2008 Game of the Year

What would be your game of the year for 2008 and why? What might be honorable mentions?

Best of 2008: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - in addition to having top notch gameplay, intense and exciting boss battles, amazing graphics, great sound, excellent voice casting, and top notch music, MGS4 is one of the most awesome storytelling achievements that the gaming industry has ever seen. The narrative is serious, mature, extensive, and touching without being filled with cliches, half developed ideas, and the myriad of other problems that too often plague games with narratives. Furthermore, the story and game seem to coexist naturally; never did I feel like I was watching a movie that awkwardly tried to have me press a few buttons or playing a game that half-heartedly tried to tell some watered down tale. The story drew me into the game world and made me care playing both to find out what happened next, and because the narrative pulled me in and made me really want the characters to succeed.

Honorable mentions: SSB Brawl, Fallout 3, Star Wars: the Force Unleashed

I don't think I've played a single game released in 2008. That's what I get for being behind the times.

I'm going to suggest Little Big Planet, just because I know it'll be suggested by somebody.

Also, every review I've heard has said that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was really bad.

Left 4 Dead: the thread in the Video Games section should tell you why. (24 pages, I don't think any other video game has garnered that many responses.) Zombie apocalypse survival teamplay FPS is the best genre there is out there.

edit: The console wars thread had 30 pages... but that's on console. Smash Brothers comes close with 22 pages.

Super Mario Galaxy as of now, can't think of anything else.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

I wasted 6 months playing that thing non-stop with my friends. When a game does that, you know it has to be something special. That game turned out to be better than Melee IN MY OPINION. Way more original characters, sweet stages, more chaotic, online play and it also had an amazing soundtrack spanning more than 20 years of of video game history. How can't you not like that?

Honorable mentions: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.

SSBB for zero suit samus. 8)

Great game, but that was from 2007. That was my pick for best of 2007 though.



It got mixed tending toward positive reviews from game critics. I'm not sure what they didn't like about it. I had a really fun time playing it, which is more than I can say for some critically acclaimed games. So, in my opinion, Force Unleashed was a sweet game.

It was? Damn...then maybe Gears of War 2, or Wrath of the Lich King.

What I heard was that the game gave you awesome abilities but made them pointless by throwing enemies at you with the ability to block your powers. Like, you can shoot lightning, but suddenly all the enemies have shields that block lightning.

I think the main thing was that before the game came out, the promotion made it seem like a perfect Star Wars game where you could use the Force to do all sorts of cool things, but once the game came out, it wasn't anywhere near as cool as the promotions had let said. People may have criticized it a bit too harshly because it wasn't as good as they thought it would be.

My most successful topic! LoL

I'd vote for either smash bros or soul calibur 4. Both are great games you can pass the controllers around the room with your friends.

Either MGS4 or Gears of War 2 IMO.

Fallout 3 or Left 4 Dead imo

Seconded.

Valkyria Chronicles!

Fable 2 got game of the year in SpikeTv

LOL WUT!

Valkryia chronicles or mgs4

I never felt that way at all about the powers. Some enemies have shields, but it was possible to knock them off balance with a physical hit and then use lightning. Even so, lightning, push, and grab were useful throughout the entire game. I actually appreciated the fact that you couldn't just run around lightning-ing everyone in sight and succeed, because it forced you to adapt different ways of fighting different enemies and made the game more challenging. To reference in game, lightning was always especially useful against larger enemies, because you couldn't throw them and they were much harder to push.

The one thing that aggrivated me was how hard it was to block the force powers of enemy jedi/sith. Overall, the boss battles were really cool and had the level of challenge you want in your boss encounters. Spamming lightsaber attacks or force powers didn't generally work, and you had to be very conscious defensively, as most of the bosses had at least one really rough attack that it was essential to dodge the majority of the time. There were a few times, though, when I felt one missed dodge or block of a force power just wrecked you to the point of no coming back in a battle.

I approached the Star Wars game rather oblivious to the hype, and so, as I really enjoyed the game, I wasn't let down. Sure, it didn't always let you do absolutely everything that it seemed a real jedi should be able to do in game, but the things it did allow you to do and the environmental interaction were pretty unprecedented. Even Crysis wasn't quite the same, if only because you didn't play as a jedi, and your influence on enemies and the environment was limited to the effects of your weaponry.

On another positive note about Force Unleashed, it actually had quite a good story. Not on the same level as MGS4, but definitely good and a boon to the game. Unlike say Gears of War 2, it felt natural, had quite a few compelling moments, and set up the climactic battles nicely.

It was also game of the year on X-Play. :P