Best game of 08?

[Tuffty]

Meant to do this topic a lot earlier, but just got sidetracked. Anyway, I talked about the biggest disappointment but let's not forget that 08 was a pretty damn good year for games. Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 3, Metal Gear Solid 4, LittleBigPlanet, Gears Of War 2, Fable II - just a few great games for everyone (unless you're a Wii owner). Now, personally speaking, I've played a fair few games this year, but not all of them being released this year so it was a tad difficult. I would like to have mentioned Bioshock or The Orange Box, but they weren't released this year so they're out by default.  But I thought about all the games I played last year, and one stood shoulder-to-shoulder with games released last year and in 2007. Ladies and gentlemen, my favourite game of 2008:

The World Ends With You (Nintendo DS)



First 10 mins of the game and I'm thinking, I just cannot relate to this as my main character. The most emo-driven character I've seen in any JRPG, AND he's amnesiac? Why not just tell me he's the reincarnation of an ancient hero, throw a couple of random battles at me and see how many JRPG cliches we can get in there. But then I start to playthrough the game and I realise, it's the most innovative JRPG in recent memory. I mean correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think fighting monsters in modern day Shibuya has been covered before?

It's highly stylised, an incredibly funky soundtrack and with gameplay mechanics that throw JRPG design conventions out the window. It has a unique battle system across the 2 screens and it's something that can only be done on the DS. Put it onto a home console and you just would not have anywhere near the same level of control and accuracy as you do with the DS. Level grinding's a thing of the past when you consider that you gain EXP even when you're not playing the game, or if you meet other people with a DS. And it's got over 300 pins (think of them as weapons) to collect, adding huge depth to the already deep gameplay.

Love it. I would never have thought I could choose a portable game as my game of the year, but when I'm putting in more hours into a portable game than I do for console games, I know I've got something special. It's only a shame then, that a sequel is unlikely. It annoys me when I hear people criticising Square Enix for not taking risks on new titles when this gem comes out and it's ignored.

Honorable Mentions: Grand Theft Auto IV, Persona 3 : FES, Devil May Cry 4

[arun.yothin]

I think I only played two new games this year, Professor Layton and Gears of War 2. Layton was a lot of fun. There are only a few puzzles that I didn't enjoy and a lot of puzzle types I enjoyed doing before I played the game, like the sliding puzzle. I also saw some I'd never seen before, like the Queen and Princess Escape puzzles.

GoW 2 is fun, but I don't think I enjoyed it as much as the first. I think it's more on me than it is the game. A lot of the sections in campaign are really fun, but some I hated. I don't remember liking any of the riding levels. Horde is cool, but I think 'cause I'm not into games as much as I was last year, I don't get into every little thing in them like I used to. I'm not very good and I don't play very often or for very long, so I don't do online or multi-player (Except for Horde with my brother)

It's kinda weird that I used to play games so much, and this year I only played to new games. The only other game I played was Animal Crossing, but that came out a while ago. There were a few I wanted to play, but I didn't really want to spend money.

[mini*wheat]

Wow Tuffty, I haven't even heard of that game. I think I'll pick it up sometime, as it seems interesting.

My frame of reference for this is a little bias considering I do not own  360 or PS3 and I rarely play PC games. I haven't played many new games for the DS either, so I can't pick a good one from 2008. However, my wii has provided me with hours of entertainment via Mario Kart Wii and Lego Batman.

Mario Kart Wii is by far my favorite Mario Kart of the series. The new tracks are both fun and difficult, while there are a good handful of older tracks from all of the old Mario Karts included for a bit of nostalgia. Wi-fi play is also an amazing addition and I love the amount of characters and vehicles you can choose from. All and all, it's just good fun... and I honestly don't mind playing it solo, either. So yay.


Lego Batman however, is my game of the year. I really only bought it because it looked cute and I'm a giant comic book nerd. However, I was HIGHLY impressed with how entertaining and in-depth this game was. There's so many hidden characters and things to find, and once you beat a stage... you can go back and replay it with any characters you choose to get to all those hidden places you couldn't get to the first time. I also LOVE the fact that there's a villain track as well. This game is highly addictive, imho and the most entertaining thing I have played in a long, long time.

[winner]

I'm kinda bias too, since I like RPGs too much, they automatically get +10 to their scores. So Fallout 3 automatically gets 20 points taken off for having so much action.

Tales Of Vesperia.
The cel-shade in-game graphics was perfect, nearly making you think you're playing an anime (the anime cutscenes actually looked out of place instead!). Diverse action and tactics.
And memorable characters (dog soiling the continents to take territory, uhuh~). I liked all of them.
Most ppl will feel it's like any old RPG out there. But I believe there's nothing wrong with using any gaming formula, as long as you do a good job with it.
And behind all that colour and big cutesy eyes, there are a lot of questionable actions that the story heroes and baddies do. Making you think actually what is right and what is wrong.

2 games that I actually placed number 1 before Vesperia were Valkyria Chronicles and Ninja Gaiden 2. Both are really fun, but Vesperia made a bigger impression on me. So it beat both of them up.

@Tuffty. Dunno if I said this before or not. But there was a jdrama in 2005 called Sh15uya (or Shibuya 15).
It's theme is crazily similar to TWEWY. I totally believe they must have some relation, even though I still haven't found any. they just have too many similarities.
TV-Nihon did english subs for the jdrama, but it was a while ago. Try finding an episode if you haven't.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh15uya

[thatonezombie]

Best game of the year is Grand Theft Auto IV. Rockstar goes a fabulous job of creating a realistic world, with relatable characters (Yes, Brucie is a relatable character, even if he keeps it fully alpha) and after finishing GTAIV, it leaves such an imprint, of gameplay and a plot that captivates you, even when you have finished the game, and only few games in 2008 did that IMO.

You feel for Niko Bellic and his struggles. He just wants to create himself a better life, but he cant escape the criminal world that he thought he left when immagrating to America. He wants to find "That Special Someone" so he can leave his past for good. But throughtout the game, you see that he is willing to do the job at hand i.e. criminal activies but he doesnt want to.

Yes, there is a disconnect with having this kind of plot in the game and having the game be a open world, sandbox game. Just like in previous GTA games, you can go crazy killing people and such, but the story had such an impact, that when i was free to do whatever I wanted, I never wanted to do all the things you could do in an open world game such as GTA. I felt the need to give Niko somewhat of a social life between those periods of one mission to another.

I can go on and on about this, but yes Grand Theft Auto IV is my game of the year.

[Tuffty]

Great shout on Shibuya 15 winner! Had to marvel at the similarities between it and TWEWY. I put on a random episode and I get a J-Pop soundtrack, pins and a yankee looking skateboarder with an attitude problem! The fact he wore a beanie with 'B' on the front, only hammered it home that it was just like Beat from TWEWY Still have to remember now and again that the leading actress is playing a male character lol:

And thatonezombie: GTAIV's my favourite GTA game yet. The fact that I played through to the end last night for around 3 hrs is perhaps an indication of the quality of it's story.In no way can I sympathise with anyone from previous GTA games - surely the person I'm playing is the character I should be shooting at, the one I should be trying to stop? But Niko Bellic was different. I couldn't identify or empathise with him, but I could feel sympathy for him. The horrors he saw had dehumanised him, explaining his sociopathic nature, while also offering the sense that there could be redemption for him, and there was hope in relationships. Rockstar spent more money on it than any other video game in history, and didn't just go out and make San Andreas II. That's a big plus in my eyes.

[thatonezombie]

Not everyone can identify with any character from GTAIV, but the fact that the setting, the characters, its just so damn real that its very likely that someone can identify with one character, big or small. It could be small as say, liking round American tities like Roman. Rockstar has done something amazing with this, and lets hope The Lost and the Damned add on they will be putting out over xbox live will be good.

[zoolander]

For me it was Fallout 3. The quests are amazingly intricate and can be completed in a variety of satisfying ways. Amazing atmosphere. Huge detailed world ripe for exploration and discovery. Tons of customization. Some really memorable twisted situations, weapons and characters.  Any game that lets you have a conversation with a robot that thinks he's Thomas Jefferson and lets you fuck around as much as Fallout 3 is fine by me.

It's really hard to explain why I like it so much, and it was pretty overwhelming with the size of the world and the amount of freedom but once you get into the flow it just sucks you in and next thing you know you've been playing for 70 hours.

Honorable mention would probably be Burnout Paradise and God of War Chains of Olympus

[Ping]

I can't say Fallout 3 even though I would like to cause I've never played it.
I have to go with Fable II. I really had a lot of fun with that game, and one of the few games this year I played from start to finish without stopping to play another game in between. I did all the side quests and really had a lot of fun making all the decisions that they throw at you. Also, the most fun I've had (that wasn't Saint's Row 2) was killing innocent villagers with ma crazy magicks! The combat system is a good mix of simple but complex if you want it to be. Sure the main story isn't very long, but when you're doing everything, exploring the world, and having fun doing it, it turns out to have its legs.

As for GTAIV, it's very interesting. This was my original GotY pick but it's also my biggest disappointment pick. The story is great and the realistic word is amazing, even for someone that lives in NYC. The characters were great and funny, and it also had a couple of decisions that had me thinking if I made the right decision. However, I just got tired of the story. After you finish the Dwayne and Playboy X missions and get to the Mafia type missions, it just gets really downhill. I couldn't even be bothered to finish the game until about 6 months after I reached that point. The game has its quirks and awesome facets, but I just did not have much fun at all after the initial thrill of having such an awesome realistic world. It still has the best writing though, no doubt.

I played Gears 2 and while I did love it initially, even beating the game about 5 times, twice on hardcore, once on normal, and twice on insane, there's something about it that just doesn't even want me to call it a GotY candidate. It's a great game with it's own great moments, but the broken multiplayer really pissed the hell out of me. Maybe cause it wasn't such a big leap from Gears 1 that it doesn't have such an impact on me, but they did add a lot of things that made it more enjoyable than the first Gears.

Also, I wanna mention Dead Space, cause that game is just fun. It's not very scary after awhile, but the sound effects and direction of the game with attention to detail is a big plus for me. It's a cliche type story, but I don't really know how many kinds of stories you can have about aliens on a spaceship. They still did it great. As they said on a 1up (RIP?) podcast, it's kind of like a greatest hits of survival horror games. BTW, if you're an avid gamer, I recommend to start on Hard difficulty, as Normal difficulty is pretty easy.

Overall, this was a great year for games. I've already heard some people saying next year won't be as good, but that's what they said about 2008 after the deluge that was 2007. I bet this year will be another great one with people once again making schedules just to play all the releases. Last year, we saw a lot of the games get stuck in the holiday season against some crazy competition and because of that, they were just overlooked. Examples are FarCry 2, Prince of Persia (sort of), and Mirror's Edge. They should really think about spreading these games around the year. GTAIV has shown that even with a release in late April, that you can still sell millions of copies, so why stick your game in the competition with the biggest guns in the business when your game is great but can't compare?

[Tuffty]

^ Yeh I don't know where this rule is set in stone that big game titles have to to released around the holiday season. Tomb Raider Underworld sold 1.5 million copies, yet Eidos have said they're disappointed in these figures. But it's just arrived at a bad time with so much competition and with the economy the way it is, not that it's a bad game or anything. I should know, I'm playing it now and loving it (Thailand level design )

GTAIV and Mario Kart showed you can sell millions even in the middle of the year so I hope some releases are spread out. Doesn't do my wallet any power of good.

And I'm glad my write-up is at least making people aware of TWEWY. It really is a terrific game that utilises all of the DS's strengths into something unique amongst the sea of 'me-too!' games. Criminally overlooked.

[Ayako-Luna]

Ah well...

I played many new games last year *drop*

But the best games of 2008 for me was Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII of course, Sonic Unleashed and ahhmmm... Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity

Crisis Core was epic! I cried a lot on the end of the game T_T

Sonic Unleashed is awesome! It was a great idea of the Sonic Team from SEGA to transform Sonic into the Werehog by night I played the Wii and the PS2 version and must say that I liked the Wii version more than the PS2 version. But I bought the PS2 version, 'cause I can handle the control of the PS2 version better than the Wii version! (TO bad that you can't change the language from english to japanese in the Wii/PS2 version D:) But I have soon a PS3, so I buy me Sonic Unleashed for the PS3 too! If I have the time for it, I can play this game over and over! Lokking forward to another great Sonic Games for the PS3 & Wii! 8D

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity.. yeah... well... If you played "Sonic Riders" before then this game would be easy for all of you I liked this game because you can switch the language between english and japanese I played the game one time with english voice acting and one time with japanese voice acting! It was really fun. But I had my problems to handling it in the beginning because it was a long time ago since I played Sonic Riders

[jhluva]

I really really liked The World Ends with You... I'm glad my friend lent me her DS so I could play it

[meowchi]

Soul calibur 4, definitely. It also has the best ost in my opinion. Endless customization with epic online battles? Kthx