Top Games 2007

[Access]

Okay my top 10 Games of 2007.  I would love it if people posted there own top 10 and comment on my choices. (I posted this at another forum, but as per usual they just thought to themself *Access and his crazy games*)


Portal
This game must be played. It is one of the funniest games released since Monkey Island days. It has one of the best endings of all video games, and has some of the best polish seen in a video games. It only goes for 2 - 3 hours, and had a good amount of features like replay with Developers Commentary which is very very nice. It is one of the best designed games I've ever played (and it has nothing to do with the Portal Mechanism).

The Cake is a Lie!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWzmL05OlYA


Super Mario Galaxy
This game is crazy, purely insane. This is not a game to recommend to just gamers or Nintendo fans, but is a game everyone will like. Something truly special, if not for the fact Portals is unsettling spectacular I would of listed this first.

I remember the first time I played Mario Bros 3 and got the raccoon tail and could fly through a platforming level and could explore an environment. It trully made me feel free. This feeling was duplicated in Mario 64, where traversing amazing worlds gave way to a whimsical sense of euphoria. Super Mario Galaxy does it, further - honestly when I thought that feeling would never be duplicated again, its here people - don't miss your chance. Like a cross between all the best things of Nights into Dreams, Mario 64 and Pilot Wings.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQuSvM1CUsY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA0vLrwuQHE

Okami
Okami may have been released in 2006 in Japan and America, but us PAL regions received it in 2007, plus with the excitement of a Wii version coming out early next year (Makes so much sense!!!) it still counts. This game won numerous game of the year awards in 2006 in North America and Japan and is one of the most amazing games ever made. However, right now if it wasn't for Portals and Super Mario Galaxy being released it would still be the best game of 2007.

The game is an action adventure game just oozing innovation, there is so much to talk about this game, but I recommend you just watch the trailer. The amazing Japanese paint art is perfect since the game is dripping with Japanese mythology, an amazing experience. You are just not living if you haven't played this game.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPAYB2n1g_w

Every Day Shooter
What if God made you a tiny little dot and the music in your head had no where to go but out? Every Day Shooter is a downloadable game for the PS3. This game is a modern day Rez, is, its a 8 way shooter like the many that have become before it (Robotron, Lamatron, Smash TV, Grid Wars, Geometry Wars etc) however it turns it into an entirely new experience. Its frantic but you its a game you meld with, you become this game. Most games of this style (where you become a part of the game from the music like Rez, Otocky) are all of the techno variety because thats what computers excel at, however Every Day Shooter uses acoustic guitar sounds that gives the entire experience a mellow, down to earth feeling. Another example to hold high above our heads and praise for its artistic nature. This game has incalculable value.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-CAxGdi75M


The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
One of the few games produced ever that is enjoyable every minute of it. Unreliably fun and approachable for hard core to casual players. Sets a new standard for interface design in games. Sheer unbridled unapologetic fun.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jbJvA3QYGA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbHwAO-8EcE

flOw
Flow is an amazing game that started as a free independent Flash game. Then Sony purchased the rights to produce a PS3 downloadable version in high definition. Its one of the most beautiful games ive ever seen. It could be described as an analogue Pac-Man clone where you collect small organisms, however as you eat you develop, become a more complex organism and take on even larger organisms. The original flash game was amazing, but no way descibeable as a top game of the year, however the PS3 version takes the design of the original flash and completely fleshes it out. Its now addictive as hell.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4xo6qyXbzc&feature=related

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Finally Naughty Dog one of Americas best developers (guys who made the good Crash Bandicoot games and the Jak and Daxster series) has finally moved on from inttertive franchise whoreing and have produced an whopper! Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is an amazing action adventure game thats well directed and paced beautifully. Its not stuck up its own sand box bum and just gets on telling an amazing and providing an amazing experience the whole time. Normally titles with brilliant narrative structure that are told well handle terribly (step up Grim Fandango) or games that handle really well will have poorly told, paced, stories (step up Crysis). However Uncharted hits all bases nice with an amazing narrative and controls that might as well come from the Prince of Persia Sands of Time series. Truly brilliant.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMlmbrd24T4

Rock Band
This is a game that barely scrapes it in since it came out in December 2007, and only in North America, no doubt this will be in next year top 10 games thing as well, but I never thought anything would top Okami in 2007, so we'll see.

Rock Band was created by the developers who created Guitar Hero, however they never owned the rights to the game, so left Activision entirely and now own there own franchise. You could argue that Rock Band is just the real Guitar Hero III (just like Hellgate: London is the real Diablo III), however Rock Band is a new kind of beast and makes the entire experience so much better.

If your one of those cynics of the Guitar Hero series, it is entirely unjust. Once you play it with friends you will realize how awesome this game is. Rock Band takes the Guitar Hero series to an all new level with Drum Support and Microphone support, with two guitars with one playing base. It really creates the entire Rock Band experience and will no doubt become a regular Firday night activity when it reaches Australia. The single player experience wont be anything to be snuffed at either, any more than it was in Guitar Hero. Don't buy Guitar Hero III buy Rock Star.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv3InVmyqZ4
(there is something to be said about a game that is better shown being played then just official trailers of the screen)

Aquaria
Was the winner of 2007 Independent Game's Festival, and is an amazing explorative game that works like a cross between Ecco the Dolphin and Metroid. You traverse amazing 2D visuals slowly gaining different power ups to allow you to explore even further, that amazing addictive formula used in countless console video games; Metroid, Castlevania: Smphony of the Night, Metal Gear/Solid has finally come to the PC in the form of Aquaria. Welcome friend, a true treat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqY9mDOw-UI

Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Like adventure games? Yeah me too. Since the advent of new interfaces like the Wii and the DS, the Japanese have started to approach the genre rather than just Americans (and more recently strange French and German developers). Each country always brings something to the genre, and the Japanese are no exception. This is an amazing adventure and one of the best since Grimm Fandango. Do yourself a favour and get this, brilliant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYY3ocPMx9w

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
Nintendo and Sega in harmony! A dream gamers from the 90's should remember vividly! Nights is one of a true gems of the Sega camp that was amazing on the Saturn but due to the limited success of the platform never did very well. A sequel has been developed on the Wii and and its exceptional! The game has always reminded me of some strange bizzare Peter Pan game with item collecting, words really just don't do it justice.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA5ezmFlD7A

[AirmanKJE]

These are my top 10 of 2007:

Super Mario Galaxy
Call of Duty 4
Bioshock
The Orange Box
Mass Effect
TLOZ:  Phantom Hourglass
Metroid Prime 3
Crysis
Uncharted Drake's Fortune
Ratchet and Clank Future

Indie game of the year is Aquaria
Best game no one played is Zack and Wicki for the Wii

I ran out of room on my 10 list so had to make some individual awards.  I thought Okami came out last year so I'm not sure why it is on this list.  Sega used to be a viable company but they have gone downhill and this newest Nights game is nowhere near as good as the original. 

[Quemaqua]

Thanks to the TC for mentioning Portal as its own entity instead of as "The Orange Box" which is not a game, but rather a collection of games, most of which really aren't that good in the first place.  Portal is certainly worthy of its own identity other than being simply known as the puzzle section of a pack of rehashware.

[KingAl]

Indeed, I found it deeply bizarre that the Gamespot Game of the Year awards had 'The Orange Box' listed as if it were a single game in countless categories; presumably the gimmicky title was more alluring than sense.

[AirmanKJE]

Team Fortess 2 is the funnest multiplayer game to be had in a while and HL Episode 2 is the best one in the series so far.  Couple those 2 with Portal the most original puzzle/fps game so far and that alone makes Orange Box worth every penny and a fantastic package.  Throw in one of the greatest games ever made HL 2 and a great first entry in the episode series you get something that deserves awards.

[Quemaqua]

You're entitled to your opinion, but even if I loved everything in the package,  I don't think a package of games can in any way be judged fairly as a single product.

[KingAl]

Team Fortess 2 is the funnest multiplayer game to be had in a while and HL Episode 2 is the best one in the series so far.  Couple those 2 with Portal the most original puzzle/fps game so far and that alone makes Orange Box worth every penny and a fantastic package.  Throw in one of the greatest games ever made HL 2 and a great first entry in the episode series you get something that deserves awards.

...as a product, though, not as a game. If awards are for games, then they should be judged on a per-game basis, regardless of how they are sold. Surely you see the sense in that? Incidentally, funnest is not a word

[Toom]

Man there are some solid choices here, but Phantom Hourglass and Crysis can both suck ten bags of dicks. PH for Not Getting Rid Of All The Fucking Sailing, Really, and the dreadful play mechanic that keeps forcing you on those timed runs back to the temple after every dungeon. Crysis for being Basically More Far Cry, which I've always thought was a very average shooter, and which is not actually improved by making you drop a year's wages on a new PC to play it. I got thoroughly sick of both titles very, very fast.

That said, having not bought a console since the GameCube, only keeping my creaky PC around to play indie games and Morrowind (which it can barely handle), and spending most of my computer time on a Mac, I've not actually played a lot of new games this year. I enjoyed BioShock, but wanted it to do more...well, I wanted it to be more like SS2, really. I appalled myself by actually enjoying the hell out of Halo 3, but it's still not that good, and certainly not Best Of material. I dunno. Let's see if I can scrape ten together, in no particular order.

- Aquaria
- Contra 4
- FlOw
- Portal
- Metroid Prime 3
- Penumbra: Overture
- Skate
- STALKER
- Weewar
- BioShock

Oh. So Close Awards for Not Being Quite Excellent Enough For The Top Ten
- Crackdown
- SimCity DS

Worst Sequel To My Favourite XBox Game Ever Award
- Def Jam: Icon

Still Haven't Played
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Rock Band (still not out in the UK)

[Glamador]

I didn't realize so many people hated going back to the ocean temple in PH.  Plus I think they vastly improved the sailing mechanic from the original, and any improvement is ok with me (Despised sailing in wind waker).  I actually loved the returning to the temple each time.  It felt more like I was gradually unlocking the next room as I went along.  I suppose it might have been better if they didn't force you to repeat floors...but I didn't mind at all.


As to Hotel Dusk, allow me to offer second opinion.  My opinion?  IT WAS HORRIBLE.  HOW DARE YOU COMPAIRE IT TO A MARVEL LIKE GRIM FANDANGO!?

Hotel Dusk was an atrocity of linearity, obscurity, and frustrations.  It was the type of adventure game that required very little logical thought, and alot of "click on everything you can find until you just so happen to do it in the right order".  In old Lucas Arts adventure games you were required to think of how you can use your inventory, your environment, and the NPCs to solve puzzles and interactively complete the storyline.  Hotel Dusk was more like reading a novel, but all the gameplay got in the way.  It was PICKY AS HELL and required you to pick exactly the right dialogue choices lest you DIE (or get kicked out, whatever).  Plus there were some extremely obscure objects you need to pick up in exactly the right order lest you not trigger the next story progression.  It makes no sense that you knock on somebody's door, have them not be there, leave for 3 seconds to fetch a pen from your briefcase, then return to the door to find they have miraculously returned.  It was boring, trivial, and it only served to make me miss Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, and Grim Fandango even more.  Thankfully Sam & Max is getting a fresh start.

Rant over.

[KingAl]

(Despised sailing in wind waker)

Really? The only thing I disliked about sailing was when enemies attacked. Otherwise, I was too preoccupied with admiring the music and graphics, and making sure I was going in the right direction, to care. Wind Waker was a truly awesome game.

Err, I guess I should get round to listing my favourite games this year, eh?

- Aquaria (duh)
- BioShock
- STALKER was this year, apparently, seems like an eternity ago. All three of these had truly brilliant atmosphere, in their own way.
- Mr. Robot was great, Head-over-Heels-ish fun (which reminds me, you should check out the remake of HoH that Graham Goring was involved in if you haven't already), and RPGish enough to lend it more depth without being irritating.

Errr, yeah, that's all I can really think of at the moment, which is a bit pathetic. Other games which come to mind were actually 2006.

[Toom]

My problem with all the sailing in Wind Waker was that it often felt like they were padding out the play time by having long, mandatory stretches where nothing much happens. OoT had its horsey bits, but you could cover Hyrule Field in a couple of minutes on foot, so it didn't feel like such a dealbreaker.

[Glamador]

I just realized I didn't get around to listing my favorite games of 2007 before...too busy ranting.  Here goes:

Aquaria of course.
Bioshock was awesome too.
Metroid Prime 3.
RE4: Wii Edition.  Even though it was a port, the new control scheme made it a completely different experience.
God of War II.  People seem to forget this was released this year.
Assassin's Creed.
Eternal Sonata.
PORTAL.
Team Fortress 2.
Phantom Hourglass.
Custom Robo Arena.
The Witcher.
Odin Sphere.

Good grief there were alot of games released this year...Alot of GOOD games.  I just hope 2008 can compare.  I mean, it should, it has alot of awesome franchise titles being released.

No More Hereos, RE5, Soul Calibur 4, Mortal Kombat 8, Smash Bros. Brawl, Alan Wake, etc.  I don't know if it can top 2007 but it will sure come close.

[Toom]

I can't say I'm particularly looking forward to SC4 or the new MK. Soul Caliber will doubtless be fun and quick and intuitive and so on, but I seriously doubt that it'll do anything much better than its predecessors other than looking extremely pretty. Was it Mortal Kombat 4 that was the first 3D one? They've seemed to get worse and worse since then.

[PHeMoX]

Thanks to the TC for mentioning Portal as its own entity instead of as "The Orange Box" which is not a game, but rather a collection of games, most of which really aren't that good in the first place.  Portal is certainly worthy of its own identity other than being simply known as the puzzle section of a pack of rehashware.

Finally some people that agree. ;-) Half-life2:ep 2 is okey, it's better than Episode 1 for sure, but it still gets way too high ratings. It's still just Half-life2 with a fancy name, perhaps looking a tiny tad better than HL2: ep 1 did.

I think the art style of Team Fortress 2 is cool and funny, but the game itself is quite a joke. It's unbalanced as heck and weren't those Team Fortress people the ones who said 'yeah, we would make a game in which all characters will be played, because none will be superior to the other class'? Well .. they didn't quite manage to do that lol.  The amount of maps you get is quite pathetic too, I mean really for a multiplayer focused title you would expect at least a dozen maps or so. I have to say that the maps themselves aren't really that bad.

As good as the original HL2 was, adding it to the box really doesn't make it score more points for me, especially because I already owned it and now I own it twice. For people saying 'yeah, but perhaps other people didn't have HL2 yet', true that may be true for some people.. but people looking for an expansion will always own the game already. Now why didn't Valve cut the price in 5 equal pieces so we can buy the games separate from Steam without having to scratch our head wondering why it's so much more expensive as individual titles.

Off course the console version of the Orange Box is a different story, but even then the whole hype around the Orange Box tastes funny, wouldn't you agree?

The one game that's worth buying the Orange Box for would be Portal. It's really a very good game and although 6 hours or so of gameplay isn't that long and the levels could have been as interesting as the last few levels, I think it does deserve the title of Best Game of 2007. Alone that is! 

I really don't understand why the Orange Box get reviews for the package as a whole instead of the games separately.

Runner up would have to be: Assassin's Creed , very good game, very interesting sandbox style and story and I'm a sucker for doing all these Prince of Persia-like acrobatics.

It is one of the best designed games I've ever played (and it has nothing to do with the Portal Mechanism).

True, it's very polished, not much to complain there.


Aah, I forgot the Indie Game of 2007, I've got to agree with Gametunnel here; Aquaria!!

[Glamador]

I must say I have NEVER liked HL2.  I liked Episode 1 ALOT more than Episode 2 partially because it was very different from HL2.  HL1 was one of the best games ever made and HL2 ruined every aspect about it that I loved.  EVERY ONE.  Anyway, Portal rocks.  Also Assassin's Creed has "Prince of Persia-like acrobatics" because it was made by the same people.