Bionic Commando Rearmed

This post relates to: Gears of War 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 3, Fable II, Left 4 Dead, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Guitar Hero World Tour, Mario Kart Wii, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

10. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 - Almost forgot this one but having not played the first one I loved the tactical play and multiplayer is so fast paced.
9. Mario Kart Wii - ok so this isnt the greatest game ever made but it has brought me and my girlfriend hours of friendly competition
8. Guitar Hero World Tour - A great music game and a brilliant party starter plus the hardware is great
7. Bionic Commando Rearmed - This downloadable game really gave me an insight into the teams love of this classic and the production value is brilliant
6.  Star Wars TFU - Right I dont think this will make it into anyones top 10 list but I was waiting for this game for ages and I struggle to be dissapointed by the force and lightsabers
5. Left 4 Dead -  I havnt actually picked this game up yet but me and my friends have had some great times with the demo and I will pick it up soon
4. Fable 2 - The charm of this game really won me over and I found myself telling my friends about all my fun experiences with this game
3. Grant Theft Auto 4 - I have never enjoyed the wackiness of GTA and this game really brought it down to earth making all the changes I wanted... Genetically Different
2. Fallout 3 - POST APOCOLYPTIC FUTURE version of Oblivion well that won me over and the whole scope of the game makes it just brilliant
1. Gears of War 2 - This is the first game to really make me say WOW! in a long time everybody knew what was coming but when it finally did it was better than i could have imagined.

Right so this list may seem wierd but to be honest I havnt played MGS4 or little big planet two games i would have loved to play but I lacked a PS3 to do so. This may mean my list is a bit odd without dead space or Banjo but I have really loved these games and they will go down as my 2008.

This post relates to: PAIN, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Warhawk, Did you buy any downloadable content this year?

Of course check the links but there was more but I don't remember them *hehe* Like tons of stuff from the Nintendo Store... damn.. Punch Out, Legend oF Zelda and yeah you know so many stuff from Nintendo that I frankly have no clue what's on my machine right now..

This post relates to: Valkyria Chronicles, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Fallout 3, Infinite Undiscovery, Ninja Gaiden II, God of War: Chains of Olympus, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Battlefield: Bad Company, Rez HD, Too Human, Burnout Paradise, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One, Fable II, Resistance 2, Gears of War 2, Prince of Persia , Dead Space, Mega Man 9, LittleBigPlanet, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, Grand Theft Auto IV, Ikaruga, Far Cry 2, Sonic Unleashed, Left 4 Dead, Echochrome, Devil May Cry 4, Castle Crashers, Saints Row 2, Mirror's Edge, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise , PixelJunk Eden, Call of Duty: World at War, Soul Calibur IV, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Wii Fit, Braid, Rock Band 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Guitar Hero World Tour, Condemned 2: Bloodshot

Let's get this out of the way right up front: 2007 was an absolutely incredible year for games. I think 2008 may very well have topped it. Say whatever you want about 1998, I think these last two years have been the best two in gaming history.

The following list of games was taken from Giant Bomb's voting form for GOTY 2008. I've included everything I played, even if I only played a demo or played it for a few seconds. Here, in brief, is what I thought of these games:

Condemned 2

I was a HUGE fan of the first game, playing it through completely 3 or 4 times at least. The second Condemned didn't immediately grab me like the original did. I've played the first level and most of the second and I just don't like it as much. I still fully intend to play through it and I may love it when I do, but the fact is that for most of the time the game is just a black screen, often literally. It's not a world I want to be in and while I realise that is exactly the point, I'm just not having fun.

Guitar Hero World Tour

I have been the single biggest advocate of the Guitar Hero series including having the rare, maybe unique opinion that Guitar Hero 3 is the best music game so far. I still LIKE Guitar Hero WT, just nowhere near as much. The new guitar is fantastic and the guitar gameplay is mostly improved, though the touch pad is worthless at best and intrusive at worst. The purple notes are okay but they are overused. I'd rather have seen them ONLY used for trills and actual slide parts, instead of just any random solo, since outside of stuff you need to tap they just get in the way and make it harder to hit easy stuff. The new hold note mechanic is great where it's used, making really easy bits that much more interesting to play. My drum kit doesn't work and Kmart wouldn't take it back, even though Activision said they would. I'm going to have to buy a Rock Band 360 kit just for this game and honestly, I'd rather just not play the drums. Too much hardware hassle. This initial hardware problem coloured my entire impression on GHWT as an overall really sloppy product. The bass is improved vastly by the addition of the open note. The singing is functional mostly but again it just seems really messy compared to Rock band (RB2, espcially). The cheering crowd and freeform singing parts are absolutely worthless and add less to the song than just leaving those sections blank would have. Instrument specifics aside, the overall package - The achievements are a disappointing list, with nothing for 5 starring expert. That's really weak. Maybe a blessing though, since Satch Boogie is the single dumbest thing I have ever seen, in a video game or otherwise. Congratulations on finally having difficulty achievements stack. I'd have 1000 in GH3 if that had been there in that game. The tracklist is fine, with a few real stand out tracks in Scream Aim fire and the two Ozzy Osbourne songs, but overall it lacks the personality I found in the GH2, 3 and Rock Band 1 setlists. This may just be because of the literally hundreds of songs available in music games now having kind of worn down anything that made a song being picked a special thing. I really wish GH had stayed as just a guitar game, because honestly I think the same game with only that one instrument may have been a better game. I still play a lot of it, don't get me wrong, but it seems that my interest in music games has peaked and is on the decline. That sentence shocks me more than anyone, because I put maybe 1000 hours into GH3.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

I already wrote about this - Played it through 3 times in a row. Liked it more than I expected. Not a brilliant game, but just kept me interested for some reason.

Braid

Absolutely loved it. Played it through a bunch of times and then went back and got my last 15 points for the 45 minute speedrun. The comparison has been made to Portal and I think it's very nearly up to that high standard. I may be alone in this but the "story stuff" between worlds was probably the best writing in any game and probably doubled the impact of the game for me. That's saying a lot, too, seeing how good the puzzles were. Anyone with a 360 and a Live connection who doesn't own Braid is doing themselves an enormous disservice. Complain about the 1200 point price all you want, the game is worth more than twice that and you're making yourself look like an idiot.

Rock Band 2

I just wrote an enormous paragraph about a music game and I'm not going to do it again. All of the instruments actually work in this game, apart from gallops on the guitar for whatever reason. Also, one bad addition, the hammer on chords DO NOT WORK. EVER. Guitar is worse than GH, Drums and Vocals are infinitely better. Again, only a few songs on the disc setlist I really love, but there are over 500 songs in the game now, including some of my all time favourites (Sorrow, Toxicity) since I buy ALL DLC. You heard me, every single song. Which reminds me, the DLC in GHWT is pretty much all garbage apart from the free ones (Anything and Electro Rock) which are actually two of the game's best songs. Rock Band 2 is a very good game with a great if flawed set of modes. What happened to the single player setlist? There is no excuse for removing it. The single player World Tour and the challenges are very impressive, though.

Wii Fit

I played Wii Fit at a friend's house for about an hour. Like I assumed, this is not a game and I want no further part in it. I hate Nintendo so much for the Wii. You have no idea.

Geometry Wars 2

The original was brilliant and this is too. It's changed enough to not make the original obsolete, unlike at least two games on this list (Rock Band 2, Viva Pinata TIP). The new modes didn't all click with me, but the ones that did made the game more than worth the asking price. Pacifism. So good. I hadn't had a friend's list highscore battle since... ever, so it was great to have it there. I never finished Sequence.

Soul Calibur 4

I loved SC2 back on the Xbox, barely touched 3, barely touched 4. There's just no substance to them at all. I did love DOA4, but I am about ready to completely give up on fighting games. I was really excited before this game's release but now that I have it I just don't care at all. I can't see myself going back to it.

COD World at War

I'm playing on Normal and the game is slaughtering me. I keep getting angry enough and turning it off. Keifer Sutherland helps, but I just don't like the game much. That may change once I get further in.

Pixeljunk Eden

I don't get it. Next.

Viva Pinata 2

I wrote about this at length. Loved it. It didn't quite strike me in the way the original did, but there's no disputing it's a much better game. EXACTLY the sequel I was waiting for.

Mirror’s Edge

I liked it. A lot. A huge lot. The main complaint I see people make is that the shooting sucks. Don't shoot, then. There's an achievement for getting through it without shooting, so obviously you can. I got that achievement on my first run through the game and LOVED it. For the most part the jumping worked fine, too. Bonus points for having a credits song called "Still Alive".

Saints Row 2

When the first Saints Row came out, I didn't even intend to buy it. I played the demo and realised it wasn't just some GTA knock off, went to EB the next day and bought it. I think the original game was better than GTA 3, VC or SA. You heard me. Saints Row 2 improves on some of the first game's annoyances, doing away with the extremely hard last two levels of each activity and adding more different ones. Granted, most of the new ones are awful, but you don't have to do them for too long so they never get game destroying. GTA caught up this year, though, and that cover mechanic was sorely missed in SR2. I'm not going to say which of the two games (SR2, GTA4) I think is better, I think they're different enough that you should play both. Had a lot of fun with the story in this one, too. SR2 was an unfortunate victim of this year's amazing release schedule. Criminally overlooked.

Castle Crashers

I just... don't like it. Sorry, I don't. I got about 3 hours in and just gave up. Scrolling beat-em-ups work because they take like half an hour to beat. Too long, too repetitive, too much level grinding. No fun. I appreciate the art and character design, I just think the gameplay is awful.

Devil May Cry 4

Barely touched this one so far. I've watched the intro 20 minute-odd cutscene and the game appears to still be over the top and ridiculous. That's all well and good. I hope to enjoy this after I beat DMC3 (Should I buy 1 and 2? Yes I know everyone hates 2. Why?)

Echochrome

One of the best game concepts out there. Gameplay? I'm afraid it doesn't quite live up to it. A lot of things that should work flat out don't. No consistency at all. This destroys the whole idea of the game and left me pretty disappointed. Worth a play with and probably worth the $10 but not the game I was hoping for.

Left 4 Dead

I love zombies. The concept of a zombie apocalypse may very well be my single favourite thing. Left 4 Dead takes this amazing concept and makes it into an absolutely astounding game. I can not imagine a better zombie game (except maybe one ten times as long as this...) Left 4 dead is a very serious contender for my game of the year and if it had twice as many campaigns it wouldn't even be a contest.

Sonic Unleashed

I've played the demo through a few times and I sort of like it. Sort of. I'm torn over whether to buy the full game or not. Those werehog levels are the real worry for me. That and the downright abysmal reviews.

FarCry 2

I had no idea it was open world before I bought it. I was kind of disappointed. There's something to be said for a great looking linear FPS I can play through once and never look at again. Certainly not BAD, just not the game I wanted. Might not finish this one for ages.

Ikaruga

This is the Dreamcast game I loved but with achievements. Sure, most of them are near impossible, but I did get the A (S?) rank one for the first level. An excellent addition to the XBLA. Being able to watch leaderboard videos is a brilliant addition.

Motorstorm 2

I played the first Motorstorm for about 6 hours before deciding I absolutely hated it. Great premise, driving and crashing, not so good. I downloaded the demo for Motorstorm 2, fully ready to buy the game if a few small changes had been made. They had not. I did not. I don't like it at all.

GTA4

Giant Bomb's GOTY 2008. I liked it a lot. Probably not my game of the year, but very very good. The best GTA by an absolute landslide. Some minor annoyances (phone calls, driving to the 3 leaf clover mission 20 times or more) made up for by a very well written VERY well acted story which genuinely kept my interest for the full 30 hours it took to beat. While I didn't have the same emotional reaction Jeff and the restof the GB crew did to the game, that's a very personal thing. I don't really have to say any more than that - you all played it. You know why it's as good as it is.

Mercenaries 2

Bought mostly on the hype from right here at Giant Bomb. I never played Mercs 1. I enjoyed Mercs 2, which I did finish, but only after I turned off the sound. The game is not as funny as it thinks it is and I just don't care about the story. A complete mess of a game, but I ended up liking it more than the GB guys did, which seems a bit ironic.

LittleBigPlanet

I played a Silent Hill inspired level the other night which was one of the best things I have ever seen anyone do with anything. I've spent a long time with a friend on a blank creation screen making rockets and windmills and golf ball machineguns and... The creation aspects of this game are excellent. The character design on Sackboy and his available costumes are great, too. The music is good and very fitting. I am not liking the single player missions much at all. It's a fantastic toolset and every now and then something brilliant will be made from it. I don't want to talk mess about it but it's not even close to game of the year material.

Mega Man 9

A weird one. I love the concept of the game and I think they executed it flawlessly. I love the sense of satisfaction I got from finally beating those first 8 bosses after hoooours of thinking I'd never beat a second one. I can't beat the wily castle levels and I don't think I ever will. I wish I was one of the crazy people who could beat this game in an hour etc for the ridiculous achievements, but I will never be at that level - I didn't play the old megaman games at all - this is the first one I've ever played for more than about 5 minutes. I love that it exists.

Dead Space

Fantastic atmosphere. With a set of headphones and the lights off, intensely scary. I loved the first level, died in a room with about 8 creatures all at once near the start of level 2 and turned it off in disgust. I am likely to enjoy it a whole lot.

Prince of Persia

A great looking game. The dialog is idiotic for the most part but I enjoyed the platforming enough to let it slide. The game flat out refuses to kill you - to the point that it feels like it's apologising any time you do something wrong. It's also very forgiving with timing and aiming of jumps. Basically if the game has any idea at all what you were trying to do, it will give it to you. I loved the Sands of Time trilogy - all three games - and I thought they improved each time. Prince of Persia (which could have benifited greatly for a subtitle of any sort) is not as good as those games, but I still liked it very very much. They changed enough to make it feel completely different and, outside of a few steps backwards from Two Thrones (fighting is trash, but mostly avoidable, pole jumping had a feature removed, but had one added also) is a fantastic game all around and is a very promising start to a new series. I don't want to spoil anything about the end, so I won't say what I want to about that. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss it. I certainly do.

Resistance 2

Untouched. I'm working through the original first, a pretty okay shooter which is way WAY too long.

Gears of War 2

I can confirm that this is the second Gears of War game. Plays very similarly but without a completely worthless driving part to spoil the overall quality of the game (the tank part included is preeeeetty good). The story has a lot more impact this time around, with some things going very poorly for characters we've grown to like. Without wanting to spoil it, I think they took a weak route with one part and they should have switched Tai with Baird. Excellent game but for some reason I feel less compelled to replay it than I was with Gears 1, which I finished at least 4 times. Also I find myself, having done the 50 waves of the excellent Horde, completely uninterested in the multiplayer.

Fable 2

It's fine, but it's not as good as everyone seems to think. Story opens very strongly but from there on in I think it's a mess. Nowhere near the impact of the first Fable's story for me. The jobs and pub games are worthless. The dog is a good addition. Molyneux lied about the fighting, surprise surprise. I don't have all that much to say. It's not BAD, but it's nowhere near the level of quality everyone thinks it is. It's a 7/10.

Penny Arcade

With no admiration for turn based RPGs and no real intention to play it I bought this obscenely priced game because I love Penny Arcade. I bought Episode 2 as well. The first 5 minutes of the first one got me laughing and that's really all that counts here.

Banjo Kazooie 3

Barely touched. I never played the originals but I'm kind of excited to get into this. Brad has sold me on it completely.

Bionic Commando Rearmed

I've played a level or two, I loved the first boss fight but I just can't get used the the swinging mechanic. The time trials are infuriating.

Burnout Paradise

Oh boy. I spent a full 70 hours in Burnout Paradise, after loving 3 and hating Revenge. I 100%ed the game. All billboards, all jumps, all races and licenses, all fences, all roads ruled, 100%. Achievement Unlocked - Criterion Elite. If I could put up with convincing people to work together I'd have done all of the challenges as well. I love those things but I just got so sick of kicking worthless players out. Want to see some crazy talk? Here it is.

BURNOUT PARADISE - SHAUNAGE'S GAME OF THE YEAR 2008

Too Human

Trash. I've talked about this at length. One of the worst games I have ever finished.

Rez HD

Playing this game with at least one controller acting as a trance vibrator, in this case strapped to my chest, is one of the weirdest gaming experiences of my life. I got stuck on about the third boss, which is a shame because I was really enjoying it.

Battlefield Bad Company

Another very serious candidate for GOTY. I believe I posted about this already.

SSBB

It's not a good game. At all. You people are insane. I want my money back, I got really excited for this one.

SSF2THD Remix

I still don't like Street Fighter. The 360 controller doesn't help.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2

This was 2008? I think I wrote about it already, incase I didn't, I thought it was very good, significantly better than the original. Don't care about multiplayer.

God of War: Chains of Olympus

Played for about 10 seconds. I want a PSP now.

Ninja Gaiden 2

I think people were very unfair to this game. It's excellent. In all fairness I'm only 2 levels in. It's still harder than I'd like.

Infinite Undiscovery

I don't play many JRPGs and I finish even less than that. I'm right at the start of the second disk and apart from one idiotic part near the start having to charm animal into unlocking a door for me, I've really been enjoying it. I will finish this one. I like it a lot more than most people but then I only seem to like bad RPGs.

Fallout 3

I loved the intro, got out into what pretends to be a fully open world only to be routed through tunnels by very linear piles of garbage blocking paths in towns, pot really angry at how much of a hard time the fighting was giving me and gave up. I then played a bunch of side missions on a friend's near complete save file and absolutely loved it. I can't wait to start this properly. People have said this is Oblivion with guns as a negative. Those people are crazy because for one that's not a negative thing and for two that's not what the game is at all.

Tomb Raider Underworld

Here is how Tomb Raider has gone so far: 1 - excellent, near flawless, one of the best games of all time, 2-5 - huge disappointments, all completely missing the point of the first game, 6 - borderline unplayable, appalingly bad, 7-8 - an amazing return to form, some of my favourite 360 games. So here we come to Tomb Raider Underworld. Tomb Raider NINE. I'm over halfway through and I'm starting to form an opinion, which may change based on the story's end. The game isn't so much "get from A-B" as much as it is working with large area puzzles, which I suppose has always sort of been the case, but it's a lot more prominent this time around. The gameplay physics and controls have somehow gotten significantly worse that Legend and Anniversary, which is a real shame. I'm not enjoying it as much as those games, but it's a long way from being bad. Carrie 1000ed this. I probably won't, though I did the last two.

Metal Gear Solid 4

I played the first... maybe 30 minutes. I need desperately to finish 1, 2 and 3 to get into this.

Valkyria Chronicles

Looks very very nice - not my sort of game at all.

This post relates to: , Condemned 2: Bloodshot, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Braid, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Fable II, Gears of War 2, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Grand Theft Auto IV, Dead Space

This is one of the first years that I felt completely overwhelmed in terms of finding time to play the games I wanted. It might be due to the fact that I still had leftovers from 2007 or maybe was just that there were so many excellent, long games out this year. While I tried to get to the credits on everything, I still have a stack of 2008's finest that I need to complete. It's a pretty safe bet that every game on this list is something I could not put down until I had finished it. It's true that I believe even bad games have moments of brilliance and should not be totally dismissed, but that doesn't mean all games are equal. The items that made my list this year each did an amazing job keeping me entertained until the end.

10. Condemned 2: Bloodshot
I'm not really into ridiculously violent games and I don't enjoy being gross for the sake of being gross. That said, I become totally immersed in the gritty, jagged world of Condemned 2: Bloodshot. I think the most fun aspect was that the main character, Ethan Thomas, had become such an integrated part of this dark and terrible place. Playing through as somebody so filled with rage in a world that was all about rage felt right. I got the sense that in order to survive this place I had to play by its rules, and that meant Ethan wasn't about to sit and talk things out. The physical combat was about as visceral and painful-looking as I would care to see, but it also made every encounter that much more memorable.

9. Fable II
I really liked the original Fable, but there were very particular things that I thought could have been handled better. Luckily for me, Lionhead addressed almost every issue I had with the original in its sequel, Fable 2. The combat, choices, and story progression were all refined to give players the most enjoyment out of the rich world of Albion. I found the dark humor to be one of the most captivating things about the game, and was always amused by the small twists and tweaks that gave the storybook setting some real bite.

8. Bionic Commando Rearmed
This was probably my most anticipated game of the year and it absolutely delivered. Everything about the remake was so perfect that it seemed to please all of us Bionic Commando fans, and that is no small feat. The great remixed music, the visuals and the small but thoughtful additions all contribute to making this the new high-water mark for a classic revival.

7. Street Fighter II Turbo  HD Remix
The online competition in Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix had my blood pumping harder than any other game this year. It's been a long time since I found myself swearing at other players, with the headset muted of course, over matches that were just too close to call. I'm definitely not the greatest Street Fighter player out there, but getting back into HD Remix not only reminded me why I spent so many hours playing SFII, but also made we want to do it all over again. Now that's crazy.

6. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
The thing I liked most about Nuts & Bolts was the ability to create vehicles that had to perform a very particular task. Many games allow you to create content, but not all of them give you such a creative and satisfying payoff for your troubles. The unlockable upgrades and ability to view the insane creations of other users kept me chasing Jiggies for more hours than I care to admit.

5. Braid
Braid was one of the most memorable game experiences for me in 2008. The game was set up in a way that really kept you using your brain, while actually giving you some fun gameplay. The unfolding narrative had you continuously trying to guess how things were fitting together in the story while also trying to wrap your head around devilish puzzles. Braid is one of those games that everybody should at least try, as there's really nothing else like it.

4. Gears of War 2
If you were to ask me what I wanted from a new Gears of War game it would simply be more Gears of War. Gears of War 2 took everything I liked about the original and added an actual, cohesive narrative to the experience. The story fleshes out the fiction in a way that makes me interested in how this whole conflict is going to resolve. The storytelling is also done in a way that wraps around the gameplay so that you're constantly completing small objectives that continue to move the story along. Gears 2 is a great example of a game that I could not put down until I had finished it...twice.

3. Metal Gear Solid 4
In terms of presentation, this game has to take the cake. The visuals are some of the best out there and the creative use of the camera makes for some of the most striking scenes to date. It's hard not to think back on the greatest gaming moments of 2008 without MGS4 coming up multiple times. While the standard gameplay has been tweaked enough to make it satisfying and enjoyable, the real fun is going through the more scripted and creative scenarios that are peppered throughout the lengthy title.

2. Grand Theft Auto IV
Life isn't always fair and sometimes we are forced into situations where there is no clear, right answer. Grand Theft Auto IV embraces this and makes for some of the most compelling narrative in any game out there. The world is alive, chaotic and is not going to cut you a break just because you're the main character. While you're playing as Niko you constantly feel like you're trying to move him from a bad situation to a slightly less bad one. The characters you meet along the way are all flawed in their own way, and present plenty of interesting and diverse interactions, that can be both entertaining and moving. The gameplay is the best in the Grand Theft Auto series and the environments have never seemed more alive. I found GTA IV to be one of those games that had so many excellent moments in it that I spent almost as much time talking about it as playing it.

1. Dead Space
I didn't know too much about Dead Space before I actually sat down and played it. Needless to say, I became instantly absorbed, mostly because the entire experience is so damn tight. There's nothing I would change about the game and it's a product that I would have been proud to work on. The satisfying combat, detailed atmosphere and the way the game never took you out of the action all contributed to this one being at the top of my list for 2008. In my humble opinion, this is as close to playing that "perfect" game in 2008 as I was going to come.

Oh, and Burst Limit. THHHHHHHHHTTTTTPPPHTT! Happy New Year!

This post relates to: Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Galaxy, PlayStation Home, Bob Colayco, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Grand Theft Auto IV, Crysis Warhead, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, Sonic the Hedgehog, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Patapon, Braid, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, LittleBigPlanet, You're In the Movies, Left 4 Dead, Louis, Bill, Spore, Rock Band 2, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Battlefield: Bad Company

As you know, the Giant Bomb Golden Anniversary Year-End Awards Extravaganza Spectacular Celebrating 50 Years of Coverage of Excellence in the Fields of Electronic Entertainment and Taxidermy are currently going on, so I decided I'd weigh in with my choices for each of the categories the fine folks at Giant Bomb have set up. I'll spare my reasons why I chose what I chose in order to keep this blog post somewhat short. Well, here we go.

• Best Explosions - Battlefield: Bad Company
• Best Classic Revival - Bionic Commando Rearmed
• Best Multiplayer Game - Rock Band 2
• Best Premise - Spore
• Character(s) I'd Most Like to Party With - Bill and Louis (Left 4 Dead)
• Character Whose Phone Calls I'm Least Likely to Return - The Announcer from You're In The Movies
• Best Debut - LittleBigPlanet
• Most Satisfying Sequel - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
• Best Graphics - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
• Best Use of User-Generated Content - LittleBigPlanet
• Best "Games-As-Art" Game - Braid
• Best Downloadable Game - Bionic Commando Rearmed
• Best PSP Game - Patapon
• Best DS Game - Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
• Best Game I Didn't Play - Professor Layton and the Curious Village
• Soulja Boy Award for Games to Play if You Drink and Get Drunk or Smoke and Get High - Braid
• Take a Break Award - Sonic the Hedgehog
  
• Most Disappointing Game - Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
• Best Xbox 360-Only Game - Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
• Best Playstation 3-Only Game - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
• Best Wii-Only Game - Super Smash Bros. Brawl
• Best PC-Only Game - Crysis Warhead
• Best Multiplatform Game - Grand Theft Auto IV
• Best Product from Someone the Giant Bomb Staff Used to Work With - World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (Bob Colayco)
• "Game" of the Year - Playstation Home
• 2008's 2007 Game of the Year - Super Mario Galaxy
• Game of the Year - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

2008 was definitely a great year for games and I hope 2009 is too. Killzone 2 looks pretty rad. ;)

This post relates to: Bionic Commando Rearmed, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Left 4 Dead, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, God of War: Chains of Olympus, Dead Space, Rez HD, Guitar Hero, Fallout 3, Korg DS-10, Gears of War 2, Braid, BioShock, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Dwayne Forge, Brucie Kibbutz, Grand Theft Auto IV, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, Rock Band, Rock Band, Rock Band 2

So i thought i'd just write my own winners of the Giant Bomb Golden Anniversary Year-End Awards Extravaganza Spectacular Celebrating 50 Years of Coverage of Excellence in the Fields of Electronic Entertainment and Taxidermy.

Best Explosions:

Mercenaries2.  The whole game is based around blowing stuff up so...

Best Classic Revival:

Bionic Commando Rearmed. 

Best Multiplayer Game:

Rock Band2. Most of fun i've ever had with my friends. Also Left4Dead should win here from what i've played ;d

Best Premise:

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. SOVIETS GOING BACK IN TIME AND KILLING EINSTEIN? DOLPHINS WITH LASERS?! PARACHUTING BEARS?! PARACHUTING BEARS. duuuuude!
problem is...i hate real time strategies :x

Character I'd Most Like to Party With:

Brucie Kibbutz. This guy is ALPHA!

Character Whose Phone Calls I'm Least Likely to Return:

Dwayne. He was annoying as hell. Another winner in this category is my own pick...ROMAN BELLIC >_>

Best Debut:

Left4Dead. nuff' said.

Most Satisfying Sequel:

Grand Theft Auto IV. I was pissed at Rockstar after San Andreas but after IV i fell in love with them again.

Best Graphics:

Gears Of War2. Visual are amazing in this game...you definitely can't see that on that screenshot on the left :X

Best Use of User-Generated Content:

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Build your own vehicle and win some races and challenges. Awesome.

Best "Games-As-Art" Game and Best Downloadable Game:

Braid. Amazing game.

Best PSP Game:

God of War: Chains of Olympus. Probably the only playable game on the psp. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!1 j/k. loco roco, patapon and echochrome are awesome too.

Best DS Game:

dunno. i don't have a dual screen unfortunately.

Best Game I Didn't Play (*my own pick*):

Dead Space. I'll buy it next month. Really.

Soulja Boy Award for Games To Play If You Drink And Get Drunk or Smoke And Get High (*my own pick*) :

Braid is probably going to win but srslyyyyyyy...REZ is a pretty weird game when you're playing it sober. but when you get drunk and high it's even more amazing ;D

Take A Break Award:

Guitar Hero.
PLEASE STOP. GUITAR HERO AEROSMITH. GUITAR HERO ON TOUR. GUITAR HERO 2934894823. this is just crazy.

Most Disappointing Game:

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. I was really excited. And then i launched the game.

Best Xbox 360-Only Game:

Gears Of War 2. AWWWWWWWWW COME ON!!!!!!!!!1

Best PlayStation 3-Only Game:

dunno. i don't have a ps3. but the only game i would play on playstation3 is Metal Gear Solid4.

Best Wii-Only Game:

i don't have a wii. and i don't really give a shit.

Best PC-Only Game:

THERE ARE STILL GAMES FOR THE PC?

Best Multiplatform Game:

Fallout3. I hate RPGs. But lately i've playing lots of fallout3. It's fucking amazing so there you go. Best multiplatform game. Broken on the ps3 though, right? ;d

"Game" of the Year:

Korg DS-10. From what i've played on my friends DS this is awesome. Also Korg <3

2008's 2007 Game of the Year:

Bioshock & Call Of Duty 4 & Rock Band. I really can't decide :X

Game of the Year:

Grand Theft Auto IV. Amazing story, fun gameplay and great physics. Also it's a GTA game.

Hottest Chick At This Moment (06:03am):

Zooey Deschanel. She's always hot but whtvr.

This post relates to: , Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Valve Corporation, Steam, Left 4 Dead, Dead Space, The Witcher, Assassin's Creed, World of Goo, Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode Two, Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One, Crysis Warhead, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Spore, Mass Effect

Hey folks, friendly neighbourhood moderator Hamz here with my top ten games of 2008 and end of year review. Before we get into the actual top ten list I think it should be said that 2008 was another cracking year for the video games industry. We all said in 2007 that nothing could beat that year for the number of great games released, but this year seems to have done just that.  We've seen new big hit titles for existing franchises such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto IV. While new and innovative titles were also released such as Mirror's Edge, Braid and World of Goo.

2008 has definitely been a year that had a lot of interesting things happen in it for the video game enthusiasts around the world and the most interesting of all was seeing this website, GiantBomb, launch and flourish into something extraordinary. It has been a pleasure to be a part of the community here and even more so to have been here from the start and see it grow into the positive place that it is now.

So without further ado, here are my top ten games of 2008!

10. Mass Effect (PC)

I used to love Milky Way bars when I was a kid!

A space opera RPG by the acclaimed developer Bioware that was released on the PC in 2008. Mass Effect was a pleasant change to the RPG genre that has become saturated with games that follow the fantasy setting. The futuristic space setting allowed for more vast exploration between planets and locations which for a person like me who often gets feelings of wanderlust was a joy to experience in a game. The vast number of planets and systems you can visit and explore made the atmosphere of the game feel very grand, or for lack of a better word, epic in combination with the plot. Mass Effect's story is one that branches out across a wide area and one that allowed you to encounter multiple unique personalities and races of alien beings. In short I found the game a great experience due to its strong setting and story combined with the real time combat that still kept those core RPG elements. And I don't think I even need to mention the ability to romance and seduce hot alien chicks either.

Some people are hit by the ugly stick, others beaten with it....

9. Spore (PC)

A fantastic example of a game that basically lets you run wild with your imagination. If you ever had dreams as a child and wondered what an elephant crossed with a pigeon and perhaps a shark would look like, then Spore can help you achieve that. Both a financial success and one of the few games that actually achieves the goal it aimed for in the first place I found Spore to be a quirky, fun and utterly unique game to play. Sure some people will say it wasn't that great and is similar to other creations by Will Wright, but I disagree. I say if a game can allow you to make phallus shaped life forms then clearly it’s a winner and one to definitely play.

8. Bionic Commando Rearmed (PC)

A man of action, he likes that...

I never had the pleasure of playing the original NES version of the Bionic Commando game. But when I got my hands on Rearmed I noticed two things. The first being that the soundtrack for this game is just so damn great, and I am a big fan of games with good soundtracks. The second being that there needs to be more 2-D side scrolling shooters released. Honestly I can admit that I haven't played many 2-D side scrolling games but Rearmed was just a fantastic experience and one I am happy to say I paid extra for to play on the PC.

For those outside the UK, he doesn't mean Kermit the Frog!

7. Crysis: Warhead (PC)

The game Crysis should have been in my opinion. Warhead seemed to improve on the areas that were weakest with Crysis such as the multiplayer, the overall performance of the game and the general gameplay itself. It just felt a lot more focused and the protagonist Sergeant Michael 'Psycho' Sykes was a far more entertaining character than the somewhat boring and dull Nomad from Crysis. That and Psycho has a strong resemblance to the British actor Jason Statham of Transporter 1, 2, 3 fame in both visual design and general badass attitude. Overall I just really enjoyed this game a lot more than its predecessor it felt a lot more action packed and focused in its progression of both narrative and gameplay.

6. Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 1 & 2 (PC)

Just one example of the excellent and crude humour in the games!

So I’ve sort of cheated here and included two separate games into the one choice but as a passionate Penny Arcade fan I’m sure you understand I just couldn't pick one without the other. The big draw for me to these games and the main reason I picked them to be on my list is that when I played them it felt like I was actually inside a strip for the popular webcomic, it didn't feel like a game at all. This is in large part due to the art design and visual style that at every moment oozes a comic strip feel to it and when you include the writing style and narrative it becomes even more apparent this is definitely a Penny Arcade game. For those unfamiliar with the popular webcomic the game still appeals as a fun, quirky adventure game set in a steam punk era that has a combat system that’s both simple yet challenging. There is also the fact no other game uses swearing in such an elegant style either. The humour is crude and in some cases infantile but that’s why it’s so damn fun to play this game. If there is anything I have learnt from this game it’s that the study of urine should seriously be considered and that monkey fights are both cool and awesome no matter the circumstances. Oh and hobos are nasty people!

The puzzle solving and physics are good fun.

5. World of Goo (PC)

• A small independent developer, 2D Boy, created this epic masterpiece of a game. A simple yet highly addictive game that I think a lot of people looked at and passed on playing but a game they really should have played. World of Goo is that sort of addictive puzzle game that you both love and hate because it’s easy to lose hours of your life while playing it when you probably should be doing other more important things yet at the same time it’s just such a good game you can't stop playing it. Cartoony visuals, great physics system and well thought out level design make this a brilliant yet somewhat underrated game in my opinion. I don't often find myself attracted to puzzle games but I'm glad I decided to pick this one up; it’s just been such a great amount of fun to play. World of Good proved that you don't need a massive team of developers to create a fun game, and that’s what I think gaming is all about, fun.

 

4. Assassin's Creed (PC)

The size of the cities and draw distance is astounding.

• An unusual choice as a lot of people don't seem to regard Assassin's Creed as that good of a game. But I however do because it had such a great feel and scope to it that not many games have achieved before. It has such a huge beautiful world that feels wholly alive with each individual person in the varied locations you visit seemingly unique and there are hundreds of NPC citizens within the cities all acting independently. That brings me to another reason I enjoyed this game so much, the sheer scale of each of the major cities you visit such as Acre and Jerusalem is astounding. The amount of detail put into the level design is amazing and the draw distances are so good that when standing on the top of a cathedral looking out over the city you can see everything and beyond, it’s just amazing. Another great aspect of Assassin's Creed is the platforming and free roaming available to you. Each city is quite literally a playground for you to explore and adventure in, whether it is climbing up buildings and running along rooftops or carrying out a stealthy kill on an unsuspecting guard only to run into the shocked crowd, that gather around, to make your escape. Assassin's Creed has a great combination of action packed combat, stealth and platforming coupled with the great way it captures the atmosphere of the Holy Land in the 12th century. Overall I think I just really loved pretending to be a medieval Spiderman jumping around buildings before sticking sharp pointy things into unsuspecting guards before tossing their body off a rooftop into the oblivious streets below, who doesn't enjoy doing that in games?

 

Can you believe this game uses the old Aurora Engine?

3. The Witcher Enhanced Edition (PC)

• The Witcher originally was released in 2007 and suffered a number of technical issues such as long load times and performance problems as well as many errors in the English dialogue throughout the game. Thankfully though the Enhanced Edition was released this year as a large free download for those who already owned a copy of the game or as an entirely new retail edition that came with a lot of material found in the Special / Collector's Edition of the original game. The improved and revised script for the dialogue in the game really fixed some of the issues regarding the plot and made the story easier to understand and less of a guessing game. As well as this the graphics were improved upon making visual quality in the game more detailed and all round better looking. And the two greatest improvements granted by the Enhanced Edition were the reduced load times which in the original version were absolutely unbearable taking up to as long as twenty minutes in some cases just to go from the street of a town into a tavern. Thankfully that massive amount of time was reduced making the gameplay more fluid which is great as there are also two extra adventures to play through that are separate to the main campaign. This added content really makes the Enhanced Edition feel worth looking into instead of coming across as a fancy name for a big patch to fix various issues the original released version suffered with. Overall I loved playing through the Witcher in 2007 but the Enhanced Edition made playing through the Witcher feel like a new experience turning what I considered a great RPG into a masterpiece of the genre.

 

2. Dead Space (PC)

Useful information to know, trust me!

Ok so the big horror hit of the year and game that gets praise for turning me into a complete pansy when I played it goes to Dead Space. There were moments where I really did not want to go into the next room or hallway for fear more monsters would try and impale me. And that is why Dead Space is so high on my list, because it had a genuinely terrifying atmosphere to it that kept me on the edge of my seat, with all the lights in the house turned on, in the middle of the day. An engrossing story that always left me with more questions than answers for the most part is also a positive aspect of the game. The feeling of being alone on a spaceship full of creatures with the sole intention of smearing your insides all over the walls along with the somewhat cliché video logs that end abruptly before you get any real information really hit home the phrase "In space, no one can hear you scream" from the popular Alien film series. One feature I really liked about the game was the lack of a traditional HUD. Instead the pertinent information is integrated into your space suit allowing you to see at things like health by just looking at the glowing lights running up the spine of the suit. It really felt more immersive for me to not have the lower half or corners of my screen full of numbers and information. An adrenaline fuelled and truly terrifying experience, but that’s why I loved this game. It made me feel genuine emotions of fear and that’s something hard to find in a game.

You heard the man, no zombie is safe from him!

1. Left 4 Dead (PC)

And my top game of 2008 goes to the survival-horror-coop-orientated-zombie-shooter created by Valve. L4D caught my interest from the moment I heard about it and is possibly one of the few games released this year that actually lived up to my expectations. The premise of the game is very simple, you play as one of four survivors in a city full of infected zombies of varied shape, size and ability and must make make your way to each safe house before finally being rescued at the evacuation point. Sounds pretty easy until you take into account that the AI Director just loves to ruin your day by increasing or decreasing the difficulty and challenge posed by the infected as it monitors your groups progress and skill level. You can usually tell when the AI Director is going to unleash something bad on you due to the use of music as it picks up into a crescendo mere moments before hell is unleashed upon you and your suffering party. This is another amazing aspect to this game the complete focus on providing a great co-operative experience for players. It seems to me that Valve really just wanted to make a game with the sole purpose and goal of having the best co-operative multiplayer experience in a game and then decided they wanted to make it a zombie survival shooter as well.

And for the most part they succeeded at creating a game with an amazing co-op experience. No other game has such dedication to making players rely on their teammates to win as Left 4 Dead does. If you aren't playing with people you know and trust then you are at a serious disadvantage because communication and being able to predict what your fellow players are going to do is to some degree key at surviving the zombie apocalypse. Playing with random players often results in a complete meltdown in communication, organisation and fun with your party wiping out in minutes and everyone being unhappy. The other great thing about this game for me is that it’s a zombie survival shooter that cuts away the often boring and pointless back story explaining why zombies are walking the streets. Zombies are fictitious creatures, we don't need to know why they are in the game, we just need a gun some ammo and a horde of undead to cure, one bullet at a time. Left 4 Dead is for me the best game released this year; it reached my expectations and in some ways surpassed them by emphasising the fact players need to work together to survive. It also taught me that no zombie is safe from Chicago Ted!

Honourable Mentions

This year has been a pretty big year for releases, but 2007 was also a big year for video games. And below are the two biggest of 2007 that I have continued to play on a religious level all throughout 2008.....

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)

The number of people who still complain about this perk shocks me!

Without doubt one of the best FPS games of last year and one of the best online multiplayer shooters ever created. It brought a whole new level of customisation and enjoyment to the online shooter experience and managed to guarantee itself a place in many players hearts for the sheer fun it provided. Whether it was laughing at someone complaining about the Last Stand and Martyrdom perks or playing on a server with hardcore mode enabled. There was a lot of joy to be had with COD4's multiplayer which I continued to play daily from release and throughout this year as well. Also a game with a short but action packed single player that has its own merits for emotional impact, good gunplay and being able to rain death down upon some terrorists from high up inside an AC-130.

Team Fortress 2 (PC)

My Game of the Year choice for 2007 and likely would have been for 2008 had Left 4 Dead not been released. TF2 was an addiction of mine throughout this year because it is in my book the best online shooter created. From a unique visual design to well thought out and quirky classes. Valve has shown that a games success and longevity can be guaranteed if the developer is willing to put in time, effort and dedication to maintaining post release support for their game. Much like Left 4 Dead, TF2 requires players to work together in harmony by supporting one another where their chosen class is weakest. Whether that is a Medic helping heal the Heavy or a Pyro doing a Spy check on everyone passing by an Engineer's structures. Valve took the "lone wolf" mentality of most players who want the glory for themselves and changed it so they become a member of the "pack" and work together to achieve their goals. This year alone TF2 has continually gone from strength to strength with various balance issues and bugs being tweaked while new maps, class updates and game modes are released.  If ever a game could be perfect I think TF2 would be my choice.

PC Gaming in 2008

As a PC gaming enthusiast 2008 has been a rough year for me and those who share a similar passion for playing games on their computers. The controversy over piracy on the platform and the negative, some say lethal, effects it is having seems to have been the biggest topic this year for the platform. And amongst all the negative attitudes, system wars arguments, bad console ports and EA's DRM fiasco one thing has been a shining beacon in the dark for anyone who considers themselves a PC gamer.

Valve's digital delivery service, Steam. Quite possibly the best thing this year has been watching this program evolve from an online store to an online hub of activity. Whether it was anticipating a new deal on a game each weekend or logging in to find a new array of big hit titles from days gone by were now available for purchase. Steam was constantly there to remind me that PC gaming has support, has success and is still a viable and effective gaming platform.

If ever there could be an icon to show the world what defines PC gaming I think Steam would be it. An online store, a form of piracy protection, a community hub and proof that digital delivery is the way forward for game releases. This year saw some, if not most, of the highest anticipated titles released on Steam with many more games for next year also announced as well. And recently it has seen a large contingent of EA's big hit titles announced for release on there as well. A subtle nod perhaps from one of the biggest publishers in the industry that the PC is not a dying platform like so many claim these days. Overall I don't think the PC got a lot of love this year, but hopefully 2009 will bring about change.

Hamz

This post relates to: Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Dead Space, Gears of War 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, Army of Two, Beautiful Katamari

Best monkey smoking a cigarette -  Metal gear solid 4

Most annoying advice giver that gives the same useless advice right up until the final mission - Fiona Mercs 2

Best strings and trumpets and other big noisy instruments to make awesome soundzzzz - Tomb Raider: Underworld

Best use of a pikachu being pikachu and doing generally pikachuish things -  pikachu... Super Smash Brothers Brawl

Most amazing stomping on a body and watching someones head pop off -  Dead Space

Game what is as pretty as a nice pretty french girl in a nice pretty dress looking all pretty - Gears of war 2

Best radiostation to feature bands wot isnt T.A.T.u but sounds like them - Vladivostok FM GTAIV

Favourite uses of the word "Fucko" - Clyde , Army of two

Best Hitler who isn't Hitlers face getting exploded and all that -  Bionic Commando ReArmed

Best Lizard wot gotz stuck vertically in the scenery and then glitched about a bit -  Tomb Raider: Underworld

Best use of the words "FIVE, MOTHERFUCKER!!!" that come from bender in futuramas mouth- Marcus fenix, Gears of war 2

Game what has the best use of Mr. Bones and lions what is liek aslan from narnia -  Beautiful Katamari

Best Game I boight for my 360 that won't run on my console so I had to give it away to a friend  - Bully: scholarship edition