2008 has been a great year in gaming. Companies putting up really fun current-gen entries to old series, some new stuff and overall, whatever system you have (unless you just have a Wii), it was a great year to be a gamer.

So I’ve decided to compile a list of the best games of the year. But I’ll do this a bit differently. Instead of making my own list, I’ll have input from all 4 writers on this site. So without further ado, let’s dig into this!

Victor’s favorite of the year

Victor favored EA has his favorite developer/Publisher of the year. And for good reason. Check out his list of great EA games:

Battlefield: Bad Company -> Excellent transition of this large scale PC FPS to console. Free DLC updates. Great web integrations for stats and such. There’s a single player and it’s fun!
Burnout: Paradise -> Free DLC! Again… yes. Fun racing game for people that aren’t into racing game! Online integration is the best out there. It’s just god damned fun. The game has had numerous updates since release and they’re releasing a new package at a cheaper price soon with even more content.
Dead Space -> It’s not the most innovative game out there. It borrows tons from other games, books and movies. That’s fine… it’s an impressive game none the less.
Mirror’s Edge -> They managed to make a really fun 3d platforming game out of an First Person Parkour game. It’s more frustrating than megaman at times!
Army of Two -> I just needed one run through. This game isn’t stellar by any means but it was fun to play coop with a friend and it totally managed to bring some Gears of War elements back. Since it was multiplatform… PS3 got a taste of it too.
Boom Blox -> They made Spielberg’s game! It was amusing, I didn’t play it for very long but that’s because I neglect my Wii.
Spore -> Though not as innovative as it was made out to be, it was still a very interesting game with lot’s of customizing.

But Vic’s list wasn’t limited to just EA games.

No More Heroes
Gears of War 2
Fable 2
Silent Hill Homcoming
Tales of Vesperia
Disgaea 3
Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution
GTA IV
Castle Crashers
Pixel Junk Eden
Echochrome

Lots of great stuff on there, including some downloadable games, but portable gaming was also huge this year. Here’s just a few.

FFIV
FFVII Crisis Core
The World Ends With You

So that does it for Vic’s favorites this year.
 

Kyolux’s favorite of the year

Kyolux has a slightly smaller list of favorites, but not any less awesome. First, his favorite games of the year!

MGS4: Best interactive-movie stealth based action experience ever and best boss fights I’ve experienced in a long while, especially Rex vs Ray, sorry if it spoils someone, but game been out long enough now
Devil May Cry IV: Capcom managed to keep most of the fun from DMC 3, without its ridiculous difficulty at even the lowest difficulty setting
Valkyria Chronicles: Awesome original gameplay and awesome seiyuu cast
Little Big Planet: 100%ing the story mode was quite satisfying, you just would have wanted more in the end though, and that’s where the online content comes in

Honorable mentions
Soul Calibur IV: lacked the speed of SCIII, which in my mind is the best of the series, even though a lot of people will disagree with me on this.
Fallout III: it deserves a spot in the favorites list, but I’m still waiting on trophy and bug patch before giving it a run for its money.

Publisher/Developer of the year 
SEGA..  VC and Yakuza 2 are proof that SEGA can still make good games when Sonic is not involved. 

Console of the year
PS3

Slightly shorter list from Kyolux, but still full of awesome. 
 

Wintrale’s favorite of the year

Well what did Wintrale (AKA Corrupt) like playing this year? Well, awesome games, of course. Here’s just a small excerpt from the list he originaly gave me.

Valkyria Chronicles
Resistance 2
Metal Gear Solid 4
Fallout 3
Left4Dead
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Bangai-O Spirits
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Super Stardust Portable

Honourable Mention – Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe – while not one of the best fighting games going, or even one of the best Mortal Kombat games going, this game does a great job at merging the two universes together with a coherent and enjoyable story. Add in a greatly balanced system, even with the hax’d Flash, and great additions to the mechanics and you’re left with a great game indeed.

For a slightly more detailed list, check out his blog
http://thesporksterreturns.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/top-games-of-2008/

 Jobocan’s favorite of the year

So what about me? Well, this year had such greatness on all fronts it’s hard to judge properly, but let’s go with what I had the most fun with.

Favorite portable games (only DS games, how surprising >_>):
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin 
Disgaea DS 
Kirby Super Star Ultra
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Chrono Trigger
The World Ends with You

Favorite Wii games:
Well, this was a bad year for the Wii. Only about… 5 worthwhile games. But only one of those deserves a spot here.

Super Smash Brothers Brawl :  Though it didn’t surpass anyone’s completely unreasonable expectations (what WERE people expecting anyways?), it was an awesome game. Great gameplay, upgraded graphics, new characters, new modes. It’s hard to find any huge flaws here. Though people still whined

Honorable mentions:
No More Heroes
Wario Land (for being a Wario game that DOESN’T SUCK (AKA not warioware))
Wii Music (nah, just kidding, this game is horrible, don’t support this piece of crap)
Tales of Symphonia 2.

Favorite PS3 game:
There’s lots of greatness on the HD consoles, so here’s a small list of all the greatness. But first, my favorite:

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice : The story is incredible, almost on par with the first. The characters are great, the gameplay is great. A Disgaea fanboy such as I will find hundreds of hours of enjoyment here. Whether you want uber level 9999 characters or just play through the stories, if you like SRPGs you’ll like this. Bad graphics? Not at all.

And for the rest of the awesome HD console games (both PS3 and multi-platform)
Valkyria Chronicles
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Devil May Cry 4
Soulcalibur IV
Burnout Paradise
Rock Band 2
Fallout 3
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm
Mirror’s Edge
Left 4 Dead
Little Big Planet
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix
Megaman 9
There are other good games, of course, but those… Greatness, all of them.

Developper of the year:
CAPCOM
Holy shit! Those guys were on fire this year. They made/published a ton of great games. Just to name a few: DMC4(more awesome than most people make it out to be), Megaman 9(awesomeness, I thought people couldn’t make games like this anymore, happy to be proven wrong ), SSF2THDR (it’s street fighter, dammit!), Bionic Commando Rearmed(awesome revival), 1942 Joint Strike(good revival), Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3(fun multiplayer), SFIV (in arcades… in japan mostly). No one can deny their awesomeness this year. Hopefully they’ll deliver the awesome next year as well.

OVERALL!!

I think our lists speak for themselves really. This year had something for everyone. FPS, RPG, Old-school, fighting… Everything was covered and awesome. It’s hard to say anything bad when the year brought us awesomeness like Megaman 9, GTAIV, DMC4, Mirror’s Edge, LBP, MGS4, SSBB and a bunch of other awesome games. This year was great, and let’s hope next year is just as great.

jobocan Games