What was your game of the year for 2008?

[Cloral]

What game that came out in 2008 was your personal favorite? I'm just curious to see what people have been playing.

[Archibaldo]

GTA 4 was definitely my favorite, but Fallout 3 came close.

[ShadowTiger]

It'd be Fallout 3. The next, I would have to say, would be Wrath of the Liche King. (Haven't played WotLK yet, but as long as it's out there.)

[Shazza Dani]

As long as we're throwing out games we haven't played, I choose Fable II. I really want to play it, but I don't have a 360. But yeah… I haven't played any new games from the past two years, so that's why I'm choosing a game that I haven't played yet.

[CaRmAgE]

Well, the same would apply for me, because I didn't like any of the new games I played that much. Since all I have are a PC, Wii, and DS, I'll have to go with ToS 2: Dawn of the New World. I loved the first game and heard all about the changes they made with the second one, so I'm sure that game will be a winner.

I'd also like to play the remade Banjo Kazooie game along with the new Nuts & Bolts game, but, yeah, I don't have a 360 either.

[Aegix Drakan]

I'm....gonna have to go with Brawl or Okami.

I'd probably say tales Of Symphonia 2, but...I haven't had a chance to buy it yet.

[Russ]

Brawl. Definitely.

Unless you count the Mother 3 translation as a release.

[The_Amaster]

Hmm, either Brawl or Okami for me as well. Brawl has near infinite lasting appeal, and Okami is...Okami.
Although if ports count, Disgaea DS is fricking awesome. Portable means its a lot easier to pick up and play at random times, and the overhead map streamlines battles a ton.
And I'm having so much sheer fun just replaying the speed levels of Sonic Unleashed. Over and over and over and over...

[erm2003]

There were a lot of good games released in 2008. I know my friends, family, and I have been getting a lot of use out of Guitar Hero: World Tour and also Rock Band 2. I am surprised no one has mentioned Super Mario Galaxy yet. I thought that was a fun game too.

I know it's a remake, but I am very happy with Chrono Trigger DS. That release honestly made my gaming year. It has always been one of my top games of all time.

[Russ]

Mario Galaxy came out in '07. ;)

[*b*]

Left 4 Dead. Sure, there's not a whole lot there, but fuck if it isn't fun. Or fuck if it is. Whatever. I didn't get many games last year, but this certainly is the best of the ones I did pick up

As for the 'Most Wanted But Never Got', I'd say either Prince of Persia, or Tales of Vesperia. Hopefully this will be remedied in '09

[The Desperado]

I dont remember if it was released in 08 or not, but since my bf got me a 360 for Christmas, ive been playing Assassins Creed. Bad Ass.

[erm2003]

Mario Galaxy came out in '07. ;)

Holy crap did it really? I just can't track of these things anymore.

[Cloral]

Yeah, I was looking at my collection last night to see what I would pick, and was trying to remember if Galaxy was late '07 or early '08 - and figured it was probably late '07 to meet the holiday season.

In the end, the only two games that came out in '08 that I've been playing much were Mario Kart Wii and Wario Land. Kinda funny that it is two Nintendo games, but there you go. If I wasn't limited to '08 I would pick Orange Box since that's what I've played the most this last year.

[Dark Knight]

I'd have to say Ninja Gaiden 2 is my personal favorite. Not controller throwing difficult(except on "hard" mode, but eh) while still being difficult enough to have me use my brain for more than a few seconds during many boss fights. This mostly consists of choosing the right weapon for different enemies/bosses but it works pretty well. Enemy encounters are no longer a chore either with the addition of Obliteration Techniques. Basically, remove an enemies limb and you can instantly kill them with a gorey yet childishly satisfying sequence. Since you're invincible during these sequences you can even time it just right to avoid that big attack heading your way that might kill you.

All in all it's great fun. I'm not fond of many of the glitches(one of the bosses, a huge fucking worm, will occasionally just vanish forcing you to Quit and reload your save game) but I don't usually pay attention to the minor details when I'm busy cleaving a path of bloody destruction through the different stages so I've not seen many. Only the one glitched mentioned above is actually gamebreaking.

Oh, I also love Ninja Cinema. You turn this feature on and it'll record your every action throughout the stage. Sadly it's only viewable in-game as opposed to the dashboard but eh, I can live with it.

[Brasel]

Either Metal Gear Solid 4 or Final Fantasy IV for the DS...seeing as those are the only two games I played that were released in 08. Regardless, they're both really good.

[Radium]

Dude, Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts wins hands down. It's the only game I did not get bored of very quickly. I bought GTAIV, Fallout 3 but both got bland after about 5 hours of play.

[Dechipher]

I really enjoy Brawl, and Chrono Trigger DS. I played FFIV DS, but I haven't gotten super into it yet.

[vegeta1215]

I haven't played much this year, but I have to give it to Okami. I played the heck out of that game.

Did anyone play de Blob this year? I hear good things, but $50 is too much for a game I'm on the fence about.

[ctrl-alt-delete]

I haven't played much this year, but I have to give it to Okami. I played the heck out of that game.

Did anyone play de Blob this year? I hear good things, but $50 is too much for a game I'm on the fence about.

Soft. Mod. Your. Wii!

Last time I'm gonna tell you.

De Blob = fun.

[MottZilla]

Gears of War 2, with Fallout 3 right beside it. Both were the best games of 2008 for me.

[AtmaWeapon]

Here's what I remember playing this year, I will mark them with a + or -, and mark games I'm currently playing with a *. I'm sure there's more, but it's been a long year and if I don't remember them they are probably not good. Games marked with (cheat) are games that were technically released before 2008 but re-releases were made.

+ Mario Kart - Super Smash Bros. Brawl + World of Goo +The World Ends With You -Animal Crossing: City Folk + Fallout 3* + Disgaea DS (cheat)* + Chrono Trigger DS (cheat)* - Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World + Okami (cheat) +Guitar Hero 3 -Kung Fu: Enter the Panda or whatever +LEGO Indiana Jones

Best games:

Fallout 3 is great, if you're in to more traditional RPGs than what you typically get from SquareEnix. It's huge, a lot of thought went into the dialog, and it never gets old watching people explode. I wish we could either do a better or worse job making people though; the humans in this game are almost as creepy as the ghouls. It could have used some tutorial content too, and it feels weird to say that because I usually hate tutorials.

On the other hand, if you like JRPG games you'll do yourself harm if you don't play The World Ends with You. It was refreshing to play in a modern urban environment instead of Generic Ancient Civilization with Mysteriously Advanced Technology. The music's great, the art style is fresh, and the gameplay's pretty satisfying if you like to grind, grind, grind. The battle system could have used some work; it's too difficult to juggle both screens.

Okami cheats its way into 2008 but it was as good the 2nd time through as the 1st. You don't have an excuse to not play it, I know you have a PS2 or a Wii. They get bonus points for letting you skip cutscenes from the start, in case you played enough of the PS2 one (personally I didn't skip any.) They lose points for the cover art fiasco and kicking Clover out of the credits.

Biggest Disappointments:

Super Smash Bros. Brawl felt like I was playing SSBM Service Pack 1. (Maybe this wasn't 2008? I can't remember.) Something about it felt too... sterile. I think it was the camera but I can't put my finger on it. I was bored with the game after I beat it with the first couple of characters. It's like Super Street Fighter II vs. Street Fighter II; an incremental upgrade with little meat.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

I liked Tales of Symphonia for its plot and capable voice actors. The quest was linear for most of the game, but having to spend 5-10 minutes traveling the map screen and viewing the various skits along the way helped hide this. There were a lot of cut scenes and skits, but they were generally spread out and happened in occasional large spurts. Dawn of the New World removes the voice actors and the map, leaving a decent plot and not much else. I played the first one obsessively and hearing the new voice actors is somewhat disturbing to me. The lack of the map screen makes the world seem overly small and the quests feel super-linear; it's one step away from Disgaea which technically has no map. In addition, with the exception of the occasional dungeon I find myself stumbling into cut scenes and skits practically every third step. I bought a game, not a movie, and this game doesn't make me feel that way. I'll finish it one day, but at this rate I can only take it for a few hours every week or so.