So, this will be my "Year in Review" edition, going over the games that have completely locked me into it whenever I was playing them. There have been some good ones from 2007, and this is the list I came up with as my Top Five.
#5 - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
I'll be honest. Before this installment of the game, I wasn't a huge Call of Duty fan. I was more of a fan of the Medal of Honor series. After awhile, you get sick of the World War 2 Genre, simply because it seems you are playing the same missions or settings over and over again.
When I heard that Call of Duty 4 was going to be focusing on modern military simulations, I decided that it would be worth it to pick it up. Indeed, it was worth the time and effort to pick it up. I haven't played the online too much, although I attribute that to the fact that I can't play it with my roommate, who loves FPS games, but there's no split-screen on CoD4, which is very disappointing.
Regardless, the storyline of CoD4 was excellent. The difficulty level took a huge jump when you went from normal to the next step up. It certainly challenged me, as I ended up spending a lot of time on the more difficult missions, mainly because I kept dying. However, I didn't mind much because of how smooth the game ran and the clean graphics. It's one of the most realistic shooters I've ever played, and worth every penny.
#4 - Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
I have absolutely abused this game. I've always been a huge fan of the Ace Combat series, so I was excited when I learned that the series would be making the jump from the Playstation to the Xbox. Namco has never truly disappointed me with this series, as they make sure that the realism of flight is there while mixing in the arcade style shooting that gamers look for. After all, only the hardcore gamers want to do a flight-sim that is truly realistic, and you'll mainly find those gamers on the PC.
Ace Combat 6 gave me an incredible experience. Namco and Project Aces did the series justice by cleaning up the choppiness that plagued the series early on, simply due to the lack of power that they had with the PS1 and PS2. With the 360, they were able to give one of the most realistic experiences you'll get with a flight simulator. Unfortunately, I think some gamers were afraid to touch it due to some poor attempts at flight sims prior to the release, such as Over G Fighters, which was absolutely terrible.
The only disappointment I had with AC6 was the storyline. Hearing the sob story of a woman traveling back to the capital city of the country you are fighting for got old, but it was good to know that after the first time through, I could simply skip those cut-scenes and get straight to my next briefing.
Online play absolutely sucked me in. Fighting in a 16 man dogfight is insanity and fun. The fact that you could do different setups, such as a team battle, free for all, or play co-op on an online mission, is fantastic. I still haven\'t unlocked everything yet, but I plan on going back, once I finish up my current games.
#3 - Halo 3
No game carried as much hype as Halo 3 did, and it didn't disappoint. After "forgetting" to give us a proper ending or boss battle at the end of Halo 2, Bungie made up for it by giving us a complete game with Halo 3. The inclusion of the skulls to give you extra work during Campaign made it worth it to go back through if you missed anything.
But, let's face it, we all picked up Halo 3 for the online multiplayer, which has been one of the best experiences I've had on the 360 yet. I still play it to this day, occasionally popping on at night for anywhere from one to four hours, depending on who I'm playing with. The matchmaking system was revamped and still works very well, finding balanced matchups depending on your team's layout by ranking. The actual military-style levels gives you something to shoot for when it comes to moving up the ladder. The first time I saw a full General freaked me out, and, as I expected, he killed me anytime I was nearby him.
Overall, Halo 3 has one of the highest replay values of any game I've touched. I'll continue to go back to it, so long as people still play online.
#2 - Mass Effect
I was late getting to this one, and I'm very upset that I was, because this game has been an absolute treat to play. Coming from BioWare, I had very high hopes that it would be as good as Knights of the Old Republic from the original Xbox. I have not been disappointed in the least.
The storyline that has been placed in front of me with this game is absolutely phenomenal. For the first ten hours of the game, I had completed a total of just two required missions. I was too busy traveling from planet to planet doing side missions, building myself and my squad up. The battle system gives you the Gears of War/Resident Evil 4 over the shoulder view, which seems to becoming more of a mainstay with this style of game, although Mass Effect is more of an RPG/Adventure than a shooter like GoW or RE4, mainly because of the level up system that allows you to gain experience points by doing different tasks throughout the game. You really can't talk to a single person without gaining some kind of experience.
One thing I found a little funny about Mass Effect was the obvious reference to the Star Wars series by giving you the ability to go "Paragon" or "Renegade", which may as well be Light Side or Dark Side from KOTOR. Nevertheless, Mass Effect was one of the top titles from 2007, and I'm still locked into it right now. It may be tough to play anything else right now until I beat it, which is probably a good ten to fifteen hours away....then I have to go through it again and beat it with the Renegade ending.
Damn you and your multiple endings, Bioware....
#1 - Bioshock
It's still my choice for 2007 Game of the Year. No game came close to the beauty and suspense that we received from the underwater city of Rapture. The goofiness of the 50s and 60s style advertisements when it came to explaining Plasmids was humorous and enjoyable. However, the humor really stopped there as you tried to take down a Rosie in order to get a lot of money and extra ammo in order to survive the next area.
Rapture isn't even a nice place to visit, and you certainly don't want to live there after experiencing all of the splicers that attempted to kill you upon every turn. I made sure to experience this game with all the lights off, just like I did years ago when I first played Resident Evil. I knew it would be this type of game when I first turned it on. Blood-curdling screams and random splicers jumping out at you, scaring you half to death as you frantically try to shoot them to make sure they play dead for good.
The storyline certainly locked you in with ease as you tried to help Atlas meet up with his family and escape the god-forsaken city that was expertly built by the madman who was in charge. Finding out that some characters had back stories, such as the doctor who used to work for the Nazis, always gave you a level of intrigue that you didn't find in any other games this year.
Simply put, Bioshock is my GOTY, with Mass Effect a close second place.
#5 - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
I'll be honest. Before this installment of the game, I wasn't a huge Call of Duty fan. I was more of a fan of the Medal of Honor series. After awhile, you get sick of the World War 2 Genre, simply because it seems you are playing the same missions or settings over and over again.
When I heard that Call of Duty 4 was going to be focusing on modern military simulations, I decided that it would be worth it to pick it up. Indeed, it was worth the time and effort to pick it up. I haven't played the online too much, although I attribute that to the fact that I can't play it with my roommate, who loves FPS games, but there's no split-screen on CoD4, which is very disappointing.
Regardless, the storyline of CoD4 was excellent. The difficulty level took a huge jump when you went from normal to the next step up. It certainly challenged me, as I ended up spending a lot of time on the more difficult missions, mainly because I kept dying. However, I didn't mind much because of how smooth the game ran and the clean graphics. It's one of the most realistic shooters I've ever played, and worth every penny.
#4 - Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
I have absolutely abused this game. I've always been a huge fan of the Ace Combat series, so I was excited when I learned that the series would be making the jump from the Playstation to the Xbox. Namco has never truly disappointed me with this series, as they make sure that the realism of flight is there while mixing in the arcade style shooting that gamers look for. After all, only the hardcore gamers want to do a flight-sim that is truly realistic, and you'll mainly find those gamers on the PC.
Ace Combat 6 gave me an incredible experience. Namco and Project Aces did the series justice by cleaning up the choppiness that plagued the series early on, simply due to the lack of power that they had with the PS1 and PS2. With the 360, they were able to give one of the most realistic experiences you'll get with a flight simulator. Unfortunately, I think some gamers were afraid to touch it due to some poor attempts at flight sims prior to the release, such as Over G Fighters, which was absolutely terrible.
The only disappointment I had with AC6 was the storyline. Hearing the sob story of a woman traveling back to the capital city of the country you are fighting for got old, but it was good to know that after the first time through, I could simply skip those cut-scenes and get straight to my next briefing.
Online play absolutely sucked me in. Fighting in a 16 man dogfight is insanity and fun. The fact that you could do different setups, such as a team battle, free for all, or play co-op on an online mission, is fantastic. I still haven\'t unlocked everything yet, but I plan on going back, once I finish up my current games.
#3 - Halo 3
No game carried as much hype as Halo 3 did, and it didn't disappoint. After "forgetting" to give us a proper ending or boss battle at the end of Halo 2, Bungie made up for it by giving us a complete game with Halo 3. The inclusion of the skulls to give you extra work during Campaign made it worth it to go back through if you missed anything.
But, let's face it, we all picked up Halo 3 for the online multiplayer, which has been one of the best experiences I've had on the 360 yet. I still play it to this day, occasionally popping on at night for anywhere from one to four hours, depending on who I'm playing with. The matchmaking system was revamped and still works very well, finding balanced matchups depending on your team's layout by ranking. The actual military-style levels gives you something to shoot for when it comes to moving up the ladder. The first time I saw a full General freaked me out, and, as I expected, he killed me anytime I was nearby him.
Overall, Halo 3 has one of the highest replay values of any game I've touched. I'll continue to go back to it, so long as people still play online.
#2 - Mass Effect
I was late getting to this one, and I'm very upset that I was, because this game has been an absolute treat to play. Coming from BioWare, I had very high hopes that it would be as good as Knights of the Old Republic from the original Xbox. I have not been disappointed in the least.
The storyline that has been placed in front of me with this game is absolutely phenomenal. For the first ten hours of the game, I had completed a total of just two required missions. I was too busy traveling from planet to planet doing side missions, building myself and my squad up. The battle system gives you the Gears of War/Resident Evil 4 over the shoulder view, which seems to becoming more of a mainstay with this style of game, although Mass Effect is more of an RPG/Adventure than a shooter like GoW or RE4, mainly because of the level up system that allows you to gain experience points by doing different tasks throughout the game. You really can't talk to a single person without gaining some kind of experience.
One thing I found a little funny about Mass Effect was the obvious reference to the Star Wars series by giving you the ability to go "Paragon" or "Renegade", which may as well be Light Side or Dark Side from KOTOR. Nevertheless, Mass Effect was one of the top titles from 2007, and I'm still locked into it right now. It may be tough to play anything else right now until I beat it, which is probably a good ten to fifteen hours away....then I have to go through it again and beat it with the Renegade ending.
Damn you and your multiple endings, Bioware....
#1 - Bioshock
It's still my choice for 2007 Game of the Year. No game came close to the beauty and suspense that we received from the underwater city of Rapture. The goofiness of the 50s and 60s style advertisements when it came to explaining Plasmids was humorous and enjoyable. However, the humor really stopped there as you tried to take down a Rosie in order to get a lot of money and extra ammo in order to survive the next area.
Rapture isn't even a nice place to visit, and you certainly don't want to live there after experiencing all of the splicers that attempted to kill you upon every turn. I made sure to experience this game with all the lights off, just like I did years ago when I first played Resident Evil. I knew it would be this type of game when I first turned it on. Blood-curdling screams and random splicers jumping out at you, scaring you half to death as you frantically try to shoot them to make sure they play dead for good.
The storyline certainly locked you in with ease as you tried to help Atlas meet up with his family and escape the god-forsaken city that was expertly built by the madman who was in charge. Finding out that some characters had back stories, such as the doctor who used to work for the Nazis, always gave you a level of intrigue that you didn't find in any other games this year.
Simply put, Bioshock is my GOTY, with Mass Effect a close second place.
