2008 Video Game(s) of the Year - Part 2

Here we go, my final say on what was video games in 2008. The big finale. Where I get to say what I liked best in video gaming in 2008. Now mind you, this is just my opinion, more specifically, the games where I had the most fun. Without further ado:

2008 Role-Playing Game of the Year
Fallout 3 - I had a ton of fun playing this game. I was a little nervous that Bethesda wouldn't get the feel of the Fallout universe right but I'll be damned if they didn't nail it. There is a special balance between the horrors of a post-apocalyptic world and the campy humor that is Fallout and these guys were spot on. The new first person perspective and the V.A.T.S system was a welcome addition to the game. I played the game Wasteland in 1988 and fell in love with the apocalyptic atmosphere that game had. Then came Fallout which, while not a sequel to Wasteland, was definitely a spiritual successor to the game. I played that to death as well. Fallout 2 was more of the same and sadly, the series faded after Brotherhood of Steel. I was so psyched that the series got revived and was very happy with Fallout 3. I hope it wasn't nostalgia that influenced this decision but it doesn't matter. I had a ton of fun with Fallout 3.

2008 Shooter of the Year
Left 4 Dead - This is the game that has prevented me from posting this already. I am always down with some zombie killing action but doing it with friends makes it all that more fun. The frantic action of going through a "movie" in 4-player co-op game is a ton of fun but I had the most fun playing versus mode as a special infected zombie. Being able to set a trap with all of your zombie friends for the survivors and incapacitate them all at once is wickedly satisfying. Choosing the Boomer zombie and barfing on all 4 survivors and sending hordes of frenzied infected is awesome. Going through the campaign as a survivor and reading the notes other survivors left behind is a nice touch too. "No zombie is safe from Chicago Ted". A close runner up is Call of Duty - World at War. The only thing that kept that out of contention is the map glitches in multi-player and the insufferable "n00b tube" spamming on Hardcore Search & Destroy missions.

2008 Arcade Game of the Year - Penny Arcade - On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode 1- I didn't play too many arcade titles this year but I had a lot of fun with the offering from the guys at Penny Arcade. The game play, story and humor were just right. Cannot wait to get my hands on Episode 2.

2008 Party Game of the Year - Rock Band 2 - Any game that I can get my wife to play deserves special mention. This game is so much fun to play with a bunch of people who aren't too self concious and just want to let loose. WE need to play more of this in 2009.

2008 Sports Game of the Year - Tiger Woods 09 - Believe it or not, this was the hardest category for me to pick this year. UEFA 2008 and Burnout Paradise were solid games but TW 09 edged them out with a solid return from TW 08. Everything is better in TW 09 except for the announcers. EA, bring back Gary McCord and David Feherty. They cracked me up even if the youth of today doesn't get their schtick.

2008 Action Game of the Year - LEGO Batman - This is the first LEGO game that I ever played and I was addicted to it immediately. This was a nice balance of action, puzzle solving and collecting followed up with a nice touch of humor too. I even went out and bought LEGO Star Wars - The Complete Saga because of this and will get LEGO Indiana Jones too.

2008 Biggest Disappointment of the Year - Brother's in Arms - Hell's Highway - I was sooo looking forward to this game since I loved the original XBOX's Road to Hill 351. Sadly, this game looked and acted like a last gen game not a current gen game. I wish they had more time to polish it up and produce a better product since the game-play concept is great.

2008 Biggest Surprise of the Year - LEGO Batman - I chose this because I thought that I would hate a LEGO game and that it would be too cutesy but I was surprised. I had a ton of fun with this game, so much so that I went out and grabbed all 1000 achievement points.

2008 Game of the Year - Fallout 3 - For reasons stated above, I had more fun and got more immersed in this game than any other. GTAIV missed the cut because I found myself getting bored and frustrated with the game after a few weeks of playing. The magic just wore off. Not so for Fallout 3. I am planning on going back into that world and do more exploring and also play the new DLC due out soon.

Thanks for reading and I will try to start doing game reviews on a regular basis as I get them and play them. Cheers! JEff

New Favorite Quote

"When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied, "Only stand out of my light." Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light."--John W. Gardner

2008 Video Game(s) of the Year - Part 1

Hi Everyone,

I know this is a little late in coming but I finally put down my controller to come up with this list. I am going to do this in 2 parts. In this post, I will list my Video Game of the year categories and contestants. Before I get into the lists, I need to lay down the rules 1) I must have played the game 2) I do not have to finish the game 3) The game had to be released in 2008. That's pretty much it. Makes too much sense but I thought I needed to get that out there.

2008 Role-Playing Game of the Year

• Fable 2
• Fallout 3
• Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
• Lost Odyssey
  

2008 Shooter of the Year

• Call of Duty - World at War
• Gears of War 2
• Battlefield - Bad Company
• Brothers in Arms - Hell's Highway
• Rainbow Six - Vegas 2
• Left 4 Dead
• Army of Two
  

2008 Arcade Game of the Year

• Penny Arcade - On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode 1
• Geometry Wars 2
• Dash of Destruction
  

2008 Party Game of the Year (was going to be Music game of the year but I only had Rock Band 2)

• Rock Band 2
• Viva Pinata Party Animals
• Carnival Games (Wii)
  
• Mario Kart (Wii)
  

2008 Sports Game of the Year

• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09
• Madden NFL 09
• Burnout Paradise
• UEFA Euro 2008
  

2008 Action Game of the Year

• Too Human
• Mercenaries 2
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• LEGO Batman
• Prince of Persia
  

2008 Biggest Disappointment of the Year

• Too Human
• Madden NFL 09
• Brothers in Arms - Hell's Highway
  

2008 Biggest Surprise Game of the Year

• LEGO Batman
• Burnout Paradise
• Penny Arcade - On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode 1

2008 Video Game of the Year

• LEGO Batman
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Gears of War 2
• Burnout Paradise
• Fable 2
• Fallout 3
  

I'll post my winners later this week along with my reasons for choosing the games I did. Until then....cheerio.

-Jeff

My New Year's Resolutions

It's about time I got off of my butt and put my New Year's Resolution(s) out on the internets for everyone to see. Hopefully the act of writing and publishing this will make me more apt to follow through on the goals I've set for myself in 2009....a little accountability if you will.

The theme here is Minimize and Maximize. There are a lot of things I need to do more of and definitely things I need to do less of. I have listed all of the biggies here. There are definitely more things I need to work on but this list is just long enough that it will be very hard to make noticeable changes. Here it goes:

• Minimize the amount of food I eat in general, including all of the fatty food, junk food and stuff that is just plain bad for me. It isn't enough for me to just knock out the bad food, but I have to cut down the sheer volume of food I eat...I mean, pistachios aren't bad for you but 1.5 lbs at a sitting is definitely not good. I am getting older, have a young family and I have a lot left to do in life so killing myself with food is not a wise thing to do.
• Maximize the amount of good food I eat. I need to eat more vegetables, some more fish, more salad etc. I'm going to try to do my own combination of Weight Watcher's and the Glycemic Load Diet.
• Minimize the amount of Diet Coke I drink this year. I drink way too much Diet Coke but I love it so much. I can't cut it out completely but I think no more than 3 12oz. cans or equivalent in a day will be good for me. One for breakfast (I'm not a coffee guy), lunch and dinner should do nicely.
• Maximize the amount of water and green tea I drink. To replace all of the Diet Coke that I drink I need something else to quench my thirst. Water all day and Green Tea at night should do just fine. I also want to try to get a glass of red wine in 3-4 times a week too for the resvertarol.
• Minimize the amount of crap that I own. I still have tons of stuff from my teens and early twenties that I need to get rid of. I carried this stuff around with me through several moves with the thought that I can't possibly part with any of it. I started to sell off some of this stuff in 2008 and used that money for some really nice stuff that I really wanted (tools and camera gear). I still have enough stuff in my basement to buy a new lens or two for the camera. The nice side effect here is that I will make room in the basement so that we can finally finish it. If I can't sell this stuff this year, I'm giving it away or throwing it out. It has to go this year. This item also includes buy less crap. I need to really think about what I need and what I want. There is a fine line here that I can very easily cross and before I know it, my Amex bill is up.
  
• Maximize the amount of quality stuff that I buy. This goes hand-in-hand with getting rid of my crap. When I get any cash for that, I'll turn it into stuff I want, I'll use and is of high quality. This is something my wife and I have been doing for years: buy the best we can we want to buy something. Nothing is worse that cheaping out and having something break down. You end up replacing it sooner than you want to and spend more in the long run than just buying the best at the start.
• Minimize the amount of video games I play. I usually play 2-3 hours a day on a weekday and 4-5 hours a day on the weekend. Mind you that I am a video game addict and love them too much to give them up. Besides, after a stressful day at work, I love nothing more than play some games. It is also one of the few outlets I have to spend time with my friends that are all over the country or have family obligations so those few hours in the evening are the only time I get to spend with them (pwning n00bs of course).
• With the free time gained from my lessened video game time, I would do the following:
• Maxmize Sleep Time. I get about 5 hours of sleep a night and usually try to get 10 hours on Saturday or Sunday morning. I need to try to get at least 7 hours of sleep a night. This will be hard since I only go to bed when I'm tired. If I'm not tired, I tend to stare at the ceiling. If I'm tired, I fall asleep in about 1.5 seconds. This will be tough.
• Maximize my writing time. I need to get in the habit of writing at least 30 minutes a day. This can be blogging, twittering or some more creative writing. I have a ton of book ideas mapped out. Maybe I'll finish one and write my book.
• Maximize my reading time. Right now, I only read for about 20 minutes a day. When I was younger, I read about 2 hours a day at least and finished 1-2 books each week. Now it takes me 2 weeks to get through a 700 page book. Not acceptable with all of the stuff I want to read. Plus it keeps my mind from turning to mush.
• Maximize my photography time. I need to take my camera with me more places and take more pictures. I might like to take a class or two. I also need to make more out of the Photoshop/Photography training site I'm a member of. I also need to spend more time post processing my photos and try to publish more to the web and maybe print some. I would also like to try my hand at selling some on iStockPhoto.
• Most of all, I would like to Maximize the time I spend with my family. I would like to get the kids involved more in photography, gardening and some other stuff. They are getting to the age now where we can have a lot of fun together. My wife has been pushing me harder and harder to do more stuff as a family and I think this year I'll take a more proactive approach to it.
  

There you go. This is what I'm going to try and improve on this year. It is a lot to do and I'll need some help but with blood, sweat and tears, I think I can pull it off. If I'm successful, I think it will make me a better person.

Cheers and have a great 2009!!!

-Ffej

In which I let everyone know I'm alive.

Okay Okay Okay...I know that I haven't posted anything here since I set this thing up. My 2009 New Year's resolution will have me posting here more regularly. In fact, I think I'll lay out my resolution in the next post. I promise I'll get that going this week. Until then...stay tuned.