50 Greatest Xbox 360 Games - 50-26

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In celebration of our birthday issue, we've waded through the archives to bring you our pick of the best Xbox 360 games available on the console so far.

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Being the 50th issue, it seems only right to take a good look back and pick out what we think are the 50 best games to have graced the Xbox 360 in its first four years. We've now got absolutely hundreds to choose from, both on the shop shelves and on Xbox Live Arcade, and the discussion that followed was surprisingly tough.

This wasn't about scores. This was about the games that we on the team thought were the best, and that we think every Xbox gamer should play over all others. Tallies were taken, arguments were had and spreadsheets were used to decide the final running order.

There were some rules, too - if there are sequels only one gets picked, but franchises were OK (so you only get Gears of War 2 but two Calls of Duty) and we weren't going to separate Xbox Live. Mike wasn't allowed to fill it up with racing games and Ryan was banned from introducing an RPGs That Are Terrible But I Play Them Anyway section. Once we'd totted up the final scores, the results were a little surprising, even to us - read on to see if you agree.


50 Dead Space
Visceral Games/EA

The scariest game in this generation, bar none. That it looks more polished than a Hollywood blockbuster doesn't do it any harm either, going head-to-head with GoW2 for pure "wow" factor.








49 Race Driver: GRID
Codemasters/Codemasters
Quicker and slicker than a greased weasel, GRID has some of the biggest accidents we've ever seen. The revolutionary flashback system means you can relish every crumpled panel.

48 Pac-Man Championship Edition
Namco Bandai/ Namco Bandai
Released to celebrate Pac-Man's 25th anniversary, Championship Edition's psychedelic HD visuals and great new scoring system has had a rejuvenating effect on the arcade classic.

47 Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe
Midway/Midway
Even though MKs trademark gore was dropped, MK vs DC, which pits the heroes of Outworld against the likes of Batman, is still one of the most entertaining games in the series.

46 Blue Dragon
Mistwalker/Microsoft
Blue Dragon was Microsoft's second attempt to get an Eastern RPG on their console. The result? A thoroughly pleasant exercise in watching numbers go up.

45 Skate
EA Black Box/EA

Skate nails everything a skateboarding game should have: easy to learn-hard to master mechanics, solid physics, hilarious bails and great multiplayer. The sequel was a bit flat, though.








44 Rez HD
Q Entertainment/Microsoft
This on-rails shooter has you flying through a retro-cyberscape of wireframe ecosystems and cityscapes as you "hack" your way through a computer "supernetwork", while techno music plays in time to everything you do. The music and you quickly become one entity and it's perfect.

43 Earth Defence Force 2017
Sandlot/D3 Publisher
Representative of a gamer's fever dream after eating something close to a kilogram of cheddar, EDF is a third-person shooter about defending the Earth from giant ants, giant spiders, UFOs, Godzilla, robots and more - often on such a large scale that hundreds can fill the screen at once. Few games these days manage to be anywhere near as playful and crazy as EDF. It's a lost art.

42 Worms
Team 17/Microsoft
14 years old and still going strong (or at least still going), Worms is brilliant, tactical and has more room for amusing jammy shots than all the other games in the world put together.

41 Lost Odyssey
Mistwalker and Feelplus/Microsoft
Fighting traditional turn-based battles is a bit at odds with the heartrending short stories about love and loss you stumble across, but it's a combination that's as weird as it is welcome.

40 Project Gotham Racing 4
Bizarre Creations/Microsoft
The first in the series to include motorcycles, which can be pitched head-to-head against the cars. The city choices are brilliant and the weather effects make the slide-happy handling even more of a thrill.

39 N+
Slick Entertainment/Metanet

Run. Jump. Run. Jump. Ru-- FAIL. These three words define N+, that terrifying distillation of the platforming genre available on XBLA. It'll make you very, very good at running and jumping, but only if you get good at failing first.






38 Condemned: Criminal Origins
Monolith/Sega
As you guide detective Ethan Thomas on his gory murder investigations through faeces-stained brickwork, all the while under assault from insane hobos, you'll wish you were playing with rubber gloves. In a good way.

37 Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
Capcom/Capcom
Lost Planet strikes a zen-like balance between moving, shooting, melee combat, indirect weaponry and vehicles. It's pretty, has a unique setting, great multiplayer and an excellent grappling hook. We approve.

36 Burnout Paradise
Criterion/EA
The decision to take the series into an open world was contentious, but changing a hallmark series so radically proves that Criterion isn't afraid to take risks to make a better game.

35 Race Pro
SimBin/Atari
Simbin's handling is second to none, and add to that some of the most challenging and satisfying tracks in the world and you've got hours of tarmac-pounding fun.

34 Dead Rising
Capcom/Capcom

For every mis-step this game takes in structure, bugs or difficulty, it makes up for it with two brilliant ideas elsewhere. It remains one of the bravest games of this generation.









33 Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Traveller's Tales/LucasArts
It's not easy to make fun of something without being disrespectful, yet Lego Star Wars manages it effortlessly. Then there's the cute design, tight platforming and sense of humour.

32 Assassin's Creed
Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft
Badass Altair has a lot to answer for. First all that killing. Second, for making the animation of every other game look shoddy. Thirdly, for making us really, really want a sequel.

31 Hitman: Blood Money
IO Interactive/Eidos
Hitman 1 was a mess, 2 was too hard and Contracts was short and lazy. But it all came together with Blood Money. Colourful, clever and rewarding, it's the game fans always knew it could be.

30 Forza Motorsport 2
Turn 10 Studios/Microsoft
Plenty of things about Forza 2 are awesome - silky smooth graphics, the biggest collection of cars and tracks on the console and supercomputer-grade physics. But it's the community that cements it as the most complete racer on the Xbox 360. The ability to share custom paint jobs and tuning setups means there's always plenty to do, even if you aren't the next Jenson Button.

29 Viva Piņata
Rare/Microsoft

When it was announced, this sounded like Rare's suicide note: a cutesy kid's game about gardening, launched alongside an animated TV series. When played, however, it was extremely adult-friendly and one of the most addictive games on Xbox. The concept might be off-putting, but the game is unputdownable.



28 The Darkness
Starbreeze/2K Games
A supernatural first-person shooter, the accompanying story's a bit hackneyed but it's very powerfully told, making this one of the most atmospheric shooters around.

27 Ninja Gaiden 2
Team Ninja/Tecmo

This action adventure ranks as one of the most fiercely challenging games on Xbox 360. In fact, it's absolutely brutal in places. Slicing off opponent's limbs has never felt so satisfying.








26 Fable II
Lionhead/Microsoft
It may be buggy and have a weak ending, but Fable II is a flawed gem. With its tight action, moments of genius and buckets of charm, it's hard to resist falling under its spell.

OXM Staff