(+2 rating, 2 votes) Microsoft’s Major Nelson released Xbox Live statistics for 2008, revealing that Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 were the most played games online, and that Castle Crashers was the top seller on Xbox Live Marketplace. In the top five, Gears of War 2 and GTA IV were the only games published in 2008 that made the list. Full lists after the jump.
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(Contributors: Victor Lucas - Electric Playground, Adam Oldakowski - Managing Director GOG.com, Hal Halpin - ECA President, Tom Ohle - CD Projekt RED, Rich Carlson - Digital Eel, Eric Holmes - Radical Entertainment, and Game Trust members Evan Narcisse, Gus Mastrapa, David Chapman and James Fudge)
On the eve of 2009, Crispy Gamer is proud to present to you the Top 21 News Stories of 2008. We have chosen what we believe are the top news stories of year, though deciding on which were the very best proved to be an exercise in compromise, because there were so many interesting and powerful choices this year.
We watched the interactive entertainment industry grow - and then later - retract as the global economy wreaked havoc on every kind of business you can imagine; players got their first taste of WiiWare, Home and the New Xbox Experience; we watched as the big three slugged it out for North American supremacy in the latest round of console wars and we saw Blizzard dust off its classic franchises and move million of copies of its Lich King expansion. To quote that Dickens’ classic: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
2008 was not without its fair share of triumphs, disappointments, joys and sorrow. Here are the stories that moved us, made us angry, scared us and made us think about the industry we cover.
We begin at the very bottom of the pile until we climb to the glorious #1 news story of the year. So it opens with Top News Story #21.
(+3 rating, 3 votes) (Contributors: Adam Oldakowski - Managing Director GOG.com, Hal Halpin - ECA President, Tom Ohle - CD Projekt RED, Rich Carlson - Digital Eel, Eric Holmes - Radical Entertainment, and Game Trust members Evan Narcisse, Gus Mastrapa, David Chapman and James Fudge)
Crispy Gamer wraps up its Top 21 News Stories of 2008 with our top 7 news stories. See what stories were the most interesting and had the most impact on the game industry and gamers in 2008. We start with #7 right now. Also be sure to check out #8 - 14 and #15 - 21, if you haven’t already.
(+2 rating, 2 votes) (Contributors: Tom Ohle - CD Projekt RED, Rich Carlson - Digital Eel, Eric Holmes - Radical Entertainment, and Game Trust members Evan Narcisse, Gus Mastrapa, David Chapman and James Fudge)
We continue our countdown of the Top 21 News Stories of 2008, with #14 - #7, starting now. If you missed the first part of our countdown featuring David Chapman, James Fudge and ECA President Hal Halpin, you can check it out right here.
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All is calm, all is bright. I hope you’re enjoying your vacation time, assuming you are one of those lucky folks that gets it during this time of year. For the rest of us, onward and upward as we slither into 2009…
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Missed our 2008 Game of the Year Awards? Check out our celebration of the best and worst that 2008 had to offer below:
2008 Game of the Year, Day 3: The CG Awards
Gather up your pitchforks and torches, and build a bonfire to the gaming gods. In the final day of our Game of the Year coverage, the Game Trust discusses its favorite games of 2008 and bestows awards on the top three. Also of note is a discussion of all the runner ups that recieved two or more votes.
2008 Game of the Year, Day 2: The CG Unawards
For every major accomplishment in gaming this year, there were about two and a half unaccomplishments. Welcome to Day 2 of our Game of the Year coverage — in which we present our Unawards.
2008 Game of the Year, Day 1: The Year In…
To kick things off right, we invited members of the Game Trust to weigh in on all the genres, trends and hardware of 2008.
And for some additional fun, check out 2007’s Game of the Year winners.
(+1 rating, 1 votes) Last Thursday, we reported on Sony adding a new patch to its Home service, which added facial hair to the avatar options while disabling the service’s voice chat capabilities. Apparently, a weekend of silence was more than enough though, as Sony has released a brand new patch to the Home beta, giving users back their collective voice … with a few conditions.
Ostensibly, the voice feature was originally dropped due to the strain the feature was putting of the service. Of course, the decision to yank the feature was probably helped by the fact that much of the chatter going on in Home was of the juvenile smack talk/pickup line variety. Now that the voice chat feature has been re-established, players will be able to go back to hitting on each other, but only in the comforts of their personal spaces and clubhouses. So, you’ll have to actually convince someone to come back to your place before you can try to talk them into “coming to your place”.
By clicking on their PlayStation Home icon on the PlayStation Network column of XMB, Home users will be automatically prompted to update to 1.05. Users who are online with PlayStation Home will need to log-off and click on PlayStation Home icon for the update to register.
