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June is over. You know what that means, right? It means a) 2008 is half finished and b) whoa, slow down, summer, what's your hurry, you just got here? It also means it's time for the First Annual Half-Year Awards. These don't mean a lot in the overall scheme of annual things, since the big guns are often slated for the holidays. But, like any site, we welcome the opportunity to throw around superlatives like "best" and "worst". So check out our best and worst of the half-year after the jump.
The Best of the 2008 Half-Year
A quick confession: "best" simply means My Own Personal Favorites. Your mileage, of course, may vary.
5) Grand Theft Auto IV
An utterly flawed game in an utterly brilliant world.
4) Lost Winds
If you were to set up a complicated mathematical formula that measured quality of gameplay divided by time played and squared by the amount of sheer charm, or something like that, Lost Winds would be the answer.
3) GRID
A little time travel, a lot of Hollywood graphics and sound, and just the right amount of physics make this the racing game du jour. Maybe even du année.
2) The Club
A pure shooter that doesn't pretend to be anything other than a pure shooter.
1) Sins of a Solar Empire
A real time strategy game that does up science fiction the way it needs to be done up. Gorgeous, and great gameplay, to boot.
The Worst of the 2008 Half-Year
Okay, another quick confession: "worst" simply means Most Disappointing. Because I've played some truly wretched games this year that having no business being on lists of any sort. You've probably never heard of many of them, and I'm not about to bore you by listing them here, only to have you scratch your head. Instead, here are five games that really should have been better.
5) Alone in the Dark
A game worthy of Uwe Boll's movie adaptation.
4) Haze
What have you done with the guys who made the Timesplitters games?
3) Metal Gear Solid 4
Fan wankery. Lots and lots of fan wankery.
2) No More Heroes
Developer SUDA 51 already jumped the shark in Killer 7, which was stronger for it. This time, he just kind of bumps his skis into the shark before letting go of the line and dog paddling back to shore.
1) Wii Fit
Nintendo confuses balance board gimmicks with fitness, discouraging geeks, grandparents, and soccer moms alike, who will remain flabby, out of shape, a hundred bucks poorer, and with less room in some closet in a back room.
Before you tell me I'm wrong, let me assure you that, yes, I know. I've heard it all before. What I haven't heard is what you would pick for your best and worst of the half-year. Hop into the comments section below and let me know.
Frakjack
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Carter's Car Dodge
By dingus at 12:59 AM ON 07/02/08
Best Thing About Running This Blog:
Getting to type the phrase "after the jump" several times a day.
By Niclas at 8:57 AM ON 07/02/08
What's with the post header image? I didn't know Croal starred in a game.
By Troy Goodfellow at 9:19 AM ON 07/02/08
No arguments on your top game from me. Sins is my top game of 2008 so far, and only Spore or a real revelation from Empire: Total War are likely to displace it.
By Trent Polack at 10:08 AM ON 07/02/08
Holy crap; someone else actually liked The Club. I wish that Bizarre Creations had put the same level of polish in that game as they put into Project Gotham Racer; I'd love to continually unlock more and more stuff as I play instead of having everything unlocked after one play through of all the events.
By kentdog at 1:48 PM ON 07/02/08
This is what gets my goat about game media. I just can't keep up with you guys. I won't be able to play half of these games (if any) until next year or (most likely) even further down the line. I was able to play GTA4, but only by going into debt. So, in the interest of the broke, slow, and/or confused, my top THREE games that I could actually afford and had time to play in-between mowing the lawn and raising my 4 year-old daughter are:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadows of Chernobyl
Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga
GTA4
By Tom Chick at 4:28 PM ON 07/02/08
Good games, Kent, but only one is actually from this year. I'm afraid you're fired. :) Trent, yeah, it's too bad there aren't more goodies in The Club. I do still try to beat my high scores occasionally, so that's kept it out on the "currently played" stack for a long time.
By DoomMunky at 8:48 PM ON 07/02/08
Dammit, Tom, you're making me download and try the Club, now. I have too many things to do!
By Player1 at 12:00 AM ON 07/04/08
Re: Tom's choices - I've only played Grid and The Club. Grid is a Hollywood blockbuster in so many ways. The level of polish reminds me oddly of COD4 (no I can't explain it very well) and the game gives me what I crave from all games - the feeling of doing whatever the game is about well.
I can appreciate the Club as being finely tuned for a target audience, and I respect games that so finely aim for and hit a particular niche. I'm just not into that particular niche.
My Best of 2008
God of War on PSP - not just a remarkable technical achievement but the game that broke the barriers between my portable gaming and home gaming assumptions for me.
Trials 2 Second Edition - pure, old school, addictive leaderboard high score chasing fun. And pretty.
Echochrome - using the fact that we represent 3d worlds on 2d screens as the primary play mechanic. Who says games don't innovate anymore?
Audiosurf - Every song ever is a level. Finished it yet?
Hot Shots Golf Open Tee 2 - plays a predictable (as in any mistakes made are my own and I know what I did wrong) game of golf while feeding my leveling addiction. Makes no mistakes on difficulty, load times or pickup and playability.
Worst
I've had a really good gaming 2008. The worst thing I bought was PES2008 for the NDS, which had none of the innovation of the Wii title, with all of the poor graphics and limited button set of the NDS. Luckily the same game on PSP made up for it.
By dj at 7:24 PM ON 07/04/08
i think the incredible hulk should have made it and the bourne conspriacy.
By VA STylin at 4:46 PM ON 07/10/08
Bio Shock was a great game. It had to great story. The great twist. It was like controling a movie. The way you could change your body to send out wasp and many other things. What game could top that.
By VA sTylin at 4:47 PM ON 07/10/08
Bio Shock was a great game. It had to great story. The great twist. It was like controling a movie. The way you could change your body to send out wasp and many other things. What game could top that.
By Zel at 9:32 AM ON 07/11/08
"It was like controling a movie."
This is the greatest failure of the modern gaming industry as far as I'm concerned. When did all my video games become a night at the movies? I miss the days of games that you replayed for months, not to unlock some cheesy trophy or achievement but because you were delivered an entirely new play experience by choosing different paths through the same intricate plot. There was a time when games not only had significantly different endings but different beginnings and the journey inbetween was significantly different too. It was more than just simple changes in a conversation. You may have been playing through the same story but it was from a completely different point of view and made it feel like an entirely different game instead of just the same story with a few minor conversation changes. These days, the idea of multiple endings is what kind of one-liner you're fed at the end of a conversation.