Snow on the city

There's snow on the city and that means the year is coming to an end. And what is happening when the year is coming to an end ? You make lists! A full month is still remaining(too short when you have 4 works due for the middle of the month) so a lot can still happen. A few games are still gonna come out and other events could get my attention.

But before I go into listing I want to say how happy I am right now. I just learned that Bernard Perron is going to be one of my teacher next semester. I'm really thrilled to be in contact with one of the few teacher really interested in video games. Hopefully I'll be able to get more info on the international conference “Thinking After Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Video Games” .

Ok, list time.


GotY: One thing is sure, it's gonna be a sequel. It's kinda sad that a new, innovative game cannot be GotY but I guess it's just the way the market is right now. I am sure that everyone, me included, are missing on the best game this year just because everything else was (over)hyped. All of the contenders have major flaws in my opinion. But then again, can we expect all games to be perfect ? No, we can't. I'm just gonna write down what are the flaws with those games since pretty much everyone knows what they did well.

GTA4: Not as much fun as Saint's Row 2. A shame that a game that have a really deep story, makes an accurate criticism of modern America and let the player makes relevant moral choices, and all while showing me around NYC is, at the end of the day, less "FUN" than a game where you play a morally questionable banger blowing shit up. And this is exactly why it's more fun. But then again, Schindler's List wasn't fun either.

SSBB a.k.a. SSBM.2: Yep, the title says it all. But it justified my Wii and was fun..... for a while. But you know Nintendo fanboys will be pushing this as GotY like it was the Christ's return to earth.

MGS4: Kojima is a great storyteller. Weird stories I will admit but it really was a fitting ending to the fucked up MGS series. Twists, turns and people who are not dead but you were sure they were for the last 3 games. Of course, it would be better if the story wasn't told through cutscenes ONLY. Very few story elements are given interactively. And some cutscenes would just go on forever(I'm thinking of a certain death scene). But, to borrow an expression from Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, criticizing a MGS for long cutscenes is like criticizing a midget for being short.

My prediction for the winner ? I don't know. Really, I don't. I hope it's either MGS4 or GTA4 because well, they are deeper and more relevant than SSBB. Sadly, none of them had the impact Bioshock had on me last year. Maybe I'm just jaded, cynical and stressed beyond the point I can't be moved by a game anymore. Well, Lost Odyssey made me cry twice but since it's pretty niche, I doubt most people will see it as a serious GotY contender. I hope I'm wrong.


Disappointement of the year: Wii would like to play.
My Wii has been gathering dust for the last few months. After having my fun with SSBB, the console lost it's appeal. No game really grabbed my attention. I don't really care for wiifitnessing, wiimusciing or Animal Crossing since I've played the game two times already. The virtual console ? Sure it's fun. But it's hardly new material and your Wii will be filled pretty fast and since Nintendo don't have any solid plan to fix this issue, I kinda stopped caring for it.

But the Wii won't fail. It's still selling like crazy, they make 6$ per unit sold and that strange new beast, the casual crowd, is buying. I tip my hat to them for their brilliant business. The core feels left out but Nintendo still prints money.


Hot subject of the year: You've got casual on my gaming and defining a culture and it's actors.
The first half of '08 saw a boom in casual gaming. Developers found an unexploited market and like in the virgin west, they went digging for gold. And they found it. Now that a majority of people "play games" and almost every households have at least one console, companies decided to court the moms and dads. And the success of the Wii shows it works.

The second half of the year but mostly the last few months saw the rise of discussions about the culture surrounding gaming. The latest talk in town is about the role of reviewers and what they should and shouldn't do. I'm pretty sure that discussions about this and the gap between "us and them", not casual and hardcore but culturists and just plain gamer, will pave the first few months of '09.


Special thanks of the year:
Fallout 3: for making me discover a great series of game. I got my hands on 1 and 2 for a bargain and as soon as I have time(in two weeks maybe) I will make my way through them.

Sarah Palin: for an endless source of lols and MILF porn.

Lost Odyssey: for showing me a game can make me cry.


And at last, to get your groove on for the holidays: MUZIC