Gimme some of the essentials from this gen (with a catch)

[OptimoPeach]

Catch being that they have to be playable on the 360 since I'm poor.

I've been on a sabbatical of sorts from console gaming for the past 4-5 years, so outside of a few releases I'm oblivious to most of the big stuff from this generation. Off the top of my head I've played GTA 4 (including the expansions or whatever), Halo 3 & ODST, GoW 1 & 2, bits and pieces of Fallout 3, bits and pieces of Dragon Age, Lost Planet 1 (yuck), and MW2. Any genre is cool, although at the moment I'm not very interested in multiplayer-oriented games. I'm picking up the GOTY edition of Fallout 3 because what I saw was pretty sweet and I remember the sploogefest EB had over it, but that's all I have on my list for now.

So uhh. Show me the goods n stuff

[archie4208]

Batman Arkham Asylum
Geometry Wars 2
Trials HD

^^^ Probably the best 360 games that don't involve plastic toy instruments.

[OptimoPeach]

^^^ Probably the best 360 games that don't involve plastic toy instruments.

Yeah, that reminds me: No music games. While we're at it, no vanilla racing sims either.

Also, I'm pretty godly, so the harder the better

[The Fake Shemp]

BioShock, The Orange Box, Dead Space and Mass Effect are all good single-player games you can get for cheap. The forum has a lot of Mirror's Edge fans too.

[Bildi]

Batman
Dead Space
Mirror's Edge
Bioshock

XBLA - Trials HD, Shadow Complex, Braid are what I liked.

Racing games - DiRT and PGR4 I liked.

I also went bonkers for AC1, but AC2 is a better bet and more universally liked.

[iconoclast]

These are my favorite games on the platform, and all of them are really high quality. And yes, Earth Defense Force is a budget game but I had a lot of fun with it.

RPG's:
Mass Effect, Tales of Vesperia, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Culdcept Saga (not really an RPG, but close enough)

FPS/TPS:
Bioshock, Dead Space, Resident Evil 5, The Orange Box, Left 4 Dead 2, Call of Duty 4/MW2, Earth Defense Force 2017, Rainbow Six: Vegas

Fighting games:
Street Fighter 4, BlazBlue, Tekken 6, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, Virtua Fighter 5, Marvel vs Capcom 2

Action games:
Ninja Gaiden 2, Devil May Cry 4

Open world:
Red Faction: Guerrilla, Crackdown, Bully: Scholarship Edition

Racing games:
Project Gotham Racing 4, Burnout Paradise, Forza 3

Don't know what to classify these games as:
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, Dead Rising, Batman, Condemned: Criminal Origins

XBLA:
Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Braid, Castle Crashers, Geometry Wars 1 & 2, Ikaruga, Lumines Live, Mega Man 9, Pac-Man: Championship Edition, Rez HD, Shadow Complex, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 HD Remix, Trials HD

[Beezy]

Mirror's Edge is the game of the generation, so definitely get that. ($20 or less)

Ninja Gaiden 2 is still this gens best action game until Bayonetta is officially released. ($20 or less)

Burnout Paradise is the best open world arcade racer and has had a lot added to it through free DLC. ($20 or less)

Earth Defense Force 2017 is an extremely fun low budget game, but ONLY if you have someone to play co-op with. It's boring as hell if you play alone. ($20 or less)

Resident Evil 5 is great on single player or co-op. Ignore the few haters here.

Batman Arkham Asylum is the best licensed game ever.

If you're into jrpgs, Tales of Vesperia is the best overall. Lost Odyssey is a close second.

XBLA (just try the demos)
Omega Five
Ikaruga
Outrun Online Arcade
Bionic Commando: Rearmed
Castle Crashers
N+
Mr. Driller Online
Puzzle Fighter HD
Virtual On

[iconoclast]

Earth Defense Force 2017 is an extremely fun low budget game, but ONLY if you have someone to play co-op with. It's boring as hell if you play alone. ($20 or less)

I dunno, I beat it on each difficulty solo (so 5 times) and still loved the game. Sunk around 40-45 hours into it I believe, pre-weapon farming.

Also, Virtual On is indeed awesome. Can't believe I forgot it 

[Bildi]

Oh yeah, R6V and Condemned are mad awesome.  RE5 is great too.  Burnout Paradise is good for cheap.

I just finished Timeshift recently and absolutely loved it.  Almost no love for the game out there but great for cheap.

[OptimoPeach]

Thanks for everything so far. Keep em coming.

If you're into jrpgs, Tales of Vesperia is the best overall. Lost Odyssey is a close second.

I actually meant to ask what the consensus was on The Last Remnant. I stumbled across a few gameplay videos by chance a while back and the battle system looked interesting, but past that I don't know anything at all about the game.

[Rman]

Ridge Racer 6 is dirt cheap and pretty awesome as well.

[Bildi]

Lost Odyssey is good.  I have Last Remnant but haven't opened it yet.  demi liked it and he also liked Lost Odyssey so take that as you will.

[Beezy]

Thanks for everything so far. Keep em coming.

If you're into jrpgs, Tales of Vesperia is the best overall. Lost Odyssey is a close second.

I actually meant to ask what the consensus was on The Last Remnant. I stumbled across a few gameplay videos by chance a while back and the battle system looked interesting, but past that I don't know anything at all about the game.

Great battle system with no random encounters and endless sidequests (they make up like half of the game or more I think), but meh everything else. If you mainly play jrpgs for their battle systems, TLR's is good enough to keep you playing through the game. You have to install it though or else you'll have to deal with PS1-like load times. ($20 or less)

[tiesto]

buruuuuu doragonnnnuguuuu~~~

 

[iconoclast]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]
                                             

Also it's like $10.

[Beezy]

Blue Dragon is okay, but I don't care too much for it. I think it's worth playing though just because it looks amazing and everyone has to experience the boss battle theme.

[pilonv1]

I'll add in Pure to the list. Everything else I'd recommend has been mentioned.

[bork]

-Get Bayonetta on 1/5.  You will not only get the best 3D action game ever made, but also a game filled with plenty of challenge.

-There's nothing else like Mirror's Edge, which is an amazing fist-person platformer.  It's cheap now, too.

-I love Resident Evil 5, but if you want to save some cash, get Dead Space.  It's only $20 now.  I just picked it up myself.

-Street Fighter IV, Blaz Blue, or Tekken 6.  Take your pick if you want a great online fighting game.  On XBLA, there's also SSF2T HD Remix and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2.

-I'm not much for RPGs, but I really enjoyed Mass Effect.  It's a good combination of RPG and third-person shooting.

-Saint's Row 2 is the best sandbox game I've ever played, and it too should be pretty cheap now.  Forget about GTA.  I'd also recommend Crackdown.

-My favorite 360 racer is Outrun Online Arcade on XBLA.  Gripshift also offers driving action fun, and you can't go wrong with Ridge Racer 6.

-The best single-player FPS I played was Bioshock. 

-For multiplayer FPS, I like Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3.  Note that if you go with the latter, it's better to pony up and get Halo 3 ODST as the Halo 3 MP disc included has all of the DLC.  If you want something cheaper, there's nothing wrong with CoD4: Modern Warfare.

-Lost Planet (get the better Lost Planet Colonies version) is a fun third person action game from Capcom.

-I didn't get into the sequel, but I'd still recommend checking out Gears Of War.

-Crystal Dynamics did a great job on all three of the Tomb Raider games they made.  There's Legend, Anniversary (remake of the original), and Underworld (direct sequel to Legend).

-Grin's 2D remake of Bionic Commando on XBLA is definitely worth checking out.

-Shadow Complex offers some fun Metroidvania style game play.

[pilonv1]

The one problem you might have is that Fallout 3 is one of the better games in years and everything you play after it will pale in comparison.

[demi]

Also, I'm pretty godly, so the harder the better

Not many games in the past few years were actually difficult. This gen is cheesy weezy pussy games.

DMC4 and Ninja Gaiden 2 are the only wow wow difficult ones I guess.

[demi]

The one problem you might have is that Fallout 3 is one of the better games in years and everything you play after it will pale in comparison.

Just dont play Borderlands before playing F3. I couldnt stomach F3 for a minute after that.

[demi]

The Last Remnant is definitely the best RPG I have played. It's also one of the most difficult. It's amazing.

[bork]

Oh yeah, Fallout 3 (GOTY edition) definitely needs to be added to the list.

[ManaByte]

Assassin's Creed 1 and 2.

[Ichirou]

These are my favorite games on the platform, and all of them are really high quality. And yes, Earth Defense Force is a budget game but I had a lot of fun with it.

RPG's:
Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey

Fighting games:
Street Fighter 4

XBLA:
 Pac-Man: Championship Edition

Just some notes on a few of these:

Lost Odyssey is awfully generic and ploddingly paced.  I wouldn't recommend it unless you enjoy 16-bit RPGs with current gen coats of paint.  Ditto Blue Dragon, though that one's got a job system akin to FFV's.  LO is a very flawed game, I wouldn't recommend it unless you are seriously into JRPGs.

Street Fighter 4 I wouldn't even bother with considering Super Street Fighter IV is coming out relatively soon.  I would add Virtual On Oratorio Tangram to the list (available thru XBLA).

Pac-Man Championship Edition is amazing, this is coming from someone who never cared for the original Pac-Man but absolutely loves this.

I would add Sam & Max and the Secret of Monkey Island remake to the XBLA list, as well as the Indie games Downtown Smash Dodgeball and the ARKEDO series.  Super Puzzle Fighter 2 HD is not worth it - I've never seen anybody playing it online since I picked it up, and though the additional gameplay modes are nice, they removed all the extra content the old PSX/Saturn versions had.

[Bildi]

I forgot about Gears.  It's insanely polished and gave me a feeling similar to Metroid Prime where I just wanted to oggle at how beautiful everything was all the time.

Oh sorry, you've already played it.

[Beezy]

Saints Row 2 is $20 at the Best Buys near me. Maybe I should pick it up...

[OptimoPeach]

Appreciate all the recs.

Okay, so here's my list for now:

Fallout 3 GOTY edition
DMC 4 (Haven't played a DMC since the first )
Ninja Gaiden 2
Mass Effect
Bioshock
Mirror's Edge
Arkham Asylum
The Last Remnant
Tales of Vesperia
Lost Odyssey (I've been dwelling in the 16-bit past lately anyway, so I'm not averse to the idea of a somewhat generic turn-based JRPG)
Borderlands
Dead Space
Assassin's Creed 1
Saint's Row 2
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Red Faction: Guerrilla
Ridge Racer 6

Any glaring omissions? I tried to go for the older (i.e., cheaper) stuff for now. I'm also holding off on the XBLA titles because I don't even have XBL at the moment lol. Most traditional FPSes I prefer on PC, so that's why I left out The Orange Box and MW2. I'll take the advice to wait for Super Street Fighter IV since I'll have such a huge backlog anyway

Also, I'm pretty godly, so the harder the better

Not many games in the past few years were actually difficult. This gen is cheesy weezy pussy games.

DMC4 and Ninja Gaiden 2 are the only wow wow difficult ones I guess.

Goddamnit

[trippingmartian]

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Bioshock
Dragon Age: Origins

Flawed gems:
Fable 2
Gun
Kane & Lynch

[Great Rumbler]

Mirror's Edge
Batman: AA
Bioshock
Mass Effect
Fallout 3 GOTY
Dead Space
Borderlands
Saints Row 2

[demi]

Get LOST Via Domus

[Bildi]

Goddamnit

Mirror's Edge can be very hard if you are doing the time-based things.  Trials HD also gets insanely off-the-wall hard.

I'd play pretty much every game on hard first time through.  That seems to be the sweet spot now.

[iconoclast]

Any glaring omissions?

Crackdown!

Nah, it's not really a glaring omission; it's fairly flawed but a lot of fun. Probably one of the more unique open-world games out there anyway. Bully is an excellent game too, but you might have already played it on the PS2 or something. On the other hand, Assassin's Creed 1 is kinda awful, but if you plan on playing AC2 you might want to slog through it.

If you really want a difficult game, you can import Mushihime-sama Futari (2D shooter)... there's not a whole lot of people who can clear that on Ultra mode.

[Ichirou]

Get Bayonetta when it comes out next year.

[bork]

Any glaring omissions? I tried to go for the older (i.e., cheaper) stuff for now. I'm also holding off on the XBLA titles because I don't even have XBL at the moment lol. Most traditional FPSes I prefer on PC, so that's why I left out The Orange Box and MW2. I'll take the advice to wait for Super Street Fighter IV since I'll have such a huge backlog anyway

I get you on the pricing, but still...cut out Ninja Gaiden II and DMC4, and get Bayonetta instead.  It is the best in its genre. 

[Mr. Gundam]

Mirror's Edge is awesome and really cheap now. Totally worth your time.

Get Bayonetta when it comes out next year.

 

Seems almost everybody forgot: DEAD RISING

You can get a triple pack of Dead Rising, Devil May Cry 4 and Lost Planet for ~$30. Great deal.

[OptimoPeach]

nothing poor about being an x360 only player. Sort of like saying "i only have a shitty F335 to drive around in "

Yeah I actually forgot PS3s came down in price. I guess what I meant was I'm too frugal to pour money into more than one console. I dream of a single console future.

Crackdown!

Nah, it's not really a glaring omission; it's fairly flawed but a lot of fun. Probably one of the more unique open-world games out there anyway. Bully is an excellent game too, but you might have already played it on the PS2 or something. On the other hand, Assassin's Creed 1 is kinda awful, but if you plan on playing AC2 you might want to slog through it.

If you really want a difficult game, you can import Mushihime-sama Futari (2D shooter)... there's not a whole lot of people who can clear that on Ultra mode.

I dunno why but Crackdown never really caught my eye. Maybe I'll rent it or something.

Get Bayonetta when it comes out next year.

I get you on the pricing, but still...cut out Ninja Gaiden II and DMC4, and get Bayonetta instead.  It is the best in its genre. 

You can get a triple pack of Dead Rising, Devil May Cry 4 and Lost Planet for ~$30. Great deal.

I think I'll just get the triple pack then. I wasn't that impressed by Lost Planet at the time, but Dead Rising + DMC4 alone are around $40. Bayonetta looks cool (although I am weirded out by the main character's resemblance to Palin) and I'll definitely pick it up eventually, but I'm itching for some HD hack n slash like RIGHT NAO. I don't recall being floored by the original Ninja Gaiden on Xbox, so I have no problem holding off on that.

Out of curiosity, why is Bayonetta already being lauded as genre defining?

[bork]

You can still buy XBLA titles even if you don't have XBL gold.

Out of curiosity, why is Bayonetta already being lauded as genre defining?

Here's our thread: http://www.evilbore.com/forum/index.php?topic=31996.0

Bayonetta is made by the same guy who basically started this 3D action genre with Devil May Cry, BTW.  It's basically like he came back to it eight years later and showed everybody how it's done...AGAIN.  Choice quotes below.  It basically takes the already-awesome Devil May Cry series and makes it like 10 times better.  DMC, Ninja Gaiden, and GoW have all been surpassed.

Some quotes from EDGE:s 10/10 review.

Review calls the platinum brawler "flawless" and "the kind of game you dream of playing

- "From start to finish its intricate and intuitive fighting system is a masterclass, and it even finds time to reclaim vehicle levels. This is about as good as it gets," the magazine says."

- A thirdperson action game from the same school as Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta has just memorised the best bits and burned down the building, its combination of seamless animation, sensory cues and riotous imagination setting a new standard."

- Edge says the combat system "breaks new ground" and the story is "funny", but also finds time to be tender in places.

- It's a beautiful and graceful fighting game that lets imagination loose, and winks before slapping Dante, Kratos and every other hero back to the drawing board."

Not to downplay Bayonetta or anything, but I'd really be surprised if she can match the depth of Dante alone in DMC4.

And what is this depth you are talking about?

5 styles, 3 guns, 3 (very different) weapons you can change in real-time mid combo (+ glitches like "distortion" moves). He has tons upon tons of combo possibilities.
[youtube=560,345][/youtube]
The best Dante combo video I could find with 10 minutes of searching. He repeats his aerial moves a lot, but it's still a pretty decent video.

Sounds like Bayonetta.  Only Bayonetta has the dodging mechanic, multiple items you can get that change up the game play, special attacks, 5 weapons that change up the game plays style (although you can only change between two at a time), enemy weapons you can pick up and use, and combining those with the dodge mechanic that lets you cancel combos at any time into others, plus do almost everything in the air, and it's NUTSO-AWESOME.  Dante sounds pretty cool though; too bad you play as Nero for most of the game.

That video you posted has nothing on 'Netta.

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

I still gotta get those ice skates.  The rocket nunchuks, too. 

Bayonetta

Bayonetta's regular move list is like as long as Dante's with all of his variations COMBINED.  Shit is totally crazy.

[OptimoPeach]

I saw the main thread but was too lazy to dig through all the posts; thanks for cherry-picking the good stuff.

After watching that video I want to say that it looks a lot more fluid than DMC, but that almost seems like an understatement. Ho-lee shit I'll still pick up DMC4 to whet my taste in preparation for the stateside release, though.

I'm pretty excited to start gaming again, partly because practically everything is fuggin CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP Did video game prices always get slashed this quickly?

And it feels dirty, but after hearing everyone say newer vidya games are for scrubs I'm considering becoming an achievement whore to supplement difficulty

[bork]

I saw the main thread but was too lazy to dig through all the posts; thanks for cherry-picking the good stuff.

After watching that video I want to say that it looks a lot more fluid than DMC, but that almost seems like an understatement. Ho-lee shit I'll still pick up DMC4 to whet my taste in preparation for the stateside release, though.

More fluid, more game play, more depth...more EVERYTHING.

I'm pretty excited to start gaming again, partly because practically everything is fuggin CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP Did video game prices always get slashed this quickly?

Yeah, I know what you mean.  I just went back and picked up some games for $20 or less each too.   

[Ichirou]

I've never played any of the DMC games in-depth.  Played a bit of the first and thought it was OK, but everyone on GAF talking about how incredibly difficult it was scared me away. I wonder if I should get DMC4 after enjoying Bayonetta so much.

[bork]

I've never played any of the DMC games in-depth.  Played a bit of the first and thought it was OK, but everyone on GAF talking about how incredibly difficult it was scared me away. I wonder if I should get DMC4 after enjoying Bayonetta so much.

Get DMC3 Special Edition on PS2 first.  Quite a few people seem to like that more.

[Ichirou]

The thing is, my favorite thing in Bayonetta is Witch Time, which I believe is completely missing in DMC, right?

[bork]

The thing is, my favorite thing in Bayonetta is Witch Time, which I believe is completely missing in DMC, right?

Yup.  Gonna be hard to go back.  I still need to finish Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, but it's going to feel so simplistic and archaic now. 

[iconoclast]

I've never played any of the DMC games in-depth.  Played a bit of the first and thought it was OK, but everyone on GAF talking about how incredibly difficult it was scared me away. I wonder if I should get DMC4 after enjoying Bayonetta so much.

DMC4 is not hard at all. Even Dante Must Die mode is totally manageable. DMC3 on the other hand can get pretty rough, and it's much better in every area besides the combat itself.

NG2 is a totally different beast entirely... the focus isn't on doing 80 hit combos, it's about having the enemies be vicious. They can kill you as fast as you can kill them (on higher difficulties at least).