I’ve managed to get my hands on a 2nd XBox 360 – finally another USA model. As I now have two different region’s 360s, and a bunch of American (NTSC-U/C) and UK (PAL) games, I’m in an ideal position to actually test what games work across country systems etc. I wanted to publish this information up for reference, since it’s really hard to come by; only a few trusted sites like play-asia.com actually seem to publish it anywhere, and because I utterly detest the fact that region-locking still exists at all, as I’ve ranted about before.
I will update this post in future as time goes on with more information. I’ll only post whatever I’ve personally verified myself.
Verifying more games right at this minute is difficult though, since the moment I got my NTSC XBox, my PAL one got jealous and RROD’d. Yes really. The incredibly irony of this situation wasn’t lost on me; my amusement almost overcame my annoyance at getting my second RROD. The irony was further heightened by the fact my old PAL 360 also just got selected for XBox Live Update Preview (facebook etc). *sigh*
NTSC-U/C (American) Games:
All-Pro Football 2k8
NTSC-U/C only
Call of Duty 3
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Dead or Alive Ultimate (XBox 1)
NTSC-U/C only on XBox 360
ESPN NFL 2K5 (XBox 1)
NTSC-U/C only on XBox 360
Gears of War Special Edition
Game Disc: NTSC-U/C and PAL
Bonus Disc – NTSC-U/C only
Gears of War 2 Limited Edition
Game Disc: NTSC-U/C and PAL
Limited Edition Bonus Disc – NTSC-U/C and PAL
(Tom Clancy’s) Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload (XBox 1)
NTSC-U/C only on XBox 360
Halo (XBox 1)
NTSC-U/C only on XBox 360
Halo 2 (XBox 1)
NTSC-U/C and PAL on XBox 360
Halo 3
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Halo 3 Limited Edition
Game Disc: NTSC-U/C and PAL
Limited Edition Bonus Disc – NTSC-U/C only
Halo Wars
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Lost Planet Extreme Condition
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Mass Effect
NTSC-U/C and PAL
NFL 2k3 (XBox 1)
NTSC-U/C only on XBox 360
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
NTSC-U/C only
Sega Superstars Tennis
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Street Fighter IV
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Soul Calibur IV
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Virtua Fighter 5 Online
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Wartech Senko No Ronde
NTSC-U/C and PAL
PAL (English) Games:
Aliens Vs Predator
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Backbreaker
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Battle Fantasia
PAL only
Bayonetta
NTSC-U/C and PAL
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
PAL only
Borderlands
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Brutal Legend
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Call of Duty World At War
NTSC-U/C and PAL
(Sid Meier’s) Civilization Revolution
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Condemned
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Dead or Alive 3 (XBox 1)
PAL only on XBox 360
Dead Rising
PAL only
Fable (XBox 1)
NTSC-U/C and PAL on XBox 360
Fable II
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Forza 2 Motorsport (Bundle Copy)
PAL only
Gears of War 2
NTSC-U/C and PAL
The King of Fighters XII
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Left 4 Dead
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Halo (XBox 1)
PAL only on XBox 360
Halo 2 Limited Collectors Edition (XBox 1)
Game Disc: NTSC-U/C and PAL
Limited Collectors Edition Disc – PAL only on XBox 360
Halo 3
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Halo 3 ODST
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Halo3 Multiplayer Disc: NTSC-U/C and PAL
Halo Reach
NTSC-U/C and PAL
The House of the Dead III (XBox 1)
PAL only on XBox 360
Lost Odyssey
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Mass Effect
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Ninja Gaiden (XBox 1)
PAL only on XBox 360
The Orange Box
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox 1)
PAL only on XBox 360
Pure
NTSC-U/C and PAL
SpongeBob Squarepants – Battle for Bikini Bottom (XBox 1)
PAL only on XBox 360
Shadowrun
PAL only
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Street Fighter Anniversary Collection (XBox 1)
NTSC-U/C and PAL on XBox 360
Street Fighter IV Collector’s Edition
Game Disc: NTSC-U/C and PAL
Bonus Disc – NTSC-U/C and PAL
Super Street Fighter IV
NTSC-U/C and PAL
Tales of Vesperia
PAL only
Viva Pinata (Bundle Copy)
NTSC-U/C and PAL
agoners.wordpress.com 
Ha, so Facebook not only breaks the internetz, it breaks XBox’s too!
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hehe, perhaps! I’m not at all certain as to whether this RROD was caused by the beta facebook dashboard update. In fact, I doubt it – I didn’t see any download begin or anything. I think it was just random chance. And the two 360s being jealous of each other. The black one is very ugly compared to the lovely white one.. I wish they did White Elites!
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Thanks for this list. I’m in the States with a bunch of PAL games and a broken PAL console, and no real way to get another any time soon. I’m pretty certain I will get an NTSC box and just hope for the best. Key games in my catalogue would be Borderlands, Mass Effect, Halo 3, Forza 3, Fallout 3.
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You’re welcome Meta_S, I’ll keep this updated whenever I get new games – although I’m mainly renting and buying PAL stuff right now. Both Halo 3 and Mass Effect will very likely be ok since the NTSC one works on PAL, they are probably region-free everywhere. I can’t vouch for the others, but I may well try out Borderlands before too long (its one I want to rent soon).
If you have a RROD you should be able to get Microsoft to repair and return your console to you wherever you are. You have the reverse situation to me (a broken NTSC console in a PAL region). Here’s what I did – rang up MS Europe and said I’d bought the console on holiday in the USA (make up any story but try and play dumb cos they tend not to like obvious importers), they gave me two options, I could post it to USA (at my own post cost), and they’d send me back a repaired NTSC one when it got there, but it could take a few weeks, or I could send it back to MS Europe (free post), and they’d send one in a few days. I went for the latter option, which was how I ended up with a PAL XBox 360.
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Maybe next time I will send it back. It ringed a few months back and I opened it up and reflowed the GPU and reseated the heatsink with screws. I think I could nurse it along, but I will prefer a more up to date model (current one is an elite of over 2 and a half years). I’d end up spendng too much time fixing it. I have a bunch of games and I guess we’ll see what works 🙂
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Hehe, not a bad plan. Give me a couple of days and I will borrow some more PAL games to test out on an NTSC XBox for you. I should definitely be able to get ahold of Halo 3 at the very least of your list.
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So I bit the bullet and bought an American box. I have a friend who confirmed some of the key games. I brought it home and tested my entire collection. I also have some OG Xbox games that I can test, but I’ll have to wait until I get a new Hard Disk, since my old one is apparently fried too.
Here is my list (I really have too many games 🙂 ):
Title,PAL game on NTSC console
Assassin’s Creed,Y
Assassin’s Creed 2,Y
Batman AA,Y
Bioshock,Y
Borderlands,Y
Burnout Paradise,N
Civ Rev,Y
COD 4,Y
Crackdown,Y
Dead Space,N
Dirt,Y
Dirt 2,Y
F.E.A.R.,Y
Fable II,Y
Fallout 3,Y
Far Cry 2,Y
Forza 2,N
Forza 3,”N (Was sad about this one, but may get my hands on an NTSC)”
GOW,Y
GOW 2,Y
GRAW 2,Y
GRID,Y
GTA 4,N
Halo 3,Y
Halo 3 Multiplayer (ODST disc),Y
Jericho,Y
Left 4 Dead,Y
Lost Planet,Y
LOTR BFME II,N
Mass Effect,Y
Mirror’s Edge,N
Oblivion,Y
ODST,Y
Orange Box,Y
Overlord,Y
PREY,Y
Race Pro,Y
Rainbow 6 Vegas,Y
Riddick – Dark Athena,N (Was Sad about this one too)
Section 8,Y
Sega Rally,Y
The Saboteur,Y
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Thank you very much for the listing 🙂 That’s great! Hopefully if anyone else finds this link (how did you find Agoners btw?) they’ll find that very useful as well. I’ll keep updating my list separately, just so I can say it’s personally vouched.
Happy gaming Meta_S! 😀
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I was looking for someone with a comprehensive list, and the play asia listing focussed on NTSC-J – google helped me. I think you commented here: http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showthread.php?t=54517&page=40 but I bookmarked this page first, so not sure which I found first.
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Ah that’s cool to know google can get you here, thank you once more. Yep you’re right that most places focus on NTSC-J which was why I couldn’t find this info anywhere else myself either. I’ve added a couple more games to the lists above as well. I’ll keep on testing – I’m lucky to be able to play things either way.
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This is now linked at the updated & moved NTSC-UK here:
http://www.ntsc-uk.co.uk/showthread.php?54517-Region-Free-Xbox-Xbox-360-Games-(list-in-thread)/page57
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