The Best XBOX Live Games

XBOX Live is one of the most innovative aspects of the XBOX 360; it allows players to interact with each other online through a large database of games. The best part about it is that it also allows competitive players to take part in ranked matches and gauge their skill against other players all over the world; while at the same time allowing more casual players the chance to just play and have fun. Not every game that is designed for the 360 is XBOX Live capable but for those that are lots of options are usually offered.

However, what XBOX 360 games will give you the best Live experience, and provide you with the most possible fun? This informative list is set to give you some ideas on what are the top available games for XBOX Live.

The graphics and visuals of Unreal Tournament 3 are very close to that of Gears of War; this is due to both games utilizing Epic's Unreal Engine 3. But graphics aside, what does Unreal Tournament 3 offer on XBOX Live?

The game is lots of fun to play and offers both co-operative (1-2 players) and competitive (1-16 players) modes through XBOX Live. There is also a custom clan creation feature to organize game strategies and play with some of your best friends and online buddies. What puts this particular game on the list however is that it has some of the coolest online game modes such as Capture the Flag, Duel, and even Vehicle Capture the Flag; the most prominent however is Warfare. Warfare involves a location capture type game-play where two teams fight to capture certain points on the map; individual points, once captured, cause different things to happen such as a vehicle spawning or an environmental damage effect that hurts the opposing team. The online gameplay is very fast paced and provides hours upon hours of fun. One major drawback that sets this at the tail end of the list is that it follows more traditional first-person shooter roots and does not allow taking cover, or destructible environments.

The XBOX 360 version of the game has five exclusive maps, twi exclusive characters and also allows local splitscreen play for multi-player and most of the content created for PC is already included in the game.

As you can tell, most of the games listed here are shooters and I thought the list needed a little more variety, hence Forza Motorsport 2. Nevertheless, the game wasn't just slapped here for no reason at all; it does offer quite a bit over XBOX Live. Perhaps one of the coolest features included in this game ironically has nothing to do with racing. Players can buy and sell their custom cars over an e-bay like auction within the community, and can also give out cars as gifts to friends on their buddy list or even recent opponents. Of course, with the buying and selling of cars there has to be some form of customization or else everyone would simply be trading around the same exact models. Herein lies another awesome feature of Forza 2, players can completely customize over 300+ vehicles, from performance parts and the engine, all the way to body design and cosmetics. The design tools are both complex, yet easy to use as well.

As for online racing Forza 2 delivers amazing online gameplay; think of it as a Gran Turismo type simulation racer where physics play a big role in every race and the game is totally realistic. Fly too fast around a sharp curve, or brake too hard and the car will launch out of control. One small flaw lies in head on collision; sometimes it ends up looking rather far fetched or dull when two cars crash head on. Otherwise this game is great for racing fans, and even better for those who want to race others globally online.