GOTY 2008: Honorable Mentions

This week we conducted our game of the year awards and as you’ve probably seen by now we didn’t include certain genres like RPG or Strategy. It’s not that we don’t like those genres; it’s just that a lot of those games weren’t available in India and there’s no sense in talking about stuff we haven’t reviewed.

Keeping that in mind we’ve devised a final ceremony of sorts that honors all the games not mentioned in our previous articles. We call them *drum roll* Honorable Mentions.

Goriest game of 2008

Nik: Left 4 Dead without a doubt, dude. It featured some of the juiciest… scratch that, the chunkiest headshots I’ve seen in a while accompanied by copious amounts of dismemberment. Remember the time when we got ambushed by the zombies at the lift in No Mercy? That place turned into a f*****g bloodbath in a matter of minutes.

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Nash: Even though I love the way the M4 carbine dismembers zombies in Left 4 Dead or the way Isaac Clarke curb stomps aliens in Dead Space, I’m going to have to go with Fallout 3 over here since nothing’s more satisfying than watching a human (or a mutant for that matter) get obliterated by a shotgun to the face in glorious slow motion.

Best Expansion Pack of 2008

Nash: Not that I played a lot of expansions in 2008 but yeah, Crysis Warhead would be my choice for expansion of the year. Crytek not only tweaked the game so it ran better on our machines, but it even played better after they cut out all the unnecessary crap from the game (yeah I’m talking about them pesky aliens).

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Nik:** I loved Warhead to death but World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King owned the crap out of any expansion pack this year. The sheer amount of fresh content offered by this game blew me away and got me hooked back to WoW all over again.

Most destructive game of 2008

Nash: Ever leveled an entire block using a cluster bomb? Neither had I till I came across Mercenaries 2 so yeah, hands down, most destructive game ever. Oh and did I mention you could blow up entire bridges as well?

Nik: I had a bad experience with Mercenaries 2 since I played the PC port, so pardon the lack of enthusiasm. The most destructive game of 2008 for me would have to be Battlefield: Bad Company. Yeah I know the game was a bit superficial since you couldn’t total a structure completely, but creating your own doors through walls, fences and whatnot using your explosives never got old for me.

Most well supported game of 2008

Nash: Even though I wasn’t very pleased with the direction Criterion took Burnout paradise in, I do appreciate the fact that they supported the game vigorously in the form of regularly released DLC (downloadable content) absolutely FREE. And if rumors are to be believed they’re even releasing a plane pack for Burnout Paradise….how f****g awesome is that!

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Nik:** For me it would be Wrath of the Lich King once again. This game got the full Blizzard treatment with tons of content being poured in regularly through every patch including tweaks to the new Hero class, The Death Knight.

Happiest Game of 2008

Nash: Little Big Planet all the way man. This game actually regressed my brain to such an extent, I was actually calling horses “horsie”.

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Nik:** Heh, I’d have to agree with you on that one there since I was with you when you actually said “horsie”.

Best Real Time Strategy game of 2008

Nik: Since there weren’t too many RTS games this year (released in India especially) Red Alert 3 hit the sweet spot for me with fast paced gameplay that’s generally not seen in most RTS games. In spite of the lack of a sane storyline and some pretty terrible voice acting/cut scenes permeating through the game, the game made up for it with some innovative RTS mechanics.

Nash: Huh? You really expect me to give you some sort of valuable input here?
Most ambitious Game of 2008

Nash:
Now I know you’re not going to agree with me on this one but for me, the most ambitious game of 2008 would have to be Grand Theft Auto IV. Forgot about what you didn’t like about the game for a minute and think about Liberty City from a technical point. I mean it’s not easy programming thousands of pedestrians who went about doing their daily deeds every single day of your game life. The day and night cycles, the awesome draw distance, the way the Liberty City looked in the night… it was all pretty f*****g awesome for me.

Nik: Die!
But seriously I would have to go for Spore since I was thoroughly disappointed with GTA IV. The game tried something truly unique and succeeded to a certain extent. Having most of the content such as vehicles and species designed by the community, EA managed to keep the package tight (that’s what she said) and relatively bug free.

Best MMO of 2008

Nash: I’m not a MMO veteran so I was pretty happy with Age of Conan (AoC). I liked the way the game eased you into the whole world by keeping the first five levels as tutorials of sorts. This helped me learn the basics before I was thrust into the cruel world of Hyboria.

Nik: I really liked AoC too and I agree it was awesome to a certain extent but I wish you were hooked onto WoW, like me, so you could appreciate the awesomness of the Wrath of the Lich King (hope I’m not sounding too fanboy-ish here). What I really liked about the game was the fact that Blizzard actually made the game accessible to newcomers but at the same time kept it real for us mid-core WoW folk.

Best Fighting Game of 2008

Nash: You mean there were some good fighting games this year?

Nik: Yeah man this year was pretty fail for fighters but out of all the stuff released in 2008, I’d say Soul Calibur IV definitely stood out with its awesome character customization, deep combat system and jaw dropping visuals accompanied by steady frame rates.

Best Horror Game of 2008

Nash: While I know Dead Space is not a “conventional” horror game, it still scared the crap out me. Also owning the alien sum with the game’s strategic dismemberment is just too satisfying for words. Best horror game ever…

Nik: Word to ur mom! Wait, that wasn’t offensive was it?

Best RPG of 2008

Nik: Fallout 3, all the way! While the game was a bit too streamlined with its gimped S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat system, it managed to keep things fresh with an amazing mix of well designed shooter action, accompanied by the action point-based V.A.T.S. system. The result in the end was a deep and gripping action/RPG that balanced out combat and quests perfectly, while allowing the player to pace the game according to his own liking.

Nash: Fallout 3 most definitely dude. Even though I was a bit disappointed with the game’s ending (WTF were Bethesda thinking?!) there’s no denying the fact that Fallout 3 was the finest RPG experience ever (you have to consider the fact that I’m not a RPG veteran). Also don’t you think every shooter should use V.A.T.S. from now on?

Most Artistic Game of 2008

Nash: Three words dude… Prince of Persia. The art style used in the new PoP game blew is something blew me clean out of the water. Using cel-shading techniques along with a modified version of the Assassin’s Creed engine, Ubisoft managed to create a game that actually looked like a painting coming to life in glorious HD.

Nik: I concur. Prince of Persia was undoubtedly the most stylish of the lot. But I think we shouldn’t ignore Little Big Planet too, since it had a completely unique cutesy art-style that managed to set the right mood for what was a rather light hearted, tranquil experience. Also the highly textured look of the sackboy, the paper cutout backdrops and the extremely well used lighting engine that featured some awesome diffused lighting and some of the best soft shadows ever, brought out the best in this truly unique game.

Best co-op experience of 2008

Nik: Left 4 Dead undoubtely tops this category according to me. While the lack of maps did reduce the game’s life considerably, the time I spent slaying hordes of zombies while watching my teammates’ backs, was truly the most rewarding co-op experience ever and made it all worth it in the end. Quality over quantity is what L4D was to me.
Nash:
Hell to the yeah! Left 4 Dead was “da bomb”… followed extremely closely by Gears of war 2.