#10 - Bioshock
I'm pretty cynical when it comes to Bioshock because I don't think it should have ever become a franchise (I'm probably gonna be moody for the next few days while every screams themselves into a coma over Infinite) but I did love the first one. It had plenty of things wrong with it: the graphics were awful (every game in the Unreal Engine 3 is hideous); the level design left a lot to be desired (backtracking thorugh narrow corridors, yay); the gameplay was pretty basic and didn't really do anything really exciting. What it did have going for it though was its setting. While an underwater city is nothing new, Rapture felt incredible. It captured the imagination in a way few other games ever manage and it absorbed you into the dystopia so well. It also presents a philisophical question about human nature and, more importantly, does so in a way that is seamlessly weaved into the gameplay.
Bioshock 2 pretty much did away with the only two things that made Bioshock great for me, and Infinite just looks like an attempt to try and make lightning strike twice. Bioshock shouldn't have become a franchise in my opinion but I can see why it did after how good the original was.
#9 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
I'm not going to ignore the DS as a 7th Gen platform because it had some incredible games and even though this was a GBA game in Japan it wasn't released in the west until 2004. Simply put it's the best of the Ace Attorney games. All of the characters are at their peak and perfectly written, the story is just the right balance of soap-opera absurdity and plausability and it's so funny. Like, so, so funny. It also corrected the main issue with the previous game; everything in the game followed a real logic so that it was possible to know your next move ahead of time, as opposed to the nonsense in Justice For Allthat forced you to basically guess your way through half the game. Trials and Tribulations is one of the best games on the DS and is a brilliant example of how far good writing and localisation can carry a game.
#8 - Braid
Braid has some of the best designed puzzles I've seen in years. It genuinely makes you stop and consider all of your actions in advance and requires an understanding of the game's mechanics. It also has excellent art and great ambient music as well. The thing which attracts me so much to Braid though is the emotional connection I had with it, since the story is all about regrets and changing your past and all of that noise. I engaged with the game on an emotional level and ended up with a deeply satisfying and rewarding experience. Even if people don't connect with the game as I did its strength as a puzzle game is robust enough to still keep it on this list.
#7 - Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Playing with friends is always fun and Brawl is just all about doing that. There isn't really much to say beyond Brawl is just designed to just have a ridiculous amount of fun with good friends and it succeeds completely.
#6 - Resident Evil 6
I love this franchise. it stopped being Survival Horror with Resident Evil 4 but it reinvented itself into one of the best action series available. Resident Evil 6 is a breathtaking adrenaline ride with some of the series best characters, great new ones and sports a fantatstic story element. Gameplay has been tweaked and changed enough to make it familiar but also more streamlined and servicable and the game attempted something risky with how its campaign was structured. It's multiplayer modes are also brilliant and the game is one of few this gneration that really is wroth every penny. There's so much quality content that Resident Evil 6 is easily one of the best.
#5 - Mario Kart DS
At the time of its release I think Mario Kart DS was easily the best in the series, with great tracks, a wealth of different karts, good balance and an excellent online system. The main reason why I love this one is because my friends and I played it religiously and it became a big part of school life for me in 2006. We as a group spent so long playing this game that my DS was higher on my list of priorities when I left the house than my phone or keys.
#4 - Hitman: Blood Money
Blood Money is the pinnacle of the series and this one opens up the game world so much more than the ones that came before. It lets you be creative and requires you to play around with each level more. You get so much out of this one and the game's AI isn't as fickle as it was in previous games. It just improved on the design of the second and third games in pretty much every way and highlights why Hitman is a brilliant series.
#3 - Pokémon SoulSilver
As a remake of my favourite Pokémon game this is easily one of the best game's I've played in years. It was basically everything Pokémon had done right up to that point but better. I sank about 300+ hours into this one and every second of it was worth it. If X and Y are half as good as this one then they will be excellent games worth every penny.
#2 - The Elder Scrolls IV & V: Oblivion & Skyrim
Putting two games here might be cheating but I like both of these games equally and for the exact same reasons so it wasn't really possible to choose a preference. Both give huge open worlds, both give deep and detailed histories of a world dripping with character, both are filled with stories that excite and intrigue, both are easy to get into but deep enough to provide a rewarding experince for committed players. The Elder Scrolls is simply a fantastic franchise and I'm sure future installments will get onto my list of best games in future.
#1 - Halo 3/Halo: Reach
More cheating but I had to put them both in: Halo 3 because of the multiplayer experience; Halo: Reach because it has the best campaign in the entire franchise. Reach has the best single player campaign because it's paced perfectly and never bothers with annoying enemies like The Flood or the Prometheans. It keeps you fighting the Covenant and nothing more, one of the best and most engaging enemy forces in any game, and then concludes with the best ending in any video game. Having been a dedicated Halo fan for a decade meant that the ending to Reach was very emotional and was one of my favourite moments in gaming ever.
As for Halo 3, I've never had a better multiplayer experience with any game. My friends and I spent almost every night on this game for hours on end and we have so many memories of the time we spent online. When I think of the Xbox 360 I think of playing Halo 3 with my friends and just completely enjoying a game without having any thoughts of what could be better.