Xbox 360 Gift Guide

In it's second holiday season, Kinect is looking solid once again. It is a voice sensitive, motion tracking camera that can put your full body movements into games so you can control them like never before.  We have a full Kinect Hardware Buyer's Guide that will hopefully answer any questions you have, as well as a Holiday 2011 Kinect Guide with tips and tricks for Kinect setup as well as a list of good Kinect games from a number of genres. The heading of this section is also a link to our picks for the 10 Best Kinect Games overall.

Easily the most popular and most successful genre on the Xbox 360 is the shooter. These games aren’t for kids, as they are all rated “T” or “M” by the ESRB, but if you’re shopping for a teenage or older gamer you can’t to wrong with a shooter. Third-person, first-person, fast paced, realistic – there is quite a bit of variety in the genre to suit any gamer’s taste. We list the ten best right here.

One of the best ways to ensure you’re buying a game that someone will like is to go with the action genre. These games offer the most variety and are generally appealing to all gamers, so if you aren’t sure if the person you’re buying for is a sports or RPG or racing fan, at the very least they probably like action games so you can’t really go wrong. Our list of the Top 10 X360 Action Games represents lots of different types of action games as well as ESRB ratings from “E” to “M” to ensure that there is a game suitable for anyone on your shopping list.

Racing games have never been better than they are during the current generation. The graphics are near photo realistic and gameplay is better than ever before. There are also a number of different genres and race types to chose from to ensure that whether you want rally, NASCAR, realistic simulations, frantic arcade racing, and much more there is something for everyone on Xbox 360. We have our picks for racing games that will make everyone happy right here.

I gotta tell you, sports games are a harder genre to recommend as gifts than anything else since they are outdated so quickly (new ones come out every year) and usually the newest, most expensive titles are the best. It can be tempting to get an older, cheaper version since it seems like they are all the same thing but, believe me, they aren’t all the same and if the person you are buying for tells you they want a sports game, they probably don’t want last year’s. We list the best sports games for each genre (basketball, football, hockey, soccer, etc.) right here to help you make sure you’re picking up the right game.

Music games aren't the mega hit they were a couple of years ago, but they are still pretty fun to play with friends and family. Also, since Rock Band 3 continues to pump out new downloadable songs each and every week, there is always new content to play. We have our picks for the best of the best out of the huge pile of music / rhythm games here.

Some of the longest lasting and most satisfying games you can buy are role-playing-games, and the Xbox 360 has a fine selection of them. In terms of value, you really can’t do any better than an RPG that takes 30-50 hours to play through. RPGs are good “bang for the buck” for you, and long-term entertainment for whomever you give them to. We list our picks for the best RPGs on the Xbox 360 right here.

Strategy games are similar to RPGs in terms of value and “bang for the buck” as they take quite a long time to play through and master. They aren’t quite as easy to recommend, however, because the gameplay definitely isn’t for everyone. These games are usually pretty challenging and require a bit of strategy and planning to really play well, and some people just plain aren’t looking for slowly paced games like these. I wouldn’t suggest blind-buying them for just anybody, but if you already know someone enjoys strategy games, our picks for the Top 10 Xbox 360 Strategy Games will ensure you’re getting them the absolute best.

The Xbox 360 is definitely weighted more towards teenage and adult gamers and isn’t as kid-friendly as it could be. The release of Kinect in 2010 changed that. While regular Xbox 360 kids games are still mostly dominated by movie and TV licensed games, Kinect offers a wide range of quality family and kid-friendly titles. We share our picks for the best normal Xbox 360 as well as Kinect kid games here.