Posts Tagged ‘Picks of the year’

Honestly this is an easy choice but one I never thought I would make a year ago. After more than a decade of being nothing but a soulless peddler of sequels and mediocrity one company has managed to do a complete one eighty. As early as January this company has been releasing titles that have managed to garner critical acclaim. Their library of new releases has ranged from new intellectual properties (IPs) to updates of popular franchises which refined already solid mechanics.

EA have excelled this year. Never before have I had so many games baring their logo graced my shelves. With Burnout Paradise in January they proved that they are dedicated to allowing developers they acquired to continue to innovate. With their sports franchises they showed that they will continue to innovate and make better use of the possibilities opened by online play. And with Mirrors Edge and Dead Space they showed that they were willing to take financial risks on new IPs.

It is sad to see that the state of the economy has meant that EA are not reaping the full rewards they should from such an outstanding year. Though some of the blame lands at the feet of some poor investments (e.g. Face Breaker) and some over stretched franchises (e.g. Need for Speed) it is sad to see Dead Space and Mirrors Edge not receiving the public support that they deserve. Fortunately (and to their credit) EA at least seem to realize the value of these new titles and the teams responsible are either on different projects or being allowed to develop their title’s sequels. Now let’s just hope they don’t bleed them dry like they did the Need for Speed franchise.

As companies merge it is becoming harder know who exactly is developing any given game. Unless the developer is an industry giant such as Rock Star or Blizzard it seems that they are subsumed by their publisher. Developers however are probably quite happy with the arrangement. Where I am sure vanity dictates they would like their name was splashed over the front of the box the trade off for (in a normal economic climate) financial security of being under the broader umbrella of a large publisher like Acclaim or EA.

Allow me break the fourth wall for a moment. Deciding the criteria by which I judge has been the most difficult task for me in majority of my 2008 wrap up posts. Firstly I took what jumped to mind and used that to create my short list. From this it fell to what I remembered most fondly, what stood out as something different or engaged me. Bare that in mind as I give my choice for the best developer.

This year Dice have been involved in two ground breaking projects, Mirrors Edge and Battlefield Heroes. Where as neither game has been a significant critical success both have managed to change people perception of what can be done within their genre.

Battlefield took an established and popular series and made a spin off game which is free to play. In honesty I don’t know how much of this was Dice’s decision and how much was EA’s but the result is a free to play squad based online shooter. I haven’t played it, but its existence is a glimpse of a possible future. A time where big full budget title are free to play and a gateway to PC gaming for people who may otherwise never have tried it.

Mirror Edge took a risk in a fickle market. Dice had the gumption to mix the first person perspective and platforming (two gaming conventions that traditionally have never worked well together) and made it work. While the game may not have been as well received as they had hoped what they achieved in creating a mechanic that was as intuitive as it was should be applauded.

Dice to my mind have progressed the game genres they worked in more than any other developer this year. By drawing inspiration form a variety of sources and innovating on them. All of this at a time when most companies are relying on carbon copies of proven genres. While other developers made game that were better received by critics and the public, Dice’s work engaged me and opened new possibilities for gaming moving in to 2009.

My thinking when it comes to handheld titles is simple. The game should fill the gaps in my life when I have no other choice than to sit and wait. It is a very rare occurrence for me to play a handheld at home, thus my gaming is limited to the train and occasionally coffee shops as I kill time between shifts. For the most part I want quick games. Old arcade style jump in and die games which I can play for fifteen minutes between house and work, such as Space Invaders Extreme or Bangai-O Spirits. But there are occasions where I want something more substantial. Something which holds my attention for hours a time. In short I want Civilization Revolutions.

Civilization is a game with so many layers that in honesty I was amazed to see it compressed down into something that functioned effectively on a handheld. Though some of the complexities are removed it is none the less involving. Indeed the concessions made serve to ensure that even on the DS your civilization is never unmanageable.

It is with some irony that the title of my favorite handheld goes to a series which has been around for seventeen years. After all in every other section I have attempted to reward innovation. That is not to downplay the shear accomplishment of putting a game that just a few years ago I couldn’t imagine working on anything other than a PC into the palm of my hand while retaining the overall feel of the experience that I lost so many hours to at university.

In the interest of full disclosure I should state that I didn’t play many handheld titles this year. I suspect if I had the funds available I would have picked up Patapon 2 and LocoRoco 2 both of which are franchises I love and could have bumped Civilization from the top spot. But I didn’t.

Digital distribution is spreading its wings still further and continues to branch into the console market. The lower production cost and longer tail on game sales make it a attractive prospect for small developers who may be unable to find a publisher or who don’t want to risk releasing their games in direct competition with ‘triple A’ boxed titles.

It is hard to select one of these titles from all of those released this year. There were classics with face lifts, retro-revivals and innovative new games on each platform and all of them helped establish the downloadable space as a viable alternative for developers. In choosing one game I feel like I am turning my back on numerous others which I enjoyed and continue to play. Street Fighter 2 HD Remix, Mega Man 9, 1942, Bionic Commando (that’s four Capcom titles), Pixel Junk Eden, Castle Crashers, Geometry Wars 2, Rez HD, Braid all titles worth of note, fantastic gaming experiences at a bargain price.

But the point of this article is to pick one and it falls to Braid. It is actually the hardest of all of the choices I have made during this set of articles because of my love of classic games. Braid however is an original title from the mind of Jonathan Blow which spins a classic platform game into something different. A game which makes you think not just in the puzzles it presents you with but also in it narrative and message. The fact a game like this, which openly places its self as art, can find a space in such a commercial market and with in that gain an audience through word of mouth really demonstrates a new maturity that is starting to emerge in console gaming. 

For larger companies it is not only a space for smaller titles and re-releases but also for downloadable content (DLC). Some of these companies are even starting to offer significant updates to top tier titles for free. While this may seem like fan service it manages to serve its own purpose for the developers. As long as new content keeps the game fresh people won’t trade it in meaning new comers will have to buy the game new.

This leads us nicely into the company with the best DLC support for this year, and if you paying attention to the last paragraph it should be obvious. Criterion’s Burnout Paradise has offered outstanding support though out the year for their fantastic open world driving game. In a surprising move EA backed them in their continued development of free content for what was already an outstanding game. Including front end overhauls, weather and day cycles and even a whole new mechanic with the introduction of bikes. Even after a full year of updated content the support continues on, though now at a modest price. Truly exceptional support for what was already among the best games of the year.