Pure Drivel

Well, the Top Ten Lists and Game of the Year Awards are up all around the tubes. I’ve compiled a number of them for you below, with their pick for Game of the Year, with some commentary.

Gamasutra’s Top 10 Games of the Year

GOTY: Portal - Valve - Multi-platform

Gamasutra took a bit of a different approach on their picks by (mostly) eschewing high-profile, big-budget releases like Halo 3 for the likes of Puzzle Quest (DS), Pac-Man CE (XBLA) and Persona 3 (PS2). Gamasutra’s criterion seemed to focus on fun gameplay and innovation, rather than epic presentation, which I find refreshing. Their pick of Portal for GOTY fits perfectly with this paradigm, and while the Orange Box as a whole will likely appear on a lot of Top 10 lists, I think this may be the only place you’ll find the hilarious, mind-bending physics puzzler at the tippy-top.

Wired Gaming Top 10 Games of 2007

GOTY: Rock Band - Harmonix - Multi-platform

There honestly are a lot of surprises on this list. First, Halo 3 doesn’t appear on the list at all, but Crackdown, a game that supposedly sold well on the included Halo 3 beta key is number 10. Second, a casual game no one I know has heard of, Desktop Tower Defender, made the list. Third, a music and rhythm game won the top spot. Wired does like to shake things up, though, and they’ve certainly done so with their Top 10.

GameSpot’s Best Games of 2007 Year in Review

GOTY: Super Mario Galaxy - Nintendo - Wii

GameSpot breaks down their review into a lot of different categories, which I definitely appreciate. They break it down by genre, platform and also give an overall list. They also give awards for Special Achievement and Dubious Honors. Plus, there’s user voting for overall GOTY. I’d like to note that my pick Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is currently leading with 23% of votes. For those of you who want more than just lists, there is a quarter-by-quarter breakdown of the whole year as well. I think they recognize that merely listing the Top 10 from every single game made in the past 12 months is somewhat of an oversimplification, especially is such a hallmark year. This is a truly comprehensive list and worth your time.

GameSpy Game of the Year 2007

GOTY: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Infinity Ward - Multi-platform

Someone finally gets it right! CoD4:MW wins variety of honors, including best game on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, and as first runner-up to Team Fortress 2 for Best Multiplayer Game. A Halo 3 or Super Mario Galaxy fan will most certainly accuse GameSpy of the same bias I slung at Edge. So be it.

GameSpy breaks everything down by platform in addition to its overall list, and also gives special awards and Gamer’s Choice Awards. They begin each section with a retrospective for each console, and devote a whole page to each game. It’s a contemplative and informed look at the year, much like GameSpot’s section. I feel like the awards were pretty balanced between heavy hitters and smaller games, but maybe that’s just me.

THE EDGE AWARDS 2007

GOTY: Super Mario Galaxy - Nintendo - Wii

Edge’s Awards may as well have been called “Edge Fellates Super Mario Galaxy and Halo 3.” Of the five awards given to individual games (Best Game, Best Innovation, Best Visual Design, Best Audio Design, Best Online Experience), those two games were either the outright winner, or a named runner-up. Now, I’m admittedly biased against Halo 3, and I’ve made no secret about my pick for GOTY. But I think Edge’s bias is made clear by the Best Innovation award. Apparently, Halo 3 is more innovative than Portal and Crysis. You read that correctly: Halo 3 beat out Portal and Crysis for Best Innovation because of The Forge and advanced matchmaking.

Really? PC gamers have been building custom maps and taking screen shots and videos of gameplay for years. But that’s more innovative than realizing and programming the physics that makes player-created portals through space and time work properly!? Or a physics engine that allows the real-time, nearly photo-realistic animation of the destruction of an entire rainforest!? WTF!?

Oh, and the Best Online Experience goes to Halo 3 (expected), with runners up Forza Motorsports 2 and… Wii Channels? Are you F—ING KIDDING ME? Weather, the Internet and the Everybody Votes Channel are a better online experience than Team Fortress 2, CoD4:MW or even World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade? I guess we know who sponsors Next Generation’s coke addiction.

Game of the Year 2007 - Yahoo! Games

GOTY: Super Mario Galaxy - Nintendo - Wi

Sparse coverage at best. I wouldn’t even bother with this one.
No doubt this has been an incredible 12 months. Below, you’ll find my favorite games of the year, in Top 10 fashion:

Drivel’s Overall Top 10 Games of 2007

10. Sam & Max: Season 1 - Telltale Games - PC

9. Super Mario Galaxy - Nintendo - Wii

8. God of War II - Sony Computer Entertainment of America - PS2

7. Mass Effect - BioWare - Xbox 360

6. Crysis - Crytek - PC

5. BioShock - 2K Boston - Multi-platform

4. Rock Band - Harmonix - Multi-platform

3. Team Fortress 2 - Valve - Multi-platform

2. Portal - Valve - Multi-platform

GOTY: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Infinity Ward - Multi-platform

So, there you have it! 2008 has got it’s work cut out for it, but with games like Spore, Alan Wake, Devil May Cry 4, The Club, Street Fighter IV (hopefully)… hell, it’s gonna be another great year for gamers!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I leave tomorrow for Hawaii, guys. I’ll try to post whilst there, but no promises!

Happy Holidays!

I found this story about a guy watching a teenager play “Through the Fire and the Flames” on Expert in Best Buy to be extraordinarily well-written and very compelling.

At about one minute in there is a pause, perhaps five seconds where the band’s singer mumbles some 1980’s era lyrics into a microphone. I’ve never particularly cared what he had to say. Kyle is absolutely motionless. There’s no shaking out of hands, no turning to make knowing glances at his audience or worry about his hair.

He blinks.

Take 5 minutes and read it; you won’t be dissapointed.

Via LevelUp and Gamers With Jobs.

Honestly, all the excellent games that were released this year, made it a tough year to decide on the Game of the Year. I personally think this is be the best year for video game software ever. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare still tops my list as GOTY. But, since reading that Game Informer picked BioShock, I’ve been thinking about playing through the dystopian shooter again.

I’ve commented on BioShock briefly before. I’m still of the opinion that it lacks a truly addictive element. I also had premonitions about the game’s major plot twist early on, which I think kind of ruined it all for me. But, I’ve been thinking about playing through the game again, this time rescuing all of the Little Sisters. I’d like to see the “good” ending. I definitely stopped harvesting the kids after a certain section near the beginning of the final act, which I guess says something about the game’s ability to tug my heart strings. The thought of playing through BioShock again got me thinking about some other excellent games I want to experience all over again.

Oblivion for instance. A friend of mine has picked up EQ2 and the look and feel of that game reminds me a lot of Oblivion. I’m left with a hankering for first-person fantasy kick-assitude. Plus, I haven’t played the expansion pack yet, and I bet the mod community has done some really cool stuff since I last played the game about a year ago. I’ve also installed a new video card since then, so I bet the game would look even more gorgeous.

I also just finished playing through EarthBound for the sixth or seventh time. This was the first video game I was really and truly passionate about. I think it’s one of the reasons I became such a huge gamer. I sank countless hours into EB when it first came out for SNES. I found the graphical style really appealing, and I love that it’s set during the 1990’s instead of high fantasy. The main characters were just four kids with extraordinary power. I guess I felt I could relate to that. On my first play-through, I never did beat the final boss Giygas, since I never never figured out the “have Paula pray nine times” trick. Giygas scared the shit out of me (I was only 10 years old), so it was a struggle to face him over and over, and lose every time. I played that last area over and over again, leveling all of my characters to their max level. I eventually became so frustrated and discouraged that I gave up trying. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I discovered the secret and finally finished the game. That boss battle still makes me anxious even to this day. When I play through the game these days, I cheat. I love the challenge of the game, but I don’t really have time to sink 20-30 hours into a game I’ve beaten legitimately.

Now, I’m playing through Chrono Trigger again.

All of this reminiscing about and re-experiencing older games got me thinking that I should compile a list of my favorite games. I think I’ve been doing this gaming thing long enough now (15 years, give or take) to compile something relatively accurate. So, here goes:

Drivel’s Top Ten Favorite Video Games

Format: Rank-Game Name-Platform played on-Year of North American Release-Developer-Publisher

1. EarthBound - SNES - 1995 - Ape, Inc., HAL Laboratory, Inc. - Nintendo

2. Kingdom Hearts - PS2 - 2002 - Square - Square

3. Final Fantasy X - PS2 - 2001 - Square - Square Electronic Arts/Disney Interactive

4. Chrono Trigger -SNES - 1995 - Square - Square Soft, Inc.

5. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - SNES - 1996 - Square - Nintendo

6. Duke Nukem 3D - PC - 1996 - 3D Realms - Apogee Software

7. Team Fortress Classic - PC - 1999 - Valve Corporation - Sierra Entertainment

8. Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht - PS2 - 2003 - Monolith Soft - Namco

9. Star Ocean: Till The End of Time - PS2 - 2004 - tri-Ace - Square Enix

10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - PC - 2007 - Infinity Ward - Activision

You may notice the trends in the above list. Square dominates my top ten because I sank hundreds of hours into all of their games on this list. Why? Because I cared about what happened - the story drove all of those titles and Square made me care about the characters. The non-RPG titles on the list are shooters that were pure fun for me to play.

Anyway, I welcome comments, and if you’d like to post your top ten in the comments, please feel free to do so. No flaming!

When I said before that I was back after Thanksgiving, that turned out to be not so true. But finals are now over, and there are some exciting things happening out in the game world. Expect more regular postings, especially once I get back from Hawaii.

That’s right, suckers! Envy me, for I am escaping the frozen north for Christmas. I’m spending next week on Maui with my dad, stepmother and girlfriend - a graduation present from my father.

If that made you feel bad, this ought to cheer you up.

This week, Assassin’s Creed. Enjoy!

Via The Escapist.

If you’re like me (and I know you are), you’re a huge Eddie Izzard fan. A dedicated individual has created a Lego Star Wars enactment of Eddie’s skit about the Death Star’s Cafeteria.

Go watch it. Brilliant.

Via Gaming Today.

Wow, have I gotten behind on posting. So sorry about the lack of new content. School and life in general have gotten in the way of my providing you guys with ranting. Even now I don’t have much time to write - I have an important assignment due this afternoon. I’ll give you a quick update with more content coming later this week (hopefully).

I’ve finished Assassin’s Creed, and I plan on doing a full review, even though I’ll likely echo everything else you’ve already seen on the tubes. That’ll be coming sometime this month.

I’ve started in on Mass Effect, and I’m really enjoying it. The conversations feel organic and the story is engaging, if it is a bit clichéd. The combat system is much better than KOTOR’s, too, which was one of the reasons I could never make it through either of the games in that franchise. Although, I think it’s more suited to a mouse and keyboard setup. I think every shooter is, though. This is most certainly the compelling single-player RPG experience I’ve been waiting for! I’ll do a full review once I’ve finished the main story line, though that won’t be for a while yet.

Two pieces of personal news:

My girlfriend and I have added to our family. We brought Gabby, a three-month old tuxedo kitten, home last week. She and Max are getting along just fine, though sometimes he wishes she’d stop stalking him. She’ll calm down once she gets a little older though, and we think he enjoys the companionship while the house is empty during the day.

I’ve secured employment for next year following graduation! I’ve accepted a Technical Support Analyst position with United Health Group. It’s a call center, cube-land job, but I have to earn more experience somewhere. Besides, they have pretty good benefits and pay, so I’m happy. It’s nice to have that burden lifted as during these last two weeks of school.

Anyway, more later, after the insanity has subsided.