The EZA Community Top 25 of 2008!
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@e_zed_eh_intern How could you forget? Guess the onus is on me because I made this huge confusing list of game releases that I only managed to trim down slightly.
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Fallout 3 is likely my favorate Bethesda game and somewhere in my top ten of all time I just really love it.
GTA4 is a funny one for since I played that game alot but never made it more than like 5hours into the story,
I just wasnt interested in the story and similar to RDR2 they made the it more realistic which got in the way of trying to actually do a mission but made just screwing around so much fun. (eg flying out the window in a crash, not being able to flip back a car etc, the car handling in general)
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MGS4
This was my GOTY back in 2008. Like @bam541 this was my first MGS game. I played MGS1 when I was little but more like screwing around and never finished it. I was very aware of the plot and was extremely hyped on it.
22 hours of game and probably 60-70% cutscenes and I couldn't be happier. Such awesome lore dumps, such amazing boss battles, quite literally top tier linear/semi-open steal level design. This game needs to be archived a la Demon's Souls PS5 and get a remake for preservation sake.
Fallout 3
I liked it kinda, but this felt like a MASSIVE step backwards from Oblivion and I expected more when I finally finished everything. My big takeaway at the time was that's it....
I know that sounds crazy for a long ass game but once you finish the limited amount of side quests, there is nothing else to do. The world doesn't have a lot of storytelling and not too many characters are interesting to me. Unlike Oblivion which I played for years, Fallout 3 just kinda ends and feels empty.
It also has the issue of me getting way too OP, even on Hard, in repeat plays. The fact I replayed it is a fact that the game is solid but it is really disappointing to me. My roommate and I replayed in 2018 and we were just like "ah another empty field", "wow a graveyard with nobody in it..." until we kinda just stopped.
GTA IV
I was actually disappointed by this when it released. I couldn't see past the game having less zany cheat code stuff than San Andreas did, but as the years went on, my friends and I just couldn't stop playing.
GTA IV is a vibe. Liberty City is dirty, it's ugly, the people are biter, and it just adds so much to the violent criminal underworld they are going for. I love the premise of an immigrant who was expecting a better life and found a festering shithole.
GTA IV is timeless to me. The graphics and art direction are fantastic, but the #1 feature for me is the physics system. Driving has so much weight and impact and everything you do feels so violent and satisfying. I was really disappointed in how floaty GTA V was and I think the weight and feel of GTA IV is unmatched.
Truly a GOTY in every sense imaginable.
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My 2008 GOTY List:
- Grand Theft Auto IV
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
- LittleBigPlanet
- Wipeout HD
HM: Mirror's Edge, Pixel Junk Monsters, Resistance 2, Rock Band 2
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Other games that are absolutely fucking amazing that I would've voted for but couldn't.
Man 2008 was sooooo good.
- Burnout Paradise
- MLB 08: The Show (GOAT Baseball sim)
- Condemned 2: Bloodshot
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
- SingStar (I wanted to vote for this sooooo bad. With DLC, this is GOAT karaoke)
- Battlefield: Bad Company
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
- Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
- NHL 09 (GOAT hockey sim)
- SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation (An all time fave MP game for me, but launched bad)
I played the heck out of every game I nominated and all of the ones listed above. Just too good.
On the opposite end, let's take a moment to recognize FarCry 2 and Army of Two being debatable WOAT games yet didn't ruin the year.
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This was my list:
#1: Dead Space
#2: Lost Odyssey
#3: Gears of War 2
#4: Apollo Justice: Ace AttorneyHM: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
HM: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
HM: Castle Crashers
HM: Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3Happy that Dead Space made it this far even though it really deserved the top spot, it's a masterpiece of game design/world-building/sound/UI/etc. But horror games will never be mainstream enough to reach that level I'm afraid.
I bounced off Fallout 3 really hard, even though I was super hyped for it leading up to the launch. Its world is just too miserable for me to want to explore it. Combat felt awkward too.
Curious that Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia didn't get any love, I thought it was one of the best 2D Castlevanias.
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Fatal Frame IV
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Lost Odyssey
Castlevania: Order of EcclesiaMirror's Edge
Silent Hill: Homecoming
Yakuza 2
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the PatriotsI was probably cheating the rules a bit with my number one but it was such a clear favourite of mine that I felt, coupled with the fact that to this day it still isn't localised, it simply deserved to be included.
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Let's also not forget that Haze came out in 2008...
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Glad to see GTA IV on top. I feel like this game is where I started to love the series. In the previous games, I can never take the story or characters seriously because there's like an unintentional cartoon-esque feeling to those games that I can't really shake. The way GTA IV presented its story is just immediately engaging, with solid dialogues and top notch VO. The grittiness of the world is kinda unique, in context of the series as a whole. Also, the gameplay improvements are pretty big. The gunplay is actually competent now, and I know the driving mechanics are kinda divisive, but I love the weighty feel of all the vehicles. I hope we get to revisit Liberty City again someday, would love to hang out in that city again.
I feel like I've played Fallout 3's intro like a dozen times now, despite never getting far into the game. It's just so glitchy, messy, and dirty. I'm one of those people that prefer FO4 over FO3, despite that game losing many of the RPG aspects that made FO games so interesting. I do think that there's a charming aspect of the world and characters, and it makes exploring feels exciting since it feels like there so many surprises to uncover.
Here's my picks:
- GTA IV
- MGS IV
- Crisis Core
- Echochrome
Honorable Mentions:
- CoD World at War
- Persona 4
- Far Cry 2
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
I never beat Echochrome because it's just too hard for me back then. I would love to give it a try again though, it's such a cool concept that I think no one has really came back to.
CoD WoW is one of my favorite CoD campaigns ever, the inclusion of the Pacific Front to the WWII story is just so fun to see. I have problems with how the game deals with respawning enemies, but other than that it's pretty much spotless for me.
Far Cry 2 would have been higher have I not replayed it recently, which showed me that it didn't age as well as my memories led me to believe. Still, I have so much respect for it. I like what the game tried to be, and I think that it's quite ahead of its time, for better and for worse.
Thanks to @JDINCINERATOR for setting this whole thing up, and to everyone who voted!
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@axel said in The EZA Community Top 25 of 2008!:
#4: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Someone voted for Apollo!
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My votes
-GTA 4
-Dead Space
-Lost Odyssey
-Gears of War 2HM:
-Fallout 3
-Lostwinds
-Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People
-World of GooGTA 4 winning was kind of surprising, it's the kind of game that through the years I've seen people being general negative towards it. I absolutely love it, I love Niko and how he's place in this world. One of my favourite open worlds too.
Fallout 3, I really like but my experience with it was too buggy. Still an incredible game that would have made my top 4 if it wasn't me noticing last second that Lost Odyssey was electable.
Shout out to my other HMs. World of Goo is a fantastic game and I feel bad that I couldn't find an higher spot for it. Strong Bad from Telltale, it's one of my favourite comedies in gaming. Not a brilliant game but I had a lot of fun with it. Lostwinds I like motion control and this game uses them well. Maybe it was released ahead of its time, I think people would be more receptive to a 3h long adorable indie game with somewhat innovative gameplay nowadays than they did in 2008. I really liked it and would buy it again for the Switch.
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@phbz You really dug deep to find games I've never heard of lol. Well I've loosely heard of World of Goo and I think it's available on Swith, but Strong Bad and Lostwinds I'm not familiar with at all.
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#1: Grand Theft Auto IV
#2: Fallout 3
#3: Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
#4: Dead Space
HM: Mirror's Edge
HM: Prince of Persia (2008)
HM: Soulcalibur IV
HM: WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2009Not enough love for Pandemic's Mercenaries 2 to pop into Top 25, dear dear. I just adore that studio and their games.
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Was I the only one to vote for Yakuza 2?
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@sheria Yes I can confirm you were the only person to vote in Yakuza 2.
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I got a bunch of free Steam codes from a coworker and Strongbad’s Cool Game for Attractive People is one of them.
I grew up on Homestar Runner so I need to finally try it. @Phbz
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I put the Top 25 list here for convenience:
#1. Grand Theft Auto IV
#2. Fallout 3
#3. Dead Space
#4. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
#5. Gears of War 2#6. Persona 4
#7. Mirror's Edge
#8. LittleBigPlanet
#9. Valkyria Chronicles
#10. Lost Odyssey#11. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
#12. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
#13. Resistance 2
#14. God of War: Chains of Olympus
#15. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed#16. Fable II
#17. Mega Man 9
#18. Soulcalibur IV
#19. Braid
#20. Mario Kart Wii#21. Left 4 Dead
#22. Tales of Vesperia
#23. Saints Row 2
#24. Wipeout HD
#25. Castle Crashers
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@jdincinerator said in The EZA Community Top 25 of 2008!:
@sheria Yes I can confirm you were the only person to vote in Yakuza 2.
I'm really surprised at that, I thought Yakuza was really popular here amoung the regulars.
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I started on Yakuza 0. I was aware of the series due to IGN covering it, but I’ve never seen the PS2 games for sale anywhere in my life. Per Huber, they haven’t aged fantastically but I bet I would’ve loved them at the time.
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Sorry if this is too late but L&R to all who voted.
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I will put up the list of games that didn't make the top 25 and how many points they got in the next few days. Sorry about this delay.
