Top 48 Games of 2008

[Frogacuda]

L4D may have to be a PC purchase for me. It's about 75% at this point, with 25% for the 360 solely because of achievements.

You know Valve PC games (including all the orange box games) have achievements now, too, right?

[Razor Ramon]

Will they count towards my XBL gamer tag?

[Rumpy]

You bet.

[bVork]

I can see why GTA4 would be number one, but I have my doubts as to whether it will live up to the hype and legacy. GTA3 was, without question, the single most important game of last generation. It defined an entire genre and codified the conventions of freeroaming sandbox gameplay.

I don't think there is any way for GTA4 to equal that.

Pretty good list, though. My most anticipated games are Spore, Saboteur, and Mercenaries 2.

[Rumpy]

we need TNL games going on PC.

AWWWWW! Yoshi is lonely.

[YellerDog]

I prefer the old-school overhead sprite-based GTA games for some reason. I just found them to be more fun to actually play through. GTA 3 and up, all I want to do is steal a car and cause havok, which runs out of steam pretty quickly.

[Razor Ramon]

GTA3 was, without question, the single most important game of last generation.

That's a pretty big statement considering Guitar Hero's impact on how we view music games (I know other games like it existed beforehand, but Guitar Hero made the biggest impact to more people.), Shadow of the Colossus's unique adventure style and combat, Halo finally making console FPSs viable (I think the game blows, but as far as console FPSs go it's the bees-knees of last generation), World of Warcraft's ability to make MMORPGs' fanbases grow from a small number of nerds to a game that your next-door neighbor plays, so on and so forth.

Not to say GTA3's creativity to sandbox games isn't important, but so much happened last gen that it's hard to peg what's more important than the other.

[Opaque]

Guitar Hero is not an important game, it's just a fun game that took something being done in arcades for years and made it home friendly.

[TaekwondoNJ]

I wouldn't be surprised if half of these hotly anticipated titles don't make it out in 2008. The chances of FFXIII, Starcraft II, RE5, Halo Wars, and a few others making it out by years end seems a bit iffy considering how little we've seen for most of them. The exception is SCII, but given Blizzard's record, I'm not hoping for the game any time soon.

Still, its nice to see the PS3 will be releasing some quality software this year.

[bVork]

All of those (well, except SOTC... which I don't really think is all that important in any context) just popularized and refined pre-existing formulas. Guitar Hero isn't radically different than Guitar Freaks (except in quality), I can think of a fair number of first-gen FPS on PS2 that had dual-analogue controls (though Halo's controls really are fantastic compared to most of those), and World of Warcraft is a more refined EverQuest which is a more refined and less complex Ultima Online.

I'm not saying that GTA3 invented sandbox games. It was, however, a huge leap above and beyond anything done at that point. Every single subsequent sandbox title (except, if you believe the developers, Steambot Chronicles) has copied the way GTA3 handles mission progression, area progression, and often even the circular minimap.