Going Through Vs. Mode Withdrawal? Slate's 2nd Annual Gaming Club Is Here to Save the Day

re: Going Through Vs. Mode Withdrawal? Slate's 2nd Annual Gaming Club Is Here to Save the Day

SpaceShot — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:53:19 GMT

Commenting on one of your picks. Braid was a great commentary on how platformers of the past made themselves more difficult (with contrivances). I don't mean to pick on the wonderful work the Braid team poured into the title, but to give it it's due I'd have to say I wished it was about twice as long. That still would be shorter than most platformers, but I was just getting warmed up to the game when it ended... spectacularly... with a brilliant commentary that was abstract and yet concrete (to me) at the same time.

I certainly could not make the money nor time to play every contender, but for me, Left 4 Dead is an amazing demo (on Xbox 360) that I am looking forward to getting in full. Very rarely before have I had so much fun in _losing_ again and again. While the difficulty ramp (in the demo) is a bit too much from advanced to expert, I can not deny that my friends and I played on expert, the same two levels, over and over, for over 8 hours. Getting ripped apart by zombies was never so much fun. Kudos for making a game where not exactly the same thing happens every time, but not so random to the point of frustration.

Besides that, Rock Band still absorbs a ton of my time. Why? It's another game that insists that if I practice just a little more I will get better. And as someone who had no musical experience whatsoever, this year I progressed from Hard to Expert on much of the game's soundtrack. See what I mean? It constantly gives me feedback that, if I only worked a little harder, I might five star that song. Some people find the game easy, and well, I'm sorry it was too easy for you. For me, it has been just right.

On a final note, I think GTA IV belongs on no top ten list whatsoever. The tens it received around the web were clearly predestined and perhaps paid for. It doesn't even match up to Saints Row 2, which I can, at least, play through with a friend. GTAIV's coop and multiplayer experiences were awful, and a triple A title today has to let me enjoy it with a friend unless it is one heck of a single player experience (which I hear Fallout 3 is). Then, to top it all off, I was sick of the predictable GTA IV storyline, which started so promising, but ended up boring. I ended up hating Roman and not really wanting to help him, and I certainly never felt the connection between Nico and Kate that you were supposed to. The game's "moral choices" turned out to be little important turns. The mini stories of the supporting cast were often more interesting, but all to often incomplete. No, it didn't leave me wanting more, it just felt like it wasn't finished.

re: Going Through Vs. Mode Withdrawal? Slate's 2nd Annual Gaming Club Is Here to Save the Day

Evilbaby — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:56:19 GMT

games can't be good without multiplayer? I can't disagree more. For the sheer amount of content and support, I have to go with Burnout paradise. Its a great game that became an amazing game, that became capable of violating the laws of temporal thermodynamics. If it doesn't show up on your top ten for the year your doing it wrong

re: Going Through Vs. Mode Withdrawal? Slate's 2nd Annual Gaming Club Is Here to Save the Day

TomEndo — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:18:44 GMT

My favorite game of 2008 is Stalker: Clear Sky. Eastern Europe is going through a videogame development renaissance that's been largely ignored by the West, and Stalker: Clear Sky is one of the best games to emerge from it.

Simply put the game creates an enormously compelling world. One that is frustrating, beautiful and utterly alien despite it's familiar trappings. The game's understated, and in fact bucolic, post Chernobyl world stands in stark contrast to the overwrought and even stereotypical Fallout 3 setting. And yet through GSC Gameworld's amazing work with light, environmental effects and AI, the world of Stalker: Clear Sky emerges as one that is far more dynamic and alive than either of those sandbox headliners, GTA IV and Fallout 3, that also saw release in '08.

This game feels deeply foreign and is a glimpse of another culture too often ignored by the West. Perhaps this game's audience is too small to allow anyone to sensibly call it a game of the year. After all it is a sequel, it's extremely difficult and few will have access to a computer that can run the game the way it deserves to be seen. But, small audiences aside, seeing a developer confront a piece of their country's recent history in such an original and affecting manner makes Stalker: Clear Sky one of my most remarkable gaming experiences of 2008.

re: Going Through Vs. Mode Withdrawal? Slate's 2nd Annual Gaming Club Is Here to Save the Day

SpaceShot — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:28:03 GMT

As you will note, I said it had better be one heck of a single player experience. I don't feel GTA IV lived up to that. My beef is I think the perfect ten's are undeserved. There were better games this year,,, many many better games... and they were not given tens.