2008 GOTY Hindsight is 20/20 edition

This is no official tally. I'm not trying to usurp sinitar. I was just playing a ton of Burnout Paradise the other day and realized that the more I thought about it the more my list was about what I wanted to win vs. what I actually played the most and enjoyed the most.

My original list.

PixelJunk Eden
LittleBigPlanet
Burnout Paradise
Braid
Gears of War 2
Fable II
Rez HD
Saints Row 2
GTA IV
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts

My list revised.

Burnout Paradise
NBA 2k9
Saints Row 2
Braid
PixelJunk Eden
Rez HD
LittleBigPlanet
PixelJunk Monsters
NCAA Football 09
Gears of War 2

I only played like 8 hours of GTA IV and while I admire the craftsmanship, I didn't enjoy the game, really, so it goes. Same with Fable II. I appreciated the things you could do, but never wanted to do them. So it goes. Gears of War 2 is on the bubble because Horde mode is my favorite mode, but it's rare to get a good Horde mode game in.

Interesting to look back at 2008 a mere two months after voting and realize that what I actually still play and still love is so much different.

I still haven't gotten around to installing Fallout 3. That doesn't worry me. I'm having a great time on Far Cry 2, though, and flirting with the notion of the Fable 2 DLC.

Interesting idea. 2008 was so back-loaded that only now could normal people hope to be caught up with the November gems. (I still have a ways to go.) And it's interesting how the haze of nostalgia softens a game's faults. I remember finding GTA4 flawed and frustrating, but now I'm remembering it quite fondly.

I still think The World Ends With You and No More Heroes were the best games of 2008, though. So that hasn't changed for me. But having the time to play Persona 4 confirms that it would belong on my "best of" list...

Yeah, those are my thoughts as well. You might look back on some games more fondly and some games you might never have gotten the chance to play. In my case I hadn't dug much into a couple games, so the more I dug in the less I liked the games. The rise of NBA 2k9 and plummet of LBP being the most interesting things to me.

Left 4 Dead was truly the game I wanted it to be. I had more anticipation for it than any other 2008 game and it didn't disappoint. I didn't have high expectations of Fallout 3 because I thought it was going to be too much like Oblivion. I was happily surprised that they made a lot of improvements and it was a pretty solid game. As for the most surprising game was Audiosurf which was excellent and keeps getting updated. I almost always play it with songs I've just bought. I only played PC and Wii for 2008 and the most disappointing game I'd say is COD: World at War. The single player was lackluster, the sounds of the guns were terrible, and it was way too much like COD4 to cost $50.

I should have voted for L4D. Fallout 3 just wasn't the game I expected it to be. My low-level character is wandering the wasteland somewhere with no ammo and the gameplay doesn't make me feel compelled to change the situation. It was 50 bucks wasted for me.

I don't remember the exact order of my list, but I'm pretty sure the only changes I would make is to move Left 4 Dead one slot higher just so that it would beat Fallout 3 as the overall GWJ GOTY and I would now be able to put Gears of War 2 in my top 10 somewhere. Probably at #5.

I would have added Fallout 3 to my list. Somewhere. My list didn't even have 10 games on it, so it's not like I would have had to bump something else off.

I agree that Burnout Paradise was one of the top games of 2008. It's the only game that I bought twice and still play regularly. I bought the PS3 version thinking I'd just fool around with it a bit, and I've already got my A License, with full intentions of getting my Burnout License eventually. I even would like to finish the multiplayer challenges, although it seems that most people are only doing the timed ones nowadays.

This is exactly the reasons I didn't post my GOTY in the community GOTY thread. I simply haven't had enough time to play everything for '08 yet, and even if I had, so much of the games came out at the ass end of the year that they had little to no time to really sink in and find their place.

Yeah honestly I stopped giving a "GOTY" opinion some time back because it's been years since I've had the time to play all the major releases throughout a year. For example last year, with the flurry of game releases in the fourth quarter, I passed on Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3, as neither one I felt was really a must-have, and I doubt I will have the time in the forseeable future to pick them up.

Well, according to the original thread, this is my original list.

Me in the 2008 GOTY Thread wrote:

1. Saints Row 2
2. Castle Crashers
3. Braid
4. GTA IV
5. Fable II
6. Fallout 3
7. Gears of War 2
8. Frontlines: Fuel of War
9. Penny Arcade Adventures
10. Rock Band 2

I'm still ok with it, though I'd bump Fable 2 up a bit, and maybe add Left 4 Dead now that I've picked that up and had a chance to play it. Not sure what I'd cut, though.

I haven't even come close to playing most of the marquee games of 2008, so I'll likely be able to give you a hindsight list of the best game of 2008 in 2012. Too Human will likely top the list.

wordsmythe wrote:

and flirting with the notion of the Fable 2 DLC.

I don't know if it's on par with the kind of results you usually obtain after flirting, but this one should keep you busy for about 20 minutes and make you feel like you just sat on something.

Mr.Green wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

and flirting with the notion of the Fable 2 DLC.

I don't know if it's on par with the kind of results you usually obtain after flirting, but this one should keep you busy for about 20 minutes and make you feel like you just sat on something.

sounds like a date I had in high school

I'd revise my list to add FarCry 2 and take off Fable 2. It's hard to gauge interest in a title though, I find it largely depends on the mood and whether or not you have genre burnout. Something that you're just not into a few months ago could totally rock your world if you let it sit a while.

I should add NCAA 09 to that list. I played that game a ton last year. Almost as much as Burnout Paradise.

Swat wrote:

I'd revise my list to add FarCry 2 and take off Fable 2. It's hard to gauge interest in a title though, I find it largely depends on the mood and whether or not you have genre burnout. Something that you're just not into a few months ago could totally rock your world if you let it sit a while.

I have to agree with FarCry 2. That was a game I wasn't planning on buying. The first FarCry really made me angry at how far away NPCs would shoot you and I never finished it. My co-worker went on and on about how awesome FarCry 2 was going to be and made me watch all these videos, etc. He did enough convincing that I went out and bought it and was blown away by how fun it was. I have to say after many hours the game got repetitive, but it was a good game that I was happily surprised with.

mrwynd wrote:
Swat wrote:

I'd revise my list to add FarCry 2 and take off Fable 2. It's hard to gauge interest in a title though, I find it largely depends on the mood and whether or not you have genre burnout. Something that you're just not into a few months ago could totally rock your world if you let it sit a while.

I have to agree with FarCry 2. That was a game I wasn't planning on buying. The first FarCry really made me angry at how far away NPCs would shoot you and I never finished it. My co-worker went on and on about how awesome FarCry 2 was going to be and made me watch all these videos, etc. He did enough convincing that I went out and bought it and was blown away by how fun it was. I have to say after many hours the game got repetitive, but it was a good game that I was happily surprised with.

Yeah, most of my complaints came from "Tier 1" of the game. Once the good weapons started rolling in, I was a god of freaking thunder to any of those that challenged me

I just finished it yesterday, after about 27 or so hours. I'm already looking forward to re-installing it after a good amount of buffer time has passed, if anything, to blow up and burn Africa just a little more.

Best car explosions in a game, evar.

I haven't played anything in several weeks (thanks to moving homes); but I have been craving the HELL out of playing Civ IV. Which is funny, since it's not a game I played all that much when it first came on the scene. The craving has been strong enough that I bought the Mac version so I wouldn't have to load over to Bootcamp to make it all the more available. I say this because I have all of the greats from 2008 sitting idle (Fallout 3, Fable II, etc.)

Sadly, I haven't installed it yet... still too many things to do around the house, dogs, kid, etc.

But I like this idea of coming back to the games you've played the most over the year to retroactively determine you GOTY selection.

This is a great idea, it might be good to re-do this in June or so as well to provide some different perspective.

Nightmare wrote:

1. Fallout 3 - not perfect certainly, but still a lot of fun
2. Far Cry 2 - ditto
3. Left 4 Dead - at first I didn't like this, but the more I play and the less incompetent at it I get, the more I like it...
4. Rock Band II - I love this game; it improves on the original in every way without busting anything
5. Sins of a Solar Empire - Maybe someday I'll feel competent enough (and have enough Saturday time) to play this online. But I do enjoy playing...
6. Audiosurf - when I need to waste some time and listen to tunes, this is the go to game...
7. Braid - I still hack at this from time to time. I enjoy it for awhile, until it makes me feel totally stupid.
8. Burnout Paradise - I hate racing games but I like this.
9. Hinterland - great indy game, I've had alot of fun playing this.
10. Colonization - sure it's broken (or is it? I think it is) but it's still a lot of fun until toward the end.

I stand behind this pretty much. Maybe L4D above Far Cry 2 and Burnout Paradise above Braid, but overall I'm happy with the list. Even the horrible ending to FO3 does not change the fact that I really enjoyed it a lot (and it's true, time does heal all wounds).

Funny, because Burnout Paradise started on my list, and then fell like a damned rock.

Thinking about it, I don't think I played enough games to make a top 10 list. Looking at my current collection, my list would be...

1.) Left 4 Dead
2.) Football Manager 09
3.) Rock Band 2
4.) GTA IV
5.) Tiger Woods 09
6.) FIFA 09

I think that's half the games I bought last year.