give me all your 360 games

So thanks to Brian, I now have an Xbox 360. Finally, I'd been putting off getting one for the longest time, but I finally knuckled down and shelled out the money for one. I spent all my money on the console so I don't even have any games. Brian let me borrow Assassin's Creed and Skate 2 to play until I can grab a few games of my own. Until then I'm living in 2007 playing Assassin's Creed for the first time. I won't waste anyone's time going into detail on my opinions of this game that most of you have already played, but I will say I'm liking it a lot thus far. Either way, the point of this particular blog entry is simply to express my joy. Of course now I'm posed with a very big question...what game do I buy first?

The first game I got for the Atari 2600 was Space Invaders. The first game I got for the NES was the classic SMB/Duck Hunt combo cartridge. My first Genesis game was Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition. My first Saturn game was Christmas Nights. DS, PS2, GBA, XBOX, DC, WII, PS3...I remember my first game for each new console. I want to make this first purchase count. I have a pretty decently-sized catalog of games to choose from and I think I've got it narrowed down to a few right off the top of my head. Keep in mind I'm trying to go with 360 exclusives.

-Dead Rising is probably at the top of my list right now (barely) for the simple fact that I fucking love zombies. This is definitely more intriguing to me than Left 4 Dead. Plus I gotta get acquainted with Frank West before TVC comes out next year...

-Mass Effect looks amazing. It looks so amazing that I actually know almost nothing about it. I remember people talking about how great it was when it came out and I remember all the positive reviews, but I didn't have a 360 so I didn't want to get myself all psyched on a game I couldn't play. But now I can play it and I bet it's cheap as hell.

-Gears of War...I have mixed feelings on. I've never been blown away by this game because I've never felt comfortable playing it. But it's cheap and I'm willing to give it a serious try.

-Blue Dragon got me super pumped a while back when I first started reading about it and then after it came out it was buried in a sea of mediocre reviews. But you know what? I've played plenty of RPGs that were supposedly mediocre, but I loved nonetheless. Legend of Dragoon (PS) is a perfect example.

Do I go with one of those 4? Viva Pinata? Crackdown? Lost Odyssey? What have I been missing out on? If you had $20 - $30 to spend on a 360 game, what would you get? I'm trying to stick with games I can only experience on the 360, but I know some multiplatform games are better on the 360. I'm actually looking for some reader feedback on this. Everyone and anyone with an opinion on the matter should let me know, preferably by the end of the week. Friday is payday and I haven't bought a game for a couple of weeks...

-Brian T.