Summary
TheXbox 360is perhaps the most beloved of Microsoft’s consoles, with an extensive library of acclaimed titles that still hold up to this day; something is made clear by just how many of them have received a remaster or remake treatment over the years that followed, and how many Microsoft was keen to make accessible on modern Xbox consoles through its backwards compatibility scheme.It was also a generation in which Xbox had more notable exclusives than PlayStation, with the likes ofHalo,Gears of War,Forza,and more, with the first entries in beloved franchises such asBioshock,Mass Effect,andSaint’s Roweither being timed or full exclusives to the platform.
As Microsoft closes the Xbox 360 storefront on June 24, 2025, after nearly 18 years, it’s time to look at the best games available on the platform. To do this,Screen Ranthas taken into account the titles with the highest accumulated ratings onMetacritic, while balancing them with some personal favorites. This is due to the fact that titles that became synonymous with the Xbox 360 platform, such asHalo 3,didn’t make it to Metacritic’s top 10 as it just missed out at number 13, which should say a lot about just how good this generation of gaming was.
The 10 Best Xbox 360 Games You Totally Forgot About
From some long-forgotten shooters to now-obscure games that were once popular, these are some of the best Xbox 360 games that no one remembers.
BioWare’s sci-fi ARPG seriesMass Effectlaunched its first entry exclusively on Xbox 360. While its sequel,Mass Effect 2,was a multiplatform title, Xbox 360 players already had the advantage of knowing the world and its characters in depth before diving intoMass Effect 2. The second entry in the series is ranked the best on Metacritic, with its newer features, such as vaulting over cover, alongside othergraphical and animation improvements being praised.
That’s not to say there wasn’t some controversy surrounding the changesMass Effect 2made from the first game, which some may argue deserves a spot on this list more, especially when comparing the variety of guns, armor, and mods, which were lessened. The game notably includes fewer stats than its predecessor and some of the RPG mechanics players would have expected to be carried over were reduced or removed. Still, it’s likely because of this thatMass Effect 2’s tendency to lean more into action made it accessible to a larger audience, resulting in this score.
You Probably Missed One Of Mass Effect’s Most Interesting Storylines
Mass Effect’s news reports are easily missable but feature some of the most intriguing stories in the trilogy, including one about a ghost ship.
Rocksteady’sBatman: Arkham Asylumwas credited with reinventing the superhero genre in gaming upon its launch, with praise for its dark, mature atmosphere and its depiction of characters, with many actors from the acclaimedBatman: The Animated Seriesreprising their roles as The Dark Knight stops a criminal takeover of the titular asylum.Batman: Arkham Cityis where Rocksteady truly upped the ante, however, as the open-world title saw Hugo Strange transforming an entire section of Gotham City into a massive, maximum-security prison to house some of Batman’s most dangerous rogues.
While retaining its tone from the first game,Arkham Citylets players truly feel like Batman in a way no game before it had, as he would soar high above the rooftops of Gotham before plummeting to its depths to take on gangs of criminals. The game’s original story also provided several shocking moments, even for long-standing fans of DC as Rocksteady didn’t pull its punches with an ending that stays with players long after the game’s chilling credits roll.
Batman: Arkham - The Complete Story & Timeline
The Arkhamverse timeline of the Batman: Arkham games stretches back decades. Here’s the complete story from before Origins to after Arkham Knight.
WhileGrand Theft Autostill seems to be Rockstar’s Golden Goose, theRed Dead Redemptiongames are where the studio’s storytelling skills have truly had the chance to shine. 2010’sRed Dead Redemptionmay have taken theRed Deadname fromRed Dead Revolver, a title Rockstar acquired from Capcom and released in 2004; however, the game was a huge departure from its predecessor in many ways, with its much larger, richer open-world that was full of activities.
Red Dead Redemptionfollows John Marston, a former outlaw who musthunt down his former alliesafter his wife and son are taken hostage by the government. Throughout the game, players see characters adapting to a world that is rapidly changing as the age of the Wild West draws to a close, and Marston and other characters grapple with their moral choices, making for a truly engaging story that is worth coming back to, especially with the added backstory provided in the 2018 prequelRed Dead Redemption 2.
Red Dead Redemptionand itsUndead NightmareDLC are available via backwards compatibility on modern Xbox consoles, with 4K resolution and framerate enhancements.
Complete Red Dead Timeline Before RDR3 - Revolver, Redemption, & RDR2
Rockstar’s acclaimed Red Dead series spans several decades in the Wild West with numerous protagonists across its three main Western titles.
When Valve releasedPortalas part of its acclaimedThe Orange Boxbundle - more on that later - it instantly won over fans with its brilliant voice acting, witty writing, and impressive physics-based puzzle gameplay. The first-person platformer saw players opening blue and orange portals to move items around various levels and having to get creative with some of the solutions.
Portalwas praised for its story, which revolved around the sentient computerGLaDOS' morally dubious schemesand promises of cake and set it apart from similar puzzlers on the market at the time. Its sequel,Portal 2,builds on this, taking place somewhere between 50 and 50,000 years, after the events of the first game with many returning characters as well as new twists and mechanics that make it a worthy successor.
Portal 2’s Lab Rat Tie-In Answers Your Big Unanswered Questions
Back in 2011 Valve released a companion Portal 2 comic “Lab Rat” that explored the behind-the-scenes of Chell’s epic battle against the evil GLaDOS.
It should come as no surprise thatThe Elder Scrolls V: Skyrimwould appear on this list, as Bethesda’s fantasy RPG was the winner of more than 200 Game of the Year Awards and is still extremely popular to this day, in part due to the many re-releases of it on nearly every platform known to man in the years that followed its 2011 release.Skyrimbuilt upon what worked in the previous entry of the series,Oblivion, with its gameplay while telling the story of the Dragonborn, a character who has the body of a mortal but the blood and soul of a Dragon.
Skyrimis set 200 years after the events ofOblivion, although it is not a direct sequel.
Due to its customization options and the variety of paths players can take when exploring the titular region in Tamriel, players can easily sink hundreds of hours into one playthrough and start over and play it completely differently. Because of this and the sheer richness of the game’s world, players keep coming back toSkyrimwell over a decade since its launch.
Every Elder Scrolls Game, Ranked Worst To Best
With the long-awaited Elder Scrolls 6 still far off (and no chance of real-life fast-travel), here’s a ranked list of every Elder Scrolls game.
Despite sharing the same Metacritic score as the first entry in theModern Warfareseries,Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2definitely surpasses it. With its memorable fan-favorite multiplayer maps and plenty of mini-missions, there was plenty for first-person shooter fans to sink their teeth into whether they played in single-player or with others.
While most of theCall of Dutyseries - barring the aforementionedModern Warfare- took place in World War 2,Modern Warfare 2was really where the series got into its full blockbuster swing by bringing it into a modern age that many other titles in the series would follow. What setsModern Warfare 2apart, however, is its controversial and twist-filled storyline, which still serves as one of the bestCall of Dutycampaigns to date.
Call Of Duty: Which MW2 Is Actually Better
There’s no doubt 2022’s MW2 pays homage to the 2009 original, yet it stands on its own. Both games excel in different ways, but which one is better?
Gears of War
One of the Xbox 360’s first major exclusives is also one of its best, according to Metacritic.Gears of Warlaunched on 09 June 2025 alongside the Xbox 360 console and was an instant hit, showing off what the then-new generation of consoles could do with graphics that were a huge leap from the past generation andcover-heavy third-person shooter gameplay that was often emulated across many other titlesin the years that followed.
Straight off the bat,Gears of War’s dark tone and violent gameplay set it apart from other launch titles, and the dynamics betweenprotagonist Marcus Fenixand his squad were engaging enough that players were rooting for them to win as they fought off The Locust Horde. While many - includingScreen Rant’s own “best of” list for the franchise - would argue that some later entries in the series were superior because of the additional modes and features they had, the firstGears of Warstill holds up to this day, and its influence still looms heavily across some modern titles.
A new prequel entry in the series,Gears of War: E-Dayhas been announced and will follow the events of Emergence Day when Sera first fell to the Locust Horde.
Every Gears of War Game, Ranked Worst To Best
Gears of War is one of Xbox’s most reliable franchises, but which entries went the extra mile with added modes, new characters, and bloody executions?
BioShock
The firstBioShockwas a timed exclusive for the Xbox 360 before eventually being ported to PS3, and eventually to other generations with a Remastered bundle, and it was certainly a win for Microsoft’s console when it launched back in 2007. The first-person shooter game saw players exploring the underwater city of Rapture, with aclaustrophobic art deco horror aestheticas they’d navigate various areas fighting off the crazed splicers or theheavily armored, extremely powerful Big Daddys.
BioShockwas praised for itsgameplay that resembled the likes ofSystem Shock- a franchise that many deemedBioShocka spiritual successor to, despite having unconnected stories - with tight shooting mechanics, hacking mini-games, and the addition of Plasmid powers that let players electrocute, freeze, or incinerate their foes among other things. However, one of the main things it will be remembered for was its story, in particular a very shocking twist that made sure players never looked at mission objectives in video games the same way since.
How Long It Takes To Beat Every BioShock Game Back-To-Back
With a new BioShock game supposedly coming out in 2022, this is how long it would take players to play the first three games consecutively.
Technically,The Orange Boxconsists of 5 titles developed and published by Valve, but the combined bundle was extremely warmly received when it was released on Xbox 360 in 2007. Two of the games included,Half-Life 2and its first stand-alone expansion,Episode One; had previously been released as separate products, butThe Orange Boxincluded the second expansion,Episode Two,as well as the firstPortaland the multiplayer first-person shooter title,Team Fortress 2.
While the major draw ofThe Orange Boxat the time was undoubtedlyHalf-Life 2and its expansions,Team Fortress 2proved to be extremely popular with its fast-paced action, deep and varied classes, and humor, andPortal’s similarly dark sense of humor and engaging physics-based puzzles were so good that it went on to get its aforementioned sequel.
Why Half-Life’s Combine is the Most Brutal Dystopia in Gaming
Though players tear through their ranks, Half-Life’s Combine are perhaps one of the most brutal and terrifying dystopian societies in gaming.
Grand Theft Auto 5may have come to PC and every console generation after its Xbox 360 and PS3 launch, but there’s no denying its impact when it was released in 2013 as one of the last major releases of the generation.GTA 5was innovative for the franchise with itsoption to switch between three different protagonistson the fly, offering dynamic moments in missions as players could experience three different perspectives when pulling off a heist, as well as letting them simply explore Los Santos as their favorite of the three and use their specific special skills.
Despite no longer having itsGTA Onlinefeatures on the Xbox 360 - which likely aren’t included in the game’s Metacritic score asGTA Onlinewas added followingGTA 5’s initial launch - and not having some of the additional mechanics added in later releases, such as a first-person view, the open world map is still fun to explore, andGTA 5’s story is still as chaotic and enjoyable as ever.
What The Best GTA Game Is, According To Metacritic
There have been a lot of Grand Theft Auto titles released over the years, but one surprising release is ranked higher than all the others.
