10. The Godfather: Part II
After a rocky first game, The Godfather: Part II combines action and strategy in a remarkable movie tie-in game that does a sublime job of capturing what it must feel like to be the head of a crime family. With ‘The Don’s View’ offering an innovative overview of your empire with the ability to send goons around the city being a highlight, The Godfather: Part II also boasts solid combat and an engrossing narrative that should please fans and newcomers to the Corleone saga alike.
9. Dead Rising 2
Although it took a rather serious turn with the third game, the Dead Rising series is loved for its quirky humour and reluctance to take itself too seriously. While there are some dark twists in the narrative and truly frightening boss fights, Dead Rising 2 is at its best – and most fun – when you’re slapping a zombie round the face with a giant pink dildo. One of the most ridiculous and addictive survival horrors in gaming.
8. Hitman: Blood Money
If you play Hitman: Blood Money correctly, it won’t be an action game – with a heavy focus on stealth, the game rewards slow, patient play. That being said, you will find your plans going tits-up often, and will have to gun your way out of a tight corner whether you like it or not. Thankfully, the gunplay and action in Hitman: Bloody Money is just as exciting and rewarding as slow, stealthy play. One of the finest entries in the series.
7. BioShock Infinite
Taking the action considerably above sea-level, this 1912-set adventure in the BioShock series offers a mysterious plot and entertaining combat in a stunningly realised world. As you learn to harness the game’s ever-growing arsenal of weapons and abilities, you will be absorbed by the unforgettable setting and complex characters. BioShock Infinite showed that there was a lot more to the series than Big Daddies and underwater cities.
6. Saints Row 2
Wickedly fun and ridiculous in all the best ways, Saint’s Row 2 is a preposterously over-the-top response to the seriousness of Rockstar’s output. While Grand Theft Auto IV told a complex story of immigration and the American Dream, Saint’s Row 2 allowed you to dress up as a hotdog and ride a flaming motorcycle off the end of a pier. One of the most endlessly entertaining playgrounds of destruction on the Xbox 360.
5. Dishonored
With simply phenomenal art direction, a truly immersive world and an unprecedented seamlessness between combat, stealth and magic, Dishonored is truly one of the Xbox 360’s finest action adventures. With traces of BioShock throughout, this steampunk adventure also boasts memorable characters and wonderful voice acting, drawing you deeper into the game’s mysterious narrative and hauntingly complex world.
4. Rise of the Tomb Raider
Packed with epic, high-octane action and breathtakingly gorgeous environments, Rise of the Tomb Raider puts you in the boots of Lara Croft on her first expedition as she seeks the secret of immortality. With a captivating narrative, outstanding graphics and superbly crafted gameplay, this is, without doubt, one of the finest entries in the Tomb Raider series and a reminder why Lara Croft is such an icon.
3. Splinter Cell: Conviction
With smooth and dynamic gameplay, Splinter Cell: Conviction delivers Sam Fisher’s finest outing. Whilst it does give you the firepower to shoot your way out of trouble, this is a game that rewards stealth and makes the game considerably more enjoyable. Splinter Cell has always been the leader in the stealth-based game, and that is on a fine show in this immersive and engrossing thriller. Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
2. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Yo-ho, yo-ho, an assassin’s life for you! Combining the iconic game series’ format and gameplay with a pirate setting created one of the finest games on the Xbox 360 and certainly a series highlight for Assassin’s Creed. This masterpiece of the genre features the usual stellar combat and engrossing story that the series is known for, but adds a whole lot of exploration – it doesn’t get much better than taking to the high seas and discovering new islands with your loyal crew.
1. Crackdown
Jumping from rooftop to rooftop across the skyline of Pacific City or throwing double-decker buses at gang lords, Crackdown drops you in a crime-ridden urban playground with the tools to develop your own style of justice. Bursting with totally over-the-top action and a destructible environment to die for, Crackdown is one of the highlights of the Xbox 360 that plays just as well today as it ever has. A ridiculous masterpiece of modern action gaming.
