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Thursday, December 22, 2005

Since this is the time for end-of-the-year lists, I bring you:

Geoff's Best Games of 2005!!!

Some words of clarification. "2005" does not mean games made in this year, only ones that I personally played this year. By "best" I mean this in absolutely no objective way whatsoever. This is purely my opinion. In no particular order:

Shadow of the Colossus

First, if you haven't played the game, not sure if it's that good or whatever, just take a look at some of the trailers here. That's from the actual game (well, the parts with the colossi anyays), as is the screenshot. I'm not quite sure how they managed to do it. What I liked about the game, however, was that it was more than just fighting colossi. There's an interesting thing going on with the whole game which I think makes it unique in the videogame world: the game forces you to consider what you are actually doing - killing other living creatures. It does this in a way that no other medium could, by actually putting you at the controls. There's more I could say, but unfortunately it's related to events around the ending, so as I don't want to give away anything, just try it for yourself.






Seiklus

At the other end of the scale (in terms of production, anyways) is Seiklus. Made by one guy, hand-drawn paint graphics. I played through the whole thing in one afternoon. And yet, it's a fascinating little game. It breaks with convention in that there's no "lives", no health meter, no weapons. You just sort of wander around, stuff happens, it's kind of cool. Very relaxed. Why do I include it on this list? It's been three or four months since I played it, and I can still recall some of the scenes, some of the areas, some of the music, and it all brings a smile to my face. I played weeks and weeks of World of Warcraft, Winning Eleven 8, and Draqon Quest 8, and while all fine games, I can hardly remember anything that happened in any of them, or think fondly back on it. Something for game designers to consider, I think.





Phantom Brave

And for another contrast, the tactical wackiness of Phantom Brave. While Seiklus goes for the one extreme of almost no stats, monsters, or anything, Phantom Brave has millions and zillions of statistics, enemies, items, weapons, things to combine, things to level up, on and on and on. However, it's all so very interesting and fun. I think this is the thing a lot of (console) rpg designers miss these days. The combat is never that interesting or fun. Here, the combat is wonderfully balanced and full of interesting challenges. It has as its main advantage the fact that the designers have clearly played other such games, knows what makes them fun, added some new ingredients, and wrapped it all up in a sweet little story. It's not for everyone, but for those who like tactical games, I can't recommend it more highly.






So there we have it. I've been playing a bunch of Psychonauts tonight, courtesy of M, which might have also been included on this list had I played it a bit earlier. Certainly a good candidate for next year, though, if it continues to be as amusing as it has been so far.

Comments:
I like the pictures!
Thanks :)
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