series, Dante’s Inferno, Dead Space series, Dirt series, GTA IV with the DLC, NFS Shift series, Prince of Persia series, PES, RED Dead Redemption, enjoyed the first entries of Saints Row, Split/Second,
Street Fighter series, Table Tennis, The Darkness series, The Saboteur, Ghost Recon series, Splinter Cell series, Tomb Raider series, Top Spin series (needs to come back), Transformers series, Vanquish …
@JetmanUK
Believe it or not, I'd probably put deadly premonition in my top 5. Loved that game.
Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim were excellent but the one I've probably replayed the most is shadows of the damned. It's juvenile and silly but I actually really love that game
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