Favorite Games of 2007
And the hits just keep coming. 2007 was another amazing year for gaming, so amazing that most of the titles in “Other Games of 2007” list could have been included here. Some nearly did. A few of those cuts were quite painful.
List items
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I’m not a fan of compilations in these types of lists since it’s kind of cheating, so I’m willing to toss everything aside and instead list only Half-Life 2: Episode 2. Still, The Orange Box is an amazing collection. Okay, Half-Life 2: Episode 1 isn't great, and I don’t care about multiplayer FPS enough to bother with Team Fortress 2. Still, Half-Life 2 is enjoyable enough, although those physics-based “puzzles” amount to little outside Valve showing off something that was impressive at the time.
As I said, I am all about HL2: Episode 2. Turns out, trading the brick buildings of City 17 for trees was a great decision, while those who grew attached to the cast were rewarded, and punished, through coaster of a story ending in a hell of a cliffhanger that Valve has apparently no interest in following up on. And we cannot forget Portal, which is still amazing, although I prefer the sequel more.
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I came into Super Metroid on Virtual Console with high expectations – it’s regularly listed as one of the greatest games ever, after all – but expectations that it wouldn't be as great as I've been told. As it turns out, it exceeded my expectations. Super Metroid feels impeccably designed, full of adventure without overstaying its welcome.
And we mustn't forget the baby metroid, which offers one of my favorite moments in gaming. Towards the game’s end, the baby metroid is discovered by Samus, except much larger and with no familiarity to its “mother.” The over-sized baby latches onto Samus and zaps her energy, all while the player stays in control of the bounty hunter, but is unable to stop the attack until left with a sliver of life. This is a surprisingly effective moment as the player is left powerless after spending the entire game gaining incredible power. And of course, it sets the stage for the fight with Mother Brain and the baby metroid’s heroic return.
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Picross is a simple pleasure, like solving the crossword or a leisurely game of Tetris, that doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun on paper. “Use numbers to gradually form a picture!” isn't a great sales pitch, but that’s basically what Picross is.
Well, that and a little thing called fun.
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It’s not unusual for Phoenix Wright to have a personal stake in his cases. After all, many of his clients have been close friends pulled into unfortunate circumstances. In Trials and Tribulations, the third game, the spotlight finally shines on Wright with multiple cases that reveal an overarching story with our hero lawyer unknowingly at the center.
While Trials and Tribulations doesn't make any great changes to the Ace Attorney franchise, it does tell the best stories. That alone makes this my favorite Ace Attorney yet.
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Sometime after Pokémon Diamond, I made a sudden realization: I enjoyed Diamond more than my previous favorite, Gold. The reason is quite simple for Pokémon fans and perhaps more difficult to grasp for people who dislike the series. Diamond has everything I enjoyed about Gold (except being able to return to Red/Blue’s Kanto region), but with better Pokémon. If that doesn't calculate, than you’re most likely not a Pokémon fan.
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Harmonix didn't stick with Guitar Hero long before going off to create Rock Band, but they still managed to create the best in the series with Guitar Hero 2. That’s not to say Neversoft didn't create good GH games, but it often felt like they were a step behind Harmonix, starting with crafting a good sequel to Guitar Hero 2. Where GH3 tried too hard, GH2 is comfortable with a great selection of songs offered at a decent difficulty.
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Room 215 of Hotel Dusk grants wishes, or so the rumors claim. Kyle Hyde, the NYPD detective-turned-salesman, skeptically takes the key to room 215, but by the end of his night, when he returns the key, Kyle gives a sly grin to the hotel clerk. Regardless of the truth about that room, Kyle left with nagging questions answered and a few grateful strangers.
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 isn’t great for return customers. Text crawls across the screen, which is fine for newcomers unaware of the unfolding story, but is frustrating for those several beats ahead of the narrative. Otherwise, Hotel Dusk is a great adventure game and a fun story worth your time.
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Prime 3 doesn't deliver a great first impression. The opening attack by space pirates feels ripped from a Halo game, except nowhere as good, while the military base that follows is visually dull, but the deeper into Prime 3 you go, the better it comes. The environments grow more artistically impressive and Samus’s armor becomes more “corrupted,” glowing overwhelmingly blue towards the end.
The new motion controls work well – after changing it to Advanced – barring some frustrations with manipulating locks and levers. Meanwhile, Prime 3 is the easiest of the trilogy, which was disappointing. Only the original Prime really hit the sweet spot in difficulty since Prime 2 was too challenging.
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The problem with Grand Theft Auto is once you enter a mission, it becomes as structured as any game, eliminating much of the freedom the series is known for. Leave the area to gain a better vehicle (or a tank) equals failure. Throw C4 onto a vehicle that must complete its path and nothing happens. There are reasons for this, of course, but it's still frustrating.
Crackdown completely does away with this. It offers a city filled with enemies needing a beating, and complete freedom in how you do that. Add in superhuman abilities that grow stronger over time and you have a hell of a great game.
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This industry had grown tired of games set in World War II years before, and while this wasn't the first major FPS set in modern times (Battlefield might not have been the first, but it was still before CoD), that doesn't take away from Call of Duty 4’s impact. It made an incredible introduction in which players took the role of the leader of a foreign nation being kidnapped and executed.
After that scene, Call of Duty 4 just kept ratcheting up the jaw-dropping events. Of course, the story was pointless – terrorist be up to no good! – but the campaign was still excellent.
Of course, Call of Duty 4 introduced the multiplayer progression system that became standard through the rest of the series and the industry as a whole, giving a sense of growth in a mode that previously had little. It also meant that new players lacked many of the perks of veterans, making things difficult for those jumping in late, but that’s something that the series has been tackling with every release since.
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