Ripten’s 2008 Games of the Year

Whoa, 2008 went by really fast. Taking a look back at a great year full of great games, it’s hard to pick just one game of the year, but I’ve managed to come up with one.

Some of my favorite games of the year have been Gears of War 2, Left 4 Dead, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Fable II, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Call of Duty: World at War and SOCOM: Confrontation. Oh, and before I go any further, sorry LittleBigPlanet fanboys, I just couldn’t really get into the game even after a few hours of playing it.

Yep, so those were some of my favorite games of the year, but if I had to narrow it down to one game of the year, I would have to go with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Why you ask? Well, it was the one actual game that just had me so sucked into the story, the amazing gameplay and beautiful graphics, that I ignored any other game that I might have been playing. With some of the other games I listed, I would play other games and go back to them, but with MGS4, it was that game and nothing else, until I beat it of course.

I’m not even a huge fan of the series, (I’ve never even played the third game in the series, and didn’t complete the second) but one of my favorite things about MGS4 was the ability to actually explain the whole Metal Gear story within the game and also gave me a different way of playing in which you didn’t have to be sneaky and quite all the time, unlike past MGS’s.

My Ripten Game of the Year goes to Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Choosing a game to be the best of the year is a difficult challenge, and considering that most of the offerings out there generally tend to be mediocre at best, it made it even more difficult. How does one choose their own personal Gee oh tee Why? How much fun one had playing the game? Whether or not the technology was dazzling? Perhaps one should pick innovative games… hmmm. The mind is bottled.

After giving it quite a bit of thought, and a bit more thought, I finally decided to give my personal little imaginary trophy to…

Fallout 3!

There were a bunch of great games that were contending for the crown in my brain, but Fallout 3 is almost everything I’ve ever wanted in a game. Awesome combat, great story, kick ass RPG elements, and giant mutant fire-breathing ants! The only thing that could top Fallout 3 in my mind would be an MMO based around the Fallout universe, or maybe the next Star Wars MMO, but they don’t exist so I can’t exactly choose them, now can I?

I was bouncing around LittleBigPlanet for a bit, because as simple and as stupid as I thought it was, it really is a great game and probably the only PS3 exclusive that made me question my hatred for Sony. I also juggled around with Wrath of the Lich King because making WoW actually fun to play again was a feat in and of itself. Other contenders in the squishy grey arena were Warhammer 40k: Apocolypse (which is a table top game so I couldn’t really go with that I guess anyway, but you should see the awesome armies you can field now), Left 4 Dead, and Saint’s Row 2.

Oh, honerable mention to Rock Band 2. I’ve never EVER spent as much money on DLC as I have with that game and it just keeps coming. Harmonix just keeps making things more and more awesome without having to give up the awesome I had before, unlike the other music game that comes out with a different version every month. I never thought I’d actually witness a company more whorey than EA, but I guess anything can happen.

There you go, a little glimpse into the mind of John Landis, and you didn’t even have to get any snot on you. How much better can you get?

While the most obvious choice fro my game of 2008 would be Left 4 Dead (I did say it was one of the best games ever in my review), I do have a very special mention to give. If you want to know why Left 4 Dead is my game of the year, go read the review. The special mention goes to Metal Gear Solid 4,:Guns of the Patriots. As a big fan of the series, I felt this was a fantastic send off for one of the best characters ever, Solid Snake.

Sure, there are a lot of flaws to the game, but it’s juts one of those games that is so epic (and I don’t use the term lightly) that they can be overlooked. I really wanted Snake’s story to have a proper ending, and I don’t think Kojima could have done a better job. Now my only hope is that he doesn’t add more to the story when the inevitable Metal Gear Solid 5 comes along; MGS4 is a good point to end the series and start something new, I think.

Oh, and another mention goes to Team Fortress 2, even though it came out last year- I still play it almost every day.

For 2009, what I’m most looking forward to is Resident Evil 5. After playing it at the Eurogamer Expo, and being a huge fan of Resi 4, it seems like it’ll be similar enough to be great, but different enough to not be boring. Of course, the DLC for Left 4 Dead and TF2 will keep me playing those games (hell, I’d keep playing them anyway), and Bioshock 2 could be one to watch as well. While I don’t think it’ll match 2008, or even 2007, 2009 should be a great year; too many great games coming out to make a proper decision on which I want the most.

Is the measure of a video game’s greatness how fun it is to play? Up until the past year I think i would have said yes. But in 2009 a few games appeared that pushed the medium in that they were both fun to play, and they left a profound, lasting impact. So this is my completely subjective list of games, some fun, some emotionally impactful, and some both.

5. Gears of War 2: This is just a fun game that does something that scores very high with me: bring people together. This generation of consoles does this particularly well and no game does it better over 3 modes of play (Horde stands out) than Gears 2.

4. Fallout 3: They wooed me at E3 and made me stop playing Fable 2, the other great RPG of the fall. I don’t know how Bethesda does it, but they can make 30 hours of gameplay feel like 10.

3. Grand Theft Auto 4: I was once on a TV production set where one of the actors had set up a PS3 and was playing GTA 4 on it. Slowly, cast and crew members, including the director, started to pull up chairs to watch GTA’s patented urban rampages, first on breaks then probably when they should have been making the show. From its themes to its realistic portrayal of criminal and immigrant life, GTA 4 may be first game to get a mature rating that’s actually, in many ways, mature.

2. Gravitation: The only game that’s ever really made me think about my life. It’s abstract, minimalist and indie to the core, but i haven’t been impacted like this by a video game in years, maybe ever. Every gamer should give it a look.

1. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: This, being a completely subjective list, gives me the ability to choose the game that i really liked the most for the #1 spot. If your even a marginal star wars fan then you probably think that the concept of Jedi’s are compelling and the Force Unleashed lets you play as a cooler Jedi than any we’ve ever seen in the movies. “Knock yourself out levitating that cup, Luke, I’m going to pull this Star Destroyer out of the sky.” Awesome.

Of the games I played in 2008, my favorites would have to be Gears of War 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. All three games captured my interest on different levels and exhibited the attention to detail and fun factor I look for in a top notch game.

Gears 2 offered up a gritty storyline, tons of fast paced action, and a smörgåsbord of multiplayer modes. Konami’s long-awaited MGS4 didn’t disappoint either as it entertained this gamer with a layered plot and stunning presentation.

Together, the two blockbusters above add up to days of non-stop gaming, but if that isn’t enough to quench your thirst for polygons, power up the PC and level yourself to 80 in Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

If you enjoy third person shooters, cinematic masterpieces, and countless hours of MMO gameplay, these three titles will carry you well into the new year.

My overall choice for game of the year, however, is Gears of War 2. Mad props go out Marky Mark Rein, Cliff Blaznats, and the rest of the team at Epic Games.

What a year, and what a shitload of good games to choose from. From boning chicks in PC masterpiece The Witcher to boning chicks in Peter Molyneux’s brainchild Fable 2, how can you choose just one game as the best of the year?

Personally, some of the most fun I’ve had in 2008 has been in co-op play. Games like Rock Band 2, Saints Row 2, and Left 4 Dead kept me interested and having fun far longer than any singleplayer experience I’ve had. It’s quite a shame, then, that a fantastic game like Fable 2 managed to fuck it up so much — its co-op is essentially unplayable.

Even so, those multiplayer experiences haven’t yet been able to tell as compelling of a story or really get you involved in the world as much as an immersive RPG like Fallout 3 or The Witcher. The main drawback of these games, however, is that you will ultimately “max out” your character, beat the game, and have relatively little reason to start over again unless you absolutely must see how different decisions in the game would play out.

So, how do you choose? Which blockbuster game was the best of the year? Grand Theft Auto 4? Overrated. Gears of War 2? Disappointing. Metal Gear Solid 4? …what was that last one again? Sorry, I fell asleep.

Overall, the best game I’ve played in 2008 was… Fallout 3. Even though it’s only singleplayer and ultimately has an ending, I haven’t sunk as much time into any other game and still found myself enjoying it. I thought VATS would get old, but even after 100 hours, I still enjoy seeing slo-mo exploding heads.

I’m still stumbling across new things that I haven’t encountered before, I’m still finding skill books and bobbleheads to increase my stats, and I still have three downloadable content packages to look forward to (at least).

Fallout 3 gets my vote for Game of the Year simply because I’ve gotten the most bang for my buck out of that single $60 disc, and everything it does, it does well… except for the handling of sex, which is decidedly timid and outdated. Fallout 2 was more mature when it came out 10 years ago — I expect more from you next time, Bethesda!