Gaming's Best Of The Best, 2006 Countdown Fest
Yes, yes, I know there are 8 billion countdowns for the Best Games of 2006, but I'm going to limit my linkage to people who I happen to a) have on my RSS list and b) admire for having their own point of view, as opposed to munging billions of opinions into one uber-list of death. So that would be:
- Wired News' Chris Kohler has a very personable Top 10 posted, singling out games like Bully ("Politicos and moral crusaders slammed Rockstar's boarding-school adventure as a "Columbine simulator." In reality, Bully... was a lighthearted, gun-free comedy"), and - yes, Elite Beat Agents ("Do you believe in life after love? While you're tapping the DS' touch screen to the beat of 19 guilty-pleasure pop songs (also including "Material Girl" and "Sk8r Boi"), you will.")
- The San Jose Merc's Dean Takahashi get oddly war-centric in his Top 10, including the somewhat overlooked Company Of Heroes for PC ("Your soldiers have to struggle for every bit of territory with pitched battles that are won by the side with the best ground, flanking strategies, and massed firepower. It never felt so good to defend a series of bridges or to take the center of a town"), and rating Resistance: Fall Of Man highly, despite reservations: "It's like a realistic Ratchet & Clank, without the characters that you care about. You're never quite sure if your soldier is a monster or a super-soldier."
- What, no love for the Nooch? Dean's colleague, Mike Antonucci, also has his Top 10 posted, and he grabs out some hazy memories from earlier in the year like Kingdom Hearts II ("I listed it ahead of "Brain Age'' for the first half of '06, but ultimately its fight-and-quest appeal is more limited. A big treat for PS2 owners in the year of the PS3 and Wii"), as well as, well, Brain Age itself ("A game that can get some adults interested in video games for the first time, as well as an important early-year release for the hot-selling DS.")
- OK, I don't _particularly_ care about him, but Lou Kesten of the Associated Press listed both his best and worst of the year, and he slams Appaloosa and Majesco's Jaws Unleashed: "Glitchy graphics, unnecessarily complicated controls and stupid missions take all the fun out of swimming around and chomping on innocent humans." I've heard from friends that you can swim around and chomp on innocent humans in ridiculous ways anyhow, in spite of the game? Even though it has horrid reviews, I just bought it in the GameFly end of year sale, so we'll see whether I need a bigger hype boat when it arrives. [Semi-via VH1GameSnap.]
To conclude - oh, go on then, what was your favorite game of 2006, or more to the point, the one you spent the most time playing? I already commented on a couple of my favorite games in the Gamasutra Quantum Leap Awards, but to be honest, the one I probably spent the most time playing in 2006 was Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee for PSP, thanks to it monopoliizing my plane journeys for most of the annum.
Comments
Company of Heroes is "somehwat overlooked"? Most of the enthusiast press is giving it props, though Eurogamer oddly sticks it way down on their top 50.
It's *my* strategy game of the year for whatever that's worth. (Check my blog for more!!!) (just kidding)
Posted by: Troy Goodfellow | December 29, 2006 2:28 PM
Eurogamer's list has some other weird omissions as well, such as Medieval II. It does seem like PC games in general and strategy games in particular is not particularily popular among the Eurogamer crew.
But anyway, my favourites this year are Oblivion, Armadillo Run, TrackMania Nations and TrackMania United (which was released online in november and has not received a single english-language review so far, despite being game of the year material).
Honorable mentions go to Gothic III, Medieval II, Company of Heroes (which I've only just bought), Dreamfall, Guitar Hero II, New Super Mario Bros, Gears of War, Dead Rising, GalCiv 2 and FlatOut 2.
Posted by: fluffy bunny | December 29, 2006 2:52 PM
I guess I don't see a lot of people talking about Company Of Heroes and I don't know anyone who's played it - but that's just cos I know too many console geeks? :)
Posted by: simonc | December 29, 2006 4:30 PM
Yeah, you console people. That's the problem. Company of Heroes is great. Best RTS since Rise of Nations - maybe better.
We PC gamers are being shunted over the side. :(
Posted by: Troy Goodfellow | December 29, 2006 5:09 PM
Indeed! It's rough because there are certainly some pretty decent PC games, but they do increasingly get lost in the console murmur.
Maybe the rise of media PCs in living rooms will help bring things back a little?
Posted by: simonc | December 29, 2006 9:46 PM
The one that's been bugging me a lot lately is seeing Guitar Hero *everywhere*. What's even worse is people talk about how original it is, when they've just ripped off Guitar Freaks (for anyone familiar with RedOctane pre-GH this is not surprising) and thoroughly westernised it.
Skipping to the end, my most played game of the year has been Guitar Freaks / Drum Mania Masterpiece Silver - GFDM has finally had some new PS2 ports this year, and this title is absolutely fantastic. I've probably prefered Okami and Gyakuten Saiban 2, but the most time has definitely been spent on Guitar Freaks...
Posted by: fuse | December 30, 2006 6:09 AM
"Maybe the rise of media PCs in living rooms will help bring things back a little?"
I think that they end of the new console launches will help some. The last three years have seen the gaming press eaten alive by speculation, dreams and theIt' "console war" horse race.
Add that to the Will Wright Spore Hype Machine and there is a chance that PC gaming could recover some of the limelight.
But it will never be what it was. It is now the fourth gaming platform, which is odd since all gamers have a PC - it's just not their preferred instrument of choice.
"What's even worse is people talk about how original it is, when they've just ripped off Guitar Freaks (for anyone familiar with RedOctane pre-GH this is not surprising) and thoroughly westernised it."
And that's the genius of it. It is original to many, many people who haven't played Guitar Freaks, and the "westernization" is central to the marketing plan. And the gaming business is hardly ever about being "first". It's about being "most".
Posted by: Troy Goodfellow | December 30, 2006 10:31 AM