Everyone Else is Doing It

Ok, so I really am not into posting my own "best games of 2008" list, mostly because my best games are never anyone else's best games. Its all subjective, you know. I rarely am enthralled by any AAA games like the rest of the world. GTA4, MGS4, Fallout 3 - they don't do it for me. (There are exceptions, one of which I'll discuss in a bit.)

My favorite game experiences this year came, not on current generation systems, but on the PS2. Of course, I'm talking about the latest Persona games, most recently Persona 4. That is Japanese RPGs at its best right there, regardless of the console its on, that's the best of the best. Play Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 or you will never forgive yourself and will likely rot in gamer hell when you die.

That being said, my second favorite game of the year actually goes to one of those AAA titles that I spoke about earlier - Fable 2. Luckily I was able to get a 360 last month and I tore through Fable 2 - I couldn't put down the controller while playing through it (there's still a few things I want to do in the game, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming DLC, as well). Its unusual that a Western RPG takes one of the top spots in my mind for my favorite games of the year, but this year one does.

A few runners up that I feel the need to throw out here are the very much underrated Valkyria Chronicles, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core and Prince of Persia. I would have to say Valkyria Chronicles joins the highly regarded ranks of games such as Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and The World Ends with You as some of the best games that no one knows about. Its unfortunate that the AAA games of the holiday season of 2008 drowned out the awesomeness that is Valkyria Chronicles.

Crisis Core makes my list for a completely different reason. While I'm not as opposed to it as some game critics were, it makes my list of favorite games of the year for purely nostalgic purposes. Playing that game brought back memories of playing Final Fantasy VII for the first time all those years ago on a borrowed PlayStation console.

Prince of Persia makes my list because it is an action/platformer and that's not usually one of my favorite genres. Contrary to what many other reviewers stated, I actually liked the ease of play and the "no death" mechanics they had going on there. It allowed me to concentrate a lot more on the story, the dialog and the gorgeous visual presentation the game had to offer.

So, there you have it, the run-down of my favorite games of the year - all five of them. ;) Granted, there were other decent games I played throughout the year, but none struck a chord with me as much as these five games.