Burnout Paradise (played on Xbox360)
Burnout Paradise is sort of "the little game that could." By no means little, it none the less has an uphill struggle to win any Game of the Year awards, seeing as it came out in January 2008. What Criterion has done, though, is keep the game constantly relevant. Just as we're ready to forget about it, they drop a new pack of content that doesn't just add to the game, it changes it in a drastic, obvious way. Adding motorcycles and night-time racing for free (versus, say, a few dollars for some armor for your horse in Oblivion) was apparently not enough.
Even a year after the release, more content is still coming: new fun cars on the way (Ecto-1, The Delorean?!), the ability to restart races without having to drive all the way back...This is how to do DLC. Criterion has shown everyone how to do it, now it's everyone else's turn to step up for a try. As a funny side note, Criterion's parent company EA is guilty of some of the most egregious crimes against DLC with "pay to unlock everything" packs and other thinly veiled attempts at monetizing cheat codes. Guess they really let Criterion run things their own way.
GRID (Played on Xbox360)
Might as well finish the racing section all at once. GRID was a real surprise. With most of the solid racing/driving titles being established franchises, a new one is refreshing and exciting. Everything about the game is tight as hell. The slick presentation, huge variety of races, and rewind mechanic make up for a small number of cars and a somewhat low number of tracks.
The best moment so far can be seen above - a midnight downhill point-to-point race. This is an Initial D fan's wet dream. By the way, I'm kind of an Initial D fan, if you haven't noticed. It's pitch black except for your head lights reflecting off the guard rails. Music is thumping, and the guy right behind you is damn good. This is what I've been looking for in years of playing racing games. GRID, thank you.
Silent Hill: Homecoming (Played on Xbox360)
Speaking of disappointments... I've been a fan of the Silent Hill series since... well maybe not day one, but maybe day two or three. The first game was one of my first PSone purchases and was in the system for more playthroughs than I can count. The second one took the series to a new level of visual, aural, and literary complexity. I can still talk about the game today, almost 9 years later, with as much passion as I did then. Silent Hill 3 brought back the first game's gore at the expense of the story, but the visuals were there so who am I to complain? Silent Hill 4 was a mess, and the announcement of Silent Hill 5 left me cautiously optimistic.
SH:H isn't all bad. It's just not all good, either. The first time in the hands of an American developer didn't go too badly, but it was just missing something. It felt a lot like the Silent Hill movie, in that a lot of the visual aspects were there in full force while the story just wasn't quite ready to hold them up.
The refined combat system was a welcome change from previous games, but in the end unnecessary. I felt that the new combat system forced me to fight many more monsters than I would've liked. Silent Hill has always been about running away when you can.
I haven't finished the game yet, sadly. I intend to, but when you've got stuff like Prince of Persia on the pile...
Prince of Persia (Played on Xbox360)
This is an easy contender for game of the year for me. Things that other players didn't like: the no-death gameplay, the modernized dialogue, and the ending many called unsatisfying - these all made the game what it was for me. Prince of Persia aimed more for art than for accomplishment and was a wild success, in my eyes. There isn't much to say that I haven't already said.
Geometry Wars 2 (Played on Xbox360)
Geometry Wars calls to mind the best of the classic arcades, and almost makes you wonder if it and Pac-Man CE couldn't raise arcades from the dead if you put'em each in a quarter cabinet. After its first outing, many were left wondering at the announcement of a second iteration, "What's left?!"
A lot apparently! Five new game modes, all equally playable, to complement the returning "evolved" mode. Stick some co-op and versus gameplay in there AND crank up the already gorgeous graphics and you've got a challenging game that even I come back to.
More to come in part 3!
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