Release Date: February 12, 2008.
Platform: Xbox 360
Developer/Publisher: Mistwalker/Microsoft Game Studios
ESRB Rating: T
GameRankings: 79.8%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 8.2/10 (Good)
Lost Odyssey is a game ten years too late. Had it come out in 1998, it would been considered just as good as any of the Japanese RPGs of that age. Created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the original creator of the Final Fantasy series and his Mistwalker Corporation, Lost Odyssey is in many ways a throwback to the kind strictly turn-based combat systems seen in games a decade earlier, which might as well be a lifetime when video games are concerned. This is not to say that Lost Odyssey is a relic, or that it plays like it's ten years old. Smooth production values and a sprawling storyline make it every bit as engaging in 2008 as it would have been in 1998.
But to be honest, the gameplay is a secondary draw behind the "Thousand Years of Dreams" feature, a series of short stories based around the exploits of Kaim, the game's immortal protagonist. These stories are calm, short interludes in the life of Kaim, often highlighting the trials and tribulations that come from knowing everyone you meet will die before you do. They're subtle, often beautifully written pieces that ramp up the game's enjoyment factor a dozen-fold.
Super Smash Bros.: Brawl
Release Date: March 3, 2009.
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Developer/Publisher: Nintendo
ESRB Rating: T
GameRankings: 92.75%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 8.5/10 (Very Good)
In Super Smash Brothers Brawl, the series trademark craziness seems to finally run a little thin, at least to me. Maybe it's my age relative to the other entries, maybe it's the inherent wonkiness of the Wii's controls (playing it with a GameCube controller helps, but obviously wasn't the original intent), maybe it's the so-called story mode that plays itself a little too seriously at times. Whatever the reason, I wasn't nearly as into SSB Brawl as I was either of the first two installments, especially 2001's Melee.
All that aside, it's still damned entertaining. Not really a whole lot else to say. If you enjoy these games, you'll have enjoyed Brawl. You know what it's all about.
Grand Theft Auto IV
Release Date: April 28, 2009.
Platform: PS3/360/PC
Developer/Publisher: Rockstar Games
ESRB Rating: M
GameRankings: 96.2%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 9.4/10 (Great)
Where the previous entries were nearly games, Grand Theft Auto IV is an experience. Where the previous games got by on sophomoric, (if occasionally hilarious) parody-based humor, GTA IV got by with a more serious, almost misanthropic view of American culture and Americans in general. Because of this, the series' trademark humor is elevated from merely interesting to venomous social satire, and the trademark violence is elevated from mere entertainment to a sort of social commentary on the role violence has in our culture. This is not to say that the story elements are necessarily any better than even San Andreas, but it is perhaps told more organically, moving naturally from island to island in a progression that feels more natural that the sometimes stilted storylines of the previous games.
And speaking of the islands, Liberty City in GTA IV is perhaps the deepest, most interactive, most vividly alive cityscape in all of gaming. It is, upon first play, truly mesmerizing. The attention to detail and to capturing the feel of New York City is as intricate and beautiful as anything every accomplished in a video game. This game really catapulted Rockstar into the upper echelon of game makers (a spot where it rightfully should have been all along). After this, the studio went from simply capturing the feel of a place (think of Vice City/Miami) to capturing the feel of a time. This game is the best in the series, the best in the genre, and one of the best ever to exist.Grand Theft Auto IV is the American Dream. They call it the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
And here's the theme song, just because that wasn't a gameplay video.
Soul Calibur IV
Release Date: July 29, 2008.
Platform: PS3/360
Developer/Publisher: Project Soul/Namco Bandai
ESRB Rating: T
GameRankings: 85%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 7.6/10 (Above Average)
You'll never hear me say this again, but I sort of wish someone had decided against using Star Wars. Soul Calibur IV is a very good installment of what is my own personal favorite fighting game franchise (which isn't saying much considering I'm not much of a fighting fan), but it was slightly ruined by the inclusion of three Star Wars characters, in anticipation of the release of the game directly succeeding this one on the list. It's really an unnatural combination, unlike guest characters in previous Soul Calibur games. Despite all of that, it really is a good game, maybe the best in the series. The character customization is superb, and the series' trademark depth is retained and expanded upon. Sure, a few characters (Mitsurugi) are still unbalanced, and sure, a few characters exist as nothing more than creepily oversexualized caricatures (Ivy), but it's still Soul Calibur, and it's still very good.
Despite all my whining about the Star Wars stuff before, this game is the closest we've yet to come to the good SW fighting game I've wanted my entire life. Imagine the people from Project Soul making a Star Wars fighting game with dozens of characters.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Release Date: September 18, 2008.
Platform: PS3/360/Wii
Developer/Publisher: LucasArts/Activision
ESRB Rating: T
GameRankings: 74%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 7.1/10 (Solid)
First and foremost, The Force Unleashed is an exercise in wasted potential. While not a bad game, it had the look, feel, and pedigree of a game that could have been great. That should have been great. As the centerpiece of the biggest multimedia project undertaken by LucasArts since Shadows of the Empire, TFU: the game was meant to be the Star Wars action game to end all Star Wars action games. It ended up being merely good.
Set in between the two trilogies, TFU stands as a perfectly decent go between between Episodes III and IV (referred to as "The Dark Times" in Star Wars canon). The plotline of the game is, in all honesty, a real strength, as is the performance of Sam Witwer as Starkiller, the game's main protagonist.
As far the action goes, it's pretty fantastically visceral, if a little thin. It's certainly fun, but the addition of a few too many quick time action sequences robs it of a little momentum, as does the enemy and level design. Also a horrible camera. Still, with the exception of the Jedi Knight series, no Star Wars game has captured the sheer power and brutality of being a lightsaber wielding badass as this game did.
Dead Space
Release Date: October 14, 2008.
Platform: PS3/360/PC
Developer/Publisher: EA Redwood Shores/EA
ESRB Rating: M
GameRankings: 89%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 8.3/10 (Good)
Dead Space is, to put it simply, the Resident Evil of this generation. Darker, shadowier, and much more terrifying than the one-tone Resident Evil 5, Dead Space explodes out of the gate (more about it here), establishing a general tone of uncertainty and fearfulness that persists for the entire game. Set in an original sci-fi future (that originally reminded me of the Mass Effect universe), Dead Space takes place almost entirely on the U.S.S. Ishimura, a "planet-cracker" ship that has fallen silent. The player, in the role of mostly silent engineer Isaac Clarke (somewhat cleverly named after famed sci-fi writer Isacc Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke), investigates the ship along with a small crew, most of whom die terrible, gory deaths to the creatures that have taken over the ship. The combat is less military engagement and more survival, and the weapons, which are mainly re-purposed engineering tools, are satisfying and believable. One interesting thing to note is that, for a survival horror game, Dead Space manages to delve into some relatively deep themes, such as corporate negligence, the perils of religion on the frontier, and the impact of loss on the Human psyche. Not bad for what, by all standards, is a space zombie game.
Fable II
Release Date: October 21, 2008.
Platform: Xbox 360
Developer/Publisher: Lionhead Studios/Microsoft
ESRB Rating: M
GameRankings: 81.5%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 7.6/10 (Above Average)
Fable II is a strange game. On one hand, it was the great equalizer for Peter Molynuex, his grand chance to atone for the perceived sins of pride he had committed with the original Fable. On the other hand, it's an even greater sin, as the game it supposedly was atoning for is actually a better game. Fable II has the same level of charm of British-ness that was a strength of the original, this time with a put-down industrial sheen that perhaps brings a little social criticism into the picture. Or maybe not. Really, I'm just giving lip service to the improvement Molynuex so obviously lived and died for.
That being said, this game does have possibly a more readily noticeable plot structure, and a better supporting cast. The gameplay, which is by no means unpleasant, is largely the same, which forces the setting to be where the improvements came from. They didn't. It's really unfortunate, to be honest. If Peter Molynuex would have just let this series speak for itself, it would have been rated where it belongs to be: very good. Not great, but good.
Fallout 3
Release Date: October 28, 2008.
Platform: PS3/360/PC
Developer/Publisher: Bethesda Game Studios/ZeniMax
ESRB Rating: M
GameRankings: 92.79%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 9.4/10 (Great)
Fallout 3 is, without a doubt, one of the bleakest and least hopeful big market games ever created. I love it. As a modernized, open world realization of a beloved franchise long thought dead, Fallout 3 wasn't initially well-received upon its original reveal. "Oblivion with guns" it was called. They couldn't have been farther from the truth. What makes this game more than what it might have at first been thought to be is the setting. Set in a post-apocalyptic Washington D.C., Fallout 3 makes use of a multitude of recognizable locations, from the Washington Monument to the Capitol Building, to really hammer home one of the game's most enduring themes: than man's existence is inexorably tied to war. This can be seen not only in the semi-destructed state of our nation's capital, but in the depths of the subway and cave systems, where the player can find evidence of loneliness the type of which you can't usually see in games.
Another of the games' defining themes is the idea that despite our destructive nature, man persists. We survive. And indeed, while mostly small and primitive, the game's settlements are enjoyable not only in their steampunk aesthetic, but in their sheer doggedness.
Don't be mistaken, though, this game is more than setting and exploration. The combat system is possibly the greatest blend of turn based and shooting mechanics in the history of the medium, and the storyline expands slowly over time, moving from a simple quest to find your father to a battle for the very future of the Capital Wasteland. Fallout 3 is, quite possibly, the best game of 2008, which is a high compliment indeed when GTA IV is still around.
Gears of War 2
Release Date: November 7, 2008.
Platform: Xbox 360
Developer/Publisher: Epic Games/Microsoft
ESRB Rating: M
GameRankings: 93.3%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 8.7/10 (Very Good)
Gears of War does everything we expect a sequel to do. It adheres to the gameplay formula that made the original such a success, while adding a mostly enjoyable amount of new weapons and mechanics. It builds off the story of the original, accepting a larger scope and more impactful endgame. It does everything the original did so well, but better. Then why don't I feel it was better? Perhaps it was because the original was, before release, very much an unknown quantity? Perhaps it was because for all its improvements, Gears 2 feels more impersonal and detached than the original?
It doesn't really matter, because Gears 2 is still a very, very good game, and it's still just as fun co-operatively, which I feel is the optimal way to play this entire series. Great fun.
Left 4 Dead
Release Date: November 18, 2008.
Platform: Xbox 360/PC
Developer/Publisher: Turtle Rock/Valve
ESRB Rating: M
GameRankings: 89%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 7.3/10 (Solid)
If you had asked me in January 2009 what my favorite game of 2008 was, I might have said Left 4 Dead. I initially bought it after trading in Dead Space, which, while possibly the superior game, doesn't have all that much replay value. Left 4 Dead is a Valve game, which for me guarantees a level quality in design on which the game certainly delivers. Co-operatively, it might be the first modern game I've ever played that truly encourages working together, instead of just stealing each other's kills. The AI Director, which, in theory, is supposed to make every playthrough different, is great fun the first few times you use it. Enemies come from completely different directions during the normal, "run and gun" gameplay. What is maybe a little disappointing is how the big, back to the wall confrontations always play out in the same way.
Still, the ability to play the game co-operatively with up to three other people lends itself to a pretty enjoyable time, as does the online versus mode. All you need to remember about L4D is that it really isn't even a game. Just an experiment. Even Valve's experiments are ridiculously enjoyable.
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