43. ...And to all a Good Game

It’s been a good year, eh? Now that it’s over I’m not sure it ended up being better than last year but it was still pretty great. Games such as Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Prince of Persia and Fallout 3 have kept me up late many a night and I’m looking forward to spending much more quality time with them (especially Fallout 3) over my Christmas vacation later this month.

I managed to stomach almost an hour of the Spike TV VGAs (winners) last night before I turned it off in disgust.  The entire thing is such a joke and the worst part is that I knew it going in.  I was watching the webcast which was abysmal in it’s quality.  I’ve seen amateur’s do WAY better.  In fact, if you want to see how multi-view should really be done then I suggest you check out this awesome episode of Diggnation.  GAH!  I just want to erase the entire event from my brain!  Next time we meet up with Geoff Keighley I’m going to give him a piece of my mind…

If you didn’t watch them, then maybe you don’t know that Rockstar’s GTA4 ended up taking Game of the Year.  It was a good game, for sure, but I can tell you that it didn’t make it into my personal top five experiences of the year.  I’m going to hold back my winners for a potential future comic later this month, but I am very curious as to what other people’s top three games of 2008 are (any platform, not just 360).  Leave a note in the comments below.

40. Mirror City Shipping Ltd

Mirror’s Edge is the kind of game this industry needs to keep making.  I still don’t know how it’s going to pan out as an entire experience (I’ve only played the demo), but even if the game doesn’t turn out, the ideals that it is striving for are important.  I want it to succeed, I just don’t think it’s going to be 100% this time out.  Mirror’s Edge 2, on the other hand, is the game we should probably be the most excited for.

So how was your weekend?  Mine was filled with a love for Gears that I did not expect.  You know, I honestly wasn’t that excited for Gears of War 2.  I mostly avoided media coverage of it because I figured I already knew what to expect. I was wrong.

Gears 2 has completely blown my expectations out of the water.  This game is good.  Like, really good.  Maranda and I are slowly working our way through the game on hardcore and enjoying every minute of it (well, almost every minute of it… some parts are really hard in split screen. I’m eagerly anticipating another copy to arrive).  The horde mode has also impressed me.  We connected with Maranda’s parents Saturday night and played up to round 16. Sixteen! With her parents!! Cliff was looking to make the game accessible and guess what… he did!

NXE Thoughts
I’ve had a solid opportunity to play with the NXE now and I’ve got to admit that I really like it.  My favourite feature so far is the HDD copying.  Who knew that box could run so quiet?!  Avatars have also turned out a lot better than I had expected.  I’ve been watching the amount of free clothes expand significantly over the last week and have come up with several interesting styles.  I know they’re copying Nintendo’s Miis but honestly I don’t really care.  Miis were horribly realized.  Here’s hoping Microsoft makes better use of them.

SPILL! I want to know your thoughts on Gears 2.  NO SPOILERS I’M NOT FINISHED YET!!