Eurogamer's Top 50 Games of 2008: 50-41 Comments by Eurogamer staff

I know I said this would start going up tomorrow, but I'm going out tonight and I don't want to forget to do it in the morning :-) Enjoy!

Im sorry...but how on Earth does a game like Mercs 2 do better than resistance 2 and God of War in 2008?

I hated mercs 2 and it didnt live up to the first

resistance was good...not great...but still ...i dunno y mercs is even up there in the first place

I still play Mario Kart with the Wii Wheel, 8 months on...

smash bros at 50, mass effect at 49, the hells going on?

Resistance 2 is pretty much my biggest disapointment so far on the PS3. I still don't quite understand who EG gave the first one such a low score but then praised the sequel. Obviously they thought it was superior but I really can't figure out why.

Did the first one get into the top 50 of the year when it came out?

Because Mercs 2 is fun. What I don't get is Mass Effect. It was much worse last year for the Xbox but I could not get into that game. I loved KOTOR but this had far too much dialogue, the action part was awful and I hate texture popping. I can normally ignore this for the fun factor but ME didn't have any.

You're crazy mrmonkey. Mass Effect it utterly fantasti
Yes its overwhelming at first, but even I (someone who had never played an RPG before) manage to absorb myself in the world.
And yes, the action is swag at first with all your stats low, but after a few missions, you because much better.

Don't even get me started on the amazing story.

Rob's Mario Kart comment is a bit short-sighted, judging by the EG thread anyway... I'd love to get in on it, but I'm afraid I'd get my arse whipped now.

"the Chimera warfleet bombing the San Francisco bay looks staggeringly good"

Every other Chimera ship in that scene had virtually no texturing to speak of, and that really harmed the overall look.

Aside from the graphics Resistance 2 was inferior to its prequel, with Insomniac trying to make a cross between Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4, and since neither of those games had a fun campaign, obviously that didn't bode well for Resistance 2, which is itself, a very boring game indeed.

Mass Effect was monumental. God of War is possibly the best game on the PSP. SSBB and Mario Kart were awesome games. Do they really have 40 better games to fill the rest of the top 50?

hmm

+1 to Tomo, just because Rob stopped playing it, everyone else still is. If I went by his logic, Halo 3 could be called a "flash in the pan" because I only played it a week - that doesn't mean everyone else in the world stopped playing it, it's just me.

After reading the first set of comments on smash brawl i am never going to bother with this site again. what a load of toss wank.

To GALORE

GTA and MGS4 are obviously not in the bottom 10 lol!

So 2 of Nintendo's heavyweights rank very low. I reckon SMG will be 1 or 2 though. I don't agree at all but I think it will be.

Brawl at 50!! What is going on!? Brawl is top 5 at least. Best local multiplayer game ever!

Resistance 2 is rubbish as well...

Please stop defending the PC as a games platform, you've been doing it far too much recently and I'm pretty sure you have much more interesting comments to make. (@ whoever in the Eurogamer team made the relevant comment in the Top 50, KG maybe) Also I hope a free game makes it into the Top 50, like a bit of IF, or some flash thing.

Just seems so obvious that not many people at eurogamer played with there wii's this year seeing as its best game is ranked 50.

Didn't you know Figaro? Eurogamer hates Wii. The majority of EG users seem to hate Wii, because of so called "casual gamers". So much so they just don't bother with proper reviews anymore, they just scrawl them on the office toilets. They make a good read though :)

Brawl top 5??? You're kidding right Burkey? It's a fun game, yes, but it takes no advantage of the platform it's on, is basically the same game we've seen twice before, is WAY too open to button mashing, isn't really balanced properly and requires a fair chunk of play time to unlock some of the headline characters which is a very cheap trick. The single player is pretty poor and the multi, while fun for a while, does become tiresome very quickly unless you've got an attachment to the characters. Fun for short sessions, boring over the long term, near-identical to previous versions and positioned about right in the chart.

As for the rest - no major problems there for me except for one... Merc 2. What on earth is that doing in the 40's? It's a great concept but really badly executed and with a ton of A.I. issues and other bugs. Not even the Eurogamer writers seem to know what it's doing there which suggests that maybe there's a slight maths glitch in whatever system is being used...

WTF Mario Kart Wii at 41 and Mass Effect only squeezing into the top 50. Are we going to be seeing only worthy games in the top 10 i.e. those that scored well and nobody bought?

@ BOFH_UK:

When me and 3 other people are playing brawl in the same room, its the most fun i have had this year by a long way. The biggest and best charachters ever and levels for that matter. If not top 5, then DEFINITELY top ten. Its the wiis best game this year.

I thought Mercs 2 was great, loads of bugs/problems, but immense fun. Surprised to see it make the list after Kristan's review though, but it appears the other members of staff have better taste :)

Wii LOL! Brawl and MK all back of the bus, take that ninty! ;)

EG, ME is too low there SURELY!!! It was epic, like Ellie I was expecting Babylon 5 but got a superior DS9 instead!!

Fun read EG that's kept me occupied while Mrs bad09 plays with her pressie from me (PS3 and LBP with a Sackboy figure I BLOODY WANT!!) looking forward to the next installment, and can't wait to see your no1 this year.

Oh and EG, Dead Space better be higher than 10 in your top 50 or I'm off to Gamespot or some other zoo!

/ shakes fist threateningly at EG, then at EG readers "LOVE dead Space ya bastards! Join the church embrace the faith! You know it makes sense!"

RAR!!! ANGER!

Nice list.

mercs 2 in the top 50 games of 2008. Seriously?

I do have to disagree with Oli Welsh's comment on Mario Kart Wii. It's the 'Wii-as-a-GameCube game' that I think is a bit unfair. Nobody forces anyone to like that game but that statement is both ignorant and wrong (and thus a bit unprofessional for a gaming site). The Wii controls (like them or not) are more than just tagged-on waggle, the online system is better than in any other Wii game (it may be news for xbox fans, but the Wii is the first Nintendo home console to really offer online play) and it even comes with a Wii channel you can install to check time trial times or what your friends are doing without having to start the game.

If there is one game that truly takes advantage of all the Wii's possibilities then this is it.

As scimirad says, Resistance 2 = hugely disappointing in the single player. The first game was good with puzzle like combat of using the right weapon at the right time and never felt cheap the way Resistance 2 does time and time again.

Rob Fahey: I don't understand what happened to MK Wii. Everyone thought it was great for a week, and then everyone stopped playing. Previous MK games (even the DS one) were party-gaming staples for years, so why was this one such a flash in the pan (and practically forgotten by the end of year)?

Someone has definitely been on the sherry.

The game that everyone forgot.

What a strange list, seems pretty random when compared to most other 'top x games of 2008' lists.

Mario Kart better than Mass Effect? no frigging way :P

Still yet to see the real picture of the whole top 50, but agreed with the placing of Resistance 2 and it was my most disappointing PS3 game of the year, as had looked forward to it bit much! R1 was better on the overall content and impact.

Some so called 'reputable' gaming sites have put R2 way above GoW2 in the 'head to head' as said it was the finest shooter of the year! I wet myself laughing reading this 'article', PS3 does have a better year but R2 wasnt the jewel in the crown I had hoped it would be and GoW2 simply have too much of 'oomphs' and most important, the fun factor so think it would do much better than R2 in the EG top 50!

Am I the only person in the world who thinks Gamecube Mario Kart was great?

Couldn't agree more with Rob though, I can't believe I didn't play MK Wii for more than a week (Guitar Hero, Fallout 3 and Fable 2 are all to blame).

edit: Oh and people please stop whining about Mass Effect. It's a superb game, but it was on 8 in LAST YEAR'S top 50. Just be amazed it's even in this year's list.

BOFH_UK: Smash Brother isn't open to button-mashing at all. Well...it is if all players are doing it, but a button masher will always get his rear-end tanned by someone who knows what they're doing.

Worthy mentions in that list: Mass Effect. That's all.

@Scimarad re:Resistance 2

Its not so much EG's opinion of the game, its Dan who reviewed it who genuinely liked the game. If I reviewed something and I liked it, I'd say so.

The rating of Resistance 2, Mass Effect, Mario Cart Wi and Brawl is absolutely disappointing! These games were one of the best in 2008 and should be at least in the top 20.

Eurogamer top 50 = epic fail

See gamespot and ign GOTY ratings, much better there.

IGN gives you aids

As ever, lots of lucid comments from the Eurogamer crew. Simon Parkin was especially impressive. For someone who used to work in a broom cupboard, he's really come along.

Have you seen much of Andy Crane these days, Si?

Hmmm... Bangai-O Spirits is about 44 places too low.

Grea to see mercs 2 up there, would be one of my top twenty for sure, just stupid instant accessable arcade fun, and great on co-op. I got two copies of saints row at Xmas, one for me and one for my girlfriend, I have no idea what the hell is going on in that game....its no Mercs!

I think the Mario Kart thread on this very site is a testament to its longevity, if thats what you're after.

And the racing lines within racing lines gimmick is what makes it. You can't just learn the best racing line and win every time. Against a group of top players, you're constantly having to rethnik your position on the track

Please don't compare Mercs 2 to the mighty EDF.

Top 5 predictions anyone? I'm reckoning

1: Fallout 3
2: GTA4
3: Fable 2
4: Braid
5: LBP

Would be really nice to see Valkyria Chronicles deservedly hit into the top 10.

OMG it's like, lists are shit!

Just like IGN.

If Gears of War 2 finishes in the Top Ten I will lose all faith in Eurogamer!

EG, and reviewers in general, should be less forgiving about the technical issues of a game. I'm not sure what happened there in the GTA IV review, but if I read that the game is full of technical issues and then see a 9 at the end, I think that something is not right.

This only really hit home after I played Fallout 3. It was a fun little game, but I could not play it because it froze at random moments for no apparent reason. So I go on the Internet to see if I'm just unlucky, but the issue is so widespread that I'm having second doubts. I like the fact that people seem to go out of their way just to make a new game run, but a game should work on release. If it does not, the review should reflect that and mark down the game for it's beta qualities. I mean, seriously, what would you think if they sold you a Ferrari with a slightly broken engine? It's great, but it may explode at any minute.

Bethesda is known for their buggy releases. So what? One might think that after making so many open-world games, they would smarten up and squash all the bugs they can before release. But they set themselves a deadline and stayed true to it no matter what. Bugs happen, and there is no way you can get them all; however, when I go over the forums about the problems people are having, there is no way I can be complacent.

Just in case, I'm running the game at medium details with a AMD Phenom Quad-Core 2.50 GHz, 2 GB RAM, and a ASUS EAH3850. The game looks great and runs great, except for the infuriating crashes. I will happily play the game in a year or so when they finally get it right, but for now I refuse to take part in their beta test.

So why am I posting about this right here and right now? Because when I read that Fallout 3 or GTA IV PC is the game of the year for many websites, I cannot help but laugh. Maybe of next year, but content should not become an excuse to overlook the technical flaws of a game. How can Rockstar port their game to the PC and offer a sub-par performance on a technically superior platform? How can Bethesda release a fun game that takes a dump on that fun by being bugged to hell and back. And they did not even bother to properly adjust the controls for the PC release - every time I wanted to change a weapon or take a look at something, I cursed slightly when I went for my Pip-Boy. If a game deserves a Game of the Year, it should happen on both the technical and gameplay basis. There is no goddamn excuse for a shitty release.

By the way, Portal? Game of the Year for me too. A real marvel, albeit short as hell.

For the love of Mike!

The EG Top 50 is voted for by MANY people OUTISDE of EG. From there, Tom does a (rather sterling job of) compilation of all their votes, adding up the votes and the scores (on what I assume is a reverse scale: 10 points for #1, etc) to get the Top 50. He then does a roundtable of comments on each. The result is what you're reading.

SO QUIT BAGGING ON THE EG GUYS! IT'S NOT THEIR FAULT THE ROCK PAPER SHOTGUN GUYS HAVE BAD TASTE!

Kidding.

EG in 'not willing to stand by their original review in spineless attempt to appease fanboys' shocker.

If Resistance 2 is so low down the list, then everything else in the next lot of listed games should be scoring 11/10 at least.

Meh.

@ Mr Baby. This is an 'averaged' scored list of what a collection of folk stated as their top 10 games - see the blog. Its not the top 50 scores from EG reviews in 2008. Nob.

Mass Effect, definitely too low. Merc2?! What the???That game shouldn't be there.I really hope that Valikyria Chronicles will get a place in the top. It's the game that made me want to buy a PS3.