ORIGINAL TOPIC EXTRAVIGANZA! My top 10 games of 2008

Shadow

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10. Tales of Vesperia

Now this was by far the best JRPG of the year. It has a great story, fun combat, and possibly the best example of real character development this year. By the end of the game, you have a clear understanding of exactly who every member of your party is, why they are fighting, and all of their ideals. This game kept me coming back again and again, and would be higher on this list if it weren't for a few key problems.
First: FUCKING FELL ARMS! These are secret(ish) weapons that aren't too powerful initially. When you collect all of them though and fight the final boss, they reveal their true forms and can be used in the next playthrough, adding another aspect of replay value. Cool right? Yeah....except this makes that damn boss resurect and kick your ever loving ass if you haven't spent hours and hours otherwise needlessly grinding.
Second: The achievements are sadistic. Sure there's stuff for story progression and that's fine. You get 500 or so points that way, so it's cool. However, there is stuff that you would have to be insane to do and has to be designed to get achievement whores such as myself, to drive us insane. There have been games with time suck achievements that I have played, but these just get under my skin for some reason. Despite this stupid stupid stuff though, it's still a great game and one I have played for 100 hours and still plan to go back to.

9. Dead Space

I'm not really big into survival horror stuff, mainly because the gameplay in them is usually utter crap and half the scares come from trying to grope the controls in such a way to where you can actually move your guy away from whatever thing is slowly moving toward you. Resident Evil 4 came close falling a little short, but this game really nails it. The sense of environment and general fear that some pile of deformed skin will jump out at you any moment, for once isn't hindered (or aided) by crappy controls. Look, I have never been scared by a game for its duration. By the third level or so, I got into the groove of things and wasn't really being frightened anymore. This game is different from others in that even if you rip that sense of terror away, it turns into a fantastic action/puzzle game, becoming something which more closely resembles a polished take on Prey. The weapons hit hard, the enemies are vicious, the zero-G is fantastic, and this game has two of the best boss fights in the history of video games. There is a great upgrade system, unpredictable story, and is generally fantastic throughout.

8. Fallout 3

Everyone calls this Oblivion with guns. Yeah...so? Oblivion fucking rules! Much like Oblivion, this game has a highly detailed, huge world full of random and awesome crap. Much like Oblivion though, the main quest is not nearly as cool as all the other stuff you can do in this world. From the Dunwich Building, to Oasis, to the experimental MIRV, this game is full of fantastic random stuff that you never even have to touch in order to beat the game. Ever dungeon has its own story and rewards waiting at the end. I particularly enjoyed the talking power armor that yells something along the lines of "time to kick some ass!" every time you're spotted by an enemy. More than that though, is all the stupid stuff that happens just as a result of game glitches and wierd stuff happening with the code that is both unintended, and awesome. Much like Oblivion, a lot of the enjoyment here comes from this sort of thing and fun with the ever-so-slightly glitchy physics in the universe. It's okay because this stuff works highly in the games' favor. Even after 80+ hours of playing the game, I'm still discovering new and awesome stuff as I randomly explore the land op post-apocolyptia as the awesome Three-Dog so elequently puts it. Also...use power fists. They're not the most powerful weapons in the game by any means but turn on bloody mess and use VATS and watch the limbs fly as you pummel your enemies to death.

7. Burnout Paradise

The first good game released this year was inevitably one of its best. I was one of the biggest fans of Burnout Takedown. I was still orbiting the top 100 players in that game before Revenge came out, at which time I repeated the process all over again. This might as well be an entirely new game, which is both awesome and tragic at the same time. The open world is highly detailed, allows for awesome gameplay modes and events, and an infinite number of possible tracks on which to race. The road rule events are a fantastic idea, and it can be fun to just join in a party and explore the city while doing the literally hundreds of challenges the game offers. The lack of structure (to me at least hurts the online. There are challenges, races, road rage (my favorite mode from the other games) but there are too many people content with just driving around the city crashing into each other and while this can be fun, it gets old fast. I don't think I've found more than a few rooms of people who are willing to have interesting races. There is sooooo much potential for this game, only half of which is reached. If Criterion would just take their heads out of their asses and let you wall off areas of the city for custom races or give a fucking restart button, or all the other stuff which would be good despite going against the whole open-world mentality, it would be a better game for it. Although I'm a bit sore about this, the half-potential that this game represents still makes one of the best games this year.

6. Gears of War 2

Oh Gears of War, I don't know what to do about you. Your single player is good, yet your story is not. Your multiplayer is riddled with glitchs and exploits, yet Hoard mode is some of the most fun to be had in anything this year. Man, I just don't know how to feel about this game. The gameplay is solid, fun, and awesome, as are the graphics and sound. The story though...man the story....dude. It's extremely cliche and where it isn't cliche, it's deeply flawed. Okay, spoilers. Take for example the whole Doms' wife thing. There is this scene in the fourth act where he finally finds his wife. She comes out of the pod and at first she looks like the woman Dom falls in love with. Camera cut, and she's tortured, scarred, starved, and beaten to a pulp. So far, one of the most moving scenes in any game. Then Dom comes to the conclusion he has to do a mercy kill. It pains him deeply to slowly take out a COMICALLY HUGE ASS GUN. I mean you can fit her damn head inside the barrel of the gun he's mercifully killer her with. It only gets worse from there. Even if you forget that part of it, Dom is supposed to be depressed and out for revenge right? Well then 2 minutes later after killing the FIRST ENEMY YOU SEE AFTER THAT, he says "so that's what they smell like inside" and I'm just thinking "son of a bitch." That's just how the game goes. Any hint of an emotional resonance and deep thought is overtaken by the general mentality of "LETS KILL SOME SHIT! YYYEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!1111!" Okay rant over. Despite all that stuff though, the story mode, if generally stupid, is a hell of a lot of fun to play through. So is the hoard mode. I mean talk about an ingenious addition. I'll be perfectly frank here. I loved the multiplayer in Gears 1 at first. It was fun and frantic. Then people started finding glitches, which completely ruined it. Gears 2 is enough like the first game to where those same assholes are doing the same damn thing, which results in me not wanting to play against people in this game. Ever. But dude. Hoard mode. Awesome. Every map is a different experience, and it's a ton of fun. Hoard mode is basically why this game is on the list. To me, it makes the game awesome and is the singular reason I will be coming back to Gears 2 throughout 2009.

5. Resistance 2

Front cover of Resistance 2 (US) for PlayStation 3

Here's another game with a traditionally bad single player. Much like Gears, it's fun if you just ignore the story. I for one enjoyed the story, but I realize that there are jerks out there that hated it with a passion. If you are one of those jerks, just...imagine it isn't there. Play through the single player, experience the cool beutiful environments, fun, and frantic gameplay, and just skip the cutscenes or something because there is definately enjoyment to be had here. Once again though, the multiplayer takes precident. But if hoard mode is so awesome, why is Resistance 2 higher on the list? Well if Hoard mode is awesome, Resistance 2 coop is fucking epic. I mean the class-based coop experience here is fantastic, as is the feeling of MMO-style mowing down batallions of enemies at a time with your team of jerks halfway across the world. This game does exactly what Too Human aimed to, but far better, and not even the main part of the game. Then there's the multiplayer. 60 players online.....dude....DUDE. I was thinking the same thing as you originally. Clusterfuck, right? Nope, it's actually done very well with creative use of squads and controlled chaos you have with this thing. It actually gives me hope that maybe MAG won't just be a huge mess once it's finally released. This is an awesome game separated into 3 completely different parts, which revolve around, great gameplay, weapon modeling, controls, sound design, and a lag free enviroment the structure of which I cannot even begin to comprehend. Even if you go by the opinion held by jerks of "THE STORY IS STUPID DDRRRRRRRRRR!" you still have two other solid modes that are by themselves, worth the price of the game.

4. Grand Theft Auto 4

I'll just get this out of the way here: I killed Dwayne and was even though I regretted it later, still think it was the best decision I could have made with what I knew. On the one hand, Playboy X sends you to kill Dwayne. At this point, I was going to kill Playboy because that's fucked up. Then Dwayn reaches the same conclusion and sends you to kill Playboy so I was conflicted with "Okay, which one of these people is the bigger jerk for what they are trying to get me to do?" It came out even really until I realized what Jeff, being an ungrateful jerk, forgets: Playboy X gives you your cool damn phone. Unlike you Jeff, I remember tokens of kindness, and kept that in mind as I killed Dwayne. I did regret that afterwards though, as Playboy just acts like a total ass after you kill his former mentor. You see how this one mission effected me so much? This is why this game is so high on the list, because the entire damn storyline is so expertly told and personal to the point of actually making you care about characters you meet and decisions you make. Here, you also have solid gameplay, the most beutiful open city ever, a totally stylized experience. Here the key to the city contest (which I completed) played a large part in this to the point that I spent literally an entire week straight trying to get everything in that game. On top of that, the multiplayer is a lot of fun as well....as long as you're not just joining a random game. I mean the feeling of having a car chasing you shooting, taking out a grenade, cooking it to just the right time, and droping it out the window so it blows up just as the other car drives over it...fantastic. This is just such a full game with so much to do and unlike past GTA games, it's actually all good. There's no worst basketball game ever, no insanely crappy co-op, or baren wasteland with nothing to do in. It's all very tight, compact, but still expansive and diverse. It's the best GTA game to date, and one of the best games this year.

3. Metal Gear Solid 4

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, North American box art

Now here was my reason for buying a Playstation 3. What this game lacks in options and quality modes, it more than makes up for with what is by far the best story of any game whis year, maybe ever. Here we have fanservice, a long, deep, involving story, and by far the best cutscenes in the history of video games. This is a game that grabs you and doesn't let go for 15 hours. This was one game that I didn't power through because I wanted to finish it, I powered through because I just kept thinking "okay I'll play until after one more cinematic. Okay one more. Alright, last one I swear. Alright now THIS is the last one. Okay, I'm going to bed after this. And then it's time for work. It was immersive, beautiful, polished, and for once in an MGS game, actually fun from a gameplay standpoint. It's fantastic, deeply moving, and is more emotional, involved, and thought provoking in one act, then most great games are throughout their entirety. This is truly al halmak of videogames and needs to be experienced.

2. Super Smash Bros Brawl

Okay. THIS is THE reason to own a Wii, and ironically doesn't use and fashion of motion controls. I loved Melee, and was my reason to own a gamecube. This is that, and exponentially more. This is the oposite of MGS 4 in every way except quality. Where it lacks in a story, it makes up for with the sheer number of options. There is a shit ton to do here, so many collectables to get, trophies or stickers of every character in the history of Nintendo. There are 3 different single player campaign modes, 6 if you count the side ones, and that's not even the main part of the game! The multiplayer has nearly infinite options and goddamn, the cast of playable characters is huge, diverse, and fantastic just how many places they took cool characters from. Still, no Megaman? That just sucks. If Nintendo could just get over their stupid beef with Capcom, that would be amazing. It would allow for so many cool characters, but in the end this game has so much crap otherwise that it doesn't make too much of a difference. And then there's the online. The damn online. Fucking Nintendo has to have a craptacular online system. If it weren't for that, this would move from second best game this year, to best game ever. I won't even get into why it's bad because everything about the online experience is terrible.

1. Ninja Gaiden 2

I know what you're thinking, but I. Love. This. Game. This is far from a perfect game. It has bugs and glitches up the ass, is extremely hard, unforgiving, but damn I love it. This game has the most fluid, brutal combat of any game this year, and the sheer variety of weapons you can use is epic. In the original game, you had the dragon sword...and that was about it. Sure there were other weapons, but they were completely useless. Even with the dragon sword, it was the most deep combat system of any non-fighting game out there. This is that, but with more weapons, actually USEFUL projectiles. The cutscenes suck, the story is garbage, the game lags to hell, and the bosses are cheap. But damn. DAMN. The stuff you can do is badass the whole way through. There's an awesome combo system, dismemberment, and all of the weapons can be useful in any situation....except the tonfas....the tonfas are terrible. This game is fast, fluid gameplay, that I will be replaying again and again forever. My favorite part is that I don't have to think about it. As ironic as it is for this sort of difficult game, I can go here to relax. I don't need to think, I don't need to consider any options, I just need to cut the FUCK out of everything that stands in my way, and look good doing it. I can keep defending this game until the end of the earth, but the fact I have to face is that this game is not for everyone. This game appeals to a relatively small grup of people. It just so happens that I am a part of that group. I love this game despite its faults, so much so that it is my favorite game of the year.

15 years ago