Anton's Best in Gaming 2008

Posted by Jeremy M. Zoss at 12:24 PM Jan 01, 2009

Happy New Year, folks! Welcome to Day 2 of Joystick Division's 2008 Year in Review. One of the advantages of posting my write-up second is that I've had a chance to read Gary's take and react to some of it. And while I agree with Gary that 2008 was a year packed with excellent games and interesting stories, in my mind 2008 will be more remembered for its disappointments than its highlights. The long awaited Spore disappointed, Sony's "system-seller" LittleBigPlanet failed to set the sales charts ablaze, a solid sequels like Gears of War 2, Ninja Gaiden 2 and Devil May Cry 4 didn't generate the kind of excitement that the previous games did. In late 2008, the economic slowdown came to the supposedly recession-proof gaming industry in a big way, with layoffs and studio closings being announced left and right. That being said, 2008 did deliver a huge number of strong games, including polished sequels and promising new franchises. Hit the jump to read my picks for my Year in Review Awards!

Trend of the Year

 Co-Op Gaming

Gears of War 2, Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty: World at War and Resistance 2 all featured co-op gameplay in a big way, and I'm all for it. Left 4 Dead is honestly pretty dull solo, but with other players it's phenomenal. Call of Duty's Competitive Co-Op mode is honestly the most fun I've had playing a game all year. After 2008, co-op mode is a feature that will be basically mandatory, just as deathmatch mode proliferated a few years back.

Story of the Year

Economic Downturn Hits Gaming

EA. Sony. Ensemble Studios. Aspyr. Factor 5. Free Radical. These are just some of the gaming companies that have been hit by layoffs or shut down completely over the last year. It's always sad when people lose their jobs, but that's not the end of the story. This will affect you and the games you play. With publishers trying to cut costs and release fewer "relative sales disappointments," (Mirror's Edge, Rock Band 2, Need for Speed Undercover), there is going to be a push towards cheaper, more profitable game development. In other words, expect to see a lot more low-budget casual Wii software. As games go, it's cheap, it's easy to develop, and it's profitable. In other words, it's the future.

Best Graphics

 LittleBigPlanet

Gary is right about how many great-looking games were released this year, but LittleBigPlanet gets the award for making cardboard, rocks, sponges and soccer balls look beautiful. A non-gamer friend of mine took a look at LittleBigPlanet and asked me if the materials in the game were photographs. Well done, Media Molecule.

Best Shooter

 Call of Duty: World at War

Although Gears 2, Far Cry 2 and several other high-profile shooters were released in 2008, only one delivered more than I expected. Perhaps trying to prove that they aren't the Call of Duty b-squad, Treyarch went above and beyond with Call of Duty: World at War, working off the rock-solid framework of CoD4 and adding great multiplayer modes, a decent bonus zombie game, fun weapons, and more. I've talked about it all in my original review, so I'll just sum it up with the fact that Treyarch made World War II compelling again, and that alone is one hell of an accomplishment.

Best Action Game

Dead Space

Isaac Clarke could totally take Ryu Hayabusa and that femmy Nero guy in a fight. He'd just cut off their arms with his mining laser. Fun, gory, gorgeous and exciting, Dead Space is far from the most original game I've ever played, but even so it just worked. I expect big things from the continuing Dead Space franchise.

Crowd-Pleaser of the Year

Rock Band 2

Non-gamer friends routinely come over to my house and wait a polite amount of time before asking if we can play Rock Band 2.  A gaming gateway drug if there ever was one, my copies of Rock Band and Rock Band 2 are personally responsible for the sales of several game consoles to people who just had to own it after playing the game at my house. Not only is Rock Band 2 the greatest collection of music in a game to date, it's the best advertisement ever for video games as mainstream entertainment.

Multiplayer Game of the Year

Left 4 Dead

Like I said before, Left 4 Dead's paper-thin single-player mode is barely compelling. Get online with some friends though, and it's a whole different story. Left 4 Dead is built around multiplayer, and it executes it beautifully. The brilliant AI director scales the challenge to the players, making L4D a multiplayer game that anyone can dive into.

Disappointment of the Year

 Mirror's Edge

As Gary discussed in his "Best Intentions" category, Mirror's Edge is a game that aimed high. Too bad it missed that jump and splattered on the concrete. While the engine will no doubt be put to good use in the future, Mirror's Edge turned out to be no more than a frustrating, paper-thin tech demo.

 Special Achievement in High School-Quality Writing

(Tie) Gears of War 2 & Metal Gear Solid 4

Gears of War 2 was supposed to be an improvement on the original's plot, which can be summed up by "go plant this bomb to kill the bad guys." Gears 2's plot is much thicker, but no less silly, as it was apparently written by an excitable eight grader who forgot his ADHD medication. "Okay! So in this one they're gonna go look for Dom's wife, who's, like, in a slave camp, but first they're gonna go drive tanks up this mountain and there's this lab where people were doing science experiments and stuff and then they're gonna fly on these monsters across the world and go sink this city and like totally flood the Locust out of their tunnels. Oh! And there's this giant worm, and they're totally gonna go inside it and like cut it up from the inside. And then they're gonna ride some other monsters, and there will be like this final GIANT monster..."

Metal Gear Solid 4's story, on the other hand, would really, really, really, really like you to know that it's important. And topical. And deep. Did you know some people actually make money off of wars? You will when you're done with MGS4. Expect to hear the phrase "war economy" more often than McCain and Palin said "maverick." Oh, and shit jokes. Lots of shit jokes.

Sigh.

WTF of the Year Award

Shaun White Snowboarding

There were worse games this year, but few stunned me by how completely they screwed up a relatively simple formula. The most sluggish, clunky and confusing board sports game I've ever played, Shaun White Snowboarding feels like it was specifically designed to confound and disappoint the player. Wait, I have find a chairlift to ride up the mountain to reach a challenge that's six feet above me? Oh, I can't go there yet because I haven't found enough coins on the mountain? Fuck you.

Worst Game of the Year

Golden Axe: Beast Rider

A dull, ugly, repetitive hack n' slash, Golden Axe: Beast Rider set a low bar for itself and fails to reach even its simplest goals. The combat sucks, the graphics are and bland and spare, and riding the beasts of its namesake feels like punishment. There's simply not a single original idea in this game, and most of the design decisions felt old and tired a decade ago. There were games released this year that are buggier or more broken, but nothing else I've played feels this tired, lifeless or by-the-numbers. Perhaps there was a lot of behind-the-scenes drama during the production of Golden Axe that left the game unfocused and directionless, but it just feels like no one making the game cared. And if they didn't care, then neither will we.

Best Beer

Surly Bender. Shit yeah.

Game That I Recognize is Good and Still Don't Give a Shit About

Grand Theft Auto IV

Bought it, played it, sold it after eight hours. Yes, I understand why you people like it, but it just doesn't speak to me. More Crackdown, please.

 Game of the Year

 Fallout 3

While playing Fallout 3, I made myself do something I never do with games: I made myself stop. Several times over the course of the 45 hours I spent with Fallout 3 I quit, put the game aside, and played through another game before I returned to Fallout. Why? Because I didn't want to be done with it. I actually agonized over the decision to finish the main quest for several days and talked it over with friends. I ultimately decided to complete the game because I reached the level cap, opting to finish the juicy remaining quests after Bethesda releases the final DLC, which will allow players to return to the Capital Wasteland with their character. When I finally finished the main quest, my sense of accomplishment was overshadowed by malaise brought on by having to leave this nuanced, enthralling world. Sure, Fallout 3 isn't a perfect game - it is occasionally buggy, stiff and repetitive. And while it's dark and dreary, it's also a labor of love - every inch of the game world is drenched in the soul of the team that created it. It's a massive game, one that manages to deliver moments that are touching, creepy, funny and thoughtful. Some have dismissed Fallout 3 as "Oblivion with guns." Oblivion should be so lucky.