I have had a Wii for ages now and use it mostly for Tiger Golf, but I'm a simmer at heart.I like adventure type games as well. I heard theres a western type game thats very good. Would be cool If I could get my kid interested as well.
I like car racing and war sims as well as flying (props)games.
Any ship type sims for the Xbox.
we decided to get it for the animalkinect game thats run in all the Build a bear stores, so I minds as well take advantage of the situation right?

Red Dead Redemption is great. Best Western game I've ever played. Really captures the feel of what's good in western movies. I cannot reccommend it for a youngster though. Has some content that I personally could do without and like a Rockstar game it has an incorrect and negative slant in some of its "historical" story telling. That's my belief on the matter but aside from that it is a superb game with a great story and lead character.

I enjoyed Call of Juarez as well but once again I can't reccommend it for a child.

For adventuring Bethesda's games are great.
Oblivion
Fallout3
Skyrim

People constantly knock it but I think Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising is one of the truest military tactical games for the consoles. Mind you it has some aggrevating moments and bugs sometimes but COOP is where it shines. And compared to its successor Red River, the voice acting and story are more serious. Red River is also fun for COOP but the dialouge and story sounded like it was written by and angry teenager.

I also really enjoy Alan Wake for a more creepy gameplay. Story driven action adventure with an atmoshperic setting in the North West.

The Batman games are very good as well. Arkham City has more freedom however.

Also Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway is very good.

Red Dead Redemption is the Western you'll want. Amazing game.

Racing: Race Pro, I'm sure you'll probably want Forza 4 also

Flight: Over G Fighters. Ignore the presentation, which is horrible, but the aircraft, weapons and missions are excellent. It's no Ace Combat---although AC6 is a lot of fun. Will not work with a flight stick, unfortunately.

The rest of my "never trade in games" are also on pc:
Apache Air Assault...Apache game, a lot of fun. Flight is sim-like, but weapons aren't. Great game though.
IL2 Birds of Prey....it's Wings of Prey on console. PC game is better due to not having to unlock planes in MP.

No ship sims, but Battlestations Pacific is an incredible game. Huge WWII battles with all kinds of ships, fighters, bombers, subs...tons of replay value in the Island Capture mode. Can play MP vs AI.

EndWar...small scale modern RTS. Much better on console than pc. The voice control is well done, although it doesn't like a Southern accent sometimes. LOL Plays very well with the controller, unlike most RTS games.

I've got Op Flashpoint Dragon Rising, and recently Red River. So far OFDR is far superior IMO. Can't say for sure until I finish Red River though, DR was slow to start too but ended up with some very good missions about halfway through to the end.


I've got more I'll never get rid of, but that's a pretty good start.

Fist off welcome to the world of Xbox!

I would recommend Red Dead Revolver to satisfy your "western needs". Excellent game and you'll probably find it pretty cheap. For your racing appetite I would recommend Forza 4. It is still pretty new so it might be harder to find it cheap but well worth the $60 IMO. In the adventure category I would suggest both Batman titles (Arkham Asylum or Arkham City). As far as shooters are concerened...well.....there are plenty to choose from.

If your interested in MP I would look at Battlefield 3 (great game!!) or Modern Warfare 3 however if your not interested in MP, the SP is not worth the full price tag IMO. There is also Gears of War which also is heavy on the MP side but I think has a little more to offer on the SP side. You'll be able to find the first 2 GOW games very cheap now. Another shooter I would highly suggest is Rage. Great SP campaign, one of the better looking games on XBox, silky smooth controls and pretty imaginative weapons. There is some MP but SP is where Rage shines.

Keep in mind that most of the games mentioned are rated mature. Just figured I'd warn you because you mentioned you had kids.

Hope that helps get you strated!

FPS: Rainbow Six Vegas 1 and 2 are solid games, but don't expect the original Rainbow with planing. Both games have co-op campaigns.

RPG:
Mass Effect, the third arrives in March next year. Great story and characters. One of my favourite games this generation. You should start with the first one and continue on with the others as you can import your Shepard and all your choices that effect the story.

Deus Ex Human Revolution, also a great RPG and a very good sequel to the original.

Red Dead Redemption.

That's all you'll need.....

I will echo the Red Dead Redemption recommendation, amazing game, I was late to jump into the console world (last Christmas) and this was one of the first games I got, and even as I was trying to get used to the lack of AntiAliasing on the console, the scenery, story and open RDR world was amazing to me coming from PC.

I expected it to be GTA Cowboy but it really is at another level, I still return to it sometimes just to wander the countryside on horseback.

FM4 is also another very solid game if you like racing games.

Yep single player all the way, man talk about lots of games to choose from ! After waiting for a good game on the Wii, there were here all the time. I like to free roam I think the best in RPG's. that Red Dead looks fantastic as well as BattleStation Pacific. Birds of Prey looks pretty good too.
How about WW2 sims? and Sports. Since its a Kinect, there must be some great sports games as well. I just hope theres a decent Pool game out soon. I waited for one for the Wii, and it never materialized.

Ace Combat 6.

EndWar:


Race Pro (covers a LOT of racing, get all dlc)


Battlestations Pacific, Island Capture mode




IL2: Birds of Prey


Over G Fighters



Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption and BattleStation Pacific for sure, but I'm used to joysticks and mouses for my PC sims. What do you use for the Xbox, or do I have to stick my arms out to my sides and make airplane noises ?( I'll leave how I make the noises up to your imagination !)
Are there any adventure or exploring games my kid could get into that aren't too violent?
There was a cool one for the Wii, that had you armed with a camera, and you went and tried to get pictures of animals in Africa.
Definately going to get a WW2 sim shooter as well maybe as you mentioned Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway ?
I have seen a few though that seem like there on rails, with no exploration at all. I did do the Original Operation Flashpoint on my PC, but even that never changed if you played it over again.
Also I heard some of the earlier Xboxes had overheating issues, Is that still a problem, or was it just overheating of the hard drives, with people putting the Xbox's in cabinets and enclosed places ?

Those issues are on the earlier ones (knock on wood), but like a pc, it still needs to breathe.
There are some flight sticks, pretty basic though. The wireless one would be the way to go for a new one. I rarely use my cheap-o Aviator anymore, the 360 controller is better due to quality and button arrangement issues. I still get it out for new games though.
Fable may look like a game for kids, but I'm not sure it's that appropriate due to sexual content (nothing graphical).
You may want to try Gamefly for a little while to rent titles before buying.
BIA is a fun one, but still not a "real" open area. Mass Effect 1 & 2 are on pc, but also good on 360.

For the kids I would recommend the lego games. They are surprisingly fun and relevant to many popular themes (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Batman, Harry Potter). You can also look at Kameo (if you can find it). It was one of the launch titles and Blue Dragon (RPG game, which I would consider safe with a ton of hours of gamplay).

The Kinect sports games will be fun for them as well.

OK I remeber a game which had these giant Tripod creatures in a city, these things had to be at least 2 to 3 strories high, I'm hoping it was an Xbox game, but its been out a while, but it was really cool. I thought it might be Crysis 2, but those tripods aren't that big.the ones I'm thinking of are more like war of the World ones, but it wasn't War of the worlds either. So If you can think of it please let me know.

For single player I'd strongly suggest Skyrim, even if you're not a huge RPG fan (I'm not, but this game is truly special). Mass Effect 2 is also outstanding, though I must admit I never finished it. Red Dead Redemption is a game I regret trading in, also terrific.

I'd also recommend Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2. Even though it had excellent co-op MP the campaign was quite good.

Same goes for Rainbow Six: Las Vegas (1 & 2). Both have good MP but the campaigns were still worth playing and can be found cheap now.

Racing: Forza 4 and Race Pro.

NHL12, even if you're not a hockey nut. Outstanding sports title.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 & 2.

Sounds like Earth Defense Force. Fun game with co-op.

it was half life 2

My thoughts as well. Though I did pick up Orange Box for the Xbox and played through HL2 again, then did episodes I and II on the box. Actually enjoyed the experience more than the PC for some reason.

Thanks, it was driving me nuts trying to think of it. A friend who had downloaded it at work, played through it and I remember her jumping back from the screen all the time, and those things that stuck on the ceiling, nasty little buggers.
I just read the review of The Orange Box and it sounds like a real deal.
How does it compare to more modern stuff like Crysis 2, Rage ?
Sounds like a have a lot of catching up to do !

Half life 2 is a great game!

Id grab the orange box in a heartbeat, you get HL2 and episodes 1 and 2 i think ( plus portal and TF?)

Bruce, I'd suggest signing up for Gamefly, it's like Netflix for games. Especially with having kids it's saved me a bundle not buying games that they thought they liked and then saying it's nothing like they expected!

Since you mentioned Tiger Woods on the Wii and it sounds like you're getting a Kinect you should know that when the next Tiger Woods comes out it will support Kinect as a controller.

I will also echo that Red Dead Redemption is a great game.

Forza games are fun, I have 3 but haven't picked up 4 yet as I don't have time to put into it at the moment.

This is true.

@Bruce, Rage is also a great game. It's a bit more open ended than HL2, but HL2 has a much tighter storyline and feels more like a journey than "being on rails".

I haven't tried Crysis 2, but I'd take HL2 over Crysis 1 any day. Crysis 1 is a way to put lots of action into a great looking engine, and the story is secondary.

Thats great to hear about Tiger Woods.I actually tried it on an Xbox and the touch or feel just wasn't there like on the Wii.
So far I have these as sure purchases:
Red Dead Redemption
Battlestation Pacific
The Orange Box
plus theres a few like Crysis 2, Rage, Far Cry 2 that are very possible.
I have a couple titles for my kid: Viva Pinata and Banjo-Kazooie:Nuts and Bolts, talk about strange titles.

Being a huge Avatar fan I was hoping for a great title there. I don't know what t is but every game done from a movie usually is terrible, probably rushing it out to take advantage of the free advertising I'm sure.
but with all the great RPG's out there, how hard would it be to adapt it to the Avatar world ?
If I could write games i would do this one and it wouldn't take much to have a gigantic fan base.
Just think of it too, you have those out there who would love to take the marines side, and another who would like to take the natives side the N"avi. OK I like the N'avi, but just to try the cool hardware I might like to try the Marines side as well.This doesn't even take into account the Avatars. I'll stop, I better, But you see what I mean.