The 5 Best Xbox 360 Games Still Worth Playing In 2023
The seventh generation of consoles was one of the most competitive in modern gaming history, seeing a three-way duel between the Nintendo Wii, Sony's PlayStation 3, and Microsoft's Xbox 360. While the Xbox 360 technically came in last place in raw sales figures, it put up one heck of a fight, selling over 84 million units worldwide and setting a record for the most profitable American-made game console. With an accessible library of games bolstered by the user-friendly design of Xbox Live, the Xbox 360 staked its claim in the annals of gaming history.
Speaking of that library, the Xbox 360 played home to some of the biggest hits of the seventh generation, including many games that still maintain enduring appeal to this day. These games are still so enjoyable that they remain readily playable on backward-compatible Xbox consoles or other platforms like PC. If you're looking for fond memories of the late 2000s, these games will dredge 'em up.
BioShock
A spiritual successor to the PC gaming classic "System Shock," 2007's "BioShock" has long been hailed as one of the greats of narrative-gameplay integration. It's a fun game, mixing traditional firearms with Plasmids, genetic weapons that allow you to launch fire and electricity from your hands, among other wild abilities. The story and worldbuilding, however, are one of the big draws.
From the moment you step out of a bathysphere into a soggy welcoming hall, "BioShock" absolutely drenches you in its atmosphere, equal parts eerie and somber, gradually depicting the downfall of the ambitious secret city of Rapture. We won't give anything away, but let's just say that this game's big plot twist is still recalled over a decade later as an exceptionally smart stroke of storytelling, which is probably why they're making a movie out of it. Even if you don't care about the story, the gunplay is nice and smooth, providing a pleasantly straightforward progression while also allowing you to subtly tweak your specialties with Gene Tonic upgrades. It's not as open-ended as "System Shock" was, but it's a tighter experience.
Batman: Arkham City
After decades of mediocre Batman games, 2009's "Batman: Arkham Asylum" finally put the Caped Crusader in a game worth discussing, combining responsive, timing-based brawling with strategic and satisfying stealth gameplay. However, while "Arkham Asylum" was the game that made the concept appealing, 2011's "Arkham City" was the game that perfected it.
"Batman: Arkham City" struck the perfect middle point between the series' origins and where it eventually ended up. It maintained the excellent brawling and sneaking gameplay from "Arkham Asylum" while providing a decently-sized sandbox to grapple around and explore. You got plenty of opportunities to beat up Batman's best villains in climactic boss fights, and while not quite to the same extent as "Arkham Asylum," there's still some great dialogue from Mark Hamill as The Joker and the late Kevin Conroy as Batman. There's a reason "Arkham City" earned a Game of the Year award: because it was the ultimate Batman experience.
Left 4 Dead 2
The seventh generation of game consoles was the heyday of Valve's game development before they focused on "Dota 2" and running Steam. One of the best games to come out of this period (amongst quite a few excellent games) was 2009's "Left 4 Dead 2," a sequel to the previous "Left 4 Dead" that came out the year prior. Fun fact, ahead of this game's release, many fans of the original were protesting against it, saying it was too soon for a sequel. Still, thanks to some smart moves on Valve's part, the protests eventually died down, and the current consensus is that "Left 4 Dead 2" is an excellent game.
Whether you're in a team of Survivors gunning your way through a swarm of Infected or playing as the Special Infected yourself to try and stop them, "Left 4 Dead 2" remains one of the definitive co-op multiplayer experiences. While the servers aren't as active as they used to be back in the day, the game still has its stalwart fans on PC, keeping things fresh with mods and community interaction.
Fallout: New Vegas
When "Fallout: New Vegas" was announced, the initial response was skepticism. "Fallout 3" had sold absolute gangbusters, so the idea of another "Fallout" game with the same engine felt to some like a cheap cash-in. "Fallout: New Vegas," however, was anything but a cheap cash-in. With the help of good design sensibilities from "Fallout 3" and bolstered by Bethesda's team-up with Obsidian Entertainment, "Fallout: New Vegas" became the high point of the modern "Fallout" games, still placed above both "Fallout 3" and "Fallout 4" in both gameplay and story.
"Fallout: New Vegas" carries over some aspects of "Fallout 3," from the general gunplay to the leveling system. However, it also introduced a fantastic array of new weapon types to tinker with, as well as faction-based reputation systems in addition to the base karma system. As good of a game as "Fallout 3" was for its time, "Fallout: New Vegas" has aged substantially better.
Dead Rising 2
2006's "Dead Rising" was a wild experiment in open-world game design, giving you near-complete access to most major map areas early on while constraining you with an actively-ticking clock. It was a game about being in the right place at the right time and pummeling your way through zombie hordes with a sledgehammer to get there. 2010's "Dead Rising 2" really took the formula to its pinnacle.
"Dead Rising 2" was everything a good sequel should be, offering a much larger world map without getting carried away with it and introducing tons of new zombie-smashing potential through wacky Combo Weapons. "Wacky" really is the word of the day- wackier settings, wackier bosses, wackier everything, striking that entertaining balance of serious and stupid. Even after you've finished the game's story, it's oddly relaxing to just traipse through the streets of Fortune City with a lawnmower blade taped to your head and see where the afternoon takes you.