25 best xbox games of all time

Few Xbox games offer as immersive an experience as this marvelous mech blaster. Shipped alongside a gargantuan button controller, even starting up your Vertical Tank is exciting, as you punch buttons and flip switches to get it up and running. Two sequels exist, but the original remains the best, providing you can pay the high cost of entry. Its excellent online options and the realistic physics that were applied to cars as they took increasing amounts of damage during races were complemented by an extensive career mode, over different cars, and a ridiculous amount of customizable options that would satisfy the biggest gearhead.

It might be short for an RPG, but the sheer amount of choice offered to the player along with the lived-in nature of the world makes Albion a fantastic place to visit.

Unlike Steel Battalion, the pace of play is fast and fluid, with a focus on arcade-style thrills and over-the-top pyrotechnics. An HD version exists if you want to save some cash. Jade Empire not only refines many of the story-crafting mechanics found in KOTOR, but also makes steps in allowing you to romance characters too, adding an extra layer to what is an already intricately designed RPG.

Seek out the Game Of The Year edition in order to enjoy the full experience. If at least one cult classic belongs on this list, it's the Xbox-exclusive Breakdown, a one-and-done science-fiction adventure best known for that part where you eat and then vomit up a hamburger without leaving the first-person view. Stubborn adhesion to the first-person perspective was one of Breakdown's core tenets, but given the game's melee-combat focus, it totally worked.

You play Derrick Cole, a man who awakens in a science facility with no memory of what happened to him. The ensuing campaign is one of the most engrossing sci-fi mysteries in Xbox history, and as you get more powerful you feel more and more like a superhero — which was more than you could say of actual superhero-based games of the time.

A tennis game on the top 25 Xbox Games of All-Time list? You'd better believe it! Top Spin wasn't just a phenomenal tennis sim that featured a ton of real-life superstars of the sport. It was also one of the pioneers of Microsoft's online sports initiative, XSN, which integrated Xbox Live online play with webpage-based stats and tournament information, allowing you to participate in online events and then track your progress on the web afterwards.

When Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas came out for Xbox, it wasn't just a big deal because the game was absolutely incredible. It was a big deal because it was the first time that a Grand Theft Auto game released day and date on Xbox along with PS2. The biggest series in the world finally gave equal time to Xbox, and San Andreas was Rockstar's most ambitious effort yet.

It lives on in memories and memes today. Full Spectrum Warrior wasn't a game at all, in the beginning. It was a training tool built for the US Army that was converted into a game. And it made a heck of a unique one. In Full Spectrum Warrior, you guide your troops through a combat zone with one goal: keep them alive. Formations, carefully considered movements, and suppressing fire are the keys to survival. Funny enough, for an actual military shooter, you didn't really do any shooting yourself.

And yet, the strategic Full Spectrum Warrior was every bit as tense as any other traditional shooter. As history has since shown, Xbox needed Bethesda as much as Bethesda needed Xbox back in The Xbox was the perfect fit for both parties, and Morrowind brought an RPG experience to consoles the likes of which had never been seen before.

Its high-fantasy open world was teeming with player possibilities, and its first-person perspective pulled you straight into Tamriel and Morrowind in a way that the third-person view of the traditional JRPG could not. This was the beginning of a long and bountiful partnership between Microsoft and Bethesda. MechWarrior was a beloved PC game franchise. It was one of the best pen-and-paper-to-video-game RPG translations that had ever been made to that point, and MechAssault took that universe and made a faster-paced, more arcade-y version of it that felt great to play with a gamepad for the original Xbox.

It managed to retain the soul of the more simulation-focused parent series. Even better, it was a day-one launch title for Xbox Live, and its multiplayer proved to be unique and brilliantly suited to the Xbox Live environment. This is another game that has remained disappointingly dormant in the years since its release MechAssault 2 hit a couple years later but wasn't as good , leading fans to wonder if MechAssault will ever return.

That is what we'll always think of first when we think of this beloved Xbox racing franchise from the renowned developers at Bizarre Creations.

When you did awesome stuff on the track, like drifting, passing, powersliding, etc. The power of the Xbox hardware relative to the PS2 really shined here, as PGR2 was gorgeous as future entries in the series would be as well. PGR2 deftly walked the line between arcade and simulation racing, making itself incredibly approachable for more casual players, while still offering enough for hardcore sim fans to grab onto as well.

Its soul seems to live on today in Forza Horizon. KOTOR was the first and it has historically gotten all of the glory, but the second was Jade Empire, an excellent Eastern-influenced epic that took home one of the highest review scores IGN had ever given at the time.

It borrowed the morality system from KOTOR but ditched the turn-based combat in favor of a real-time combat engine, resulting in much faster, more fluid fights.

It was a classic and unfortunate case of critical success and commercial failure, but it's never too late. If you get the chance, play it. It wasn't a true open-world game, but there were plenty of spots you could get out of your fighter plane and interact on the ground while on foot.

Crimson Skies boasted fantastic graphics and great multiplayer that wasn't like anything else on the Xbox, and it eventually became something of a cult classic on the console, with fans clamoring for years afterward for a sequel that never came. Many Dreamcast fans would agree that the original Xbox was, spiritually speaking, the Dreamcast 2. Sega threw its full support behind Microsoft's fledgling console after its own had failed, and of the many great Sega games to land on Xbox, Jet Set Radio Future was arguably the most memorable.

The stylistic in-line-skating action game was unlike anything else on this or any console, and at one point it was even a pack-in game with the Xbox along with the also-excellent but less-remembered Sega GT Racing. Jet Set Radio Future was so unique it was never really imitated, though it does seem to have been a clear influence on Insomniac's Xbox One classic Sunset Overdrive.

Rainbow Six 3 continued Tom Clancy's dominant run on the first Xbox by bringing close-quarters, team-based tactical military shooter gameplay to Xbox Live.

While Xbox's new online service had stars early on — MechAssault is also on this list — it wasn't until Rainbow Six 3 released one year into Xbox Live's life that the network finally had its first breakout hit.

Designed as part of an add-on trilogy to the original epic Half-Life adventure, Half-Life 2: Episode 2 continued where the first part left off. Gordon Freeman has left the Citadel and must now fight against a wave of unknown evil entities while trying to make it to a band of resistance scientist fighters.

The combat elements are fantastic, as are the levels where players pilot vehicles and wield futuristic science weapons. Rayman Legends takes the 13th spot in this list of the best Xbox games ever made. When heroes sleep for years, however, bad stuff is bound to happen. The richly textured backgrounds, the animations of Rayman and his friends; everything just looks and plays like a dream.

Each level has cleverly placed objects that blend into your surroundings, offering Rayman help in sticky situations.

Use epic abilities like gliding or running up walls Prince of Persia-style while knocking back enemies…. Players take control of Jason Brody, a man on a mission to save his friends from pirates. Far Cry is almost a cross between an RPG and a survival game. It has hints of Turok and Splinter Cell in it with skill trees and exploration elements that make searching every nook and cranny crucial to your success. While the narrative is unpredictable, one thing players can expect is a massive lack of law and an unlimited amounts of chaos.

Shoot first and ask questions never if you want to survive, and do whatever it takes to save your mates. Fable II takes the 8th spot on this list of the best Xbox games of all time! I remember the first time that I stepped a virtual foot into the world of Albion in the original Xbox game.

The morality engine was unreal, the world was fantastic, and I could wield magic while carrying a sword. Now, years after the original adventure in game years, not real… obviously , Fable II returns with a redesigned magic system, new combat mechanics, and all the same open-world madness that made the first title such a hit!

For those that did enjoy the original, then imagine a supercharged version with more bells and whistles than you could throw a lightening bolt at. Searching for treasure, bashing bandits, and seeking out side quests keeps the game going even when the main quest has finished.

The gameplay does have more of a sinister edge than what I described above, but those skills will certainly help you progress in this game! Players take control of Ezio as he travels through the sepia stained past. Stealth killing and scaling humongous buildings never gets old, and the graphics look epic on the Xbox Fallout 3 jumps into 9th place in our Xbox compendium, bringing nuclear ravaged lands and a race fighting for survival for the table.

Yes, the world as we know it is pretty much gone. After living in underground vaults for centuries, humans are slowly trying to reclaim the broken world above the surface…. Fallout 3, and all other other Fallout games in the series, fall under the category of being RPG shooters. As well as shooting the sh… I mean, blasting back enemies, players much interact with characters around them and explore vast open spaces in search of collectibles.

Unlike old-school games like Goldeneye where players are presented with missions, gamers can travel between different tasks and locations. And talk about a boat-load of side quests! Grand Theft Auto V , the second best selling game of all time, takes the 6th spot in this list of the best Xbox games ever made! Still, with Cyberpunk doing the rounds, it probably looks a bit tame these days! Gamers basically go on a free-for-all around the made-up state of San Andreas.

There are three stories to follow with three different main characters, all of which can steal, kill, and do pretty much whatever the hell they want.

Nowhere is off limits, and players have the choice of traversing the vast levels and stages on foot or via a wide variety of vehicles. Pull off big crimes, solve problems by shooting said problems, and team up with mates to cause maximum chaos.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 takes the 5th spot in this list of the best Xbox games of all time! You could usually tell when a Call of Duty title came out at college by the poor attendance of pretty much every person in the building, including some of the teachers. These games are still as epic as the day they were released, and Modern Warfare 2 is one of the ultimate classic titles on the Xbox The two-player co-op is great fun, and the campaign sticks you slap-bang in the centre of the action.

Modern Warfare 2 builds on the epic gameplay mechanic of the previous COD games but brings new modes such as Special Ops Missions and tonnes of online multiplayer customisation options. Listen; the campaign is all well and good, but online deathmatches with mates brought that same thrill level that you first experience playing Goldeneye.

Wield pretty much every gun imaginable and throw insane explosives, knives, and anything else that makes mincemeat of your opponents. Alan Wake creeps into 6th place in our list of the best Xbox games of all time! Alan Wake is fast-paced and exciting, featuring on-the-edge-of-your-seat gameplay that will leave you desperate for more.