Geoff’s Games Of The Year 2008

I’m going to be in Steamboat Springs and Australia starting at the end of the week, so I’m getting all of the game of the year nonsense out of the way before I go.  I’ve always found the idea of anointing one game “the best” of its peers to be subjectively absurd at best and downright flamebait at worst.  So why am I doing it?  It’s entertaining and I think it’s worthy of debate, if not resolution.

So herewith, my games of the year, for each console which I own.

XBox 360:
1.) Fallout 3
2.) Left 4 Dead
3.) Dead Space

I spent some time wondering if I had my finger on the scales, because each of these games is one I’ve started playing only in the last few months.  But that is when the masterpieces tend to get released.  There was a lot of white space between Fallout and the other contenders; Fallout is just a beautifully realized creation that keeps, shockingly, the Fallout ethic and world intact while transporting it into an Oblivion-styled RPG landscape.  I’ve played it obsessively and still feel like I haven’t brushed the surface.  Its world didn’t grab me like Bioshock did, but I’m finding myself honestly intrigued by the characters and quests in a way that I haven’t all year. 

Left 4 Dead is another time sink that grabs me mostly because it’s conceptually brilliant and one of the best multiplayer games I’ve played despite not really innovating much in gameplay mechanics.  Dead Space was a serviceable horror game, but it suffered from the “surprise!” problem inherent in many horror games/films that try to put in gotcha moments instead of building up a steady feel of dread (a hackneyed, terribly written plot didn’t help either).  It did have a great concept in the evisceration mechanic, but in practice, it was often much like a regular FPS with tougher enemies.  GTA is notably absent from my list because, despite critical acclaim, I thought it was crap.

A game I didn’t Play: Fable II, Prince of Persia, CoD 5

PSP
1. God of War: COO
2. Patapon
3. ???

Slim pickings on the handhelds this year, but GoW managed to hold my attention obsessively for a few weeks.  It got everything about the franchise right in a surprisingly small package, for which alone it probably deserves this.  Patapon was fascinating, but often extremely tough, and it became repetitive after many plays - leading me to leave it partially unfinished.  I have no #3, because frankly, I didn’t play much PSP this year.

Wii
1. Mega Man 9
2. Super Smash Brothers Brawl
3. de Blob

You can detect a hardcore slant to my picks, perhaps no more evidently than in this category.  Mega Man 9 embodied everything I love about Nintendo and Nintendo products and franchises.  It was an appropriately challenging voyage back to nostalgia and managed to be a great game at the same time.  Classic but updated, the enemies were almost all great, it had a traditional Dr. Wily story, the platforming was truly well thought-out, and it almost erased the taste of the recent Mega Man games from my mouth.

SSBB was typical for the franchise but, perhaps due to its familiarity, failed to hold my attention as long.  And de Blob is perhaps too new to really impact me (especially with my back catalogue at the moment) but I highly recommend it.

DS

1. Order of Ecclesia
2. Professor Layton
3. Ninja Gaiden

This may be just a personal preference for Castlevania games, but i found OoE to be a refreshing change of pace from Dawn of Sorrow-style DS games.  It felt like it blended old-school Castlevania with the SotN aesthetic more cleanly and effectively than its predecessors without losing a lot of the charm and style that came with them.

The runners-up were both bold experiments but their presence here is more reflective of a general handheld weakness this year than their own strong virtues.  However, I’d recommend either to friends; my only complaint about Layton is that if you don’t like the storyline wrapper, you’re probably not going to be able to stomach the whole game itself.

Overall, I’ll give the nod to Fallout for the best game overall.  I’m leaving off the PC, because I didn’t play it enough, and the PS3, because I don’t own it.  Jeff, any thoughts on those?