I was going to do a top 5, but when I was planning the post and putting together lists of all the games I've played, the games I've played the most and the games that I thought were the most interesting, I found different games on nearly every list.
When I considered just putting a top 5 games that meant the most to me I couldn't find enough. So instead, I'm going to be a bit more abstract, talk about the games that would have been on my top 5, if I'd been able to put one together, but then I'll talk about a few other games that were great for different reasons.
So, now onto my, not top 5, but as many as I feel comfortable listing, favourite xbox 360 games:
1. Red Dead Redemption
This is a no brainer. This game blow peoples' expectations out of the water. With an engrossing story and open world game play, the single player was the best single player campaign I can remember playing.
The graphics were stunning and seamless. No loading screens ever appeared, to my knowledge, even when you traversed deserts, to scrub land and then into the snowy north, you never saw a load screen.
The multiplayer "lobby" area was an entire free-roam single player map, where up to 16 players could form possees, get bounties on their heads, fight bandits and just live in the world. From this massive, open playground players could then start co-op games, deathmatches, capture the flags and all the other classic multiplayer stuff, as well as cowboy themed shoot-outs and money grabbing games.
-----------------------------
So there we have it! That's all I managed on my top 5 list I'm afraid. Now I'll list some other games I've thoroughly enjoyed for various other reasons.
Best hanging out with friends and brothers games:
1. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - my brothers and friends and I played this forever. We were new to XBOX 360 when we were playing this and marvelled at how easy it was to chat together, get into games together and just enjoy fighting in this brilliant, arcade-ified, modern day, squad shooter. Battlefield 3 lost out love through annoyingly rubbish and awkward squad forming mechanics and the money grabbing tactics of the developers (if only they'd released information about the season pass when the game came out...)
2. Fifa 10, 11 & 12 - I'm not missing the other FIFAs off because they were bad in anyway, these are just the ones my friends and I really enjoyed the most. Making our own personas in the game and then forming our own team to play online was inspired and the most fun I've ever had, to date, from a sports game.
3. Joy Ride Turbo - This just scrapes in as being a little more than a honourable mention. I bent everyone's arms to get this game, but we did have a lot of fun racing, shooting and laughing at each other in this game. A great, casual arcade racer. I think the most people we had on at once was 6...? Wish we could have filled all 8 spots on the grid, but we were never able to get that organised.
Best co-op experience:
1. Gears of War 2 campaign - This was the first, proper, all-day online co-op action I enjoyed on my 360, and it stands as the most memorable. My friend and I spent about 12 hours, with a 1 hour break, going all the way through the story. I've played the original Gears of War and Gears of War 3 and neither have felt as epic as number 2.
2. Gears of War 3 horde - The Gears of War franchise is built on co-op play. Gears of War 3 horde is comprehensive and when my friends and I talk about it we always come back to the GoW3 horde mode. It's just so complete, so challenging and a true emotional rollacoaster - we've still not defeated wave 50.
Honourable mention - Left 4 Dead; it lacked a bit of staying power, due to a lack of depth, but an old flat mate of mine and I would play through the campaigns endlessly! L4D2 didn't add very much and so doesn't really warrant more than this mention.
Best single player experience (I'm not going to rank them, just list the ones that really stuck with me):
Alan Wake - 3rd person, horror. Brilliant story and simple, effective game mechanics.
Dante's Inferno - I rented it on LoveFilm years ago. I still crave playing through it again. It's the only hack'n'slash game that's ever really grabbed me. This is almost entirely due to the theme and the visuals.
Rage!!! - People may not have picked this up from reading my blog, but I love this game. I think it's the balls.
Fable II - Pretty much the first game I got for my 360, after L4D. I have played through the campaign 3 times now and I still love it. A beautiful, tongue-in-cheek, fantasy realm, with a great story. Fable III failed horribly and Fable I didn't grab me, probably because I played it retrospectively. I could happily play this game again and again.
Games with the most interesting mechanics that I wish had more in them, but didn't, so never became classics, but I wish they had, because I think they would have:
Tom Clancy's: End War - This game showed how to make an RTS on a console. A friend and I sat and played this game endlessly for a week and then sporadically for a while after. It's voice command system was brilliant. DYNAMIC CAMPAIGNS are the way forward and visually it looked very cool. It just lacked depth and it felt like after they'd finished making the brilliant mechanics and gameplay they forgot to put any effort into developing more variation.
Brutal Legend - similar to End War, this game had really inventive mechanics, which were fantastic, but the single player campaign seemed to end much too quickly and I wish Double Fine had been given a chance to make Brutal Legend 2! We wanted more!!! But I know it wasn't their fault.
Best sofa games (this is what console gaming has always been about to me!):
Bomberman - it's an old skool reboot with a face lift, but I can't think of any other game 4 players, sat on a sofa can play that would be more fun than this? Maybe worms?
Worms - Not my favourite style of game, but an absolute classic. It's worth investing in later iterations as they just get better and better!
Joyride Turbo - second mention. I'm a sucker for arcade racers.
-------------------------
This post is enormous, so I'm going to stop listing and conclude.
I was surprised, when planning this post, that I didn't have a top 5. And I should mention that Red Dead Redemption is the only game that enters the "top 5" because it can easily be mentioned in any of the below lists, except the sofa games list or interesting mechanics list. But it should be said that Red Dead Redemption would make my top 5 games of all time list. Can't wait to see what Rockstar do with GTA V!
I was also thinking again how Fallout 3 and Skyrim didn't make any of my lists. But this is because of my person feelings towards those games. If this was a more reasoned, academic list, they would both be massive contenders, but to me those games just lacked something, which I think I've mentioned in this blog in the past? I think I'll make a post sometime about why Bethesda games seem to run dry with me.
No comments:
Post a Comment