A bit late, yeah. But 2008 was a big year for the vidya, regardless of how good or bad, over or under-hyped, or just plain shitty the games were. So, without further adieu, my recap of all of 2008’s major titles.
THE GOOD – THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST
Mass Effect – Sure, Mass Effect came out in 2007, but the (superior) PC version shipped in 2008 – complete with HUD overhauls and free DLC. Mass Effect delivered a full and satisfying RPG experience in classic Bioware fashion. The combat system is fantastic, and the conversation system made for an extremely cinematic presentation, to the point where while playing, I actually could identify with Sheppard. Not to mention the first game I’ve ever played to allow for lesbian alien sex.
Left 4 Dead - While I wish there was more campaigns in this game to keep me coming back, as well as alternate routes, Left 4 Dead, in my opinion, is one of the first truly “next gen” games – especially the enemy AI, which is a testament to Valve’s professionalism and polish. Fighting endless hordes of zombies is never dull – and the cooperative experience is absolutely second to none. Left 4 Dead not only set the bar for cooperative games, but zombie games in general.
Metal Gear Solid 4 – Sure, it was lauded for a large amount of cinematic, non gameplay sequences, but in my book, that’s what makes a Metal Gear game Metal Gear. MGS4 wrapped up pretty much every loose end from the previous games, evolved it’s own gameplay formula further, and offered one of the greatest cinematic experiences in not only video games, but movies as well.
Audiosurf - it’s Guitar Hero meets F-Zero, and it does it well. A pretty decent game from an indie developer, and it’s dirt cheap.
Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix – Tried and true. The greatest fighting game of all time, remixed with HD graphics and sound, and balanced out for tournament play. I’ve had a blast playing this online, and the game plays exactly like the arcade versions I wasted so much of my life on years ago. More games could benefit from a HD graphics overhaul, and it’s a shame more classic games don’t get remade like this.
Dead Space – While I found it to be repetitive towards the middle of the game, Dead Space offers some of the best survival horror gameplay since Resident Evil 4. Through in zero gravity portions of the game, customizable weapons and armor, and a completely HUDless UI, and you’ve got a pretty decent game.
Fallout 3 – Fallout 3 is what I’ll call my “Game of the year” – it’s almost a perfect game, and will no doubt offer years of enjoyment thanks to Bethesda’s willingness to open their games to modding. It has some flaws, but they’re easily overlooked by the absolute scope and density of the game world.
THE BAD – NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT
Prince of Persia – Don’t get me wrong, Prince of Persia is a fantastic game, highlighted by it’s fantastic visual style, exhilarating platforming, and decent story – but it’s nothing like Sands of Time, which to me, is a bad thing. Everything feels “dumbed down”. Combat is too simplistic and lacks the freedom of the previous games, and the fact that you really can’t die – either by falling or enemy damage, makes me feel like I’m playing a children’s game. Still, one of the more unique games of 2008, and the actual platforming elements are fantastic.
Call of Duty 5 – Call of Duty, while a well polished and well refined shooter franchise, has to realize that it’s been played out. Call of Duty 4 was a step in the correct direction, as a setting other than World War II makes the game feel brand new. Activision needs to realize that you can only play through these games so much before becoming bored with them – the super soldier gameplay is the same in every game, and the enemy spawn system needs to be refined to be more dynamic, not just “make it to this point and bad guys will stop spawning”.
Crysis Warhead – Crysis was one of my favorite PC game experiences to date – visuals that blew console games, and every game before it out of the water. But something felt like it was missing from Warhead – even though there were more explosions, I felt like the game put you into the more linear ice areas too quick and didn’t focus enough on the open endedness of the tropical areas that made the game so fun to play. Still a good game, though.
Grand Theft Auto 4 – I played both the PC and the PS3 versions, and while the game should be commemorated on it’s visuals, story, and game world, I really feel GTA4 was one of the most overhyped games of the year. The multiplayer was long overdue for a GTA game, but in the end, the single player experience is still the same GTA it was when it came into 3D however many years ago. Not a bad thing, but GTA5 is going to need to deliver a unique experience to really evolve the series. That, or go back to Vice City.
Far Cry 2 - where Crysis Warhead fails in not offering enough open ended gameplay, Far Cry 2 fails in offering almost too much of it – a by-product of making the game too open – as such, most of the missions are exactly the same as every other mission of it’s type in the game, just at different locations. The game should be commended for it’s visuals, gameplay, and levels of immersion it offers. But it could have been so much more.
THE SHITTY
Spore – While fun, Spore tried to be too many games at once, and the only ones it really did well was the Space stage. Hopefully, in the future, expansion packs will offer better depth of gameplay in the areas where it failed, but the game really lacked any real hook to make me feel like playing it more.
Age of Conan – Released too early, and without enough content past the early levels. While AoC has a lot of unique features (the combat system should have been copied by more games), and the cinematic character dialog is something I hope is carried over to new games (The Old Republic?), but in the end, AoC is just a WoW clone with some added flair.
Rise of the Argonauts – While it offers some decent cinematic conversations, Rise of the Argonauts doesn’t deliver near as well as it should have. The combat and character progression lacks any real depth and usually combat ends up being a button smashing fest. On top of that, the game has more memory leaks than the Titanic, to the point where I couldn’t even play it for longer than twenty minutes at a time.
The Force Unleashed - Good for it’s story line – not much else. In 2000, I would have been pissed at any game that took twenty to thirty seconds of load time to load up a menu screen. In 2008, I was really pissed.
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning - Spending most of my time in 2008 in the WAR beta, I can’t help but feel completely let down by Mythic post-launch. Aside from making a bunch of changes to the PvP system item rewards before the game went live, WAR ended up taking the same fucking route Blizzard did with WoW – the entire time during beta, Mythic devs preached how the game wasn’t supposed to be a WoW clone, and for the most part, it wasn’t. But come launch, the game had little focus on open PvP, and became a rediculous grind fest post rank 30. Lots of potential, but ended up succumbing to the WoW playerbase that would rather have their PvP served up in instanced, pre-set areas, instead of spontaneous, open world areas.
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