Highs and Lows of 2008

[abigsmurf]

We're close to the end of the year now. So what's your thoughts on 2008 for gaming? What was good, bad, etc. Here's my view on the year:

highlights:

The World Ends With You - fun, creative, all round probably my fav games of the year.
DS in general - strongest line up of any console.
Bioshock - shows just how much brilliant art design can add to a game.
Tower Defence becoming a recognised genre

Lowlights

That empty Wii schedule and a lack of the innovation promised, especially compared with the DS.
Spore - It's not a flowing game and it completely fails as a sandbox. The creature creator, the best part of it was deliberately limited and your design has little impact on the abilities of the creature. Just hide the best parts inside the body. Also, there is no evolution, you can always completely overhaul your creature.
Warhammer Age of Reckoning - There's a great game in there but it's state on release was severely lacking. They should've predicted the scenario grinding issue and the poor community, crafting and itemisation should've been very obvious from beta

[Sixty]

It's been a bit of a funny old year. I don't have much to mention. Highlights:

Super Smash Bros Brawl. The most endlessly playable game I've played in years. Single-handedly saved Wii's 2008, for me, and shows no sign of getting boring yet.

The announcement of No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle. In a year seriously lacking any properly exciting news, this trailer reminded me of how things used to be.

The variety of new stuff either recently released or coming soon. It might just be me only just noticing this, but the range of original projects and new IP seems really strong right now, instead of seeing a reliance on sequels and licenses. It's a great time to be into games. Even EA is trying.

Lowlights:

E3. Please make it good again. The last two have just been depressing.

GTA IV. Hyped to the moon, 10/10 reviews all over the place, a reported budget of $100 million, and it's just not very enjoyable to play. Not a terrible game by any means, but I think it's definitely flawed and in no way deserving of the praise it received, and has to be considered a disappointment. Don't kill me, GTA fans.

[jimmbob]

Highs - Left 4 Dead.

Lows - Everything else.


In fact one gripe, which will make me out to be a whiny old git is that a lot of stuff has, as usual, been held back and then released at the same time of year. Causing massive damage to my wallet, and probably leaving some quality games (Mirrors edge for instance) getting overlooked.

[Brats]

Highlights

Left 4 Dead - Surprise of the year (is it too early to say that?)
Civ Rev - Better than I even hoped it would be
Saints Row 2 co-op - Absolutely hilarious
GTA IV story mode - After that it was dull, but I loved the story
The land of Albion
The annoucement of a Harmonix Beatles game
Decent Rock Band DLC (developer realises that great rock n roll exists beyond crappy metal)
Braid

Lowlights

Erm...I can't think of any. It's been a good year.

[Kongster]

Highs
SSFII Turbo HD Remix finally got released
PES 2009 plays a great game of football offline.

Low
PES 2009 plays a bad game of football online.

[taurusnipple]

Everything has been a lowlight for me this year! I'm suffering from the bodysnatchers syndrome again, everyone else thinks the world of GOW2 (or whatever hyped up 'amazing' game) and I'm the only one saying 'er hang on a minute'

Having said that, Civ Rev, as mentioned by Brats was a game I sunk a lot of time into. Never played one before so was very pleasing. Pure was a sneaky hit too.

Back to COD4.

[Cuber001]

Highs:

Rock Band 2. Easily GOTY just amazing all round and even better if you can afford the ION.

ION Drumset for Rock Band. Just awesome.

Call Of Duty WAW. Back to the WW2 roots and a better experience for it.

Sony doing A LOT of things right with the PS3. Its finally getting there and is now a great games machine and fantastic for online IMO.

Lows:

Fallout 3. I dont care what anybody says but this game is an over rated peice of hack. How the game was allowed to be released with the bugs that it had is beyond me. Constant freezing, texture pop in, crashes, PSN notificaton freezes, Theres just too many to mention. It had even the most Hardcore Fallout 3 fans crying. And even worse was that it recieved glowing praise from everywhere, without a single mention of said bugs. All i want to know is HOW did they not come across any? Piss poor.

There is a lot more highs to mention, as its been a good year, and not too many lows. But Fallout 3 is easily the most dissapointing.

[Matt]

Left 4 Dead - Surprise of the year (is it too early to say that?)

Not really Though this thread may be a month premature; then again are there any big releases left for the year??

There's a lot I haven't played, so can only comment on what I have. Also difficult remembering the titles that actually came out this year...

Highlights

LBP - innovation in the Nintendo mold.
Gears 2 - there are problems which a patch may or may not fix, but once you get past them, it's a brilliant game.
PixelJunk Monsters - how games should be! Simple addictive fun.
WipeOutHD - £12! Bargain. I also appreciate the graphic tech (scaling horizontal resolution to keep the frame rate up).
NXE - not for the interface, but for the installation.
XMB - slowly improving.


Lowlights

GTAIV - it's not that it's a bad game, it's just not very good either. And a lot of the time it looks awful. Proof that people buy in to hype far too much.
Hype - now officially more interesting and important than the game itself.
360 - my sixth one dying.
MGS - boring. Sorry. Clunky control and clunk dialogue.

[kryss]

Highs:
Not one but TWO new Phantasy Star games
SRW action RPG
DSi
Animal Crossing on the Wii

Lows:
Realising I have to leave Japan next year. Everything else pales to that.

[ItsThere]

Highs:

Rock Band 2. Easily GOTY just amazing all round and even better if you can afford the ION.

ION Drumset for Rock Band. Just awesome.

This man speaks the truth. RB2 is basically all I play until I can't plays no more. Even better in a shared household with 3 mates

[ezee ryder]

Highs:

Metal Gear Solid 4 - Just superb!

Dead Space - Brilliantly intense and atmospheric.

Mirror's Edge - Flawed but a really good original/unique game.

GTA IV - Enjoyed every minute of it.

Gears of War 2 Campaign - Superb in single player and co-op.

Left 4 Dead - Wasn't really on my radar but picked it up and am loving it. Every online gamer should experience this.

Lows:

Gears of War 2 Multiplayer - Unbalanced mess, lost the up close and personal feel of the original.

PES 2009 - The descent of a great series of games. Plays ok offline, terrible online.

E3 - Not what it used to be! None of the "big three" really surprised or excited.

[kernow]

Lows - guitar hero, harmonica hero, harp hero, keyboard hero, glockenspiel hero, trumbone world tour, dj hero, piano band 2, who can sing the best 8, expensive peripheral pack thats not compatible with anything else 2 - world tour, constant news on kotaku and joystiq about what songs have been released every week, expensive DLC for all.

Nintendo wii lineup (in pal regions at least)

Highs - uhm, I guess MGS4 was alright.
oh , fallout 3 was probably the most interesting thing this year for me.

[NeoDragoN]

Lows - None really...

Highs - None really...

Seriously nothing springs to mind where i have been in awe of it, and nothing springs to mind where i have been utterly dissapointed.

[kernow]

I guess you could sum up this year with a eh?

[charlesr]

Highs

Ghost Squad - released over the new year, this is just super skill lightgun shooty stuff.

Target Terror - Am I the only person to have played the final level of this heap of sheet? I laughed my arse off the whole way through. Not sure if this should be in the highs or lows though

Loopop Cube Lup Salad DS - Lovely puzzle goodness.

Wii hacking - region free is go, so Gamecube back in the box. Aces!

Lows

Too many games - not enough time

360 RROD