Setting the World On Fire: Far Cry 2 Takes Me To Africa

Sometimes, things click in a game. The mood is right, the tone is set perfectly. The story takes itself seriously. Sometimes these things click, and you realize that you’re playing something that was intended for adults. With its broad, sweeping themes of objectivism, Bioshock, made the made-for-adults statement loud and clear from the very opening scene. Portal did so with the sophistication of its humor. The fact that those games are actually adult impresses me enough. But what really impresses me is when a game can take something that any other title would treat with juvenility, and make it seem mature. Such was my eureka moment with Far Cry 2, the open-world First Person Shooter/African Safari released in early November of 2008.

I was creeping through a ramshackle hut with a rusty AK-47 in my pixilated hands, waiting to get the drop on a pair of mercenaries guarding a bride. While sitting there I overheard their conversation. One of the men was trying to get the other to film himself copulating, and then place it on the internet for a profit. Now, this scene should, by all accounts have been immature and laughable. But instead, it helped to humanize the game’s enemies. It showed that their existence extended beyond the various, bloody encounters that I was to have with them over the course of the game. That, and the fact that this was an overheard conversation that wasn’t beaten over my head, banged the drum heavily for the title’s merits as a truly adult-themed game. And thankfully, the rest of the experience delivered on that promise.

Far Cry 2 is the most hard-core game (outside of Fallout 3 mods) that I have played in a long time. Weapons degrade, you have malaria and you have to medicate, your health doesn’t recharge all the way without first aid kits and to fast travel, you have to go to bus stations. You’re given this lush, hostile world and simply set free. Your hand is never held; you’re given this lush, hostile world and simply told to kill a man: “The Jackal”, a maniacal arms dealer channeling Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. How to do this is up to you. Your character is a soldier of fortune, so you assume that soldiering for fortune is your best bet.

The missions that you’re given as a mercenary are honestly not anything ground-breaking, there are two factions fighting in this world. You go to the main town, take a mission from one or the other, and then go kill somebody. There are no set pieces in this world; all of these missions are procedural, which means that they can, at times, be… boring. They are very similar to the Assassination missions in GTA IV; they’re fun for a little while, but eventually become monotonous and formulaic. There are only so many times that I can drive to point A, then kill random bad guy #127 before my patience is tried. But I found that playing the game over a couple of weeks helped to remove the seeming monotony for the mission structure, freeing me to bask in the glow of what Far Cry 2 does accomplish.

Far Cry 2 excels in setting atmosphere, and treating you like an adult.

The world of far Cry 2’s African nation is stunning, the lighting glows through trees and tall grass, animals meander throughout the plains and the variety in geographic features is as wide-ranging as any game I’ve this year. Dust and sand hang waft through the desert’s air, the jungles brim with the sounds of mosquitoes and other invisible fauna, and the towns practically induce sweating with their sun-baked clay and faded… everything. The attention to detail in these environments is meticulous and awe-inspiring, even if what it portrays isn’t particularly lovely.

Africa is called the “Dark Continent” for a reason. The west has pillaged and raped the land for hundreds of years, then left it to swill about in its own filth. Splinter Cell: Double Agent let you play in the area for a little bit, but the story of Sam Fisher’s adventure in the Congo had less to do with the area than the plot that led him there. Far Cry 2 shows an immense maturity in that it embraces the issues of third-world Africa in its plot. Gun runners, mercenaries, refugees and gang-armies litter the land. Most everyone is out for blood and the few who aren’t are so inundated with evil that their quest to be good seems almost futile.

The game’s plot is somewhat minimal. What is there is good and mature, but that isn’t really wher eth storytelling of far Cry 2 shines. It shines among the vestiges of ruined lives scattered about the world. The abandoned bus stops, rail yards, bars, stores, and homes, that scream “there was life here, but no one cared enough to protect it!” And in another true stroke of respect for its audiences maturity, Far Cry 2 doesn’t place you in the shoes of the region’s savior. You’re just one man, a man whose greed motivates him more than any sort of perverted sense of honor that he may hold.

It’s an evil world, and you’re just another evil part of it.

Game of the Year

Will Eslinger’s Pick: Fallout 3 for the Xbox 360

I’ve been to the Washington Monument more times than I can count and every time that I ride the elevator to the top and gaze over the expanse of the nation’s capital I find myself amazed.

To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t terribly amazed by the first few hours of Fallout 3, sure. The game was technically proficient, but it just didn’t have the kind of magic that I needed to hook myself in. But then I made a familiar trip, I walked across the Washington Mall (a dried up husk of trenches and concertina wire) and rode up a familiar golden elevator and looked out on that familiar, sweeping expanse. And would you believe it? I was amazed.

Creativity abounds in Bethesda’s version of DC, where densely populated communes and survivalist hovels provide both eye-candy for the creativity-minded and excellent, quirky characters and conversations for those more interested in the plot that’s developing among the ruins of DC. From an aircraft carrier that’s been modified into a fortress for the last sane, cultured people in the city, to a town built around, and inhabited by worshipers of, an unexploded atomic bomb (the slightly overhyped “Megaton”), the developers have created these patches of sheer creativity and continuity of design that captured my imagination and sense of exploration from just a few hours in, and kept my attention until I was in hour 20-something.

As much as I loved the communes, the pockets of life in the barrens, there was something vaguely romantic about the wasteland that surrounded them. With sweeping winds and meticulously crafted paths throughout, I found the times that I spent wandering through the desert that was once DC were some of the most cathartic and relaxing experiences I had in the game. The allure of the wastes is helped along by the game’s graphics engine, which stuns when rendering environments and monsters, and deserves a great deal of credit for the sheer amount of data that it has to crunch. The task rendering the wastes is even more impressive when the consistency of the world is full grasped, when a landmine placed in hour two, ends of blowing your foot off in hour twenty two.

I could write for paragraphs about the elation and frustration inherent in the V.A.T.S. combat system, and argue with myself ad nauseum over whether or not Bethesda should have scrapped the real-time combat system altogether (short answer: yes, they should have). But such typing would be a waste of mine and your time. In fact, nothing that I have mentioned so far really captures the allure that enabled Fallout 3 to hold me in its grasps for so many hours.

The reason that I so loved Fallout 3 is that everyone in the wasteland is looking for something.

I was looking for something, the NPC’s were looking for something, and everyone else who bought this game looked for something in their own way. Be it riches, fame, infamy, or attainment of complete bad ass status, Fallout 3 encourages players to find their passion in the world that they have created, and then enables them to actually pursue that choice. The game allows its players to enter its world with their own preconceived notions, and rather than try and discourage their plans, the game embraces them as if they were scripted into the code from the beginning.

The true testament of this game’s ability to make me feel, to make me long for something, and to make me want to go out and get it came as I watched the final cut-scene and saw what an absolute prick I had been throughout the wasteland. I enslaved innocents, I slaughtered a peaceful cult, hell, I think I even kicked a few puppies. But as I watched how I made my mark on this completely fictional world, I felt pangs of sadness and regret as I thought back to how I could have done things completely differently.

And so I reloaded a past save, and set about changing the Wasteland for the better.

And yeah, the world is still pretty damn amazing.

Benjamin’s Pick: Fallout 3 for the Xbox 360

As you step out of the dank darkness of your previous home, the sun blinds you for a moment, contracting your pupils in the muted sunlight. Washington D.C. unfolds before you, a decrepit city filled with blown out ruins. The Washington Monument stands battered and bruised across the foggy sky line, and in looking at it you realize, you probably should have stayed inside. After having this thought, the game’s subtle music kicks in, and you remember the game’s opening line: “War. War never changes.” Looking at the destruction in front of you, you ponder the quote philosophically, and after taking your first steps beyond the Vault door, a band of Raiders appears out of nowhere, making war for nothing more than the clothes on your back.

This is the opening to my game of the year, Fallout 3. Upon exiting the Vault, you are overwhelmed by the scope of your task, and after entering the fresh air of the nuclear apocalypse before you, you somehow know that you’re in for a real treat. And while the beginning of the game is something of a slow burn, as it very calmly introduces you into the world, there comes a time when you realize that this is a game that transcends all others.

My moment of clarity about this game came while doing the Tenpenny Tower quest. It’s one of the first overly complex side quests I came across in the game, and as I worked my way through it, the different ways to attack the quest overwhelmed me. Each choice I made had impactful ramifications, and while I stared at my screen weighing my options toward the end of the quest, I realized that this game was able to grab me on an emotional level, making me seriously think about my choices. That’s powerful stuff, especially to a long time gamer like myself. Like Bioshock before, this game had completely sucked me into its world. From there, I knew I couldn’t ever turn away from this game, and since that quest, each subsequent quest has simply glued my eyeballs to my TV.

Fallout 3 has devoured my soul. Maybe it’s the setting, maybe it’s the combat, or maybe, I’m finally in a place where I don’t mind dropping a ton of hours into a game. As of this writing, I’m Level 19 and 40 hours in, and I don’t see myself stopping too soon. For once, I feel like my character has grown a ton. I am a force of nature in the game. The design choices in the game are exquisite, and I feel like the pacing is really great both in the story and the way that quests unfold. Yes, the game has flaws, but as an overall experience, I am engaged, enthralled, and completely obsessed.

Despite having a giant stack of games for my 360 and the prospect of having even more added to it during the holiday season, Fallout 3 still seduces me and spins lovingly in my 360. And it will be there for a long, long time.

Humphrey’s Pick: Metal Gear Solid 4 for the Xbox 360

Game of the Year is something I'm immediately going to a little biased on, just to air that out. I only own a PS3 (and a little handheld equipment) and that's all I feel I need to own honestly - there's just that much product coming from not only Sony now, but the 360 as well and I can barely keep up with the console I own. That said though, I played the #$%@ out of what I did own, buying a dozen games and completing the rough majority of them. And despite the quantity, and quality of them mind you, my GOTY could immediately be narrowed down to just two titles: Metal Gear Solid 4 and Fallout 3.

And here's where that little bias is going to come in again (I guess I'm a hypocrite as well, because if anyone knows me from my AICN content, I almost never play favorites) - I like Fallout 3. Love it really. The setting is amazing, so full of potential yet hauntingly lonely at the same time. The way you get to piece just what went down in the world via all the sets you visit, or all the people you talk to, or even just happening upon an isolated radio tower is a great drive to explore all before you - and let’s not forget all the hidden weapons and little cookies around like some pimp ass Power Armor in the middle of a nuclear launch site, or a crashed UFO hidden up in the top edge of the map. As much as I played... no, lived that game for damn near seven weeks, I just couldn't pick it in the end. Despite the addictive nature of finding new territory, and exploring the map, and meeting all these colorful characters the overall story was pretty bland, and the combat that you spend half the game competing in was just bland. If it weren't for the V.A.T.S system that let you just blow through it, and do so with a big gorey mess of bits and pieces of Super Mutant or Raider alike across the Wastes, I'd say I couldn't believe that something so generic as this combat system graced such an otherwise stellar game.

And, let's be honest here, as much as I dug the little things about exploring the Wastes, it just didn't hold a candle to the culmination of over a decade's worth of storyline and character development of one of my favorite gaming series of all time, Metal Gear Solid 4.

The epic end of a legend's story, complete with all the goofy in jokes, high quality sneaking and straight up destroying gameplay you could want in a game, and an arsenal that you could arm all the crowd of a Soccer game with and take over a small country. It was poetic at times, hopeless at others, and downright epic overall. Yes, I know, you spend as much time watching as you do playing, but it's a price you pay for possibly the best storyline to grace the video game industry in all its lifespan. And when the action does kick in, it's just so fantastic. The rattle of gunfire in the background as you dodge entrenches armies to get to your objective, the "jump" factor of having a Gecko land right next to your position, and then another assemblage of spectacular boss fights in a series that isn't exactly hurting in that category. And not only is it challenging on even the default difficulty setting, but there's just so many approaches you can take to getting towards your objective, all culminating in one of the most satisfactory endings in gaming history, but making for a highly re-playable experience thanks to the challenge level and the "New Game Plus" that lets you keep all your equipment through all respective play-throughs. Not only was this a perfect ending to a pretty much perfect series, but it was the only game I was willing to say was worth a perfect ten in a year littered with so many "soooo close" 9's and 9.5's.

Runner Up Games of the Year

Will's Pick: Metal Gear Solid 4 for the Playstation 3

When I first played Metal Gear Solid 4, I did so in 20 hours. Those were hours without sleep and without contact with the outside world. They were hours interspersed with two breaks to eat, although there could have been three. I think that there is a possibility that I posted on Revision3’s forums just to release some of the pent-up amazement bubbling up inside me, but then again, I’m not really sure. Those 20 hours were euphoric and I recollect them in a haze that is, I kid you not, tinted with gold. Those 20 hours were my equivalent to the opium dreams that coerced Samuel Coleridge to first pen the story of Kubla Khan and his stately pleasure dome.

Those hours were magical, and had they been the only ones that I spent with Metal Gear Solid 4, then there is no doubt in my mind that the game would have been my game of the year. But alas, I played through Hideo Kojima’s swan song two times since. This is why you see it here.

My history as a gamer is intertwined with the Metal Gear series. So to say that I had a vested interest in the final fight of the (prematurely) aging Solid Snake is to understate the matter immensely. I needed to know what became of these characters whose serpentine tales so engaged me for these many years. And for the most part, that part of me, that need, was satiated. I really did enjoy the story of Metal Gear Solid 4; it was absolutely everything that I could have really wanted it to be. Every single dangling plot thread from the series’ 20 year history was tied up within the game’s arc. Every question that I had was answered, and every character had his/her own fitting end.

The problem though, is that Metal Gear Solid 4 is a game that, for every immensely satisfying step forward, took an equally expansive step backwards.

The Metal Gear Solid games have always been a tad bit archaic in the control department, but with four, Kojima and company actually crafted a game with controls that could stand toe to toe with any of the best third person games of the year. Yet with this new method of control, came little to no increase in the AI of the game’s enemies.

Every single improvement that the game brings to the table is joined by an equally puzzling vestige from its past. The game’s deep, almost Shakespearean, story is moving in its scale, but is constantly held down by Hideo Kojima’s almost perverse need to litter his masterpiece with scatological humor and absurdities. Similarly, the game’s cut scenes are well acted, well directed and gorgeous, but no one in them can shut the hell up. I truly believe that Mr. Kojima has simply never heard of editing, or that sometimes less is more.

But que sera sera, Metal Gear Solid 4 is, despite its flaws, a truly great game. What is truly a shame is that it had the chance to be something so much more.

Benjamin's Pick: Gears of War 2 for the Xbox 360

In the movie This is Spinal Tap, one of my favorite moments is when the band discusses their amps and how hard they have to rock through those amps. Unlike other bands, which can only rock at 10, Spinal Tap is able to rock at the illusive 11^th dial. They rock that hard.

I only mention this because it pertains to my “Almost Game of the Year Game of the Year.” It was one of those games that just took everything that had come before, and turned the knob up to 11. It was a game that was bigger, louder, and better than the previous one. It was, of course, Gears of War 2.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this game somewhere in my picks for 2008. The problem with picking Gears of War 2 for anything specific is that it doesn’t really offer much new, which is one of its weaknesses. It really is a gussied up version of its former self. So while I had an amazing time playing this game, I just didn’t feel right picking it as my Game of the Year.

What stands out in this game is the ways that they made it bigger, badder, and louder. The fights in this game are INSANITY. Enemies come from everywhere. Grenades fly from every direction, bullets rip apart your cover, and missiles and mortars scream through the air. The firefights in this game bring intensity to the 3^rd person shooter that has never been done before. The set pieces and levels are huge, offering great expanses of caverns, massive Horde architecture, or a dilapidated city that’s about to plunge into the Earth. These huge levels are rendered by one of the most beautiful graphics engines out there. This game is simply stunning, and every second you’re walking through the game, your eye balls are in a euphoric state. It just doesn’t get much better than this.

What Gears of War 2 offers to this whole thing is a shining example of how do a sequel right. The Gears of War 2 team took everything that was good about the first one and found ways to improve on it. The graphics are better, the story is more involved (but still pretty dumb), the action is crazy intense, and the set pieces are so much bigger. They also took time to really change up some of the parts of the game, whether its through an improved tank mission or through mixing up part of a level. This is an evolution for this series, and despite not bringing much new into the fold, it’s still one hell of a gaming experience.

Action Adventure of the Year

Will Eslinger's Pick: Gears of War 2 for the Xbox 360

Gears of War 2 is a game about making you feel like a grade-A, genuine bad ass. That’s its motif.

This realization struck me about an hour in, when a fellow squad of “Gears” (like “G.I.” in the GOW universe) comes over the radio squawking for help. They’re under attack by an enemy mortar crew, and it just so happens that I have a flank on said crew, so I hauled tail towards the enemy position, and ripped them apart from their side with one of their own mounted weapons.

It’s this confluence of gameplay that made Gears of War 2 stand out to me, the variety and the way that it contributes to the catharsis that the game’s story tells me I should at times feel. Marcus Fenix, your character, is a dyed in the wool bad ass, and yet the first Gears of War, didn’t ever make me feel that way. Every firefight was an exercise in plodding along from piece of cover to piece of cover, picking off enemies one by one. How this was supposed to make me feel like a god of the battlefield, I really don’t know. But in Gears 2, Epic has crafted such fluid continuity with the environment that you can’t help but feel as though your character is some electronic embodiment of death itself.

The game’s newfound scale is somehow twisted into this motif. I don’t know how, but it was. Rather than seeming insignificant in the face of hordes of locusts running around like ants, massive airborne assaults, and the sinking of entire cities by seismic weapons of mass destruction. I never felt dwarfed. Ever firefight that I won, every locust that I killed, seemed to have a tangible effect on the bigger picture. Ever mortar crew I took out was then too dead to rain hell down on other “Gears”, every blood-mount that I disemboweled couldn’t rip its teeth into the flesh of a refugee, and every nemacyst I took out of the sky was one less threat to the helicopter crews that flew overhead.

Gears of War 2 is simply a clinic in game design. Not one little bit of the game’s entire length comes across as superfluous or less fun than any other part, it’s a game where fun reigns supreme, where no moment is the same as the next. It’s a game that can give you a quasi on-rails segment one minute, a pitched firefight the next, a WWI-esque battle of entrenchment after that, and then a stealth level a moment later. The game excels at presenting you with fun things to do, and never lets off the throttle for its entire length.

No other game this year really embodied the word “Action” to the extent that Gears of War 2 did. Lead Designer Cliff Bleszinski promised his audience a game that was “bigger, better and more bad ass” and his ambition was realized. Hell, he made that promise his motif.

Benjamin Lovati's Pick: Dead Space for the Xbox 360

Delivering a story without use of cut scenes or text driven application is one of the more exciting trends in gaming. This was a trend started with Half-Life, whose entire story was delivered through character interactions and environmental immersion. Last year’s mega smash Bioshock was my favorite game of the year and is now the pinnacle to which I hold all story driven action games. This year, a little known EA title called Dead Space, reached for, and nearly grabbed, that crown.

One of Dead Space’s major strengths was that it was designed to completely immerse you into the world. With no HUD, all of your health is displayed by a glowing bar on your back and ammo displays are on the weapons themselves. The story is told through video, audio, and text logs that are found throughout the derelict ship that you roam. I was enthralled with the story, and even more so, the ship itself, which came to life with each new section of the ship. Like Rapture, the USG Ishimura feels like it was lived in, and it’s this feeling that drives you to find out just what ruined the lives of these people. The missions and ending to the game are excellent as my Keanu Reeves “Whoa.” escaped my lips several times before the final boss battle.

While the feel of the game was derived from Bioshock, the action was taken straight from the Resident Evil 4 infrastructure. And personally, I thought this was a smart choice. Look, Resident Evil 4 changed the way that survival horror combat is done, and I appreciate that the developers gave fans a mechanic that they are familiar with. Of course, combat in Dead Space has its own distinctive flair. The weapon design is top notch, and each one requires a certain strategy to use it effectively. The ability to walk with your weapon drawn definitely adds tension and makes the combat feel tighter. Never once did I feel like I had died cheaply in the game.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention parts of the physics engine in this game, particularly when it comes to the Zero Gravity. This is an amazing effect in the game, and the way that characters and enemies animate in these environments is absolutely superb. I clap my hands in joy at the animation and physics teams because it was one of those deft touches that kept me coming back for more.

Lastly, I want to talk about the real star of the show, and that is the audio. There is this constant sense of doom that the music and sounds create as you roam the ship. The thud of your metal boots on the metal walkways reminds how alone you are on the ship, and the ever present growls and screams of death keep you poised for anything.

Dead Space is easily one of the best Action/Adventure games from this year, and any fan of the genre should definitely pick it up.

First Person Shooters of the Year

Will Eslinger's Pick: Crysis Warhead for the PC

Let’s get this out of the way…

Crysis Warhead is the most gorgeous looking game that I have ever played. This is a game that absolutely burns through pixels, renders every environment down to the smallest crab, and manages to draw miles and miles of in-game terrain.

There, are we good? Have I satiated the prerequisite of talking about Crysis’s graphics? I hope so, because to dwell on them any further would be a disservice to Crysis Warhead, a game that is so much more than the sheen of its graphics.

Crysis Warhead serves as a side-story to its predecessor, which is to say that it continues the plot of the three-way war between the U.S., North Korea, and Aliens that takes place on a conveniently picturesque tropical island. I wouldn’t say that the plot is really a draw for the game, but as a fan of military sci-fi, it’s not too bad, and it does an excellent job of establishing a game world where people get to wreck shit with impunity and the help of a nano suit.

The nano suit is the key to Crysis Warhead’s quality. Where most first person shooters seem content to ape Halo’s grenade, gun, melee combo, Crysis surpasses expectation with adding four suit-based skills to the aforementioned three. The nano suit you start the game out with has four different settings, stealth, armor, speed, and strength. The settings are pretty self explanatory, but they offer an enormous amount of potential for some next-level emergent gameplay thanks to how easy it is to switch between skills on the fly. Stealth into the heart of an enemy base, turn on strength to shuck a grenade into a machinegun pit, enables shields to fight off the hornet’s nest of enemies that you’ve stirred up, and then go into speed mode to close the gap on the few remaining enemies and them to hell with your shotgun.

What makes this playground approach work is that there really isn’t any scripting of note in the game. There are some very key story events that are witnessed in the first-person, but as far as gameplay goes, the developers aren’t motivated to wow players with spectacular explosions pre-set into the game’s framework. Rather, they simply supply the world, the enemies and then step back and let you go to town.

But the explosions still happen, oh how they happen. The high tech-specs for Crysis allow the developers to create a physics system that lets you literally destroy a building (not a canned animation either, you’re actually destroying stuff, piece by piece) one second, flip a jeep off the mountain and watch it bounce, then explode the next second, and then chuck an enemy 50 feet into a tree still another second. The possibilities are really limitless, and where the original Crysis made the mistake of replacing your cunning North Korean enemies with brain-dead aliens about halfway through the game, taking away most of the “playground” feel that it had going for it, Crysis Warhead wisely keeps “meat-bags” (read: human) front and center a much bigger portion of the game.

I feel that I should offer up the caveat that this game requires a much more powerful PC than most people have use for, and so I can understand why this pick may seem almost… elitist. But I promise that that was not my intention, I simply went with my gut on this one, and my gut told me that Crysis Warhead is the best First Person Shooter that I have played all year.

Benjamin Lovati's Pick: Battlefield Bad Company for the Xbox 360

After a year dominated by games like Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock, 2008 felt like it took an FPS nap. As a hardcore FPS player, I’m hard pressed to think of a memorable FPS. In fact, I can’t really think of a standout game that advanced the genre and brought something fresh to the gaming landscape. So, it was kind of hard for me to pick a game of the year for this category, but when I sat down and thought about it, I realized that there was one FPS that stood above the rest. That game was Battlefield: Bad Company.

I’ll admit that I’m a little bit late to the Xbox Live game. In fact, I just activated it this summer. After messing around with Gears of War and Halo 3, I was looking for something that would really provide an awesome online experience. After trying out, Unreal Tournament 3, I bought Battlefield and was immediately sucked in.

With Battlefield, the real meat of the game is found in the multiplayer, but this entry really made an attempt at putting a story behind the conflict. While the story didn’t really come with any sort of emotional punch, it was fun and had a great sense of humor. It was not a genre changing game, but it was a big step for the series, which is important considering how many shooters never change.

Everyone always tells me that Call of Duty is where the multiplayer honey is at, but as someone who’s played both, I can honestly say I had more fun playing Battlefield online. The thing with Call of Duty is that the community didn’t speak to me. I don’t want to sit and listen to someone call me a faggot for an hour, nor do I need people mocking my noob status (oh, the stories I could tell). I just don’t want to play a game online where people are using it as a compensation for other things lacking in their lives.

In Battlefield, I found the community to be much more rewarding to work with. For the most part, people really worked together to get an objectives done. One of the nicer design choices was that you could score points a wide variety of ways, so even if you weren’t killing everyone on the map, you could still earn points (and levels) by doing class specific tasks. The class system was balanced, and the maps were a ton of fun to play. I also loved the destructibility of the environments. It changes the dynamics of a game completely when you know the wall you’re standing behind could be destroyed at any second, or you can create your own path into a building by taking out a wall.

If anything, you should check out Battlefield’s multiplayer. It’s a different feel from the Call of Duty’s of the world, but that isn’t a bad thing. You should find the experience to a whole lot of fun and very rewarding.

Open World Gaming: Or how GTA IV Owned a Genre

2008 has been the year of the open world. Farcry 2, Mercenaries 2, Fallout 3, Saint’s Row 2, and Grand Theft Auto IV built themselves around the open-world and games like Fable II and Prince of Persia incorporated the aesthetic into their otherwise straight-forward narratives. The trend isn’t new, ever since Grand Theft Auto 3, developers have been throwing in arbitrary choice into their titles to boost sales with the “Open-World!” bullet-point on the back of their box. I enjoy open-world games, I enjoy having choice and consequence to my actions, and while very few of these “open-world” games really offer that kind of experiences, the ones that do deserve recognition.

And so we have here, for your enjoyment, three perspectives on what was, by far, the most rewarding entry into purely-open-world genre of 2008: Grand Theft Auto IV.

Will Eslinger’s Perspective:

The story of Nico Bellic is the story of the modern American immigrant, at least the story as Rockstar North sees it.

The story is one of failure. The story is one of reaching, of always aiming for a goal and always falling short. Nico’s story is a parabola of tragedy. He steps off of the Eastern European tanker that was his home for months, plants his feet on American soil, and then launches himself into the stratospheres of power in Liberty City. He has money, he has cars, he has fancy apartments and he has the fear of everyone whom he has ever met.

He almost, almost has love, the thing that he wants most but cannot ever seem to achieve. He is someone who wants to be liked by everyone around him, needs to be liked by everyone around him, but his tragedy is that the very thing that makes him valuable to these people whose affection he desires is that which makes him no more than a tool in their eyes.

And in an unintentional meshing of form and content to rival Braid’s intentional interlocking, the gameplay itself parallels this failure.

The gameplay of the Grand Theft Auto series has always been its weakest point, from the two dimensions of the Playstation iterations to the blocky polygons of the Grand Theft Auto 3 series that Josh so loved, the actual playing of the series has been somewhat lacking. The worlds were realized, and the plots were appropriately subversive and… foul. But at some point in time, listening to Guns ‘N Roses while trying desperately to get shots off at incoming S.W.A.T. teams, just stopped being fun, my enjoyment of the myriad of good that the series offered was just too encumbered by what the series failed to give me, something that was easy to play.

But with IV, Rockstar finally got right what made their opuses games. Never once as Nico Bellic did I ever find myself ripping out hair follicles because of frustration from being unable to do what I wanted to do within the game world. The lock-on targeting just works, the cover system just works, and the vehicle controls just work. By making their gameplay solid, Rockstar has been freed to develop their world and plot into something that can stand on its own without the distractions that pulled them down in the past. If only their design was as solid.

Nico Bellic’s story exists entirely within the game’s cut-scenes and radio-play-esque driving dialog. It starts, and ends with Dan Houser’s team of writers, the game’s designers don’t get a say. I say this, because there is a supreme lack of cohesion between what the plot offers and what the game offers. Where the writing presents the view of a man torn apart by the violence that he is forced to perpetrate to actually realize his American dream, the game itself doesn’t allow the player to be similarly torn. Every single combat encounter is mammoth and bloody, there is no sense of the intimacy and horrors that come through when the gameplay cuts out and the acting begins.

That is a failure, but as I said before, reaching and not quite realizing the goal is the game’s theme. In this way, Grand Theft Auto IV becomes something even more, it becomes art. Something that can be appreciated not only for what it accomplishes, but for what it almost achieves. And that, that is something that’s really quite incredible for our fledgling medium.

Ben Lovati’s Perspective:

I can remember the first sandbox game I ever played. It was a world filled with possibilities. It was a world caked in drugs, sex, and violence. It was a world that caused me to miss two weeks of classes in college. This world, of course, is the world of Liberty City. In the year 2008, I was fortunate enough to play around in Liberty City again, and it is with great pride that I dub Grand Theft Auto IV the king of 2008 open world gaming.

I’m sure this pick comes as no surprise. There weren’t many contenders this year, and frankly, it’s hard to top the king of open world games. But I need to have a moment of honesty with you: I was not looking forward to this game. Call me a hater if you will, but after so many GTAs and its clones, I was burnt out on them. I mean, how much better could this be than San Andreas?

When the reviews hit the presses, I knew I had to check the game out, and while I think the game was HIGHLY overrated (another essay, another time), I was really happy to see that the game surpassed every expectation I ever held for it.

The story in the game is what first hooked me as it took a mature and well rounded approach to telling a gangster story. Niko was an engaging and likable character, and cast of friends he’s surrounded with were just as fun to learn about. The story also had branching choices that changed the characters you interacted with and the story paths available to you. Now, this didn’t make me want to play it over and over again, but it was definitely a nice touch to the series.

The game world itself was a character of its own. It lived and breathed and when you walked its streets and terrorized its citizens, you felt that you were a part of the game world. Like any good open world game, there were a TON of things that you could do in this game. You could waste hours just goofing around at the different hot spots around town or spend your time causing havoc to its citizens.

The missions in the game were also varied and fun to play. This was helped by the improved (but far from perfect) aiming system that the game implemented. It’s amazing how much more fun an assassination mission can be when you can actually shoot. There were some missions that actually included NPC characters helping you out, which dragged me into the world even more.

I could go on, but simply put, Grand Theft Auto IV is an open world game you need to experience. It has definitely raised the bar for these types of games and set a new industry standard as to just how good these games can be.

Josh Flanagan’s Perspective:

I did it. I finished. I finally accomplished....well, nothing really.

I am not what one would refer to as a gamer. My yearly output is the playing of possibly 2, and as many as 3 games. I have an xbox 360 which gets used now and then, for short stints, but the hours long campaigns of my younger days have given way to busyness and a wife who wants the TV back (rightly so). So I get my shots in here and there (get it?), and play from time to time to unwind. I am not that excited by new releases of games, and I only follow what games are coming out at the most cursory level.

Yet there is Grand Theft Auto, a franchise to which I am beholden. While I should probably be turned off by the base absurdity of the whole thing, and the utter lack of almost any decent human morality, I have to say, they've all been a lot of fun, and for a guy who never plays games all the way through, I've finished Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, San Andreas, and now GTA IV. It took me a half a year to do it, but I did it.

The newest version was somewhat of a let-down, if I'm being honest. It is gorgeous and plays well, and is an achievement of game design, the world being more interactive and interesting than ever, but it's missing something. The first couple were imbued with a personality, due largely in part to a really interesting cast of voice actors. Ray Liotta, James Woods, William Fichtner (A favorite of mine), and Jenna Jameson all leant their talents, among others, to make a game like we'd never seen.

The soundtrack of the game featured all sorts of music that was both funny, and retro, and surprisingly enjoyable, with all these songs I remembered, but hadn't thought about in years. It was like a really violent, anti-social Pixar movie.

But this new version, while technically superior in every way, lacked that. The voice actors were good, but there was almost no one recognizable, and the soundtrack was expansive and vast, but really lacking the catchy interesting vibe that makes up the best kinds of movie soundtracks, like a Quentin Tarrantino movie.

The acting was good, and the story was relatively interesting, but it was missing that bit of soul. It was as if they'd spent so much time on the technical, and getting their version of New York just right (which they did!) but they left out the part of the former games which made them so endearing.

Did I have a good time playing it? Yes, I did, and by the end, I was nearly as enthralled as ever, as I got nearer to the end. But all through it, I just kept feeling like something was missing, and I think it was its heart.

Role Playing Game of the Year

Will Eslinger's Pick: Fable II for the Xbox 360

I am the barefoot brawler of Albion. I am a swashbuckling adventurer with full beard, unkempt hair and steel weapons on my back. I am lithe and I fight like I dance. I am faithful; my love belongs to only two women, Sally the Traveler, and my daughter. I work as a blacksmith when I must and travel when I can; my life is an adventure weaved with magic and monsters. My life is a fable.

Somewhere along the road from tabletop RPGs to Final Fantasy X the zeitgeist of the role-playing game was one that seemed to have forgotten what the name of their genre actually means. Role-playing faded away and stat managing slipped into vogue. As far as I’m concerned, that’s not the kind of game that I have ever, or will ever want to play. If I want a constricted plot with little choice, then I’ll play my comfort-genre shooters thank you very much. So if an RPG is to grab me it needs to offer me something that actually stimulates me. It needs to give me choice; it needs to let me play a role.

Fable II is the only game that released this year that made me feel as though I actually inhabited a character whose existence was shaped by my choices. Fallout 3 was a sublime game, but throughout its duration I never felt as if my Vault-Dweller was my own, or that he had a real personality. I never had such feelings in Fable II; the game lives and dies on the choices and roles that it offers, thankfully they are both many.

Fable II’s main storyline is short and fairly linear. It does offer some choice, but it is mostly of the binary, good/evil, eat the baby/save the baby variety. But that lack of choice is actually fine by me, what it allows the developers to weave is a fairly picturesque adventure of fun swashbuckling combat and a myriad of genuinely funny characters. The main quest is fun, but it is not really were the merit of the game comes through, that occurs on the periphery, where the choices flow like mead.

In Fable II there is a dating game, there are gambling games, there is a real-estate management game and there is a home-keeping game. And absolutely every single one of these games is completely optional. I chose to be a paragon of good with a single family and a willingness to help whomever asks for aid. I could have just as easily been a being of pure evil, but I didn’t. And even though both choices were equally incentivized, I felt that the ones that I made were truly my own, and that they had shaped my avatar into someone fully in line with my personal morality.

Other games may offer such choice, but no other game this year made me feel so much like the arbiter of that choice, and that said choices really mattered and shaped my world.

Benjamin Lovati's Pick: Fallout 3 for the Xbox 360

I’ll be up front: I typically hate RPGs. It’s very rare that one ever crosses my radar and even rarer when they end up spinning in my system. But in the last two years or so, a few have been able to grab me. Last year, Mass Effect spun its cycle in my console and my heart. This year’s choice, for me, is pretty obvious, and so with confidence, I dub Fallout 3 my RPG of the Year.

Fallout 3 is an RPG that was designed for me. It’s a modern, desolate wasteland populated with interesting characters and completely open-ended gameplay, and to top it off, you can use guns. Lots of them. I’ve made no bones about my FPS obsession, and Fallout 3 plays right into that.

What I love about this game is that the choices you make have an impactful effect on the game world. Some gamers have complained about this, shouting to the high hills how it limits the game to players. But they fail to see that this is precisely what makes this such a special game. It is impactful change that games like these have lacked in the past, and the fact that I can actually play through the game a second time and get a completely different experience is important to me.

The character interactions in the game are also really amazing, and I found from a very early point in the game that I really cared about some of the characters that I met. When faced with the choice to blow up Megaton, I took serious time in considering which direction I would go because by that point I had made some “friends” in the game world. It’s rare that a game can suck you in like that or make the decisions you have to face all the more daunting.

The combat in the game is solid. It’s hard for me to saying “amazing” because, well, there’s definite room for improvement. The FPS play is mildly mediocre, which is fine when coupled with the V.A.T.S. system. I really do like V.A.T.S. as it allows you to aim precisely and gives you the percentage you will hit your target. V.A.T.S. isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s one of the more engaging combat systems I’ve tooled around with in an RPG.

Let’s not forget that the game is beautiful and expansive. The sheer scale of the entire game makes it easy to see how you can lose 100 hours playing the game. The design is smart as well because you can walk in any direction from anywhere and find something new to explore quickly. I haven’t experienced any of the graphical glitches that others have mentioned, but I can’t slight a minor hiccup here and there when considering how complex the coding for a game this size.

So, take it from me, the guy who hates RPGs, that this game is simply a must have for any RPG fan.