Your games of the year - so far

super_furry

Loco Roco for me. It's everything a handheld game should be - fun, quick to play and utterly addictive. Add in some charming graphics and an utterly brilliant soundtrack and it's one of the best games I've played in years. The real irony is that it's a typical Nintendo style game in that it's innovative and accesable, without ever worrying about being 'cool.

tman

Prey
Might not be game of the year material for the majority of people, but I enjoyed it for what it is; a nicely paced, entertaining FPS with a good sense of humour and some nice original touches.
I can see it being replaced by another game soon, but for the time being it's definitely my GOTY.

Phoenix Wright might come a close second. kind of lost interest during the bonus chapter though... So didn't get a real sense of satisfaction when I finished it.

thelordofcheese

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

yeah, it could be accused of not really being that much different to Superstar saga, and it's a bit too easy, but all that aside, it's perfect controls, sharp visuals, and a combat system that holds your interest for all the game [a rare feat for an RPG], and, most importantly, it's sense of humour make this the best game I've played so far this year.

BACK TO ADVENTURE!

stevenmu

GRAW (PC), it does have it's problems but I love it. It has a good mix of slow/tense gameplay with some fast/intense bits thrown in. Good tac-sim elements, altough they are a little light, they work incredibly well at times, having some of your squad suppress some bad guys while you flank around is very rewarding. Beautifull graphics if you have a machine capable of making the most of them (who needs AA anyway). Excellent sound, great music but the sound effects are incredible, very immersive. Some nice innovations such as the cross-com, real-time sattelite imagery, controlling the drone etc. Easily the best friendly AI I've ever seen (I've never once been tempted to just kill them at the start and carry on on my own), and probably the best enemy AI too.

Retr0gamer

Shadow of the Colossus for me, although I did play it last year but it only got released in europe this year. No other game this year has come close to the spectacle and storytelling of that game. Was also a blast to play.

There's a few DS games that I would like to mention but still haven't got round to buying due to being smashed all year

Stephen

I haven't played much in the way of new games this year besides HL2 episode 1. I've been sticking mostly to Team Fortress Classic (now about 7 years old, returned to it a couple of months ago after about 3 years in the wilderness), Day of Defeat: Source and Burnout Legends on the PSP - a really great way to kill time on flights.

FuzzyWuzzyWazza

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat

The first BF game I have played, and on a console at that!! (360) And I can honestly say I was expecting a good game, but it is soooo much more fun then I was expecting.

Earthhorse

For me it has to be New Super Mario Bros. I haven't played many new games this year but even if I did I doubt many would come close to matching the fun I had getting through this.

i_am_dogboy

Well just thinking back dreamfall is probably the game I enjoyed the most, with shadow of the colossus not too far behind that. It's odd that I enjoyed dreamfall so much when I'm usually one of the first to shout "gameplay is what matters most"...it was just lovely, I just hope I don't have to wait another 5 years for part 3 of the story...

humanji

For me it's Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth. I love horror games, but I've never played one that got to me like this one. I'm ashamed to admit that in one part, I spent 10 minutes debating whether I should open a door or to just turn off the game and do something else because I was terrified of what was going to happen! lol But I guess that's what you get when you play a horror game alone in the dead of night with the lights off!

Trode

I haven't bought a lot of new games this year(or rather, I have but they weren't this year's games) but the ones that really hooked me were

Phoenix Wright(DS): I don't know why whether I ask the right questions in the trial of a character I'm not even controlling has me on the edge of my seat more often than any number of fate-of-the-world cataclysmic battles, but it does.

Space Rangers(PC): Elite meets Star Control meets Total Annihilation meets MechAssault meets Space War meets text adventures meets Leaving Cert maths meets....
Enormous variety coupled with compulsive 'just until I can afford that upgrade' gameplay and charmingly lo-fi technology, I couldn't quit this for at least two months.

super_furry

jomanji wrote:

For me it's Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth. I love horror games, but I've never played one that got to me like this one. I'm ashamed to admit that in one part, I spent 10 minutes debating whether I should open a door or to just turn off the game and do something else because I was terrified of what was going to happen! lol But I guess that's what you get when you play a horror game alone in the dead of night with the lights off!

That was a great game but some of the more obscure puzzles got on my nerves - espcially the safe cracking ones.

monument

Loco Roco or HL2 E1.

FranchisePlayer

For me it would have to be oblivion followed closely by Phoenix wright.I thought there should have been more use of the stylus in Phoenix wright(excluding the last case).

evad_lhorg

Shadow of the colossus or Oblivion.

steviec

Shadow of the Colossus by far. Will probably still be come the end of the year too.

Other good games have been Loco Roco, We Love Katamari, Oblivion. But SOTC really stands alone as a very very special game.

kaimera

Hitman: Blood Money.

NFS: MW is up there too.

Mario & Luigi: PiT. Nice to see it mentioned already :v:

Haven't played much else otherwise, not enough time put into Oblivion to comment.

Dooom

I'll vote for Oblivion and COD2.
A lot of people will debate the latter, but I still think it's a masterpiece. Multiplayer's superb for those of us without broadband, and the singleplayer's excellent too.

Crucifix

Shadow of the Colossus and Phoenix Wright. Two fantastically enjoyable games.

KdjaCL

Rogue Trooper


Shame i bought the only copy in ireland


kdjac

Lemlin

Oblivion.

FunkyChicken

When was FEAR released? I'd have to say Oblivion (despite it corrupting my save game and making me not play it anymore) or Halflife 2 Ep1.

tman

FunkyChicken wrote:

When was FEAR released?

about a month ago now

Dooom

Ah crap yeah, add FEAR to my list aswell. And HL2 Ep1 for kicks too.

i_am_dogboy

tman wrote:

about a month ago now

A month? I'm pretty sure that last december(when I got around to buying it) was more than a month ago...

superfly

it has to be for me Oblivion, spent way too much time on this

Ri_Nollaig

has to be oblivion, what an amazing game

CiDeRmAn

Shadow of the Colossus was the best thing to happen this year, Trauma Centre was pretty amazing too.
Prey was fun on 360

Dooom

i_am_dogboy wrote:

A month? I'm pretty sure that last december(when I got around to buying it) was more than a month ago...

Yeah, actually it was last October.

tman

i_am_dogboy wrote:

A month? I'm pretty sure that last december(when I got around to buying it) was more than a month ago...

ah jesus, was thinking of Prey for some reason:o
morto!

tba

Pheonix Wright: Ace Objection! But what was the deal with that last chapter?

Half Life 2: Episode of my life! Alyx Brush your hair its in HDR!

Top two..

And that is the some total of the games released this year that I have been playing, except for eve, trauma centre, animal crossing, civ 4, sonic rush, homeworld, Half life 2, Half life, Oblivion, morrowind, Arena, GTA Vice City, Hitman blood money, codename 47, rise of nations, brain age, jupiter: the nexus incident, battlefield vietnam, freelancer, Jedi Knight academy and countless mods, the best of which was minevera

rainbow kirby

Of the games released this year, my favourites would have to be We Love Katamari, Shadow of the Colossus and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
But the game i've put most time into so far this year is World of Warcraft...

jaggeh

does it have to be released this year?

My game of the year would be EVE, i went back to playing it last month and its kicking my ass (check out my xfire profile ive added about 200 hours of gametime in the last month)

Duras

Oblivion, no doubt!

Retr0gamer

Manpuncher vs. Boxhead was amazing.

koneko

Oblivion, Loco Roco and Phoenix Wright were great.

But I have much love for Ouendan. It is the best thing since sliced bread. In fact it's better than sliced bread. It's like sliced break that doesn't go stale and creates it's own lovely toppings and jumps onto your plate ready to eat.

Ok, maybe not that good, but I still can't put it down (playing it on Insane/"Very Hard Mode" now).

Praetorian

Haha, lol at Retrogamer, he hasn't played Oblivion or HL2 Ep 1. 2 of my favourites!

Fear was great, was that this year? Ohh time is flying!

i_am_dogboy

koneko wrote:

But I have much love for Ouendan. It is the best thing since sliced bread. In fact it's better than sliced bread. It's like sliced break that doesn't go stale and creates it's own lovely toppings and jumps onto your plate ready to eat.

WAY better than your bread idea, I'd have it as my game of the year if it wasn't for the fact that I was playing it for a good bit of last year....Frankly I've no idea how you made it to the hardest modes, a few of the levels have such bad music I can't stand to play them over and over, but the good ones really are fantastic....and the cheerleaders rock.

koneko

Even the bad ones are fun on hard (for me anyway). The difficulty ramps up a bit when you get to Hardest/Insane too. The circles are tiny, and they appear just before you are supposed to hit them. The hardest level squad is

female cheerleaders

ShiverinEskimo

Oblivion - without a doubt. 220 hours played speaks volumes.

johnny_ultimate

Phoenix Wright is genius. But still, either katamari or guitar hero for me. Both these games have zapped countless hours from my life. Its strange that a half year has contained all these games. and psychonauts. cant forget psychonauts.

BopNiblets

Hitman: Blood Money.

Satisfying.

4Xcut

Imho oblivion has to be the game of the year if not one of the best games i've played ever. Only got it recently(didn't want to kiss good bye to the leaving) and its fcukin awesome. Beautiful graphically,brilliant story and gameplay, well gameplay that is just amazing. So I'm going to give it my own personal thumbs up.*Give oblivion personal thumbs up*