Crispy Gamer News

(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.

Crispy’s favorite son, Scott Jones, sits down with Get Your Game On host Nicole Lapin to talk about video games that give you the power to be a military commander, the leader of a nation or even a malevolent benefactor. Games covered include Tom Clancy’s EndWar, Sid Meier’s Civilization, Revolution, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 and Fable II. Scott even puts on a tie for the occasion. If Rockwell were not pushing up daisies right now he’d be mighty pleased with Scott’s fabulous attire.

You can check out the latest Get Your Game On in the Crispy Gamer Community Section.

Proving that sometimes advertising outshines the product it is trying to promote, the Mercenaries 2 anthem “Oh No You Didn’t” is a viral success and a personal favorite of the Crispy staff. They can’t get enough of this song about getting paid, vengeance and ensuing mayhem - all performed by some hip white boys (it’s like an evening at the Apollo or something). Check out the commercial after the jump:

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