Your game library looking a bit moldy? Here’s an easy way to make your old games feel new again: Don’t play by their rules — create your own!

Those were some good times you had with Gears of War, Oblivion, and Guitar Hero II. They were loyal buds who offered you hours of entertainment, and whether you were by yourself or playing online, they never let you down. But now your friendship seems a bit stale. The fun times have been fewer and farther between. Is it time to part ways and, sadly, invest in new pals?

Hell no, we say! With a little help from our readers in the OXM forums at xbox.com, we’ve rekindled our love for some old, back-of-the-closet 360 favorites (and even some newer ones) simply by changing the rules of the game — literally. With each of the following games, we’ve tried playing in a way that’s not part of normal gameplay and isn’t rewarded with an Achievement. They’re simply new ways to have fun within the gameworld, following our own totally made-up house rules. Give ’em a try, and see if they revive your joy the way they did for us.

SAINTS ROW

Let’s Play…Death Race 2000
This one’s a bit cruel, but hey — Saints isn’t for saints. The goal is to get the slightly dumb A.I. characters hit by cars. For ample catastrophe, head to one of the big bridges and start causing trouble with the locals. The poor dolts will panic and run into the road, foolishly thinking they’ll be safer in traffic than getting beat up by you. And that’s when they’ll be struck by cars. They’re not real people, so you can even assign point values without guilt: 10 points per hit; 20 points if a victim flies off the bridge; 30 points if an A.I. is hit by multiple vehicles; and -10 points if a bystander crosses to the other side unscathed.

ACE COMBAT 6

Let’s Play…Follow the Leader
Sick of chasing enemy planes? In a co-op game, try chasing each other instead. Ace 6’s expansive environments are a wonderful playground: your jetfighters can weave between skyscrapers in the city, fly under bridges out in the bay, and do barrel-rolls while flying beneath railroad bridges. See what other challenges you can create for your pursuer. (Suggested by RyouDEAF)

CALL OF DUTY 3

Let’s Play…WWII Olympics
These aren’t the only ways to turn multiplayer into an athletic competition, but they’re a start: (1) Have a foot race across and around a map. Use your sprints wisely! (2) For a more steeplechase-type scenario, build an obstacle course with mines and see who can traverse it quickest; players can be on-foot or in tanks. If you make the course hard enough, the goal can simply be to survive it! (Suggested by The AVengER X)

GEARS OF WAR

Let’s Play…Secret Slacker
This one’s wicked fun for you but hell for your buddy…which is the point. Play a co-op game and don’t shoot: let your partner do all the work! The trick is to pretend you’re shooting, being sure to shout things like “Quick! We’ve almost got him!” and “I’m out of ammo!” so your buddy doesn’t catch on. Stay behind him or out of his line of sight so he doesn’t realize you’re just standing there, and enjoy watching him frantically try to do the work of both players. Heh.

Let’s Play… Fenix Says
In this bloody version of Simon Says, all players but the host stand next to each other while the host tells them (via headset) to do simple movements. Whoever fails is chainsawed! (Suggested by Freekman2626)

Let’s Play…Knights
For a medieval spin, load up a multiplayer map with a large open area and try “jousting” with another player. How? Run at each other from opposite sides of the field while trying to blind-fire snipe each other! (Suggested by II FORD II)

 
CRACKDOWN

Let’s Play…Twisted Metal
Easy and sleazy: In any of the races, instead of winning by superior driving skill, win by destroying all rival cars before they reach the finish line. (Suggested by Glyphs)

Let’s Play…Crazy Climber
Scaling Agency HQ nets you an Achievement in single-player, but we like this twist better: In a co-op game, with each of you packing a rocket launcher (not heat-seeking), race your comrade to the top of the tower. Don’t get knocked off! (Suggested by OddWoN ER)

Let’s Play…Catch Me if You Can
This two-stage offering is sublimely brilliant. In Stage 1, one player hides, the other seeks. The “seeker” has to turn off their HUD in the menu options; the “hider” has to stay within a one-block radius and try to blend in with the environment. The hider can get in a car and try to mix in with traffic, walk among the pedestrians, whatever; the seeker can hurl cars and other objects to ferret out the hider. Now, once the seeker finds the hider, Stage 2 starts, and it’s basically cops and robbers: the seeker is the cop and can now turn on his HUD, and the hider, as the robber, can now go anywhere. The robber tries to avoid the cop as long as possible. (Suggested by PaperLantern)

THE ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION

Let’s Play…Wide Realm of Sports
Why indulge in all the usual fantasy fare when you can play some good old-fashioned sports? At the Wizard’s Tower, try one of these recreational activities: (1) Tee-Ball: Place an hourglass on a table or seat, put any kind of ball on top of it, and then use your weapons or magic to hit the ball as far as you can. (2) Bowling: Position 10 jugs like bowling pins and use lettuce or a skull for a ball. If you want, you can lay out swords in parallel lines to make a “lane.” (3) Pitching: At the front door of the Tower, pitch a skull into the hand. Or you can position baskets, urns, or vases upright and try to land objects in them. (Suggested by Basal Cell)

Let’s Play…Brush With Death
Oblivion’s much-publicized paintbrush glitch means that wherever you drop these objects in the gameworld, they’ll stay. So if you collect a ton of paintbrushes, you can lay down a path and use them as staircase-like steps, letting you climb such imposing structures as the Imperial Tower (in Imperial City). Just step carefully and don’t fall off! (Suggested by Te1vanni Guard and CAWeissen)

ROCK BAND

Let’s Play…Vocal Hero
No matter how you sing, Rock Band’s microphone is a total blast, but for some variety, try one of these nifty variations: (1) Sing vocals while playing drums or guitar. Hint: You’d better know a song’s words and pitch really well before you attempt this. (2) Sing along to the tune, but to amuse your friends, use your own, improvised lyrics on a topic suggested by the other players. Can you 100% a song without uttering any of its actual lyrics? (3) Lounge-ify all the vocals, so you sound like Frank Sinatra singing Metallica, Faith No More, et al. (Last suggestion by EA PR Star Bryce Baer)

TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 06/07/08

Let’s Play…Reckless Driving
Anyone can shoot for flags and holes and greens and stuff. So how about livening things up by aiming for specific spectators? For even more challenge, you can allocate points — two if you hit ’em in the body, and if you knock ’em in the noggin…well, then you get to scream “Four!”

HALO 3

Let’s Play…Marty O’Donnell
Want something unconventional? By doing melee attacks, firing weapons, and throwing grenades, try to make music. Virtually everything in the gameworld can be used to make a sound, and you can use Forge to set up just the objects/weapons/etc. that you need. Knock items together, shoot things, or blow stuff up. The person with the best soundtrack wins! (Suggested by HALOMAN87)

Let’s Play…Baseball
Yes, baseball. This one works best with six players: four outfielders, one pitcher, and one batter. The batter wields the Gravity Hammer. The pitcher throws a grenade at the batter, and the batter swings, trying to hit one of the outfielders with the grenade. The batter gets three “balls,” and then everyone rotates positions. Whoever hits the most outfielders after three innings wins. (Suggested by LGWyant)

RAINBOW SIX VEGAS

Let’s Play…Famous Faces
Like celebrity spotting? Try this in-game version, where you fool Vegas’ face-recognition software into thinking a photo is a real person. Get decent front- and side-profile photos of a celeb from a magazine, a book, or the internet and hold the publication (or big printouts of web photos) in front of the Live Vision camera. Now you and your friends can guess which celeb each of you is impersonating.

GUITAR HERO II / III

Let’s Play…Duet
Guitar Hero’s built-in co-op mode isn’t nearly as “co-op” as it could be. So instead, have two players share one guitar: one person frets, the other strums. Now that’s teamwork.

Let’s Play…The Red Zone
Cheating death isn’t just for strung-out rock stars: By purposely hitting wrong notes, you deliberately get the meter into the red — at which point you play just accurately enough to stay alive but not accurately enough to boost the meter into the yellow. Oddly, this technique requires a lot of precision, just like playing successfully. (Suggested by Burpertron2)

Let’s Play…HORSE
You know HORSE, the basketball game where a person makes a shot a certain way or from a certain spot on the court, and then the next player has to duplicate it? No reason you can’t do that with Guitar Hero, too. One person plays a song a particular way (e.g., upside-down, with their hand between their legs, and so on), and then the next player has to play that song identically. If you’re keeping score, failure earns you a letter in H-O-R-S-E; if you spell out the word, you lose. (Suggested by Drex540)

FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 3

Let’s Play…The Biggest Bruiser
With the boxers’ mugs acting as virtual healthbars, it’s always fun to see your opponent’s face bashed-in. So why not make that your goal? See how bruised and bloody you can leave your buddy’s boxer without actually knocking him out. If you want, you can even assign points — e.g., 10 points per major bruise, 20 points per bleeding orifice (ear, eye, or nose), and so on.

Let’s Play…Dirty Deeds
Bored with jabs, hooks, and other bits of tactical pugilism? Pretend it’s Ready to Rumble and fight using just two kinds of moves: haymakers and illegals. You’re aiming for knockdowns; just make sure you turn off Illegal Blows so no one’s disqualified for the illegal moves. (Suggested by AstYak)

Want even more ways to play? Check out our web-exclusive extras — and let the good times continue!