Top 10 games of 2008

So 2008 is done and its been over a month for me to try out some games and all. So what did I find? 2008 has been one blast of a year for video games with major long-awaited titles being released such as Fallout 3, Fable II, Grand Theft Auto IV, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It really makes me wonder how 2009 will top this but we shall see!

So here are my top 10 of 2008. Yes I am missing quite a few games that should make it but I didn't have enough time to get around to playing them as now I work so my summer holidays was pretty much cut short.

10. Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit (Dimps/Atari | PS2, 360)

Ah Dragon Ball, you guys never fail at releasing minimum one game a year and as most of the other fighters, its a good one! However this game goes back to the good'ol Budokai days and throwing out the Tenkaichi fighting mechanics for the more traditional ways for its exclusive next-gen debut! Character roster is lacking but the ones that were included are animated so nicely and precise its like watching the anime in HD! The voice-actors from both the English and Japanese camps return to voice their characters and sounds surprisingly good no matter which language option you pick! The DBZ game for everyone! Much better than the PS2's crap DBZ swansong Infinite Worlds.

9. Guitar Hero: World Tour (Neversoft/Activision | Wii, PS2, PS3, 360)

So how do you get back at your former employees for joining a rival company? Show them that you don't need them and that you can do it better! So thats prety much the skinny on what happened when Harmonix jumped ship to EA to create Rock Band that adds drum and voice-play into the foray! Activision decided to copy and included those things as well but wasn't as successful huh. But I still enjoyed the guitar aspect of the game as it should be... its not called Guitar Hero for no reason -.-

8. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (Capcom/Nintendo | NDS)

A new chapter in the Ace Attorney series and it was a good one! While not as challenging as the previous three, it was still as fun to play and also to tie up some loose ends the original trilogy left behind. Not much I can say that won't ruin the story... this game was built from the ground up to ultilise the DS' features unlike the previous three (excluding the last episode of the first game) so now you know you paying top price for new game and not lazy ports so everyone please give it a go :)

7. Soulcalibur IV (Namco | PS3, 360)

While some of the costumes in this game scared me, this is a very good fighting game that totally kicks Soulcalibur III's arse. This time round the character customisations are done a lot better, no lag and online play! Theres also a way to penalise guard-happy players which is a nice touch from the first Soul Blade game. While the inclusions of some new characters scraches my head, its still a very decent game with heaps of replayability! I really wished that Hwang was back in this game -.-

6. Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- (Square-Enix/Ubisoft | PSP)

Pretty much PSP's only blockbuster game of 2008 and what a game it is. Finally we get to see who Zack Fair is after 11 years of waiting. This game was announced when the PSP was announced so it has been a long time coming. Theres problems with the battle system but everything else is pretty much flawless from the graphics to the beautiful music. Even though we know Zack dies, it was still a treat to follow Zack around Gaia seeing him mentor Cloud Strife meeting familiar faces (Yuffie and even Vincent!) and new ones (Cissnei!!!!) until his timely death. I will miss him and it was the only video game that made tears come to my eyes, even Aeris didn't do that for me.

5. Disaster: Day of Crisis (Monolithsoft/Nintendo | Wii)

The game that America never got is one hell of a game. Blue Ridge City is being contiously bombarded with natural disasters and terrorist and its up to one man to save the day: Ray. The former Internatinoal Rescue Team member must save the city from total destruction and at the same time save his best friend's sister from the terrorist. Sounds like a movie plot eh? Well it sure plays like a movie and I wouldn't have it any other way! From the cheesy dialogue to the different types of gameplay this game has, it is always kept fresh and never takes itself seriously. Also this is like the first Nintendo-made game wheres theres swearing... now thats a treat to all fans around the world (sorry America, blame Reggie)

4. Yakuza 2 (Amusement Vision/SEGA | PS2)

This is probably the most anticipated PS2 game of my life! i first got this game in Japanese at the end of 2007 but it had no subs and being such a story-driven game... it didn't work for me... So after two years of waiting, I finally got a copy in English!!! Man this is like the best original last game for the PlayStation 2, can't think of any others! Being a two-year-old game, it still makes my list! Everything was pretty much improved over the original from the graphics, music and even to the gameplay! The camera in the original really was annoying but they fixed it in this one and the leveling up system is made easier and more diverse! Oh and the cut-scenes are superbly shot just like the movies, very nice. If you are stuck in last-gen and love Japanese culture, give this a go guys,

3. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Sora/Nintendo | Wii)

Heres the next part in the every-nintendo-fans'-wetdream series. Having to endure many years of delay, Brawl has finally appeared on the Wii. With brand new characters, stages, customisations, online play, stage sharing and many more things, this game is a dream. Also included are Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog to fight against their Nintendo rivals. While everything seems cool, there are some flaws like some characters being WAY overpowered, some even became much weaker and the fact the game only plays well with a GameCube controller that are so hard to find outside of Japan and Nintendo Australia doesn't seem to want to fix it... idiots. All and all, brilliant game that I can see myself playing till the end of the Wii's lifespan.

2. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo | Wii)

So why is this game on top of Super Smash Bros. Brawl? Quite simply cause this was way more fun for me. No other console game had me eating dinner with one hand and playing with the other thanks to the Wii Wheel :p This game also included the best online play I've ever played. There was virtually no lag and you could play co-op as well! Compared to other home online games with fast paced action, Mario Kart Wii takes the top, it was THAT good. So good that I bought four copies of it :)

1. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Kojima Productions/Konami| PS3)

Now while I had a way more fun experience with some of the other games in this list, this game here is technically flawless in everyway possible. The gameplay doesn't fight with you, the controller becomes like a part of ya hands as you move around in the beautiful environment and pulsing at every enemy so they don't spot you. What is flawed is the long as cut-scenes, while I still enjoyed but I can see why the majority of people disliked. Coming packaged with this final game is Metal Gear Online to allow players to verse eachother to see who is a better Foxhound so thats a pretty good deal there too. So after six canonical games, what does happen to Solid Snake? We all know he grows older but what is to become of him? Well the only way to find out is to catch this on a PS3 cause Konami and Kojima Productions has no plans at all to bring this elsewhere!


Now thats a lot of writing I did and I know some people won't agree with it or not at all. So I'll list some of the games that didn't make it but was still enjoyable for me:

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen
Prince of Persia
Mirror's Edge
Call of Duty: World at War
Red Alert 3
No More Heroes
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Sonic Unleashed
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Lock's Quest
littleBIGplanet
Grand Theft Auto IV
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009

Having such a blast of a year, makes me wonder how 2009 will fair. It has however brought out the RPG classic Chrono Trigger and probably the most anticipated follow-up fighting game of all time Street Fighter IV is just around the corner so it shouldn't be too bad. I am looking forward to these following games:

Dragon Quest IX
Street Fighter IV
Tekken 6
Killzone 2
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
House of the Dead OVERKILL
Madworld
Tales of Vesperia
Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games
DJ Max Fever
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Resident Evil 5
Resistance: Retribution
The Conduit
Bayonetta
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Have a good one guys and keep gaming :)

Too Many

Wow dudes, I've been getting way too many new games than I can handle and some aren't even opened yet! Still freshly sealed. People have been questioning me why I buy so many than I can play... well I can play them and will finish the interesting ones but they're all so cheap for new release games. I'm getting them at an average of $40 each when each of these console games RRP $100+.

So right now I have these games that are still sealed and waiting for me to play them:
Animal Crossing: Let's go to the City (Wii)
Call of Duty: World at War (PS3)
Enchanted Arms (PS3)
God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP)
Mirror's Edge (PS3)
Prince of Persia (PS3)
Virtua Fighter 5 (PS3)

Currently working on Resistance: Fall of Man, thats a hard game and I really want to get that game out of the way first then I'll probably move onto GTAIV, well letsee how I go eh.

Tonight, Tomorrow, Quite a few

with the holidays looming and exams a thing of the past until June next year, I have taken it upon myself to finish at least ten games. Now this would be crap easy if I wasn't working but seeing as I am, my daily gaming has been cut fair short. However working brings in new income and I am now able to afford new games... go figure :p

At the moment I have only finished one, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots but am looking at trying to get around to the following in no particular order:

Burnout Paradise
Chrono Trigger
Disaster: Day of Crisis
Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World
Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen
Final Fantasy XII
Grand Theft Auto IV
Half-Life 2, Episodes 1 and 2
Kingdom Hearts II
LostWinds
Medal of Honor: Airborne
Medal of Honor Heroes 2
Medal of Honor: Vanguard
No More Heroes
Pokemon Diamond
Resistance: Fall of Man
Ridge Racer 7
Rogue Galaxy
Sonic Unleashed
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Yakuza 2

Well thats the list I can think of and I'll keep it updated with what I complete. Theres some nice DS games I should get to as well such as Castlevania, Lock's Quest and Flower, Sun and Rain.

Having Dick Smith woes

So Dick Smith Electronics are currently having a sale and gamers around Australia are raiding the place! It was quite annoying that I found out about the DSE sale on its first day as I luckily stepped into the store for no other reason to waste time. There I saw some flyers saying that it was 50% off, fair cool. So I bought a game and that night, Ecogamer, Aussie-Nintendo, Kotaku Australia were all reporting it. Haha and the next time I went, three days later, most stores were all cleaned out so I had to hop from Dick Smith to Powerhouses and so forth, fun as.

So what did I get? Here we go:

1. Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2 (360) - $5 Greensborough DSE
2. Medal of Honor: Airborne (PS3) - $27.50 Nunawading Powerhouse
   
3. Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 (Wii) - $25 Nunawading Powerhouse
4. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PS3) - $22.50 Nunawading Powerhouse
5. Kameo: Elements of Power (360) - $14 Preston Powerhouse
6. ShadowRun (360) - $5 Greensborough DSE
7. Bully: Scholarship Edition (Wii) - $20 Preston Powerhouse
8. No More Heroes (Wii) - $30 Preston Powerhouse
9. Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions (PS3) - $20 Preston Powerhouse
10. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PS3) - $20 Preston Powerhouse
11. The Orange Box (PS3) - $30 Highpoint Powerhouse
    
12. Medal of Honor: Vanguard (Wii) - $20 Greensborough DSE

Not a bad turnout actually though I am missing some games I really want including Bomberman Land! Wii, Ridge Racer 7, Warhawk and Blue Dragon. At least I finished up my Medal of Honor collection in one week. Also as you can see I've been buying Xbox 360 games, thats because I'll be getting a 360 soon when I see a great bundle at a great price so I'm just getting ready.

Well the sale ends tomorrow so I'll see if I have time to head to Knox City to grab that Ridge Racer 7. Oh and thanks to Ren for getting The Orange Box for me all the way at Highpoint, legendary

Mind-Boggling Realism

Now that I have a PlayStation 3, a 1080p High Definition Television, a 1.5m HDMI cable, some HD movies and six HD PS3 games, I have been playing games and watching movies outside in the lounge instead of my room. Pretty much to get the best picture and sound quality since my room is just a little CRT TV with faulty Component inlets. I am very satisfied with the PlayStation 3. While I still love my Wii for its unique games and the News and Weather Channels (yeaaaaaa I use them bastards :p), the PS3 has its unique awesome features as well.


One major gripe is the Friends Codes on the Wii system where players have to trade their unique 12-digit friend codes away from the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection before they can connect with eachother to play a game together or send Miis and messages to eachother. Theres a unique code for each online-enabled game as well as a unique Wii console code. Thats a hell of a lot of codes just to have fun together. The PS3 on the other hand just has one PSN (PlayStation Network) name where you can include the standard alphabets, digits and symbols for everything, games and the PS3.

Another cool feature is that you can tell when your friend is online and what they are playing. Nintendo puts so much empathsis on community, simplicity and fun when they restrict you so much to have fun with friends over the net! Any person you meet online during your travels through the PSN will be logged into a list of the most recent ten ppl and you can invite them to be your friend. So much easier. Sorry Nintendo, you lose once again for being a tight-mother.

Being able to customise the XMB (Cross-Media-Bar, which is the home page of the PS3) like the PSP's is a great feature. I have a Street Fighter IV wallpaper and Metal Gear Solid 4 icons; it really makes cool that you can personalise it. A downer on the Wii is that you cannot download trailers, demos and personalisations mainly because of the space-restrictions the Wii has (512MB compared to 20-80GB on the PS3). I have been downloading PS3 and movie trailers left-right-and-centre just to see the game in its HD-optimised quality.

With the Wii having no capability for anything other than playing games, checking the weather and news, the PS3 can also play Blu-ray, DVDs, MP3s, WMV and DivX files for your liking from a disc, a USB stick, a flash card or even through the network! I have hooked up my PS3 to my computer and have it stream movie and anime files from my HDD to my PS3 with no lag at all! Its freakin' brilliant! The PS3 was recently enabled with Force Feedback and Trophy (same as 360's Achievements) support. Its all good and all but the fact that only some games support these features and not all will be supporting these features in the future is very frustrating.

The most annoying game I have is Soulcalibur IV. The game is awesome but the extra features are lacking. Since the game was released long after the release of the DualShock 3, it doesn't support it at all! There is already a trophy system in place to unlock for extra in-game content and that system being used by the 360's Achievements, its unabled for the PS3's Trophy system... oh man. If Naughty Dog made Uncharted with a trophy system long before the PS3's Trophy update then when it was announced and releasing a patch for Uncharted to enable trophies, why couldn't Namco do that to begin with? Very frustrating.
Hehe also the PS3 is the first video game system to give me motion sickness! Probably because of its realism in HD that I got so sick that I had a headache even the following day. I was playing Time Crisis 4 one night in the dark and I felt really really sick. Maybe because I was sitting too close to the TV and it was in the dark but man did I feel really off. I blame Namco for this for having the G-Con3 gun wired instead of being wireless-enabled. But that was the last time I played the game and gave it back to Ren soon after.

Anyway I'm happy with my PlayStation 3 but I wouldn't say its better or worse than the Nintendo Wii an vice-versa. Both have its strengths and weaknesses and I wouldn't trade both of them for anything else in its generation unless Sony brings out a PS3 slim :p

Anyway I'm happy with my PlayStation 3 but I wouldn't say its better or worse than the Nintendo Wii an vice-versa. Both have its strengths and weaknesses and I wouldn't trade both of them for anything else in its generation unless Sony brings out a PS3 slim :p

My Sony PlayStation 3 games

I got my PlayStation 3 a week back and I must say its awesome. Currently searching for cheap games as I was for the PSP so I only have a few but it will grow by next year by hopefully the amount the Wii has.

1. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
2. BioShock (2K Marin/2k Games)
3. Burnout Paradise (Criterion Games/EA)
4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision)
5. Call of Duty: World at War (Treyarch/Activision)
6. Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit (Dimps/Atari)
7. Enchanted Arms (From Software/Ubisoft)
8. Guitar Hero: World Tour (Neversoft/Activision)
9. littleBIGplanet (Media Molecule/SCEAus)
10. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Capcom)
11. Medal of Honor: Airborne (EA LA/Electronic Arts)
12. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Kojima Productions/Konami)
13. Mirror's Edge (Electronic Arts)
14. The Orange Box (Valve/Electronic Arts)
15. Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
16. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (KCET/Konami)
17. Ridge Racer 7 (Namco)
18. Soulcalibur IV (Namco Bandai Games/Ubisoft)
19. Stranglehold (Midway)
20. Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection Online (Namco/SCEAus)
21. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (Naughty Dog/SCEAus)
22. Virtua Fighter 5 (SEGA-AM2/THQ)
    

At least the Platinum titles are hits including Uncharted, Resistance and Heavenly Sword. But what I really am looking forward to is Eternal Sonata and White Knight Chronicles. The PS3 really need those RPGs to lift its game -.-

Last Updated: 3rd of March 2009

DigiDistro Musings

I was actually working on a Metal Gear Solid 4 review post for August but just couldn't finish it in a way I was satisfied with. Sorry about that dudes. It truly is an awesome game and I really want to review it so I'll do that after I do this one and two more on Space for Hiroes. Because its so awesome and groundbreaking, I just can't think of a good way to do it yet but it'll be soon!

Recently Digital Distribution has been getting popular lately and I can see why. The convenience of not having to go down to the store, find the game whether its there or not and wait in line just to get home to play. With Digital Distribution, you can just sit at the comfort of your home, enter your credit card or paypal details and ya off waiting for it to download!

Also concept and convenient and I can see why so many turn to it. Recently developers and publishers have been releasing their games as standard retail boxes and also online. And thats cool as there are many benefits from cutting the middle man out, everyone who wants a copy gets one and for convenience sake. I don't have a problem about this but why am I typing up a blog entry about it? Cause I think this is gonna be a worrying trend in the near future if publishers decides to release all games as Digital Distro only.

With the recent announcement D3 Publisher are removing their PSP UMD games to become download-only really worries me that others will follow. While others find it the best way to get games off Steam, XBLA, PSN etc instead of their physical-copies, I prefer to go out and shop for the best bargains of the same game. It may take me a few weeks to get a game I really want, at least I would've paid a price that was much less than what online offers (in their official AUD RRP). Another point that deters me from buying a digital copy is that, the publishers controls the price as its the only source to get it from and will never have a sale unless the game is selling like nothing. Whereas at the shops, they compete with eachother and have sales and bundles etc.

Having a physical copy to display on shelf is also another great satisfaction of my accomplishment that I was able to get it for a great price. I have many friends come to my house and always awe at my collection of games whereas having the games I have downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel on my Wii does not have the same effect. Ren and I constantly look inside second-hand shops for the good rare games at bargain prices and its a great feeling when you do find a gem underneath many normal games.

I know many gamers aren't as hardcore and economical as me when it comes to buying games but the feeling that you actually own it and not just stored on your harddrive is such a much better feeling. There are some instances I do buy a digital copy when there is no other option for a classic game to be played as the Wii's Virtual Console games are. Especially the rare games like Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario that weren't even released in PAL and released in public in Australia respectively. Thats acceptable and most of the classic games that just aren't available anymore or wasn't at all that are on sale on PSN, XBL and VC.

If the world thinks like ex-Xbox boss Peter Moore then it would be a sad one when every game will need to be bought and downloaded online. Its also sad that some of the great games are already digital only like Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness and Audiosurf but for the majority of games, they are still available in physical and digital so thats relieve... for now.

I really hope it continues to have both options and not just digital only. My collection would die, eBay will suck for games and just.... would be boring to shop for a game-geek like me. Also I don't want the publishers to handle the prices and never have sales or reasonable prices especially in Australia where everything is double the price of what America pays.... gay. More games in retail the better, more competition and cheaper prices as well as knowing you own a physical copy... all worth it.