Yeah I know it's late, but I'm not even going to fake as if this was from the archives. I'm doing it now.
8. Guitar Hero 3
Now that I have played Guitar Hero 2, I can tell you how much better a game is GH3. It's an order of magnitude more fun and inviting to play, and I can actually master some of the songs on the Medium setting. The ability to download songs is brilliant, now if they could only build up a library worth downloading, they'd make a fortune. I'm sure that licensing money is stopping them but damn, they need to get with the program. Although I haven't tried Rock Band, I can see that this is the Karaoke of the future. It's huge, really huge.
7. Crackdown
This game was more fun than anyone might have predicted. Very Superman-ish but completely outdoors. I say 'Supermanish' not in the context of videogames, in that regard it's more Spidermanish, but nice powers and leaping ability and handling of sectors of a city. Good stuff. Very playable and lots of side trips. The best driving, shooting and fighting game of the year.
6. Call of Duty 4
I'm not going to tell you what you already know. But still I wasn't particularly compelled to finish the single player game, nor have I found the online character of games to my liking. But the excellence of the immersion and control cannot be denied. This is a first rate game by any measure. Now that I have the HiDef, I should give it a second look. I may probably find in it everything I missed.
5. Shadowrun
A completely different kind of big team battle game which is first rate and surprisingly rich. The more you play, the more ways you find to play. I only wish I could have gotten my crew to get into it. Here's my long review.
4. Halo3
It was everything we expected and more. It's still very playable and the add-on content is better than expected. Novel ways to play and the full construction kit were just the bomb. This is a great way to end the series, but giving the players everything. Excellent work guys, especially with the new weapons and defensive systems.
3. Half-Life 2: Orange Box
The Portal is the most innovative game I've seen on the XBox since Prey. It demonstrates thinking outside the box. Although I never finished the single player game and thought Team Fortress was a big loser, the combination gave me all kinds of wow factor. It's something I'd look at again.
2. Mass Effect
I'm something of a sucker for Bioware RPGs, and this one was so good that I played it twice. It was very well moderated. Not too much talking, not too much action. Bioware is showing that they have the capacity to be a new kind of studio. I would very much like to see them handling known sci-fi universes, like that of Iain Banks' Culture or that of Firefly or Ender. The possibilities demonstrated by their capabilities are uniquely pointed towards the future of gaming.
1. Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed is a damn near perfect game. It is deeply immersive, has the absolute best ambience and AIs in any game anywhere. It's decidedly low tech in a mix with high tech and I have been playing it on and off for months without tiring. It is gorgeous, the voice talent is perfect and the control is exquisite and challenging. I think it is the finest first person fighting system I've ever played, and you know there's something about swords. Prince of Persia never caught my imagination like this one. I think I wear the avatar hero of this one about as tightly as any character. As tightly as Sam Fisher and more than the Master Chief.
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Also rans:
Two video games which absolutely sucked were Jericho and Two Worlds. I will also mention that Bioshock left me completely non-plussed. Just conceptually horrible. I think it survives as one of those games that you love or you hate. Hated it.
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