Eurogamer Readers' Top 50 Games of 2007
Bike-sheds. 5pm. No blades.
Every year, Eurogamer staffers compile their best-of lists for the preceding 12 months, and using magic and glue we put together our Top 50. This year, Portal triumphed over all, with Super Mario Galaxy and BioShock in close attendance.
But end-of-year lists are nuanced things, and different sample groups often disagree. Eurogamer's panel may consist of professional games journalists, but we're a little narrow-minded in some areas, or unbalanced by our backgrounds in others. Even with nearly two-dozen contributors, the most interesting thing about our Top 50 was what it said about our habits and preferences.
Far more interesting, then, to see what a group as large and diverse as the Eurogamer readership made of 2007. And despite hiccups and revolts along the way, we've done just that - or rather you have. What follows is your very own Top 50 Games of 2007, as voted for by you, and with comments from you. Thanks very much for taking the time to contribute, and may I just be the first to say that I haven't read the article yet but I disagree.
50. World in Conflict
Sierra, Massive / PC
What we said: "The ability to unleash monitor-rattling nuclear destruction at will is what will inevitably garner the most attention, but thankfully World in Conflict has the steak to go with the sizzle. Combining bite-sized accessibility and formidable depth in a genre as established as real-time strategy is no mean feat, but Massive has pulled it off. An absolute beast of a game."
krokomkiller: "It's Battlefield 2 with ten times the units."
finkmachine: "The graphics are okay, the combat's dull, the background fairly hackneyed but dammit I can't stop playing the ******* thing!"
49. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
2K Games, Bethesda Softworks / Xbox 360, PS3, PC
What we said: "Oblivion is a staggeringly ambitious game that successfully unites some of the best elements of RPG, adventure and action games and fuses them into a relentlessly immersive and intoxicating whole. If the irresistibly picturesque visuals don't draw you in, then the ability to engage in a massive, unique and above all hugely entertaining adventure ought to tip the balance for anyone doubting how good this game could be. If ever a game was worth the full asking price, Oblivion is it - to miss out on it would be tantamount to a dereliction of duty."
superfurryanimal: "As a childhood-role-player, this game was the answer to my prayers. GTA with swords and orcs, but more open and more stats. Amazing graphics, missions etc, but for me it was just the ability to actually role-play. Character creation and tinkering is as much fun as the game itself. My favourite game ever."
48. SEGA Rally
SEGA, Racing Studio / PS3, Xbox 360, PC, PSP
What we said: "Not since Burnout 2 has a driving game stood out as so completely different to everything else, and provided so much instant, moreish entertainment to such a high technical standard. To find a game that strips out the pointless and unnecessary padding and gets back to, you know, making the actual racing the fun bit is worthy of celebration on its own, but to then underpin the whole thing with deformable tracks is a masterstroke."
Cryguy: "Back to pure, arcade-style, and most importantly, fun racing! Thanks, SEGA, hurry up now with Daytona! There's a good corporation."
47. Wii Sports
Nintendo / Wii
What we said: "Whatever line Nintendo takes with its promotion of Wii Sports - and everything up to now has positioned it as a sideshow - what it's actually got here brilliantly embodies the Wii's dramatic premise: that this kind of control can appeal to people who don't play games and people who used to play games as well as people who've been playing them for as long as we have."
jimbob101: "My most played game of 2007. My brain may have said other games were better, but this was the one that ended up in the drive most."
46. Supreme Commander
THQ, Gas Powered Games / PC
What we said: "The overwhelming sense from SupComm (apart from the need to sleep for a week after a bout of it) is that its design brief was mega-war first, player sympathy second. The mega-war it gets absolutely right, but this is an RTS that could have bagged itself a 10 if it had reigned itself in a little, had tweaked its flow just enough so that there wasn't quite so much exhausting struggle."
45. The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
Codemasters, Turbine / PC
What we said: "If you're deeply ensconced in an active WoW guild and enjoying the game, then LOTRO's improvements probably aren't significant enough to drag you away. However, there are many players for whom Azeroth (and Outland) are simply starting to feel tired, and we would whole-heartedly recommend that those players give Middle Earth a shot. What's more, it's absolutely no exaggeration to say that this is far and away the best game for anyone who hasn't played an MMOG before to cut their teeth on."
Wendelius: "A superb implementation of the world of Middle-Earth that keeps bringing a grin to our (mine and my wife's) face with all the nice little touches, the exciting Epic Book fights and the satisfaction of completing deeds."
44. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
Capcom / DS
What we said: "It's agony not to just enthusiastically tell you about the scenarios, the cases themselves, but I hate reviewers that get to experience something completely freshly for themselves, and then rob that opportunity from all who read the review. So believe me, if I told you you'd want to play, and then be cross I told you. So just skip to the wanting to play."
43. Excite Truck
Nintendo / Wii
What we said: "Built on a moreish achievement system, around mechanics that satisfy more and more with each passing day, it's a game maligned for the usual reason: reviewers wanted to move on, and weren't being offered any incentive to redo things beyond simply enjoying the activity. If you can reconcile yourself with that, and like the sound of the game, this is 35 pounds well spent."
ZeroAX: "It's just pure fun. This is the way video games are supposed to be made. For fun. A lot of developers and even gamers have forgotten about this it seems. Also it's the best racing experience ever on a game console. Even a wheel couldn't emulate the fun in driving by tilting the remote. Too bad there are no new stages or on line mode in general. Still it's the most fun game of the year in my opinion."
42. God Hand
Capcom / PS2
What we said: "Initially all the attacks that come in from off camera or that interrupt your slow moves feel as unfair and low as the ball-busting kicks you frequently employ, then at the end when the difficulty really ramps up cracks in the control system start showing and you start cursing the clumsy running and cheap tricks you have to resort to. But the plateau in between is long and it's really, really good gaming, assuming you don't let the game push you around like a playful big brother with little a superiority complex. God Hand just wants to have fun. And so do we."
Machetazo: "This is fast-paced action, in a turbo-charged seventies martial-arts vein, in the most delightful of ways. Which only helps it along in its goal to being staggeringly fun to play, when I'm not being further entertained lmao at its comedy. But, there's a lot more. An imposed move-set in a brawler might get samey, so GH lets you choose how you want to attack. You can select and unlock new strikes and kicks to bring defeat to enemies. There are also wonderfully OTT speciality moves, that you can earn, that can be strategically employed at the right moment, to devastating, or hilarious effect. But, it doesn't devolve into a button-masher, and you have to remain alert, because you must watch patterns of the enemy, and also keep an eye out for context-sensitive windows of opportunity to gain a slight upper hand."
Grumbler: "It's funny, original, perfectly conceived and with a beautifully crafted move system that allows massive amounts of creativity."
CaoSlayer: "Seriously, I haven't played another game for a longer time. It is hard, it is fair, it is simple, it has deep, it is perfect. God Hand is the kind of game you played at an arcade at 199X, silly, fast and fun."
41. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Square Enix / PSP
What we said: "Gorgeous, complex, well-written and beautifully presented, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions has been polished and refined to make it into the best version of one of the best games of the 1990s. For old fans, it's a welcome return for a beautiful game that's been gone ten years; and for those who didn't import, all those years ago, we can only say we're jealous that you get to experience it all afresh."
Blacklodge: "It's a ten-year-old game, finally finding its place as the perfect handheld experience. It has all the strategy of chess and shogi, wrapped in the beauty of Final Fantasy. It really is a Desert Island game, you could play it endlessly with different iterations of team rollout and never see the same game twice. Choosing careers is a game in itself, rigging out your characters is a full time job, and the balance of gameplay is just perfection. And once more I say it - its ten-years-old and still the best game on any of Sony's currently supported platforms, PS3 included."