With the price drop on the Xbox 360 many of my friends have picked them up. With that in mind three years has passed since its launch and many of great games have come and gone. With this seasons block busters emptying our wallets I thought writing a quick note about great games you can now pick up at very low prices.

BioShock - First person Shooter - $29.99 - Score 96
Great shooter with an enticing story and beautiful graphics. I really cannot say enough about this game, just get it and enjoy it.

The Orange Box - First Person Shooter - $19.99 - Score 96
Bang for buck you do not get much better then this. The second halflife and its first episode also includes team fortess 2 and the now epic Portal game. Not including multiplayer this is easily 20 hours of great gaming.

Dead Rising - Third Person Melee - $19.99 - Score 85
Have you ever watched a zombie movie that the survivors are stuck in a mall trying to live through the apocolypse? Well of course you have and this game encompass's the idea entirely. This was one of the reason I bought a 360 and it lived up to all my expectations. A must have for any 360 owner, will give plenty of hours in game play with multiple endings.

Crackdown - Third Person Shooter - $12.99 used - Score 83
Ever thought about being on the good side in grand theft auto? The lone police officer doing anything he to keep orgonized crime from controlling his city. Well her you go and a nice touch would be the human enhancements that allow you to jump over buildings and throw cars.

The Darkness - First Person Shooter - $17.99 used - Score 82
This shooter gives you mystical dark powers that help you fight for revenge. The game has a twisted story line that takes you to hell and back. Strangley many people who played it found a ton of enjoyment just poking out street lights, if you try the game you will understand.

Assasins Creed - Thrid Person Melee - $29.99 - Score 81
This company built a machine unlocking your DNA to reveal your ancestors memorys, alrighty then. But on better note this is a game for this who enjoy sneakign around and striking foes with out wanring and after disapaiting into the crowd. The enviroment is semi sand box with open citys, plenty of this to do from pick pocketing to removing and unjust leader.

Condemned: Criminal Origins - Mystery - $12.99 used - Score 81
Your a detective trying to catch a serial killer only to enravel a larger plot. If you want something to keep you on the edge of your seat and a prefrence to keep the lights on when you play this is the game for you. While the fighting is in first person I personally would not classify this as a shooter or a melee. Since the majority of what you do is analize crimes and clues to figure out whats going on.

Lego Starwars: Complete Saga - Platformer - $19.99 - Score 80
When you get to freely use the force and light sabers it can only be a good thing. Not to mention the violence is masked by simply having the legos break apart. Fun for all ages and appropriate to play in front of children.

Lost Planet - Third Person Shooter - $29.99 - Score 79
Mechs, Snow, and giant aliens three of my favorite things. A story worth following and plenty of action. If your into multiplayer there is much to be had with this one.

With that I will bring my list to a close, all of these games can be picked up very cheap used on ebay. But I included links if you prefer that new game smell.

Games I have completed

Xbox 360:
Ace Combat 6
Armored Core 4
Army of Two
Assassins Creed
Battlefield: Bad Company
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
Beautiful Katamari
Beowulf
Bioshock
Blacksite
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
Blazing Angels
Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway
Bullet Witch
Cabela's African Safari
Cabela's Big Game Hunter
Cabela's Trophy Bucks
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 3
Call of Duty 4
Call of Jaurez
Cars
Cars: Mater-National
Civil War
Clive Barkers Jericho
Conan
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Condemned 2: Bloodshot
Conflict: Denied Ops
Crackdown
CSI-Hard Evidence
Darkness
Dark Sector
Dead Rising
Devil May Cry 4
Dirt
Earth Defense Force 2017
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Eragon
Fallout 3
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Fracture
Front Lines: Fuels of War
Full Auto
Gears of War
Ghost Recon: Advanced War Fighter
Ghost Recon: Advanced War Fighter 2
Grand Theft Auto IV
Half Life 2
Half Life 2: Episode 1
Half Life 2: Episode 2
Halo 3
Hellboy: The Science of Evil
Hour of Victory
Iron Man
Jumper
Just Cause
Kameo: Elements of Power
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
King Kong
Kung Fu Panda
Lego Indiana Jones
Lego Star Wars 2
Lego Star Wars Complete Saga
Lost Planet
Lost Via Domus
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Mass Effect
Medal of Honor: Airborne
Nighty Nine Nights
Ninja Gaiden 2
Open Season
Overlord
Prey
Project Sylpheed
Quake 4
Rainbow Six Vegas
Rayman Raving Rabbits
Shrek the Third
Silent Hill Homecoming
Solider of Fortune: Payback
Sonic the Hedge Hog
Spiderman 3
Spiderman: Friend or Foe
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Stranglehold
Superman Returns
Tales of Vesperia
Tenchu Z
The Club
The Force Unleashed
The Golden Compass
The Incredible Hulk
The Simpsons Game
Time Shift
TMNT
Tony Hawks American Wasteland
Too Human
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
Turok
Viking
X-men 3

NES:
Bionic Commando
Contra (with code)
Crystalis
Final Fantasy
Maniac Mansion
Rescue Rangers
Starwars
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3

SNES:
Super Mario World

Nintendo 64:
Mariokart 64
Starwars Episode 1: Racer
Turok
Zelda: Majoras Mask

Nintendo Game Cube:
Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix
Luigi's Mansion
Pokemon Collosium
PN.03
Resident Evil 4
Samurai Jack: Shadow of Aku
Soul Caliber
Tales of Symphoney
X-men: Next Dimension
Zelda: Wind Waker

Nintendo Wii:
Call of Duty 3
Excite Truck
Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess
Rampage: Total Destruction
Trauma Center: Second Opinion

GameBoy Advance:
Mario vs Donkey Kong
Metroid Zero Mission
Pokemon LeafGreen
Pokemon Sapphire
Super Mario Advanced
Super Mario Advanced 4
Tales of Phantasia
Zelda: Minish Cap

Nintendo DS:
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows
Mario and Luigi: Partners in time
Mario Kart DS
New * Super Mario Bros
Pokemon Pearl

Playstaion 2:
Evil Dead: A Fist Full of Boomstick
Evil Dead: Regeneration
Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus
Futurama
God of War
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero 2
Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80's
Gun Grave
Karaoke Revolution
Predator: Concrete Jungle
Psychonauts
Samurai Western
Teen Titans

Playstation Portable:
Burnout Legends
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Lego Star wars 2: Original Trilogy
Loco Roco
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
Scarface: The world is not enough
Tales of Eternia
The God Father: Mob Wars
Valkyrie Profile Lenneth

Xbox:
Halo
Halo 2

Dreamcast:
Berserk

PC:
Aliens vs Predator
Aliens vs Predator 2
Area 51
Call of Duty
Call of Duty 2
Call of Juarez
Crimson Skies
Dues Ex
Duke Nukem
Doom
Doom 2
Doom 3
Farcry
Gun
Half Life
Half Life 2
Half Life 2: Episode 1
Half Life 2: Episode 2
Half Life Opposing Force
Land of the Dead
Medal of Honor
No One Lives Forever
Portal
Quake
Quake 2
Quake 4
Red Faction
Redneck Rampage
Return to Castle Wolfensiten
Serious Sam
Serious Sam: The second encounter
Starship Troopers
Star wars: Dark Forces
Star wars: Xwing
Star wars: Tie Fighter
Tron 2.0
The Punisher
Will Rock

Arcade:
Bionic Commando
Super Mario bros 3

Overlord – Completed

It is hard for me to classify this game, I will go with “Third person RTS”. You start out in a third person view of your “overlord” and collect minions. The minions are at your will and command, they can be controlled manually by the right stick or sent off to attack using the right trigger. The minions you collect through out the game are of four different types: Brown (normal), Red (fire), Blue (water), and Green (Poison). Each ahs there own abilities including resistance to the elements there color reflects. Sadly all but blue will drown themselves if you take a wrong turn towards water and ton realize this. Early in the game the inform you that your minions will happily sacrifice themselves for you, but something tells me I should be able instruct them to not mass suicide into water.

A not so unique feature in this game is the ability to make moral choice. Now don’t get me wrong we will slaughter hordes of Halflings, Dwarfs, and unicorns. But you accidentally kill a single human peasant and suddenly you are corrupt! Not sure what the message they are attempting to convey is, but its clear anything but human should be slated for genocide.

While in the game a small portion is centered on recovering smelters that will allow you to make more powerful armor. Now to me this is a great idea to advance your abilities since up to this point all you got was more and more minions. After recovering the lesser of all smelters I went to make armor only to find out for it to be upgraded properly would require me to spend a few hours farming minions. This is a single player game that promotes farming, Blizzard send this people a cease and desist for there gold farming trainer!

Game to me was 6 out of 10. The game definitely had awkward ideas when it came to being programmed and the concepts of corruption. But graphics were not to shabby, yet story was fairly weak.

Kameo – Completed

There was actually a learning curve when it came to this game. All of your actions are done with the shoulder buttons on the controller and to switch between elements were the normal buttons. I often found myself switching elements rather then executing an attack, it got annoying pretty quickly.

The game centers around a fairy type culture and the elemental creatures they control. When enabled you essentially turn into that elements creature and have full use of there power. As you go through the game you find exactly what you need to move on (imagine that). The kingdom you live in was invaded by a evil troll who killed your father and kidnapped your family. At this point it’s a basic plat former that takes you through stages in order to recover the elements and defeat the troll.

Game for me was 6 out of 10. It was fun and colorful, yet could be frustrating at time trying to figure out which element to use next and in what situations. That concept coupled with the odd controls did not leave me with the best impression.

Assassins Creed – Completed

When first gazing upon the white clad individual slowly pushing himself through a crowd, then breaks into a sprint jumps through the air landing squarely on his targets chest ejecting a blade from his palm. Well let’s just say it made me giggle. Not to be a huge spoiler since this happens in the first 5 minutes, but this game does not take place in the dark ages. It takes place in a machine that essential unlocks your family history from your DNA. To me this is a great concept in which many games in the future could use. My thought is it takes away the realism, because you are playing someone who is essential playing a game. Also sets the basis for knowing you’re in an unrealistic environment. Let’s see a judge not laugh when some kid goes crazy and blames it on assassins creed, it would just be silly (not to mention don’t bring a knife to a gun fight har har har).

This game has some really great features which I hope to briefly touch on most of them. First off is the combat system, you have many options such as ranged throwing knives, stealth kills with palm blade, sword attacks that include counter attacks. One thing I would like to point out is combo attacks really suck. The system for them seems so flawed compared to the ease of use in the rest of the game. It occurred to me that perhaps the attacks might be more difficult since they are a killing blow. But honestly every other attack including single button pushes for stealth and ranged kills are also killing blows. The idea is that when your sword clanks another’s you press the attack button again. This initiates a killing blow to your opponent and is easy enough to do in practice, but very frustrating in a real fight.

Now if you get frustrated with games that wont let you jump on a dumpster because its “just to high” aka the programmer cant set environment limits creatively. This game will be a blessing and a curse. You can run up walls and if there is the slightest edge you will be able to hang on. You can and will climb builds to be able to see the span of the city. It’s almost like playing a sandbox super hero game, leaping from roof tops and such (can someone please make a Tick mod?!!?). But then you go on and play other games and there seems to be a 2x4 in your way which disables your ability to move forward. Makes you think back to the good ol days of being all terrain in AC.

Game was 8 out of 10 for me. Graphics are awesome, achievements are a challenge but not overly tedious (at least the ones I got). But the game is repetitive, only have a few different scenarios which to play out (pickpocket, eves drop, kill someone, save a citizen).

Call of Duty 4 – Completed

How is it a World War II based FPS can storm the market with something new and unique? There answer is COD4, from what I can tell much of the population agrees. To a few this would be the new substitution for counter-strike. But one can only wait to see if it stands the test of time.

The game has normal terrorist plot with more immersion then you would generally expect. After the first level there is a cut scene that allows you to move your head around and nothing else, ending with your execution. At first this disturbed me a touch, yet when I realized this is how the game was making connect it made much more sense. You understand the capacity of evil the people you are hunting are capable of. After which you really tune into stopping them.

I have one major complaint about the controls and that is the run button. By pressing the left stick forward and down you would run. Sounds simple enough yet any slight deviation and it seemed to click off. In the hours I attempted to get through the training course in 20 seconds I found that not being able to control when and how I ran was my downfall. It was fairly frustrating, luckily it is not required use in the normal single player campaign.

The game is 9 out of 10. Honestly it was not really long, yet pretty enjoyable. Veteran difficulty seems nearly impossible and would definitely kill the majority of the enjoyment you would get from the game.

Tony Hawks American Wasteland - Completed

Since THPS3 came out I have had a positive disposition towards skate boarding games. Personally I really do think I suck at the games, but after playing American wasteland I felt the training it gives you a better grasp on how to control your skater. This is in some essence a role playing game. Has a decent story line and even invokes small amounts of emotion. Pretty odd for a skating game don’t you think?

The levels are diverse and put together fairly well. I did find in that in classic mode some of the objectives were explain so vaguely that is seemed impossible to complete them. This was more common in the flip over object objectives. It shows the object and tells you the trick, yet seems that you need to be in the perfect spot in order to correctly execute the move and get credit for it. I was unable to completed classic mode 100% due to this issue. For sometime I did have troubles with the high score and combo portions of the game. I found if you switch to your feet and start flipping it adds to the multiplier and you can jump right back on to a rail and continue gaining points. At this point I was easily able to finish off all the scoring modes with little issue.

For me the game was 8 out of 10. I really did enjoy it, the story mode is not so rigorous to drive you off and the controls were mapped very well. After playing Tenchu it was great to have so many different environments to be involved in.