2008 Video Game of the Year
There's a game I've been playing on my PS3 that I think is the best game to come out all year. Here's a list of games from 2008 I've played that are strong titles; which do you think I've picked?
GTA IV
Soul Calibur IV
Rock Band 2
Spore
Little Big Planet
These are all good games (well, maybe except for one). Some were expensive to produce, some highly polished, some innovative, and some are sequels. I picked...
Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars. This is a $10 ($15 when I got it) download from the PSN for PS3. It's an ostensibly simple game, with just cars, a ball, and two goals. What makes it great is that all you can do is bump the ball by running into it; you have no weapons. Thus control of your car is everything. It can double-jump, rotate in the air (around two axes, no less), and it has a rocket mounted on the back that can be used for speed or to fly.
The computer gives absolutely no assistance in hitting the ball the right direction - so it's entirely up to the player to make sure that the collision between the ball and the car gives the desired result. With no assistance, early on it's a victory every time you hit the ball and it goes even remotely in the direction you want. As you incrementally improve, there's always a sense of accomplishment. Since the game includes the awesome feature of being able to upload videos of your games to youtube, I'll show you one of the first goals that I scored from mid-air. To get an idea of what is possible, check out this goal scored by one of the developers.
The single-player experience is solid. There are minigames that teach specific skills, like goal-tending and brake-sliding. You can also play against bots in an escalating series of matches. They're surprisingly good at the game, and are fun to play with while you're learning. If you can get through all the minigames (25 of them) and most of the tournament matches, you have learned enough to start playing online.
The online games are quite good. I usually find there are enough players around to get a game within 5 minutes. It's possible to play networked with several people split-screen, which is a nice way to get new people into it. It also keeps extensive stats on each player.
One great feature that more games need to use is that of profiles. I don't mean using the PS3 accounts to hold separate profiles. I mean keeping profiles for each person who plays the game on your system under one PS3 account. Some people like inverted-y on their cameras, other people don't. On this game, you can create a profile that you select when you play and it remembers your control preference settings. If only Tekken had this feature; I play with a non-standard set of shoulder-button binds. This causes endless trouble when playing in a group of friends who all have different button binds.
It's clear to me that this game was made by a small group of developers who made it because they loved playing it. When the company (the one behind Onslaught mode in UT 2004) had a night where they fielded teams of 2 against the internet community, they won 47 games to 14. If you saw Adam's amazing goal in the above youtube link, you can see just how much practice he's put into the game.
Fortunately, enough people bought it to keep the online portion alive, and give the developers enough incentive to add a map in the first patch. The community seems to be slowly growing, as it's the kind of game you can play for months (or longer) without getting bored since you can always refine your technique a little bit more. This game is like a combination of soccer and Quake 3 (if you don't know, Q3 has one of the longest learning curves in history).
If you haven't played or seen SARPBC, you owe it to yourself to try the demo. I can't promise you'll like it, but at least give it a chance. I can't think of a better way to spend $10 on a video game.
If you'd like to see more videos, here are some of me playing. They're just highlights, so don't be afraid to click.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ygoFth9sPA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSMy-jY486o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7UoxdU87-A
GTA IV
Soul Calibur IV
Rock Band 2
Spore
Little Big Planet
These are all good games (well, maybe except for one). Some were expensive to produce, some highly polished, some innovative, and some are sequels. I picked...
Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars. This is a $10 ($15 when I got it) download from the PSN for PS3. It's an ostensibly simple game, with just cars, a ball, and two goals. What makes it great is that all you can do is bump the ball by running into it; you have no weapons. Thus control of your car is everything. It can double-jump, rotate in the air (around two axes, no less), and it has a rocket mounted on the back that can be used for speed or to fly.
The computer gives absolutely no assistance in hitting the ball the right direction - so it's entirely up to the player to make sure that the collision between the ball and the car gives the desired result. With no assistance, early on it's a victory every time you hit the ball and it goes even remotely in the direction you want. As you incrementally improve, there's always a sense of accomplishment. Since the game includes the awesome feature of being able to upload videos of your games to youtube, I'll show you one of the first goals that I scored from mid-air. To get an idea of what is possible, check out this goal scored by one of the developers.
The single-player experience is solid. There are minigames that teach specific skills, like goal-tending and brake-sliding. You can also play against bots in an escalating series of matches. They're surprisingly good at the game, and are fun to play with while you're learning. If you can get through all the minigames (25 of them) and most of the tournament matches, you have learned enough to start playing online.
The online games are quite good. I usually find there are enough players around to get a game within 5 minutes. It's possible to play networked with several people split-screen, which is a nice way to get new people into it. It also keeps extensive stats on each player.
One great feature that more games need to use is that of profiles. I don't mean using the PS3 accounts to hold separate profiles. I mean keeping profiles for each person who plays the game on your system under one PS3 account. Some people like inverted-y on their cameras, other people don't. On this game, you can create a profile that you select when you play and it remembers your control preference settings. If only Tekken had this feature; I play with a non-standard set of shoulder-button binds. This causes endless trouble when playing in a group of friends who all have different button binds.
It's clear to me that this game was made by a small group of developers who made it because they loved playing it. When the company (the one behind Onslaught mode in UT 2004) had a night where they fielded teams of 2 against the internet community, they won 47 games to 14. If you saw Adam's amazing goal in the above youtube link, you can see just how much practice he's put into the game.
Fortunately, enough people bought it to keep the online portion alive, and give the developers enough incentive to add a map in the first patch. The community seems to be slowly growing, as it's the kind of game you can play for months (or longer) without getting bored since you can always refine your technique a little bit more. This game is like a combination of soccer and Quake 3 (if you don't know, Q3 has one of the longest learning curves in history).
If you haven't played or seen SARPBC, you owe it to yourself to try the demo. I can't promise you'll like it, but at least give it a chance. I can't think of a better way to spend $10 on a video game.
If you'd like to see more videos, here are some of me playing. They're just highlights, so don't be afraid to click.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ygoFth9sPA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSMy-jY486o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7UoxdU87-A
posted by Almo at 9:08 PM
2 Comments:
I'm not sure I asked you, Ethan, but did you play Braid last year?
It's a great exploration of old school mechanics, twisted around the addition of 'time/space' mechanics.
By the by, I haven't played Rocket Cars but one criticism seems present from your description, although I love a long learning curve, even a steepish one, I prefer it not to start with a high-jump.
As for Tekken profiles, I agree thoroughly, alternately, just learn to play like a human :)
But its learning curve IS smooth. That's what the minigames and tutorials are for. The tutorials only let you proceed after accomplishing small things.
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