My Favorite Games of 2007
Okay. 2007 is all wrapped up now. I considered doing a best of / worst of thing, but the truth is that I don't have the time to play crappy games. I get to be selective 'n stuff. And I miss a lot of great games, too. But here are the ones that I played in 2007 that made an impression on me.

"What Rocked" Department
These were not necessarily games that were released in 2007, but that I played in 2007, which really made me happy to be a gamer. I started in on Guitar Hero 2 just before the close of '06, otherwise it might top the list.

Portal - Portal gets my vote for game of the year. Period. It was short, sweet, to the point, very fun, didn't overstay its welcome, and had a totally kick-butt villain. And it was amazingly innovative.

IL-2: 1946 - Wow. A "platinum edition" of what might arguably be the best combat flight-sim of the last decade. Excellent multi-player support, excruciatingly detailed aircraft, literally hundreds of flyable aircraft (and hundreds more as AI vehicles), and realism in spades (easily dialed down for new players or those who don't want to fuss with feathering their prop or messing with the fuel / oil mixture). Plus a "what if" campaign taking place in a 1946 where the Axis never surrendered, but instead both sides put some drawing-board or prototyped aircraft into production... What an amazing package!

Depths of Peril - I've sounded off about Depths of Peril many times in the past. It's probably not for everyone. But dang - if you are an RPG fan, you owe it to yourself to at least try out the free demo. It's like Diablo for gamers who wanted something meatier to sink their teeth into.

Desktop Tower Defense - I still find myself playing this one, usually with one of the "Fun" scenarios. I still don't always win on the random enemy game.

Aveyond 2 - I could make a list of all the things wrong with this one that bug me. So why am I still addicted to it? My characters are hitting mid-60's levels now, and I'm pretty sure I'm more than halfway through the game. I haven't been so involved with an RPG since... uh... Depths of Peril. Dang it. The story sucked me in, and it's a lot of fun to play. And that's what it's all about, right?

Eschalon: Book 1 - A return to old-school RPGing, kinda. Though a lot of folks never left it in the first place. While it's got quite a few warts of its own, and won't please everyone, it's another resounding indie RPG success. Stats, rolls, turn-based combat, a limited economy, and a fairly difficult early game (at least for guys like me who insist on playing a solo rogue). Yep, sounds old school. But with better graphics.

Galactic Civilizations II + Expansions - I avoided Gal Civ 2 when it was initially released, knowing what kind of impact it would have on my time. And I tried to avoid the siren's call of the Dark Avatar expansion for as long as I could. When I finally installed it and tried it out, sure enough, it caused sleep deprivation. I haven't dared to download the latest expansion yet.

Rock Band - Okay, I've not had too much time to play this one yet, thanks to a disc going bad on me. But after spending all New Year's Eve playing this one with friends, I have to say that this is just about the ultimate party game. For solo play, I don't know if it's much of an improvement over Guitar Hero 2, except that the character customization stuff is way cooler than I thought it would be. And you get to be a drummer. I do not sing. I tried it once, and I think the results were about like Vogon poetry reading.


The "Close But No Cigar" Department
These were the games that were definitely "okay," but I expected much more of them. None of them sucked, IMO, but they kinda made an impression by not making an impression.

Final Fantasy XII - I didn't start playing this game until January 2007... and never got too far. My daughter's really loving it, though... except now she's been derailed by Okami. It's another example of a game that's really good, really pretty, hits all its marks... but still falls kinda flat. Or maybe it's just me. I dunno. Maybe if I get past the 8 hour mark it'll get better, but one really should have to play a game that long for it to hook you.

Flash Circle Tower Defense - After getting hooked on David Scott's Flash Element TD, I really expected this one to be way more fun. It sure looked and sounded awesome. The game itself was a little flat, unfortunately, though it's still fun to play. But compared to his Vector Tower Defense a few months later, or the outstanding Desktop Tower Defense, it's just not one I'd go back to.

Neverwinter Nights 2 - I suffered through some video card woes at the time I started playing this one, which unfortunately probably tainted by experience. Unfortunately, it wasn't exciting enough for me to pick it back up again when the woes went away. Now that I've heard great things about the Mask of the Betrayer expansion, I may give this one another go. When I've cleared off other things from my plate.

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's - To start out, the name pretty much sucks. The game itself would have been a great expansion... except it wasn't priced as an expansion. It's priced as a "B" grade full game. Which is what it became, as a result. Ah, well. As a child of the 80's, I still got a kick out of it, and enjoy playing it.

And The Rest
Well, that's it. Those aren't all the games I played this year, just the ones that impressed me one way or the other. There were a couple of games I played the demo of before deciding they suffered from suck. There were some games, like Guitar Hero 3 and Supreme Commander which neither exceeded nor disappointed my expectations. And too many games I haven't played, or haven't played enough yet (I finally got around to playing Lego Star Wars, and it looks to rock, but I'm only a half-hour or so into it).

But ya know what? Overall, it was a pretty good year for games.
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:00 AM (Permalink)