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What Is Your Game of the Year?
It's that time of year again. Last year's response to our Game of the Year post was so enthusiastic that I thought it would be worthwhile to give it another go. So, once again, some of the Slashdot folks have come together to offer up our 'games of the year'. Scuttlemonkey, Scott Collins, Chris Brown, CmdrTaco, and myself have all put together quick blurbs about the games we couldn't get enough of this year. When you're through reading those, it's your turn to speak up. What was the game you couldn't put down? The next-gen consoles really came into their own this year; was it one of those games, or something for the PC? In your opinion, what was the best game of the year?
Slashdot Engineer Chris Brown:
If you read game sites at all, by now you've probably had more than your fill of cake and Weighted Companion Cube jokes. But Portal remains one of the best games to come out this year, well worth the price of the entire Orange Box just by itself. It's a darkly funny genre-bender of a game, and every minute of it is enjoyable. The only thing a reasonable person could still wish for is more of it - it's a short game by anyone's standards. And Ellen McLain's brilliant voice acting as GLaDOS makes me giggle like a schoolgirl.
My only regret is not experiencing the game on my PC. The Xbox 360's controls are awkward and the general ambiance of the environments seemed pretty drab and washed out.
Slashdot Engineer Scott Collins:
My favorite game this year (outside of WoW, I'm required to admit) was something of a surprise. It started at a chili-dinner party when a friend pulled a deck of cards out and said "Let's play Fluxx." Everyone else seemed to know what was going on, so I didn't require any convincing. It turns out to be a pretty fast-paced card game where you play: 'Action' cards, such as 'Pick a card at random from another player's hand'; 'Keeper' cards which are assets you collect to win, like 'The Brain', 'The Toaster', 'Dreams', 'The Rocket', et al; 'New Rule' cards that change play, like 'Draw 4' which changes the initial game of "draw 1, play 1" to "draw 4, play 1"; and 'Goals', like 'Milk and Cookies' meaning that while that is the current goal, the player who has played both the Milk and Cookies Keepers immediately wins. It ends up being a very strange and fun mix, something like Nomic combined with Uno. But that's not the end of the story.
The game was so much fun that when I got home I looked up the maker, Looney Labs, to buy a Fluxx deck for myself. There I discovered Zombie Fluxx.Zombie Fluxx adds a new kind of anti-Keeper: the Creeper; while the Keepers are things like 'The Chainsaw', 'The Can of Gasoline', 'The Shotgun'; the Goals are things like 'I alone survived', where if you have a Friend (Keeper), and the Car, and no zombies --- and everyone else has at least one zombie, you win. I managed to play Zombie Fluxx with all of my kids at once. At Thanksgiving, we had a game with three generations playing (just regular Fluxx though; I don't think Grandma and Grampa are ready for Zombies). The decks are designed so you can easily combine regular Fluxx and Zombie Fluxx for an even bigger game (and easily separate them again).
Patrick "Scuttlemonkey" McGarry:
This year saw a rather violent shift in my gaming appetites, as I decided it was time to kick the World of Warcraft habit.Any game that required too much of my time was avoided like the plague.That being said, the Wii's Mario Galaxy turned out to be my perfect game this year. So long have I been engrossed in the massive "pretty factor" of games (Quake, Doom, F.E.A.R., Warcraft, EVE, Empire at War, etc) that try to impress users with graphics, huge storylines, or tons of options that I forgot how great it could be just to find a simple game that offers a little bit of distraction and fun. Mario Galaxy really is the ultimate realization of the Mario franchise so far. It offers all of the glory of a platformer while offering several new twists.The first major expansion beyond the normal Mario world was their use of 3D and gravity. Many surfaces in the game acted as their own planet, complete with gravity well and the ability to traverse all sides of the object. There are also many fun manipulations of gravity throughout the game.Mario Galaxy also takes advantage of many unique controls available on the Wii to really make the gameplay interesting, without being overly hard.
Many games I have played recently really required a great deal of time to hone your skills to that "expert" level, and while that may be fine for a game with the scope of World of Warcraft, I shouldn't need that level of dedication for a simple platformer and Mario Galaxy delivers spectacularly. There were just enough challenges in the game to make it interesting but it was easy enough I could just pick it up and put it down whenever I felt like it without getting frustrated. The other major advancement Mario Galaxy has made was in cooperative gameplay. The new "co-star" mode makes it possible for you to include even the most staunch non-gamers in the Mario Galaxy experience. The co-star is given a cursor on the screen with which they can pick up power-ups, halt incoming enemies or enemy attacks, assist with stronger jumps, and even stun enemies for easy dispatch. Keep in mind that while all of these things are helpful if you happen to have a co-star, the game doesn't require you to have one, so that helpful individual can come and go as they please.
This makes it ideal for friends who drop by or loved ones that don't want to really jump in with both feet. All in all Mario Galaxy is a great casual game that can provide entertainment for just about any gaming appetite, definitely worth a look.
Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda:
My entry for game of the year is almost more about multiplayer gameplay. From fighters to first person shooters, there are just so many games out where I can invite a friend to join me, and then one of us crushes the other. Don't get me wrong, this is fun, but in many of those games, the person with the superior skill is bored while the less experienced player is defeated over and over again. It can get old.
Enter Rock Band. It might be the perfect party game. Someone drums, another plays bass, another lead guitar. And the most daring of any you takes up the USB microphone and goes nuts karaoke style. Instead of competing, you are a team. When one person fails out, another can bring them back by pulling off an overdrive move. And with the multiple difficulty settings, I can play on hard, while a friend plays on easy, and we can both be challenged and entertained.
It's hours of fun. It has problems: too many cords, not enough songs that everyone agrees on, and finding a spare guitar right now seems to be impossible. But each of those problems is addressable and doesn't take away from the fact that everyone can rock out for a few minutes. Everyone can be equals with a common goal and be challenged (well, maybe not people who have mastered expert mode, but I have no sympathy for you ;) It's got a steep price tag, but if you have 3 friends, it's worth it.
Michael "Zonk" Zenke:
My game of the year 2007 was decided during the 2006 E3 event.Mass Effect, at that point, was nothing more than a trailer about some space marine talking to an alien bartender. Years of patient waiting culminated for me in a 45 minute drive to the K-Mart in Portage, WI. Being able to buy a game a full week and a half before it releases generally is a special treat - moreso for me because of the chance to review the game before it came out. With a review in mind, I spent a full week leisurely exploring the world of Commander Shepherd, trying to stop Saren from carrying out his mad plot.
Over the course of that week, I was deeply, fully in love with the game. Yes, it's got some major flaws. The game's UI ranges from barely passable to amateur hour, and there are some honest frustrations to be voiced about character AI. Just the same, I was hooked, happily using the conversation wheel and Paragoning my way through the game's endless content. In some ways it reminded me a lot of Oblivion, my pick for last year's GOTY, in that the story fully drew me in. I've played Mass Effect quite a bit less than Oblivion; the exploration elements are just not as engaging.
But quality easily makes up for quantity, and my time with Mass Effect has been amazing. The moment that cemented this title in my personal hall of fame was actually the climax. Oblivion's ending is something of a 'whatever' - the joy there is in the journey. With Mass Effect, Shepherd's final confrontation with Saren is easily one of the most memorable gaming moments I've ever experienced. It's an incredibly fitting cap to the game's epic story and (somehow) actually makes me want to play through the whole thing over again.
Blemishes and all, Mass Effect is my game of the year for 2007. It reaffirmed for me the storytelling potential of western-style RPGs, and let me put to rest a burning anticipation I've had for quite some time. And, of course, now I can get ready for the next chapter in the series. When do you think Mass Effect 2 will be out?
If you read game sites at all, by now you've probably had more than your fill of cake and Weighted Companion Cube jokes. But Portal remains one of the best games to come out this year, well worth the price of the entire Orange Box just by itself. It's a darkly funny genre-bender of a game, and every minute of it is enjoyable. The only thing a reasonable person could still wish for is more of it - it's a short game by anyone's standards. And Ellen McLain's brilliant voice acting as GLaDOS makes me giggle like a schoolgirl.
My only regret is not experiencing the game on my PC. The Xbox 360's controls are awkward and the general ambiance of the environments seemed pretty drab and washed out.
Slashdot Engineer Scott Collins:
My favorite game this year (outside of WoW, I'm required to admit) was something of a surprise. It started at a chili-dinner party when a friend pulled a deck of cards out and said "Let's play Fluxx." Everyone else seemed to know what was going on, so I didn't require any convincing. It turns out to be a pretty fast-paced card game where you play: 'Action' cards, such as 'Pick a card at random from another player's hand'; 'Keeper' cards which are assets you collect to win, like 'The Brain', 'The Toaster', 'Dreams', 'The Rocket', et al; 'New Rule' cards that change play, like 'Draw 4' which changes the initial game of "draw 1, play 1" to "draw 4, play 1"; and 'Goals', like 'Milk and Cookies' meaning that while that is the current goal, the player who has played both the Milk and Cookies Keepers immediately wins. It ends up being a very strange and fun mix, something like Nomic combined with Uno. But that's not the end of the story.
The game was so much fun that when I got home I looked up the maker, Looney Labs, to buy a Fluxx deck for myself. There I discovered Zombie Fluxx.Zombie Fluxx adds a new kind of anti-Keeper: the Creeper; while the Keepers are things like 'The Chainsaw', 'The Can of Gasoline', 'The Shotgun'; the Goals are things like 'I alone survived', where if you have a Friend (Keeper), and the Car, and no zombies --- and everyone else has at least one zombie, you win. I managed to play Zombie Fluxx with all of my kids at once. At Thanksgiving, we had a game with three generations playing (just regular Fluxx though; I don't think Grandma and Grampa are ready for Zombies). The decks are designed so you can easily combine regular Fluxx and Zombie Fluxx for an even bigger game (and easily separate them again).
Patrick "Scuttlemonkey" McGarry:
This year saw a rather violent shift in my gaming appetites, as I decided it was time to kick the World of Warcraft habit.Any game that required too much of my time was avoided like the plague.That being said, the Wii's Mario Galaxy turned out to be my perfect game this year. So long have I been engrossed in the massive "pretty factor" of games (Quake, Doom, F.E.A.R., Warcraft, EVE, Empire at War, etc) that try to impress users with graphics, huge storylines, or tons of options that I forgot how great it could be just to find a simple game that offers a little bit of distraction and fun. Mario Galaxy really is the ultimate realization of the Mario franchise so far. It offers all of the glory of a platformer while offering several new twists.The first major expansion beyond the normal Mario world was their use of 3D and gravity. Many surfaces in the game acted as their own planet, complete with gravity well and the ability to traverse all sides of the object. There are also many fun manipulations of gravity throughout the game.Mario Galaxy also takes advantage of many unique controls available on the Wii to really make the gameplay interesting, without being overly hard.
Many games I have played recently really required a great deal of time to hone your skills to that "expert" level, and while that may be fine for a game with the scope of World of Warcraft, I shouldn't need that level of dedication for a simple platformer and Mario Galaxy delivers spectacularly. There were just enough challenges in the game to make it interesting but it was easy enough I could just pick it up and put it down whenever I felt like it without getting frustrated. The other major advancement Mario Galaxy has made was in cooperative gameplay. The new "co-star" mode makes it possible for you to include even the most staunch non-gamers in the Mario Galaxy experience. The co-star is given a cursor on the screen with which they can pick up power-ups, halt incoming enemies or enemy attacks, assist with stronger jumps, and even stun enemies for easy dispatch. Keep in mind that while all of these things are helpful if you happen to have a co-star, the game doesn't require you to have one, so that helpful individual can come and go as they please.
This makes it ideal for friends who drop by or loved ones that don't want to really jump in with both feet. All in all Mario Galaxy is a great casual game that can provide entertainment for just about any gaming appetite, definitely worth a look.
Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda:
My entry for game of the year is almost more about multiplayer gameplay. From fighters to first person shooters, there are just so many games out where I can invite a friend to join me, and then one of us crushes the other. Don't get me wrong, this is fun, but in many of those games, the person with the superior skill is bored while the less experienced player is defeated over and over again. It can get old.
Enter Rock Band. It might be the perfect party game. Someone drums, another plays bass, another lead guitar. And the most daring of any you takes up the USB microphone and goes nuts karaoke style. Instead of competing, you are a team. When one person fails out, another can bring them back by pulling off an overdrive move. And with the multiple difficulty settings, I can play on hard, while a friend plays on easy, and we can both be challenged and entertained.
It's hours of fun. It has problems: too many cords, not enough songs that everyone agrees on, and finding a spare guitar right now seems to be impossible. But each of those problems is addressable and doesn't take away from the fact that everyone can rock out for a few minutes. Everyone can be equals with a common goal and be challenged (well, maybe not people who have mastered expert mode, but I have no sympathy for you ;) It's got a steep price tag, but if you have 3 friends, it's worth it.
Michael "Zonk" Zenke:
My game of the year 2007 was decided during the 2006 E3 event.Mass Effect, at that point, was nothing more than a trailer about some space marine talking to an alien bartender. Years of patient waiting culminated for me in a 45 minute drive to the K-Mart in Portage, WI. Being able to buy a game a full week and a half before it releases generally is a special treat - moreso for me because of the chance to review the game before it came out. With a review in mind, I spent a full week leisurely exploring the world of Commander Shepherd, trying to stop Saren from carrying out his mad plot.
Over the course of that week, I was deeply, fully in love with the game. Yes, it's got some major flaws. The game's UI ranges from barely passable to amateur hour, and there are some honest frustrations to be voiced about character AI. Just the same, I was hooked, happily using the conversation wheel and Paragoning my way through the game's endless content. In some ways it reminded me a lot of Oblivion, my pick for last year's GOTY, in that the story fully drew me in. I've played Mass Effect quite a bit less than Oblivion; the exploration elements are just not as engaging.
But quality easily makes up for quantity, and my time with Mass Effect has been amazing. The moment that cemented this title in my personal hall of fame was actually the climax. Oblivion's ending is something of a 'whatever' - the joy there is in the journey. With Mass Effect, Shepherd's final confrontation with Saren is easily one of the most memorable gaming moments I've ever experienced. It's an incredibly fitting cap to the game's epic story and (somehow) actually makes me want to play through the whole thing over again.
Blemishes and all, Mass Effect is my game of the year for 2007. It reaffirmed for me the storytelling potential of western-style RPGs, and let me put to rest a burning anticipation I've had for quite some time. And, of course, now I can get ready for the next chapter in the series. When do you think Mass Effect 2 will be out?
My game of the year is Super Mario Bros 3. It is an awesome game, easily as good or better than anything else I played this year. Or does it have to be something made this year? Hmmm, I guess whatever Wii game it was that I played at the mall.
stuff |
same as last year.
pass the pigs.
hide the salami
It's not exactly an adventurous or controversial pick, but for me, Bioshock was far and away the best game of 2007. It represents a new era of the video game as a story, continually engaging players in the plot of the world that unfolds around them. The art was downright stunning, the characters interesting, the gameplay was great, and you got to engage in the exciting-yet-gross act of harvesting a 9 year old girl for her body fluids.
Grand Theft Audio: Vice City Stories (PS2)
That game rocks.
I'm hoping it's 1/2 as good as you say. I'm waiting on the PS2 bundle which was to be released on the 18th...the Gamestops are all saying tomorrow the 21st. Which blows because I'm leaving early in the morning. Anyone know where I can get it in the Houston area?
Monkey Island for ever. I don't care about new games.
portal!
nuff said
"life is a joke, and someone is laughing at me"
The "Waiting in line for the big-box store to open for the day so I can maybe snag a Wii" seems to be a popular title this year. No supply shortages either.
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
Ratchet & Clank is my game of the year. It's a throwback to the old school 3D platformers like Crash Bandicoot. Fun game play, tons of great weapons and an interesting and funny storyline. Just an overall great game.
A close second would have to be Heavenly Sword.
Gameplay is amazing, graphics are acceptable. Single player isn't half bad either. After buying Call of Duty, it was nearly impossible to go back to Halo 3, so I haven't.
It's great.
You score 5 points every time you reduce a developer to incoherent frustration*, 10 points when you "suddenly notice" a flaw in the requirements causing a project to be re-engineered at the last minute and 20 points when you break a production system and successfully lay the blame on someone else.
*Double if they're on the autistic spectrum and temporarily lose the ability to communicate except in grunts and howls.
If you haven't made a developer cry, you've wasted a day.
Portal is definitely a very nice game, and worthy of consideration for GOTY. It could only be improved by adding more levels.
After not playing for quite some time, I got hooked on Nannymud again this year.
My favorite game is shining a green laser at helicopters with my wife.
Console -- Mass Effect. Great looking and sounding game, with a fun real-time combat system and a cool space-opera story.
Portable/handheld -- FFXII: Revenant Wings. They said that RTS could not be done on a portable. Then came the DS and Square.
IAALS.
I've spent more hours playing Puzzle Quest for my DS than I care to mention, and I haven't even finished yet.
how to invest, a novice's guide
I can't help but agree with Portal. I was impressed with it through and through. And as someone who adores Jonathan Coulton and who writes about gender issues in gaming... well, what's not to love? The game had a SUPERB learning curve, especially for someone like me who generally hates and does poorly with FPS-like games. It was clever, darkly amusing, and hnad actual problems to solve, which is my favorite sort of game.
;)
So Portal hands down, with BioShock in a good solid second place. I can't find out until after Christmas what I'll place in third, because that's when I'll be getting the rest of the games I was hoping to try this year.
I may behind the times on when these games came out, but I throughly enjoyed playing Power Grid, Ra, and Puerto Rico for the first time last week.
I planned to say Call of Duty 4 simply for its mastery of realism and gameplay, but then I thought some more and decided upon Rock Band. Maybe not the greatest game to play, but to watch people play its rather entertaining. Unlike Guitar Hero, now not only can you NOT be in a band, you can NOT be in a band with all of your friends too! Rejection and denial all around!
I purchased Lord of the Rings Online and ended up really liking it. Even more so than WoW.
Same as the last 26 years...
It isn't necessarily the best game of the year (I'd give that to Portal), but it was such an astonishing shift in the way first-person games are played. The control interface is the first time the motion controls on the Wii have been absolutely perfect, the design is beautiful and varied and the gameplay is fluid and intuitive. I've never before encountered such a radical shift in my expectations of how an entire game genre should be played.
...to have so much spare time you have to play games to fill it up?
I was hooked on Lord of the Rings Online. But being in Beta and seeing the Shire the day it was released was a dream come true. It helps that Turbine made Lord of the Rings Online a game I love playing.
And my wife and I were happy to leave WOW, after friends from EQ1 begged us to come onboard, then to be told we were not "ready" for the raids they held was a bit of a bummer. What aboring grindfest. I am still having fun taking my 4th alt in LOTRO through the level 30 content.
Going on means going far
Going far means returning
you guys are n00bs... Portal? Mario? what happened to all the cool fraggers on /.?
ETQW ftw!
Excellent Linux support too!
ET>*
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
My favorite game of the year is the one where Mistress strips me, handcuffs me, and makes me push a marble to the other side of the room with my erection. It's tricky because if I don't do it in a certain amount of time she gives me a nasty spanking.
Graphics are absolutely amazing - on a PS3 with a hidef TV.
On a PC, your mileage may vary - but they were beautiful enough on my three-year old system with a crappy GeForce 6-series.
It runs on my new system - which has a mere onboard video card. Not very well, not very well at all, mind you, but it runs. But then, the CoD series has always been famous for running on systems far below spec.
Singleplayer is absolutely amazing - the game will never be mislabelled as glorifying war.
Multiplayer... For the first time since the Counterstrike beta versions, I've seen random groups of people attempting to use teamwork - holy crap, imagine that.
CoD 4 owns all.
Seriously, our family just loves FreeCiv.
-l
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I would also have to give it to Mass Effect this year. Last year it was Oblivion, with stiff competition from Gears of War, Final Fantasy XII, Okami, and LoZ: Twilight Princess. I just like open-ended RPGs with immersive worlds more than anything else, I guess.
This year Mass Effect has similarly strong competition from Bioshock, Halo 3, and Mario Galaxy (as far as "regular," non-Guitar Hero-type games go), but it managed to really draw me in the way Oblivion did. I haven't been this into a game since Gears of War and FFXII, and it's been a year since then ^^
Mass Effect's story is decent enough on the surface (your character is badass and everyone knows it so you are sent to take out another badass -- simple but cool) and it really shines in the details. Very real character development takes place. You get attached to them. I do wish they had a bit more "presence" during combat, the way your teammates in Gears do, but that's a small complaint.
The character models are fantastic, and the visual design of the game in general is quite good. The ligthing and shadows are sometimes very bad, and texture loading is very noticeably slow, but that rarely distracts, which is important.
The flow of one mission to another, the way subquests are introduced and progressed -- it's all quite immersive.
In short, Mass Effect is the closest I've come to feeling like I'm controlling a movie or miniseries. (Oblivion felt like I was playing a spinoff of Hercules The Legendary Journeys, which was sweet, hehe.)
Oh, also the "world" Mass Effect introduces is cool and easily one of my favorite in sci-fi now.
I like basketball!!1!
I am very happy that they finally released the original NES version of Super Mario Bros. 2 as a Virtual Console download...
I think one of the neat things about it is that pretty much everybody has played Super Mario Bros., so they know how the game works - and some will even remember it well enough that playing it again would hold no surprises - but not so many have played SMB2, so it's like a brand-new experience with the old favorite.
(For the record, I've got nothing against the game that was released as "Super Mario Bros. 2" in the US - I love that game, I have lots of great memories of playing it as a kid, and feel it's very worthy of being turned into a Mario title... And I don't believe players in the US would have been thrilled by the real SMB2 back in 1988, when SMB3 was coming out, because NES games had progressed so far beyond the original SMB by then...)
Bow-ties are cool.
Game of the Year? Hmm... tough one. It's been a good year for games. I think if I were to rank my top picks, it'd look something like this:
10) Odin Sphere (PS2) - wonderfully quirky little RPG/brawler combo, with 2d graphics that put some next-gen titles to shame and probably the best game soundtrack of the year.
9) God of War 2 (PS2) - epic in scale, utterly exhilerating to play, the perfect demonstration that you don't need a fancy gimmick controller to make a game's controls immersive. Probably the best looking game that will ever hit the PS2.
8) Call of Duty 4 (PC) - I hated the previous installments in the series, but this one is much, much better. Unlike most other "military" shooters around, this one has a pretty good plot. The combat is probably the most satisfying we've seen from an fps this year. It's too short, but it's a lot of fun while it lasts.
7) Bioshock (PC) - yeah, I know, it wasn't quite the Second Coming of Gaming that some of the early reviews made it out to be. The atmosphere, concept and sheer flexibility of the combat system, however, still mean it was a great game.
6) Command & Conquer 3 (PC) - I went into this prepared to hate it (I loathed C&C2 and Red Alert 2), but this was he game that, for me at least, put the fun back into the RTS genre. Stupidly fast-paced, it delivered the kind of adrenelin rush that you don't expect from an RTS. Moreover, with the gratuitous use of FMV cutscenes, it left most other offerings this year in the dust in terms of production values.
5) Crysis (PC) - The combat doesn't quite match up to Call of Duty 4's, but the sheer scope of Crysis is incredible. Even compared to Farcry, the sheer number of ways you can tackle each mission is staggering. If it weren't for the incredibly irritating floaty mission in the alien base, this would have been a contender for number 1.
4) Forza Motorsport 2 (Xbox 360) - Still no release date in sight for Gran Turismo 5, but I don't care any more. This is the best "realistic" racing sim I've seen on any platform, ever. A few more tracks would have been nice, but I guess we can hope to see that in the sequel.
3) Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 - With a hideously dated game-engine and a repetative combat system, this might seem an odd pick for so high up on the list. However, with the superb production values, the great writing and the innovative "everyday life" dynamic, this was my favourite Japanese RPG of the year.
2) Portal (PC) - Let's be clear, this game was too short. But there's no point crying over every mistake, you just keep on trying 'til you run out of cake.
1) Mass Effect (Xbox 360) - My game of the year, by some distance. Bioshock show just what they can do when they step out of the shackles of other people's content. It took me a while to get into this game, as the sheer size of it was a bit intimidating. However, there's no denying this is the deepest, best written, best produced and just-plain-all-around-jaw-dropping game of the year. The combat rocks, the characters are memorable and the game mechanics are intuitive.
Now, a few games not quite in my top 10, but which also impressed me a lot this year (in no particular order):
Ar Tonelico (PS2) - The ultimate guilty pleasure. I really shouldn't like this, but I couldn't help it.
Halo 3 (Xbox 360) - Too short and unoriginal to make the top 10, but still engrossing.
Resident Evil 4 (Wii) - One of the few Wii ports to be genuinely enhanced by the control system.
Final Fantasy 3 (DS) - This is how you do a remake.
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PSP) - Another excellent remake.
Heavenly Sword (PS3) - Thoroughly overshadowed by God of War 2, but still decent.
And now, the disappointments...
Supreme Commander (PC) - It pains me to write this, because I had a lot of hopes invested in this game, but it just reminded me how much things had moved on since Total Annihilation. A good effort, but it felt slow and (dare I say it) a bit boring compare
For playing with the kid Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii is amazing. The graphics are okay, for a wii, but the puzzles and the game eplay is just amazingly engaging. It's just fun.
Halflife 2. Ep 2 looks amazing. My PC isn't a dedicated gaming PC, but fairly new, and I did splash a bit extra on the graphics card. It's fun and it has a few good places where a literally twitched and dodged, when something jumped me. You need to be in the game to do that. Was a bit short through...
TC - My Photos..
I'm tired of hearing people talk about Mario Galaxy as if it did something new. Not only was Sonic messing around with gravity in the Genesis days, the entire concept of mini planetoids with their own gravity that you can walk around was the basis for like... 3 levels in Sonic Adventure 2.
Stop acting like it's new, Nintendo is out of ideas. They're just lucky that they're amazing at whatever they put their tired minds to.
Mario Galaxy is definitely my game of the year. It's pretty much what every Mario fan has been waiting for after New Super Mario Bros. Right from the beginning, you keep getting wowed until you just can't believe you're playing this game. The physics of the gravity, the variety of gameplay in the different power-ups you can grab, and the focus on core Mario gameplay really brings this game to the top. This game will have you perfecting the controls in every sense, and they're a joy to use. You'll be doing acrobatics all over levels to reach areas that seem impossible to get to. The game is also constantly surprising with the various bosses and tricks the different levels use to get the most out of the gameplay engine.
I just sincerely hope this won't be the last actual 'traditional' (platformer) Mario game we'll be seeing on the Wii. Mario Sunshine was pretty much the only one on the Gamecube, Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64, and Mario World for the SNES, but NES got SMB 1, 2, and 3. I realize it takes a lot to put out one of these games, but I really don't want to be playing any Princess Peach, Wario, or Luigi games or any of these knock-offs. They're great in their own right, but really you wish you were playing a new Mario game. I realize too much could water down the franchise, but it definitely won't get tired if there's a new one every 2 or 1.5 years. Come on, Nintendo! I want as much Mario as I can get!
Twinstiq, game news
I usually only game about 3 or 4 hours per week. I got Mass Effect about 2 weeks ago and have already put in nearly 30 hours.
It's pretty rare that I bother to "savor" a game - but that's exactly what I'm doing. I know I'm about to go to the last planet, so I'm running around completely all the side quests first. They're definitely weaker than the core missions, but it's nice to have some extra bit of world to immerse yourself in.
Duke Nukem Forever. It should sweep this Game of the Year and Vaporware of the Year. And being slashdot, it should win again tomorrow.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
My friend and I been playing UT2004 mulitplayer since my other computer can't run UT3 yet. This is the game that we still keep coming back to year after year. Before that, it was Quake 2.
My favorite game is AOE III. I play that and Flight Sim X but AOE III Dynasties is the best thing to come out this year as far as I'm concerned. I built a new core 2 duo system with an ATI XTX 1950 card and run it it full 1920x1200 mode with all the bells and whistles turned on and the graphics are awesome. It will use a havoc physics engine if you have one. Playing that game in 4x4 mode stresses the computer but its quite an experience and a big step forward in realtime rendering, especially since it will use the GPU on the card.
Contrary to popular belief, Unix is user friendly. It just happens to be particular about who it makes friends with.
Mine could have been rock band, but after all 3 peripherals broke within the first week of play I'd have to say GHII. My pending news submission from Dec 19th tells all about the problems with Rock Band.
"To err is human, to mod Funny divine."
Having played most of the games mentioned, albeit less than 30 minutes apiece, I must say that I'm surprised that Crysis did not make the list. I can honestly say that it was the best game I ever played, and if god grants my wish, there will be endless sequels.
To live without killing is a thought which could electrify the world, if men were capable of staying awake long enough.
I really couldn't decide on one game, so I made a list. The one central theme this year (for me) is fun. I've enjoyed just about every genre over the years, so was really looking for something different.
PC:
BioShock. I know many people will disagree, but the story and setting of BioShock made it a blast to play. Loads of fun from start to finish.
DS:
Zelda, Phantom Hourglass. I'm currently about 3/4 finished with the newest Zelda rendition and I'm having a hard time putting it down. The control scheme took a bit to get used to, but it has proved to be a very enjoyable change. Also, the graphics are striking considering that it is a DS game.
Wii:
I'd like to vote for Mario Galaxy, but I haven't had enough time to play it. My vote will probably go to Metroid Prime 3. The controls are fantastic and I would repurchase 1 & 2 if they were released with Wii controls for around $25-30 each. I'm also looking forward to Zack & Wiki.
Card/Board game:
Munchkin Bites. I'm sure more than a few here have had the pleasure of Munchkin, but I didn't find it until a couple of months ago. I brought that and Bang! (card game) with to a party and both were great fun.
I'd have to agree with Chris - Portal would be my choice for "Best Game of 2007".
I'm not sure who thought of making a first-person puzzle-shooting dark comedy game, but it just so happened to come together wonderfully. Add in the fact that GLADOS was the only real "enemy" of the game (unless you count the turrets), and you have one of the most ingenuitive games I've ever played. It's no wonder that 'The cake is a LIE!' and the 'Companion Cube' are now concepts easily recognized by most gamers and non-gamers alike. If only they had added some kind of multiplayer component!
Some lesser-appreciated games have my attention right now. Like "Yin and Yang" (a silly little Flash from MTV games), or Line Rider (another, even simpler flash game), or the Pirates CCG. For the big ones, Rock Band, Mario Galaxy, and Portal all struck me as fascinating, but I haven't played any of them at length.
My Photography - http://ian-x.com
The Deathlings (comic) - http://thedeathlings.com
i get to fight charr without going to pre-searing. runner up goes to battle for wesnoth.
Tools of destruction.
Loads of fun, gorgeous visuals, beautiful environment, stylish characters, amusing mini-games, and fun for the whole family. This was a game where I would get home from work and my kids would say, "Dad, can you play Ratchet and Clank?"
For the geeks and nerds it must be The Lord Of The Rings Online mmorpg. Gorgeous game and meeting Gandalf and Strider et al is an honour!
Chrono Trigger!
I don't know if it's worth anything but STALKER was the only game I played to completion this year.
I'm just so sick of Fantasy. I'm sick of elves, magic and special potions. I'm sick of WW2. Bioshock, while good, was not real to me, it just seemed over the top; to far fetched, sensational and psedu-scientific. A little make believe is ok, but spouting fire and lightning bolts from your hands because of a genetic enhancement potion stopped being intriguing to me. It just seems ridicules as I approach 30.
Playing something that really challenged me, based on a real area, with very realistic weapons and a gritty post-apocalyptic atmosphere was refreshing. I also enjoyed the depth and detail. The translations for all that is said in Russian reveal some very interesting dialog. The almost endless buildings to hunt around in and the 7 different endings to try gave the game more replayability than most. The amount of different equipment to use led to lots of debate and online discussion of strategy.
It was buggy, but in terms of breaking new ground, I think it gets overlooked when compared to the more sensational BioShock.
I had a hard time deciding whether or not I enjoyed Crysis or Half Life 2 Orange Box more but when I really think about it I'd have to go with the Orange Box. Episodes One and Two helped take the depth and the involvement of the characters within the game to a whole new level. I can't say much but the ending on Episode Two showed how good of writers the Valve Software team really are, the whole time I felt as if I was watching a movie. As far as Portal goes, this game was not just fun but the ending was so funny I was in tears of laughter, I have never laughed that hard in my entire life.
This past October I was introduced to Munchkin, and all it's table-top goodness. My roommate and I became so enamored with the series that he purchased all five original Munchkin expansions within a week, and I've picked up its western brother, The Good, the Bad and the Munchkin.
For anyone who hasn't played, think D&D. Now throw everything else out the window. Get a bunch of people, and try to get to level 10. Everyone will be real helpful to each other until someone reaches level 5 or so, and then it gets ugly. Redirect attacks, curse people, change their gender, take their pants, completely screw them over to the point of no return.
Best game for me this year, hands down.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
Yes I know it's more of a tech demo than a game but Assassin's Creed is my choice for GotY.
I find being offended by me offensive.
Portal was one of the freshest gaming experiences for me in a long time. I haven't replayed a game since mario, but I played Portal a couple times start to finish to pick up extra GladOS smack talk that I missed the first time. Particularly the line "you will be baked, and then there will be cake". Half-Life 2, Episode 1 and 2 were pretty good too, mainly because of mostly having someone running with me the whole game. And the funny part is they were actually USEFUL for a change. Like crossing a field of zombies with Alyx manning the sniper rifle and blowing zombies' heads off.. or the good alien dude who shoots lightning and tears up bad guys like nothing. Definitely a nice change of pace from WoW escort quests.
Portal!
Since I bought a Nintendo DS this year and was delighted to learn there's a port of SCUMMVM I think I might have to agree with your choice.
Everyone who owns a DS and does not both own this game and include it among their absolute best games of the year should give up on life now, because theirs has no meaning.
I'd even go as far to say that if Wii Sports was not bundled with the Wii at launch, the Wii probably would not be the runaway success it is today.
Man, this game just keeps going on and on. My hats are off to the people who beat this one.
Seriously, CoD4 is my game of the year at this point. I can't get into the single player but the multiplayer simply owns.
For single player it has to be Portal. Sure, it's not a hard concept and it's pretty short but it's a neat idea for the fantastic engine it's built off of and the end credit song is worth any minor frustration you may experience during gameplay.
Oh, and the cake is pretty damn good.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
I tried many games this year... Lord of the Rings Online has got to be the most enjoyable game I have played. But what do I know? I am waiting anxiously for Star Trek Online to come out... lol
-- Josh
"Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me!" - Pete Conrad
Now that the NDA is lifted, this game definatley covers a nitch.
This MMORPG is not a massive click fest. Often encounters last upwards of 20 minutes.
There is a new approach to crafting where labor is stored up. 99% of all items in the game are player crafted. The "grind" for crafting is actually moving goods to the port where your manufacturing structures are. Since you may purchase (your countries) goods from any port, you still have to go get them. This makes some ports in central areas "host spots". I.E. people would rather pay more than have to sail for 30 minutes to go get it cheaper.
The "Free Trader" class has skils that allow you to trade with foreign ports at reduced tax rates etc...
Although any "class" can craft, Naval officers, Privateers, etc do not have a ship selection with storage space in mind.
There is a major drawback to this game. I can see non-society (guild) members being left in the dust. Our society (royal red) has dedicated leaders and we have become pretty much self sufficient.
Not much time to go into the whole game mechanics, and not all games are for all people, but I love the pace, concept, engine, graphics, etc...
Here is the shocker (especially to anyone that was in any Sony beta), the Devs were/are responsive. A dev actually had me forward him a sniffer trace, he analyzed it and found out that my little linksys had a know bug I had not fixed.
I've played it through twice now, and I'm gunning to give it another go. It's overtaken The Curse of Monkey Island as my favorite video game. The storytelling is truly epic (as overused as that word may be), and, like was mentioned, the ending is perfect. The feeling of overwhelming heroism that comes over you as the credits roll is unmatched.
CC Licensed Serialized Story and Podcast: Ingenioustries
You mean "Trolling Slashdot?" ;-)
O.K. Lego Star Wars II. Great gameplay, and required interaction/cooperation of the players.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
If you have fond memories of names like Ultima, Wizardry, and Might and Magic, you should really check this game out...
I forgot just how much I loved true turn-based gameplay... games are supposed to be fun... it's always been tremendous fun to stop time...
Not a shill, but this is my game of the year. A great first attempt.
http://www.basiliskgames.com/book1.htm
Years later, a doctor will tell me that I have an I.Q. of 48, and am what some people call "mentally retarded".
Half-Life 2: Ep. 2 is my pick for my favorite game. It felt like a HL game again (something the Ep. 1 was missing IMHO). A close second would have to be Portal.
In the last 4 months alone I've played a good dozen games many of which are contenders for GOTY.
Bioshock comes to mind first....Portal is certainly a consideration. Mass Effect, although flawed, is an incredible gaming experience.
I haven't played Mario Galaxy so I can't comment on that...Halo 3 will certainly win the award for the most over hyped and ultimately mediocre game of the year. OHAUMGOTY!
I'll probably go with Bioshock...polished to perfection...a technical and artistic masterpiece.
I downloaded a free FPS game called Alien Arena (which I might have first seen on slashdot) and it has provided many hours of enjoyment through online play. It doesn't have a whole lot of eye candy, but I believe the game play engine is based off of Quake.
or Warcrack if you will...
I love it.. I still play roughly 30~60 hours a week
42 69 6C 6C 20 47 61 74 65 73 20 69 73 20 61 20 77 68 6F 72 65 21
I have to say Guitar Hero II on my Xbox 360 pumping out through the stereo system. A good game to play with friends who are drinking.
I'd have to go with some strategy games. World in conflict, Final Fantasy tactics (on psp) and the Dark Avatar expansion for Galactic civilizations 2 come to mind.
Think about this: Axe and Dove are actually the same company. Vincent L.B.
Supreme Commander and its Add-On Forged Alliance are clearly my personal picks as "Game of the Year", somewhat closely followed by Team Fortress 2.
My game of the year is Portal, simply an awesome game with my review here.
My console game of the year is Call of Duty 4 (yes the game is also on the PC, but I played it on the Xbox 360). My review for that is here.
I played a lot of portable games this year but nothing really that new, mostly catching up on things. Two games of note were Dragon Quest: Rocket Slime and Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (review). Both good games but nothing I can say is game of the year quality.
I also traditionally pick a game that didn't come out this year but I played it for the first time, this year I have to give that to Psychonauts. Truly a wonderful and hilarious experience. If you're wondering... here's my review.
Disclaimer, there's no ads or anything on my site so I'm not trying to cash in on Slashdot, but if you're interested in a further opinion, check them out.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Not just playing, but creating content is very enjoyable. Top it off with servers playing your maps. or using your models etc. Good stuff.
This has been a great year for really good games.
Of those that I've played, a few have really stood out to me as excellent: Halo3, Bioshock, Mass Effect and The Witcher.
Halo 3 was predictable and generally lacked a whole lot of innovation in gameplay over the previous entries in the series, but it didn't intend to do those things, either. It is a very well done incremental polishing of the formula used for the preceding entries in the series. The level design is well done, and the storyline plays out at a reasonable pace to keep me interested. While not my pick for Game of the Year, it is a very enjoyable game and well worth my time and money.
Bioshock was wonderfully surreal. I absolutely love the progressive unveiling of what's really going on. The overall look and feel of the game is polished to a level that is almost unnerving. The underlying basis of objectivism and all that goes with it plays into the storyline wonderfully and enhanced the overall experience superbly. There are a few moments towards the end of the game where I felt the level design was lacking the polish of some of the early and mid-game content. The fundamental gameplay is good, but nothing spectacular. The best strengths of the game are in its storytelling and immersion into a depressing juxtaposition of a dystopian world sprung from a utopian vision gone wrong. Many criticise Bioshock for being derivative of System Shock 2. Perhaps that's a true statement. To me, it doesn't matter one bit. I'm not trying to decide if Bioshock is better or worse than SS2 or if it innovates or derives in comparison. I'm deciding whether Bioshock is a well crafted and enjoyable game. It is.
Mass Effect is a later entry in the foray, and highly anticipated. It lives up to the hype. The main storyline missions are well designed, and well integrated into the story. The basic gameplay elements are simple, but not simplistic, and give just enough of a challenge to my twitch reflexes to keep me from being too complacent. I was totally sucked in to the story and the world, doing everything I could to find every tidbit of dialog and side content available. While not without flaws, I very much enjoyed Mass Effect, and it's likely I'll be back for a 3rd playthough at some point.
Even against those wonderful games, my pick for Game of the Year has to go to an unexpected (at least for me) game called The Witcher. I picked it up based on the terse but strongly voiced recommendation of Scott Jennings. I shudder to think that I almost missed this game. The gameplay is well done and well balanced. The look and feel are polished and smooth. The world and storyline have incredible depth. Somehow, the designers have woven a remarkable tapestry where everything all comes together. Characters I care about. Choices that tug at my conscience (and have a real effect on the ensuing story!). Wow.
The Witcher. Absolutely wonderful and easily my top pick for Game of the Year.
Nothing beat Portal this year. Probably not last year either. I'd have to think hard about what the best game before Portal was.
That includes Bioshock, and I'm a diehard 'shock fan. (Which did not make Bioshock worse for me, fwiw.)
- Jodiamonds
I just picked it up a couple weeks ago so I avoided all the problems people seem to have had with patch 0. It's terribly addictive in the same way Diablo 2 was for me and I haven't even started playing hardcore yet =) Of course the people I played with was one of the things that kept me playing D2 for over 2 years and Hellgate doesn't seem to have quite the same community around it as D2 did.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Portal (Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.)
Not really a game... but the only thing I've "played" all year. Runs on Linux/Mac as well as Windows. If you've never heard of it, use my link to sign up.
Meh.
I am glad analog gaming got some play in this story. While Fluxx (and its descendants) are a bit childish, they do serve as a great gateway drug to get typical Americans interested in modern card and board games.
[Seriously, this year, SMACX is the game in which I have spent almost all of my gaming time. That should surprise no one.]
The surprisingly awesome shareware game. Large and detailed. And the demo can play for like two hours, so you get a pretty good idea of whether you'll like the game or not.
It's an underwater fantasy action-adventure game. See videos here.
I'll confess I haven't played Portal yet, but Metroid Prime 3 was my GOTY pick for a while. Eventually it got over thrown by Mario Galaxy, then by Rock Band 360 (which has been played constantly since it came out).
Which is exactly why those are my top 3 for the year as they are not only awesome games in their own right, but they also shift your perception of what to expect/demand from the entire genre.
I don't understand why Metroid gets no love, yet people trip over themselves to complement for Bioshock which is "above average" at best.
Portal is good, yes. But $50 for 1.5 hours of game time with no mods? Hardly. Portal is overpriced at the $20.
Both of my favorites this year are "semi-casual" platformers:
Knytt Stories
http://nifflas.ni2.se/index.php?main=02Knytt_Stories
Trilby: The Art of Theft
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/content/games/yahtzee/artoftheft
The witcher is a long RPG, better than NWN 2+MoB IMHO, and full of choice. I would crown it in one of the top 3 RPG, if there was not this stupid flaw on saving (game autosave at each map transition at night, you can't turn autosave off, and saving seem to take quite a long time... Apparently they will release a patch to solve that). It is a game of gray, evil/good is not so obvious, and actually if you eliminate the fantasy part, some of the stuff sound "plausible" story wise (consistent and solid), and so it makes it immersing. Combat is also nice with the combo things, where you have different type of attacks (group/strong/light) with a sort of paper-scissor-stone system without being too repetitive. It is also quite long as RPG. Very good. I dunno if it is out for the US...
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
I'd go with Orange Box overall, as I immensely loved Portal (despite it being sadly too short), and TF2 is also hilarious in that lovely black humor way. My gaming box died (mobo), so I've been without it for a couple weeks now. I heard they have Companion Cube plushies now, too...
:(
I'm gonna chuck in a vote for Hitman: Blood Money as well. I saw an ad for it in Germany last summer, and was super excited. It had all the fun stuff of its predecessors and a WHOLE lot more. Very sneaky. Excellent soundtrack. I just wish the mission weapon selection was more like Contracts, in that you could bring as many handguns and other concealable guns as you wanted and one long gun, instead of one handgun, one SMG, and one long gun. I can't do that il Duce thing anymore without whacking a diverse number of badguys.
With all of the new features in the latest expansion(s), and the fact that by nature Civ games take a while, Civ 4 is the game that I have spent >90% of my gaming time this year playing.
-"Those who fought today will die tommorow."-
No, really. Check it out...:-)
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
Bioshock, IMO.
Lunch Money is another great card game. Maybe not something to play with grandma, but certainly a fun game. It has the basic premise of you are extremely violent kids beating the crap out of each other on the playground. Can use a bit of imagination and have some rolling good fun.
Those who live by the sword, get shot by those who live by the gun...
MYST!
*Awaits mod down for suggesting such a slow paced game*
No? Nobody?
Ok, ok, how about this one? Sim City 2K! I build like a thousand water pumps, but no-ones getting water... what's up? Oh there it is.
Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
Mass Effect, without a doubt. Sure it had some issues (inventory UI is horrid, minor to noticable framerate spikes and texture popins, not enough compelling uncharted world content) but they are outweighed tenfold by every other aspect of this game for me. I spent 60+ hours on my first playthrough and could think of nothing else I wanted to do but replay it immediately after finishing. I don't think that's happened for me since Fallout 2.
Honorable mentions, in no particular order go to Forza 2, Portal, Mask of the Betrayer, and Bioshock.
TF2 on the 360, although I wish I had the PC version instead because of all the custom maps. But really the whole "Orange Box" just rocks in terms of value.
1. World in Conflict. This might be the best mix of RTS and Action gaming I have ever seen. It brings the tactical and action aspects of the Battlefield series to the RTS world. While not a traditional RealTime Strategy game,(I have heard several people call it a RealTime Tactical game), it is the details that count. I can't tell you the number of times my jaw dropped or my heart raced in sync with the events in game. Alec Baldwin does some voice work for the campaign and does a phenominal job. It also has the best graphics of any RTS I have ever seen with the exception of maybe Supreme Commander.
2. Heavenly Sword. Yes... thats right, a PS3 game.... and it was GOOD. Very good. Now before you console fanbois grab the torches and pitchforks, understand that in most types of gaming, it is the story that I really get into. EQ, EQII, KOTOR, WIC, NWN. I could go on. The sixaxis implementation is crap. But once you give up on it for the left analogue stick, the game hit it's stride. Beyond the jaw dropping graphics, the storyline was amazing. The character and voice acting was also top notch. I found myself cheering when Kai shot Flying Fox and sitting wide eyed through the cinematics. Was anyone else as creeped out by Bohan or Flying Fox as I was?
3. Eve Online. This makes my list because it is simply the best MMO I have ever played. I love it because it is everything that Earth and Beyond and Star Wars Galaxies wasn't. The sheer size and complexity of the game makes for one of the richest MMO experiences I have ever had. I find that I like it so well, that I have unseated the original Everquest(Pre Planes of Power) from the top spot on my MMO list for it. As a veteran player of 4 years, I find that even after all this time, Eve still holds places and things I haven't seen and levels of depth not yet explored. The game allows me the freedom to literally do anything, anytime, anywhere. And, unlike "shard" universes, Eve is played entirely in one universe. If you have the patience to get past the initially steep learning curve, Eve Online is a rewarding MMO unlike any other.
4. Company of Heroes. Does anyone remember an old school RTS named Sudden Strike? I consider this game it's spiritual successor even though the companies who created the respective games aren't related in any way nor are the developers. Literally everything, from trees, to buildings, to roads, and even the very map itself is destructible. On some maps, the level of chaos and destruction is unbelievable. If a battle has been raging over the same area for long enough, nothing of the original layout will remain except craters and the broken hulls of destroyed vehicles. Beyond that, the unit implementation is superb. Give infantry an objective and the game's AI will intelligently design a way of achieving it. I literally had to pause the game and geek out the first time I saw the intelligence of the game. I remember sending two squads of infantry to attack a fortified german machine gun nest. After left clicking, the game's AI did the rest. One squad opened fire on the german position while the second one retreated behind some trees and headed north of the fight. I was initially annoyed until I realized what the 2nd squad was doing. It was, on its own, flanking the german positions. A short time later, the position was eliminated, and I still had both squads.
http://chipwits.com/
Program bots with graphic chips. A revival of a 1980's classic.
Yeah, I wrote it. But it's still my favorite game this year. So sue me.
Channel Zilch: In Your Face From Outer Space!
This game has brought back everything that I used to enjoy about video games back in the 90's console era (NES/Genesis/SNES/TG16) - joy, frustration, a sense of wonder, and an as-of-yet unresolved addiction. (10 more stars to go!) The control scheme took all of 30 seconds to master. The graphics, while not super-detailed, are incredibly smooth (with the exception of some underwater bits). The score is spectacular - haunting, epic, whimsical, and nostalgic as the need arises.
I bought the game on release day (while on vacation), somewhat on a whim - thinking "It can't live up to the hype", "Hopefully it will have good trade value" and "At least it will give me something to do after I finish Guitar Hero III". So far, I've probably put 60 hours into SMG, and perhaps six hours into GH3.
Having played all of the other Mario games to some degree (I never owned an SNES, but played a fair bit of SMW) only SM64 has been as much of an addiction as SMG. (My virtual console copy of SM64 hasn't been played in almost a month.)
I also recently got a used copy of Rayman Raving Rabbids. It has been an enjoyable game thus far, although the control is sometimes lacking (the 'slam the outhouse door' minigame is very inconsistent).
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Rock Band. While I am geeky enough to say I do prefer the Japanese Guitar Freaks and Drum Mania, I must say that I am enjoying Rock Band at home. The guitar portion of the game is nearly identical to Guitar Hero and the vocal part is like Karaoke Revolution. The drums are my favorite part of the game and I can't seem to put my sticks down. My neighbors are all probably pretty pissed at me right now. :) All portions of this game require precise timing and skill. The fact that I am able to download more songs via XBox Live is an awesome features and with 1-4 players, it is fun to play with a group of friends or by myself. $170 well spent.
-Dom
I find it hard to believe that only 3 posts contain the word Crysis! That tells me only those 3 and myself even played the game because it was above and beyond the best.
There are definately a lot of great picks for game of the year this year. One game that I did not see though was "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune"
While this is probably not the best game this year, it is very good -- definately one of the most fun games I've played this year. Good story, Good characters, solid platforming, decent combat system, all wrapped around high production values makes this a high recommendation in my book.
If you haven't played the game, and have access to a PS3, it's definately worth checking out, definately worth the $60 (which I think is pretty rare these days).
I completely agree! Portal is perfection. It's short and sweet and has everything in it you could want in a game -- fantastic gameplay, an immaculately-crafted antagonist, a fantastic plot twist, humor, and a surprisingly thorough and satisfying ending. It's amazing as a stand-alone game, but also rewarding to a Half-Life fan: Aperture Science's technologies had many insidious similarities to the Combine (the turrets, the logo, the whole concept of portals), some of which unfold in Episode 2 and will likely be further developed in Episode 3.
Though Valve is demonstrating a disturbing trend of subscription-based gaming, offering 5-hour minigames for a somewhat steep price, Portal is totally worth it, even if you don't get the Orange box. It's a shame it's so short, but on the same token, the game's short play time might be exactly why it has so much concentrated fun. There's not much room for repetition with such a limited span of game time.
The moon may be smaller than the earth, but it's much farther away!
I played more of this (via the excellent prboom port) than anything else this year. And by "Classic" I mean the original Doom engine and related games: Doom II, Ultimate Doom, Final Doom.
Heck I just finished making my way through The Darkening II last week, and now I'm looking for some other good WADs to play. There are so many...
I only have a laptop and no 3D hardware, so I'm not really into the newer polygon-based game engines.
Would you really want to play much more of those puzzles in a single-player campaign? Personally, I thought Portal was of an excellent length -- and the writing, sound design, etc. probably benefited a great deal from the lack of pressure to produce a 50-hour epic in this case. Between the advanced maps and the challenge maps you can certainly get quite a few more sessions out of it, too.
Most of the companion cube plushes are gone, sadly -- but the site says there are a few left if you want to make a donation to Child's Play.
One of the few games with truly successful downloadable content sales. The game itself may not have been perfect -- far from it -- but seeing its ingame footage almost single-handedly boost one of Japan's Youtube clones, NicoNico Douga, to popularity rivaling the video giant was a sight to behold.
After getting burned out on FPSer's due to the whole unlock extra weapons, we control your ranked server, booster packs were not meant for FPS's, what do you mean game's are suppose to be fun, Team Fortress 2 put the Fun back in First Person Shooters.
Simple enough to pick up in less than five minutes, stylish enough to look cartoony and yet cool all at the same time, TF2 also has a surprise element of just enough strategy to be fun and engaging while encouraging teamwork.
Sure, it took 10 years to develop, but the game that introduced me to the online FPS with the original Quake version in 1996, is again a game that makes me believe that someone understands that games are meant to be fun.....
RTFG - Read The F#$%ing Google!
Yeah, still...even in single, when I don't have connection to the internet. Or when friend borrowed me his HL2 with addons...
:p
Blizzard better release some proper game, I'm staring to look really anachronic
One that hath name thou can not otter
I haven't quite finished The Witcher yet, but so far I find the haphazard translation of the dialog pretty distracting and find the VA just passable. I also find it to be dragging on quite abit. I generally love huge games as long as they have good pacing.
A decidedly adult and beautiful game, with lots of significant (read game changing)choice, but the problems with dialog kill a lot of my enjoyment. I bet the Polish version is much better though.
I gotta say, the best game this year in my opinion is the game my new company just finished, Electropy. But who wouldn't think that their game is the best? Other than that Twilight Princess was a lot of fun.
etqw all the way!!!!
All the big-time games seem to be FPS games, and that's not really my cup of tea, so I can't really vote for games that I don't enjoy playing. So for me? GOTY = Football Manager 2008, which means two straight years of Football Manager dominance.
Let's stop dilly-dallying and just change "-1: Overrated" to "-1: Disagree" or "-1: Doesn't Subscribe to Groupthink".
I haven't noticed a single open source game listed yet (but I haven't exhaustively searched either), so I thought I'd offer the one that's been dominating my time lately:
http://sauerbraten.org/
Sauerbraten is a fast-paced FPS with a number of game modes, maps, and a fun community of players. They typically put out a new release once every quarter, with the "Winter" release scheduled to arrive sometime this weekend. The best part for me is that I can hop online for a 15min game and I actually feel like I've played, whereas 15min spent on many commercial titles feels like not enough time spent to do anything meaningful.
Unless you've played System Shock 2, that is. Ken Levine can use the phrase "spiritual successor" all he wants, but the story was System Shock 2.1.
Warning: Here Be Spoilers
There are so many elements that are almost directly parallel between the games:
That said, I still enjoyed the game, because it was fun and well-executed. The art direction provides an incredible sense of place, with its underwater setting, Art Deco architecture, and Junkyard Wars improvised weapons. The root conflict is certainly more interesting. Ryan and Fontaine are both megalomaniacs at heart, regardless of their faux-religious veneers. (Notice how Fontaine countered Ryan's escalating Ayn Rand-like rhetoric by smuggling in bibles and rosaries to help recruit the disillusioned working class?) That's a better hook than SHODAN's scheming to get the Von Braun to the remains of Citadel. They did add new game play elements, like the Big Sister/Little Daddy dynamic, crafting, and photography research. And who can forget Sander Cohen?
But that still doesn't do anything for my disappointment in the similarities. I saw the Atlas/Fontaine switch coming from a mile away, because I remembered Polito and SHODAN. I was hoping that Levine would surprise us old SS2 fans with a different plot twist. (I will give him credit for tricking us into thinking that Atlas' "wife" and "son" would be parallels of Suarez and Siddons from SS2.)
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I'm confused by people who thought the part where they drop you into the fire and you're like 'NO WAY' is the end of the game.
I mean, you spend the whole game learning to think a little bit differently about spacial orientation, how can you accept just being dropped into the fire without a fight?
If flux is your favorite game, you really need to see what else is out there. The game is so random, the decisions you make are pretty much irrelevant. The fact is a friend of mine played against his cat, and lost!
There are a ton of good boardgames out there: From Descent to Agricola, with oldies such as Carcassonne, El Grande or Tikal.
As far as videogames go, I've played pretty much every nominee, and Mario Galaxy is head over shoulders above the competition. Mass Effect did nothing KOTOR hadn't done better years ago. Better writing, better characters, better inventory system, better AI. The romance arcs were so absolutely lame they had me longing for Baldur's Gate II. Bioshock has a great story, but it's a pretty average shooter. Half of the plasmoids are pointless, and there's not much enemy variety as the game goes along. Portal is much better, but it is very short. Rock Band is better than Guitar Hero, but they did screw up with the manufacturing problems, and the lack of career online mode is disappointing.
It's Galaxy's year.
New games from 2007: #1 "Civilizations IV: Beyond The Sword" - Massive expansion may as well be Civ 4.5, excellent features #2 "Half Life 2: Episode 2" - Even though portal was more original and the first level of Ep2 was kind of boring, I had a great time with this and the final battle was worth the price of admission. #3 "Portal" - Awesome atmosphere, excellent design, short but sweet #4 "Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance" - nothing much new here, but this expansion revived SC for me. #5 "Super Mario Galaxies" - This could have easily been #1 for me, but I didnt actually get a chance to play it that much Old games I'm still playing: #1 "Counter Strike: Source" - I've played this more than any other older game #2 " Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines" - Hadn't played since early 2006, and jumped right back in #3 "Gameboy version of Tetris" - I dug out my old Super Nintendo and Super Gameboy cartridge and played the hell out of this #4 "Rainbow Six 3: RavenShield" - Terrorist hunt with friends on a lan game still is fun #5 "Mario Kart 64" - fun.
This comes at a bad time for those of us who are getting games for Christmas. Sure, it might be a bit dubious declaring a game as your Game of the Year based on just a week's worth of playtime, but I have no idea how good or bad they'll turn out to be...
"Let's face it, it's a good story. Accuracy would kill it."
Sadly, I didn't get to play enough games this year. Just too busy. But I did get to play a few. The game I have probably wasted the most time on is Team Fortress 2. And this is a year late, but I would say Oblivion is the top game I have played this year. It just has so many quests and things you can do...and the polish is amazing. Hopefully I will "beat" Oblivion over break (i.e. do all the guild quests, all the major town quests, get all the artifacts, and complete the storyline). Bioshock and HL2-ep2 were both excellent FPSs. FFXII was good but just didn't hold the magic of some of the past games for me. I enjoyed Portal (and loved Coulton's song at the end) but I didn't find it particularly challenging or engaging until the end. I understand why people love that game but I don't agree that it would be worth $50 alone.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
but Metroid is a close second for me. I wish I had a machine that would play Portal though.
Call of Duty 4
Absolutely beautiful. Fluid gameplay, constant intense action, Great story.
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Such a sweet game, the graphics are delicious, the gameplay is fantastic. The replay value seems near infinite and one of the best multiplayer games I have ever played.
Assassin's Creed
Vast Beautiful lands with free roaming much like GTA series. Intense action, fluid gameplay. Tends to get a little redundant but if you play the same each time, it would be. Changing plans per assassin is able and suggested.
Guitar Hero III
Simply fun! Great song lists, online multiplayer, Coop story, better gameplay. Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero III are some fantastic party games.
Portal
This game was so addicting is incredible. My brain felt alive. Not to mention how funny it was. The female voice was perfect but I only giggle like a schoolgirl when a kitten sniffs my eye.
If anyone want to play Guitar Hero III for xbox my nick is Stink Sleeve
~ Ron Fitzgerald
It's the late 90's all over again, even the PC got spoilt.
Mass Effect, Mario, Bioshock, Crysis, Orange Box, Halo 3 etc
Remember, the year has been so jam packed with games that God of War 2 was this year even - yet it feels like 3 years worth of games have come out since.
While the sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory has failed to attain the massive online popularity that its predecessor currently enjoys, it is an excellent team-based first-person-shooter. An SDK has been released that promises to bring community-developed mods and maps that should help keep the game interesting for years to come.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
I played WiC incessantly since the demo before release up until about two weeks ago. It was very good, but it really isn't holding up for me. There seems to be very little for people who want to play it competitively but also don't aspire to be professional gamers. It's either play boring games against random newbies on public servers where you win all the time or play in boring clan matches against dedicated e-sports people who hand you your ass all the time. Put in baseball terms, I can play against either the local 6 year old T-ball team or a AAA/Major league-level baseball team, when I'm looking for a good high school or an NCAA division II college team for an opponent. The single-player campaign is very good, though.
And I just played Supreme Commander again last night for the first time in several months, and I'm going to dispute you on the graphics. WiC's graphics are better, hands down. I was struck last night by how jerky and muddled everything looked in it right after playing WiC. I had restarted the single-player mission last night, and found it almost unwatchable after WiC. I quit halfway through the first mission.
San Diego Chargers vs. Detroit Lions...that was the best game of the year. Video games can be fun...but should never be taken seriously and one must never spend too much time playing them.
I'm surprised nobody above me mentioned it -- in the subject at least. That game is way too damned addictive...
And it got worse, when they released the Multiplayer version at http://www.casualcollective.com/.
Elder Scrolls III was my first experience with the RPG genre and I was hooked almost immediately. I progressed naturally onto ES IV - Oblivion and soon afterwards became hopelessly lost in the beauty of Cyrodiil, where I remain to this day. Two official Bethesda expansions and several more top shelf player produced scenarios have just added to the enjoyment. I've often found myself wishing Cyridill were a real place.
For this 47yo, the game of the year is once again Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion
And I can't help but wonder if an Elder Scrolls V is in our future.
signed...
mac_8100_g3
Simcity Societies. It takes a new spin on the game series and is more "organic" than the current stream of SimCity games. Granted it's not produced by Maxis this time but still turns out pretty good. for Consoles: Wii: Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition PS2: FF12 DS: Geometry Wars: Galaxies Everything else I don't care for since I don't own them heh.
If anyone needs me, I'll be in the Angry Dome.
Every year, despite the plethora of amazing games with amazing graphics, with great story lines, with plots and twists and fantastic endings, I still find myself the classic, tried and true "Master of Magic". I guess that puts it in the favourite game of all-time category, rather than just the year.
Microprose did a great job with "Master of Magic". I would LOVE to see it updated. Not changed, just modern graphics (and better resolution), fix the occasional bug, and perhaps a more modern sound track -- but game play really needs to be basically the same. I can't program. I can spell "C" but that's the limit to my ability to program, so all I can do is hope someone with the skills loves the game as much as I do who isn't afraid of microprose sueing....
Cannikan
As much as I love art deco, I was disappointed with the game's style. In far too many places Rapture was too decayed for the style to be recognizable aside from the posters all over the walls.
Portal is the most finely crafted game I have played in a very long time. I don't think I've played such a good game since my Commodore 64 (M.U.L.E. probably). Sure, I've played lots of fun and engrossing games, but Portal was perfect from beginning to end.
Life is like a web application. Sometime you need cookies just to get by.
Okay, it's an update/reissue of a board game that's been out of print for a decade or so, but it's great to finally have it for a new generation of players.
Talisman
http://www.blackindustries.com/?template=TM&content=talisman-history
DMCA - Chilling free speech since 1998.
I don't know; I can't help but feel that at the end of the whole experience of Portal that the length of the game was just right. Sure it was only a handful of hours, but the pacing for those few hours was absolutely brilliant and kept the game fresh and fun the whole way through. GLaDOS might have gotten boring if the game had extended any longer then it did, or the puzzle would have become repetitive rather then good progressions of problem solving skills.
I think in an era where a lot of people extol of the value of pointless sand boxes in video games, Portal showed a concise, focused game can be very enjoyable and memorable, and that alone earns it Game of the Year in my eyes.
I'm playing this on my DS right now, and while I do intend to beat it and all, I gotta say it's way worse than I expected. The pacing is crazy bad, the control scheme is atrocious, and I'm not sure what all the "depth" is for when there's no reason to manually cast anything other than a revive spell. The reason I'm enjoying the game at all is the AWESOME musical score that's largely carried over from the actual FFXII game. That alone keeps me playing. But good grief as an RTS it's unbelievably shallow, controls like a pig (I'm a leftie, and it's just bollocks having to select my party with 'X', then scroll the map with the control pad, then fumble the stylus back into grip with my left hand and click on the enemy to attack), and has some of worst 2-d sprites I've seen in two decades. Every "zoom in" is so bad they should have avoided them IMO. Or used better sprites. The weapon crafting with the random questions? What the hell, hehe.
Overall, the game IS enjoyable. I already like the characters since I played FFXII and loved it, the music is some of my favorite of all time for a game, and the FMV graphics are fantastic. Also I like the light-hearted nature of the game. But OMG it's such a POS from a gameplay perspective that I can't recommend it to anyone else. If you ask me, this is how to *not* do an RTS on a handheld. They should just port Starcraft and leave it at that ^_^
I like basketball!!1!
Yeah I am surprised this didn't get more mention, for that very reason.
For all the griping about linux gaming, there was little fanfare when a top-tier title was released and has great linux support. It's a really fun game too!
Why, yes I have been touched by His noodly appendage. And I plan to sue.
Where is the love for this game? I know it was on an old system that may people had to dust off to play, but I can't think of another game that was simply that fun to play start to finish.
How can it possibly be anything other than Portal? Maybe you could make an argument for the Orange Box as a whole. That's about it.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Even though there are glitches, the game is the most complete gaming experience for me in the past few years. It has FPS, RPG, adventure elements on space exploration, superb story telling technique, choose your own story, good degree of freedom for exploring, very detailed Sci-fi world, SUPERB dialogs that doesn't bore me because they come with good acting/voice on every single one. Another thing, if you've played Star Control 2, Mass Effect does it one better by letting you land on some selected planets in 3D(live) and explore it using your vehicle or foot. Each planet has its unique looks and their history explained. The developers give you a list of things to find on the galaxy such as mineral deposits, artifacts and of course hostile action can be found on some of these either from side missions or distress/radio calls. This itself give the game so much extra value from the main mission. The Codex(galatic encyclopedia) is well implemented where it doesn't shove you with the entire volume to sift through. Instead, it is unveiled as you interact and find new things, experience is gained by finding them, that's one more incentive to collect new knowledge. Time's up, can't say more on action, and other story elements, lets' just say they're all good. I haven't been excited to play a game when I get home for a while now, this is it and it reminds me of good times.
So how exactly did this get modded a troll?
In any other thread someone making "The Cake is a Lie!" statements is probably OT/Trolling. Here it is part of the atmosphere of the game.
Portal was really short but it was definitely one of the highlights of video gaming this year for me. The gameplay was fun and the dark humor of the whole setting was great. It really was a triumph. Truly, it was a Huge Success! Its hard to overstate my satisfaction with this game.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to future adventures in Aperture Science environments.
COD 4 is hands down the best game of the year. The gameplay is amazing, realism is outstanding, and the storyline is fantastic. If you haven't played it, go out and GET SOME!!!!
Cy
EA's Skate is one of the most innovative and addicting games I have ever played. Though it might be a bit too niche for some people, it has changed the genre. The controls are out of this world, and re-playability (which is hugely underrated by many) is insane. I have played this several times a week ever since I purchased it and every single time I have a few "this game is awesome" moments.
NetHack has a reputation for replayability due to its randomly-generated elements, but that viewpoint shows a lack of understanding of the game. The point is to apply a consistent strategy to guide your character to the non-random oasis points of the game in linear fashion. That gets really boring after a few successful ascensions - which is the reason conducts exist, to handicap the player by forcing him to use a non-optimal strategy.
Once you learn the features and interactions, and layouts and regular encounters, NetHack loses a lot of its appeal. Most seasoned players won't even bother to play standard NetHack. It's too easy and boring. The exception might be version releases, but there hasn't been a new NetHack version in 4 years now.
I think the only sort of person who could consider a 4-year-old NetHack version as game of this year is someone who is still a newbie to the game.
Dwarf Fortress ..of course!. A text-based roguelike that is so complex that can thrash a high-end core 2 duo? OH YES!!!!
Massive fractal worlds, fluid dynamics, infinite replayability.
Most people who have played it rate it game of the year.
The virtues of Dwarf Fortress cannot be put in writing - just go there!
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/ ( Ps: Losing is fun!)
Blokus is my game of the year. I started playing it with physical pieces, and still do occasionally, but I play it a fair bit online now too. The other strong contenders are Bang! (a Mafia-esque card game) and a computer game I developed which I can't talk about yet.
I was disappointed by Super Mario Galaxy. Other than the cool physics and the Wiimote, there was nothing really that great about it. Don't get me wrong: I like the game. It's just not as good as Super Mario Sunshine was (and is).
Compared to Super Mario Sunshine, SMG is very linear. Yes, you can do the galaxies in pretty much whatever order you want, but they chose to have more galaxies in favor of more options in the individual levels. There was no searching for stars in the main area - they just dropped a hungry luma in your lap when you achieve a certain goal. There is absolutely no need to challenge yourself to get coins. They replaced the red coins in SMS with purple coins and saved all those levels for the end. The levels themselves were very linear and didn't provide for any exploring. All in all the game was much less challenging.
Ten years strong, with me present for the last eight of them, I'd say is my game of the year. I don't give a rat's what anyone else says.
1.5 hours of game time? I suppose it's possible that one might make it through in that time period, if one didn't take any time to explore. Or if one decided not to do any bonus missions.
Captcha: temporal
I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.
For all the fancy, flashy games I've played this year with their high budgets and their great gameplay the one that wins for me is 6 Days A Sacrifice. After hearing about the Chzo Mythos series of adventure games by Yahtzee I decided to give them a try. Two days later I had marathoned all the games in two late nights. I was sucked in by the themes, and there was a simple pleasure to be had in the point-and-click interface. As the games sit in the mystery and horror genre there are a couple really good scares to be had.
6 Days A Sacrifice itself caps off the Chzo Mythos games by building on existing precepts then giving them a quick snap to turn everything on its' ear, revealing a thrilling "big picture". As I played the games in succession I got the maximum effect of the interlinking plot points which really improved my experience. I'd review it but I wouldn't want to spoil any of the story for any new players. That's what Wikipedia is for.
I'm working on a Tall Man papercraft to put up next to my paper Weighted Companion Cube, TF2 Spy, and Bee Mario. It will serve as a kind of visual hallmark to what a great year of gaming its' been. Good times!
Starkle, starkle, little twink.
I've played five games with any significant regularity this year: GRAW 2, Guild Wars, BF2, Lego Star Wars II (with the daughter), and Medieval II: Total War. Technically, this was released in November 2006 but hey, it didn't enter my budget until early this year, and it's still there. While not as initially satisfying as the preceding Total War games, it fed (and still feeds) my strategy jones.
I'm surprised it hasn't gotten a mention.
I've played the demos of Crysis, and BF2 and while they look amazing and fun in their own right, MII:TW will keep rolling along because it's so damned playable. I'll tell you what I'm begging for: a new version of Sonalysts' Fleet Command (or Jane's Fleet Command if you prefer that title).
Blacker than my baby girl's stare. Black like the veil that the muslimina wear. Black like the planet that they fear...
Oh, ha ha, very fsking funny. Rub it in, why don't you, you insensitive clod.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
Tabula Rasa for sure. While a bit shallow and unfinished, it's still got a lot more polish than many MMOs that have been out longer.
I pick it mainly because it's the first MMO where I have found grinding to be fun. And even better-the missions give enough XP that grinding is not necessary...but I do it anyway, because mowing down a group of Bane with a shotgun is just plain fun.
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I'm surprised there's no mention of Warhawk here... Granted it's a PS3 PSN download and in-store release with no single player abilities, but it's a great game with lots of replay value... If you haven't played it yet do yourself a favor and play it.
Outside of Warhawk, the Orange box/Portal really does take the cake for me, but it's a little unfair since I wouldn't say Portal alone is a game of the year... It's original, but it's not enough game...
Nuff said.
LocoRoco for PSP was the greatest game I played this year. I don't know if it's a game from this year tho.
Not everyone who tries it likes it. But everyone who likes it loves it.
Are you trying to say it's a great game, but has a horrible text editor? ...
[badum-ching]
A Human Right
Actually, I was pretty disappointed by Bioshock - not only is it a System Shock 2 rehash, I'd rather put its version number at 1.9... It's essentially System Shock 2 with half of the gameplay mechanics removed.
SS2 was particularly engaging because you needed to be careful about how much ammo you use, how many nanites you spend (because you needed the things for anything from purchases to weapon repairs), which weapon you use when (because degradation might mean the thing breaks down when you need it least), which skill you learn etc. The decisions turned out to be pretty complex. ("If I level up Repair now, I can use the grenade launcher - but I suck with heavy guns and I kinda need to get past that one security station - but then again, another Hacking upgrade would require me to find two more upgrade modules and I'm not quite ready for the storage area yet...")
I like to call Bioxshock "System Shock: Terror From the Deep". Like TFTD was UFO Defense with an undersea settings, new graphics and minor modifications, Bioshock is System Shock 2 with an undersea setting, new graphics and minor modifications.
Bioshock is by all means not an outright bad game, it just doesn't live up to the game it was cloned from. Probably because SS2 was an FPS/RPG while I'd argue that Bioshock just tries to be an FPS.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
The best game I've played so far this year is Uncharted, followed by Bioshock and Mass Effect. Portal is amazing, but a bit too short to justify GOTY IMO.
Here is my top 5 for 2007: 1) Word of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade 2) Poral 3) Mario Galaxy 4) Bioshock 5) The Witcher All fantastic games. Portal was the best 4 hour game ever. However I played WoW from February to May, far longer than any other game. I have to really hand it to blizzard they did a fantastic job and I think it is BS that many websites are overlooking the burning crusade because it is an expansion.
I have never seen name, post, and sig all in such accord.
You, sir, show a level of dedication that I find quite frankly a bit frightening. I applaud you for it while simultaneously hoping you are not near me in meatspace.
Your brain is not a computer.
Is without question Portal. It's the only non-work-related thing I've booted into windows for all year (and I did it more than once, too).
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
2007 was the year of Rainbow 6 in my opinion. Brilliant game, brilliant online performance. Late in the year I got COD4 but Rainbow 6 dominated for 11 months so it has to get the title. I played GRAW in 2006 and loved it but it can't hold a candle to Rainbow 6 and GRAW 2 just didn't do it either. I'm speaking from the XBOX 360 side of course.
Count me in for Super Mario Galaxy. It felt like I was playing Super Mario 64 all over again, but the bite-sized levels felt a lot more like Super Mario Bros. 3 as well. Add to it the return of the Airships, the Fire Flower, the incredible (for the Wii) graphics and stellar orchestration and you've got a game that can last for ages. Oh, and Luigi's Purple Coins will pwn your sorry butt, believe me.
I too, fell in love with portal. Its ingenious game design, its captivating darkhumored narrative, its terrific ending and song (props to Coulton).
;).. though i cried a little inside, when i read about Mass Effect. You can keep your halo marketing-fueled halo ;)
For a non-commercial indepth review of the orange box as a whole, here's a shameless plug for my brothers assessment: http://www.everything2.net/index.pl?node_id=1922474&lastnode_id=124
my personal runner up, has gotten far less media attention, but as PC gamer i would like to point to the excellent standalone / expansion pack for "company of heroes": Opposing fronts. This is the game i've played the most this year in conjunction with the original game. The way the two merges, so you can play OF with vanilla COH players, and the constant polishing by Relic has made this a lasting game, with many hours worth of gaming yet in store.
COH is to me the best RTS ever concieved (and i've played a few), and OF has added to it. While the new campaigns are nice, the new factions themself enrichen the game as a whole. I cant wait for the sequel or additional expansions.
Despite enjoyable WII sport hours with co-workers and my sisters zealous praise of the ps3 (she works for a sony partner.. and happens to get a lot of games), being an old stubborn PC gamer (64c +) I have yet to see a game to make console gamer out of me
Oh.. and nethack still rocks. I have yet to beat it. Made it to dungeon 16 this year.
- Mad, ingenous - they've both left you puzzled -
A lot of these are common threads between MANY games...
FTL travel = pseudo-Objectivist utopia = an excuse to explain why there are no "good guys" to help you, and to make you feel alone. (see: underground military base in Half-Life)
Psionics = Plasmids = excuse for you to do cool stuff (see: Mjolnir armor in Halo)
The Many = Splicers = random name for generic enemies (see: Geth in Mass Effect)
I wouldn't go as far as to say the Ken Levine simply re-used System Shock's concepts, more like they share the same concepts that all games do.
I'll agree with Portal as Game of the Year, but strangely, even after getting the Orange Box last month, I still find myself loading up Eve Online more than any other game. The most recent updates make it look better than ever on high-end hardware.
And even though I dislike the idea of "casual games" I admit to getting a kick out of Peggle. The only problem is my wife says she can always tell when I'm playing Peggle because I stick my tongue out and make a really stupid face. More stupid than usual, she says.
I've also decided that Sonar 7 and a decent MIDI keyboard constitute a really fun game if you bother to learn a little basic music theory and keyboard technique. It's even more fun than Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and you don't feel like such a loser the way you do with those pseudo-music games. When I see someone who's spent the time to master Guitar Hero, I just can't shake the feeling that if they'd spent that much time actually learning an instrument, they'd have way more fun and girls wouldn't think they're quite so gay.
You are welcome on my lawn.
As for the other comments in this thread:
1 - Mass Effect : Mass Effect, imo, fails the GotY. The beginning of the game is just dreadfully dull, and the abstractions for gameplay purposes served only to yank me out of the story. (Hopping Tanks? Omni-gel? For shame. BioWare can do better than that. The story pacing in BioWare's games is unacceptable and - frankly - the fanbois let them off the hook far too easily. My friends worked on this game and while I respect their efforts - it's too bad that a more discriminating internal QA team did not speak up LOUDER about this game's flaws. there are a lot of designers who have excuses for this - but BioWare isn't one of them.
2 - Halo 3: Halo 3 is a decent game, that fails the test for the same reason: it is too short and offers far too little gameplay value for the dollar. It is saddening that the gaming media did not utterly *savage* Bungie and MS Game Studios - as they so richly deserved to be savaged - over the paltry game length provided for the money. Instead, they got fanboi ooohs and aaahs". Cowardly, uncritical and outright jingoistic glowing reports for a failed execution. The economic reward reaped by MS for Halo 3 will only encourage further erosion of expected play values in the marketplace. If Peter Jackson's The Hobbit was jaw droppingly good for as long as it was on the screen - but only lasted 30 minutes on that screen - you can be damned sure the consumers would storm out FURIOUS. Why the hell should we put up with this? Why do YOU put up with it?
3 - Heavenly Sword: Five hours? See the comments re: Halo 3 and SQUARE the scorn contained therein.
4- Portal: A courageous design and an innovative one. Clever, yes. Fun? Mostly. But "mostly fun" is a far cry from *hellafun*. And GotY needs to be hellafun to walk away with that moniker. There's just not enough there to deserve a GotY award. Nevertheless, it is going to receive it from most games as a not to the "indie" roots of the title and the cleverness in the design. Good reasons to like a game - but poor ones to fawn over it, imo.
5- Team Fortress 2: Team Fortress 2 is a game not ready for consideration. The game is NOT DONE. The offering of a team based shooter without any ability for the player to even try the game or get a feel for how it is played via bots is throwing the player into the deep end of a cold pool, frustrating the game experience for the player and ruining it for his teammates too. "Try to drown less. Try having more fun." are not helpful playing tips. That does not mean that TF2 - **when it is finished** - is not a worthy GotY candidate - but it **isn't finished**. And those suggesting it is are a sad excuse for discriminating consumers of games. Don't you get it? If you don't DEMAND a complete game experience - these sonsofbitches won't deliver one.
6- Wow: Burning Crusade: And we come back to the most successful game - by far - of the year. WoW: Burning Crusade. A game that delivers increased gameplay and game value to millions of fans and makes even a juggernaut like Madden, The Sims and Halo3 look like the chumps they are. WoW:BC made more money this year then all of those- *combined*. Say what you want about WoW, but it delivers a gameplay experience to a massive fanbase that keeps on giving - and on hardware that the vast majority of people reading this thread can play it on. If a game's commercial success is an indication of excellence, than WoW:BC outdistances all competitors by a few parsecs.
7: The Winner: The Witcher by CD Proojeckt Red. If a standard other than overwhelming commercial success is used, I would nominate The Witcher. Games must innovate as well as be able to stand under their own weight and carry the player through, start to finish. Not without some technical problems, the Witcher is a before and after single player CRPG. It's a shame that a console obsessed media in North America paid it short shrift, and that lame-ass reviewers played 12 hours of it and pretended to review it as if they had finished it. Shame on them all. In Europe, especially in Central and Eastern Europe - the game shot to #1 and remains there even now. As usual, European players are less prone to let hype cloud their vision.
.Robert
It was a ponderous adventure game posing as a CRPG with 90s pop-psychology content masquerading as weighty philosophical themes. As a CRPG, it didn't work; the gameplay was incidental. As an adventure game, it was not an especially compelling story nor was it told especially well.
Defense Of The Ancients All-Stars: A 5v5 multiplayer team game mod for Warcraft III Frozen Throne. Runs on very modest systems (WC3 is a 5 year old game). You can dl dota from http://dota-allstars.com/ If you play over GGC (http://www.gg-game.com/), you can get LAN-like speed.
https://dalgamotor.wordpress.com/ - Elektronik beyinlere ozgurluk asisi (Turkish)
You all know you use it.
You just won't admit that you're as addicted to it as you are to WoW.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
My favorite game has to be X-Plane hands down. I cannot get enough of this game. It is the closest a poor fat guy like me will probably ever get to flying a real plane or comfortably sitting in one. Seriously though, the flight model is fantastic (very realistic physics), the graphics are great and you can put the world on your hdd for around 80 bucks. You can fly low and slow on a scenic flight through the Blue Ridge Mountains or try an inflight refuel followed by an aircraft carrier landing in the Persian Gulf in a F-4 Phantom. You can try your hand bringing the Space Shuttle Atlantis home at full re-entry or drop your X-15 from the wing of a B52G and fly the paint off the sucker to the edge of the atmosphere. This is only a few of the scenarios and aircraft you can fly. I would love to tell you more but I am next in line for take off, KJFK to EGKK. Speedbird tango-zulu-sierra, cleared for take off! Check it out for yourself at www.x-plane.com
"I reject your reality and substitue my own." ~ Adam Savage, Mythbuster extraordinaire.
Oh, you meant video game. Well, even than, this one was pretty damned good.
While I totally agree that Wii Sports was one of the best games played this year in my family, technically, we did buy it in 2006. When we bought our Wii on game launch day.
Otherwise it would have been my first choice.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Proprietary: Civilization 4, by a mile. I've been a Civ player since 2, and 4 (especially with the Beyond the Sword expansion) is hands-down the most innovative of the series to date. I was extremely worried when 2K took the title over, but they've done just a phenomenal job with it (as opposed to, say, Pirates, which they absolutely ruined). Civ 4 is why I keep a Windows partition.
Free: Nethack, still. Just like last year, and the year before. Next year too.
Hey, I finally got my first freak! Took you long enough!
why doesnt taco just shut his filthy sewer? no one cares what that misfit thinks about anything except for the rest of the anti-social bitches who make up mental disorders to explain away the fact that they can't get laid.
That's a tough choice, indeed. There were a ton of good games this year. I guess my GOTY is Halo 3, followed closely by either Rock Band or Mass Effect. Still, picking a GOTY out of the games I played this year is kind of a heart-wrenching endeavor, like picking which of your children is your favorite or something.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Hello?? Metroid Prime 3. The controls are so good you forget how you're doing it. You never want to go back to doing FPS any other way.
Well, in the SS2/Bio comparison, those serve specific purposes.
This sig intentionally left blank.
you should go and try adom (see sig.) it's *much* better than Diablo II. Only disadvantage is totally crappy "graphics". I had spent once 4 months (like holidays + school start) playing this game almost nonstop. Great waste of time, I totally regret that, I can't wait until I'll have some time again... I don't even start this game if I know that if I lose next two weeks of my life I will be in BIG trouble in RL. I discovered this game in 1999 and after 8 years of playing (with gaming-breaks sometimes as big as to 2 years) I've beaten this game only 2 times! Darn difficult. Oh, and no save-scumming. You can restore a save only if the game crashed (happens on average once per 6 months). Every other death is a *death*. That rule gives immense adrenaline kick during fight, becuause you are growing an emotional connection with your character as it gets exp and good items, and suddenly a death gives a feel that something was *really* lost. When I fight and my character reached about level 20 I always feel adrenaline. You cannot have this kind of adrenaline if you are always restoring from savegame after your death...
#
#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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go and try talisman. A nice family board game, feels almost like plying a roleplaying game, but simpler and the GM is a just a deck of random cards.
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#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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How can a game like Portal - as clever as it is - be "addicting" when it is so short and has essentially "zero" replay value?
To paraphrase Andre the Giant: I don't think that word means what you think it means.
.Robert
Yeah, that's what we judge based on, or should. Portal isn't a sandbox game where exploration is an intrinsic part of the game, so exploration can't really be counted. Bonus missions, by the definition of "bonus", are not part of the main game, and so should not be considered in its length. I agree with the AC, Portal is criminally short (although I'd put it at 2-3 hours, not 1.5, for an initial play-through).
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
It was addicting because I couldn't stop playing it once I started. I figured it would be a game to play a puzzle here and there but when I started all I wanted to do was play more rather than in pieces. And if/when a new version comes out I will certainly be buying it.
~ Portal Spoiler ~
Once you finish the regular game you are able to play the advanced levels. You may not call this replay value but a value add.
~ Ron Fitzgerald
That's right. 2004. Lots of free (and some paid) addons that keep the game incredibly diverse. Yes, it's got bugs, but you live with them for incredibly diversity you get. I have literally gigabytes of free addons.
Why not FSX? Because FSX is a piece of shit, created by a company and addon community that's become much more interested in milking every last cent out of the end user as it can than producing something truly realistic or usable. MS never use to be the most scrupulous company but this push for DRM has made it user-hostile. What's more the team developing FSX have repeatedly screwed it up. 2 service packs and an officially sanctioned addon later and its still unstable and unflyable, still causing problems to install and activate, still a resource hog. For every step forward in the sim it's taken 2 steps back. What's more the addons have doubled in price, old stuff is badly broken, and freeware development has all but ground to a halt (consisting largely of fixing old FS2004 models to work with FSX). Way to take a wonderful, educational and enjoyable game and turn it into a frustrating waste of cash.
My game of 2008 may be Enemy Engaged 2. I just picked that up on the cheap and am loving it. I never bought 1. Did I mention I like flight simulators?
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I pounded 20 hours into Mass Effect over the last few days, finishing it yesterday. The ending was so climatic that I immediately told myself I was buying the next one. And I'm ready to go back through it all to. First time through I played as a paragon this time I'll play the rogue's part. Maybe grab a few more achievements while I'm at it. I must say the idea of achievements actually for something other than bragging rights is an awesome idea.
I'm a huge fan of turn based strategy setups, so I was predisposed to like this one anyway.. the only place I've seen it get any significant attention was on gamerswithjobs.com , where they did a nice piece on it. I literally have not put the PSP down since I got this game. It's got a nice solid gameplay combined with beautiful anime cutscenes and an involving story. Well worth the thirty bucks I dropped on it!
I wish there was a choice that said "Factually Wrong -1" when I mod.
I, too, find myself at school at one end of a crowded hallway a hundred feet long, looking across it to the wall on the other side, and thinking "Oh, I sure wish..." I'm starting to think that I'm thinking with the portals too much. My computer has been portalized (portal background, portal theme, portal sound scheme, etc.) Still Alive has been playing through my head on repeat for days, occasionally interrupted by a quick message from GLaDOS. I have the whole thing memorized. I find myself looking at a package and thinking "ooh! Where shall I put this cube? Is there a big red button to put it on?". And I know what I'm going to be for Halloween next year. It involves a gray cardbard box and some pink paint.
I've got a web site that let's people rank their top ten choices for various things, using an Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) algorithm to aggregate consensus. I created a ballot that includes the games I saw mentioned here so far, and I'd be happy to add a few more. Feel free to give it a try. http://www.choiceranker.com/election.php?eid=176
You might also want to check out the old games you can play on the DS.
I have yet to try them all, but I can confirm that SNESDS, NESDS and Lameboy work very well.
I must catch the dragon...Heroin Hero is my game!
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
How appropriate. You fight like a cow.
My game of the year is Stalker. Large game, unique atmosphere. Great gameplay, especially now that small bugs have been ironed out and that game balance has been slightly improved. Only thing I have a problem with: on my second run (both runs represent dozen of gameplay hours) I'm now too scared by moments. Had to rush through X18 with "Ojos de Brujos" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlv1ckMUkp4 ) at full volume.
When I bought HL2 I was a little deceived by the shortness of the game, by the fact that some levels felt too much like a corridor simulation with baddies and it was a little painful. And "oh, two explosive barrels conveniently down the bridge with baddies running on it" which felt wrong all the times.
So to have about the same gameplay as HL2 (though a little more interesting to me by some aspects: a few RPG elements, more interesting ballistics, generally better IA) in a world more akin to "Fallout" than to "Operation Wolf" was a blast.
I'm sad no one has mentioned this yet; it's a top notch sequel to a legendary game.
It's pulling down an 84 at metacritic and, frankly, I haven't been this excited about a game since I first saw commercials for Mario World forever ago...
Call of Duty 4 was great before, but the new 1.4 patch adds a Christmas theme to an existing map. Christmas trees,
lights, candy canes...all very well done! And when you do an airstrike, you hear jingle bells and a merry
"HO, HO HO". I'm not kidding, it's just great!
" Slashdot Engineer Chris Brown: If you read game sites at all, by now you've probably had more than your fill of cake and Weighted Companion Cube jokes. But Portal remains one of the best games to come out this year, well worth the price of the entire Orange Box just by itself. " Portal is an excellent game indeed, but Portal is not worth $50 (the price of the Orange Box) or even $40. Nowadays people are starting to pay more for higher quality (but shorter) games, i.e. God of War, Heavenly Sword, and even way back to PS2's Beyond Good & Evil (although that was not terribly popular). All of those games offer at least 6 hours of gameplay in the primary storymode (that is, extras notwithstanding). Portal can take 1 1/2 - 4 hours to beat, and the extras are basically slightly harder rehashes of the regular test chambers. I would not pay any more than $25 for Portal alone.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
There're a few, like Ultima Underworld that manage to be great ET or Bridge To Terabithia type
Please, for the love of all that's nerdy, don't ever refer to ET as "great" in the context of videogames without clarifiying that you mean the movie ever again.
Portal for me... Nothing else that came out this year was even close. :)
Weaksauce as they say...
StarCraft
It seems to be a bit of a crapshoot. Dynamic lighting (unlike in Doom 3) turns Stalker into a slide-show. I've also noticed that sometimes going from one level to another turns it into jerk-fest. Time to reboot and pray.
Hopefully Crysis will live up to it's promise, however it may end up like Farcry were it's good in the first half and so so in the later half.
The next-gen consoles really came into their own this year;
Can we please call them "the current console generation" instead? I loathe the "next-gen" buzzword.
Admittedly I am a PC fanboy, but from where I am standing the console offerings, once they arrived, looked surprisingly weak compared to the PC this year. All the massively hyped console games turned out to be either
a) Available for the PC too (and usually with extras on the PC)
or
b) Not that good after all. Not bad, but not amazing...or anything special really. (Possible exceptions - one or two games on the Wii)
There were a number of PC exclusives also that I really liked - Witcher, Sam & Max Season One, NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer.
Notice that they are games in genres that have been declared more or less dead last couple of years - single player, plot driven non-linear RPGs, and adventure games. They not only got great reviews, but they sold quite well too.
(I'm normally not much for FPSs, but from what I've heard the graphics in Crysis spanks anything any of the consoles have to offer.)
Apart from the three games mentioned above, Bioshock and Portal were the games I enjoyed the most this year.
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
Shadow of the Colossus, it was released last year.. though I have played it this year and I've never seen a game with such a immersion. And the logic puzzles designed as challenges against giants where you have to find a weak point gives you a new sensation in games of discovery.
Has to be Portal for me.
The only complaint I ever hear about it is that it's too short. And really, if it were any longer, some part of it would probably fail to achieve the utter perfection and balance of game design, art design, level design, character design, pacing, humor and storytelling. The cynical among us can probably bitch about some aspect of those, but that they all hang together so well is a greater accomplishment than any one part.
We will likely not see its equal in originality and execution for some time.
sig fault
I'd say that http://www.gamerankings.com/ has a pretty definitive answer to the question on its front page, since its an average of very many professional reviews and not just some guy's opinion.
(Hint, second highest rated game of all time... if that doesn't earn it game of the year I don't know what could.)
I started to care about the characters so much that I was kinda sad when it ended, the story was so fun and over the top while the characters where great. It's one of my games of the year.
The way to corrupt a youth is to teach him to hold in higher value them who think alike than those who think differently
NESDS is the best NES emulator I've ever used on any platform. Not only can you do all the stuff every other emulator allows, but you can actually rewind with the L button which lets me cheat my way through all the games my juvenile hands used to rip through!
SNESDS, on the other hand, I've had no luck with. It was discontinued 2 years ago and is unfinished. No other SNES emulator works perfectly or even very well, as far as I've seen. The DS is just too wussy of a machine, methinks.
There were tons of awesome games this year, but even amongst them, Galaxy stands out. It's as close to flawless as any game could possibly hope to be. As far as Mario titles go, this is right up there with Super Mario World, Mario 64 and Super Mario Bros 3.
Other games I enjoyed a lot this year (and the platform I played it on): Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS), Phoenix Wright 3 (DS), Assassin's Creed (PS3), Portal (PC), Bioshock (360), FlatOut: UC (360), Stardust HD (PS3), Super Paper Mario (Wii - I think this came out last year in the US, but it came out this year in Europe, where I live), Warhawk (PS3), Skate (PS3 - bought it before I found out that the 360 version is way better, unfortunately), Super Mario Strikers (Wii).
OK, this might be totally un-slashdotish but *my* best game of the year was Virtua Fighter 5 for the xbox. For the live support. I mean, seriously, being able to play a fightng game online, with little to no lag, that's a technical achievement. We're talking about inputs that take less than one frame here.
To redeem myself for mentioning Beat 'Em Ups in slashdot, i'd have to say my Runner Up is Vulture's Eye, the fork of Falcon's Eye isometric frontend to NetHack.
Can you clarify how you become to hate someting like a computer game ? To me, if i dont like it, or its not to my tastes, i just toss it aside and dont sit in front of it learning to hate it.
i'd maybe start to dislike it if its a overall good thing that i really really like and keep playing, but something like crash bug in the middle of the storyline keeps screwing things up... but hating a game ?
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashdot.org Errors found while checking this document as HTML5!
Please?
For me it's The Witcher. Here is a GT review.
-- All Gods were immortal.
-- S. Lem
After the dust settled on all the games I've tried, I think Call of Duty 4 almost gets my nod. Been a great year overall, though there have been a lot of let downs. Crysis went the path of Far Cry in terms of taking their open gameplay and choking it off halfway through, only Crysis really went to town (Going from "okay I'll drive my jeep into the building, hop out, and hit the gas can to..A rail shooter segment...come on!). So in the end Crysis stacks itself up with a traditional shooter, but on traditional shooter grounds it cannot compete. COD4 is a purely traditional shooter really, nothing really new there, but it was done so amazingly well.
But now I'm realizing that the game I'm actually still going to be playing this time next year (new games that come and go aside), is Titan Quest: Immortal Throne. Basically it took the excellent TQ and made it more addictive (with multi-level artifacts to collect), and added the caravan (which lets you trade between characters). I've been playing TQ since July of 2006 I think, and I still have the itch to play with TQ:IT.
I would have to say this PS3 game has been my best...I havent played a lot of games, Ive played bioshock, it was right up there too but this game has lots of replayability and it has excellent atmosphere and felt like it was the right difficulty on Normal...platform elements were fairly easy which is good because falling off cliffs pisses me off..
gunplay was very fluid with hiding behind objects and terrain and felt just right as well....excellent cutscenes, enjoyed the first half of the game more than the second but it was a great game...
I completely agree with Fluxx, it is an amazing game that can go on for hours of fun. The only problem I have with the game is sometimes a player just wins, sometimes the pieces fall together where a player just has the right cards, and doesn't even need skill in the game. To take from MtG, there's no "counterspell". Also, Game of the Year is usually a game from that year, Fluxx has been around for a bit. Though if I have to take a vote, I'll go Devil Bunny Needs a Ham, or Kill Doctor Lucky.
The addition of a map editor to a console game was a big step. Theater is impressive as well. Both are really efficient with their file size. The campaign was just as solid as ever, being somewhat short didn't bother me, since the campaign is basically just a quick into to the new weapons and controls before you dive into MP. Since I'm still on nightly after already playing 1100+ games, I have to give it my GOTY vote.
The best part though was the ending credits song. It's wonderful, its funny, its thoughtful, but only makes sense if you've played the game. You can find it on Youtube (what *cant'* you find on youtube these days) here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=RthZgszykLs
Look at the whole picture, not just the hole in the picture.
My favorite game this year was my favorite game last year, and the previous before that, and so on.
X-COM.
Or UFO Defense as the brits call it.
Timeless classic. Most fun per penny paid, ever.
I purchased my Wii around late August/early September. The only Wii titles I own are Wii Sports, Madden NFL 2008, and Super Mario Galaxy. I've not played Super Mario Sunshine, so I can't compare Galaxy on that front, but Super Mario Galaxy feels like a proper follow-up to Super Mario 64. In fact, in terms of play mechanics, I think surpasses SM64 as the heavyweight champ of platforming. While it's not the only game to mess with gravity-based platforming challenges (the arcade game Strider's space station levels come to mind), it's the first one to use them as the basis of the over 50% of the game. While the disorientation can be frustrating at times, even the most difficult levels are never so hard as to make one give up. Miyamoto is a firm, but fair taskmaster. :P
Amazing gameplay and humor aside, no other game has dug so deeply into the collective geek consciousness and spawned so many memes.
Weighted Companion Cube
The cake is a lie!
This was a triumph!
etc.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Exteel is the most rocking game I played in a while.
Right on...
I'm surprised that there was no mention whatsoever of Uncharted on PS3. I guess because no one except me has bought this piece of art ;)
I played Bioshock and it is a great game no doubt, but as far as an engaging story, its pretty clear that the plot was developed by video game designers, not writers.
Uncharted has its flaws, but its unlike any game I've ever played; linear plot line aside, it is extrodinarily engaging. Of course, the Bioshock plotline is pretty much linear as well.
Uncharted is less of a game than a 12-hour interactive movie. I find myself actually slowing down and walking though levels just to build suspense and soak up the ambiance. The visuals and animation are second-to-none. The characters and story are interesting and there are some nice plot twists. It certainly sets the mark for 3rd person action-adventure titles.
Uncharted truly is an artistic game. Like a good book, after putting it down and letting some time pass, its great to pick up and experiance all over again. The environments are complex enough that you'll discover new vistas and other goodies that you didn't see on the first go-around.
Game of the year? Maybe not. Interactive entertainment experience of the year? I say yes.
Then my pick goes to Far Cry.
One of the best games I have ever played.
If you are into FPS, that's it.
We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
Anyone like World in Conflict? It received very positive reviews, but I haven't seen many play it. I'm waiting for the XBOX 360 version.
-Stu
First, I should say it's free to play, so while I obviously have self interest in the matter, this isn't a commercial plug. If it's against the rules anyway, my apologies. Terminate the post with extreme prejudice and I won't be mad. Just thought it might provide some holiday entertainment for some folks. In October I launched the public beta of a browser-based superhero RPG, called Twilight Heroes (not surprisingly located at www.twilightheroes.com). It's a souped-up choose your own adventure story, primarily text based with illustrative graphics, written with a blend of dramatic storytelling and humorous filler. You start out as a "normal" person, a vigilante dressed in home-dyed pajamas, frustrated at the crime riddling the city, but soon develop super powers, gain more items and abilities, proceed through a series of quests, and begin to seriously challenge the criminal element in the fictional city of Twilight. It's obviously low-tech as computer games go, but focuses on the areas where the format can best shine: story telling, humorous description, and use of language. There's an area filled with spoonerisms--a dank and rusty maze where you fall into a rank and musty daze and find yourself fighting cold bats and bold cats, slick thugs and thick slugs, and--despite the adage to the contrary--you fight the band that heeds you; there's a zone where the foes are based on Shakespearean characters, and you can take out old frustrations against whiny star-crossed lovers, and a wishy-washy Hamlet, or face down an insane high-school teacher who believes he's The Bard himself. Other opponents include a mutant squidopus (half squid, half octopus, nine deadly arms), intelligent robots, strange beings from other dimensions, and the like. As you adventure your hero gains skills: mastery of the elements, the ability to tap into animal powers, supercomputer skills, or psychic abilities, depending on your class.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
http://gridwars.marune.de/
factor 966971: 966971
Off 4 big games I tackled this year, Crackdown, Chibi Robo, Twilight Princess, Halo 3, Mario Galaxies, I think I liked Crackdown the best.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
No wonder fine arts are in clear decline.
...
Nobody under 25 seems to be reading, playing an instrument, doing a sport.
Such a post explains it
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Have you played both games?
They're not "equivalent" in some high-concept sense - they're practically identical in every meaningful sense.
"Ambition leads man to great betrayal, a rise in power, and ultimate plants the seeds of his own destruction" - that is a common thread to many tragedies in fiction.
But when you have the man and the wife enacting the same scenes, the three witches, the prophecy of power and a promise of invincibility that turns out to prophesize their doom... I'm sorry, but MacBeth is MacBeth, whether it is in 11th century Scotland, or modern Australia, or a Pennsylvania burger joint.
I'm a big fan of both games, but there's no way you can claim the similarities are just common game mechanics.
The story in the background was different enough, and well worth playing - but the game in the foreground was, for good or evil, the same game.
Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4, everything else follows...
Didn't you love it how when you played the out-of-water missions, nobody had any of the heavy plasma rifles, hover battle-armor, grav-tanks, etc left over from the war 10 years earlier? That and you had to "research" the ability to float. Argh. I still play the original but TFTD is wank.
Well, maybe I'm just easily pleased, but I enjoyed Les Liasons Dangereuses at the theater, and Dangerous Liasons at the movies, even Cruel Intentions.
I have completed SS1, SS2 (twice), and Bioshock (twice).
Each of these new versions had something to bring (even if its Selma Blair, yum).
And I would agree completely... but the argument that Bioshock was a remake/adaptation of SS2 is still valid.
That doesn't make it "bad", of anything, it is part of what makes the game as good as it is.
But if some people are disappointed by the lack of originality it is understandable and a valid point - how important it is is subjective, but pretending that they're not almost identical reeks of fanboism.
As I said, I'm a big fan of both games - although I do consider SS2 was superior in some ways, Bioshock is still high on my best-games-ever list. I'm also a big fan of "Scotland, Pa", for that matter - which I've found a better movie than most MacBeth renditions.
There is no shame in making an adaptation (even if MacBeth may be a better marketing bet than a video game) - and many adaptations can be far better than the original. There is a bit of shame if all your new original work feels like an adaptation of your first hit - but I never got the impression the expectations of stark originality were driven by the people making the game anyway.
Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4, everything else follows...
are you trying to say "adictive"?
Engage in unnecessary egotistical prefacing much?
Nobody knows who the fuck you are, jack, or has a history of your opinions to match this one to. You deserve a slap to the mouth for your laughably pompous post.
I think you mean Call of Duty: United Offensive. It's like CoD2 and 4 but with gameplay
I apologize, I meant SNEmulDS instead of SNESDS.
http://www.snemul.com/ds/
Hi, My vote is for Oblivion... The storyline is very good with a very good graphics... I enjoyed this for the whole year.... Thanks Nizzura
My Story So Far.....
What else?
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
BIOSHOCK because of its innovation of creating a 1.5*FPS+0.5*RPG and not yet another FPS+RPG
I've never played it, but as a liver transplant surgeon it sounds appealing. I assume there are other games in the series - "Cava", "Bile Duct", "Artery", "Roux", and of course the ever-popular "Pack With Laps", "Take-Back", "Re-List", and "Talk To Family".
(I wonder what the odds are that anyone who sees this will have any idea what I'm talking about)
Wait a second, two out of the five people admit to having a WoW habit?
/. has gotten is this the dynamic "Read the rest of this comment..." (I like it). The yes-no-maybe of a beta-tags system?
/. from work.
And the best new thing
The new comment thresholding is cool in a tech-demo sort of way, which is to say, I login to turn it off
The user preferences are this mis-mash of a lightbox page and a full page.
I think the two might be related.
Then again, I'm the one posting to
If we were voting for old games, mine would have to be FF7. The amazing storyline, fantastic music and the sheer emotion you feel for the characters (hate, friendship, sorrow), made it such an amazing game for me. The only game in that series which really lived up to it for me was FF10, but 7 will always be in my memory. I hope Sqaure Enix re-releases 7, with better graphics, and possibly a slightly enhanced storyline with sidequests, but sadly the chances of this seem slim (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!) Ah well, at least I have Crisis Core to look forward to... As this is supposed to be for games released this year, mine will have to be Half Life 2 : Episode 2, the plot is really good, especially for an FPS (not solely about beefcakes killing each other for survival, or WW2 for that mattter), and the game has so many mods, Counter Strike being a favourite, that I just keep coming back to it.
The holes in reality are coming The cake is a lie... The cake is a lie... The cake is a lie... The cake is a lie..