Each year brings new and exciting moments in video games. Be it experiences within actual games or pieces of news from the industry, 2008 was packed full of memorable moments. Below, in no particular order, are my ten most powerful moments of 2008. Read them over, share your opinions and tell us your favorite moments in the comments section.

Being Reminded that Duke Nukem forever is totally coming out this year

Originally announced in 1997, Duke Nukem Forever was to be the follow up to hugely successful FPS Duke Nukem 3D. Originally slated for release in ‘98, information and screen shots trickled out at a regular basis. Team changes, engine changes from the Quake II engine to the original Unreal engine, disputes with parent company Take 2 are just a few of the reasons this game has been perpetual vaporware. A teaser trailer released this year along with a promise of a 2008-09 release gives the illusion of this drama finally coming to a close, though a new round of job postings in June of ‘08 for level designers makes this highly unlikely. This is probably just as well, since the absence of DNF has been one of the few endearing constants in our beloved hobby.

Gamers Take Over The Game

Level editors have always been a great toy to mess around with since the days of Excitebike (part of nintendo’s “programmable series”.) Being able to make my own tracks in racers, Mega Man Levels and even going a bit more complex with the user un-freindly RPG Maker series was slways a bit of a thrill, but never more than a nice addition to a solid game (or in the case of RPG Maker a nice set of coasters.) With the proliferation of Web 2.0 content, this year saw the rise of Game 2.0 content in the form of Little Big Planet. Taking a lead form the PC mod community, Media Molecule created a game where anyone can sit down a feel comfortable with the level creation tools. You can get started and build simple levels with very little fuss in a very streamlined environment. The real genius, though, shined through when I tried to figure out how to create complex vehicles, large beasts and rube Goldberg-esq machines. As much of a mess as this “Level” was, it was enthralling to drop items in, tweak them in such an organic manner and test it out to disastrous results. Best part of this is that user created content ensures there is no shortage of variety in levels to play. Head and shoulders more satisfying than that other user created spotlight “Spore” Little big planet was one of the games that felt like an actual evolutionary step forward for games.

Soccer moms make Nintendo their overlords

Casual games have always had a strong market. These simple little time wasters are satisfying chunks of game play that we could step away from after six minutes but usually hold our attention for hours (my old office manager can attest to my Desktop Tower Defense Addiction.) Simple controls and objectives mean that a wider spectrum of gamers spend time with the Peggle’s and Bejewled’s of the world and that my mother and sisters, who had sort of stepped away form gaming for a while, pay a yearly fee to be part of club pogo.

The true testament of this trend toward casual games reached it’s pinnacle in ‘08 when Nintendo released a $70 bathroom scale and put it in a Wii branded box. One of the breakout hits of the year, Wii Fit was something I was certain would be laughed off the market like the virtual boy. But it seems that the masses love the balance board, selling over a quarter of a million in the first week alone. With Nintendo posting a million Wii sales on black Friday alone, it seems Nintendo’s Casual focus is something we can expect to see emulated throughout the industry in the coming year.

Time Tripping in Braid

I spent the better part of a week enthralled in the odd little diversion that is Braid. In development for years, Braid is one of the most ambitious yet simple games for XBLA, mixing platforming, puzzle solving and a little bit of time warping for good measure.

Artistically sound in both visual and auditory capacity, it also layers on a fairly depressing narrative that you could completely ignore, though that would be missing the point. It’s got a fairly bleak tone and actually reminds me of a time of my life shortly after college. Like any good art, Braid made me re-examine that time period, questioning some of my actions and thinking over moments i had long forgotten about.

The final stage, though, really threw me for a loop. After fighting to reach and save the princess, we play the moments backwards to see we were the villain all along. Throw in allusions to the atomic bomb and you have one of the most thought provoking, though depressing, climaxes in video game history.

Plastic Instrument Arms Race Reaches Def Con 1

When Rock Band first stepped onto the scene in late ‘07 I was skeptical that people would welcome the addition of three new plastic instruments into their living room. Surely the price tag would also dissuade a large ammount of people as well, making this an awesome niche product. Well, as I was wrong about this when guitar hero first came out, I again underestimated the general populace’s burning desire to be a freaking rock star. In 2008 we saw the release of Guitar Hero world tour, adding another set of drums and guitars to the mix, the symbol add ons for the original rock band kit, the insanely expensive logitec premium instruments for rock band , Lips with it’s dazzling wireless mic and the announcement of Konami’s Rock Revolution has me wondering: when will people finally decide that they have reached saturation point on little clicky plastic guitars?

Kojima Gives us Closure

As one of the few standout PS3 exclusives, Metal Gear Solid 4 lives up to the tsunami of hype that preceded it’s landing. Major changes to the game system were very welcome, making it a valid option to go the more aggressive route, and the choice to break it into clear cut chapters gives an excellent sense of pacing that was absent in previous chapters of the series. The fact that it’s also one of the few games that truly takes advantage of the hardware surely helps as well. The biggest achievement, though, was the fact that MGS4 gives us the one thing we thought we would never see from the series: closure. Part of the draw for the MGS series is the complex and sometimes convoluted story. MGS4 furthers this tradition and steps it up a few notches by including story threads for just about every major and minor character in the series. Even those we thought were gone for good like psycho mantis make apperances. Say what you will about overly long cut scenes and self indulgent dialog, but each and every one of these characters finds the end to their story arc in this installment, making it truly feel as if this is an absolute ending for the series. Personally, I was glad to finally see this as I have been patiently waiting for this conclusion since the finishing moments of Metal Gear Solid 2 in 2001.

Stepping out of Vault 101

Fallout 3 is one of those massive, sprawling games where memorable moments tend to emerge left and right. The opening sequence, though, sets the hooks in you deep as you get immediately immersed in the fiction of this universe. By carefully controlling your early progression, the moment I finally decompressed the main door to vault 101 was one of great anticipation. I con not wait to see what was in store for me. Those first few steps into the wastelands of D.C., seeing that overcast sky, blasted landscape and the lonely echo of colonial era music was like a sucker punch. I was instantly part of the world and completely involved in playing my role in it. Sure it’s cool when you find yourself in the retro black and white simulation, and yeah, finally coming face to monitor with President John Henry Eden are awesome moments, but nothing in the game could surpass that first step into the wastelands.

Revisiting Midgar for the very first time

I spent an entire summer playing Final Fantasy VII in 1997. Long nights tromping around Midgar and the world beyond, searching for the elusive golden Chocobo or attempting to take down the Ultimate weapons stick with me as the years pass. There was something about the game that just captured the mind share of an entire generation in a way that we rarely see.

Crisis Core for the PSP is a love letter for those of us who spent sleepless nights in this world. The familiar trappings of the past are treated with the utmost respect, used to evolve and grow this beloved tale. Materia, Midgar and Mako are all present, as are familiar faces Hojo, Reno and Rude. This nostalgia trip would be enough for a fan like me, but Square delivered an amazing action RPG that is perfectly suited to the PSP. My sadness at knowing what was going to happen to the characters when they reached Nibbelheim was offset by the sheer excitement I had when, after completing the game, they segue perfectly into the intro to Final Fantasy 7 done over in the new graphics engine.

Jack Thompson Disbarment

Thompson was the resolute villain in the public clash over violent video games. His fear mongering was ghoulish in nature, swooping in whenever a public tragedy would happen to further his political agenda. He worked harder than any other public figure to turn public opinion against the industry. To an extent I have to admit that those of us in the games media fed into this by giving him so much attention all these years, turning into a game of cat and mouse between us and him, a dangerous game that harmed the industry in the long run.

It helped, though, that he was absolutely crazy. He has, at various points, tried to have the gentleman at Penny Arcade arrested for harassment, tried to have the Florida Bar deemed unconstitutional and submit pornographic materials as court documents in a case where they were not relevant.

His penchant for making inflammatory remarks about others finally caught up with him, and made him a candidate for disbarment. At these proceedings he questioned the judge’s ability to try the case, refering to the Bar as fascist and walking out on the proceedings.

Not ony did this figure fall, but the general perception seems to be softening up as the ESRB has been recognized for it’s hard work and Pennsylvania recently shooting down a piece of anti-gaming legislation. It seems the vilification of video games may indeed be coming to a close.

Brooklyn in GTAIV

Having Lived in Brooklyn NY my entire life, I was psyched to play GTAIV. This iteration of Liberty city promised to be the most realistic NYC ever presented in a game. I had moved to Long Island shortly before the game came out, though I was still working for a graphic design company. When I finally took control of Niko, tromping around a virtual Brighton Beach and Coney Island, I was hit with an immense wave of homesickness. The subtle differences in architecture, random Hasidic Jewish men walking around and the shadow of the Cyclone all create a perfect Brooklyn feel. There is even a moment where your date mentions that the boardwalk amusement park is closed and is set to be demolished to make way for a huge resort complex. This is exactly what will happen to Coney Island next year and I love the fact that Rockstar has decided to capture this specific moment in time and immortalize it forever. The topper, though, is when I walked into the very first clothes shop. It looked exactly like one of the crappy little Brighton Beach stores I used to make sale signs and posters for. As I walked around the virtual store, I noticed that the sale price signs sitting on the shelves and walls looked familiar. I compared it to work I had done in the past few years and realized that the images were exact. Rockstar, in their quest for extreme detail in the game world had probably visited a few stores my company made signs for and taken pictures for reference, therefore using something I made, no matter how simple, into the game.

-Mike Amari

Tags: 2008, best of, featured, Game Industry, GTA, Jack Thompson, Little big planet, Metal Gear Solid, Wii

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