The 2007 Review - a Year of PC Gaming
YouGamers' Biggest Surprise of 2007 Sony's Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction With the games industry saturated with releases, it's very easy to become cynical and blasé about the whole thing, and not enjoy any of it (even more so if you're a journalist). Fortunately, there's always something to catch you out and cause surprise, and we were reasonably together on this one. For Joe, it was the news that EA were acquiring BioWare, and on a similar, if opposite, vein Aaron plumbed for Bungie telling Microsoft to take a hike (his words!). Our sales charts guru Daniel was somewhat shocked that he liked Rachet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (as did Aaron who chose it alongside Super Mario Galaxy, as the best console game this year). It was another split decision though, with two other games genuinely and unexpectedly delighting us. You've probably guessed already but Jarno says of one: "I had disregarded it as the little "freebie" game tacked on, but it turned out to be a truly mind-bending game. Not only did the gameplay concept work well, but it had a story! A real, honest-to-god storyline with proper writing and delivery that managed to be both witty and emotional. It's also probably the best example of a game that is too short, yet exactly as long as it should be at the same time."; Jani claimed that, for the other, "I never thought that after over ten years I'd still find myself enjoying a multiplayer FPS." Pasi was just straight to the point: "awesomeness!" and Antti pointed out that "Jarno was going crazy hyping it, so I couldn't help but feel a bit dubious... however, a simple puzzle game with plot twists, zany humor and an insane A.I. suddenly isn't a simple puzzle game!" We are, of course, talking about Valve's Portal and Team Fortress 2, again! In the case of the latter, it's not hard to understand why we were surprised by it - it had been in development for so long that most people had simply dismissed the likelihood of it ever appearing. And then, when the trailers started to appear, people were thinking that there was no way that the final game would look or play as well as in the footage; but it did. Portal crept up on us in a similar fashion but rather than promising us Toy Story graphics, it kept its cards well hidden.
Biggest Surprise of 2007: Valve's Portal and Team Fortress 2
Tags |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
