ANTI-GOTY!! FUCK YEAH!!
by sweep
You people are all members of Giantbomb. That means you ALREADY KNOW what the good games are, and which gaming aesthetics are going to itch your trigger fingers. So, here's a completely different list of things you should go and check out, but that probably wont feature prominently on anyone's top ten of 2008 list. AGE OF BOOTY SHAKE UR BOOTY!! There have been a lot of awesome XBLA games releas...
You people are all members of Giantbomb. That means you ALREADY KNOW what the good games are, and which gaming aesthetics are going to itch your trigger fingers.
So, here's a completely different list of things you should go and check out, but that probably wont feature prominently on anyone's top ten of 2008 list.
AGE OF BOOTY
SHAKE UR BOOTY!!There have been a lot of awesome XBLA games released this year, but Age Of Booty was particularly enjoyable. The simple emphasis of co-operation and communication really does add a lot of depth and tactical awareness to what would otherwise be considered a simplistic experience. I liked it enough to write my first (and only) review, so you should go chCHCHhcheck that out. Age Of Booty is, I feel, massively under-rated. It looks great, its fun to play, and you get to shout as much Pirate nonsense as you can shake a cutlass at. Buy it or WALK THE PLANK!!TOM CLANCY'S: ENDWAR
I don’t usually go for RTS games because I find I simply cannot react fast enough to multiple events taking place on the virtual battlefield. This isn’t helped by my inability to play PC games, and the selection of RTS games on 360 are somewhat lacking. Yes, I can beat you at Battle For Middle Earth 2 - but I won't enjoy it, which sort of defies the point. Endwar was a breath of fresh air - the voice controls work stunningly well, and it makes zipping around the battlefield fast and effective. Instead of having that gloomy "fog of war" you are limited to a more personal 3rd-person-esque perspective of your troops. The game empathises with your limited squads particularly well, and you may find yourself risking the lives of dozens just to protect a single unit of Gunships that worked so hard to defend Bravo point. Franticly yammering commands into the mouthpiece adds a wonderful sense of involvement, tension and, aside from everything else, makes you feel like a total badass. This game is a lot of fun, and while I would only really suggest the online is used - I still think its a shame that Endwar got smothered by the wealth of other titles released over the last month. It deserves a lot of praise.BURNOUT PARADISE
Don't try this at home kids...I don’t own a copy of Burnout Paradise. Like an idiot I decided that I should walk for half an hour to play it at my mates house every day. For a month. Like everyone else out there - I freakin’ loved it. Its easy to forget Burnout what with it being released so early in the year (January 22nd?!) but it really is a great game - and the continued high quality of the Dev Support is stunning and makes me wish I had bought the game myself to take full advantage of it. (Just so you know, I'm totally cool with being a hypocrite). Burnout gets all the basic racing elements right - the cars all feel individual without making the game unbalanced, there is a great sense of speed, and the city is lush and full of life. The multiplayer is particularly robust, with a flawless transition from off to online. The gorgeous crash sequences are, in the words of Ryan Davis - "Pornographic". How can you NOT go for that?!Those three games are all awesome. They all deserve some of your time. If you are scanning the completely predictable GOTY awards and find yourself stuck for good titles to play, maybe you should experiment with one of these.
If I had to pick a “game of the year” it would be GTA4 by the way...
If you have spoken to me on the IRC or have been keeping track of my blogs then you will know why. If you haven’t then you probably have no idea who I am and you shouldn’t care about my opinion anyway.
Everyone knows that Sweep loves helicopters.
Thanks For Reading
Love Sweep