It's no surprise to anyone that this generation is- finally- coming to a close. It started out looking like we were going to live in the future, and now, nearly 7 years later..the future's brown/grey and full of chest high walls, and grunting space marines. Assuming every game scheduled to come out after right now is withheld to next gen, what would you say the best games of the 7th console generation were? For me:
Red Dead Redemption- an incredible environment with one of the best protagonists of recent memory. Even the well-worn Rockstar Story (hero starts off at the bottom of the city/crime ladder/general goal, has to work HIS- for it is always a he- way up to become Top Dog) felt fresh and new. The ending was phenomenal as well, it's rare to see a game where everything's right. There were glitches, but I don't know anyone that can say RDR was a bad game overall.
Bioshock- for me, this was the start of the storytelling generation. Until Bioshock, all the 360 and PS3 had were stories that ran somewhere along "go to X and shoot Y with Z" with the occasional betrayal. Bioshock destroyed that all, it was completely linear yet that was almost part of the plot. It deconstructed the nature of gameplay itself; is the player the one giving orders to Jack? Absolutely fantastic.
Assassin's Creed II- Asscreed 1 was a repetitive, buggy let down that had been hyped to the moon and back. It was good, just buggy. When Asscreed II came around, I hadn't read a lot of the hype previews of it, but the premise of the series was enough to get me to come back. Creed 2 is a brilliant sandbox adventure; it's made better for everyone that played the first one because not only is it a completely functional, vibrant game without the sort of esoteric plot you'd expect it to inherit, but it also fixed every flaw with Asscreed 1, making it an absolute joy to play. When Yahtzee said it was Ubisoft's "Assassin's Creed one repentance", he wasn't wrong.
Red Dead Redemption- an incredible environment with one of the best protagonists of recent memory. Even the well-worn Rockstar Story (hero starts off at the bottom of the city/crime ladder/general goal, has to work HIS- for it is always a he- way up to become Top Dog) felt fresh and new. The ending was phenomenal as well, it's rare to see a game where everything's right. There were glitches, but I don't know anyone that can say RDR was a bad game overall.
Bioshock- for me, this was the start of the storytelling generation. Until Bioshock, all the 360 and PS3 had were stories that ran somewhere along "go to X and shoot Y with Z" with the occasional betrayal. Bioshock destroyed that all, it was completely linear yet that was almost part of the plot. It deconstructed the nature of gameplay itself; is the player the one giving orders to Jack? Absolutely fantastic.
Assassin's Creed II- Asscreed 1 was a repetitive, buggy let down that had been hyped to the moon and back. It was good, just buggy. When Asscreed II came around, I hadn't read a lot of the hype previews of it, but the premise of the series was enough to get me to come back. Creed 2 is a brilliant sandbox adventure; it's made better for everyone that played the first one because not only is it a completely functional, vibrant game without the sort of esoteric plot you'd expect it to inherit, but it also fixed every flaw with Asscreed 1, making it an absolute joy to play. When Yahtzee said it was Ubisoft's "Assassin's Creed one repentance", he wasn't wrong.
