The Finest Moments in 2007 Gaming 57
Stephen Totilo, as he did last year and the year before, has put together a piece looking at the finest gaming moments to be had in 2007. From the high-jumps of Portal to the Colossus battle in God of War 2, he's got a lot of gaming goodness packed into this one article. My favorite moment (the end of Mass Effect) isn't on there, but this is a close second: "Late in the much-praised first-person shooter BioShock, the player is required to don the outfit of another character in the game. Saying much more about this moment would ruin the effect. But rest assured, this transformative sequence changes the way every character in the world reacts to the player's presence. Plus, it might just give a BioShock player some pause about what they had been doing for the dozen hours that preceded the moment. Saying anything more would be a spoiler."
Spoiler? (Score:4, Funny)
That said, I agree.
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah. (Score:1)
Itemising this stuff is like a setup for the Spanish inquisition:
"This is Uncle Ted in front of the house.
"This is Uncle Ted at the back of the house.
"And this is Uncle Ted at the side of the house.
"This is Uncle Ted, back again at the front of the house, but you can see the side of the house.
"And this is Uncle Ted even nearer the side of the house, but you can still see the front.
"This is the back of the house, with Uncle Ted coming round the side to the front.
"And this is the
Are you crazy? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Remember the intro to the game? You get knocked out and a sister walks by wondering if you are an "angel". Being still alive she passes you by. Shortly after you meet the sister once again witnessing her stabbing a corpse. You dont see her kill the person, but you assume she's to blame. It doesnt help hearing the guy in the talky telling you to kill her because sh
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Sorry, perhaps I'm just being cynical. I hated System Shock 2, so anything spawned from that lineage gets my jaundiced eye.
Re: (Score:2)
The cake is a Lie.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You learned from the best, didn't you? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
~Rebecca
What about the ending of HL2:ep2? (Score:1)
BTW, anybody else thing the stabbing/sucking appendage looks just a little phallic?
Re: (Score:1)
I defy you to show us a stabbing appendage that doesn't look phallic.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
So you rule out games simply because they're presented from a first-person perspective? If so, you missed possibly the best game of the year, Portal. You also missed Bioshock and Metroid Prime 3, as well as Halo 3 (I wasn't going to mention this, but I couldn't help myself :).
Aside
Re: (Score:2)
So you rule out games simply because they're presented from a first-person perspective? If so, you missed possibly the best game of the year, Portal. You also missed Bioshock and Metroid Prime 3, as well as Halo 3 (I wasn't going to mention this, but I couldn't help myself :).
All good points, except the previously mentioned Halo. That title in itself is a perfect example of just how stagnate and cliche the FPS genre in particular has gotten for the most part.
Re: (Score:2)
Bioshock and Portal were awesome. I admit it. But they were absolutely drowned out by the flood of crappy FPSs that didn't do anything new whatsoever. That includes Halo 3 and Metroid Prime 3.
I've -played- those games before. If I want to play them again, they're sitting at GameFly and waiting for me. I want -new-.
Mass Effect is okay... I'm actually playing it right now.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
So I ask again, what exactly are you looking for from games? From a broad perspective, there's nothing new in games. Even something novel like Guitar Hero (itself suffering from sequelitis) was nothing really new. DDR with a guitar, yawn. But wait, not even DDR was unique! NES Track and Field but with dancing, yawn.
There's value in doing things well even if you're not ground-breaking. For example, Halo 3 is a very solid shooter with fun online play and a conclusion to a story that many of us have bee
Re: (Score:1)
Oh yeah, meant to add this to my last post.
You're holding up Bladestorm [gamerankings.com] as a model of uniqueness? It's just fucking Dynasty Warriors set in Europe rather than China (or Japan, like Samurai Warriors). It's got a few new gameplay mechanics, but so do most of the other titles you derided.
If you like Bladestorm, great. More power to you, it's great that you found a game you can like. It's just a little hypocritical to claim that many of the other game
Re: (Score:2)
DW has you, a single person, be an amazing bad-ass 'general' who is more of a 1-man army. You completely control the character and are always on the front lines.
Bladestorm has you lead a troup (which can be changed any time you are near another troup) and you have very little interaction. You tell them when to to attack and activate powerups. Instead
Re: (Score:1)
You have to ask... (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
One thing I have to say though, WOW. That is one of the most beautiful games I have ever played EVER. It's really amazing to watch. Even my wife thought it was pretty cool, and she HATES 3d games.
Some of mine (Score:5, Insightful)
Portal: Not the end, but the first time you find one of the rooms where "others" had dwelled before you. Insanity.
Assassin's Creed: When the main character acquires the 'eagle vision' near the end.
Bioshock: Any time you're walking around and you hear a Big Daddy, was a truly great moment. Sadly, this game was ruined for my by the last boss battle, which seemed to take everything the game stood for, and threw it away in the name of a Turok: The Dinosaur Hunter final boss battle. (loved Turok, for the record)
Mass Effect: I really cannot pinpoint any spot that was a 'finest moment'. Great game, one of the best this year. Maybe it's 'finest moment' can be the fight with Matriarch Benezia. The only battle I had any actual trouble with.
Some additional great moments (Score:1)
Crysis (Score:2)
Major Strickland: I'm a marine son, I can walk on water if I have to! Now get the fuck off my island while I draw it's fire.
Great year (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Opening 15 minutes of BioShock. This was done with 5 friends around the couch, all of us huddled close together...home theater setup was turned way up high, my Tannoy PS 110-B sub rattling the floor, a gorgeous image on my HDTV...honestly, one of the most tense 15 minutes of gaming I have ever experienced.
2. First time I played a Wii. This was at a friends house way back in February. There were a total of 7 of us taking turns playing Wii sports...considering how often we host gaming parties or LAN parties, I knew the instant I started watching and playing that I had to get one.
3. Experiencing the story of Mass Effect. In my opinion, the greatest sci-fi universe ever conceived...buy the art book, amazing! I was actually a little frustrated when it ended primarily because I wasn't ready to finish it yet! Cannot wait for the second one...
4. Rainbow Six: Vegas on Live. Spent 16 straight hours (taking breaks every 4-5 hours to get food and goto the bathroom, of course) playing it the weekend I get my HDTV. I likely gained 20 pounds that weekend, but it was definitely a weekend to remember.
5. Playing through the Orange Box...Half-Life 2 is one of my all time favourite games, and I hadn't played it since early 2005. Seeing it on a big HDTV with an awesome surround system, coupled together with playing through Episode 1 and 2 to further the storyline (and yes, of course, playing Portal) was amazing. Ravenholm is absolutely terrifying at night with all the lights out and the system cranked!
So there they are, my top 5 gaming moments of 2007. There were plenty other great ones, to be sure, but these were the most memorable for me. A man chooses, a slave eats cake!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Last 5 minutes of CoD4 (Score:1)
Little Sister (Score:2, Interesting)
"This was a triumph... (Score:3, Insightful)
HUGE SUCCESS"
Seriously, end of Portal (which I finished last night, actually) is deffinitely up there, in my book. And the credits song is in the running for best video game song of all time, up there with Homeworld.
MARIO GALAXY had a couple of dousies too:
- Intro with the Airships and Mario 3 theme, I shit myself.
- *spoiler* Point in the storybook where the "girl" suddenly comes to terms with the death of her mother. The cute music stops, the somber strings swell, and it's one of the most poignient moments I've ever seen in a game.
Also, am I the only one who found the end of Bioshock increadibly beautiful and well-done. Sure it was probably the shortest ending since Donkey Kong, but it was more powerful than most 30 minute endings.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
A little late but.. (Score:2)
After fixing my Assassin's Creed 360 disc (which I damaged by tilting the 360...oops) I played for a little bit up to where you arrive at Damascus. The view of the city as you come over the last hill was damn near breathtaking, at least with my 47" HDTV in 1080p. This was the first experience I had that made me feel the next-generation of console gaming had arrived. I've never seen such so much detail come from a tv displaying console gameplay.
Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re: (Score:2)
While not all games support 1080p output, the console itself is fully capable of it.
Wii Sports and Mario Galaxy (Score:1)
Picked up a Wii this morning (had to bribe and shoot some people for it to get the last one in the country) got a extra controller and Super Mario Galaxy.
My girlfriend and me have been on a gaming binge for about 10 hours and loved every minute of it.
Boy, does the Wii take back the Fun in gaming, that's a capital F !
Of course you play all games for fun. But Wii sports and SMG is the acting crazy and loud laughs kind of fun. No new shiny item in a MMO or perfect headshot can compare t
My finest gaming moment of 2007.... (Score:2)
About 2 years ago I started playing all the freecell games in order, in an attempt to beat/win every possible combination.
It wasn't pretty, and there was no 5.1 audio announcing to the office that I had completed this monumental task, but I felt it was a moral victory.
Re: (Score:2)
Looks like you proved it...