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• John’s Games of 2008: Year of the Open World

  The strange thing about the way we delineate time is that repetition — twelve hours, seven days, twelve months, rinse, wash, repeat — tends to make everything feel cyclical. Come January, we stare forward, looking at the flow of hours to weeks like a one-way street full of fresh landmarks, memories, and conversations. But when we end up back at December, there’s a collective and pervasive sense of déjà vu, an overwhelming feeling that we’re suddenly back in the exact same shoes we were the last time it was December, and we take stock of everything we saw upon that fresh stretch of road as though we’ve come back to the start. We weigh the fruits of time’s passage and immediately compare them to what came before. Maybe that’s why those of us so obsessed with pop culture, who worship at the altar of creation and consumption, gravitate towards retrospective lists; we just can’t seem to help looking back right before we look forward again. I’ve had a lot of trouble figuring out just how to quantify the videogames of 2008, wrestling back and forth with just what to say. There are games that, by the end of my time with them, I downright loathed, that I never wanted to play again, but that I couldn’t shake out of my brain thanks to one aspect of their design. I never managed to finish Grand Theft Auto IV because I was so repulsed by its schizophrenic depiction of character when it put so much emphasis on story (and more on that later.) GTAIV’s Liberty City, though, is something I still think about on an almost daily basis. It is one of the most beautiful and strange creations I’ve ever seen, something more than a photograph, sculpture or film thanks to the way you are allowed to inhabit it. The game’s goals are frustrating to achieve, its characters more personality than people, and its story is at odds with its interactivity. But its world is astounding, just real enough to be familiar, and just other enough to warrant exploring it when its real world inspiration is right outside your door. I hated Grand Theft Auto IV by the time I stopped playing it, but I have to bring it up here because 2008 was the year of the Open World for me. Read More... Posted Dec 16 2008, 07:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, grand theft auto iv, no more heroes, burnout paradise, far cry 2, crackdown, top ten of 2008, mercenaries, elder scrolls, best of 2008

• Joe’s Top Ten Games of 2008 – Special Jury Prizes

  The official mandate has come down from the top, as you have seen—that it is December, and we all write about games, so we all have to pick some arbitrary number of them that we enjoyed above all others this year. This is an arduous task that we have all figured out ways to cheat at, and I am no different. Though I will pick ten games, exactly, and present them in order from #10 to the best game of the year, I will not be starting that list today. Instead, here are my special jury prizes for the year. These games would have made it into my top twenty. They all did one or two things pretty well, and many deserve more recognition than they ended up getting.   Best Games to get Your Girlfriend to Play Games – Wii Fit and Echochrome: A tie here, for two otherwise incomparable games. Wii Fit is an obvious one, as it has been specifically targeted at women and is barely a game at all—it’s really just a charmingly presented tool. Echochrome is much more interesting, because it’s a gamer’s game through and through. Despite being maybe the most abstract game released this year, it’s actually surprisingly easy to get the layperson to understand it—“the M.C. Escher game” is a fully illuminating description that almost anyone is at least intrigued by. That both of these games were technically ambitious (Wii Fit in hardware, Echochrome in software) is not a coincidence, as this is the kind of lateral thinking that grows the scope of the medium. Read More... Posted Dec 10 2008, 04:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: wii fit, dynasty warriors, echochrome, yakuza 2, joe keiser, top ten of 2008, top 10, viking

• Derrick's Top 13 Games of 2008 - Part 2

  Missed part 1? Click here! 9 - Space Invaders Extreme (DS/PSP): One of the most iconic arcade games of all time crossed its 30th anniversary this year, and to celebrate they reinvented the whole damn thing. We've seen this before, but Space Invaders Extreme was different. How? It was flippin' awesome this time. Bright colors and flashing lights, sound effects that sync with the club-ready music, new power-ups and new aggressive enemies, Space Invaders Extreme turned the arcade classic into an underground rave of interplanetary destruction. And, as I already said, its flippin' awesome. I prefer the DS version, but both are great, and for the bargain price of $19.99 there's really no reason not to pick up this addictive portable reimagining. Read More... Posted Dec 10 2008, 01:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: boom blox, nintendo ds, derrick sanskrit, wii, psp, space invaders extreme, space invaders, iphone, newtonica, top ten of 2008, top 10, professor layton

• My Top 10 of 2008 in No Particular Order: Braid

  It's the end of another year, and that can only mean one thing: it's list season. Inevitably, you're going to see top ten lists by the thousands; and, as an official member of the enthusiast press, I'm afraid I can't violate my directive. But, to make things a little more interesting, I've decided to assemble my 10 favorite games of this year in non-hierarchical form because--let's face facts--it's hard to pick a favorite. And unlike other top 10 lists, this one will be doled out to you in piecemeal over the next several excruciating days! Please enjoy. As far as downloadable games go, Braid was a pretty big deal; I don't think a day in August went by without me reading several blog posts by people caught up in creator Jonathan Blow's amazing world--oh yeah, except for those days in August when Braid wasn't out.  Nevertheless, there's really nothing else on XBox Live Arcade--or any other platform, really--that's like Braid; though its originality would be irrelevant if the game played like crap.  Luckily, Blow's deconstruction of the platformer is an immaculately-design work of genius, a mechanical, visual, and aural delight from start to finish.  And somehow, even with my embarrassingly poor competence at video game puzzle logic, I stuck through to the game's mindblowing ending. Please stop me if you can't take all of the well-deserved hyperbole. Read More... Posted Dec 09 2008, 08:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: xbox 360, top ten, braid, bob mackey, xbox live arcade, jonathan blow, top ten of 2008

• Derrick's Top 13 Games of 2008 - Part 1

  Yes, it's that most wonderful time of the year, when we make our lists and check them twice. As Bob and Cole have already pointed out, annual Top 10 game lists are popping up all over the place. I started organizing my own list over a month ago and had a very hard time leaving a few games out (come on, it was a pretty damn good year for games), and since thirteen has been my lucky number since the third grade I am now proud to present my own personal Top 13 Games of 2008, brought to you in three managable installments. Hopefully there'll be a little something for everyone. Let's get this party started: 13 - rRootage (iPhone/iPod Touch, ported from PC): You know what I always loved about the classic top-down shooters? Those huge, insane, too-many-flying-objects-on-screen-at-once boss fights. Wouldn't it be great if someone made a game that was just that? Oh, and if it were portable - fit right in my pocket. And it would be so sweet if I could play it with just one or two fingers and listen to whatever music I wanted to while I played. Yeah, that sure would be a dream. Oh wait... somebody made that game? And it's free? Woah... Read More... Posted Dec 09 2008, 01:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo ds, derrick sanskrit, no more heroes, wii, top ten, wii fit, ace attorney, iphone, goichi suda, top ten of 2008, 2008, rRootage

• My Top 10 of 2008 in No Particular Order: Audiosurf

  It's the end of another year, and that can only mean one thing: it's list season. Inevitably, you're going to see top ten lists by the thousands; and, as an official member of the enthusiast press, I'm afraid I can't violate my directive. But, to make things a little more interesting, I've decided to assemble my 10 favorite games of this year in non-hierarchical form because--let's face facts--it's hard to pick a favorite.  And unlike other top 10 lists, this one will be doled out to you in piecemeal over the next ten excruciating days!  Please enjoy. So, what is there to say about Audiosurf? Unfortunately, I already wrote extensively about the game for a former blogging gig, and since part of my bridge-burning policy involves insulting all of my former employers, I'm going to go ahead and call that website awful. But, as an entertainment writer, it's my job to be repetitive. My job. My Job. Repetitiveness is my job. So I must solider on by informing you of how amazing Audiosurf is--as if you didn't know. Read More... Posted Dec 08 2008, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: music, top ten, guitar hero, rock band, bob mackey, top ten of 2008