It's the time of year again for top 10 lists, Something of the Year lists, and all other forms of reviewing our lives over the past 365 days.
So I'll pick my Game of the Year: Crackdown.
Released in February, Crackdown was destined to be a dud because included with the game was a beta-key for Halo 3 online multiplayer. What other way to sell a crappy game than to entice gamers with a taste of Halo goodness? What sucker is going to pay $60 just play the multiplayer, two week Halo server stress test?
A lot of people. Because it's Halo.
But a little surprise came from that $60 purchase: a really fun, sandbox-style, superhero, total destruction, 800-hidden-objects-to-find, online, co-op action game.
Crackdown really had it all: running 30 miles an hour, picking up and throwing tractor trailers at enemies, jumping 4 stories in the air and jumping the rooftops of cities, punching enemies back 20 feet, driving cars that transformed off of ramps at high speeds, and even climbing up and jumping off the highest point in the game. Then doing it all with a friend online and laughing your heads off. Not really much was left to the imagination with this game. You could do or go pretty much anything or anywhere you wanted.
And itt was probably the best superhero game without actually calling itself such. Not even the new Superman game, a series that has always left a bad taste in gamers mouths, could compete with such a well built action game like Crackdown.
What was wrong with Crackdown? It wasn't particularly deep in storyline. It didn't have online multilayer with more than one other person. The enemies weren't hard to kill at all. It could make you sea-sick jumping around and spinning the camera constantly like you have to in order to jump around and make your way around the city. There are 800 collectible items in the game (and I'm freakin' two away!).
Crackdown wasn't the big Triple-A title of the year and there are certainly many games in contention for game of the year: Mass Effect, Bioshock, Halo 3, Guitar Hero 3, Rock Band, Forza 2, Call of Duty 4, Assasin's Creed, and on and on. But for the money, Crackdown gave me the best experience and I enjoyed it the most. And while Rock Band is teaching me how to play the drums and is in my top 5 of the year, it's really more of a side effect than a feature of the game.
Now I haven't played all the games that came out this year, so my pool of candidates is about the size of a baby pool, but that's what you get when you have a real job, a mortgage, and very limited hobby money.
It's my game of the year. Probably not many other's.
Note: My top five would be Crackdown, Rock Band, Halo 3, Forza 2, and Mario Galaxy.
Bungie finally loosed some stats from their all powerful game servers. It's been almost two months (right?).
Personally, I think shooting the guy off the roof as he jumps across the street to be the most fun skull. Tilt was just plain hard to do, jumping on all those small ledges.
- Campaign Complete: Normal: 43.28%
- Campaign Complete: Legendary: 15.14% done!
- Graduate: Graduated from basic training: 66.92% done!
- UNSC Spartan: Promoted to Sergeant: 52.07%
- The most found metagame skull? Black Eye skull with 34.26% done!
- The least found metagame skull? Tilt at 22.98% (Go find it, jerks! It’s one of the best skulls in the game!) done!
- At 6.21%, Steppin’ Razor is the hardest multiplayer Achievement to earn, with Two for One right behind it at 6.77% and Overkill nipping at its heels (6.75%)
- 8.68% of players have unlocked the Marathon Man Achievement done!
- 1000/1000 Gamerscore: 2.07%
I'm not quite finished with the game yet, but I think I can safely say this game is going in my "top 20" list of games. I bought it as a time waster until Metroid Prime comes out on the Nintendo Wii next Wednesday, but little did I know that not only will I finish the story mode in a weeks time, but that I would love every minute of it.
I called this game "the super-human, futuristic, elite cop version of Grand Theft Auto". I want to append to that some more words: fun, funny and entertaining.
There really isn't any comparison in the two games. They play to different parts of the audience: the want-to-do-bad-things group and the want-to-have-fun group. I've lived in both camps. I enjoy the later in multiple folds.
Even my wife, seeing me jump 50-100ft in the air in a single bound to chase after glowing orbs, got excited. She grabbed the controller and dove right in. Running at 25mph. Kicking thugs backwards 40ft. Climbing intricate buildings by ledges and scaffolding a mile high. The controls are simple. The idea is simple.
There's no complicated missions to replay over and over again to get them right. There are no bad fighting or driving mechanics or physics engines. There are no mandatory story lines. There are no secondary story lines. You do what you want to achieve what you want.
But what gets me about the game is that it's more than it's campaign mode. It's a virtual playground for wanna-be superheros. It's a platformer that delivers with no fuss. It was probably worth at the release date price, $60. It's even more worth it at the used $35 price.
With Metroid: Corruption not coming to stores for another week and a half, I was anxious to pick up something old for the Xbox 360 that I never was able to play because of other games. For the past 2 days I've running and jumping around in Crackdown, the super-human, futuristic, elite cop version of Grand Theft Auto. I played it until 4am on Saturday and for a few hours today. I'm at least addicted to this game.
But instead of talk about how much I like the game and what about it turns me on, I'm going to talk about what I didn't do this weekend because of it.
I didn't mow the grass on Saturday. It's finally growing back green and bushy. The electric lawnmower won't like these extra growth days one bit.
I didn't do my laundry. Well, the last bit is actually in the dryer right now. If I'm lucky, I'll have wrinkled corduroy to wear tomorrow.
I didn't install the crown moulding in the bathroom. Even with the used compound mitre saw Dad gave me. I did get one piece cut and up. Three left. I could do it in an hour I think.
I didn't wash my car. But since my Maxima got totaled in an accident last summer, a car I loved, I realized that washing cars can be such a waste of time.
Not like video games.
I'm thinking yes.
I just watched one of the preview trailers for Crackdown over at IGN. I think this game is what Superman Returns should have been, minus the flying of course.
But check it out for yourself and see if you think it's worth it to get into a crowded Halo Live beta.
Right now it's a tie between Crackdown and Lost Planet: Extreme Condition.
