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31 Dec 2008 at 11:34:02 by

Paul Govan

Best: MotorStorm: Pacific Rift (PS3)

The combination of scintillating speed and super smooth gameplay brings me back to MotorStorm again and again. Each of the four environments not only adds the variety lacking from the original but introduces different hazards and opportunities - water, fire and ridiculous jumps. Add to this the instant restart of races, and four player split screen and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift is a perfect fit for my family game playing habits.

Worst: FaceBreaker: Knock Out Wii (Wii)

For me this is the game that most let me down. I was eager to get my hands on what was promised to be an enhanced Wii-Sports boxing experience. These expectations were shattered when I discovered this was a port of the 360/PS3 versions of the game with frustratingly needless gesture controls added in late in the day. In terms of opportunities missed this has to rank up there with the worst of 2008.

Mike Grant

Best: Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 (Xbox LIVE! Arcade)

I’ve spent more hours on this game than Boy George and Naomi Campbell have on Community Service combined, which indicates how obsessed I am with Bizarre’s crazily beautiful and addictive shoot-or-avoid-depending-on-the-mode-em-up. Putting high score leaderboard rivalries front and centre at all times was officially the best game design decision of 2008.

Worst: Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (PS3/360)

Releasing PS2 games in 720p is enough to satisfy us, right? Wrong. There’s no better poster child for the advance of Western development than the sad sight of PES becoming FIFA’s red-headed step-child. I was playing this 5 years ago. Not literally the “worst” game of the year, but definitely the laziest and most disappointing.

Emily Knox

Best: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)

For me, the thought of another chapter of Metal Gear taking place on a ‘next gen’ console, and watching Solid Snake for hours in all his chiselled, grizzled, (and sadly, wrinkled) features fills me with excitement. Is that wrong, considering his age? I don’t care, because this game is captivating, exciting, intense, and has even thrown in a ‘solid’ online mode and a free factual database that Metal Gear-aholics will love.

Worst: Conflict: Denied Ops (Multi-platform)

Conflict: Denied Ops is by no means terrible – its main problem is that there are other co-operative shooters that are better in every conceivable way. Great music and sound, fun vehicle sections, wonderful graphics, interesting story and gameplay are just some of the things you won’t find here. There isn’t even an option to play split-screen horizontally, which is just plain weird.

Stephen Macek

Best: Fallout 3 (PS3)

Despite the flaws present, the PS3 version of Fallout 3 was the game that drew me in the most this year. Looking in every nook and cranny to see what loot I could grab and fretting over just where to place my points as my character advanced. It just doesn't get better than that.

Worst: Wacky Races (Wii)

Despite being tied in to one of my favourite childhood cartoons, Wacky Races was just not fun. I tried really hard to like it, but there was just no silver lining for me. The best part of the game was taking it out of the Wii for the last time.

Jerry Friestad

Best: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

It’s been a few years since I’ve found myself so lost in a game that I experience physical reactions to the actions in the game. I found myself completely lost in the world of Temeria. I sympathised with tragic characters, shared the joy of achievements, and felt truly terrible killing someone who did not deserve to die (enough to reload my last save). It seems making moral choices has been a gaming trend of 2008 but The Witcher: Enhanced Edition was the only game this year where the consequences to my actions impacted me emotionally. Although the Witcher was a late 2007 release the enhanced edition came out earlier this year and made a good game nearly perfect.

Worst: Fable 2

Now this probably isn’t the worst game mechanically, and I’m certainly not trying to spark controversy, but Fable 2 was the most loved game for no good reason. The story was bland, characters dropped out of the sky with no back-story and no reason to care about them, the villain was non-existent, the ending transcended underwhelming, and the social interaction was flawed.
Fable 2 put up invisible barriers in the campaign by making you become more renowned to continue the game. This is a cheap route developers take to extend the play time by forcing you to experience the game’s content instead of guiding the player to it from their own personal interest. You can become more accomplished by completing side-quests or you can brag and fart 100 times in front of a crowd with hardly any diminishing returns. Fable 2 was designed as a sandbox world where gamers would create their own “wow” moments from their own imagination. However if there’s no real story to keep you interested all Fable 2 becomes is a hack and slash version of the Sims.

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