Alone in the dark. Was a pretty passable game with a big environment, fun pyromaniac mechanics and semi-interesting plot. Had nice creating element, with a handful of items you could mix them in any form to create a lot of different things. You could even pierce a gas tank and start a fire and then fly your car into things to blow them up. It was a lot better than Alan Wake with it's shine a torch mechanic and linear maps and tedious plot. At least it didn't take itself so seriously.
I also liked Mercenaries 2. Other than Rockstar games I think it had the best city this generation. Games like red faction guerrila, infamous and prototype are lifeless in comparison.
migo said:
Final Fantasy VIII. It's one of my favourites, and it's rather tiresome hearing people talk about how VII was the most awesome and 8 sucked (I started with FF1, and never got what the big deal about VII was, while a lot of those people had never played one before).
I can answer this pretty well. FFVII is the most interactive game in the series by far. Over 30 segments of interactivity (from simple CPR to a drowning girl, to tower defense, snowboarding, chocobo breeding and racing and everything at the golden saucer which they really should have made a must have location in the series like Dragon Quest has Casinos). I loved FFVIII (2nd fav game) but it only had Triple Triad and a couple of other things and since VII the series has been slowly phasing out interactivity and adventure in favour of CGI cutscenes. FFVII also had better character missions (e.g. Cid going into space & forgiving Shera, Nanaki learning the truth about his father, Barret and Dyne...I can't remember much about VIII despite last playing it 3 years more recently than VII), a more relatable world (pseudo-modern cyberpunk setting, VIII is very futuristic), more relatable enemies (the turks, sephiroth, hojo, shinra...more sci-fi than the rest of the series) and better themes (the lifestream, the inevitable destruction of nature, terrorism, redemption, VIII was mostly love and memory).
It's strange that if you think of the games in terms of time period influence (historical, modern, futuristic) and speculative fiction influence (sci-fi or fantasy), VII is the only modern sci-fi entry in the series and I think it gives it a uniqueness. All the rest are historical or futuristic, and only arguably VIII and XII are sci-fi (X and XIII are all about gods etc. so not sci-fi imo). XIII Versus seems to have a modern setting but it's probably about crystals and gods etc. so fantasy.
You can argue all you like about how to determine these things, and I know all games in the series have elements from everything (magic = fantasy, swords = historical, machines = sci-fi). But each one seems to neatly fit into an overall style. VII is a modern game in the style of clothing, the vehicles (cars, motorbikes, helicopters, submarines, rockets), the locations like Midgar etc. IX on the other hand is surely inarguably historical fantasy because there are castles and black mages. X, XII and XIII are all futuristic because of the crazy clothing, strange advanced technologies in vehicles etc. They're a bit similar in setting to VIII and if they'd all had a modern cyberpunk style instead of futuristic, perhaps VIII would be remembered more memorably than it currently is.
