My Favourite Five Games of 2007

1. Favourite puzzle gamePortal

(Copyright of Valve, I think.)

I think this is a no contest and no brainer. Portal is the best puzzle game for 2007. It may not have been long, the puzzles may not have been difficult - but it was fun. Crush for PSP was probably second.

2. Favourite RPG .hack//G.U. Series

(Images from dothack.wikia.com. Copyrights belong to Namco Bandai, of course.)

Yes, I know the Japanese games all finished the previous year, but the last two of the series didn't show up in English until this year. I don't care if you think it's repetitive, all the dungeons look the same, or there's too much grinding - it was fun for me. And being in several volumes means that the storyline is waaay better than that last game that started with 2Fs (and Persona 3 is even more repetitive). A close second for me would have to be Eternal Sonata (known to some people with another title - Trusty Bell).

3. Favourite first person shooter (FPS): Bioshock (Heh, 2K Games.)

While it wasn't entirely FPS, and definitely wasn't an RPG - it was fun. Crysis and CoD4 are no challenge for its gameplay, UT3 is a multiplayer game, Halo 3 has just finally reached the stage of a good FPS (compared to the previous two instalments) and HL2 Episode 2 is too short for comparison to this behemoth (same goes for Resistance).

4. Favourite portable game: Gyakuten Saiban 3/Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations (Heh, Capcom.)

No surprise here. Nothing beats this for sucking up my time even when I'm at home doing nothing else. Gyakuten Saiban 3 DS kicks ass.

5. Favourite music game: Guitar Hero 3

(Now Activision, right?)

3 words: Wireless Guitar Controller. Ok, so there's more to say. I love the controller. I love the song list. I love the difficulty and challenge. Way to go, Neversoft. Why no Rock Band? I don't have Rock Band. I happen to live in the PAL side of the world. You know how us poor PAL people get snubbed come holiday time when it comes to something as important to release at Christmas as Rock Band. (I will never forgive Harmonix and MTV Games - unless they give us more songs. XD)

There are other things to say about 2007.

Despite me liking the PS3 better as a device, I play more games on the XBox 360. I would've sold off my Wii a long time ago if not for the GameCube support. Believe it. Since computer system requirements are climbing at ridiculous rates, I haven't played much in the way of new PC games - for the most part, there aren't many good ones that came out this year, and those good ones came out on the XBox 360 or PS3 anyway. I like my consoles very much - and I believe they are the way to go when it comes to gaming. Having both the XBox 360 and the PS3 eventually land you more ability to play good games as they come than having an up-to-date gaming PC.

If you notice, I didn't put a favourite RTS there, but it most certainly is C&C3. It's just not as liked to the magnitude of the other 5 games. Supreme Commander is just way too slow for me, and the 'At War' series is well, not quite as fun as C&C3 is for me.

Assassin's Creed deserves an honourable mention here, since it was really fun, but unfortunately, repetitive and leaves much to be desired. But still fun.

As for a per console breakdown,

I think the best game to come out for PC was C&C3. (Portal was too short, Bioshock still feels very console-like to me) A close second would have to be Unreal Tournament 3.

The best game to come out for PS2, I'd still choose the .hack//G.U. series. No second place to speak of. Unless you want to count Guitar Hero 3.

The best game for PS3? I'd say Unreal Tournament 3. Heh. Folklore comes a close second for me.

As for the XBox 360, I think the best game would be Bioshock - with Assassin's Creed a close second.

As for the Wii, I think all the games are mediocre or average at best, so I'd have to go with Super Paper Mario - with Super Mario Galaxy a close second.

For the PSP, I liked Disgaea PSP a lot. Even for a remake of a game I have already played an identical version of, it was still fun. FFTactics was a HUGE disappointment. Crush would come second.

For the DS, I suppose nothing beats Gyakuten Saiban 3. Second? I'd have to say probably Brain Age 2.

My favourite developer is Blizzard (oddly enough the one that didn't release anything). Demos of Starcraft 2 are still playing in my head nonstop. I WANT THAT GAME.

(Note that there looks to be conflicts on my list, but in truth, there aren't. My favourite games aren't necessarily the best games on the console. They aren't synonymous to me.)

A Few Mishaps

There was a mishap while I was updating the site to Wordpress 2.3.2. I accidentally corrupted my database, and guess what - my last usable backup was from 1st of December. As of such, I've lost all posts made this month. I don't even recall what I wrote in whatever few posts I did make, but I know that I did have a photo to show off, and here it is:

As for everything else I think it's not important enough to test. And oh yeah, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is actually playable to me. Considering the fact that I considered the past 3 numbered games unplayable - that's some huge improvement.

Departing Back for Malaysia and Following Hiatus

I'm departing back for Malaysia on Tuesday (27th November). After which, I'll be pretty busy and will be unable to blog for the better part of December (probably the whole month, in fact). In fact, depending on how things go, I could easily be busy for the next few months too. The blog will most certainly continue - but it's possible that you might not be looking at an update until February or March - due to overall unavailability, as opposed to the usual writer's block.

Other Faves from GH3

I also like Through the Fire and Flames (Dragonforce), Cliffs of Dover (Eric Johnson) and Knights of Cydonia (Muse).

What's Your Definition of Ancient?

Lately, I realised that my definition of my day-to-day use of the word ancient is becoming more and more recent. I've been calling things that are early last-generation of games ancient. Like recently, chewxy asked me whether I could help him acquire Fatal Frame for Xbox. My reply? "Isn't that ancient?"

Then, I started rethinking about what I considering ancient. I don't consider my PS2 ancient, but I do consider my PSone ancient. I mean, do you remember Final Fantasy VIII? You know, from the ancient age from which Final Fantasy games were actually good? Is it fair to call something like that ancient?

My definition of ancient is a little weird. I consider something to be ancient when it is neither really ancient nor recent. In a manner of speaking, it's a relative 'ancient'ness. I call Fatal Frame ancient, but I'd call Final Fantasy VII classic. I'd call Chrono Trigger ancient, but I wouldn't call the remake for PSone ancient.

I suppose my consideration for being called ancient might have more to do with the lifecycle of a given system. I got Fatal Frame pretty early, while FF8 was out of my reach for quite a while. I never played Chrono Trigger until the PSone version. I wouldn't call Devil May Cry ancient though, so I think my definition is a little more complex than that.

A better way would probably be to say my definition of ancient is games I don't care too much about anymore that are pretty old. By pretty old, I mean anything more than 3 years old. Anything that's more than 3 years that I don't care too much about. That's a huge list actually - but I only remember stuff that I like to begin with, so it's a really massive list.

So, what games do I consider ancient? Unreal Tournament. Unreal. Half-Life and derivatives. Deus Ex. Battlefield Vietnam. Enter the Matrix. (and so on....)