Taking the new demo for a test drive. Pun intended.
After a long evening of dishwashing, laundry-doing, and paperwork-filling-outing, I finally got a chance to fire up my Xbox 360 yesterday to try out a demo for a game I've had my eye on for a few months now: Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.
I have to say that so far, that this game looks like it will be completely awesome.
For the uninitiated, Nuts & Bolts is a sequel of sorts to the original duo of 3D platform games for the N64. The first game in the series introduced the oddly-paired Banjo (the bear) and Kazooie (the bird in Banjo's backpack) and had players exploring a large non-linear 3D world collecting jigsaw pieces. The game played very similarly to other games of the period, like Mario 64, only with an added emphasis on story and humor. Banjo-Kazooie was a fun, ground-breaking experience, and won two awards at the 1999 Interactive Achievement Awards, for Console Action/Adventure and Art Direction. The original Banjo-Kazooie was released in 1998.
The second game, Banjo-Tooie (see what they did there?), followed two years later in 2000. And though the gameplay mechanic was not dramatically different from the first game, Tooie was met with great acclaim.
Ten years later, Nuts & Bolts has finally landed as a demo on Xbox Live, and the full game looms in the distance, only a week and a half away. I've been anxious to try this game out, as I've always enjoyed N64 era 3D platformers, and I've been wanting to check out the vehicle creation system Rare crafted.
Nuts & Bolts takes the classic platforming play of old and throws vehicles into the mix - vehicles that you design yourself. As you explore the world and complete tasks, you're given an ever-expanding arsenal of parts from which you can construct vehicles of all shapes, sizes, and utility. At any point in the game, you can enter the garage to edit your vehicle. You can save and load different designs you've already created and edit all to your hearts content. With the release of the final game, you'll also be able to send plans to friends, so they can cruise around their game in vehicles of your design.
I played Nuts & Bolts demo for about 45 minutes, and I had a very good time with it. Lots is included in the 1Gb+ sampling, and I'll probably spend some more time with it this weekend.
The graphics in this game are excellent. Rare never ceases to amaze me in their ability to create rich, living environments, and Nuts & Bolts is just another example of their mastery over this skill. The character animation is nice and smooth, and you really get the sense of a real world that the old N64 games just couldn't do. My only complaint about the graphics so far, and this is really more of a design issue overall, is that the informational cut-scenes that explain the story and how the game works are all done in the same way as the old games - with lots of text, and squawking heads next to them - and no spoken dialogue. This may change in the final version of the game, but I really would have liked to see Rare put their obvious talents in animation to use and give us fully animated cut-scenes with actual dialogue. Other than this single caveat though, the game is visually incredible, from the anthropomorphic characters roaming around town to vast rolling hills with roads and ramps, it's all very beautiful.
I was also impressed by the audible quality of the demo. The sound effects are varied and appropriate, and the goofy little sounds Banjo and Kazooie make as they traverse the world put a big smile on my face. The music in the game is especially good, and I was glad to see that Grant Kirkhope and Robin Beanland (responsible for Viva Piñata and Conker's Bad Fur Day respectively) were behind it, since I have enjoyed a lot of their past works.
Control in Nuts & Bolts was solid, and felt very familiar to the way the older games did while I was running around on foot. Vehicular controls are similar to most other 360 games you've played, using the analog should buttons for gas and brake, and the left and right sticks for direction and camera control. The vehicle I played around with felt a little slow, but since I was only playing the beginning stages of the game, and thus had the lowest power engine on my car, this seemed appropriate. Building cars was also a snap, and within only a few minutes I was jumping in and out of the garage, experimenting with all sorts of configurations. Anyone who's ever used built something with Legos before will feel right at home.
All in all, I came away from my initial run-through of the Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts demo very impressed. I was intrigued by the handful of screens and video that were released a few months ago but wasn't sure if the game would be very much fun or not. After having played the demo, I feel silly for having worried about this at all - Nuts & Bolts is looking to be a lot of fun, and I can only imagine how crazy the later part of the game will get as you gather more and more diverse parts for your vehicle crafting.
Jump on Xbox Live and try out the demo for yourself - if you go into it with an open mind, and looking for some genuine fun, you won't be disappointed. Let me know what you think if you do!
October is drawing to a close, and I'm questioning the future of my newest project, as far as its status as a YYG Competition #4 entry is concerned.
I'll be the first to admit that this is not an entirely unexpected outcome - my project was a bit ambitious. I still want to complete it someday, as I think the game concept is a good one, and I really liked the way the game was turning out. Unfortunately, with my trips to Vegas and BlizzCon, and lots of my free time being spent with my girlfriend as we search for a place to live together, I've not been able to devote the necessary time to Game Maker, and I don't want to be stuck trying to rush the game out, since it is still going to require a lot of artwork and programming.
Not all is lost, however.
A few days ago I came up with a decent idea for a smaller game, and if I have the time, I'll throw it together for the competition.
Since only a handful of people got a chance to play the other game, I'll post a demo here later for anyone who's interested in trying it out. It's nothing more than a driving engine with some simple collisions currently, but as I mentioned, I would like to expand on it eventually.
The whole year of 2008 has been like this for me, actually. I've begun (and continued) many projects, including the site update for Reflect, a new version of the Reflect system itself, a few games, and some paintings; disappointingly, hardly any of it has gotten finished. I suspect that much of it has to do with my limited time for personal projects, an issue that's been troubling me for quite a while now.
I don't blame most of my day-to-day obligations, however - I enjoy spending time with my girlfriend very much, and I waste a lot of time playing games and surfing the web to wind down, which is absolutely necessary to my continued sanity.
Other things though, like my daily commute, are increasingly annoying to me - I lose almost two and a half hours per day just driving to and from work. It's quite frustrating that, as a creative person, I have such sparing time for actually being creative.
Ugh. I hate that feeling I get when I have a project I've worked very hard on, but which I won't be able to finish for now. It's all part of the process, I know, but that doesn't make it taste any less bitter.
Anyway, I'll be posting updates on my competition #4 work as (and if) it progresses. Thanks to everyone who has supported me in my work thus far, and thanks for reading the blog! I shall find the time to finish some of my projects - it just takes time!
A new trailer for Gears of War 2, this one to be the official commercial for the game, was released yesterday. "Last Day" features the musical talents of DeVotchKa, and shows the various members of the Cog army as they prepare for and embark on the next war against their subterranean opponents.
I liked the "Mad World" commercial better I think, but this one seems to highlight the actual game just a smidgen more. I like that it shows most of the main characters, and again appears to be rendered completely inside the game engine, a credit to the beauty of Unreal Engine 3 and Epic's graphical abilities alike. It's hard not to be excited about Gears 2; this game is going to be awesome!
I've included the Mad World trailer, in case anyone hasn't seen it. Truly a great piece of marketing.
I just wanted to report that over the last 24 hours, Marty Blog got slammed with over 100 comment spam messages. You didn't see any of them, thanks to WordPress Hashcash. Instead, I got to privately view them all (at one point I was getting about one spam comment a minute), and I deleted every last one of them. I also deleted a post which I think was the catalyst for all of them, a generic comment made on my old post about the Spore Creature Creator. It's funny how whenever I post about more popular games at the time, the blog starts getting hit with a temporary surge of spam.
In any case, the spam comments have since slowed down, and I've only had one or two to delete all day. It seems all is well once again.
Oh, and I also picked up Fable 2 on my lunch hour today. A bunch of good reviews (and an undying love for the original game) can go a long way I suppose. I'll report on that later once I get a chance to play it.
So we've got a lot of good games on deck, and even a few that were just released. Over the last few months, I've been getting progressively more excited about a great number of these games. The problem is, I don't know when I'll have time to play through all these games, and I really don't want to rack up a huge bill by buying all of them at once, either. Christmas is right around the corner, however, and so is my birthday, so I've decided I'm going to separate my hotlist of games into a few groups: must buy, gift request, buy later, and undecided.
Following is the list of all the games I'm looking forward to, and how I've split them up (and if you're reading this, Mom, this might be a good place to start for my Christmas list).
Gears of War 2
Must Buy - Though I've been careful not to spoil any of the surprises of the Gears sequel for myself, each time I get a glance at any new information on the game it seems better than before. This game is going to be awesome, and I'm really looking forward to playing through the campaign with my buddies, as well as jumping back into Gears multiplayer. Grenade sticking FTW!
Fable 2
Undecided - This is another game which I've been anxiously awaiting for some time now, and in only a few days it'll be on store shelves. It's garnering good reviews so far, and like Gears 2, each time I do some research on the title, it seems that much better, and I get more excited about it. Albion never looked better, and it's going to be hard to wait until Christmas or my birthday for this game, if I can go that long.
Left 4 Dead
Must Buy - The co-op multiplayer for L4D looks like it's going to be a lot of fun, and come on, it's a great-looking new Valve game. The only trouble I'm going to have with this decision is which platform to buy it for: PC or Xbox 360.
Fallout 3
Gift Request - Don't get me wrong here; I'm really looking forward to Fallout 3. I like the whole idea of a more modern Oblivion-ish RPG, and all the tweaks Bethesda has made to the game engine in order to create Fallout look both interesting and well done. But since, to my knowledge, the game doesn't feature any multiplayer action, I can shelve it for a few weeks while I play the rest of the games, since the world will be just the same when I decide I'm ready to enter it. And that's why I like single player games.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Must Buy - Only 3 weeks are left until the long-awaited second expansion to the World of Warcraft universe is released, and after spending two days at BlizzCon and experiencing all the big changes to the game introduced in last week's 3.0.2 patch, I'm more than ready to start working my way up to level 80, and maybe even turning my main character into a Death Knight. I won't be one of the people who gets in line a few days before the release, and I probably won't even pre-order. But I'll definitely be picking this one up within a day or two of it's release.
Dead Space
Buy Later - Initially I wasn't too excited about Dead Space, as it looked very generic and Doom 3-ish to me. Since I've read a few reviews however, I've changed my mind on the game, and I might just pick it up at some point. I'm not sure if I want to buy it or ask for it as a gift - it probably depends on how long I can hold out on buying all the other titles in the list. This game looks pretty fun though, and I am sure that at some point it will become part of my games library.
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Undecided - The vehicle-crafting platformer gameplay in the new BK game looks like it could be a lot of fun, and pre-orders for the game nab you the original game (updated with a better display resolution and higher resolution textures) on Xbox Live Arcade as well, all for only $40. I'm going to have a hard time passing this game up if it gets good reviews on release.
Chrono Trigger DS
Gift Request - It's Chrono Trigger, but on the DS. I shouldn't even have to explain how awesome that is. It'll take a good gift request though, because it's cheap, and like Fallout, is single player only.
Saint's Row 2
Buy Later - I wasn't too hot on the original game until a few years had gone by and I gave it a second chance. Much to my surprise, the original Saints turned out to be a lot of fun, and was a great deal at only $20. Saints Row 2 looks pretty similar, only with more mayhem. The good reviews have convinced me that I will have to pick the game up sometime, but we'll see if that happens before this one hits $20 as well.
Call of Duty: World at War
Undecided - I came to COD4 a little late in the game, but still had a blast with its multiplayer and a good time working my way through the campaign. I'm hoping COD:WaW will be similar, but I want to see how the game turns out before I make any final decisions on it.
Other games I'm interested in, but weren't worth mentioning in the list yet: Tom Clancy's Endwar, Spore, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, Need for Speed: Undercover, Far Cry 2
I'll be back later in the week with more to say about some of this stuff, I'm sure. Thanks for reading!
So anyway, BlizzCon! It was awesome. My brother and I arrived in Orange County bright and early on Friday morning, picked up our passes, dropped off our luggage at the hotel, and made our way into the Anaheim Convention Center to see what Blizzard had in store for us.
The entire convention center was dark, illuminated only by multicolored lights and spotlights shining the Blizzard logo on the ground. Various islands of booths, displays, and photo areas were placed around the floor, and much larger areas were sectioned off to house many rows of computers set up for people to try out all of Blizzard's latest and greatest (Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, and Wrath of the Lich King).
In the convention center's largest room, a massive hall of chairs had been set up for the opening and closing ceremonies, and for other announcements and forums where the audience size was expected to be large. At the opposite end of the center, a smaller stage had been set up, as a special place for awards to be handed out to tournament players, as well as an alternate viewing area to the live events happening in the main hall.
Various other areas included a small elevated platform with a desk on the top, at which a few commentators would sit and deliver their take on the event as it rolled on (for pay-per-view viewers), two merchandise stores, a retrospective on past Blizzard games, a collection of concept art, a TCG/adventure game store and play area, information booths, and small bars, where drinks of all sorts could be obtained. An upstairs room was also reserved for other segments of the conference, and huge screens were set up all over the convention center so that no matter what one was doing, the important stuff would not be missed.
After a quick breakfast at the Rainforest Cafe (the only restaurant that was open at the time) in Down Town Disney, we arrived at BlizzCon. My brother (Spencer) and I wandered around for a while just taking in the various sights and sounds. We leaned over the low barrier to watch fans trying out Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 for the first time. We gaped at the seemingly endless lines to get into the Blizzard stores. And we checked out the display set up for Blizzard's past endeavors in gaming, which included the Lost Vikings games, an isometric racing game, and of course, Warcraft.
We then settled into the standing-room-only crowd in the main hall to watch the opening ceremony, which lasted an hour, and then filed out again to go look at more stuff. We briefly visited a discussion panel set up for World of Warcraft's UI design, and then decided to head back out for a breather - we both only got about two hours of sleep the night before, and the lack of rest was starting to affect the experience. There was nothing else we wanted to see until later in the day, so we trudged a few blocks down the road and back to our hotel, and after looking through our BlizzCon goody bags for a while, we were both fast asleep.
We ended up heading out again at about five o'clock. We made a quick stop for pizza and were on our way back in only about twenty minutes. I had wanted to check out the World of Warcraft and Diablo 3 art shows, but we'd slept through them. I was happier to have had some revitalizing sleep however, and throughout the show we got plenty of chances to watch the actual games being played, so I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. The /silly contest was in progress when we walked back through the doors of BlizzCon, and we proceeded to watch over two hours of fan-crafted jokes, the dance contest, and though we missed the formal competition, many fans dressed in their best imitations of their favorite characters from Blizzard's games. The dance contest was the best part; seeing a full range of people, men, women, fat, skinny, young, and old recreating the dances their characters perform in World of Warcraft was really funny at times, and slightly impressive at others. We also saw a brief (and funny) interlude by The Guild, and this was all hosted by a very lascivious Jay Mohr.
Once the festivities were over for Day 1, my brother and I walked back over to Down Town Disney and hit up the ESPN Zone for some beers and arcade games. Lucky for us, Spencer is a DisneyLand annual pass holder, so we got 15% off of everything in DTD. He smashed me at hoops, I got winded on a bicycling arcade game, and then we went back to the hotel for the night.
In the morning of Day 2, we went back to ESPN Zone, but this time sat down in their sports lounge for some breakfast and to catch up on all the football going on the weekend. At around noon we made our way back to BlizzCon to catch the show for upcoming World of Warcraft dungeons, as well as part of the Q&A that followed. The dungeons looked pretty sweet, and though I rarely have enough time to do the scheduled runs with my guild, I hope to explore them at some point.
One member of the audience, who asked an argumentative question about hunters and their pets (if I remember correctly), had the gall to tell the game's designers that they were wrong in their judgement of his question, which was met with furious booing from the crowd.
After all that, we decided there wasn't much else we wanted to see until the closing ceremony that night, so we left BlizzCon for our hotel yet again, and ended up playing a few games of the World of Warcraft TCG, which actually turned out to be pretty fun (especially when I almost came back from a near shut-out with just one well-timed card). We had debated whether or not this time would have been a good opportunity to get in line to try out Diablo 3 or Starcraft 2, but we decided against it, as the lines for those games quadrupled after the dungeon preview session ended.
At around five o'clock, we descended on BlizzCon for the final time, arriving early in hopes to grab some seats in the main hall. Walking in, we noticed that about 75% of the seats in the hall were already taken, but to our dismay, every available seat left was being reserved by someone for a group they belonged to. At one point, we encountered someone saving four seats for friends, and we also observed at least one man with a disability (he was walking with a cane) being denied a place to sit by one of the seat-savers. I'm still planning on writing Blizzard to complain about this. If people wanted to see save a seat for themselves, they should have sat in them.
In any case, Spencer and I decided we didn't want to watch the three hour closing ceremony standing on the sidelines of the floor, where the acoustics prevented much of the audio from even being understandable, so instead, we made our way over to the second stage on the other side of the center, where only a handful of people had gathered. We weren't sure if they would show the closing ceremony on the handful of screens there, but figured it was worth the chance, as we'd be standing to watch in the main hall regardless of if we were there when it began or had to hustle back over. My brother bought us a round of beers, and we sat and waited.
As it turned out, the closing ceremony was indeed played on the second stage, and we had a good time watching it as we took turns buying rounds of drinks. Two comedians, including Patton Oswalt, gave performances, and were followed by Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, and finally a performance of various Blizzard game music by Video Games Live. I didn't catch much of the opening comedian (he was dressed like a lumberjack), but I thought Patton Oswalt was pretty funny. L80ETC was alright, though their music isn't really my type, and I really enjoyed listening to Video Games Live. By the time the whole thing was over, Spencer and I were on our fifth or sixth round of drinks, and we stumbled back to our hotel room and got to sleep pretty early that night.
We got up early on Sunday and ran over to Disneyland for a few hours of rides (I hadn't been in over ten years!) and then we made our way back to the hotel a final time to get our stuff together before our mid-afternoon flight home. I would have liked to have had more time to spend at Disneyland, but by the time we were leaving, the park was getting to be so full of people anyway, I was partially glad to be leaving.
All in all, it was an awesome weekend, and despite the amount of running around, standing around, and junk food, I came out of it feeling pretty good on Monday - which is rare for my usual trips. I think I owe a lot of that to the fact that we ended up getting a decent amount of sleep every day of the trip, save the first. I would definitely attend BlizzCon again, but maybe again on another year when they have another slew of huge games on the horizon. It was good to just "nerd out" and enjoy myself for a weekend.
Of all things BlizzCon, there was really only a few things that I didn't like. The seat-saving bit was annoying, and expectedly, the bathrooms at the convention center got particularly gross at times. The only part that I really didn't anticipate (and probably should have) was that when you got into large groups with others, to stand and watch a performance or when a large crowd was exiting one of the halls, you were treated to the overwhelming smell of body odor, with the occasional fart thrown in here and there. I would liken it to the smell of a locker room after a football team just had a big game. Kinda gross sometimes, but not so frequent or strong as to be a deal-breaker. Still, if you're planning on attending BlizzCon, expect to get a good whiff of this smell at least a few times!
For the curious, I thought I'd list the contents of the BlizzCon goody bag, which I was pretty impressed with (even though I know a lot of it is the standard give-away fare, with a Blizzard theme attached):
Blizzon Pass (with World of Warcraft character name included)
BlizzCon Gift Card (includes code for special WoW mount, and participation in upcoming StarCraft 2 beta)
World of Warcraft Heroes of Azeroth TCG Starter Pack
Inflatable Frostmourne Sword (some bags had inflatable Paladin hearth/bubble instead)
Special StarCraft 2 board game square
Rubber BlizzCon keychain
Metallic Diablo 3 keychain
Orc mask
Diablo 3 stress ball
Kleenex packet with "QQ Noob" printed on it
Zerg Creep packet of colored goo
WoW mousepad
WoW Alliance necklace
Pandaren Brewmaster beer holder & bottle opener
StarCraft 2 wristbands
Double-sided WoW/SC2 comic book
Bookmark
Postcard
Hand Sanitizer
Diablo 3 Cinnamints
WoW Pin
Event map & schedule
There was probably more stuff in there that I forgot to list - but that's a lot of stuff as is, and I was anxious to drop that sucker off at the hotel room so I wouldn't have to carry it everywhere!
Anyway, I think I've rambled on long enough. I had a great time, and I hope I can visit sometime again in the future. BlizzCon rocks!
Soon my brother and I will be packing up and getting ready for what will hopefully be a fun two days down in Anaheim, as we attend BlizzCon 2008!
I've been so busy with work and other things over the last few days, I haven't really had time to even think about it, but now that we're a day before the event I'm getting very excited about going. After only a short flight and a quick ride, we'll be heading over to the Anaheim Convention Center and getting an early start on the long days Blizzard has planned.
I don't have much more to say for now, other than I'm getting more excited as the event draws closer. If you're interested in seeing BlizzCon but weren't able to get tickets, Blizzard's apparently struck a deal with DirectTV for a live PPV broadcast, so you might be interested in that. Either way, with upcoming games like StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3, it should be a great show, and I will be back to say more about everything when I can!
This weekend was a much-needed break from all the stuff that's been going on lately. We got a nice bit of rain on Friday night, and my girlfriend and I spent that night and all of Saturday watching movies and lounging around. I would have liked for the cloudy weather to last a little longer, but the Friday rain left Saturday feeling cool and fresh, if not gray.
So now I've finally seen Baby Mama, which was hilarious, and Iron Man, which was also good. I also saw bits and pieces of 27 Dresses, a movie my girlfriend picked out, as I bounced back and forth between my computer and the TV. It had its moments.
The rest of my weekend was spent at an indoor soccer game, doing laundry, working on achievements for Grand Theft Auto 4, and throwing down some retro gaming on my newly acquired GameCube.
Amidst all that fun stuff, I also found some time to do some work on my YYG Competition #4 entry. The car you saw in the last post now has textured tires, I've made some preliminary tree textures, and I am working on a layout for the area you can drive around in for the activities in the game.
Graphically, I want to see the game look bright, clean and open. Since most of the gameplay will be driving the car around the yard (what I'm calling the open, drivable area) and a racetrack of sorts, I think it's important that the graphics are bright and clear, and fun to look at. Sound will also play a large role in bringing the world to life, but I won't be adding that until much later in the design process.
I believe I mentioned this in my last post about the comp, but as far as control goes, the car in the game is mostly finished. It's able to go forward, backward, brake, turn left and right (at greater degrees depending on speed), and use a simple e-brake for making tighter turns. I've got collisions in the game now as well, so the car can bump up against walls... It's basic, but I'm afraid I don't have time to program anything too advanced as far as collision physics go. I might refine what I have a little later on to make them a bit smoother, but for now what's in there works. The only thing I may tweak as far as the collisions go is upping the scale of the game by two, so that I can use more precise sprites for collisions. This shouldn't be noticeable on the graphics end, thanks to the nature of 3D.
Most of the work I am focusing on now is conceptual - I know where I want to take the game, but I need to envision what the world should look like, and how the interactive areas will play out. I have a look in mind for the area decor, but translating a painting of a scene in your mind to working, interesting 3D can take some time and thought. I'll probably be working on maps later on tonight - perhaps I'll post one when I'm finished.
Also on the table is a little bit of character design, as I'm going to have the few characters in the game be represented as simple cartoon-style characters, hopefully to strike a good balance between something a little realistic (the driving portion) and a little more inviting (in menus, interacting with NPC's, etc.).
So yeah - lots of work to do. Plenty of time to do it. I'll continue posting my progress as the game gets built. Thanks for reading!
Perhaps it's a bit too early in the year to start worrying about what game might actually win GOTY for 2008, seeing as almost all outlets for gaming have a strong holiday lineup on deck. But I read an article over on DLB-Network, a website run by a buddy of mine, and it got me to thinking - just what games this year are likely to be GOTY? Which one do I think will nab the title on other websites/magazines?
I decided I'd list all the contenders, give my thoughts and my reasoning, and see what other people think. Many of these games came from the list proposed at DLB-Network, and some are from my own line of thought.
Grand Theft Auto 4
I believe GTA4 is a strong contender for GOTY 2008. Some may balk at this, saying that the game wasn't all that it was cracked up to be, but I beg to differ; the game was solid, fun, and even though it didn't always live up to the hype, it was unarguably one of the better games released in '08. The game was epic in size, it sold amazingly well, was a multi-platform release, and became a cultural phenomenon in the weeks building up to and following its release. It pushed the GTA franchise outward in all the right directions and had an interesting message, and it would not surprise me at all if GTA4 piles on the GOTY awards for 2008.
Metal Gear Solid 4
I've not played MGS4, but I've heard a lot of mixed things about it. The game upped the bar for graphics in PS3 titles, as well as for (non-)interactive story-telling, possibly to detriment. Though the game garnered strong ratings across the board, many now complain (much like GTA4) that the game was over-hyped and over-rated. Another common complaint was that the game bogged down players with too many cut-scenes and not enough actual gameplay. The final strike against it however, in my opinion, is the PS3 platform exclusivity. MGS4 had impressive sales numbers, but too few people have played this game for it to be dubbed GOTY 2008, in large part due to its release on a single platform. In an age where reviewers are too afraid to give the same game on different platforms different scores, I just can't see a single-platform title earning GOTY, good as the game may be.
Spore
Will Wright's wet dream, Spore, had always shown promise of being a game-to-end-all-other-games, even from its early unveiling at E3 several years ago. Even a year before its release, I recall talking with people about how great the game would be and being quite excited about it myself. Upon its eventual release, the world found that, while it was a decent and fun game, Spore wasn't exactly all it was cracked up to be. The game also fell prey to the same DRM woes that have haunted other recent PC releases. And though many are playing the game now and will be playing it into the distant future, I think that the possibility for achieving any sort of GOTY commendations were dashed long ago when the game became a shallow amalgam of different game genres, and a rich simulator of none.
Gears of War 2
Though the screens and videos of the new Gears game look promising, and I am sure the game will be a fun title, I don't think we'll see the sequel grabbing at GOTY, both for it's platform exclusivity and because it will be too similar to Gears 1 to show any real innovation.The original Gears of War, though not entirely original in most respects, did everything it set out to do so right that it was hard to say much bad about it. I feel that the sequel will be much the same, but since we've already broken the ground (a Gears pun?) with Gears 1, Gears 2 won't be a contender for GOTY. Of course, I've read that Epic has tried to fix many of the original Gears' shortcomings in the sequel, but unless they really pull off something spectacularly better than the already-great Gears of War, I don't see it. I'll definitely be in line to buy this title, though.
Resistance 2
I feel the same way about Resistance 2 as Gears of War 2. See above.
Little Big Planet
What can I say about LBP without inciting riots among its throng of fans? I think I'll just come right out and say it: LBP will be one of the most over-hyped games of 2008. Developed by Media Molecule, a company whose first game (Rag Doll Kung Fu) was met with a lukewarm response, Little Big Planet puts the developer's tools in the players' hands and asks them to create levels for others to play.
The game has a nice look to it, and the tools look easy enough to use - but I question how interesting most gamers, who don't typically delve into the development side of things, will find it. I also think that people who are truly interested in being creative will be disappointed, as there is only so much you can do easily and comfortably with a dual shock controller (as opposed to a keyboard, mouse, and with real creative tools like Photoshop, 3DSMax, etc.)... and that's ignoring the obvious limitations of the single hard drive and paltry amount of RAM. LBP will be an interesting diversion for sure, but not a system-seller, and for that reason, I don't see it as a serious contender for any GOTY awards.
Fallout 3
I'll admit that I haven't done much research about Fallout 3 yet, despite my plans to buy the game. If the experience is a little more polished than Oblivion, but with the same open-endedness and emphasis on exploration and discovery, I think it could be a latecomer to the GOTY arena. From everything I've seen so far, it looks much more crisp and refined than Oblivion. It'll be interesting (and hopefully fun) to see how well Bethesda's role-playing recipe holds up with the company shifting gears into the more modern setting of Fallout. Fallout is also being released for multiple platforms.
Rock Band 2
Like Gears of War 2, Resistance 2, etc. I think Rock Band 2 won't be viewed as particularly innovative purely for the fact that it's a sequel. Also, I don't see a rhythm game as a real contender for GOTY in any capacity.
Fable 2
Lionhead has promised a much longer, more rich experience than the original title with Fable 2, so I'm not sure if I can write this game off as just another sequel quite yet. I really enjoyed the first game, and though I liked the good/evil dynamic, and felt that the game as a whole was a very unique experience, I never really felt like any of the individual elements of Fable were particularly ground-breaking. Fable 2 may change that, but until the game is released, I will withhold judgment. The hype machine hasn't turned its evil eye towards Fable 2 yet, and I'm not sure if that's a good sign or not. At the very least, I hope Fable 2 is a fun and unique experience like the original, even if not GOTY fodder.
The Xbox 360 platform exclusivity may also come into play here, especially since Fable 2 will lack a lot of the universal appeal that propels other titles like GTA4.
Conclusion
Regardless of who actually winds up winning GOTY 2008, I think gamers are the real winner this year. Each system has received a good stack of quality games, and more is on the way soon. Couple that with the Xbox 360's soon-to-come fall dashboard update (the Xbox Experience), which completely redesigns the look and functionality of the system, and I might just have some trouble getting my work done this winter!
