15 Years of Gaming, Part 12 (2006)

2006 was the first full year of life for the Xbox 360, and it was a year dominated by that machine. Despite a litany of hardware problems, the 360 jumped out to a lead that it only recently lost to the Play Station 3. I bought a 360 in June of this year.



The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Release Date: March 20, 2006
Platform: Xbox 360/PC/PS3
ESRB Rating: M
Developer/Publisher: Bethesda Game Studios/2k Games
GameRankings: 94%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 9.2/10 (Great)

Here's an anecdote. In the summer of 2006 (late June/early July, mainly), my friend and I procured a copy of Oblivion for play on my still brand new Xbox 360. We played for, literally, an entire week. I beat the main storyline, he didn't. He beat the fighter's guild storyline, I didn't. Regardless, we both put at least 35 hours into it. I felt like I had gotten as much out of it as I had any other game I had ever played.

A few weeks later, I was talking to a different friend, one whom I consider the biggest Bethesda fan I know. He was telling me of some of the random things he'd done and found, and I came to a realization. He was talking about towns and dungeons I'd never even discovered, in areas I'd never ever been to. That should give you some inkling of just how huge Oblivion's game world is.

This should give you some sense of how beautiful it is. This game has one of the best night skies in the history of gaming.

Hitman: Blood Money
Release Date: May 30, 2006.
Platform: Xbox 360/PC/PS2/XBOX
ESRB Rating: M
Developer/Publisher: IO Interactive/Eidos
GameRankings: 82%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 7.7/10 (Above Average)

I had never played a Hitman game before I downloaded the Blood Money demo on a whim. That was a good decision. Dark, stylish, and morally ambiguous, this entry in the series hinges (as I imagine they all do) on how, exactly, one would go about murdering seemingly untouchable people for money.

Not the most endearing premise, not the most endearing protagonist. But there's a certain charm in finding these solutions, and they never fail to deliver on their dark comedic potential.

Also, the credits sequence is possibly the greatest in the history of the medium.

Half-Life 2: Episode One
Release Date: June 1, 2006.
Platform: Xbox 360/PC/PS3
ESRB Rating: M
Developer/Publisher: Valve Corporation
GameRankings: 86%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 8.8/10 (Very Good)

You won't find me spouting many (or any) negatives about the Half-Life games on here, but if there is one to be found about Episode One, it's that the game perhaps plays it safe a little too much. The majority of the game takes place in the same general area as the last third of the original HL2. From a plotting perspective, this makes sense, and it certainly doesn't mean the game is repetitive in any way, but it is perhaps a little unexpected from a series and developer so noted for their never-ending creativity.

All that being said, HOLY SHIT A NEW HALF-LIFE LESS THAN TWO YEARS AFTER THE LAST ONE.

Final Fantasy XII
Release Date: October 31, 2006.
Platform: PlayStation 2
ESRB Rating: T
Developer/Publisher: Square Enix/Ubisoft Entertainment
GameRankings: 90.64%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 7.8/10 (Above Average)

Final Fantasy XII was billed by many reputable critics as the "Best Game of 2006." As much as it pains me to say, I heartily disagree. FFXII was, in many ways, an unmitigated train wreck. It's storyline, while by no means simple, seemed to lack the same impetus as the series' best. Maybe this should be blamed on the characters, who, for the most part, aren't nearly compelling enough to warrant making a 40+ hour journey with.

The gameplay seemed to me to be a derivative of KOTOR's battle system, and while this certainly wasn't a bad thing, it didn't come across as a more modern or necessary system than the pure turn based system the series had become famous with. FFX was still a blast to play in 2006 and it's still a blast to play now. If it a'int broke...

Still, FFXII was by no means a bad game. Being the least compelling Final Fantasy of the past ten years still means it was more compelling than most major games could ever aspire to be.

Guitar Hero II
Release Date: November 7, 2006.
Platform: Xbox 360/PlayStation 2
ESRB Rating: T
Developer/Publisher: Harmonix/Activision
GameRankings: 93%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 7.6/10 (Above Average)

Behold! TWO COVERS!

The Guitar Hero series was, quite possibly, the biggest flash in the pan in the history of the entire medium. Appropriately, it was a one-hit wonder (that actually had two hits). The first game, while seen critically as ingenious, wasn't quite the pop culture phenomenon some would have you believe (though it was certainly an unexpected success). The second had a build up usually reserved for the Triple A developers (or at least a Madden game), and it really lived up to it.

Sure, there were still a disconcerting amount of cover versions, and sure, the game's difficulty curve would be better expressed as a difficulty cliff, but it was unimaginably fun to play, and never really seemed to lose that "just one more" luster, which is a rare feat indeed. There have been other (possibly better) games in the series since, but GH2 was the first one I played, so it holds a spot in my gaming heart the other's can't replicate.

Plus, it had "Trogdor" in it.

Gears of War
Release Date: November 7, 2006.
Platform: Xbox 360
ESRB Rating: M
Developer/Publisher: Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios
GameRankings: 94%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 9.0/10 (Great)

The Gears of War series has, perhaps more than any other, carried the proverbial torch for the Xbox 360. Released a little over a year after the system's debut, Gears (or GoW 1), blew away any and all expectations I had for it. Unique, visceral and maddeningly intense, it was the rare cover based shooting game in which you actually felt afraid to leave cover, for fear that poking your head out would cause you to lose it.

The game also had a very smooth control system and a driven, purposeful setting that really brought it's points home to you, managing to be that rare post-apocalyptic game that didn't feel like an epilogue to something. Perhaps the characters were a little one-note (as in, every character fulfills the same, exact note), and maybe the plot didn't delve as deep as the setting would seem to demand, but Gears 1 was blisteringly intense and well worth a play today, never mind when it came out.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Release Date: November 19, 2006.
Platform: Nintendo Wii/Gamecube
ESRB Rating: T
Developer/Publisher: Nintendo EAD
GameRankings: 95%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 8.4/10 (Good)

Full disclosure: I never beat Twilight Princess. In fact, I barely played it. Perhaps four hours of my life have been spent playing this game. Then why is it on this list? Simple: it's a Zelda game, it's going to above average almost by default.

That being said, what I did play was damned good and seemed to be an interesting variation of the modern Zelda combat system we've all come to know and love over the past two decades.

Eventually, someone in my circle of close friends/family will get a Wii, and I'll play TP.