# Recommend me some games for the Xbox 360...



## Mark Hope (Jan 8, 2009)

My son received an Xbox 360 from his uncle for Xmas this year.  So while he and his sister are happy playing _Kung Fu Panda_ and _Lego Indiana Jones_, my gf and I are looking for some ideas for games more to our taste to play when the kids are in bed.

(Yes, OK, ha ha, very funny.  Can we get our minds out of the gutter now?  )

I've been out of the gaming loop for a couple of console generations (last one was an N64) and haven't bought a PC game since the early days of Windows XP.  So I'm looking for recommendations from my fellow gamers.  What is cool?  What is not?  What will dethrone Planescape: Torment as the greatest game ever?

Some insight into my tastes might help with the recommendations.

*First-Person Shooters:* I loved _Half-Life_ to bits.  Played it to death for years on end.  So I'll be getting the Orange Box.  Is there anything else that I should check out from this genre that compares to HL?  Are the _Medal of Honor_ games good?  I was also a huge fan of _Operation: Flashpoint_, so something on that scale would be cool too.

*Role-Playing Games:* I said it already - imho, _Planescape: Torment_ rocked my world.  I also loved _Zelda: Ocarina of Time_.  I'm looking with eager eyes at _Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion_.  Is it cool?  Are there any other great rpgs on the 360?

*Space Shooters:* Both _Freespace_ and _Tachyon: the Fringe_ were staples for me back in the day, as was _X-Wing: Rogue Squadron_.  I love flying around in spaceships blowing stuff up.  A large, immersive setting and a cool plot are also a must.  I am stumped in this regard, though.  Anything good out there?

*Horror Games:* I loved _Clive Barker's Undying_ and _Shadowman_.  I love a game that can creep me out and make me scream like a little girl.  So I am thinking of checking out _Clive Barker's Jericho_.  My gf is a huuuuuge zombie fan too.  What else is out there that would get us all goose-bumped and tingly in the small hours?

Those are my main areas of interest.  My gf is very into _Tomb Raider_ as well (she bought _Legend_ yesterday and I'll get _Underworld_ for her when the price comes down a bit).  I have also heard good things about (iirc) _Mass Effect_ and _Bioshock_. _Gears of War_ looked cool but I have heard that it gets repetitive.

Anyway, hit me with your recommendations, either in the above categories or any other game that you think is supercool!

(As an aside, we weren't aware of the gift before Xmas morning and haven't upgraded to an HDTV yet.  The games we do have - _Kung Fu Panda_, _Indiana Jones_ and _Tomb Raider: Legend_ - look great and play fine on our 32" flatscreen SDTV but we are keen to move to HD anyway.  This just gives us added impetus.  We should get an HDTV sorted out in the coming week, but if there are issues with any games on an SDTV, feel free to mention them in the meantime.)

(As another aside, if there is already a thread that covers this kind of thing in one place, feel free to spank me and point me in the right direction.  You'll save time and I'll get a free spanking.  Everybody wins!)


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## EricNoah (Jan 8, 2009)

Oblivion for sure.  It's coming up on 3 years and I still play the heck out of it.


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## Thanee (Jan 8, 2009)

On the contrary, I found Oblivion to be horribly boring and repetitive, but there seem to be a lot of mods out for it, which might make it cool (not sure, those exist for the console version, though).

I just played and finished Mass Effect recently and found it to be a very great game. Some parts of it are also repetitive (well, what game doesn't have those), but all in all... awesome RPG with a great evolving story and lots of nifty bits and pieces in between.

Bye
Thanee


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## Mallus (Jan 8, 2009)

Mark Hope said:


> *First-Person Shooters:*



Definitely Bioshock... also consider Call of Duty IV: Modern Warfare.



> *Role-Playing Games:*



Definitely Mass Effect... also, I hear good things about Fable II and Fallout 3. 



> *Space Shooters:*



Unfortunately this is something of dead genre, particularly on the consoles. But weren't Freespace/Freepace II great games?



> *Horror Games:*



I hear good things about Dead Space, and Resident Evil V is out soon and looks amazing from the previews. 

Disclaimer: don't have a 360... I've played the PS3/PC versions.


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## Arnwyn (Jan 8, 2009)

While Mallus is wrong on virtually everything he says virtually everywhere in ENWorld (), he's almost always right in the video game forum. So - what Mallus said. 

I own Bioshock, Mass Effect, Fable II, and Fallout 3 for my 360 (others for my PS3), and they're all quite good (well, Fable II less so, but if you liked the first one then you'll like this one for sure, I'd say). Note, though, that the far superior version of Mass Effect is on the PC.

The Gears of War series (1 & 2) is pretty good, if you like shooters. (And, again, the far superior version of GoW1 is on the PC, not 360.)

I found Oblivion to be wretched and boring (with poor controls on top of that), but lots of people liked it so it might be worth looking in to. (And yet again - same as above. Superior verson on PC.)

Halo 3, if you liked the first two (it's more Halo 2.5 or even only "2", since Halo 2 was more like Halo 1.5, heh). Too short and disappointing single-player game, AFAIC.

Other 360 games I own (and consider decent, at least - especially if you get 'em used):
- Blue Dragon: a respectable JRPG
- Dead or Alive 4: the DoA series of fighting games is my favorite, so I'm not all that objective here. Not as good as the best one in the series (DoA2), it's still decent. Too bad the 360 controller is wretched with fighting games, 3D or otherwise. *sigh*
- DoA Extreme Beach Volleyball 2: Okay, I _don't_ recommend this... it's very bad. (I got it for <$10 and the only redeeming feature is that it has video game boobies. That's not much of a feature.)
- Dead Rising: find only if cheap. Very repetitive and short, it's a lot of fun for short periods because it's you, a mall, and zillions of zombies. Zombies!
- Eternal Sonata: A beautiful (both in graphics and sound) JRPG.
- Forza Motorsports 2: An okay racing game (though the PlayStation's Gran Turismo series blows it out of the water). If you like racing games, though, get it used.
- Infinite Undiscovery: A so-so JRPG. By Square-Enix (yay!), but definitely not their best work (boo!) (as it has been for all their work on MS's platforms). Stick with their Sony releases.
- Just Cause: A poor-man's GTA mixed with Mercenaries. Fun to run/drive/fly around and blow things up for a short while. If you get it, get it cheap.
- Lost Odyssey: A much-better JRPG that's kind of reminiscent of the Final Fantasy series. If you happen to like that sort of thing, this is the one JRPG to get (along with Tales of Vesperia, actually)
- Lost Planet: Extreme Condition: Bleh. Not a great shooter. Got it because I got the special edition for, like, $5.
- Perfect Dark Zero: An okay FPS. Notable for being the beginning of Rare's downfall into mediocrity. Four player split-screen with bots, though.
- Saint's Row: A GTA rip-off, but fun and over-the-top.
- Tales of Vesperia: The next in the line of the _Tales_ JRPG series. I'm a huge fan, and thus not objective. FUN, IMNSHO!


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## Vocenoctum (Jan 9, 2009)

Mark Hope said:


> *First-Person Shooters:* I loved _Half-Life_ to bits.



Since you skipped Xbox, I'd say the entire Halo trilogy will still do you good. You can get 1&2 cheap enough used, give them a try and then move into the next-gen Halo3. Gears 1 was great, I didn't care for 2, but that's me.
Call of Duty 2 was great, Modern Warfare is widely acclaimed though I didn't care for it. Bioshock for sure.



> *Role-Playing Games:*



Oblivion, Mass Effect, Fable 2
(and again, Fable 1 and Morrowind are Original XBox games that are good and cheap. As well, Knights of the Old Republic is original Xbos and great. and I loved Jade Empire)



> *Space Shooters:*  Anything good out there?



Nothing springs to mind, maybe something on Live Arcade...



> *Horror Games:*



Everyone I've talked to says Jericho sucks, never found anyone that liked it. Silent Hill has a few games on XBox and 360, and if your gf likes zombies, than Dead Rising is a must. Left4Dead was so-so for me.


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## Mark Hope (Jan 9, 2009)

Thanks, guys - some great suggestions here and valuable insight.  Thanks!

Arnwyn, can I ask what is it about the PC versions of some games (Oblivion, Mass Effct, Gears of War) that makes them superior to the console versions?  Is the gameplay different?  The stories?  Controls?  Or is it the fact that a high-end PC can out-perform a console?

Mallus, yeah, I haven't seen anything resembling a good, old-fashioned space sim in ages.  The Freespace games (1 and 2 and the expansion) were just fantastic.  Some killer mods out there for them as well.  Sigh.  Might be time to break out the old PC, fire up the GeForce3 and go scrag some Shivans 

OK, as a tangent, do any of you folks know of some games that might be cool for a seven year-old girl who loves ponies and fairies and singing and dancing and pretending to be a princess?  I'd guess that would be more Wii territory, but I figured I'd ask on my daughter's behalf.  She is generally pretty happy just riding Epona around the fields of Hyrule in _Zelda: Ocarina of Time_, but she might dig something similar on the 360.


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## Arnwyn (Jan 9, 2009)

Mark Hope said:


> Arnwyn, can I ask what is it about the PC versions of some games (Oblivion, Mass Effct, Gears of War) that makes them superior to the console versions?  Is the gameplay different?  The stories?  Controls?  Or is it the fact that a high-end PC can out-perform a console?



A little bit of each. Here are specifics for those that I know:

Mass Effect: vastly improved controls (especially that one vehicle... whatever its name is)
Gears of War: better controls, along with entirely new content (the only place to fight a signficant cool boss battle, for example)
Oblivion and Fallout 3: mods, mods, mods (i.e. loads of brand new free content); slightly better controls for Oblivion.


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## drothgery (Jan 10, 2009)

Arnwyn said:


> Mass Effect: vastly improved controls (especially that one vehicle... whatever its name is)




The Mako's not a vehicle, that's a player torture device. It's a testament to the general awesomeness of the game that despite the annoying Mako controls and repetitive side-quests where you had to drive around in the thing, I still played through the game three times. I really hope they replace it with a shuttle in Mass Effect 2.


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## Vocenoctum (Jan 10, 2009)

drothgery said:


> The Mako's not a vehicle, that's a player torture device. It's a testament to the general awesomeness of the game that despite the annoying Mako controls and repetitive side-quests where you had to drive around in the thing, I still played through the game three times. I really hope they replace it with a shuttle in Mass Effect 2.




I'm not an "extreme" Halo fan, but I did love the series and world, so take it for what it's worth...

The Warthog controlled FUN. It worked good and did what you wanted generally and when you flipped it, was still fun, IMO.

meanwhile, Mass Effect and Halflife-2,  their vehicles are (as you say) just torture for me. I just wish they'd play the warthog and copy it.


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## MonkeyKing (Jan 10, 2009)

Games for seven year old girls hmmmm......

Sing It by Disney seems like it would fit.

Gamestop.com - Buy Sing It Bundle with mic - Xbox 360

Of course I have never played it because it features (shudder) Radio Disney stars.  On second thought maybe that qualifies it as a zombie s*urvival *horror game?

Viva Pinata is fun for both kids and adults.

Raymans Raving Rabbids is also a blast


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## Protagonist (Jan 11, 2009)

MonkeyKing said:


> Games for seven year old girls hmmmm......





I think the easier Dancing Games (I think there are some by Disney and even DDR might be ok on lower difficulties) might be worth mentioning and GH:WT now has what basically is a "kids" mode where you just need to press any button with the right timing.


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## Mallus (Jan 12, 2009)

I've got a question for 360 owners (seeing as I swapped consoles with a friend of mine this weekend, my PS3 for his Elite)... what can you do about the awful racket they make? 

The thing sounds like a cheap paper shredder. I thought all those complaints about the 360 being noisy were, well, exaggerations. They aren't. I had to crank the volume just so I could hear Cortana's voice-over at the start of Halo 3.


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## Mark Hope (Jan 12, 2009)

Wear earmuffs so you can't hear it?



Yeah, I was surprised by the amount of noise it makes, but I haven't found that it drowns out speech thus far (in my huge library of three - count them - three games, lol...)  In-game music being louder than speech has been more of an issue, to be honest.  It seems to me to be a bit louder than the fans on my old Pentium III, but not too much worse than that.  But I have read plenty of reports about the noise, so maybe it varies slightly from console to console?

That said, I do have it hooked up to a nice 5.1 surround system which is usually set to a solid volume, so that likely offsets any noise the console itself makes.  Playing with headphones is another (suboptimal, imho) solution.


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## Vocenoctum (Jan 12, 2009)

Mallus said:


> I've got a question for 360 owners (seeing as I swapped consoles with a friend of mine this weekend, my PS3 for his Elite)... what can you do about the awful racket they make?
> 
> The thing sounds like a cheap paper shredder. I thought all those complaints about the 360 being noisy were, well, exaggerations. They aren't. I had to crank the volume just so I could hear Cortana's voice-over at the start of Halo 3.




You just need to suplerglue the dvd tray so nothing moves....

(no, not really)

I've never been bothered by the noise, but then I usually have a fan going and such. Sorry, no help from me.


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## Deset Gled (Jan 12, 2009)

My opinions seem to vary a bit from the ENWorld masses, it appears.  The Halo series is a must have, with 1 and 3 both being significantly better than 2.  Bioshock is good, but not particularly difficult.  I enjoyed Lost Planet quite a bit, but I'll admit it isn't that great until you get access to mechs.  I simply cannot get into Mass Effect (yet).  Also, I would recommend having at least one good party game around.  For 360, my recomendations would be Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, which has turned out to be a surprisingly good return to the roots of the MK dynasty.

For younger kids, there's a version of Katamari out for 360 that's very kid friendly.  It's even much easier than the original Katamari.


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## Dragonwriter (Jan 13, 2009)

I can really only second a bunch of what's been said...

Shooters: BioShock is fantastic. Incredible story, good control scheme, excellent balance and it has one of the best atmospheres ever created in a video game. Halo 3 was good, but I like 1 the best...

RPGs: Mass Effect is great. BioWare always put out the best in RPG and story. Fable 2 was also lots of fun with plenty of wacky humor (then again, I loved #1. I'm a Lionhead fan ). Oblivion is fun, but can get real old, real fast (especially with a set of clothes that gives you constant 100% Chameleon ).

Horror: BioShock certainly falls into this category also, and with some freaky stuff to back it up. Your first 10 minutes in the hellhole that is Rapture will prove it. Dead Space is also supposed to be really good ( I haven't played it yet).

I'm not sure what category Assassin's Creed would fall under... It's a good game, though rather repetitive (and the ending is junk). But, there is something to be said for a game that lets you walk up to a city guard, stab them in broad daylight, and walk away with no one the wiser. And the rooftop chases can be lots of fun.

If you have a good enough PC, Spore is fun for anyone, though it can be a bit annoying, especially when you make other races mad in Space Age. NWN2 is a good PC RPG if you don't mind dealing with a number of bugs...

For XBox, KOTOR 1 & 2 are great RPGs, along with Jade Empire. I liked KOTOR 1's story better than 2 (But it seems to me that Obsidian just can't end a game...). Armed and Dangerous is a great game, not for its gameplay but for its script - Funniest game I've ever played. Psychonauts also was a big hit (received wonderfully, but poor sales; I haven't played it yet).


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## John Crichton (Jan 13, 2009)

Mallus said:


> I've got a question for 360 owners (seeing as I swapped consoles with a friend of mine this weekend, my PS3 for his Elite)... what can you do about the awful racket they make?
> 
> The thing sounds like a cheap paper shredder. I thought all those complaints about the 360 being noisy were, well, exaggerations. They aren't. I had to crank the volume just so I could hear Cortana's voice-over at the start of Halo 3.



The only real fix I've found is to install the game to the hard drive and play it from there.  Much better since the DVD no longer spins and that's where the really bad noise comes from.


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## John Crichton (Jan 13, 2009)

Mark Hope said:


> *Role-Playing Games:* I said it already - imho, _Planescape: Torment_ rocked my world.  I also loved _Zelda: Ocarina of Time_.  I'm looking with eager eyes at _Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion_.  Is it cool?  Are there any other great rpgs on the 360?



If you dig j-RPGs, *Tales of Vesperia* is very fun so far.


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## Mallus (Jan 13, 2009)

John Crichton said:


> The only real fix I've found is to install the game to the hard drive and play it from there.  Much better since the DVD no longer spins and that's where the really bad noise comes from.



Thanks. I installed Halo to the hard drive last night and then promptly got sucked into playing Rez HD --why won't Sega release that on the PSN!!!???!!

One more quick question. I have a set of original Xbox component cables. Can I use those with the 360? Right now I'm using the HDMI cable my friend lent me, and low and behold, I can't connect the 360 to my stereo via toslink, because the toslink port isn't on the 360 itself, it's on the component cables...


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## Simplicity (Jan 13, 2009)

If you like FPSes and RPGs, then Mass Effect is good and Fallout 3 is better.  And they combine both genres. 

Fable 2 is quite good.
My wife is enjoying Prince of Persia...  It looks pretty cool to me.
Bioshock and Dead Rising are also games I'll give another vote for.

Don't forget about the arcade:
Castle Crashers can be pretty fun and it's co-op.  But it's a beat-em-up.
Geometry Wars 2.  So much fun.
Puzzle Quest.


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## Nebulous (Jan 14, 2009)

Best Xbox 360 games i've played:

*Dead Space* - Scary as all hell, it's like the movie Alien, Event Horizon and The Thing all rolled into one.  Instant classic. 

*Fallout 3*- Game of the Year! You can literally spend 100+ hours playing this game and still see new stuff.  it's an amazing rpg/shooter. I'm already waiting eagerly for Fallout 4. 

*The Orange Box - *Even if you played the hell out of HL2, there's no reason in the world not to get this and play it again.  Plus all the new chapters, this is probably the best deal in gaming history.


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## babomb (Jan 16, 2009)

Left 4 Dead - First-person shooter with zombies! It's 4-player co-op or 4 v 4. For best results play with people you actually know. (I've only played the PC version, because I prefer mouse + keyboard for FPS games.)

Tales of Vesperia - JRPG, pretty fun.

Civilization Revolution - Turn-based strategy. I don't know if it's up your alley, but if you've liked any of the PC Civ games, you'll like it. It plays quite a bit faster and takes out some of the micromanagement, but it's the same basic experience.

Downloadable games:
Geometry Wars 1/2
Pac-Man Championship Edition
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
Bionic Commando Rearmed
Catan
Carcassonne
Mega Man 9


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## John Crichton (Jan 16, 2009)

Mallus said:


> Thanks. I installed Halo to the hard drive last night



You're welcome!  I actually find myself playing the 360 more these days now that the gawd-awful noise is significantly reduced.



Mallus said:


> and then promptly got sucked into playing Rez HD --why won't Sega release that on the PSN!!!???!!



Doh!  Been there, done that.  Live Arcade has cost me many a night of gaming that I should have been playing the disc I popped in.  



Mallus said:


> One more quick question. I have a set of original Xbox component cables. Can I use those with the 360? Right now I'm using the HDMI cable my friend lent me, and low and behold, I can't connect the 360 to my stereo via toslink, because the toslink port isn't on the 360 itself, it's on the component cables...



I don't think the original Xbox component cables will work but you can always try it.  For a while I used the 360 component cables (audio only) and HDMI (video only).  The component cables were only used for the toslink connection, like you mentioned.

As an aside, I recently upgraded my receiver to one that has 3 HMDI inputs to take advantage of lossless audio, HD audio and all the newer audio formats (primarily for the PS3 Blu-ray flicks).  I *highly *recommend doing this.  Not only does it sound much better but I got rid of *so *much clutter in my entertainment center.  Bye bye toslink cables!  Power cord and HDMI only from now on.


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## Arnwyn (Jan 16, 2009)

John Crichton said:


> As an aside, I recently upgraded my receiver to one that has 3 HMDI inputs to take advantage of lossless audio, HD audio and all the newer audio formats (primarily for the PS3 Blu-ray flicks).  I *highly *recommend doing this.  Not only does it sound much better but I got rid of *so *much clutter in my entertainment center.  Bye bye toslink cables!  Power cord and HDMI only from now on.



My name is Arnwyn and I endorse this message.


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## John Crichton (Jan 16, 2009)

Arnwyn said:


> My name is Arnwyn and I endorse this message.


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## Felon (Jan 17, 2009)

Vocenoctum said:


> Everyone I've talked to says Jericho sucks, never found anyone that liked it.



Oh, I thought Jericho was a great game to play over the course of a week. A telekinetic sniper. A pyrokinetic with a minigun strapped to his arm. A katana-wielding assassin that can paralyze foes with her blood. A technopagan that can hack reality. A grizzled Catholic priest that can exercise demons and dual wields desert eagles (each of which can be loaded with normal, shrapnel, or explosive ammo). And you are the disembodied spirit that can leap from one body to the next at will. Everything about this rocks IMO. But it's far too short for anyone who shelled out $60 to feel anything less than disgruntled, especially with no online elements. Heck, it's the game I got 945 out of a 1000 achievement points on. 

Other games I've played on Xbox:

*John Woo's Stranglehold*--This FPS is the video game "sequel" to Hard-Boiled. It made for a fun rainy weekend game. Good graphics, cool "bullet time" abilities, detailed settings. Short, short gameplay, and online tacked-on as an afterthought. 

*Saints Row I & II*--I loved these games better than GTAIV. Tons of things to do wherever you go. Wildly over-the-top sociopathic fun. Not for kiddies. SR2's campaign can played in full co-op.

*Army of Two*--The whole game is meant to be played in co-op with a buddy. I found it to be way too short to get much gameplay out of, not to mention buggy and full of instant-defeat situations. Not recommended.

*Mercenaries 2*--Fun open-world action game with lots of undelivered promise. You can actually buy things like tanks and blackhawk choppers and have them delivered to you in the field by choppers. Sounds cool, but since everyone and his brother has an RPG that can blow these up in one or two shots, it quickly becomes a pointless waste. Being able to play through the whole mess with a friend is the only thing that makes it above mediocre.

*Crackdown*--This si the game that Army of Two and Mercs 2 wished they were. A wonderful Xbox-exclusive title.

*GTAIV*--I thought this was a big disappointment. Not bad, mind you, but with all the "game of the year", I really didn't see what the big deal was. I finished it within two weeks. Just not much content. The online is lauded heavily, but that's just not my thing. 

*Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, Fallout 3*--All games that I played for a while and then just lost my enthusiam to pick back up once I hit a bog. I really want to get to them one of these days, maybe during the relative vacum between now and the 2009 holidays.

*Civilization Revolution*--This si to Civ games what 4e is to D&D. Some say it's "dumbed-down", while others say "streamlined". I thought it was fun for a while, but the AI's for the various countries are all too similar and too hostile. You really shouldn't try to encounter them, since diplomacy simply isn't an option. They'll immediately start making unreasonable demands for money and technology and declaring the instant you say "no", with zero regard for considerations of military superiority. And then they keep attacking to the point where their entire civilization has abandoned science, economics, or any other goal besides impelling endless waves of troops against your cities. I thought was funny for a while, as its a suicidal strategy that invariably ensured my victory, but it did get stale.

*Oblivion*--I played as a rogue-type character, and found the thieves' guild missions to be a real thrill. NPC's actually follow routines, and you get missions that entail stalking them, learning their behavior, breaking into their houses while they're out. Cool stuff. Unfortunately, once those missions are done, much of the rest of the game was unplayable for my combat-inept rogue. If I play again, I think I'll just do what I clearly ought to have done: play a heavily-armored mage.

*Mass Effect*--Lots has been said about ME already. Can't really add to it.

*Orange Box*--What a great little package. Half-Life I & II, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. All awesome.

*Left 4 Dead*--Best teamwork-oriented game I've played. 

*Culdacept Saga*--A very good game with serious niche appeal. An addicitve combination of CCG and board game.

*Far Cry 2*--I got halfway through and felt like I got everything it had to offer. Like Ubisoft's other big game, Assassin's Creed, it's got a wierd design that punishes the player for trying to roam.


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## FormerlyDickensC (Jan 17, 2009)

> *Role-Playing Games:*



If ur on  these forums you're prob interested in good RPG.  First choice is Fallout 3, I would def go with that one first over all the others.  Second, maybe Mass Effect.  But I didn't like Oblivion on console at all.  It was designed for a PC and PC controls, so it didn't convert well over to console, IMO. 



> *Horror Games:*



You're only choice here is Dead Space...really a fun game to play IMO.  It may not fall in line with everyone's defintion of a horror game, but when you play alone at night in a dark room, it can crawl up your skin a little.  Probably only play it 15-20 hours, but its nice. I like it a lot. 



> *First-Person Shooters:*



Go with LEft 4 Dead if you have a LIVE Gold account.  Pretty fun multi player action.  Single player is pointless.  Halo series might be good if your into single player (I kinda liked it, it was nice, decent story and good play), but I think of Halo for its multiplayer online action.  YMMV



> *Space Shooters:*



Probably out of luck on this one. Might want to look through the LIVE Arcade and see what they have there. 

*LASTLY: *I want to advocate for use of GameFly.  I think this is much better option for most folks. For about $24/month you can keep out 2 games, and once you've had it for a while they let you upgrade to 3 or 4 games if you want.  Plus you can buy previously played games for cheap.  I think its a solid deal.  I don't like spending $60 on a game regardless.  This way, I basically never have to.


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## Mark Hope (Jan 22, 2009)

Thanks again to everyone who has chipped into this thread.  I have a shortlist of about a dozen games now that have consistently been recommended across the board, so that will keep me going for sure.

As mentioned above, I had already ordered the Orange Box and have been playing it until unreasonable hours most nights.  Fantastic.  I'm still in Half-Life 2 (bombing along the coast in that rattly dune-buggy thing) and loving it to bits.  A friend said that it was better than the first Half-Life and I didn't know whether to believe him.  Man, was I wrong.  Awesome game.

It had an annoying glitch, mind you - it would freeze up during certain load screens or when reverting to some previous autosaves after I had been killed.  Not all the time - just often enough to be annoying.  I installed it to the hard drive and (along with removing the fan noise) this has made it run perfectly smoothly.  Dunno if that was an issue with my copy or with the Orange Box in general.  It doesn't happen with any of our other games.  Oh well.  Bygones.

Also been playing my gf's copy of Tomb Raider: Legend (which she bought on impulse as it was only £8!)  Lots of fun.  And for my daughter, I picked up an old Xbox game called Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue (or something like that).  Very simple, very straightforward.  Perfect for her.  She adores it.

Anyway, really enjoying the console.  Me, my gf and my son all have birthdays coming soon, so we should be making a few more purchases.  My son is dead keen on Fifa 09 and the old Enter the Matrix game.  Does anyone have experience with the latter?


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