After only having a Wii and PS3 for all of this console generation, a friend is gifting me a 360 in January. I really don't know what games to get for it so I was hoping you guys could give me some suggestions. I'm really only looking for 360 exclusives (including games that were eventually released on PC such as Viva Piñata). I honestly don't know where to start, and I don't know if its worth getting into franchises like Halo or Gears of War this late in the game. So far I've only really thought of Alan Wake and Viva Piñata. Any suggestions?

No you should definitely check out the Gears of War and Halo games, they are worth getting into.

I see your avatar is FFVIII, so definitely get the two Mistwalker RPGs, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. Lost Odyssey is by far the best RPG this generation (I've heard things about Xenoblade Chronicles, but haven't played... yet), and Blue Dragon has a really light, old school feel to it. Both games are fantastic.  
 
Alan Wake is a no brainer. Best Game of 2010 for me. Mass Effect 1 is outstanding too, make sure to pick that up.  
 
There are the obvious shooters like Gears and Halo, I haven't touched much of Gears but Halo Reach is fantastic.

Alan Wake is pretty good, but the amount of combat you're forced to do in the last third is brutal.

I recently got a 360 as well. I played through Halo 3, and it was painful. I don't recommend it. I played through the first act of Gears of War and could not force myself to continue. I absolutely loved Bully: Scholarship Edition, Left 4 Dead, and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. I also have Deadly Premonition, still waiting to be played.

You're too late to the party man. Tell your mate to give you money for the next gen. Thats a better investment.

@Rebel_Scum said:

You're too late to the party man. Tell your mate to give you money for the next gen. Thats a better investment.

He got this 360 for free when buying a new PC and he already has one of his own, so hes passing it on to me.

@Unknown_Pleasures said:

No you should definitely check out the Gears of War and Halo games, they are worth getting into.

Yeah I probably will, at least the more recent games.

@xyzygy said:

I see your avatar is FFVIII, so definitely get the two Mistwalker RPGs, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. Lost Odyssey is by far the best RPG this generation (I've heard things about Xenoblade Chronicles, but haven't played... yet), and Blue Dragon has a really light, old school feel to it. Both games are fantastic. Alan Wake is a no brainer. Best Game of 2010 for me. Mass Effect 1 is outstanding too, make sure to pick that up. There are the obvious shooters like Gears and Halo, I haven't touched much of Gears but Halo Reach is fantastic.

Good call, I hadn't thought about RPGs. I'll definitely check out Lost Odyssey.

I dunno....the xbox is a third party powerhouse mostly.

I'm gonna try and mention ones not already listed.

The Fable games...I don't love them, but they are alright.

Forza and/or Project Gotham Racing if you care about racing at all.

Only other thing I can think of at the moment are some XBLA games. Shadow Complex, Geometry Wars, Trials HD, Splosion Man, Trenched(Iron Brigade), ilomilo, etc.

XBox Live Arcade.

Wave goodbye to your money.

PGR 4, Crackdown, and Nuts & Bolts are awesome and probably dirt cheap at this point.

@Faltru:

Halo, Gears, Forza, Dead or Alive 4, Crackdown, Viva Pinata, Banjoe Nuts and Bolts, Lost Odyssey & Alan Wake.

That's all of them really. There's some really great stuff on XBLA though, like Rez HD, Ikaruga, Splosin' Man to name a few.

You should def. look into Gears of War series as well as Forza series. Also Bioshock, Mass Effect, Crackdown, Fable series, PGR4.

Buy a gazillion Microsoft points and go nuts on the XBLA games. They're the best thing about the 360!