So you got a 360 for Christmas, what do you play?

So, you got an Xbox 360 for Christmas, and you’re trying to figure out what to play. Here are my top 10 360 games, in no particular order.

The Orange Box - Includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Ep. 1, Half-Life 2 Ep. 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. Half-Life 2 is an AWESOME shooter, and the 2 follow up episodes are pretty damn good as well. Team Fortress 2 is arguably the best multiplayer game, even though the xbox live community is probably pretty dead for that game right now. If they release a new map for it, be prepared for the players to come back in droves. And Portal is just the best game ever made. Ever. You should order this disc now.

Mass Effect - Part shooter, full RPG, this will be considered a flagship game for the 360, I think. A new IP from Bioware (makers of the Knights of the Old Republic series, and the enjoyable Jade Empire), it’s a space opera in the tradition of Star Wars. While it’s not a complete shooter, and suffers a little bit at times in the shooter gameplay (and the controls for the planetary vehicle are BUSTED), the story and other parts of the game play (tech abilities, and ‘biotics’ aka magic) more than make up for the slight deficiencies of the shooter gameplay. The other thing this game manages to achieve is to create an incredibly diverse set of experiences for each person for each playthrough. E and I played the game at the same time and had completely different interactions with the characters and even the plot. Highly recommended.

Bio-Shock - Great shooter game (you will see a theme developing), with a good story and atmosphere. You’ll love/hate the incorporation of Ayn Rand. Yes, there’s a game with not-so-subtle Rand references. The game itself is gorgeous, and terrifying at the same time. It incorporates the use of music and sound to great effect, and hits the right note throughout. I woudn’t play through it again, but everyone should play through it once.

Call of Duty 4 - Even though this has been out for a while and the multiplayer won’t be as enjoyable as it was after release, the campaign is good. Really Damn Good. Best controls on a console shooter I’ve ever played.

Fallout 3 - I just finished beating this game. I LOVED it. I have much more of a capacity to deal with going to all of the places and picking up all the things than others do, but this game would definitely be enjoyable without all of that. Plus, if you have any familiarity with DC, the game does an AMAZING job re-creating a post-apocalyptic version of the city. It really feels like DC went through a nuclear apocalypse.

Gears of War/Gears of War 2 - Must haves. If you haven’t played either of them, you are missing out on fantastic games. Horde mode on Gears of War 2 takes co-op experience to an entirely different level.

Grand Theft Auto IV - It is what it is. It is the pinnacle of sandbox adventure gaming. Solid storyline, enjoyable gameplay, sort of a must-have, though I didn’t enjoy it as much as some people.

Halo 3 - I put this on the list, but I kind of disliked this game. It really felt like more of the same from the first two. And I hate the Halo multiplayer community, so that part of the game had no appeal to me.

Left 4 Dead - The best online co-op multiplayer game ever (with apologies to Horde mode on Gears of War 2). Perfectly creates the feeling of fighting through waves and waves of zombies. There are so many ways that this game could have gone wrong, but it doesn’t, and it works perfectly.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - from the makers of Fallout 3. This is the latest installment set in the Tamriel world. Huge, open world RPG, with lots and lots of collecting/questing/role playing/etc. There are some weird mechanics with the leveling (all of the creatures level with you, so you have to level optimally, or the gameplay gets very difficult towards the higher levels), but as open-world RPG’s go, it doesn’t get much better than this. (Though for my money, I enjoyed Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind more than this one).