I voted for Gears of War, but considering I just finished nabbing the last single player achievement for Saints Row the other day and have logged countless hours in the game (somewhere just over 60), I’d have to go with Saints Row.
60 hours feels like “countless hours”? Man, I don’t think I put less than 80 hours into any game I played this year, heh. People have such different approaches to this hobby!
Yeah, apparently some people play with a stop watch and log sheet.
I must be intellectually lazy, along with not having a next gen console, but I swear I’ve never had more fun with a console game than a multi-player session of Marvel Ultimate Alliance for the PS2 over the holidays with my brother. “Sweet Christmas!” Now I’m back playing solo trying to unlock more costumes and a couple characters that eluded me the first couple times through. Hard mode with default stats does make a real game of it.
I’ve got Bully but for some reason it just didn’t catch my imagination enough to keep me along for the ride. I’ll try it again some time when I might be more receptive. Wouldn’t be the first time a game didn’t take off for me on the first try but surprised me on a second look.
Dead Rising gets my vote.
Wii sports.
NBA 2K7 - sports games get no love on qt3…
I’m going to hazard a guess that FFXII has more hours of gaming goodness than any of those other ones, except for maybe Oblivion.
I’ve only got one game on that list - Okami.
I’ve of course got Oblivion for the PC, and it’s a different enough experience to
the unmodded console game that I can’t vote for it here.
Dead Rising, clearly.
Shamelessly reposted from my blog:
One of the things I value most in a game is a sense of “place”, of really being in the world of the game. Some of my favorites through the years, Star Control 2, Ultima 7, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas really excelled at this, and now they have company in the form of the fantastically executed Dead Rising. One of the things we tried to do on System Shock and Ultima Underworld was try to really create these spaces and populate them as completely as possible – ideally anything you could have done in the “real” Citadel Station you’d be able to do in the game. Dead Rising follows a similar aesthetic, and the Willamette Mall is as fully realized a place as any game I’ve played in the past few years.
Not to be too pointy-headed about it… chopping up zombies with a chainsaw or putting traffic cones on their head has inherent value. The replay-oriented game mechanics of Dead Rising have fantastic synergy with the tense time limit, sense of isolation, resource constraints, and the way they structured the Achievements. On top of all that, the game really uses next-gen power to do something new, in the vast hordes of zombies on screen. Sure, the cutscenes aren’t up to par with the rest of the game visually (though they make up for it in over-the-top-ness), the story is a bit goofy, and it could have really used a “suspend” save game slot. But those are minor nit-picks on what is to me, clearly the best game of the year despite some amazing competition.
Gears, because I’m still playing it a month after its release, and its not a HUGE game.
60 hours feels like “countless hours”? Man, I don’t think I put less than 80 hours into any game I played this year, heh. People have such different approaches to this hobby!
Considering my typical approach of playing a game until something new and shiny comes along and forgetting about the first game altogether, putting more than 10 hours into a game is very rare for me. Couple that with the fact that I generally enjoy shorter-length games (Sands of Time, BG&E, Shadows of the Colossus, Gears, etc), means 60+ hours is incredibly rare. Oh yeah, I rarely play multiplayer.
Some people have small children. :)
Is it bad that I have only played one of these games?
No. What’s bad is that there isn’t really an obvious list of games that should be up for GoTY.
I think this is a particularly rough year because the next gen consoles were released this year but I doubt everybody on the board made the jump. (I’m still working my PS2, and doubt that’s gonna change anytime soon.) So I’m automatically SOL with regards to half the nominees, for example.
Also, and maybe I’m completely wrong, but I think the gaming spectrum feels wider than it did just a few years ago–as maybe the disparity between gaming times points out. Like SqueakyFoo, I’m finding I have far less time to devote to games overall, and currently appreciate a game I can play in short little bites–Guitar Hero, Lego Star Wars, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, GTA:LCS–rather than an awesome timesuck like Dead Rising (or so it sounds).
A lack of a clearcut Game of the Year may point to a more diffuse range of games, a more diffuse range of gamers, or both. And that could very well be a good thing.
Heh, fair enough, that’s why I don’t understand MMO players. I probably spend fewer hours gaming that most posters here, but I stick with games a hell of a lot longer. I’d rather spend a great deal of time with a handful of games and know them inside and out
You know, I’ve heard a ton of good things about Dead Rising, my main concern is that slashing through zombies would get repetetive to me in about 15 minutes… Are these concerns justified?
-Chris
Wow… Gears FTW with a commanding lead!
Congratulations to our first Winner.
I just starting playing Dead rising again. It’s definately a contender. I’d go as far as to say it’s the best zombie themed game ever made.