Videogame of the year nominations

I should start off by saying this ‘Best Of’ title is a bit of a misnomer as I won’t be covering PC games because I think their days are numbered. Also since the PS3 didn’t have many exclusive titles in it’s first years release and as most games are becoming multi platform now days I will be focusing on games from the xbox360. I will however list other platform releases in the nominees list, so feel free to let me know if I’ve left out your favorites.

We’ve been blessed with such a bumper crop of quality video games this year that its going to be hard to decide which is the best. Fear not though reader as I’ve carried out the hard task of playing most of them so let me guide you through some of the best.

This year was definitely the year of the shooter as there were so many great FPS’s to choice from. These included the atmospheric & claustrophobic Bioshock, the feature packed Half life 2: Orange Box, the cinematic action of Call of Duty 4 and the Hype machine otherwise know as Halo 3.

While Half life 2 was originally released on the PC way back in 2004, the inclusion of the 2 new add-on packs, the quirky multiplayer game team fortress and the stupidly addictive and funny puzzle game Portal made it the best value for money game all year (if not all time). In fact Portal deserves a special mention due to it’s creative use of physics puzzles, fantastic humor and one of the best videogame endings ever. While this game can probably be finished in one day, the experience is so good its probably worth the full $80 purchase price of the Orange box alone.

In February we were fully immersed into the world of Bioshock. From the dramatic plane crash beginning you could tell you were in for something special. It’s jaw dropping graphics, fantastic steam punk soundtrack and slow unraveling of the story via audio logs fully sucked you into the moody underwater world of Atlantis. Like most game releases this year Bioshock stuck with you long after the credits rolled. Who doesn’t remember their first encounter with a big daddy? The creative usage of magic plasmids and old fashion weapons such as flamethrower,crossbow and tommy gun made combat exciting and flexible. The ability to customise your skills almost made this game feel like an FPS RPG hybrid. It has since been announced that a sequel is in the works and here’s hoping that it’s as good as the original.

The arrival of Call of Duty 4 finally pushed FPS’s into the modern age in breathtaking style. The stunning graphics, spectacular firefights and superb music and sound really made you feel like you were in the middle of the action and lent the game a real cinematic quality (imagine black hawk down). While the single player campaign was all over in about 5 hrs there were plenty of holy shit thats cool moments, like the level were you camouflage yourself in a ghillie suit and stalk across enemy lines. Of course there was plenty more action available in the multi-player mode which offered 16 maps, 6 game types and a unique ranking system that allowed you to upgrade your character with RPG type skills. Taken as a whole COD4 was a great action blockbuster that finally broke out of the dusty days of WWII and into fresh new territory.

Speaking of blockbusters in 2007 there were none bigger than the release of Halo 3. While the hype machine had been running since last year it went into overtime when the multiplayer Beta trial was unleashed. Apparently his wasn’t enough to appease people and the game ended up being leaked only days ahead of its release date.
During the official launch in the US Halo 3 ended up becoming the biggest entertainment release in history with $170 Million in sales within the first 24 hrs. This number then jumped to $300 million worldwide in the 1st week making it the fastest selling game in history.
So ignoring this hype was the game any good? Graphics wise, there were controversial comments that the game didn’t support full HD and it only ran at 640p resolution. Bungie defended this by most declaring that games on next generation consoles are upscaled to the resolution of your monitor/TV to run at acceptable speeds.This may therefore explain why Halo 3 didn’t look much better than its 2004′s predecessor.
It could also be said that 3 years of development could have lead to a longer and more original single player campaign, but I suppose there’s the old adage that you can’t fix what isn’t broken. The presence of a solid and improved Co-operative mode and the conclusion of the epic storyline did redeem things somewhat and pleased many longtime fans.
The strongest element of the series has always been the multiplayer side and in this regard Halo 3 definitely didn’t disappoint. The inclusion of the new fly on the wall editor called Forge allowed for interesting and unlimited permutations within the game modes and maps. The solid match ranking system and the inclusion of exciting vehicles and weapons lead to plenty of hectic shootouts which should easily keep fans busy until the next release.

While GTAIV was pushed back to next year our free roaming action/adventure fix was provided by Assassins Creed. The original Jerusalem setting, responsive fighting system and amazing rooftop gymnastics built upon the success of previous titles such as Prince Of Persia and Hitman. While the mission structure wasn’t as free form as expected and certain aspects were repetitive, it still provided plenty of exhilarating moments.

While the 360 has been typically short of RPGs, the catalog was slightly expanded with the Sci-fi epic Mass Effect and the Japanese title Eternal Sonata.
Eternal Sonata had beautiful artistic graphics and an original light/dark based fighting system that bucked the trend of most turn based RPGs. The superb original soundtrack provided by Chopan and inclusion of interesting historical facts made his classical music a strong and interesting centerpiece of the game. It was therefore surprising that even with these aspects the overall story was generic and was unfortunately the weakest part of the package (stop the evil king from destroying the world). The cutesy characters and pathetic dialog were also squarely aimed at people loving traditional Japanese RPGs games and overall Eternal Sonata was an acquired taste that will either charmed or baffled players.

Just like Oblivion the year before, Mass effect was an RPG that appealed to both hardcore genre fans or those that had never picked one up before. The superb voice acting, creative alien races and memorable NPCs lead support to a fantastically scripted storyline and made you feel like you were playing part in a massive space drama.
The in-depth character personalisation not only allowed you to choose how you looked, but how you acted. Do you want to play as a ruthless Renegade that does whatever is necessary to get the job done, do you play a paragon by following the rules or maybe you choose a gray region in between? The choice was truly your’s with a complex dialog system that made every decision feel like it had true consequences. The FPS style shooting was also a lot of fun especially when you threw biotic or tech skills into the mix. There’s something immensely satisfy about throwing enemies around or picking them up and plugging them full of shotgun blasts. The ability to explore the outer reaches of space carrying out optional quests resulted in plenty of non-linear play and the multiple endings and different ways of playing will probably make you come back for more than 20 hrs of play.
Unfortunately the graphical glitches that occurred throughout were a blemish on an otherwise perfect game. For some reason there was a delay on textures on characters and walls appearing. It was somewhat jarring to constantly wait for a character blurry features to become sharp while talking to them. The Mass Effect sequel has been since been announced and hopefully it will successfully continue the gripping storyline and rectify these graphical problems.

Throughout the year rev heads and adrenaline junkies were appeased with arcade driving in the form of Project Gotham 4, rally driving with Dirt or there was Forza Motorsport for those wanting more realistic frustration simulation.

The release of Guitar Hero III had fans slinging their new improved wireless guitars in the name of rock. The presence of a strong track list with only a few dodgy cover tracks resulted in the best game of the series. While the rival music simulation game Rock Band is said to blow GHIII out of the water I can’t include it in this years list since it’s not out in Australia until 2008.

This year there were also a few big developments on the gaming front.
Usually videogame geeks wet their pants during the massive announcements at E3 but this years expo came and went with barely a whisper. This was mainly due to last years dramatic announcement that it would be closed to the public and it would be reallocation to a smaller venue. This resulted in a lot of big games developers pulling the plug and a lack of any real gaming news.
Luckily Melbourne got it’s fix in November with the 2nd year of the Egames Expo. While most games on display had already been released it was a good chance to check out the recent releases vying for our dollar. There was also a press release from Sony Australia and while nothing major was announced it was good to see the big boys get involved and hopefully the event will be even bigger and better next year.

One development that affected a lot of xbox360 owners was the outbreak of the horrible red ring of death (RROD). While there had been talk of this problem in 2006 it wasn’t until 2007 that a sudden influx of broken consoles suddenly surfaced. Microsoft pulled their usual dodgy by initially trying to cover up the issue but they partially redeemed themselves by repairing the faulty units and announcing an extension on the warranty.
In my social circle 4/5 people received the RROD throughout the year. The problem was mainly attributed to overheating and in my case it came at the worst possible time as I had just purchased Eternal Sonata, Mass Effect and COD4.
There was a positive aspect to this debacle If you were smart enough to buy the extended warranty from EB games. My friend Count Knuckles managed to score a new quieter HDMI unit with no questions asked when he returned his busted one to EB. So let that be a warning to purchase an extended warranty if you have the chance.

The biggest videogame controversy of the year however involved the release of Rockstars Manhunt 2. While it was initially planned for release in June the American Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) slapped it with an adults only rating for ‘unremitting bleakness’ and ‘casual sadism’. Rockstar then had to edit the game as all the major consoles will not allow AO games to be sold on their consoles which ended up pushing back the US release date until December. Things were further complicated when the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) took Rockstar to court over the release of the amended game in the UK. The Video Appeals Committee ruled on the side of Rockstar, but this decision was appealed by the BBFC and the case has now been taken to the High Court with the game still not being released in the UK.
While this whole issue further highlights the frustration of Censorship in video games the case is ironically concluded with the fact that the original uncut version of Manhunt 2 can be downloaded on the internet anyway.

In other news the makers of the Halo series Bungie decided to branch out on their own and split with their previous partners Microsoft. It will be interesting to see whether this move will result in them releasing games as big as Halo in the future.

While one split another two companies joined to create one of the biggest merges in computer game history. Vivendi (Blizzard), merged with Activision in an estimated $18.9 Billion dollar deal. For those unaware Blizzard is the creator of the biggest multiplayer game in history with World of Warcraft, while Activision is the maker of COD4, Tony Hawk and the massively popular Guitar Hero series. Hopefully this outcome won’t result in a gaming monopoly that restricts the creation of original games otherwise the Activision Blizzards next step may be taking over the world.

Well as you can probably tell from the length of this post 2007 has probably been the best time for video games ever. Hopefully my wrap up of this years biggest xbox360 releases have brought back memories of some of your favorite titles. So what are you waiting for, put down your controllers and start voting.

Xbox 360 Nominees

1. Forza Motorsport: MS game studio
2. The Darkness: 2K games
3. Bioshock: 2k games
4. Halo 3: MS game studio
5. Project Gotham 4: MS game studio
6. Half life 2: The Orange Box: EA games
7. The Simpsons Game: EA games
8. Call Of Duty 4: Activision
9. Guitar Hero III: Activision
10. Mass Effect: MS game studio
11. Assassins Creed: Ubisoft
12. Eternal Sonata: Atari

Wii Nominees

1. Wariowares: Smooth Moves: Nintendo
2. Medal of honour heroes 2: EA games
3. Zack & Wiki: Capcom
4. Superpaper Mario: Nintendo
5. Resident Evil 4: Capcom
6. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption: Nintendo
7. SuperMario Galaxy: Nintendo
8. Trauma Centre: New Blood: Atlus Co.

PSP Nominees

1. Sid Meier’s Pirates: 2K games
2. Puzzle Quest: D3
3. Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters: SCEE
4. Final Fantasy Tactics: Square Enix
5. Star Wars Battlefront: Lucasarts
5. Syphon Filter: Logans Shadow: SCE