The Greatest Games of the Decade: The Year 2007

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! Anyway, onto the year of 2007, a year that had the first batch of really good next-gen games. By now there were great games coming out for all three next-gen systems, though in my opinion the Xbox 360's head start in the market led to it still having the upper hand at this point. As we will see, the year had many great games, but for me one game especcially stands out:





Bioshock

Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Genre: FPS
Developer: 2K Boston/2K Australia
Publisher: 2K Games
Release Date (NA): August 24, 2007 (PC, Xbox 360)
Rating: M


There are so many great things about Bioshock, it's hard to pinpoint one that makes the game so great. But for me, it was the world of Rapture (the technologically-advanced secret underwater city in which the game takes place) and the general ambiance/mood of the game. The plot and backstory of the game are great too, and the world itself is really awesome. Bioshock is a scary game, but not a "stuff jumps out at you and screams" scary (although that does happen sometimes), but more of creepy and unsettling scary that has to do with some of the enemies you face, and just the world around you and what you learn about it over the course of the game.

That being said, besides just an awesome plot and world, the game mechanics work well too. The action is great, and the plasmids (basically super-powers) you get in the game are always a lot of fun. There are a good variety of weapons that can be upgraded too, and you can also equip your character with different perks throughout the game that can really help you out if you pick the right ones for your playing style. And who can forget fighting Big Daddys? You know when the battle is going to start every time (you have to attack first to get them to fight you), but even with that in mind these battles were always terrifying just because of the sheer power of the Big Daddys. The hacking mini-game was also a nice change of pace. I've mentioned several times that Bioshock has a great story, and the main plot twist is also one of the best ever. And on top of all that, the whole intro/opening sequence (from the plane crash to the descending into Rapture and watching Andrew Ryan's movie) is the best I've ever seen in a game. This is a truely great game that any fan of shooters or just dark games in general should give a try if they haven't already.


Honorable Mentions:

The Orange Box/Portal/Team Fortress 2 (PC, 360, PS3)- The Orange Box is really a compilation of five games: Half-Life 2 and its two expansion packs (this counts for three of the five), Team Fortress 2, and Portal. I wont go into too much depth with these games, but Portal and TF2 could easily be put on this list by themselves, let alone bundled together and with Half-Life 2. So whether you play these games by themselves or if you have the whole Orange Box it doesn't matter, these games all make the list. If you haven't checked these out, you should: The Orange Box is probably one of the best deals in gaming history. And if you can, I would actually recommend getting it for PC rather than a console.

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)- Another great entry into the 3D platforming Mario series. After Super Mario Sunshine was a letdown for some people, Galaxy came back with a bang and is still one of the best games on the Wii, especially for more serious gamers.

Mass Effect (360, PC)- It was a tough call for me between this and Bioshock for game of the year, and this game could have just as easily been at the top. Another Bioware RPG with a great story, characters, and customization. My one gripe about this game was the combat (which I wasn't a big fan of), but it looks like Bioware has really made improvements in that area for Mass Effect 2.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, 360, PS3)- A great shooter that really raised the bar for war-based FPSs. The story was really good, the game mechanics amazing, and the online play legendary. Only in the last month have people finally started to move away from playing this online, and that's obviously because of Modern Warfare 2's release (which is the sequel to this game). Even with MW2, this game still ranks in the top five played online on Xbox Live, and considering how many people bought MW2, that really says something about CoD4 and the community it built.

Rock Band (all systems)- While Guitar Hero innovated the music game genre and really brought it to the public's attention, Rock Band took it to a whole new level by introducing the full band experience (guitar, bass, drums, and vocals). The game worked great, was perfect for playing with friends, and had a bunch of great songs (not to mention all the ones that have come out as DLC since). My friends in college and I played this game countless hours my senior year, and even now when we get together for parties and whatnot, we always inevitably break out Rock Band and have a great time playing it.

Peggle (pretty much all systems but Wii)- A very addictive game that is easy to learn but difficult to master. If you haven't ever tried this game I recommend you do, it's a fun, simple game that you can just pick up and play, whether it's for a few minutes or a few hours. Chances are this game is available on your cell phone, and it's great when you're bored somewhere and/or just need to kill time.


Biggest Disappointment:

Since this is the first time I'm doing a "Biggest Disappointment" of the year, I think I should say a few words about what that actually means first. "Biggest Disappointment" DOES NOT mean the same thing as "Worst Game of the Year" would. The most disappointing game is not necessarily the worst game, or even a bad game. It can even be a decent game. The important thing to note is that, as per the title, the game was the most disappointing to me personally, and for something to be disappointing I have to have at least fairly high expectations that it would be good. There are many terrible, terrible video games that come out each year, but most people interested in video games can usually tell if a game is going to be bad, and thus when it is they are not disappointed because they weren't expecting anything different. So this category is for games that I had high expectations for, but for whatever reason came nowhere close to meeting those expectations. So without further ado, the most disappointing game of 2007 was...

Halo 3 (360)- As stated above, Halo 3 isn't a bad game. Like the games in the series that came before it, the multiplayer can actually be a lot of fun, whether you're playing with friends or just matchmaking. What really killed this game for me was the story and the single player campaign. I'm not the smartest man in the world, but I'm usually pretty good at understanding and following a story, even if I dont particularly like it. After beating Halo 3, I had to go read the Wikipedia site to try and understand what the hell I had just witnessed, and even then it still doesn't quite make sense to me. I guess it could just be me, but something tells me it's more the fact that the story was too confusing and downright terrible. What a sad, sad end to everyone's favorite spartan's story (and not sad like tear-jerking, but sad as in they did his character a real disservice with that steaming pile of crap of a story). Many of the levels were also a boring grind of fighting more and more flood and me saying to myself "when the hell is this going to be over???" Overall, I was very disappointed by the campaign mode, and I know many of my friends (who are bigger Halo fans than I'll ever be) were as well. For all Bungie has done right, this was one thing they definitely did terribly wrong.


And that, my friends, is all she wrote for 2007. Overall, a very good year for video games. Check back sometime soon for 2008!