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 9 of 13
Scott Jones
Status: Coffee makes me feel 4-percent sexier.
Scott Jones: I feel bad for games that come out in January. (Another great January game:
PixelJunk Monsters -- not as pretty as
Eden, but more fun to play.)
Burnout Paradise was f***ing great. But it feels like it came out in the year 51 B.C. Poor, godforsaken January games. Go back and look at the game again. Playing
Burnout Paradise makes me feel like I'm having ice cubes dropped down the back of my shirt. There's your box-cover quote, EA. Happy now?
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
(Blizzard Entertainment)Order Now
More of the same, but better story, better music and more accessible.
Dave Long: Blizzard's incredible online world expanded again in 2008, this time to a place many fans already knew well from
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Prince Arthas, the man who would become the Lich King, is one of the best characters within the Warcraft universe. He's the hero who lost his way, and in the process set off cataclysmic change in his world while becoming one of its greatest villains. The continent of Northrend is packed with exciting, well-written quests that sucked me right back into Warcraft's compelling mythos. The visuals are upgraded substantially, and the brilliant art direction of this massive multiplayer world never fails to astound me. I never expected this to be my favorite game of 2008, but nothing else offers so much awesome gaming within such an incredible world -- and I haven't even seen half of the new stuff yet!
John Keefer: It may seem like a copout to mention an expansion pack to the best-selling game of all time, but when that expansion pack offers a better story, a more engaging environment and a more gradual learning curve that appeals to its more casual fan base, this really is a no-brainer.
Wrath of the Lich King offers several quest lines and game experiences that will have you on the edge of your seat as you make your way up in levels. The locales are rich in ambiance, and they are made even better by some incredible mood music. Throw in a new character class with a starting zone that is perhaps one of the best-crafted entry stories to date, and you have another strong reason why Blizzard continues to be the king of the MMO.
LittleBigPlanet
(Media Molecule)Order Now
Sackboy scored points with many gamers, if not Scott Jones.
David Chapman: Let's face facts. At its core,
LittleBigPlanet isn't much more than a glorified tech demo. But I'll be damned if it isn't a fun one. The unique, overly cute but still photorealistic look of the game sticks out in a world filled with texture maps, cel-shading, polygon counts and all sorts of other technobabble about which the layman really doesn't give a damn. Instead, all they see here is that a group of people have somehow breathed life into an inanimate sack doll. The game invites players to do the same. Creativity takes the forefront, courtesy of a ridiculously robust level editor that's so simple an 8-year-old could use it. Finally, by inviting the world to share its creations, the world of
LittleBigPlanet will never actually feel "little."
