Arkham City should be #1 on your list Lyle, especially if you have any interest in Batman games. I feel it trumps Arkham Asylum by a good margin, far bigger, more freedom, more villains and a better story as well. Tremendous game.
L.A. Noire is a thinking man's game and probably right up your alley. It too features a great story and has lifelike characters and cases to solve. There is no other game quite like it out there.
Someone also mentioned Dead Island and I second that as I felt it was awesome bashing zombies' heads in with pipes, bats, and all manner of blunt instruments.
Myself, I just finished Alan Wake for the Xbox 360 as well as Alpha Protocol, which was a pretty good spy game.