2008 Video Game of My Year

Last year I declared Crackdown my game of the year.  This year, I'm naming Call of Duty 4 as my most enjoyed game of 2008.

I spent so many hours with that game that it would be hard to figure how many hours I put into it the single player and online modes. Sadly, the game does that for me. I believe I was 6-8 days range in the online alone. It was an almost nightly ritual for months on end and I was obsessed with the gameplay.

The Video Game Awards gave Grand Theft Auto 4 the game of the year. Call of Duty officially came out in late 2007, about the same time this year that Call of Duty: World at War released. I don't think it's fair to keep games out of awards based on their release date but by tracking users playing it (because every game system supports that now), but it's standard practice where industries award themselves.

Gamers, of course, didn't get to vote. Like always. It's a shame. The Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii all support that type of user feedback. We vote for things, enter contests and create content to share on consoles on almost a regular occurrence now. Why not let the people vote?

Game companies should do it right though. Nintendo should serve up a Game of the Year channel on the Wii so you can drop your Mii on any game that you've played in your library, not just the 5 nominees that Nintendo chooses. Microsoft should replace one of those stupid advertising tiles on their dashboard with the same thing. And Sony should put up some voting booths in that barren wasteland of Home.

About Media, News, Drinking

Almost the first thing I did after getting back from vacation was picking up Rock Band 2. It's a really good version 2.0 of Rock Band, adding the ability to play in a band online, drum fill training, and, of course, tons of new songs. It's going to be a new staple of gameplay.

Mercenaries 2 is also still loveable. I'm just starting to realize that performing insane stunts along with shooting up bad guys, stealing helicopters in mid-air, driving motorcycles with tank treads, and calling in precision bomb drops are the stuff over imaginative 12-year-old boys (and some girls!) dream of.

I listen to a lot of gaming podcasts from 1up and IGN, getting the real scoop on the industry and what gaming media thinks of games and developers. The thoughts that they have developed about gaming have a lot of personality and insight. It's not like traditional subject matter in news is skewed or judged. You know your getting a person's opinion, kind of like movie reviews, but the podcasts are free formed, recorded after work hours and usually might involved some kind of drinking. You know it's guys sitting around with friends talking about what they love most. They've written their reviews for their websites and magazines and now they get to sit around and relax, joke around, and have a two-hour water cooler conversation.

I wonder how other media could benefit from this kind of outlet; listening to the NBC News anchors talk politics around a bottle of bourbon on your iPod, Jonathan Stewart and Stephen Colbert at a cafe discussing Hurricane Ike over coffee or even Harrisonburg's own DNR reporters having a pizza around a microphone after hours. What would they talk about? How would their personality change or confirm their look on their news stories?

What I'm Playing: Not the Wii

I'm not really sure what the deal is. Mario Galaxy is one of the most creative and fun Mario experiences ever. It's certainly the best title on the Wii right now (with Metroid Prime 3 on it's heels). But I'm not totally sure why I've been so nonchalant about playing it.

Getting Rock Band definetly put a hurt on the Wii. My underlying desires to be a drummer have put many hours into the game. I'd say I'm pretty efficient and sight reading is second nature now. I think I could play a real drum set playing some basic stuff and getting used to real drum set notation .

Puzzle Quest also still has Nicole and I deeply entrenched in it's RPG-Puzzle goodness. The idea behind the game is probably one of the best gaming mashups ever. A card game (Magic the Gathering), a puzzle game (Bejeweled), and an role playing game (Dragon Warrior). If you like even one of those games or genres, you'll like playing this along with the other two.

But there's Mario, sitting in the Wii in low-power mode. I don't know if it's the fact that it's in the back room. If it's because I'm jaded on Mario-collecting-star games, or what. Mario Galaxy definetly deserves some more love than I'm giving, but when your at the point of forcing yourself to play a game, does it then lose it's purpose and meaning of existence? A game you HAVE to play. A game you HAVE to enjoy?

And that's just it. I'm not enjoying it. It's levels are entertaining bits at a time, but the overall goal of the game, to earn enough stars for a chance to fight the final battle, has permeated through the many layers that make up a video game (graphics, sound, fun, controls, etc.) and I'm seeing the forest for the trees.

Metroid Prime 3 suffered the same fate. Since it's graphics and gameplay are merely rehashes of the past two games with a different story and humans, it feels like a repetitive chore. Like the third chapter in the longest game ever.

I'm starting to think that it's because they are games made by Nintendo, but I know that can't be true because while these to games are collecting dust in my game room, the newest Zelda was played probably every available day until it was completed. I don't think it was the fact that I bought the GameCube version over the Wii version either. The new Zelda game had such a great new aroma too it. It was the new hearty chicken soup that made you forget about Cambell's version. The same thing, for sure, but energized and given mood and feeling and more character. Spice.

Mario and Metroid have somespice. Maybe it's just the wrong kind for me. Or not enough of what I do like.

Vacation Gaming

Along with a break from work, this vacation is including a break from gaming. I brought our DSi to play during the flights and during layovers, but they've pretty much sat in the bag since we've been here in Albuquerque.

I have been reading the news in Google Reader though. The best thing I've seen so far is LEGO Batman. It's being made by the same Star Wars team, so I have high, high Batmobile, and bat-utility belt hopes. And being able to play as two player as Bats and Robin will ensure Nicole and I busy for a long while.

The 360 is coming out with a 120GB HD and in black. It's disappointing that I won't be able to get the cool color, but at $80 more than the premium edition, I won't feel to disappointed.

News of an impending Dashboard update in the spring is also something nice to look forward to. I probably dreaming on them adding Mac/iTunes/iPhoto sharing built-in, but Connect360 just stopped working on my iMac and I can't figure out why and it's driving me insane. I'll probably end up throwing a PC together and create a Windows Media box on our home network. I have no idea how to do that. And that's probably why it will never happen.

What I'm Playing: Zelda, 24

I'm still chest deep in Zelda: Twilight Princess. I played quite a few hours this weekend continuing on from the Master Sword Get up to beginning what I think is the final set of quests (spoiler: it has something to do with learning who the final boss is. I wonder who!). I think this Zelda has been the one to really take things seriously. Of course there are still the fun Zelda-type things; the mailman, the Charlie-brown-esque voice overs, the sounds when you pick up something, etc. But the plot twists, the story, the music, and even the anti-Tingle character Midna are so much darker and adult.

Another game I've dug out of the collection and dusted off was 24: The Game. The best way to describe this game was a quote I found trying to look up a feature of the game online: "The best fun you'll ever have playing a bad game." It's so true. The graphics suck (besides the face mapping), the driving missions are pretty much like playing SNES Mario Kart, and the fantastic aiming system lacks any sort wound mapping (i.e. shoot a leg, drop a guy). But I keep playing it because it feels so much like the t.v. show. You get to play everyone in the show and that includes the geek back at CTU that has to unscramble a PDA before it fries itself. It's a $10 bargin bin steal. I don't regret buying it with the exception that it wasn't the type of game Nicole (the bigger 24 fan of the two of us) was into.

I'm still pondering Crackdown. It's not that I don't think it's a good enough game to buy, but I just like what's on my plate right now and don't want to spoil it. It's a GTA of a time killer, so you have to be careful with those.