2007 Games of the Year
This was easily the best year for nerds for a long, long time. The Xbox 360 received a ton of great titles and the PS3 threw up a few for good measure. I spent a fortune on games this year, but honestly got my money's worth. I found it interesting that my tastes have really skewed towards simpler games with cheap thrills (ex: explosions).
Top Games
In no particular order...
Crackdown: I didn't get Xbox Live until about Spring of this year. I spent my first few days downloading every Arcade and Game demo I could find to test what I'd been missing. Crackdown was a game I never expected to buy, but I loved the demo so much that it migrated to the purchase category.
The best way to describe my experience with it is Spiderman with a rocket launcher. Why drive around the city (using the awful car controls) when jumping from rooftop to rooftop was faster? The complete lack of direction was awesome and the stylized,though tad generic, world was just the right size. The co-op didn't hurt. All in all, I played through the game three times and eventually got my character to the Master Agent level. There are some great achievements in this game and I loved almost every minute of it.
Warhawk: What? A PS3 game? I've only spent about 12 hours playing Warhawk, but I love it enough to discuss it further. Incognito did an awesome job bringing Battlefield to the consoles, without the squads, classes or things that just didn't need to be there. The action is fast and it never lets up.
Tanks are a lot of fun, but the Warhawks take the cake. Hover mode is great for taking out tanks or infantry, but a quick button press moves you to hover mode. Advanced manuevers are easy to pull off using the right stick, and if you really want to push it you can string manuevers and weapons together to do some great stuff. There are few things more satisfying than pulling a loop, throwing chaff, then whipping around to get on your opponent's six to shoot him down.
They improved upon the Crimson Skies flight controls (brilliant!) and provided a game that has tones of variety. It's pretty slick and I really appreciate Sony signing off on such a hardcore (online only multiplayer) game.
Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction: I love this series. Insomniac has never disappointed me with these two characters. The series remains funny, easy to play (with challenge mode when you're ready for more), the addictive weapon upgrades, gorgeous and still filled with fresh experiences.
Flying on glider wings to hunt dinosaurs was awesome. The new RYNO IV is insane and worth all the effort to find. I love playing against the space pirates, especially for their awesome soundtrack. This was an R&C game through and through, which is fine by me. A quick side note -- this is the game that made me say "ah, the PS3 can do some great things!" Long draw distance, not a jaggy in sight, smooth framerate and brief load times. It's a great showcase for the poor platform.
Halo 3: This was just a great game. Sure, there wasn't anything terribly "new" about it. Except for the story that made sense, the perfectly balanced weapons, 4 player online co-op...nothing new at all.
I haven't played the game that much on single player -- I've already played two Halos and I've seen it before. But, riding on the wing of a jet, then jumping off to board a scarab tank to destroy it from the inside, while my comrades take down another on the other side of the map...that's pretty damn epic. Playing Team Slayer with 3 buddies was also incredibly fun. Bungie has made the most tactical, intense death match experience and it never got old. You never have to worry about playing with idiots when you have friends around.
I guess that's the make or break point for Halo 3 -- if you are playing alone, it's good. If you have a group of people, it's phenomenal.
(posted by grant at 12/26/2007)
