2008 Game of the Year, Day 3: The CG Awards
And on the third day Uncle Crispy created a winner, and he saw that it was good.
12/23/2008 6:14 PM | 2 Comments | Page 7 of 13
Scott Jones
Status: Coffee makes me feel 4-percent sexier.
Mirror's Edge
(Digital Illusions CE)Order Now
Keep the Faith, baby. And we kept her running for her life.
Marc Saltzman: Without weapon in hand, the exhilaration you feel by being chased up a flight of stairs with bullets whizzing past your ears, onto a building rooftop with nowhere to go but down, is remarkable. This first-person experiment delicately balances action, puzzle-solving and exploration. Toss in a great story, crisp visuals and a "Run Lola Run"-inspired soundtrack, and it's a heart-pumping adventure you won't soon forget.
Kyle Orland: I fell sharply on the "love" side of the love/hate divide on this highly divisive game. My tolerance for constant restarting is higher than most people's, so the constant failure that's inherent to the design didn't annoy me much. Anyway, it was more than made up for by the sheer feel of joy and speed and flow when things go right and you're flying effortlessly across those beautiful, stark white rooftops. I expect I'll be working on my Time Trial times on this one for quite a while.
Scott Jones: It has its problems, and it's short (that's what she said), and it frustrated the hell out of me, but I got a weird buzz from playing this game. Maybe it was the
Portal-ness of it. Or maybe it was all the stark white rooms with green ceilings. I am still obsessively playing the Speed Run, trying to beat Gus Mastrapa's times.
Ryan Kuo: Mirror's Edge -- inspired perhaps by the gritty physics of the original
Prince of Persia -- makes the game world breathtakingly physical, and the frustration bone-breakingly visceral. In doing so from the first-person, it shows gaming to be an uncanny, hallucinatory experience. Soaring across rooftops and sliding down the sides of buildings in the game feels like a lucid dream. DICE also deserves props for building a true dystopia from bright, primary colors and corporate cleanliness.
Dead Space
(Electronic Arts)Order Now
In space, no one can hear you scream -- just squeak like a girl.
Russ Fischer: My top vote belonged to
Fallout 3 for a long time, and while I've got dozens of hours sunk into that game, there's an incontrovertible fact that argues in favor of
Dead Space: It's the only game this year I couldn't wait to play again. After blasting through the story for review, I later went back to it by sneaking sessions in between the other games in the fall glut -- you know, the stuff I was supposed to be playing. I wanted more of the atmosphere, more of the weapons and action, more of the fact that a game doesn't have to break new ground left and right to provide ample reason to play.
