Games of the Year in Review: Part 2

The Games of the Year in Review continues....

May: Forza Motorsport 2 (Xbox 360)
Simply put, Forza Motorsport 2 is as good as it gets for car fanatics. A sim racer with so much potential for customization it can make your head spin. The game blends seamlessly between online and off and the only thing better than tweaking, tuning, and painting the over 300 cars included in the game was actually racing them. With scaling difficulty to accommodate any gamer from casual to hardcore, the only person you had to blame for putting your four hundred thousand dollar Ferrari into the wall and Laguna Seca Raceway was yourself!


June: Dirt (Xbox 360/PC/PS3)
Dirt was probably the most graphically gorgous racing game that came out this year. Even better still, the first time you slam the railing with your rally car at 90mph and realize how elaborate the damage system is your jaw drops even further. Codemasters dialed back the sim racing a little in the latest Colin Mcrae game and made the near perfect arcade racer. It also wins the first annual Nitemare1 slickest interface award for outstanding accomplishment in menus!


July: Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's (PS2)
Guitar Hero Encore won July by default. If it teaches us anything it`s that in those lazy days of summer there`s money to be made from gamers. The track list was small and the graphics were recycled from Guitar Hero 2 but we bought it anyway. Why, because it was more freakin` Guitar Hero. Maybe game publishers will catch on. Gamers don`t care if it`s summer. We still want good games to play!

August: Bioshock (Xbox 360/PC)
In August Bioshock was released and we couldn`t believe what we saw. Here was a shooter with original ideas, a setting like we had never seen and characters that really got under your skin. A story with more twists than a bag of pretzels was just the icing on the cake. When it seems like the majority of store shelves are crowded with games that have a sequel number after the title it was a beautiful thing to venture into a deep rich world where we had never been.


Tomorrow: September though December also known as: The fall my wallet cried!

Games Of The Year in Review: Part 1

So I had this idea that it might be cool to do my own personal year in review of the things that I liked in 2007. I put a few ideas into the brain blender and this is what came out! The Game Of The Year In Review! Here' a month by month look back at the games that had the biggest impression on me this past year.

January: Lost Planet (Xbox 360/PC.. coming soon to PS3)

It's January in northern Canada. The mercury is well below zero and all I wanted to do was sit inside and escape the outdoors. So what do I do? Why buy Lost Planet of course! This 3^rd person action adventure/shooter feels a little like a nuclear winter bionic command with a little mech assault thrown in for good measure. January is usually a pretty dry month for game releases but Lost Planet filled the void nicely. Though this January I think I'll dig out Farcry or DOA Extreme, just to feel a little warmer.

February: Crackdown (Xbox 360)

You only need two words to describe Crackdown. Agility Orbs. The majority of people who picked up Crackdown did it for one reason, the promise of the Halo 3 multiplayer beta. Imagine their surprise when they found out there was a great game on the disc along with it! A nice big open world to do as you saw fit. We spent hour after hour scaling the buildings of Pacific City looking for Agility Orbs and we loved every minute of it.

March: God Of War 2 (PS2)

If it ain't broke don't fix it. Kratos returned in March for the next tale in the God Of War mythology, and what a tale it was. Looking as good or better than a lot of next gen games at that time God Of War 2 pushed the PS2 to the limit. It may have been a lot more of the same as far as gameplay goes but when you do it as well as the God Of War games you don't really need to break the formula. A lot of people will argue that this was the first true triple A title of 2007.

April: Pokemon Diamond/ Pokemon Pearl (Nintendo DS)

The kiddies sure do love those pocket monsters! Don't tell anyone but so did a few of us adults. The basic formula hasn't changed a whole lot in the ten plus it's been on the scene. Pick a monster, go out into the world, fight against other monsters, pick up defeated monster, rinse and repeat. Maybe it appeals to our obsessive nature to collect or maybe its just cause they are so damn cute. The only thing that's sure is the Pokemon juggernaut isn't showing any sign of slowing down.

Come back tomorrow for May to August!