Category Archive

I’ve not been blogging much lately as you’ve no doubt noticed. Sorry about that. Work has become a bit all-consuming. As it doesn’t require much thought or time I figured I’d throw up a list of my favorite games of 2007. Here it is in all its not-quite-glory! The games are listed in no particular order as I couldn’t really tell you whether I enjoyed playing Puzzle Quest 6 months ago more than I’m enjoying Rock Band today, for instance.

• Supreme Commander - Greatest RTS ever made. PC.
• Mario Galaxy - It’s the reason you buy a Wii. Two-player mode (aka ‘girlfriend mode’) is awesome for playing with one’s less-of-a-gamer significant other. Wii.
• Rock Band - Because Ronnie James Dio would want you to play it. And because if you ever want a job with us, you better be able to play one of the instruments on ‘Hard’ or ‘Expert.’ Remember that “sucking at Rock Band” is not yet a protected category when it comes to discrimination in the hiring process. Xbox 360.
• Puzzle Quest - I hate match-three games, and yet I loved Puzzle Quest. Played it on the DS.
• Portal - I still feel bad about murdering my Companion Cube. Had I known that a birthday party with Companion Cube in attendance was a possibility, I probably wouldn’t have murdered it. Played it on the 360.
• Halo 3 - The best multiplayer action game ever made as far as I’m concerned, though I have never really been into PC-based shooters so I recognize I’ve got a huge blind spot here. 360.
• Settlers of Catan - I played a lot of Settlers on Xbox Live. My girlfriend, on the other hand, continues to be addicted to it and takes every opportunity possible to “get her Catan on.” 360 - Xbox Live.

I thought I’d make a list largely for my own edification, but figured I’d post it here as well. Note that these are MY top 10 games of 2006. I don’t care what year the game was made in. If I didn’t play it until 2006, then it’s eligible for the list.

1. Guitar Hero 2 (PS2) - I can’t imagine anyone who reads this blog is surprised given how often I’ve written about the franchise. Just as Guitar Hero was before it, Guitar Hero 2 is, in the sense that video games can let you be something you aren’t, the best video game ever made. (Which isn’t to say it’s flat-out the best video game ever made. I don’t have an opinion on that.)
2. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360) - Few games aside from text MUDs ever immersed me as much as Oblivion did. It probably would have been #1 except that I found that I ran out of new enemies to see and places to go long before I finished the main plotline, making the last 10-15 hours I played it feel progressively more tedious.
3. Half-Life 2 (PC) - I don’t mean Episode 1 either, as I haven’t played it. I know this didn’t come out in 2006, but I played it this year and, predictably, loved it. I haven’t played the original, but this was a lot of fun. The gravity gun rocked.
4. Viva Pinata (360) - First of all, the theme song permanently lives in my head. Second, it’s the cutest game I’ve ever played, and third, it lets me have a four-headed snake as a pet. Plus, my girlfriend loves it, which is a big bonus.
5. Gears of War (360)- One of the only so-called “next-gen” games that feels next-gen to me (and when can we stop calling them ‘next gen’ now that they’re all ‘current gen?’). In fact, I think the ‘next gen’ label is a bunch of crap. Most of the 360 games look and play like the better-looking Xbox games, and I shouldn’t have to buy a new piece of hardware to play games that should have been running on my Xbox. Gears of War is a notable exception in the visuals department, and a small exception in the gameplay department. Yeah, there have been third person squad-based shooters before, but this feels different.
6. God of War (PS2) - Another game that wasn’t released in 2006. Ultra-violent and over the top in every way. I loved it.
7. Kirby: Canvas Curse (DS) - This was the first game I played on the DS I got given as a birthday gift last summer. It completely sold me on the power of the DS’s interface. For those who haven’t played, it’s a 2d scroller in which you play Kirby the Ghost. You control Kirby’s movement entirely by drawing lines on the screen, which form the platforms he rolls on. Make him do loops, go straight up, whatever. Never played a game that felt quite like it.
8. Splinter Cell: Double Agent (360) - This was the game in the Splinter Cell franchise I’d played, and I was a bit hesitant as stealth doesn’t tend to be my thing, or didn’t used to at least. I found I enjoyed the stealth aspect of the game immensely, and the multiplayer, in which one side plays a spy and one plays a mercenary, each with completely different capabilities, felt unlike anything I’ve played online before.
9. Geometry Wars (360) - The best Atari game that was never on an Atari. This is the game that Asteroids and every permutation of the 2d space-based shooter wished they could have been 25 years ago.
10. New Super Mario (DS) - There was absolutely nothing innovative or even evolutionary about New Super Mario, but the devs did such a superb job of translating the feel of classic 2d Mario games that it didn’t matter. I loved every second of it, though my only complaint was that it felt too easy.

I was perusing Nintendo’s new list of “launch window” titles (titles that will be released within 5 weeks of the Wii launch) and found myself quite disappointed. It is chock-full of no-doubt crappy movie/tv licenses like Spongebob Squarepants, Ice Age 2, Cars, The Ant Bully, and ports like Farcry: Vengeance, Need for Speed: Carbon, Call of Duty 3, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.

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Last night, I broke out the Dreamcast for some old-school gaming with my friend Rodney. More specifically, we played our perennial favorite multiplayer game, Toy Commander. I can’t even describe how much I love this game. The single player game was quite good - a series of wonderfully imaginative mini-games played with toys. All the levels are in the house of the child Andy (you) who is the Toy Commander, and you control a wide variety of vehicles, depending on the mission, from fighter jets to tanks to firetrucks to an alien vessel, etc. All miniatures flying/driving around inside a furnished house, which makes for some very cool level design.

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Just a short post to say how much I’ve come to love alternative controllers in the wake of Guitar Hero and the DS Lite Kirby game, in which you control Kirby the ghost by drawing lines on the screen. The 360’s been a bit of a letdown for me so far in terms of the games (though the hardware and Live service are both superb), and I have nothing but ill-wishes for Sony and the PS3 with its $600 price tag. On the other hand, when I think of the Wii with its lovely and accessible $250 price point and its revolutionary (for good or bad) controller, I get an almost child-like excitement. I cannot wait to see what kind of new gameplay I’m going to get to experience with the Wii’s controller. Bring on the Wii!

Edit: And Guitar Hero 2!