Games Awards 2008

[Haly]

As the year is swiftly drawing to a close and the main big hitters have come out now, I thought it was about time we had a bit of fun discussing our favourites of the year as well as the games we'd rather not think about again!

So *drumroll*:
what is your favourite game that has come out this year?
Your biggest letdown of the year, be it a game or some sort of hardware.
Your surprise of the year, again be it game or hardware.
The game or future innovation you're looking forward to in 2009.
For the 360ers amongst us: your Arcade game of the year, and for the PS3ers your PSN game of the year (I'm guessing I got that right, I've not used one ). Couldn't think of something similar for the PC gamers sorry!

For those who want to cut and paste:
Your game of the year:
Single player gaming experience of the year:
Multiplayer gaming experience of the year:
Biggest Letdown of the year:
Surprise of the year:
Game or gaming innovation you're most excited about for 2009:

Xbox Live Arcade game of the year:
PSN game of the year:

Write as much or as little as you want but a bit of reasoning as to your answers always makes these things more interesting
Let the discussion commence

[NokkonWud]

Your game of the year: Gears of War 2.
Single player gaming experience of the year: Football Manager 2008 or Metal Gear Solid 4.
Multiplayer gaming experience of the year: Fifa 09.
Biggest Letdown of the year: Burnout Paradise.
Surprise of the year: Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.
Game or gaming innovation you're most excited about for 2009: Alan Wake.

Xbox Live Arcade game of the year: Duke 3D
PSN game of the year: Wipeout HD

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My Game of the year would probably be Halo 3 because of the 4 player run-through, the 0gp achievement run-through of the final level and then completing it again with my friend was so much fun and as a co-op game it takes some real beating, but the game was released in 2007 so it's a little unfair to add it to this list. Gears of War 2 takes it because of the above reason, I went through it with my friend and loved it, I thought it improved on every single element from the first one and the story actually had me gripped.

My SP game of the year isn't actually Gears of War 2 though because I did it in Co-op, not Single Player. For me there are some really top end games that I just don't get the enjoyment out of in SP that I do in MP, Gears of War 2 and Little Big Planet are the two most obvious, another is Fifa 09. So for this it was a top up between possibly the two most opposite directions games could go in, one cinematic and Hollywood movie-esque, the other a simple database with nothing remotely flashy about it. In gameplay terms Football Manager 2008 got far more hours because it took more hours, but I loved every minute of it to the point I could go and earn 1000/1000 again right now if I wanted. I completed MGS4 3 times and really liked it each time. Again, cheating it would be Bioshock which I completed again, but like Halo 3 above it wouldn't be right. I can't split the other 2 though.

My MP game of the year isn't Gears of War 2 or Little Big Planet but Fifa 09, a game that I play every time for hours with my friends and never get bored of it. I never get sick of trying cunning tricks, surprise shots or audacious free-kicks. It's just brilliant in 1 on 1 and technically the best Football game ever created - although for me, still not the best.

Biggest letdown was Burnout Paradise purely due to the repetition of the progression through career where you would do missions at the same crossings every time you leveled up. The game wasn't helped by the incredibly twitchy crash system which looked brilliant the first few times, but just became a time-wasting chore there-after and most certainly wasn't aided by the removal of 'Traffic Checking'. The map was massively unbalanced with all races seemingly ending in the NW where there were very few races to do. The game also lacked any real structure, a massive flaw for me and the killer for this. The next in the series must be more like Revenge.

Surprise of the Year is a real surprise and something I've only uncovered over the last 2 weeks. In fact, this was the case for the 2 games that were in with a chance of winning this, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe and Civilization Revolution. Civilization Revolution is a game I rented despite not liking the genre because I'd never played a Civilization game before and thought I should give it a chance. It turned out to be much more like Populous and Age of Empires than Command and Conquer and Company of Heroes, very engaging and hugely addictive. MKVSDCU won however because it's a real return to form for a franchise that has been devoid of any quality for over a decade, but with this new iteration it's brought a whole new freshness back that was needed. Firstly it's rather pretty for a gritty beat-em up, secondly it has a very good character list (though no Johnny Cage is a sin [amongst others]) and the DC Universe characters work very well, playing like MK characters and thirdly, the game plays much more like the old-school Mortal Kombat games 1 through 3.

I'm not surprising anyone who knows me with my most anticipated title of 2009, Alan Wake, so I won't expand .

XBox Live Arcade game was easy, I only bought 1 and was only interested in 1. Arguably one of 3 greatest FPS franchises of all time Duke Nukem 3D is still funny and ported surprisingly well to Xbox360 with no real flaws to think of.

PSN game of the year is an easy one, Wipeout HD is excellent. Fast, beautiful and difficult, Wipeout HD plays more like a traditional £40 game than something you would see on XBLA and that's definitely to its credit. Wipeout could compete with any racing game this year on any format and probably come out on top. It's only flaw is it's godawful soundtrack, thankfully Sony and Studio Liverpool managed to get the ability to play songs stored on the HDD.

[Creature]

Your game of the year: Rock Band.
Single player gaming experience of the year: Fable 2, seeing as i've not really played many new games.
Multiplayer gaming experience of the year: Rock Band.
Biggest Letdown of the year: GTA or Fallout
Surprise of the year: None really, like I said not really played many new games....possibly RB as I expected it to be pretty easy and thus, boring.
Game or gaming innovation you're most excited about for 2009: New Rock Band if they make it, otherwise, WET.

Xbox Live Arcade game of the year: Braid
PSN game of the year: N/A

[Haly]

I think Alan Wake was your anticipated game for 2008 too Nokkon

Your game of the year: Fable 2
Single player gaming experience of the year: Fable 2
Multiplayer gaming experience of the year: Gears of War 2
Biggest Letdown of the year: Spiderman: Web of Shadows
Surprise of the year: Fifa 09
Game or gaming innovation you're most excited about for 2009: Final Fantasy 13/new Star Ocean game

Xbox Live Arcade game of the year: Braid
PSN game of the year: N/A

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It's probably no surprise to most of you that Fable 2 is my game of the year and my single player experience of the year. I appreciate that in places it is deeply flawed, it's too short if you only play the main quest and that as per usual Peter Molyneux promised way more than he gave. But I still loved every minute of it! It gave me pure escapism for the two weeks or so that I devoted to this gem. It's one of those few games that I would love to erase my memory of just so I could play through it again. I'm really glad it lived up to my expectations as far too many games don't, most notably Mass Effect last year.

For my multiplayer experience of the year it has to be Gears of War 2. I don't overly rate the single player, it's fine but not amazing if you ask me. However when played in co-op (which I suspect is how it was meant to be played), it's great fun. I haven't actually played regular multiplayer yet, this award is based on co-op and Horde mode which shows just how much I rate them both. Horde is brilliant fun, an extremely simple concept when you think about it but perfectly realised. Can't wait to see how they manage to improve upon it for Gears 3.

I haven't really been let down by a game this year so it was a bit tricky to decide. It was between Sonic Chronicles and Spiderman: Web of Shadows. When I was sent Sonic Chronicles to review, I was really looking forward to trying it as I figured Bioware + Sonic must equal excellent. It was just too kiddy and basic, seems like a terrible waste of a game. However Spiderman was such a waste. The first half of the game was brilliant fun and Treyarch completely blew it for the second half I didn't actually have high expectations of this till I played the first half and if the whole game had been like it, it would have been in my top 10 games of the year. Instead, it became merely average and deeply flawed. If Fallout 3 continues the way it is at the moment, it might win this but I'm giving it a fair while longer first.

Surprise of the year was Fifa 09. Might seem an odd choice to some but I haven't played a football game in a couple of years. The last ones were Pro Evo 6 and Fifa 07 and Pro Evo ruled entirely but was a little limited in options. I didn't really pay attention to the 08 varieties. So when I heard such good reviews about Fifa 09, I risked it as Tesco had it quite cheap. Really glad I did. It is great fun and feels like the full package to me. I especially love the Be a Pro mode, something I've wanted for years in a football game! Really glad I bought it.

No surprise that I can't wait for FF13! Star Ocean I loved on the PS1 so got my fingers tightly crossed for a good one on the 360 Also looking forward to Tales of Vesperia....hmm maybe I should change my vote to 'any 360 JRPG'

Braid was a truly unique piece of gaming on the Arcade so it had to be Arcade game of the year for me Nice to see some original independent gaming still around!

[NokkonWud]

Originally Posted by Haly

I think Alan Wake was your anticipated game for 2008 too Nokkon

And 2007 \o/.

[Danny]

Your game of the year:

Rockband. No competiton, I will still be playing this in 3 years time.

Single player gaming experience of the year:

Rockband gets booted up everyday to get that bit further and better

Multiplayer gaming experience of the year:

COD4

Biggest Letdown of the year:

Too many to choose one, SW TFU (just ****, im a huge SW fan with just about every novel before and after the films and this game crapped on them all from a great height. Not only that is was worse than a 8 year old jedi academy game)

Gears of Bore 2. Dull, nothing new and the old wasn't that hard of interesting. Oh and the MP is broken but no one wants to make an issue out of it because it's not fashionable yet to diss gears. Plus xbox fanboys shy away from saying it is indeed crap because its an xbox exclusive.

Pes 09. Too poor to even spend time typing about.

GHWT poor charting dull game.

Surprise of the year:

Fifa 09, I love it.

Game or gaming innovation you're most excited about for 2009:

Rockband 3

Xbox Live Arcade game of the year:

Castle crashers

PSN game of the year:

It has games?

[divine]

Your game of the year:
Left 4 Dead. Long ago was it that a game got me this hooked, in fact I think the last thing I got this into was HL2. Just such an unbelievably incredible amount of fun to play online, shouting at friends etc.

Single player gaming experience of the year:
Call of Duty 4. I dunno if this was released 2008 or 2007 tbh but I didn't get it til mid way through the year and my word it is fantastic, very gripping, looked lovely, played well and I barely put it down start to finish.

Multiplayer gaming experience of the year:
Well, L4D again. Just the sheer excitement and sense of camaraderie it creates as all four of you run back to the safe room away from a tank, taking shots as you go, dive in, lock the door, breath a sigh of relief and start to think of a plan when the door gets smashed in, you realise you can't hide that easy and then have to fight off a tank in a confined space, rendering you bent double with laughter 2 minutes later. Absolutely love it.

Biggest Letdown of the year:
Spore. Promised the world, delivered nothing. Boring repetitive and no depth. Takes about 8 hours to go from start to end game and each stage is just an exceptionally simplistic take on an existing genre. Plus all the DRM bollocks screwing over people who had the audacity to actually go and buy it. Rubbish. GTA would have been contender here but it was always going to be shocking tbh and I can't say i'm letdown as I had no interest or expectation of it anyway.

Surprise of the year:
Audiosurf. Popped out of nowhere on Steam, cheap as chips, simple idea yet keeps me coming back to it.

Game or gaming innovation you're most excited about for 2009:
Black Mesa Source. Looks absolutely incredible, I don't think there has ever been a mod like it, so immensely polished, it looks better than HL2, incredible achievement. Hopefully they'll finish soon, the latest trailer looks epic.

[Aboobie]

Your game of the year: Mirrors Edge
Single player gaming experience of the year: Mirrors Edge

My 4 favourite games this year have been Mirrors Edge, Fallout 3, Lost Odyssey and Banjo Kazooie and it was hard to pick a stand out title. Mirrors Edge has an ambience that feels all consuming. I am in this world, I am Faith running over the rooftops, leaping and scrambling and avoiding the police. I finished the game twice and not a day has passed since selling it that I don't think about it.

Other honourable mentions: Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Banjo Kazooie, Lost Odyssey, Bully: Scholarship Edition & Fable 2.

Multiplayer gaming experience of the year: Gears of War 2

Playing Horde with you guys and the Single Player campaign coop with my best buddy; good times.

Biggest Letdown of the year: Fable 2

Now before you all say 'what?' I'm not saying Fable 2 is bad, quite the contrary and I'd still give it 9/10. It's just that I'd built up my expectations perhaps to a unrealistic level. I expected a more dynamic feel to cause and effect design methodology rather than cookie cutter do x, y happens. I also thought the game, for a rpg, was very short, too short.

Surprise of the year: Banjo Kazooie

I didn't get on with the demo but I'm absolutely loving the game. Probably the best looking current console title and full of humour and imagination. If in doubt listen to the latest Giant Bombast where Jeff can't throw enough superlatives at it.

Game or gaming innovation you're most excited about for 2009: Mass Effect 2

Now I think this will appear next year and as Mass Effect was my 2007 GOTY I couldn't really say anything else... Well I could, if Dragon Age: Origins makes an appearance on the 360!

Xbox Live Arcade game of the year: Braid

Simply brilliant.

Other honourable mentions: Castle Crashers & Geometry Wars 2.

PSN game of the year: n/a

The only PSN title I've played was Wipeout HD and to be honest I wasn't that smitten so going to pass.

[Davey_Pitch]

Your game of the year: Fallout 3
Single player gaming experience of the year: Fallout 3
Multiplayer gaming experience of the year: Gears of War 2
Biggest Letdown of the year: Don King Presents: Prize Fighter
Surprise of the year: Fifa 09
Game or gaming innovation you're most excited about for 2009: Resident Evil 5, or Mass Effect 2
Xbox Live Arcade game of the year: Poker Smash

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Only took me a few moments to figure this one out. I was hugely anticipating this game, and I was worried that it wouldn't live up to my expectations. After an hour or two, I was still worried as the game started pretty slowly. Once I left the Vault though and started exploring the huge open world, I was never less than impressed. Even though most missions were similar in style (go somewhere, kill things, speak to someone/get item), they felt different which is the really important thing. There was also an excellent storyline which I really enjoyed, even though it was fairly predictable in nature. It did have its flaws, such as travel around the main part of DC being difficult because of all the rubble, but even then it felt realistic, they just could have handled it better. When you put everything together, it's my game of the year, and my single player game of the year.

For my multiplayer game of the year, it has to be Gears of War 2. I was tempted to put Call of Duty 4 down, even though it came out last year, simply because of how much I played it, then thought it was going against the spirit of things I honestly couldn't tell you what I feel about the single player side of things with Gears, as I've only played it in co-op so far, on Normal with Leo, and picking at Insane with Daz. As Jen mentioned, co-op definitely feels how this game is meant to be played. Horde is also exceptionally good fun, and it should have a really long shelf life as more maps are released, and as we as players get better and can go through Insane better. It's also better when played with mates as communication is absolutely key, in Horde and in co-op.

It took me a little while to think of my biggest disappointment of the year, as I tend not to play too many poor games. In the end Prize Fighter took the dubious honour. It does so many things right. It has a wonderful career mode, told in flashbacks by real boxers and actors, and the career itself is really nicely laid out. Unfortunately though, the main part of the game, the boxing action itself, is a let down. The intuitive right stick control from Fight Night is replaced by an old school face button set up, which just doesn't seem right now. Collision detection is dubious at best, as punches go through shoulders and bodies. Defending is often difficult as you can struggle to get your guard up quickly should you start shipping too many punches. Overall it's not actually that bad a game, but it had so much promise that I do feel let down that it didn't fulfil it.

My surprise of the year is definitely Fifa 09. I've been a PES man since it was first released, and even when people slated PES 08, I loved it and stuck with it, even though I could see Fifa was improving a bit. I picked up Euro 2008 on the cheap and enjoyed it, but I wasn't prepared at all for how good Fifa 09 would be. It feels like a proper game of football. You can't run through the opposition team with one player (though a speedy striker against a slow defender makes this easier), you need to pass the ball around, make space, and create proper openings. I can't think of a football game I've enjoyed this much in a long time. Definitely my surprise hit of the year.

The game I'm looking forward to the most next year is Resident Evil 5. I haven't followed the development much, so don't know too much about it (other than you can play it in co-op which should be freaking awesome). I do know however, that Resi 4 is one of the best games of all time and any sequel to that is going to be hugely anticipated by me. I've put Mass Effect 2 in there as well as my most anticipated game of next year. I know it's not been announced at all, but the original was released a year ago and I know it's part of a trilogy, and I think 3 years between games is going to be too much. I'm expecting an announcement about this next year at one of the gaming expo's, with a November release for it. Assuming I'm right, then this will definitely be my most anticipated game of next year.

I was really struggling to think of anything as my favourite XBL Arcade game of the year, as I've not bought much this year. The most enjoyable that I can think of right now though is definitely Poker Smash. It's a scrolling tile matching game where you have to make three of a kinds, flushes, straights and the like, and it's good fun. It's the only one that sticks in my mind anyway as being released this year that I spent a lot of time on

[leowyatt]

Your game of the year: Gears 2
Single player gaming experience of the year: Fable 2
Multiplayer gaming experience of the year: Gears of War 2
Biggest Letdown of the year: Assassins Creed
Surprise of the year: Mirror's Edge
Game or gaming innovation you're most excited about for 2009: Resident Evil 5
Xbox Live Arcade game of the year: Braid/Castle Crashers
PSN game of the year: N/A

I'll stick some more stuff down later. I know assassins creed was end of 2007 but I haven't played many games this year.