Unfettered Blather

2008 comes to a close and we have one last gasp to dethrone the top games of the year. However, with so many outstanding games on the list it comes as no surprise to me that it couldn’t be done. I’ll be posting the results of the year later.

GAME OF THE MONTH Far Cry 2
It’s an ambitious design with some really irritating decisions that go along with it. While I enjoy the idea of an open-world shooter and the setting is fantastic, the niggling irritations means it’s not near the game it could have been. Still, with the competition it has it gets the Game of the Month title.

BEST OF THE MONTH
	#1 Far Cry 2 (X360) It’s difficult to release a game and not have it compared to other sandbox games even though this is more of a shooter. In all honesty, it’s a lot like the first game but less confined and truly more open. The game has some definite problems. Enemies are too tough and the guard posts you routinely pass through are aggressively repopulated, making the game a bit tedious since the AI is not very tactically oriented. Furthermore, navigation is a pain and the game desperately needs more quick travel options than just the public bus system. The does have some shining moments but asks players to put up with a lot of quirks and aggravation to get to those moments. I think it’s a good game but a far cry from what it could have been. I really tried not to type that, I swear.
	#2 Battlefield: Bad Company (X360) I keep wondering why the original Battlefield: Modern Combat released prior wasn’t more like this. I also think the Battlefield series just isn’t working out like EA would like it to. They had lightning in a bottle with the original Battlefield 1942, but everything they’ve tried to build on top of that has been less than stellar. Bad Company is a solid shooter and has a pretty decent single player element with a genuinely funny story and great characters. Unfortunately, the actual combat is a bit off and the healing mechanic is a good idea but becomes over-used quickly. The other problem is that Frontlines: Fuel of War is superior in terms of actual combat and gameplay, so if you have played that game and liked it you might as well stick with it unless you actually have time and money to blow on this inferior offering.
	#3 Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Lightsaber Duels (Wii) Slipping in under the deadline for the year, we received this game as a gift for the boys. It is a decent game with a story mode that can be completed in an hour. There are some unlockable characters but the game must be played in a tedious challenge mode that tries a little too hard to be hardcore but is really just frustrating. Honestly, this is a game that doesn’t quite get its audience. The Clone Wars is quite obviously geared towards kids so why bother with the typical gamer unlock conceit? Just give me Mace Windu at the start so I can have him beat up on General Grievous and we’ll call it good. The real strength of the game is multi-player which can be a lot of fun without a lot of practice but can feel a little too random at times.

BEST SO FAR

1. Fallout 3 (X360)
2. Rock Band 2 (X360)
3. Rock Band (X360)
4. Boom Blox (Wii)
5. Portal (X360)
6. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (X360)
7. Guitar Hero II (X360)
8. Sid Meier’s Pirates (XBX)
9. Mass Effect (X360)
10. Soul Calibur (X360)

WORST SO FAR

1. Call of Duty 3 (Wii)
2. Road Trip: Arcade Edition (GCN)
3. Carnival Games (Wii)
4. Yaris (X360)
5. Virtual On Marz (PS2)
6. Rock Band Track Pack: AC/DC Live (X360)
7. Hexic HD (X360)
8. Pac-Man: Championship Edition (X360)
9. Bankshot Billiards 2 (X360)
10. Fable II Pub Games (X360)

YOU’RE OUT OF THE RUNNING
And now we bid farewell to those games that won’t make either list.

• Battlefield: Bad Company (360)
  A decent shooter but nothing more.
• Far Cry 2 (360)
  I like experiments and I appreciate what they are trying to do with the game. I don’t regret the purchase but it has become a game that I play in short spurts and then put down for long periods of time, and I bought it this month! I can see it as a game I’ll nibble on now and again but nothing that makes me long to play it.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Lightsaber Duels (Wii)
  A fun game but an obvious cash-in that feels like it was rushed to make a Christmas release. I would love to have seen what it could have been giving the proper time.

REBUYS
It happens. From time-to-time I trade in a game I wish I had kept or because I needed the money. I wasn’t always as financially stable as I am today and trade-ins often made me able to continue the hobby. Unfortunately, some games I wish I had kept after all. With the older platforms phased out this represents a now or nothing approach to buying some of these old titles.

• Fallout (PC)
  With all the complaints about Fallout 3 I decided to test nostalgia against reality. This is still a solid game but I think people are remembering it a little kinder than it deserves. I’m quickly reminded of how frustrating the game could be and the interface is incredibly bad. In fact, I am shocked to see how much better they had the interface by the time of Fallout: Tactics. Fallout definitely has its charms but now I remember that the real draw of the game was that I could finally play an RPG without spells and faeries and all that crap.
• Fallout 2 (PC)
  Fallout was genuinely unique and stood out as a daring experiment that worked. Fallout 2 seems like they are trying to hard. This is still a good RPG but seems like it’s just Fallout with more junk in it.
• Fallout: Tactics (PC)
  I remember not caring much for this game when I originally bought it. I’m finding it much more tolerable to play it not as an RPG, but more like “Jagged Alliance 2 meets the Fallout setting”.

DECEMBER STATISTICS -
Average Cost: $18.17
PC - 3 Titles (50%)
Wii - 1 Title (16.7%)
X-Box 360 - 2 Titles (33.3%)
6 Titles

STATISTICS SO FAR -
Average Cost: $17.59 per game
Gamecube - 5 Titles (4.3%)
PC - 5 Titles (4.3%)
Playstation 2 - 10 Titles (8.5%)
Wii - 15 Titles (12.8%)
X-Box - 18 Titles (15.4%)
X-Box 360 - 65 Titles (55.6%)
117 Titles

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