Short, fun 360 games?

[BlueDev]

My wife and kids are leaving town next week, and I get to stay here for work. This will, however, provide me with a bit more gaming time than usual for the week. I was curious which 360 games people have played they they enjoyed, but found quite short.

I'm looking for a couple of fun games that would be worth renting, but that are pretty short so I can actually finish them.

[Munin]

Crackdown.

[awdougherty]

Gun. Tomb Raider Legends.

[Fugitive]

Tomb Raider: Legend was pretty good and only took me 8 or 9 hours, I think.

Kameo was also pretty short, but fun.

Lego Star Wars II can be completed fairly quickly, if you don't insist on doing all the extra modes, collecting all the gold bricks, etc.

[extarbags]

Symphony of the Night.

[BDGE]

Tomb Raider: Legend was pretty good and only took me 8 or 9 hours, I think.

Kameo was also pretty short, but fun.

Lego Star Wars II can be completed fairly quickly, if you don't insist on doing all the extra modes, collecting all the gold bricks, etc.

These were all of my picks too. TR:Legend took me barely a weekend to not just finish, but collect all 1000 achievements. Had a good time with it while it lasted.

There is never a wrong time to play Lego SW2.

I've heard good things about Condemned, but I've personnally not played it. Same goes for Prey. Both I think run under the 10 hour mark.

[Moore]

Prey is short and a decent romp. Feels a bit.. uh.. retro (bog standard fps, the portals add more or less nothing, but they make puzzles a tiny bit mroe thinky)

I actually bought it for like $14 and dont feel ripped off.

I also liked king kong.. AS A RENTAL. Super short, silly guilty fun and you get all 1000 points for playing through the game once.

[Scrax]

If you arn't OCD over saving everyone Dead Rising can be beaten fairly quickly.

[BlueDev]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have Crackdown and Kameo, but had forgotten about Prey. Perhaps I will pick that one up. King Kong sounds like it might fit the bill as well.

[Brakara]

GRAW 2 has a pretty short main campaign.

[unbongwah]

If you talking about games with short single-player campaigns, pretty much all of the first-/third-person action games fit the bill: GRAW 1 & 2, Rainbow Six Vegas, Gears of War, Tomb Raider Legend, Prey, Call of Duty 2 & 3, Crackdown, Dead Rising, FEAR, Lost Planet, Just Cause, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, Condemned, Lego Star Wars 2, Chromehounds, Quake 4, Saints Row, Splinter Cell DA, The Outfit.

There are plenty of games which can be finished in under 10 hours; the trick is figuring out how many of them you can (or would want to) finish in a week.

[Jake Plane]

In order:

Crackdown
Prey
GRAW 2

I'd say you can finish any one of those over the course of a weekend.

[BDGE]

Rainbow Six: Vegas...man I feel like I've spent an entire weekend JUST trying to clear a single checkpoint in that campaign. Stupid Realistic difficulty, stupid vertical casino ascent. :(

One of these months I'll actually finish it!

[Kool Moe Dee]

Hitman: Blood Money can be beaten in a rental period (as long as you aren't going for 1000 gamerpoints), and is really fun.

[Rock8man]

Rainbow Six: Vegas...man I feel like I've spent an entire weekend JUST trying to clear a single checkpoint in that campaign. Stupid Realistic difficulty, stupid vertical casino ascent. :(

One of these months I'll actually finish it!

Heheh, yeah, I'm right there with you BDGE. I play Rainbow Six every friday with my friends (it replaced our weekly Halo 2 matches) and we've finished all the Terrorist Hunts on Realistic, we've finished the Coop Story on Realistic, and we've done a lot of adversarial maps, but during the week when i try to finish the single player campaign, it is insanely hard to make progress.

I've been playing the game since January now, I think, and I've finally finished Calypso Casino, and I'm on to Downtown Vegas. Since I've finished the story in Coop, I know that I'm not even half way done with the game yet, and that its going to get a LOT harder later. I have no idea how people can describe the campaign as short, other than to play the other difficulty level, which I admit, I haven't tried.

[metta]

Viva Pinata, great fun, easy to pick up and play at your own pace then put away.

[unbongwah]

Rainbow Six: Vegas...man I feel like I've spent an entire weekend JUST trying to clear a single checkpoint in that campaign. Stupid Realistic difficulty, stupid vertical casino ascent. :(
For me, the trick was to use smoke grenades to cover the lower levels, then make a dash for the open doors to the stairwell: clear the stairwell, then use it as a firing position to pick off as many baddies in the central area as possible.

Dunno if that qualified as a clever battle tactic or just blind luck, but it worked for me. :-)

[BobJustBob]

Earth Defense Force is short (if you stick to a single difficulty) and supremely fun. But I can't in good conscience recommend you rent it; it's definitely a keeper.

[Clay]

A little late to the parade, perhaps, but I'm having a blast with Just Cause. It's not perfect, but it's a lot of fun and the setting is beautiful.

Plus, you should be able to find it used for cheap.

[Jason Cross]

Viva Pinata, great fun, easy to pick up and play at your own pace then put away.


HAHAHA! Yeah right, "put away." Sure. You just TRY to stop playing that damn crackrock of a game.

[BlueDev]

Viva Pinata, great fun, easy to pick up and play at your own pace then put away.

Heh, well, my wife and I both have been playing that one since December, so definitely not a quick play there.

[Charles]

20 posts and no one says Guitar Hero? For shame!

Playable in 4 minute bursts!

[BDGE]

Heheh, yeah, I'm right there with you BDGE. I play Rainbow Six every friday with my friends (it replaced our weekly Halo 2 matches) and we've finished all the Terrorist Hunts on Realistic, we've finished the Coop Story on Realistic, and we've done a lot of adversarial maps, but during the week when i try to finish the single player campaign, it is insanely hard to make progress.

I've been playing the game since January now, I think, and I've finally finished Calypso Casino, and I'm on to Downtown Vegas. Since I've finished the story in Coop, I know that I'm not even half way done with the game yet, and that its going to get a LOT harder later. I have no idea how people can describe the campaign as short, other than to play the other difficulty level, which I admit, I haven't tried.

Yea, last I played I had left off on Dante's Casino, the level the demo took place in, which is like two stages before the end.

I've been playing on and off since launch and it seems every visit has me completing 1-2 checkpoints which can equate to a good 3 hours of playtime. A few more challenging sections could take multiple revisits just to clear(the most notorious for me being that vertical calypso ascent). It's rare that I ever turn off a game in pure frustrated disgust, but R6:Vegas surely had me do it more than a few times.

Yet I really do love the damn game. It's a very accomplished shooting experience. Realistic difficulty may have just been a bit too unfair though.

[Brakara]

20 posts and no one says Guitar Hero? For shame!

Playable in 4 minute bursts!

It's not a rental though.

[RickH]

HAHAHA! Yeah right, "put away." Sure. You just TRY to stop playing that damn crackrock of a game.

I played it over a weekend and sent it back to GameFly. I didn't make it to the 10 hour accomplishment. It's currently in my "buy it if you see it cheap" list.

Once the new wore off, it became a muddle without a point. Attracting new pinatas was contingent on meeting odd conditions, and once I met them, they wouldn't show up. The pinatas were constantly fighting, and most of my time seemed to be spent on healing them. I felt like I was playing Pinata Administrator.

Also, I wasted hours trying to get the master breeder achievement without realizing that the pinatas not only had to be bred, but all exist in the garden at the same time. Fertilizing plants was also woefully underexplained in the game. Denying the player information about the game mechanics is not the same as creating the opportunity for discovery.

[unbongwah]

It's currently in my "buy it if you see it cheap" list.
FYI, Viva Pinata should've just dropped to $30: you can find it at Amazon.