Entertainment
From Gears of War to Uno: the 15 most important Xbox 360 games
As the Xbox 360 turns 20, we celebrate its most influential and memorable games – both exclusives, and those that came to the console first
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved (2005)
Originally featured as a minigame in Project Gotham, this 80s-style twin-stick shooter was rebuilt as a standalone digital-only release, attracting a huge new fanbase. Fast, frenetic and super stylish, with lovely vector visuals, it was the game that first showed the potential of Xbox Live Arcade.

Fast, frenetic and super stylish … Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. Photograph: Microsoft
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)

A time-sink of epic proportions… The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (screenshot from the 2025 remake) Photograph: Bethesda Softworks
Tens of millions of hours must have been spent in this foundational text of open-world role-playing games – one of the first video games where you really could go where you wanted and do pretty much as you pleased. Riding around Cyrodiil on horseback, taking in its gleaming city and backwater towns, it was so easy to get drawn into unexpected shenanigans that closing the story’s threatening hell-gates became a distant second priority.
Uno (2006)

The most addictive version of the classic card game… Uno on Xbox 360 Photograph: Carbonated Games/Microsoft
Look – don’t @ us – Uno was one of the most important Xbox 360 games. It was the first game that many people ever played on webcam (for better or for worse), letting you see the expression on an opponent’s face when you played a wild draw four. It was one of the first downloadable multiplayer games that console players could enjoy. It was astonishingly moreish. Many, many times you’d pick up the controller intending on making a dent in Halo or Mass Effect, and instead be drawn into round upon round of late-night online Uno. We still sometimes hear the pleasing sound effects in our dreams.
Viva Piñata (2006)

Darwinian brutality? … Viva Piñata. Photograph: Microsoft
Build a beautiful garden, attract colourful piñata-creatures to reside in it – then watch on as they all eat each other. The Darwinian brutality of Viva Piñata is a surprise in such a family-friendly-looking game, but it’s also just so compulsive. Many a hungover weekend in the 00s were spent trying to tempt bigger and more colourful predators to our lush mini-paradise. Horstachio for ever.
BioShock (2007)
Part dystopian adventure, part exploration of Ayn Rand’s objectivist philosophy, 2K Boston’s masterpiece has you exploring an undersea city built by a crazed billionaire with a fondness for drastic socio-scientific experiments. Would you kindly see the parallels to today’s tech bro oligarchs?

Modern parallels … Bioshock. Photograph: Irrational
Halo 3 (2007)

An endlessly enjoyable shooter… Halo 3 Photograph: Xbox Game Studios
Halo has never again been as good as it was in the original trilogy. This one is a shooter of astonishing scale for its time, the concluding part of gaming’s most maximalist and justifiably self-serious space drama. Where most modern shooters are glorified rollercoaster rides, corridors linked together by triggered set-pieces, Halo is full of intelligent enemies and opportunities for emergent chaos. But what we all remember best is the multiplayer: tanks and Ghost airships and Warthogs all clashing in endlessly entertaining remixes of the same outrageous grand battles. Its Forge map editor and fully customisable game rules made it feel infinitely entertaining.
Mass Effect (2007)

Better than Star Wars?… Mass Effect Photograph: Electronic Arts
BioWare’s vast sci-fi trilogy may not have had an ideal ending, but its mix of interplanetary war and inter-species romance held fans enraptured for a decade, starting with this brilliant first game. Mixing role-playing elements with squad-based combat and a truly timely existential threat (a race of evil sentient spacecrafts), Mass Effect delivered a memorable space-opera story with characters you truly cared about.
Fable II (2008)

Easy to enjoy … Fable II. Photograph: Microsoft
Lionhead’s perfectly British fantasy game is funny, snappy and very easy to enjoy. Perhaps too easy, as it’s over surprisingly quickly – but it has more heart and personality than any other Xbox role-playing game. It’s a mood-lifting fairytale with a heap of good ideas. Also, it has an excellent dog companion – though we may never forgive this game for what happens to it.
Gears of War 2 (2008)

The ultimate testosterone-drenched cover shooter … Gears of War 2. Photograph: Epic Games
Building on the muscular foundations of its predecessor, Gears 2 is the ultimate testosterone-drenched cover shooter, pitching macho marines against alien locust monsters in an orgy of destruction and chainsaw machine guns. Plus, its thrilling Horde mode started a trend for wave-based survival challenges.
Lost Odyssey (2008)

Like a forgotten Final Fantasy… Lost Odyssey Photograph: Mistwalker
For a brief period, Microsoft was really determined to make the Xbox a thing in Japan. The company tempted a series of storied Japanese developers to make exclusive games for the 360. Most of them sank without trace, but Lost Odyssey is a standout in its genre: it’s about what happens to our humanity in the face of technological revolution. Given that it was directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, a Final Fantasy veteran, it is perhaps unsurprising that it feels like a lost entry in that series.
Ninja Gaiden II (2008)

Choreographed violence… Ninja Gaiden II Photograph: Team NINJA
Before Dark Souls came along, it was Tecmo’s viciously difficult acton adventure that had players either grinding their teeth in frustration or gleefully hacking the limbs off adversaries. Beautifully choreographed combat, interesting locations and a wealth of razor-sharp weapons make this the interactive equivalent of those classic 1980s ninja movies.
Rock Band 2 (2008)

Rock out forever… Rock Band 2 Photograph: Harmonix Music Systems
The ultimate party game, for ever and always. After creating Guitar Hero, Harmonix handed that series over to a different developer and set to work on Rock Band, a peerlessly entertaining music game that had you singing, playing and drumming together on plastic instruments. Rock Band 2 not only had the best setlist, leaning towards milllennial-pleasing pop-punk and classic rock, but also the most frictionless play experience. You could be rocking out in moments, online or, much better, in person with friends.
Limbo (2010)

Unnerving … Limbo. Photograph: TriplePoint
The art game that showcased Xbox Live Arcade as a venue for experimentation, Playdead’s quasi-horror puzzle platformer is an unnerving noir thriller about a boy searching a hellish monochrome world for his lost sister. Selling a million copies in its first year, it proved that there was – and still is – a mass audience for strange, abstruse gaming experiences.
Forza Horizon (2012)

Fresh … Forza Horizon. Photograph: Microsoft
Project Gotham and Forza Motorsport preceded it, but Horizon felt like something fresh: a driving festival offering a range of experiences from circuit races to stunt challenges, all located in an exciting Colorado landscape crammed with enthralling roads and those ever-exciting vintage car barn finds. High-thrills video game tourism.
Trials Evolution (2012)

Insanely tricky… Trials Evolution Photograph: Ubisoft
Upon this game’s release, a huge percentage of the Xbox Live Arcade audience suddenly got really into intricate, physics-based motorbiking trials. Demanding pinpoint controls and nerves of steel, the game remains a challenging treat, with four-player support and an excellent level editor.
Entertainment
Meryl Streep comeback in ‘Mamma Mia 3’
In Mamma Mia, Meryl Streep portrayed Donna Sheridan, a single mother and independent hotel manager. Fans raved about her performance in the musical hit franchise.
But in the sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again: her character was revealed to have died. Though it was not shown how.
Now, as the third instalment is confirmed, according to Dame Donna Langley, chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment, questions are raised: would she make a comeback?
“If Meryl Streep would like to come back, we’ll find a way to bring her back,” the head responds to a question about the actress’ character’s return.
Further, the executive confirms the film has been greenlighted. “Yes, I’m going to say right now that there will be a Mamma Mia 3.”
Though, Langley insists the project is in an early phase, so there is no specific time when the movie will roll out in theatres. “We’re talking about it.”
Earlier, Amanda Seyfried, who played Sophie in the Mamma Mia franchise, said her character Sophie should be the third film’s focus.
The international News
Shakira to perform at Egypt’s iconic Pyramids of Giza in April
Colombian pop star Shakira is set to perform live at the Pyramids of Giza on April 7, as part of her worldwide “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran” tour, organisers said.
The concert is expected to draw a large audience to one of Egypt’s most iconic landmarks, with the global singer planning a visually ambitious production designed to match the scale and symbolism of the ancient site.
The show marks Shakira’s return to Egypt nearly two decades after her successful 2007 performance at the same venue as part of her Oral Fixation Tour, which at the time drew a large audience and widespread media coverage.
Shakira is expected to perform a selection of her most popular hits that have shaped her global career over the years, in a setting that blends music with history.
Gold, Silver Prices Make Olympic Medals Most Valuable in Modern History
It isn’t solid gold — but it’s never been worth more.
Athletes stepping onto the Winter Olympic podium in Italy this month are being draped in the most valuable medals in the Games’ modern history thanks to near record-high precious metal prices.
Since the Paris Summer Olympics started on July 26, 2024, spot gold prices have jumped roughly 110% to about $5,000 per ounce, while spot silver has surged about 180% hovering near $78 an ounce, according to FactSet data.
At current prices, the intrinsic or “melt value” of an Olympic gold medal — value based solely on the metals it contains — is roughly $2,300 to $2,500. Silver medals now carry a raw metal value of about $1,400.
Each gold medal handed out at this Olympics weighs in at about 506 grams, roughly 17.5 ounces, but only six grams of that total is pure gold.
Surprisingly, despite the name, Olympic gold medals are mostly silver. There hasn’t been a solid gold medal since the 1912 Stockholm Summer Olympics.
Under current International Olympic Committee guidelines, gold medals must consist of at least 92.5% silver and include a minimum of six grams of gold plating. Those six grams — about 0.2 ounces — are worth just over $1,000. The remaining silver core adds roughly $1,300 or more, depending on daily market swings.
Silver medals have about 500 grams of silver. Bronze medals, made primarily of copper and weighing in roughly 420 grams, carry only minimal intrinsic value at current commodity prices, worth just $5 to $6 in metal value.
Precious metal prices have climbed sharply over the past year as investors have poured money into traditional safe havens amid geopolitical instability, inflation concerns and ongoing economic uncertainty.
“The fundamentals and the tailwinds of this debasement trade are still in place, and the global central banks all over the world are acquirers of gold for the first time in many years,” Joe Terranova, a CNBC contributor and senior managing director for Virtus Investment Partners, said on CNBC’s Halftime Report Thursday. “You want to have some ownership.”
Even with bouts of volatility — including recent pullbacks over fears precious medal prices had overshot fundamentals — bullion remains near historic highs.
“The sell off [of precious metals] was attributable to excessive speculation,” Terranova said. “I don’t think it was attributable to any form of the shift in the fundamentals.”
Just this week, precious metals prices stabilized from that slip as investors assessed U.S.-Iran tensions and a drop in U.S. jobless claims that pointed to labor-market stability ahead of inflation data later this week.
Despite the soaring value of this year’s medals, they have been accompanied by an unexpected wrinkle.
The Milano Cortina 2026 Organizing Committee has acknowledged it’s looking into what is described as an “issue affecting a small number” of medals after several athletes reported broken ribbons or clasps during celebrations.
Organizers said they are working with the Italian State Mint to address the issue and repair affected medals.
CNBC
Entertainment
Shakira to perform at Egypt’s iconic Pyramids of Giza in April
Colombian pop star Shakira is set to perform live at the Pyramids of Giza on April 7, as part of her worldwide “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran” tour, organisers said.
The concert is expected to draw a large audience to one of Egypt’s most iconic landmarks, with the global singer planning a visually ambitious production designed to match the scale and symbolism of the ancient site.
The show marks Shakira’s return to Egypt nearly two decades after her successful 2007 performance at the same venue as part of her Oral Fixation Tour, which at the time drew a large audience and widespread media coverage.
Shakira is expected to perform a selection of her most popular hits that have shaped her global career over the years, in a setting that blends music with history.
Entertainment
Alan Cumming Thanks BAFTAs Audience After Activist’s Tourette’s Interruption
Host Alan Cumming addressed the audience at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday night after audible outbursts from Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson were heard during the ceremony.
The event, held at Royal Festival Hall and broadcast on BBC One, was briefly disrupted when Davidson, 54, let out involuntary shouts. At one point during the ceremony, Davidson could be heard yelling, “Shut the f*** up,” during a speech from BAFTA chair Sara Putt, as well as “f*** you” when the directors of the winner for Best Children’s and Family Film accepted their award.
Davidson also shouted a racial slur as actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the award for Best Visual Effects, per Variety. Davidson, who was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome at 25 after experiencing symptoms from childhood, is the inspiration behind the nominated film I Swear.
Those in attendance, including BAFTA president Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, reportedly reacted with visible surprise as the auditorium fell silent during speeches, making the outbursts more noticeable.
“The auditorium fell completely silent during the speeches, making the sudden outbursts clearly audible. The reaction in the room was one of visible shock, yet no one openly responded,” a source told HELLO!
Cumming acknowledged the moment on stage, explaining that strong language can be part of how Tourette’s presents for some individuals. “You may have noticed some strong language in the background. This can be part of how Tourette’s syndrome shows up for some people as the film explores that experience,” Alan said on the stage. Thanks for your understanding and helping create a respectful space for everyone. We apologise if you are offended.”
Cumming addressed the audience again later in the evening, this time apologising to anyone who may have been offended by Davidson’s words. “Tourette’s syndrome is a disability, and the tics you’ve heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette’s syndrome has no control over their language. We apologise if you are offended tonight,” he said.
Prior to the show as well, the event’s stage manager introduced Davidson, 54, to the audience and alerted attendees that they might hear some “involuntary noises or movements” during the ceremony, per Variety.
Davidson appeared to have left the audience during the second half of the show, per Variety.
I Swear, directed by Kirk Jones, received five nominations, including best leading actor for Robert Aramayo, who ultimately won the award as well as BAFTAs EE Rising Star.
During his acceptance speech for the latter award, the actor praised Davidson and called for greater understanding of his condition. “John Davidson is the most remarkable man I ever met,” Aramayo, 33, said. “He’s so forthcoming with education and he believes there should still be so much more we need to learn about Tourette’s.”
Aramayo continued, “I just want to say for people who are living with Tourette’s, it’s the buzz around them that helped define what their experience is, so to quote the film, ‘They need support and understanding.’”
The international News
-
Discover1 month agoIs February 2026 really a once-in -283-years MiracleIn?
-
Football2 months agoAlgeria, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire win AFCON 2025 openers
-
Health3 months agoBascom Palmer Eye Institute Abu Dhabi and Emirates Society of Ophthalmology Sign Strategic Partnership Agreement
-
Health2 months agoNMC Royal Hospital, Khalifa City, performs rare wrist salvage, restoring function for young patient
-
Health4 months agoEmirates Society of Colorectal Surgery Concludes the 3rd International Congress Under the Leadership of Dr. Sara Al Bastaki
-
Health4 months agoBorn Too Soon: Understanding Premature Birth and the Power of Modern NICU Care
-
Football3 months agoGlobe Soccer Awards 2025 nominees announced as voting opens in Dubai
-
Health2 months agoDecline in Birth Rate in the UAE
