Yamori wrote:also, is shelling out the 50$ a month for multiplayer worth it if I'm a loner and a cheapskate? Does it make games like Left4Dead totally hauss? :o
It's only useful if you have friends or relatives you want to play with. If you play casually, it's not really worth it. If you are cheap, it's doubly not worth it.
In my opinion Mass Effect is the best RPG for the 360. Right behind that is Oblivion, although it's a bit old. Neither can be played online.
Gears of War 1 and 2 and the Halo series are a hoot. You don't need multi to enjoy them.
If you do want Live, then look for deals on bing.com. You can generally search there and get cashback so Live is cheap. My kid only really plays the 360 and Wii, so I get him a Live sub for his birthday since all his friends are on there. I play quite often and rarely use Live. Multiplayer games aren't as good on the 360 can be lagfests since there are no good servers available. There is just Xbox to Xbox gameplay.