• 18Jan 06

  My take on the year in gaming

  (originally posted on www.myspace.com/xjedijonx/ by me on December 31, 2005)
  
  
  Since it's officially the LAST day of 2005, and nothing is going to
  happen today in the world of gaming, I figured I'd give you all my take
  on this past year in gaming.
  
  We've definitely seen a lot of
  crazy things happen this year. Some good (Splinter Cell Chaos Theory),
  some bad (Stubbs the Zombie), and some ugly (360 launch in Japan). And
  now to take up a lot of space, I'm going to give my take on every
  system this year. Woo!
  
  Sony's Playstation 2 had another
  awesome year as they always do with the release of their fan's favorite
  games. We saw the release of We Love Katamari, Socom 3, Soul Calibur
  III, as well as some very underestimated games, Shadow of the Colossus
  and Guitar Hero. Sony has revealed their Playstation 3 with a release
  date set for Spring 2006. With easily superior graphics to everyone
  else, I'm very excited to see how developers use the technology in the
  years to come.
  
  Sony also released their PSP earlier this year.
  With excellent graphics, this handheld could possibly hold its own
  against some console graphics (step it up a notch, developers!). Now
  while this device does play games, it can also play UMD's and even play
  videos and music downloaded onto its memory sticks. So if you're
  looking for an all-in-one device on the go, this is one to check out.
  
  Sony's grades
  Console - A
  Handheld - B
  
  
  Microsoft's biggest news this year was their expected, and slightly
  overzealous, headstart into the next-generation. With the graphics of a
  high-end PC, the Xbox 360 truly wowed few with their games. But I'll
  save that argument for a later time. With their original Xbox, we saw
  the release of very few exclusive console titles. Stubbs the Zombie
  used the Halo engine to create a semi-satirical zombie adventure. While
  this game wasn't very excellent, it was pretty funny. Create a zombie
  army...I've always wanted to do that. However, since Oblivion missed
  the launch window, and even the holiday season, I haven't really seen a
  killer app for the 360. Hopefully they'll do better next year.
  
  Microsoft's grades
  Xbox - B
  Xbox 360 - B-
  
  
  Nintendo is always a pretty tender subject, since people say they're
  becoming the Sega of the next-gen. I have a lot of reasons to differ.
  Now while Nintendo kind of slacked off this past year, we did see some
  pretty decent games from them on the Gamecube, such as Geist, Super
  Mario Baseball, and Super Mario Strikers. One thing that hurt them
  MAJORLY was the pushing back of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
  There really isn't a lot to say about their little lunchbox, since not
  a lot happened here. However...
  
  In the handheld market,
  Nintendo had a LOT of excellent games for the Nintendo DS. Trauma
  Center, Mario Kart DS, Advance Wars Dual Strike, Animal Crossing Wild
  World, and many more innovative titles. They definitely know what
  they're doing in the handheld side of gaming. Also, porting Final
  Fantasy IV to the Game Boy Advance and the release of their new Game
  Boy Micro didn't hurt them either.
  
  Nintendo has revealed their
  next-gen console, Revolution. With admittedly the weakest graphics of
  the three consoles, they're deciding to shatter the standards with
  their controller, and taking backwards compatibility to a whole new
  level. However, we haven't seen any games shown for it, although a
  teaser trailer showed some very awesome things they could do with it. I
  know many of you think it's just a gimmick that won't work and will
  essentially ruin the company, but you all said the same thing about the
  touch screen on the DS. So we'll all see this upcoming year.
  
  Nintendo's grades
  Console - B-
  Handheld - A
  
  
  Now we all know PC games are best in first-person shooters and
  MMORPG's. However, we did see a TON of very excellent games arrive this
  year. Age of Empires III, F.E.A.R., and Serious Sam 2 are my personal
  favorites. There's really too many to note on here from this year. PC's
  are always going to be a step above consoles in graphics, so we'll just
  leave it at that.
  
  PC grade
  Overall - A
  
  
  My top 10 games of 2005 (in no particular order)
  1. Star Wars Battlefront II (Xbox and PC)
  2. Guitar Hero (PS2)
  3. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
  4. Resident Evil 4 (PS2 and Gamecube)
  5. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (Xbox, PS2, PC, Gamecube..don't buy the DS version)
  6. World of Warcraft (PC)
  7. God of War (PS2)
  8. Trauma Center (DS)
  9. Mario Kart DS (DS)
  10. Animal Crossing Wild World (DS)
  
  
  
  All in all this was a pretty awesome year in gaming. With every
  next-gen set to break out their big guns (360 - Oblivion, PS3 - MGS4,
  Rev - Zelda) in 2006, we'll definitely see swords clash and the
  breaking of shields in this next generation battleground.
  
  
  • Posted Jan 18, 2006 8:36 pm GMT
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