The Best Games of 2008 109
As the year comes to an end, most game sites are putting up lists highlighting their favorite games of 2008. Gamasutra is no exception, but they've nicely consolidated a variety of lists, and included some of their reasons and commentary to go with them. The topics range from the best overlooked games (Soul Bubbles and Pure) to the best new gameplay mechanics (first-person parkour in Mirror's Edge and Spore's procedural content generation) to the best overall games of the year (Fallout 3, World of Goo, and LittleBigPlanet). What were your top games of 2008?
Fallout 3 (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm probably being overly fixated on one of the many games featured on the list, but I must be one of the only people out there who thinks Fallout 3 was one of the most overrated games of the year, perhaps third only to GTA5 and Spore.
When I first played the game I regretted my purchase and lamented the fact that I couldn't return the game, having gotten the PC version. But I decided to spend more time with the game and found that my impression hadn't changed.
Getting past the excessively monotone color scheme, I will admit the game looks impressive. But otherwise I found it to be extremely tedious and the story a bit contrived. The characters followed the same uninspired templates I find in bad Sci-Fi channel movies.
While I can accept the gritty theme of the game, I dislike overly realistic characters that end up looking ugly and more like actors than actual inhabitants of the world being depicted. Always lame is when children look like miniature adults, mainly because of overly mottled facial textures. Encountering old people in the game made me laugh a few times because of how insanely wrinkled they were, like they were made of cracked leather or clay.
I don't care for having to repair my equipment, are constantly being encumbered by random crap I find, having to sit there and sort through inventory trying to determine what I need and don't need. The side quests are so disruptive to flow and feel so disconnected that I eventually lost track and forgot what the main quest was all about. Basically, it's reminiscent of Bethesda's other RPGs, Morrowind included. Although I think that, in terms of gameplay, was the superior game.
One high point was combat which was somewhat entertaining. The targetting feature, while helpful, I found disruptive and felt like little more than an excuse to showcase the violence.
Maybe the game gets better, but I don't have the patience to find out.
Interestingly enough, I played Knights of the Old Republic 2 for the first time less than a week after abandoning Fallout 3 and found that to be, far and a way, a much better game. It wasn't perfect and I'm not normally one for Star Wars games but it was very engaging the whole way through and a lot of fun to play. The customization was satisfying without being tedious. About the only thing that crossed my mind a few times was what KOTOR2 would look like with current generation graphics on the level of Fallout 3 but with more style.
Re:Fallout 3 (Score:3, Insightful)
Dissenting opinion:
Fallout 3 had potential, but IMO it was definitely worse than the first two. I even though I was going to love it for the first 5 hours or so, but that turned out to be a premature judgement.
Nonsense story, terrible and surprisingly limited ending, very few side-quest arcs (and even fewer that had a satisfying payoff), and only 3 cities, only one of those had anywhere near as much depth as even Klamath did in F2.
IMO, STALKER:Shadow of Chernobyl is a better Fallout game than Fallout 3 is, and it isn't a Fallout game at all.
I do think the opening section was superb, and the VATS system managed, against all odds, to give an FPS-style game a very Fallout feel. Megaton was a good starting city, but was just a set-up for a big let-down when the player realized that they'd already found the most interesting city in the game right after stepping out of the vault.
If the modding community does to F3 what it did to Oblivion (and, to a lesser extent, Morrowind) then we'll see a thoroughly mediocre game with great underlying technology turn in to a spectacular game over the next couple years. As it stands, though, F3 missed the mark on so many points that should have been no-brainers that it isn't (yet) the classic that F1 and F2 are.
Bethesda needs to spend more money on writers and less on their managers that keep shipping obviously-unfinished games out the door.
On a happier note, I've finally decided to revisit Oblivion with a score of major mods installed, and I've spent more time playing through one of several very interesting regional quests added by one of the mods than I did on the entire main quest in vanilla Oblivion. It's amazing. It looks better, it plays better, there's more to do, and it's become one of my favorite games of all time. I hope for the sake of one of my favorite franchises that I'll be able to say the same of Fallout 3 in a few years.
Re:My own picks of 2008 (Score:2, Insightful)
Mario Kart Wii - the Mario Kart formula is looking very tired now and every small way in which this game tries to depart from it actually makes things worse. The simple problem is that this game sticks too many racers on the track at once. Driving skill goes out the window as everything descends into a miasma of weapon-spam. The "balancing" system which gives those at the back of the field a constant supply of super-weapons only makes things worse.
You know, I'm currently on the search for a copy of Mario Kart Wii... However, I find your comment a little irritating. If that's how you feel then you shouldn't have liked ANY of the mario kart games. Quite frankly, the randomness of it is one of the things that makes it a lot of fun. It's not meant to be a serious racing game. Also, considering the good reviews (including reader reviews by thousands of people), I'm probably not too alone. Of course, an opinion is an opinion, but, I love mario kart (though, I've only played the wii one once ...but, the online play is what has me really excited).
Re:Fallout 3 (Score:4, Insightful)
You're not alone--I posted a detailed description of my dislike of F3 a bit higher up.
Long story short, I felt like it had about 1/10 the meaningful content that Fallout 2 had, and that the designers seemed to care almost not at all about telling an interesting story or making the player feel like they were making a difference in the world.
With luck, the modders will fix it. They managed to turn the broken and (even looking past the brokenness) mediocre game Oblivion in to one of my favorite games ever, so there's hope yet.
Re:Fallout 3 (Score:3, Insightful)
I really hope that by The Elder Scrolls 5 they are able to take the hint and get rid of the level scaling. If the world around you levels up with you, why even have leveling? Why not just drop the stats all-together and have a mediocre adventure game? At least that way, you won't have to worry about your character being useless by level 20.
Re:Fallout 3 (Score:0, Insightful)
We must have played different Mass Effects. The one I played was horribly mediocre and had very little in common with Knights of the Old Republic other than also being an RPG.
Re:My own picks of 2008 (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm going to have to disagree with you on Mario Kart Wii. I found the steering wheel control to be about the best idea ever. For the first time, it actually felt like I was really racing. A large selection of tracks, characters, and karts, as well as a ton of unlockable content made this a real winner for me.
The monthly online competitions are a ton of fun. And being able to race with up to three of my friends, plus 8 cpu characters makes for a real fun time. One of my friends isn't the best at racing games, but the bonus items (bullet, lightning, etc) that she gets makes the game worthwhile for her. And I'm a pretty decent player - the 8 AI opponents keeps me on my toes. If we were playing a standard racer one-on-one it wouldn't be any fun at all, because I'd just spend the entire time lapping her, but in Mario Kart, we both feel challenged.
Re:Fallout 3 (Score:5, Insightful)