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Siliconera Speaks Up: Game of the Year

By Louise Yang . December 14, 2008 . 8:06am

Siliconera Speaks Up: Game of the Year

Now that the end of the year is close and one of our most anticipated games (Persona 4!) has finally been released, what is your top pick for Game of The Year?

 

Siliconera Speaks Up: Game of the YearJenni: As much as I enjoyed The World Ends with You and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, I’d have to say that Persona 4 is easily my pick for Game of the Year. It is not only just a fantastic game, it also improves on the previous entry in the series and marks the end of an era. It could very easily also be the last great PS2 game.

 

 

 

Siliconera Speaks Up: Game of the YearSpencer: Favorite games of the year suffer the priming effect. We tend to get lost in the overcrowded holiday season and forget titles that came out before summer. If someone had to ask me what was my top pick at this second I would probably say Persona 4 since I sunk so much time into it. Valkyria Chronicles, Chrono Trigger, and Yuusha No Kuse Ni Namaikida Or 2 were other personally memorable games from the holiday rush. LittleBigPlanet is pretty fun too, but you have to put a lot of time and thought into level design to reap the rewards. Earlier in the year games like Patapon, Space Invaders Extreme, the World Ends With You, and Super Smash Brothers Brawl kept my attention. Oh, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII… wait do we count that since it came out last year in Japan? Nevermind.

 

Anyway, the point I was trying to make is there were lots of good titles earlier in the year that aren’t Metal Gear Solid 4 or Grand Theft Auto 4 that seemed to be forgotten. Being six months old in a video game store is like being over the hill.

 

Siliconera Speaks Up: Game of the YearLouise: I’d probably have a different answer if I didn’t have an unopened Persona 4 box right next to me waiting for me to play, but I’d have to say my game of the year is Fallout 3. It’s also my pleasant surprise of the year. I wasn’t expecting to like it since I didn’t like Oblivion at all because its open-ended story was too hard for me to follow. I borrowed it from a friend just to give it a try because I do like post-apocalyptic settings and I had heard so many good things about the previous two games.

 

After the first hour, I could see what all the hub-bub was about. The graphics were great, the sound was eerie, but what I really enjoyed was the story. It wasn’t hokey or needlessly complicated. It was just about a girl looking for her dad. I loved exploring and finding new places in the world and I loved how even if you get side-tracked, Pip-Boy always informed you of where you needed to be next in a quest.

 

I don’t know if it’s because I came into Fallout 3 with lowered expectations, but I was really sorry when I needed to give the game back to the friend I borrowed it from.


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  • jeffx

    1. ETRIAN ODYSSEY II
    1. PERSONA 4
    2. NO MORE HEROES

  • QBasic

    Hm…

    I’d like to agree with everyone here with Persona 4…but personally, I found the endgame’s plotline a cop out. No matter which ending you shot for, it was still “random dude comes in, saves the day, makes friends, goes home.”

    I’m probably the only one here who prefers the protagonist’s true connection to the story like it was in Persona 2 and 3…

  • sorceo

    Considering that I haven’t gotten to play Persona 4 yet, I’d have to say that my favorites for this year are Patapon, Metal Gear Solid 4, and LittleBigPlanet, but if I had to pick one of the three, I’d definitely say LittleBigPlanet. Despite some of the annoyances in it, it’s managed to keep me hooked with the creative level designers out there making interesting new levels that are even better than the ones in story mode. However, I really enjoyed Patapon and cannot wait until Patapon 2 hits the states!

  • Chris

    I am just about to play Persona 4 for the first time, and that will probably be my ultimate pick, but before that I’d have to go with Valkyria Chronicles.

    All the other big games have some little thing about them that alienates me. Metal Gear Solid focuses too much on being cinematic and not enough on actually being fun, handheld games are impossible to play without hurting your eyes and neck, I can’t get into the whole ‘petty murderours thugs as protagonists’ thing in GTA, I don’t like the whole ‘Let you choose between good and evil and give you random pointless sidequests and call it nonlinearity thing even though the main character doesn’t even talk’ thing in Western RPGs.

    Other than P4 which I haven’t played and VC, the only thing I’d really strongly consider is Megaman 9. It was like. “Wow, somebody in the video game industry remembered action games used to care more about gameplay than plot!”

  • Vagiel

    Since i have not tried persona 4 yet i have to say i most pleased by Last remnant. I was socked to find that it is actually a SaGa game with everything that brings to the table and since i was not expecting another SaGa soon i was pleasantly surprised.

  • daizyujin

    Since I have never gotten into the Persona games and am not an RPG fan I have to say I couldn’t give a rats butt about Persona 4. As for my game of the year? That is a tough call. I think that I probably will much like last year with Bioshock and Portal have to look to new IPs for that. So many of the games that I had high hopes for this year, particularly the Japanese franchises, have just been let downs; Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Mortal Kombat, Rayman Raving Rabbids, etc. They just all seem to be exactly the same or in the case of Mario Kart, actually inferior to many other releases in the series.

    So to make this easier, I will just list the games that were let downs first.

    * Smash Bros Brawl (crappy online, seriously, it never worked)
    * Mario Kart Wii (poor item balancing and a shift away from skill)
    * Animal Crossing CF (didn’t I play this on the DS)
    * Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe (??????????, I guess it was a little fun)

    Games I actually was surprised I liked.

    * Sonic Unleashed 360 (Don’t ask but I liked it.)
    * Mirror’s Edge (frustrating but still fun)

    Games I was mostly happy with.

    * Burnout Paradise
    * Grand Theft Auto 4
    * Little Big Planet

    I suppose in the end I give it to Little Big Planet but I have to say that is with a real grain of salt. The recent heavy handedness of Sony’s moderation is starting to show that the only true way to have great user generated content is if the publisher of the game has no way to control it (ala PC game mods). Seriously, when people are starting to not make levels just because they are afraid of loosing all that time they put in due to moderation where they are not even told why, you have a problem.

  • Aoshi00

    I haven’t played Fallout 3 yet, its setting just isn’t that appealing even though my friend showed it to me as well.

    Games that I have totally immersed myself in this year are Lost Odyssey, MGS4, Bioshock, & Gears 2, I find their story gripping and on the edge of my seat every second, excellent presentation as well. Lost Odyssey made me cry :)

    Best recent RPG is Last Remnant for me as well. Despite its technical shortcomings and annoyingly long consecutive boss battles (w/o the chance to save), it’s extremely addictive just like P4, but I put that down for other RPGs. I’m surprised I like Last Remnant because I was very put off by its FF12-like aesthetics. Many don’t like Infinite Undiscovery, but it’s a runner-up for me.

    Sonic Unleashed 360 is another pleasant surprise for me, the Sonic stages are amazingly fast, but you are always in control. Finally a good Sonic game since Dreamcast.

  • jeffx

    One thing we can all agree on is that 2008 was one hell of a year. I want to put MM9 in there, too, just because.

  • heero420

    Just my two cent’s and i don’t have a ps2 anymore so im going to miss out on persona4 so i can’t count that one

    my top 3 for game of the year
    Fallout3
    Crisis core
    Metal gear solid4 (i don’t own a copy but the two hours i put into it seemed to be great now let’s hope it gets released on the 360 :) )

  • heero420

    Just my two cent’s and i don’t have a ps2 anymore so im going to miss out on persona4 so i can’t count that one

    my top 3 for game of the year
    Fallout3
    Crisis core
    Metal gear solid4 (i don’t own a copy but the two hours i put into it seemed to be great now let’s hope it gets released on the 360 :) )

  • Daizyujin

    @jeffx

    It has been a good year but in no way can it touch the quality we were seeing in 2007. Bioshock, COD 4, Orange Box, Uncharted, Super Mario Galaxy, Ratchet and Clank Future: TOD. That was one hell of a year. Most of those games felt fresh, new, and fully worth the $50-$60 they cost. I just didn’t get that feeling this year. Too much recycling and subpar sequels especially on Nintendo’s part. I can not being to think of the last time Nintendo had such a sh!tty offering. It is just amazing how much the industry has changed in five years. Many developers and publishers that were on the top of their game then just seem to have dropped the ball this generation. Its truly frustrating.

  • LeafPanda

    I have to get Persona 4 soon. I love the Persona series even though I’ve only played Persona 3 FES which for me was the game of the year from the games I own before I play Persona 4 which I will soon get. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 also sucked me in so much. Okami Wii probably wouldn’t count because of the PS2 Version.
    All in all I think I would agree with the Persona 4 pick if I had it.

  • Louise

    @jeffx Good pick on Etrian Odyssey II. I forgot that it came out earlier this year. That would probably be my pick for portable of the year.

    I finally had some time to sit down with Persona 4. I thought it would become my GOTY, but 6 hours into it, I’m afraid not. It’s not that it’s not good. It’s great — all of the enhancements from P3 are fantastic. But I felt the introduction was TOO long. I was getting impatient about getting to the meat of the game.

  • http://twitter.com/iidxgold scott

    Tie for first:
    Fallout 3
    Mother 3

    Other honorable mentions:
    Left 4 Dead
    Dragon Quest IV
    Persona 4
    Street Fighter 4
    Rock Band 2

    Big disappointments:
    Infinite Undiscovery
    Final Fantasy IV DS
    C&C Red Alert 3

  • Joakim Hagdahl

    Valkyria Chronicles for me, revitalized the genre for me and made me smile. That’s enough.

    Persona 4 seems like the game Persona 3 should have been but even so Valkyria Chronicles is ‘it’. Perfect christmas holiday game though.

    Fable 2 is close (and certainly the best 360 game), The World Ends With you was really enjoyable but Fallout 3 I couldn’t keep playing. It just bored me to death :( Combat that wasn’t interesting and set pieces that never convinced.

  • Kijof

    To me, DQIV or TWEWY.

  • http://meikiyou.deviantart.com meikiyou

    no more heroes
    rune factory 2
    th world ends with you

  • djehuty

    Super Robot Wars Z.

  • EvilAkito

    I didn’t really care for too many of this year’s games, so I’m stuck with obvious choices like Persona 4 (which everyone here seems to agree on) and Smash Brothers Brawl. I guess there were a decent number of “good” games, but we’re certainly lacking games that stand out among the crowd.

  • Mazen

    Lost Odyssey.

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