So was any one happy with anything this year?

[Gamer137]

Tales of Vesperia was great, and I was anticipating it since Symphonia. Fallout 3 and Mirror's Edge were unexpected great games since I did not plan on playing them and did not care. Just bought them on a whim with extra cash. GTAIV was great, but overrated. And GoW2 was as I expected, an average TPS. I did finally manage to play Portal, since it came out on XBLA. I know this is a year late, but it as close to perfect as games have been since Starcraft. Overall, good year.

 

[Graustein]

Lessee...
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Cave Story
Lost Winds
Super Metroid
Portal
Super Mario Galaxy
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Mother 3
EarthBound
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Off the top of my head. I'm aware most of those were released prior to 2008, some by a marjin of over a decade, but nowhere in the OP was it suggested that those games had to be released in the past year, and I first played all of the above in the past year.

 

[TMAN10112]

Gears 2 far surpassed my expectations, I just couldn't put it down.

 

[santaandy]

Saint's Row 2 and Rock Band 2 (especially the PS3 guitar).

 

[Pudgyboi]

I would say.. waiting for the price drop for xbox360. Cause I wanted I got an Xbox360 + a 20GB hard drive for under 200 dollars.

 

[ImmortalItalian]

Fallout 3 was an orgy in my 360
GTA IV was amazing and still is fun
Left 4 Dead
Dead Space was all the death and spaceyness I ever wanted to have nightmares about
...

Only complaint is Fable 2 but I still love it a bit inside.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I'm probably stuck back a year or two, but I've loved

GTA4
All the Orange Box, still playing TF2 regularly
The Club
WOW:WOTLK

and the plethora of free web games still being churned out full of originality and playability.

To me, the only downside of GTA was the badgering from 'friends' could get a bit much, but you can put them all on 'pause' in the options.

WOW and TF2 have one of the same good points in common, they're both great games, unless you're an elitist, and can't stand the idea of average players enjoying the game and having a chance against you.

WOW does seem to be the 'whipping boy' of gamers nowadays, its blamed as the cause of everything bad about the industry (ok after EA), but to me, WOTLK revitalised a game getting a little stale and really added a hell of a lot of stuff for a lousy £18. (yes yes, and the monthly fee). No it's not perfect, but I get more entertainment for my £9 a month than I would from many £40 releases.

The evolution of Steam too, the weekend offers are excellent, and allow people to get hold of older games for reasonable prices, I seem to remember GTA1,2,3,VC,and SA combined for $40, and recently Half Life 1 for 99 cents. They're also hosting some of the better mods now, supporting the community. I know they're doing all this to make more money, they're a business, but just goes to show there's more than one route to turning a buck *cough*EA*cough*.

 

[RedPandaMan]

Fallout 3 did not only live up to my expectations, but completely beat them by crushing them into the ground. I was extremely happy with the end result, and it turned out to not be entirely Oblivion with guns. Left 4 Dead was also great in my opinion. These win my single-player and multi-player games of the year awards, respectively.

 

[Tabloid Believer]

I'll chime in with Fallout 3. I might as well have opened up a vein and plugged it into my X-Box 360. That's easily the Game of the Year for me.

 

[Duck Sandwich]

Devil May Cry 4 for the PC was the first game in the series I played (unfortunately, as I did not own a PS2), and despite being somewhat "noobified" in comparison for Devil May Cry 3 (which I bought later for the PC for $5), it's a shitload of fun. The grappling hook-style arm adds some variety to the gameplay, and the PC version allows me to play the Legendary Dark Knight difficulty, replace in-game music with music of my choice, and take screenshots of things like Nero beating the shit out of an old man, and my stylish points reading: 1337.

Brawl was disappointing in terms of the adventure mode, which I was looking forward to, especially when I found out about the Co-op. However, it's still THE game to play when having friends over, so it was very well worth the money.

Mega Man 9 was somewhat disappointing, as I was expecting a fully fleshed out, $50 game. Something along the lines of a Classic series version of Mega Man X8. However, it is very well worth the $10 I paid for it. The downloadable Proto Man mode is pretty cool as well.

 

[Wargamer]

Despite hating Microsoft, the 360 and all who continue its existence, I think Gears of War 2 is going to claim the title of "Best Multiplayer Game I've Played All Year." It has flaws, and I could (and did) spend a long time picking them out, but that isn't enough to detract from the sheer fun of it.

LittleBigPlanet is amazing. Absolutely god damn amazing.

And... hmm... not really bought many games this year I must confess. There's bound to be other good ones around.

Edit: It sounds like I really need to get Fallout 3...

 

[Scumsberg]

All the games I've bought or been gifted this year have been disappointing in one way or another.

GRID - a great racer I bought for the multiplayer, but they only included half game's options in it. Poo.

Left 4 Dead - great design, hardly any content. Build engine games had twice as much content as this. Next.

Spore - a $50 toy whose gameplay is surpassed by the average Flash game. That's not an exaggeration either. I was pretty sore when I wasted my money on this.

Fallout 3 - terrible main quest with the most stupid and illogical ending I've seen in a game yet. Riddled with bugs and unprecedented crashing for over half the people I know who bought it. Hamfisted dialogue and too many copy/pasted environments. Still probably the best game I've bought this year, though.

PC gaming just isn't what it used to be for me.

 

[Hevoo]

L4D, GTA, Happy about them

Pissed about AoC(LOL there are ads on this site about AoC), spore(it sucked)

 

[Devil's Due]

Gears of War 2 (I loved that game like no other. Amazing.)

Too Human (Yes, yes. I liked it! I'm not ashamed!)

Mirror's Edge (Even if I can't get past a certain part for days and days...)

 

[Fiskmasen]

A lot of crap

Must be tough not being able to enjoy anything.



OT: Any year that gives me a game like 'Sins of a Solar Empire' is a good year. The only thing I found really disappointing (and I actually got my hopes up for) was Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

 

[wgreer25]

I do believe it was a good year for gaming. Of coarse everyone has different oppinions. For me, being a lover of almost any game, the following were my top picks for this year.

GTA4 - This was actually the first GTA game I ever played (I just didn't care for sandbox games). But the hype tricked me into buying it, and I loved it. Since I didn't play the others, I wasn't jaded and could enjoy it without comparing it to any other GTA titles.

DMC4 - I too was happy with DMC4. Like you, I was expecting gun slinging action, and I got gun slinging action.

Unreal Tourny on 360 - my only complaint of the game is that I can't find people online anymore.

Gears 2 - loved it! I think most people bashing it fall into two categories, PS3 fanboys, or shotgun exploiters. The game is chainsaw weilding fun.

Mirror's Edge - frustrating, but tons of fun. Reminds me of old NES platformers in that you will die often, but will want to keep on trying till you get it right. And I was trying for the Test of Faith acheivment, but I had to give up in Chapter 7.

Dead Space - new IP that was spectacular IMO. I can't think of another game that has such a high emersion factor. Everything about the game is designed to pull you into their world, and they make their world believable. No HUD, no sound when outside in space, cool 0G environments, incredibly detailed enemies, awesome weapons, bad ass engineer suit. Only complaint - too much ammo lying around.

Overall - a good gaming year. And I haven't even played Fallout yet.

 

[Wargamer]

Gears 2 - loved it! I think most people bashing it fall into two categories, PS3 fanboys, or shotgun exploiters. The game is chainsaw weilding fun.

I've been thinking that a lot myself. I keep subconsciously translating what people say.

Example: Gamer says, "Gears of War 2 is crap!"
I hear, "I'm a retard who can't actually play Gears of War without exploiting bugs, so now I can't play on it."

 

[laikenf]

Video game-wise, I'm extremely happy with Fallout 3; other than that, I'm happy Obama won.

 

[Baby Tea]

. Oooo...and the Quest for Glory II remake finally came out and WAS AWESOME.

THERE WAS A QUEST FOR GLORY 2 REMAKE??
Pardon the caps.
Please do tell, either via reply or messaging because I'm a fan of the series.

On topic: Left 4 Dead, EndWar, and Fallout 3 were my games for the year.
Left 4 Dead for being the near perfect co-op experience.
EndWar for being the best RTS I've ever played on a console, and for being a darn fun RTS on it's own.
And Fallout 3 for being a fantastic single player RPG experience that, while not perfect, got me offline for a while to just enjoy a world (a bleak, wasteland-type world) by myself.

Yeah, it's been a good year.