Your top 2008 titles

[Maxxthepenguin]

The year is almost over, we've experienced the major releases and we've picked our favorites. It's time to make the lists. I'm not going to say top 10 or anything like that because that's a silly way of doing it. Rank if you want, but I'm not.

My top games:
Super Smash Bros Brawl - Not my favorite and not close to perfection, but there is still much joy to be had from this hugely entertaining game. Just don't expect the online to be very good.

Sam and Max Season 2 - Ok, it started late 07 but finished in 08. I recently picked up this and season 1 and they are some of the funniest games I've ever played. They don't get much press, but deserve much praise.

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - I not only didn't have a PC that could play this game, but I heard it was riddled with problems when it was originally released. Instead, I played the enhanced edition when it came out and enjoyed a truly great (if uneven) epic RPG.

Castlevania: Order of Eccelsia - The Castlevania series in 2d is reliable comfort food in the gaming world. You can always expect it to be fun. OoE mixes it up in a few significant ways, mostly in how the game flows, but proves that the shakeup is a good thing. It also gave a good old 2d challenge.

Mega Man 9 - It's been talked about as the revival of classic greatness. And it is. Not much to say that hasn't been said, really.

Braid - Much talked about was this indie game and it deserved much praise. The puzzle/platformer gameplay was impeccably polished and bending your mind around the various time based puzzles was a blast. Its artistic ambitions fell through a bit in the end, with a mess of an ending following the best sequence of the game, but the rest of the game just works on every level.

World of Goo - Talked about (but far less than Braid) and amazing, World of Goo delivered a constantly changing and challenging game that was loaded with fun. A simple puzzle game of building structures using goo worked as an analogy of the rise and fall of civilization and an indictment of corporate culture without getting too uptight about it. A 99% perfect game.

Fallout 3 - Making up for Oblivion's pointlessness, genericness, and bad plot, Fallout 3 made me like Bethesda. It's by no means flawless, it has many bugs and the ending falls a bit flat in execution, but it is truly one of the best realized worlds in gaming. A lot of fun can be had by simply finding random towns and learning their stories. Andale was a highlight of the year for me.

Also, my trend of the year: Downloadable games. They finally made it, with quality rivalling and surpassing the major "AAA" (what a bullshit label) releases. World of Goo, Braid, Castle Crashers, Penny Arcade Aventures, and more proved that the future of downloadable (specifically indie) games is a bright one indeed.

Fuck you of the year to: The gaming press and Grand Theft Auto 4. Perfect scores everywhere but the game lived up to none of the hype. For every thing it does right (the setting) it fucks up something else (constant annoying calls). The plot is cool but quite cliche. The world is open, but there aren't that many things to actually mess with and not much variety in what you actually end up doing. There are tons of minigames but they're all useless, forced, and pretty bad. Who called the game on its faults? Almost nobody. It got tons of perfect scores. Fuck you hype machine.

Was this year better than '98? No.

[Elcura]

Agreed with SSBB, Fallout and GTA 4 (in terms of disappointment).

Adding Valkyria Chronicle. Amazing, original gameplay, great graphical style and execution. Just an all round fun game to play.

Disgaea 3, for making Disgaea even better. This time, with no annoying characters!

[Viq]

Was this year better than '98? No.

Coincidentally, my favorite game of 2008 was King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match.

[Maxxthepenguin]

Coincidentally, my favorite game of 2008 was King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match.

Even with games I couldn't care less about, 98 prevails.

[BadKarma]

1: Gears 2
2: NHL 09
3: Left 4 Dead
4: Fable II
5: MGS 4



P.S I think Fallout 3 was a piece of garbage

[Katlan]

Out of the few games I played, I'dd add:

MGS4: loved it, not much else to say everyone agree's it was a fantastic game.

Uncharted (maybe was a 2007 release, but I played it in '08 ): One of the first third person shooters I couldn't put down and was totally engrossed it. Fantastic graphics, great voice acting, and a good story.

Fable 2: Having never played the first Fable, I really liked Fable 2... I wouldn't say it was a pure sandbox game as a lot of things were limited and it wasn't true free roaming, nor was it very long, but I had a great time playing teh game while the story lasted.

LBP: Revive of the traditional platformer... I still have to finish the game, but everything about it is awsome down to how free the level creator is.

PoP: Great game, very fun, w/some of the best graphics I have seen. Just needs more action

I'm sure there are others, but these are the first few to come to my mind that I truely enjoyed playing from start to finish (or where I am so far in the game). And I have to agree w/ GTA4, I barely made it out of the first city before becoming so bored I didn't dare pick it back up

[thestalkmore]

Rock Band 2 / L4D / MGS4 (maybe, I'm conflicted)

[Elcura]

I feel like a horrible person for forgetting MGS4, that definitely gripped me by the balls tightly.

[BRP]

The games in Max's post would be in my list too, assuming there isn't a limit. Otherwise I'd probably trim some of them down to make room.

Super Street Fighter Turbo HD Remix would be near the top of my list, not that I enjoy ranking them. An already perfect experience made even better. A game made from the fighter community for the community.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Metal Gear Online, if I am allowed to pair them up. MGS4 was very cinematic and the ultimate fan service game. It has the best controls and mechanics yet for a MGS and an incredible amount of things to mess with(interesting and free DLC system too). Metal Gear Online has a lot of flaws concerning online mechanics, but it has some unique experiences you won't find in any game I am familiar with. It is also free with MGS4, so that's a plus.

Burnout Paradise, this game might have the most incredible online system ever. I've never been too big of a fan of non-arcade drivers, but this game quickly grew on me and is one of my most played console titles. Free and awesome DLC(you simply won't find a console game doing DLC better) and just a well made game all around.

Advance Wars Day of Ruin. A very solid DS title. Arguably the best AW title yet, which is a very fine series.

God of War Chains of Olympus. I don't feel like writing anymore so I am just going to list shit now.

Valkyria Chronicles.

Sirin: Blood Curse.

Wii Music. HAHAHAHA JUST KIDDING.

Cheating since it technically came out awhile ago:
Mother 3 translated to English(though I played it with a translation guide earlier than this year)

You can put Witcher enhanced here too.

Technically STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl had mods that came out this year(I THINK) that turned the game from a C+ at best game to a A.

Yakuza 2 would fall into here too.

[Maxxthepenguin]

No limit needed but yeah, I didn't list it but Advance Wars: Days of Ruin but that game was truly exemplary. I didn't finish it but what I did play was full of well designed missions that were a blast.

[Exoduso]

Tales of Vesperia was a huge surprise for me... I never played a Tales of game before, and it was an excellent introduction to the series IMO.

Infinite Undiscovery might've been extremely short, but the battle system was actually a lot of fun.

Last Remnant- Not done with it, but I found myself enjoying the battle system a lot (even though it took about 3-4 hours to get good at it, and then learning how to set up good teams took even longer..) and the story is actually pretty damn good. Just beat CD1, so I still don't have the whole picture, but so far so good.

Persona 3 FES - Again... first introduction to the SMT series. Great RPG, great story, fun gameplay... can't really ask for more. The Answer was VERY hard and it was nice actually seeing a tough jRPG for once.

MGS4.. it was basically the perfect game to end the MGS series with a bang.

Uncharted - I also played Uncharted just recently, and even though it's only 8~ hours long, it was one of my best video game experiences. Just an amazing title.

Rock Band 2 surprised me a lot, way better setlist (if you're comparing it to the rather generic list in RB1..).. also, the hyperspeed (breakneck speed) addition was excellent IMO.

LittleBigPlanet is a lot of fun, although I find myself getting bored rather quickly. Still a great release.

Gears2 - feels just like 1, but I liked the new enemies, maps, etc. Story was okay too I guess. I just hope they don't screw up the series with Gears3.

FF4DS - Speaks for itself really.

Crisis Core FF7 - Same.

[Jefe]

Damn, Uncharted came out in 07? Phew~

Best:

• MGS4
• Uncharted
• VoB
• P3

Disappointments:

None, never liked GTA series was given a copy and sold it.

[Elcura]

Fucking cock, I forgot about P3: FES. That definitely goes on the list as well.

[thestalkmore]

Rock Band 2 surprised me a lot, way better setlist (if you're comparing it to the rather generic list in RB1..).. also, the hyperspeed (breakneck speed) addition was excellent IMO.

My TV may be too small, but even when I played Hyperspeed on 4/5 (can't remember) in GH3, breakneck is too fast for me on drums.

[chazzyphizzle]

MGS4 and Brawl are definitely up there for best of honors. Fable 2, at least the ending sequence was a massive disappointment, one of the worst endings I've ever encountered in a game.

[Bweigelt]

NHL 09 - probably my favorite game this year, by far has seen the most playtime of any release so far.

GoW2 - They pretty much improved the gameplay across the board without ruining the experience. Horde mode is a ton of fun with friends.

L4D - Just insane mindless fun.

Haven't finished Fallout3 or Fable 2 either or both could end up on this list once I do. My list is also short because I haven't bought a lot of games other than the ones listed this year. I imagine it will grow as I finally get around to picking some more titles up.

[Yuri-G]

This is just an educated guess since the game isn't technically out yet, but Persona 4 will probably reign supreme on my list.

Aside from that...

- Persona 3: FES
- Final Fantasy IV DS

Ummm I dunno, I can't think of many more. Doesn't help that I only play PS2 and DS games these days.

And let's not forget the shame of the year:

- Dragon Quest IV DS - Not a bad game, but so far short of what I expected. Annoying translation, lack of party talk, dumbed down difficulty. This was the game that was in my DS when I lost it, I was on the Hero's chapter, and I haven't even bought another copy yet. There were a lot of games this year that were worse than this to be sure, but this was by far my biggest disappointment.

[Epical]

In no order:

NHL 09 - I'm pleasantly surprised to see this many people choosing it. Excellent replay value (the guy who came up with Be A Pro mode should be given a medal), excellent graphics and physics for the most part, decent support from the EA staff with patches and what-not.

Crysis - I know this was released in Nov 2007, I had it installed on my machine from then until about a month ago. It took a decent amount of space so I decided to finally play it and see what all the hype was about. All I can say now is: wow. What an unreal game. I obviously don't need to boast about the graphics or physics, but I will about the storyline/cutscenes. Very polished and well-written, and the voice acting was very well done, which only added to the intensity of the missions. The level of immersion in the environments is top-tier, up there with Call of Duty's (which has been on its own at the top for some time now).

Crysis Warhead - Same reasons as Crysis with the added bonuses of IMPROVED graphics yet HIGHER performance. Game was more action-based than story-based, but still absolutely unreal. I loved them both.

Metal Gear Solid 4 - I'll admit this was my first game of the series, but wow, I was completely blown away but the intensity of the story and cutscene sequences. Some people shunned the fact they had long cutscenes, but I embraced them, playing through the game as an interact movie of sorts. The final crawl through the microwave corridor at the end, followed by the final fight atop of the ship is probably one of the most epically defining moments in gaming history for me.

Fallout 3/Call of Duty: World At War/Far Cry 2/Gears of War 2 - All notable candidates that I still need to play through, and when I do, I'll be sure to update this post with either their additions or their removal.

[Hitoshura]

1. Metal Gear Solid 4 [PS3]
2. Persona 2 Innocent Sin [PSP]
3. Left 4 Dead [PC]
4. Fallout 3 [PC]
5. MOTHER 3 [PSP]
6. Grand Theft Auto 4 [PS3]
7. Etrian Odyssey II [DS]
8. FFVII Crisis Core [PSP]
9. God of War [PSP]
10. Final Fantasy IV [DS]

[Exoduso]

My TV may be too small, but even when I played Hyperspeed on 4/5 (can't remember) in GH3, breakneck is too fast for me on drums.

lol me too... I use breakneck and Hyperspeed 4 on Guitar (in rb and gh respectively..), but when I play Breakneck on drums it just goes by way too fast and I don't respond in time.