2007: Best Year Ever Articles

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Written by BuckGB on December 16th, 2007

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But, years! Now, I've been through every year since Nixon left office and the BeeGees still seemed pretty cool, which makes me older than all current pop-stars and the modern age of video games. I am this close to declaring 2007 the best year for video games of all time, based solely on games like Bioshock, God of War II, Rock Band, Crysis, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, Portal, Metroid Prime Corruption, Team Fortress 2, Peggle, Crysis, Guitar Hero 2 (Xbox 360 edition), Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4, Jeanne D'arc, Crackdown, Super Mario Galaxy, The Witcher and a dozen other games I'm forgetting. It's nigh impossible to walk away from ought-seven and not feel like you got your money's worth. For that, I proclaim Two-Thousand-and-Seven, at the very least, my Year of the Year. Let's look back.

We never have so clear a picture of gaming's acceptance as when tragedy strikes, and this year, tragedy was a constant companion. What has given me pause is the court of public opinion didn't immediately hand down a guilty verdict. The videogame bugaboo didn't seem to have the same attraction as it had in years past, and when the fame-hounds spouted their typical dogma, they didn't seem to meet the same receptive audience they did earlier.

Much as I might like to imagine some enlightenment taking place in the belly of tabloid media, I think another factor is, in every sense of the word, at play. I think there are just a lot more gamers around now. It's much easier to point a finger at the gadget in someone else's house rather than the one you just bought for your 10-year-old on his birthday. But even that is only a partial explanation.

16. Mass Effect Xbox 360
Microsoft, BioWare
11/20/07

With Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic developer BioWare has sought out to create its own sci-fi epic, and this first installment is about as good of a start that you can hope for. Planned as a trilogy, Mass Effect's strong points include above-average voice acting, script and story, and a dialogue tree that offers up some (oh s***!) moments, particularly when choosing negative responses. It also begs to be played again and again, not just to get a better grasp of the intricacies of the story, but because each time you play offers a pretty unique experience. Judging by its sales 473,000 in the US in its first 10 days the gaming public isn't too turned off by the fact this BioWare space RPG doesn't bear the Star Wars license.
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3. BioShock PC, Xbox 360
2K Games, 2K Boston
8/21/07

BioShock would be prime material for a videogame lit. course. It's inspired by the work of writer and philosopher Ayn Rand and explores ideas surrounding ethics, politics, metaphysics, genetics and perhaps one or two more '˜ics. This is a game whose events you almost want transcribed on paper so that you can examine at leisure the various intertwining themes that are presented in-game through vehicles like the Big Daddy, Little Sisters, Adam, plasmids and splicers. And there are tons of tape recordings strewn about the watery tomb called Rapture that dot its hyper-atmospheric hallways, nearly all of which are worth listening to. But don't get us wrong this is a shooter, and an innovative one at that, encouraging players to experiment with different killing tactics. BioShock contains the best examples of emergent gameplay this year. Look beyond the nearly flawless gameplay execution and you'll realize that the themes explored in BioShock are perhaps more interesting than the game itself. Color us thrilled that the game sold well enough to warrant a sequel.

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