Eurogamer's Top 50 Games of 2008: 10-1 Comments by Eurogamer staff

@thinred

Just because Fifa is released yearly doesn't justify "professional journalists" ignoring the game. Compare Fifa 09 with Fifa 07 for example; I played 07 around relatives house over Xmas, the difference is huge. I then told my brother-in-law about 09, he went out and bought it then couldn't stop playing all night!

I sold No More Heroes 3 days after getting it.
The graphics reminded me of how I see the world when I have a splitting migraine, and the 'gameplay' was a slow trudge until you got to face the bosses.
Don't tell me I don't 'get' it,the only thing there is to get - is a few snobby reviewers and players convincing themselves they are having fun so they feel more intelligent that the rest of us.

John Walker: cunt. "I haven't played LBP, but I think it's rubbish." Er, your opinion's not valid then, is it?

Kieron Gillen: cunt. Need I say more?

Edge have given up on reviewing Pro Evo and Fifa. Maybe EG should do the same.
(and seeing as EG's reviews always go online on or after release date, I thought they had this year)

GHWT above RB2, mental.

Well done LBP, fantastic game.

this list made me sigh.

'Edge have given up on reviewing Pro Evo and Fifa. Maybe EG should do the same.
(and seeing as EG's reviews always go online on or after release date, I thought they had this year)'

Suprised they haven't given up already then. EG is just trying to turn into Edge slowly so i guess it's only a matter of time.

Way to stay relevant by not reviewing two of the biggest games of every year, Edge! Pretentious wankers.

look, i'm happy football games aren't for you, but they are for millions of people worldwide, so to assume that these games shouldn't be reviewed just because you don't enjoy them is incredibly self-centred and frankly as someone else said, bollocks!

I love Pro Evo with a passion, and hold out waiting for the review.

But I get so pissed off having to wait until release day or after for EG's review, that they might as well not bother.
(even more so after I and lots of others got royally stitched up by EG not mentioning the massive problems with the PS3 version of Pro Evo 2008 - until 2 weeks later when they mentioned it in passing in one of their PS3 vs 360 features)

Not sure why football games seem to be getting dismissed these days. If you look at the sheer number of game modes in FIFA, Be a Pro 10v10 and the fact it contains (arguably) the most realistic football engine to date, then you have a fantastic sandbox experience where anything can happen. All this toss that goes around about games "being a platform", football games have been doing it for years! But then again, if you don't like football in the first place....

ryohazuki1983: "Just because Fifa is released yearly doesn't justify "professional journalists" ignoring the game. Compare Fifa 09 with Fifa 07 for example; I played 07 around relatives house over Xmas, the difference is huge. I then told my brother-in-law about 09, he went out and bought it then couldn't stop playing all night!"

Fair enough, but what about Fifa 08? If it was pretty much the same as 07, then there was no point releasing it (except cashing in, of course). If it was a highly significant improvement over 07, then it's probably close to 09, so no point in releasing the latter.

frankblack: Bollocks

Maybe so. You sound like you know the game and franchise better than me, so I won't argue with you. My point is that these supposedly huge improvements are only evident to people who are very much into the franchise or people who last picked it two or three iterations ago. For the rest of us (most of us, probably), it's same old same old EVERY freaking year.

If EG was compiling a 2008 top 100 then I'm sure Fifa 09 would be in there, if only for overall quality and production values. As it is, I can see many other games this year deserving more than Fifa 09 to get into the top 50, be it for overall quality, innovation, and so on. But hey, to each his own.

09 was massivley improved over 08, no doubt. Its possible to tell within about the first 30 seconds of a match, wether you are obsessed with the series or not. The introduction of 10v10 online, and the Clubs support, was another massive step for the series so in this case the difference was huge. Given the EA budget cuts this might not be the case next year of course :p

I dont think GTAIV should be in any top ten of the whole year, its the biggest let down of the year.
"Oh look, a road with no cars on, I'm going to turn around and face the other way. Now I shall immediately turn around again and face the road - WOAH! Where did all those cars come from!?!!?"
or...
"I'm going to drive in to this 10ft tall, young birch tree at 200mph (crashes, hurtles player through windscreen on to pavement). How odd, the tree appears to be made out of SOLID TITANIUM."

Same old game with some not-so-fancy blotchy 'stylised' graphics thrown on top of it, with some lovely attention to detail.
Cash-cow milking at its best.

LBP at number one? Whole heartedly agree. If you have not played it, play it.

@Erinan: "GH:WT higher than RB? Seriously? "

You should play it. Its great!

Plus, they know how to make a proper guitar, the slide is everything that the original RB guitar wanted to be and they KNOW HOW TO RELEASE A GAME IN EUROPE.

John Walker: c***.

Argh my eyes! How can you write such things about JW! Where is your humanity?!

I played No More Heroes all the way through three times. I just found the sword combat to be like some kind of delicious amphetamine.

Maybe EG staff don't change opnions after they're commited to the page - they probably still think RE4 Wii controls are borked, there's no such thing as 'tuck' on Family Ski (EG Epic Fail of the Year!) but equally NMH is undiminished over time.

I'm not bothered about the arrangement of the titles in the top 10, because if you took a small bunch of us gamers and made us come up with a top 10 the sample space would make an equally scrambled list. I just think bumping up Geometry Wars and More Cock Rock For You to the total exclusion over the individual games we're all astonished not to see anywhere in the top 50 is a bit much.

LastAngryMan: 09 was massivley improved over 08, no doubt. Its possible to tell within about the first 30 seconds of a match, wether you are obsessed with the series or not. The introduction of 10v10 online, and the Clubs support, was another massive step for the series so in this case the difference was huge. Given the EA budget cuts this might not be the case next year of course :p

See? You guys are already waiting for NEXT year's iteration, even though this year's is amazing by your recknoning. I KNOW I would be sick of ANY of the games I like if they were putting out a new one every year, but that's probably just me ;)

"Fair enough, but what about Fifa 08? If it was pretty much the same as 07, then there was no point releasing it (except cashing in, of course). If it was a highly significant improvement over 07, then it's probably close to 09, so no point in releasing the latter."

I only played 08 on the Wii, so can't really comment on that as Wii version was dumbed down.

However I feel 09 is a worthy mention for new features, 10V10 works very well, considering there's 20 human players in one football match with no lag. Consdering the lag on PES is terrible with just two players.

I do agree that in the past EA have used Fifa just to cash-in. Now a lot of people assume it's still the same.

Like you say each to their own, i'm probably just biased because I play the game every night! End of the day it's just EGs list no big deal, was just suprised one of the best sport games ever made missed the list.

Ha! To be fair, I didnt say I couldnt wait for the next one, I was just speculating that come next year I will probably be agreeing with you.

I guess the difference is I will be playing FIFA on a weekly basis (as I have with Pro Evo in the past) right up until the release date of the next installment. If there was a Half Life episode every year that maintained the expected level of quality then I'd buy that every year too, so I don't think its a critiscm to be looking forward to the next one.

@tonynibbles: You should play it. Its great!

Hey Tony :] Well, I have it - the missus offered it to me/us when it came out. We played if for a couple of hours, I gave a try to Hotel California and... that's it. Since I received RB2 and exported all the RB1 songs to the HDD, we haven't touched GH:WT once. Each his own, but I really can't stand GH:WT, sorry ;p

Plus, the RB2 guitar is pretty brilliant and GH:WT's one still looks as toyish as before :/

/biased RB fanboy

Edit: ok, too many edits, off to buy new fingers.

"Ha! I guess the difference is I will be playing FIFA on a weekly basis (as I have with Pro Evo in the past) right up until the release date of the next installment. If there was a Half Life episode every year that maintained the expected level of quality then I'd buy that every year too, so I don't think its a critiscm to be looking forward to the next one."

Agree completely, I can see myself playing fifa regularly for the next year or so. It's one of the few games that can hold players for so long.

It's so painful seeing how many people have rushed to the final page without EVEN READING THE FIRST PARAGRAPH.

"zomg EG LBP got 9/10 yet is number 1 - wtf LOL LOL LOL" - oh my god, it's depressing.

AGAINST!

I want to say please, please, please Bethesda for the next Elder Scrolls game try and lease the Assassins Creed engine from Ubi. I was expecting Fallout 3 to look a lot better than Oblivion, technically speaking, but it looks worse. Ubi have the graphics, Bethesda have the gameplay.

This is a win for gaming. The fact that there is no FPS or general shooter at no one gives the gaming world a chance. To see old school platforming with modern touches thrown in winning is a refreshing change.

World of Goo. Nothing else. xD

"I dont think GTAIV should be in any top ten of the whole year, its the biggest let down of the year.
"Oh look, a road with no cars on, I'm going to turn around and face the other way. Now I shall immediately turn around again and face the road - WOAH! Where did all those cars come from!?!!?"
or...
"I'm going to drive in to this 10ft tall, young birch tree at 200mph (crashes, hurtles player through windscreen on to pavement). How odd, the tree appears to be made out of SOLID TITANIUM."

Are these seriously the worst criticisms you can level at the game? The first can be annoying though has been present since GTA3, the second is nothing other than a minor foible in the same way that merely grazing a lamp post sends it flying. Unrealistic but does absolutely NOTHING, AT ALL to detract from the quality of the game in virtually every area. Seriously, genuine criticisms I have just instantly thought of could be be a personal dislike of the protagonist; disliking many of the missions; disliking the new, more realistic, car handling; the almost redundant subway and other overground trains; disliking the narrative or even their decision to supplant the offbeat quirkiness of the previous titles for the gritty realism of GTA4. They're genuine criticisms, but Liberty City is beautifully designed sandbox game world and there's just tons of quality in the narrative to make full use of it. It's the most polished of all the GTAs thus far; a stellar achievement. More of the same, please.

"Same old game with some not-so-fancy blotchy 'stylised' graphics thrown on top of it, with some lovely attention to detail.
Cash-cow milking at its best."

Same old game? The clue is in the name, fella: GTA FOUR. Honestly.

I really do need to play LBP, too. Had it for over a month now and only played it the once! With all the accolades I think it deserves more of my attention :)

I'll repeat what a few have said on here around LBP and the platforming elements. Being physics based (mostly, you can still change direction in the air!) it takes quite some getting used to (particularly the z-axis switching). However once you've done that the platforming is as tight and enjoyable as any other game. I think people see it called platformer and expect Mario. This it is not, however its the most fun I've had gaming all year by a long long way. And the level creation is a time-sink bar none.

As for the lag, yes it can be a problem (if your online with someone not in the EU you stuffed) but does still lead to some entertaining situations. I worry people are getting too cynical for games like this.

As for no FIFA/Pro Evo, this is the very first year in about 15 I've not bought a Pro Evo or FIFA on release. I just don't care anymore.

LBP is great but i'd have Fallout 3 and Fable 2 above it.

I can see why it got one though,it's so different. I findit a bit dull unless i'm playing online but if you've the time to put into creation (which I haven't had since the Beta) then it's very rewarding.

No Dead Space!!! EG you bunch of muppets!!

Little big planet is a very bad platform game wrapped in a thick layer of hype. That is all.

Wow, i've only read a few of the comments here and i have only one thing to say to people like Rash' and SHARXTREME:

Charles Darwin is coming to get you!!!

Now the rest of you, go and enjoy yourselves. It's new year's eve!

Wot? People are still debating and complaining about the order of the list? Regardless of the fact that the order was not specifically selected by any person or panel?

RETARDS!

How in the hell would FIFA 09 make the list unless it was in several of the few contributors TOP 10 most enjoyed games of the year.

Maybe a better format for the list would be to have sections, e.g top 5 ( or whatever) platformers, racers, online game, RPG, wiiware/psn/arcade etc?

Just a thought.

I'm a bit late with this comment, so it will probably get lost in sands of time:

I really really enjoyed reading through that list. It was witty and interesting and has helped me get through the last few days at work.

I don't care what exact numerical order the games ended up in (why anyone would is beyond my superior intellect). But it was interesting to get to read about various games from differing viewpoints.

I think more reviews should be handled in this manner. Let us read what different people like / dislike about a game. Then that would help us form our own opinion of the games merit, dependant on what is important to us. And in the end isn't that the true meaning of Christmas.

Thanks Eurogamer staffy-type-folks.

There is no way in hell that platform game was better than Fallout3.FU.

Trials 2 is 1.49 on Steam for a limited time, and it is bleedin' marvellous, so buy it right now. It was mentioned in the no.10 spot.

Everyone keeps gettting righteous about how we have been told the order doesn't matter and we shouldn't get worked up by it.
So why the fuck are they presented in a decsending order coundown then?
Why is there a game at number one?

You can't have it both ways EG.
The American Film institute doesn't publish its 100 greatest films of all time with a disclaimer saying "obviously Citizen Kane isn't really the best film of all time even thought it is at number 1".

Your disclaimer makes fuck all sense.

Agree with a lot of the comments, the ranking has been pretty bizarre but seems to have picked up most of the significant games, I found the comments for LBP pretty accurate, amazing where it has ended I shall keep trying to understand the appeal?

I agree with what many seem to think about LBP ranking the first position. Not saying it shouldn't be in the top 10 but Fallout 3 really is among the best I've played in many years of continuous gaming, simply stole the scene from anything else released this year.

The other Eurogamer sites have also done these "best game" articles, makes interesting reading seeing how tastes vary across the continent. Personally the Dutch chart is closest to my personal top 10 (they put Layton at 4!) might start reading that using Babelfish or something.

"we shouldn't get worked up by it."

Well you shouldn't get worked up about it regardless, really. it's. a. list.

Well you're obviously worked up enough by it to be in the comments section of it.

@Erinan

Well, I think playing just *one* song probably isn't a fair trial.

I've invested money in and played Rock Band through and through and ultimately, I think World Tour is a better game. Well, hardware-wise: I think its hard to contest it: the World Tour guitars and drums are just plain better in their build quality, and I prefer the guitars slide to RBs inner frets, the drums are very very nice. Software-wise its a harder fight, but I think World Tour snips it. Its just more fun than Rock Band.

Perhaps thats not fair though - I've only played about 7 songs on expert on World Tour and I've hammered RB to death. Still looking forward to playing the create mode on WT.

But why the hell wouldnt WT be better than RB, they've had more than enough time to play catch up. Rock Band 2 however - I've not played it nor know much about it at all. No doubt I'll pick up a copy to keep my RB purchases, but I'll be playing with my WT guitar, thats for OK.

Though the whole RB thing is tainted by their initial shoddy European pricing and release dates (especially for PS3 too), and their cack '1st production' guitars which FAIL for anyone playing on expert.

And you are a RB fanboy, so yes it is unfair :p

How's Dublin?

;)

Maybe a better format for the list would be to have sections, e.g top 5 ( or whatever) platformers, racers, online game, RPG, wiiware/psn/arcade etc?

Just a thought.

Well you can get this on other game sites. I suppose you can find them broken down by platform then genre if you tried. If you walk into a shop looking for a game from a specific genre, though, you're often going to miss out on the best game you can get for your money.

Having said that, I do buy games depending on the time I'd invest in it, and whether I'd play with others or not. So...Long Online (eg an MMO), Short Online (eg L4D), with mates (eg FIFA, Boom Blox), Long Solo (Fable II, Fallout 3) or Short Solo (Too many to count here!). I want to balance out these games so I've got one to pick up and play based on my mood.

I'm worked up about the comments, not the list!

No MGS4 in the Top Ten uh ?No Wipeout HD uh ?
There goes your credibility (the little that remains thats it )Eurogamer !

@ EarlBassett

They presented it in a countdown manner, as it is an easy format choice collating the individual responses, and countdowns are always fashionable at this time of year.

What alternative layout would you suggest? An individual list for each contributor, all interconnected through flash gubbins and laser technology?

Although maybe EG will do that next year in response to the amount of (misplaced) anger this list has generated.

And then someone will call Keiron Gillen a shit cause his favourite games aren't in exactly the same order as theirs.

308th.