Best of the Rest: Ross' Picks of 2007
by Ross Miller 
{ Jan 1st 2008 at 8:30PM }
While Portal is being given its much deserved credit for the year, and Half-Life 2 has enjoyed years of acclaim, let's not forget about the other pillar of Valve's The Orange Box. It's been eight years since the release of Team Fortress Classic, and the game has undergone so many revisions and delays we half expected it to be released alongside Duke Nukem Forever sometime in 2012. As it turned out, the game not only saw the light of day but ended up being an addictive online experience.
As a console gamer enjoying this with a gamepad, I don't care much much for the sniper, soldier, demoman, or anything except medic and occasionally the engineer. There's something brutally satisfying about charging into battle behind a heavy weapons guy, dodging the occasional bullet (people still haven't learned) and injecting him with a team-killing jolt of invincibility. Hours of enjoyment and not a single bullet shot. Pure. Enjoyment.
One of my favorite articles from Scott's Off the Grid columns has always been his review of Carcassonne. Of course, I never cared go to the actual lengths of finding the game or friends who were willing to sit down with me and play it. So, when the Xbox Live version was announced, I waited for that. And it was worth the wait, with the exception of the cringe-inducing background music.
Sure, it was technically released on Nintendo 64 in 2000, but this Treasure, erm, treasure has only this year been translated and officially released in North America via a Virtual Console download. The characters are extremely androgynous (short shorts but with very manly grunts? Really?) and the music is inappropriately upbeat given the over-the-top dramatic storyline. Of course, all this adds to the atmosphere, and this on-the-rails shooter is incredibly fun. Be the first kid on your block to recognize Saki in next year's Smash Bros. Brawl.
This game is personal for many reasons: one of my first, and still favorite, interviews I've done with Joystiq (and consequently my entire career covering the games industry) was talking to flOw creator Jenova Chen in September 2006. Although still available as a free flash game created as his Masters' thesis, Chen's PlayStation 3 version displayed on 1080p television is quite the soothing experience. The game is still one of my favorite examples of using the Sixaxis controls, and the recent expansion got me caught up with the game yet again.
My favorite pastime of 2007: trying to explain what the point of flOw is. I predict my favorite pastime of 2008 will be trying to explain to myself what flOwer is.
The following items were even harder to justify as "games," but I still managed to thoroughly enjoy:
- HD Movie Menu Screens - Compelled by my love for the show Heroes and Best Buy's crazy awesome deal, I picked up the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player. Sure, I could just watch the show normally, but now you can go through menus and the video will just keep on playing. Even more exciting, when you switch in and out of the menu, the entire screen shrinks dynamically. I'm not ashamed to admit this was a thoroughly satisfying experience that I replayed over and over again until someone slapped the controller out of my hand.
- FreeRice - I didn't want to label this a game, per se, because essentially it's just a multiple choice game. However, by merit of having a steep difficulty curve, an unforgiving level system (you drop one level for every wrong answer and only raise a level by answering three correct in a row) and being linguistic-centric, I couldn't resist playing this obsessively for the last couple of months.
- My Word Coach - Make no mistake, I like My Word Coach. I think it's a fun game, but I wanted it to be amazing. After last year's Bookworm Adventures and Brain Age, I was looking for another outlet for feed my inner-English nerd. Unfortunately, I only found a few of the game modes (Word Shuffle, Split Decision, Missing Letter and perhaps Block Letters) engaging. Also, after a month of playing almost daily - that's approximately 1200 successful words - I only saw a handful of vocables that even challenged me. Maybe it gets more challenging after you unlock the harder difficulty levels, but that's taking way too much effort and I just assume get my diction-fix playing FreeRice.
- Lair - Uh, yeah.
- LittleBigPlanet's absence - Ever since my playtime E3 - no, ever since the initial unveiling at GDC - we have been clamoring to get our hands on the title in the confines of our own homes. A demo was supposed to come this year, and it never showed. I cried.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ThornedVenom @ Jan 1st 2008 8:44PM
"Got rice, bitch? Got rice?
Got food, got soup, got spice?"
etard_sepharo @ Jan 2nd 2008 2:19AM
ThornedVenom: That's a classic.
____
I see I am not alone in enjoying Free Rice and bookworm adventures obsessively.
Anam @ Jan 1st 2008 8:58PM
Yay for flOw!
Best use of motion controls I've experienced yet.
Poisoned Al @ Jan 1st 2008 9:02PM
You have to play TF2 with a keyboard and mouse. Rocket/demo jumping is such a huge part in the games I play, that I could never see it working on a pad.
And yeah, people don't learn that hiding somewhere high doesn't mean I can't get them and rain down death explosive from above!
CR @ Jan 1st 2008 9:29PM
Rocket (grenade) jumping truly is the mark of TF2 veterancy. Many sniper perches aren't actually safe since Soldiers can easily get there from an unexpected side and wreak havoc.
Jeff @ Jan 1st 2008 9:48PM
Team Fortress is such a fun game. It takes care of my casual, team-playing jolly side. I have UT3 for my crazy, personal deathmatches :)
capt_carl @ Jan 1st 2008 9:57PM
TF2 didn't really seem to catch on the consoles, but on PC it dominates most online shooters with the exception of maybe Counter-strike or Call of Duty 4. I love it to death.
I grabbed Carcassonne when it went for free on XBLA, and I'm glad I did. It's a ton of fun.
WiiFTW @ Jan 1st 2008 10:20PM
TF2 FTW
Doesn't need super-mega-ultra graphics cards at all
Chaotic
Fun for hours on end
Came with my graphics card
Comes with Portal
Favorite Class-Soldier
What more can you ask for? (other than a Companion Cube)
capt_carl @ Jan 1st 2008 10:29PM
Cake!
Einhanderkiller @ Jan 1st 2008 11:03PM
Is rocket jumping possible in the console versions of TF2? It's perhaps one of my favorite techniques to use on 2fort. I get such a kick out of harassing the Snipers as a Soldier. Pretty much all I do is fire a few rockets at the opposite side from the battlements, forcing the Snipers to run to cover, drop down, run across the bridge, then rocket jump and gib those Snipers with my rockets. :D
Eventually, the Snipers get annoyed and switch classes.
Jeff @ Jan 1st 2008 11:26PM
As a dedicated sniper hater, I might just have to start playing soldier. Sounds a lot simpler than my usual spy method =)
Anam @ Jan 1st 2008 11:31PM
Yes, rocket-jumping is possible in the console versions. I can't tell you if it's as effective or not, since I haven't played the PC version.
madatoman @ Jan 1st 2008 11:25PM
Team Fortress 2 on Xbox? Pure. Enjoyment.?
First person shooter = computer game
First person shooter = computer game
First person shooter = computer game
Jeff @ Jan 1st 2008 11:31PM
You people never learn!!! Shoot the doctor first!! Always shoot the doctor first!!!
Grumpyzrp @ Jan 2nd 2008 12:15AM
lol.. shoot the doctor!!
Mo the Hawk @ Jan 2nd 2008 12:34AM
Quit hiding behind your meat sheild and take it like a man.
We'll see who's getting "pure enjoyment" after I sling an aluminum bat over your head as a Scout.
TheMoonman @ Jan 2nd 2008 2:50AM
I'd love to play TF2 on the PC, but I'm just a ho-hum average Joe with a ho-hum average compy, so no dice, I guess.
That being said, TF2 is incredulously addicting even on the 360.
etard_sepharo @ Jan 2nd 2008 3:48AM
Man I'm sick of this one...
TF2 Min Reqs:
1.7 GHz Pentium 4
512 MB system RAM
DirectX 8 video card
Please join us by buying a computer from at least the year 2003.
TheMoonman @ Jan 2nd 2008 11:38AM
Umm...I said I was a ho-hum average Joe; I don't know how to check if my compy's got any of that.
etard_sepharo @ Jan 2nd 2008 1:52PM
Sorry then your just living in ignorance.
You don't buy a car and wonder what its gas mileage is or how many cylinders it has or if it's front wheel drive or rear wheel.
I'm just so sick of the erroneous assumption that PC gaming requires some insanely expensive hardware. Most games [especially valve games] scale extremely well.
TheMoonman @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:44PM
Well, you're not exactly helping this by coming off as a jerk. That "erroneous assumption" won't stop until people like you can tell us how it is. That's just the way it is.
And with that, I don't even think my compy's got the requirements for it either; just a couple MB of system RAM short apparently.
I'm such a stinker.
driven2sin @ Jan 2nd 2008 2:46PM
yeah but doesn't everyone cheat with PC online games?
(figure I would throw in another kneejerk fear)