My favorite games of 2007

At the beginning of this year I had planned to buy a Wii for the same two reasons I bought a GameCube several years prior: Metroid & Resident Evil, my favorite game franchises. But by the end of 2007 I bought a Xbox 360 instead, why? BioShock, Guitar Hero & Resident Evil 5, which will be exclusive to Xbox this time around.

Since I didn’t get an Xbox until later in the year, I completely missed the big titles from the first three quarters, but after shopping around for used titles, it doesn’t seem like I missed much.

2007 was also a game year for Blue Flavor. We never really played many games in the early days. But just about every day this year we spent a portion of our lunch hours in the game room.

At any rate, here are some of my favorite games I played this year in semi-chronological order.

Wii Sports (Wii)

Wii Sports We played a lot of Wii Sports in the office during the early part of the year. It was a lot of fun and something that everyone could get into. Unfortunately it got a little competitive, so it lost its appeal. It has since been gathering dust. This is a classic game and introduced a whole new way of playing video games.

Rating: Great!

Brain Age & Big Brain Academy (DS)

Brain Age I never understood the whole Sudoku craze until I started playing Brain Age. I never got into the exercises, opting for the Big Brain Academy games instead, but I played all the Sodoku puzzles and had a blast.

Rating: Good

Metroid Prime Hunters (DS)

Metroid Prime Hunters I actually never really got into this game. Holding the DS while trying to control movement was really tiring. But I give it a worthwhile mention as being able to play multiplayer on the plane to Austin with the Blue Flavor crew was worth the price of admission.

Rating: Heh

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)

Twilight Princess While I didn’t buy a Wii, I borrowed the office Wii just about every weekend to play Twilight Princess. Not being a big Zelda fan in general, I really enjoyed playing this one. My only complaint is that they really need to add voice acting.

Rating: Great!

Halo 2 (Xbox 360)

Halo 2 It amazes me how shooting your co-workers just never gets old. Halo 2 served as our fallback game throughout the year for our post-lunch frag fest. We brought new life into it by introducing new types of game play, like shotguns and sticky grenades or pistols with no shields.

Rating: Great!

Call of Duty 2 (Mac)

Call of Duty 2 Part effort to get more than four people gaming and part homage to The Office, we tried out Call of Duty 2 for the Mac, getting everyone in the company playing, including Garrett from New York. Unfortunately competitive attitudes once again spoiled the fun in what is now classic Blue Flavor lore.

Rating: Good

Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

Resident Evil 4 I actually had already played Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube, but I bought if for the Wii anyway. I didn’t play it all the way through, as it wasn’t really a game I could play when PJ was awake. But if you have never played it, it is worth getting.

Rating: Great!

Guitar Hero II (Xbox 360)

Guitar Hero II I think Guitar Hero is one of the best games ever made. It is the first time in 20 years that I feel like my time spent looking at the TV wasn’t totally wasted, using the musical part of my brain that I haven’t used in a long time. And no, it wouldn’t be easier or as fun to just learn to play real guitar. I’ve done that before, it is REALLY hard!

Rating: Legendary!

Metroid Prime 3 (Wii)

Metroid Prime 3 I borrowed the Wii for the last time this year to play Metroid. Up to this point I had planned to get a Wii, but after hearing Resident Evil 5 would be on Xbox, I was on the fence. Playing this game I really was decided if I was to get a Wii or not. While I like the game play, I didn’t get that into it. It was really the same as Metroid Prime, just with a few new quirks.

Rating: Good

Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

Halo 3 This game gets some good office play in, but at home I rarely play it. It is a solid game, choosing not to reinvent wheel, it is pretty much just like Halo 2 and come to think of it the first Halo. The single player game story was pretty lame. I really couldn’t follow what the hell was going on, but I never had very high expectations there. I’m glad that the current incarnation is concluded and looking forward to something new from Bungie with whatever comes next.

Rating: Good

BioShock (Xbox 360)

BioShock I’ve seen the screenshots for BioShock for years while it was in development. After seeing the commercials and early reviews, I was sold. Between Guitar Hero and BioShock I plunked down the $300+ and got a Xbox 360. I actually haven’t finished it yet, as Cyndi really enjoyed watching me play it. I’ve been saving this one wanting to cherish every moment of gameplay.

Rating: One of the best games ever! My pick for the year.

Orange Box (Xbox 360)

Orange Box On Garrett’s recommendation I picked up Orange Box, containing the original Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2, essentially four games in one. The first game I payed was Portal, which was incredible, completely worth the cost by itself. Then having never played the PC-based Half-Life I gave that a try, which I loved. I’ve only played a little Team Fortress, but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played. If I didn’t love BioShock so much, this would be my pick of the year.

Rating: Legendary!

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360)

Guitar Hero III I loved Guitar Hero II, so I thought I would have been more into Guitar Hero III, but I didn’t get into the songs quite as much for some reason. I really liked the mixed of classic tracks from Guitar Hero II… I mean how else are you going to get a Rush song stuck in your head for the better part of a month?

Rating: Great!

Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action (Xbox 360)

Scene It? I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Trying to compete with the Wii’s majority, Microsoft added this non-gamer game to the catalog, introducing the new Big Button, buzzer-like controller. Cyndi and I have had a lot of fun trying to prove who has the better film knowledge (uh… me).

Rating: Great!

Assassins Creed (Xbox 360)

Assassins Creed Assassins Creed really surprised me. I love the different modes of gameplay, the multiple storylines, the historical accuracy. This one had classic written all over it, but it is a little repetitious. It feels like the developers knew they had to add more play time, but didn’t have the development dollars to add anything new. Still I give this one high marks.

Rating: Legendary!

Call of Duty 4 (Xbox 360)

Call of Duty 4 I wasn’t sure about the jump to modern day with the Call of Duty franchise. I has always liked the retro combat of the earlier versions. But I have to say that Call of Duty 4 is probably my favorite tactical shooter to date. The single player game was a bit short, but a lot of fun. The game wasn’t so difficult it wasn’t fun like the Rainbow Six games can be. The controls were easy to pick up and nice and fluid with the gameplay. What I loved most was the different roles you played in the story, from providing air support to jumping back in time as a sniper behind the lines.

Rating: Legendary!

Rock Band (Xbox 360)

Rock Band We bought this for the office, then I bought it for home. The addition of drums and vocals makes this a fun diversion that Cyndi and I have enjoyed playing during the break. I doubt I will ever play the game to completion, but it is fun to break out the drum kit and microphone every now and again.

Rating: Great!

In summary it was a pretty great year for games. It seems like the recurring theme is breaking conventions and trying to do something new with game play. Those that stuck to the tried and true like Halo 2, are still fun, but failed to really get me sucked in. Games that experimented with new types of gameplay made for some serious fun.