Best and Worst Games for Boosting Your Xbox 360 Gamerscore

One of the best things about the Xbox 360 is the achievements that are built into every game. They give you a little extra motivation to play a game longer than you would have in the past in order to earn an achievement and add a few points to your gamerscore. Yes, your gamerscore is meaningless, but there is nothing quite as satisfying as playing a game and hearing the little sound effect and the “Achievement Unlocked” window pops up.

One of the best things about video games is getting to unlock new items. Fighting games, racing games, and FPS are great at constantly rewarding you with new trinkets and characters and stuff. Achievements are an extension of this. You are constantly rewarded, which just keeps you playing longer in the hope of earning something else. And it all adds up into a neat and tidy gamerscore that you can share with your friends.

What Makes a Game Good or Bad for Your Gamerscore?

Good: Good games for improving your gamerscore reward you for playing through the game, performing specific in-game tasks, or accomplishing goals within reason

Bad: Bad games for improving your gamerscore are ones that require a long-term investment of time, topping online leaderboards, or feature a majority of online-only achievements.

Here is a listing of the best and worst Xbox 360 games for improving your gamerscore. Initially, this article listed nearly every game and gave a description of the achievement difficulty, but that was just too much work. Instead, the list now consists of the easy 1000/1000 games and games that you can earn a large chunk of points in relatively little time. It also includes a listing of the games with the most difficult/ time-consuming/ ill-conceived achievements. If a game does not appear on either list, it falls somewhere in the middle and you’ll have to judge it for yourself by checking out its achievements at a site such as X360A.

The Best Games for Your Gamerscore

• Avatar: TLA: Five minutes for 1000 points.
• Bionicle Heroes: Fun and easy 800+.
• BioShock: One of the best games of 2007. Easy 700+ points for playing through once.
• Bourne Conspiracy: Short game, easy points.
• Bully: SE: Easy 1000.
• College Hoops 2k6: Easy 800+.
• Dead Rising: Mostly easy and very fun.
• DiRT: 700+ easy points just for finishing the career mode.
• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Earning all 1250 points isn’t all that hard, but it takes a while to do it.
• Enchanted Arms: You get all of them for playing through the game once.
• FIFA Street 3: Very easy 1000+ with the DLC.
• Fight Night Round 3: Very, very easy to earn all 1000. Just play single-player.
• Forza 2: Time consuming, but easy 1000.
• Fuzion Frenzy 2: Very easy to get most of them in an afternoon.
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Very easy. Just play through the game for 700+.
• Jumper: Griffin’s Story: Easy and quick 500+.
• King Kong: You get all 1000 just by playing through the game.
• LEGO Indiana Jones: Easy 1000.
• Lego Star Wars II: You earn most of them by playing through the game normally.
• LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga: Fairly easy 1000, but it takes a while to get them.
• Lost: Via Domus: Very easy 1000.
• Madden NFL 06: Very easy to get all 1000 in an afternoon. It takes a while to sim 30 years of the franchise, though.
• Madden NFL 07: Not as stupid-easy as Madden 06, but you can simulate games and earn most of the achievements.
• Madden NFL 08: Very easy 1000. Sim through games to get them fast.
• NBA 2K6: Insanely easy to earn all 1000. Lower the difficulty and extend the time to a full 48 minutes and you can get them all in one game.
• NBA Live 06: Pretty easy.
• NBA Street Homecourt: Crazy easy.
• NCAA March Madness 07: Set the clock to a full 40 minutes, put the difficulty as low as it goes, and score, steal, rebound, and all of that good stuff as much as possible to earn some easy achievements.
• Need for Speed Most Wanted: You earn all 1000 by simply playing through the game.
• NHL 2k6: Easy 700+.
• Open Season: Easy 1000.
• Phantasy Star Universe: Very easy as all of them are earned through playing the single player.
• Prey: You get 600+ points just playing through the story missions, and since you can never die it is insanely easy.
• Scene It: LCA: Easy. And FUN!
• Spider-Man: Friend or Foe: Very easy 925 on one play through. The last 75 take a bit more work.
• Surf’s Up: Easy 950.
• TMNT: Extremely easy 1000.
• Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland: Easy 800+ for THPS vets.
• Viva Pinata Party AnimalsCrazy easy.
• Viva Pinata: Very, very easy. It takes a while, but the game is so addictive you'll keep playing till you get all 1000.
• WWE Smackdown 2008: Very easy. Find a guide for easy “Manager of the Year”.
• X-Men 3: Play through the game to earn them all.
• NBA 2K9: Use the sliders.
• Madden NFL 09: Easy 1000.
• LEGO Batman: Easy 1000.
• Fracture: Quick and fairly easy 600+.
• Rapala Fishing Frenzy 2009: Easy 500-1000 if you can stand the bad game.
• The Force Unleashed: Easy 600+.
• Mercenaries 2: Easy 600+.
• Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise: Long but fairly easy 1000.
• Civilization Revolution: Easy and very, very fun.
• The Bourne Conspiracy: Easy 700+. Fun game.
• Fallout 3: Easy 1550 if you buy all the DLC. Very time-consuming.
• Spider-Man: Web of Shadows: Easy 700+ just by beating the game.
• LotR: Conquest: Fairly easy 600+ just by beating the game.
• Monopoly: Mediocre game, easy achievements. Easy 600+.
• Eat Lead: Fairly easy 500+ for beating the game.
• WWE Legends of WrestleMania: Very easy (but time-consuming) 1000.
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09: Enjoyable (but time-consuming) 800+
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Easy 600 for beating the game.
• Raiden Fighters Aces: Easy 650+ since you can get most in practice mode.
• Harry Potter: Half Blood Prince: Very easy 800+.
• G.I. Joe: Bad game, easy 600+ points.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum: Great game. Easy 700+.
• Mini Ninjas: Easy 600 for beating the game.
• Outdoor Adventures: Easy 600+ by doing all the hunts.
• Borderlands: Easy 1000+ if you buy the DLC.
• LEGO Rock Band: 700+.
• LEGO Indiana Jones 2: Easy (and fun) 1000.
• Assassin's Creed II: Easy 900 without much work.
• Mass Effect 2: Easy 1000+ if you beat it and buy DLC.
• BioShock 2: 600+ for beating it.

Games That Aren't so Good for Your Gamerscore

Bad games for improving your gamerscore are ones that require a long-term investment of time, topping online leaderboards, or feature a majority of online-only achievements. These are a problem because as people move onto new games, getting online achievements in older games is pretty much impossible unless you have someone to help you.

Games With Difficult or Time-Consuming Achievements

• Army of Two: Bad game. Finding co-op partners is a pain.
• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat: Weighted heavily towards multiplayer.
• BlackSite Area 51: Awful game. Don’t bother.
• Blazing Angels: Earned by playing through the game, but it isn’t all that fun.
• Blue Dragon: The game is great, but it takes a long long time to earn the points.
• Bomberman: Act Zero: Horrible game.
• Burnout Revenge: Can be very time-consuming.
• Call of Duty 2: The majority of achievements are earned on higher difficulty levels. Fun game, but not good for easy points.
• Chromehounds: Very time-consuming. The online community is dwindling so earning online points is hard.
• Culdcept Saga: Great game, but very time consuming and difficult achievements.
• Dead or Alive 4: Fun game, but you’ll likely get frustrated long before you get even half. Weighted heavily towards online multiplayer.
• Dead or Alive Xtreme 2: Very, very, very time-consuming. It will take you months to get them all. Not worth it.
• Def Jam ICON: You'll get bored of the junky gameplay after only earning a couple of achievements. Not worth it.
• Dynasty Warriors: Gundam: Fun game, but it'll take a long time to get them all.
• Earth Defense Force 2017: Fun game, but can be difficult. Achievements are tied to beating the game on different difficulty levels, which is a royal, time consuming, pain.
• F.E.A.R.: Weighted heavily towards multiplayer. Single-player tasks are very difficult. You only earn about 70 playing through normally.
• Far Cry Instincts Predator: Weighted heavily towards multiplayer.
• FIFA 08: For hardcore soccer fans only.
• FIFA Road to the World Cup 2006: Moderately easy achievements, but not worth going through the pain of playing this game.
• Final Fantasy XI: Extremely hard to earn.
• Guitar Hero III: Increased game difficulty mixed with challenging achievements make this one feel like work.
• Hour of Victory: Not worth the headache of playing this horrible game.
• Juiced 2: Online focus kills the easy achievement buzz.
• KUF: Circle off Doom: Bad game. Not worth the suffering.
• Lost Planet: Colonies: Heavily MP focused.
• LotR: Battle for Middle Earth: Challenging and only has 705 pts possible.
• Monster Madness: A Difficult game with difficult achievements.
• NASCAR 08: Bad game. Don't bother.
• NBA Ballers: Chosen One: Bad game. Easy 300, though.
• Need for Speed Carbon: Weighted heavily towards online and the single player ones can be tough to get.
• NHL 07: If you’re a hockey fan you’ll happily get them all. Not recommended if you are just looking to boost your gamerscore.
• NHL 08: Too many online achievements and difficult solo tasks.
• Perfect Dark Zero: Heavily weighted towards multiplayer. The game isn’t good enough to want to play 1000 multiplayer matches.
• Pro Evo Soccer 2008: Time consuming.
• Quake 4: Weighted heavily towards multiplayer.
• Ridge Racer 6: Fun game, but the achievements are very hard to get.
• Rumble Roses XX: Achievements take forever to unlock and you’ll get tired of the game quickly.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Bad game. Not worth the effort.
• Tenchu Z: Bad game. Avoid.
• The Outfit: A good mix of both single and multiplayer achievements. It’ll take you a while to get them all.
• Tony Hawk's Proving Ground: Tony needs a year off. SICK level achievements will frustrate you.
• Turok: Heavily weighted towards Xbox Network. The game stinks.
• Two Worlds: Worst game on Xbox 360.
• UEFA Euro 2008: Time consuming.
• Universe at War: Bad game.
• Virtua Fighter 5: Large time commitment to earn them. Can be difficult.
• World Series of Poker 2007: Some are easy, but many take a long time to earn and you'll likely get bored before you get close.
• Lost Planet: Colonies Ed: Almost all online. Time-consuming.
• Prizefighter: Terrible game. Don't bother.
• Facebreaker: Terrible game. Don't bother.
• Beijing 2008: One of the worst 360 games ever. Very difficult.