NVinNYC

My favorite games of 2008 are presented here in no particular order:

• Braid and Mirror’s Edge share an award for reinventing platforming, a genre I normally dislike, in new and supremely creative ways. Braid is probably the most creative video game I’ve ever played while Mirror’s Edge has some of the slickest design aesthetics.
• Far Cry 2 and Burnout Paradise share another award for bringing great open-world gameplay to their respective genres (shooter and driving respectively). Both succeed because they make learning the environment (be it shortcuts through city streets or sniper hills over mercenary camps) just as important as raw driving or shooting ability.
• Left 4 Dead, Resistance 2, and PixelJunk Monsters all get awards for perfecting co-op gameplay. The best parts of these games are impossible to win without good team-work, but that requirement feels more like an opportunity than a burden.
• The Witcher Enhanced Edition and Mass Effect for PC prove that even great games can be better with some polish. Both games suffered from dramatically long load times in their original forms but that is no longer much of an issue in the improved versions. The Witcher also received the kind of polish that it always deserved in its Enhanced Edition which smoothed out the uneven dialog and cumbersome inventory management. Mass Effect also got some inventory improvements in the PC version along with better squad control. There are two take-away lessons here: it’s hard to do an RPG right but extra work can make a big difference. I hope that publishers looking to rush RPGs out the door in the future take note of this; some great RPG games have died unnecessary deaths because of hurried ship dates (See Vampire: Bloodlines or Knights of the Old Republic II).
• Sins of a Solar Empire get big kudos for transplanting the one-more-turn ad-infinitum addictiveness of games like Civilization into a RTS game that’s nearly impossible to stop playing. It’s so good, in fact, that after two marathon games when it first came out I’ve been loathe to pick it up again because I worry it will consume me.