Rock Band

Rock Band does a superb job of bringing out the wannabe rock star in all of us, and creates one of the best party-game experiences of all time.

Rock Band is every wannabe musician’s dream. A game that takes the four key instruments one needs to make a band a rock band (guitar, bass, drums, vocals), and builds a highly playable and intensely addictive game around them. To a degree, developer Harmonix got a head start on the process of creating Rock Band when it developed the first two Guitar Hero games, but whereas those games were all about the decidedly solo act of severe simulated shredding, Rock Band goes in an entirely different direction. The solo play has taken a backseat to cooperative multiplayer. This game is all about the act of performance as a band, getting a group of four people together and working together to get the highest score bonuses possible as a group, all while fake guitaring and realistically singing and drumming your way through more than 40 different licensed rock hits. The steep $170 price tag for the game and bundled hardware might prove to be a barrier for entry for some, and in addition, the hardware itself comes with a few flaws. But if you’re willing to make the investment, Rock Band is a guaranteed good time for any music lover, and one of the best party games you’ll ever play.

Price: $170

Assassins Creed

Assassin’s Creed will stay with you long after you finish it. Here is one of the most unique game worlds ever created: beautiful, memorable, and alive. Every crack and crevasse is filled with gorgeous, subtle details, from astounding visual flourishes to overheard cries for help. But it’s more than just a world–it’s a fun and exciting action game with a ton of stuff to do and places to explore, rounded out with silky-smooth controls and a complex story that will slowly grab you the more you play. Make no mistake: Assassin’s Creed is one of the best efforts of the year and a must-own game for Xbox 360 owners.

Not enough can be said about the living, breathing world that you’ll inhabit in Assassin’s Creed. As assassin extraordinaire Altaïr, you’ll explore three major cities of the Holy Land in the 12th century: Jerusalem, Damascus, and Acre. Each city is beautifully rendered from top to bottom and features meticulously crafted towers that reach for the sky, bustling market squares, and quiet corners where citizens converse and drunks lie in wait to accost you. As you wander the streets (and rooftops), you’ll push your way through crowds of women carrying jars on their heads, hear orators shout political and religious wisdom, and watch town guards harass innocent victims. Altaïr has a profound effect on this world, but the cities are entities all their own, with their own flows and personalities.

For a game that is not a first person shooter it really comes through in my opinion if your are looking for a game with massive amounts of detail and a good story line.

Price: $60

This guy is sooooo good at gears of war!

Bioshock

Ok, let’s stop for a moment and imagine a world where art, science and commerce are completely unchecked. Picture a world where the strong have no responsibility towards the weak. I’m talking about a world where anybody can purchase strength, intellect and a vast assortment of superhuman powers. While some idealists might think this sounds awesome any realist in the group knows that such a world would crumble in no time.

And that’s when you enter the game, as the unlucky survivor of an airplane crash in the middle of the ocean. Seeking refuge inside Rapture you are immediately contacted by Atlas, a man who is willing to help you survive if you help him rescue his family captive family. As a disembodied radio voice, he acts as both narrator and guide to the nightmarish wonderland that is Rapture.

At this moment you are probably realizing that the story sounds pretty ambitious for a first person shooter, since the genre is usually content with saying “stop the terrorists” or “shoot the aliens”. While I have to admit that the designers set the bar way too high for themselves the results are still rather admirable.

In my opinion this was a very fun game to play over spring break.

Price:  $40

Halo 3

Halo 3 is the final game in the halo trilogy. Halo 3 picks up were Halo 2 left off. The Master Chief is returning to Earth to finish the fight. The Covenant occupation of Earth has uncovered a massive and ancient object beneath the African sands – an object who’s secrets have yet to be revealed. Earth’s forces are battered and beaten. The Master Chief’s AI companion Cortana is still trapped in the clutches of the Gravemind, a horrifying Flood intelligence. The Master chief and his new found friend the Arbitor are trying to stop the Covenant from activating the Halo ring and destroying all life in the galaxy. In my opinion, Halo 3 is not as good as the first or second. campaign wise it was way to short compared to the first two, but the graphics were a lot better than any of the others. The new weapons and the new maps are very cool.

Price: $60

Gears Of War

Gears of War was the ultimate first person shooter game other than halo 3, but still in my opinion beats halo 3 by far. when it was released in November 2006. Halo 3 was still almost a year away and when gamers finally picked up Gears of War they seemed to forget all about Halo. shoot’em up game style, brutally detailed graphics and unforgettable moments allowed 360 owners to give their undivided approval for a new shooter not called Halo. It seemed everyone with a 360 had a copy of Gears of War and they loved it!

Price: $60