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The best video games of the year -- so far

E3, the video-game industry's big trade show, is next week, and you'll be hearing a lot about all the new software coming between now and Christmas. But there's a bit of a lull until Aug. 12, when Madden NFL 09 unofficially marks the beginning of the fall game season. July is a good time to catch up on some of the games you may have missed. Here are the best of the year so far.
GrammarPolice - contributor
Published: 529 days 10 hours ago | News | PlayStation 3 | Xbox 360 | Nintendo DS | Gaming | PC
 
 

Showing: 1 - 33 of 33 Comments
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avacadosnorkel - 529 days 10 hours ago
1 - Army of Two
It should have been on the list
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Breakfast - 529 days 9 hours ago
1.1 - Army of Two??
Are you kidding me?

Wheres Halo 3?
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Lelouch V Brit - 529 days 9 hours ago
1.2 -
lol, Army of Two?, My Game of the year is Metal Gear 4, GTA IV or Super Smash Brawl.
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aceitman - 529 days 8 hours ago
1.3 - this year
read right he said this year so far january not oct or nov.
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TruthbeTold - 529 days 8 hours ago
1.4 - Seriously...
Brawl not on the list = fail.

It may not be game of the year, but it is definitely up there.
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kazuma - 529 days 3 hours ago
1.5 -
what? army of two? LOL

how about replacing that lost odyssey with something else? like brawl?
i mean jesus mgs4/world ends with you/layton and gta4...lost odyssey isn't even on the same level.
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braydon619 - 529 days 10 hours ago
2 - gta iv
me personally i wouldn't put GTA IV on there.... it was a kool game for a few hours but after that it just wasn't that good. for me it got stale fast. But i totally agree with MGS4 .... played threw 3 times already and still loving it, not to mention MGO.
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Kleptic - 529 days 9 hours ago
2.1 -
totally agree...GTAIV is the weakest GTA game since GTA 2 imo...the only real improvement is visuals (which are not that special relative to other games this generation)...and a decent background story of niko...

but same monotonous missions...same pointless cash system...somewhat tacked on multiplayer...and most importantly, LESS features than the PS2 GTA games (except for GTA III) for the single player games...some things are better...but overall, it just isn't as much fun for me...I finished the main story...and have no desire to go around looking for pigeons, going and hanging out with packie again, or looking for jumps that require an exotic car or bike to complete succesfully...

its boring for the most part...being done witha ANY gta game, and having no desire to ever get back into it, in a little over a month is something I did not expect to happen this generation...

MGS4 on the other hand...best game this generation...let alone this year...
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Steven Colbert - 529 days 8 hours ago
2.2 -
I know what you guys mean.GTA4 was a dissapointment but I thought that GTA3 was still more fun than GTA4.I even played liberty city stories to remind me what a real GTA game is.

Anyway Game of the Year has to go to MGS4.Or HAZE.Hahahaha Just messing.
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Surfman - 529 days 10 hours ago
3 -
MGS4.

Nothing more to say.
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Lyan - 529 days 9 hours ago
4 - Honestly
If your going to consider a game as great, or the best, then there should be accessibility to the game for all gamers, not just fans.
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ngg12345 - 529 days 9 hours ago
5 - How is lost odyssey
Less of a movie than mgs4? It is a jrpg, which is essentialy bare minimum gameplay, and tons of cutscenes.
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Dark General - 529 days 9 hours ago
5.1 -
I was wondering about that myself.
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TheHater - 529 days 7 hours ago
5.2 -
I have played and beating Lost Odyessey. And I must say, it isn't a very good game. Sure the gameplay was fun at times. But the leveling up system was retarded. After leveling up in an area, you stop gaining XP. which was lame as hell. The Story was boring until the end of the Third Disk. Eternal Sonata Should have been on that list instead of Lost Odyssey
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kewlkat007 - 529 days 9 hours ago
6 - Umm the most SATISFYING/COMPLETE game I've played so far...
Well you guessed it..Lost Odyssey.

For those comparing MGS4 gameplay to Lost Odyssey, There are mostly cut-scenses in jrpgs when your reach a new world or twists in he story but when you enter a temple and most areas there is a lot of gameplay involved with, leveling up/grinding, collecting items, money, spells, magic and battling foes/bosses.

Without you actually putting in plenty of work(actual gameplay for those), you would never progress, as you would never be powerful enough to defeats your foes/bosses.

Oh it's a lot more than 5-7 Hrs of Actual Gameplay, You trust me on that one.

I'm almost done with MGS 4, it's up there as well. I don't think I will put 135Hrs into it though...
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Dark General - 529 days 8 hours ago
6.1 -
See that's the thing i don't really like about JRPG's is the grinding. You have to stay in specific area's just to keep battling the same menial enemies just to level up. It feels to me too much like a chore to do than actual fun gameplay (for me). Yeah it's gonna have hours ontop of hours of gameplay but most of the hours is just from grinding over the same enemies over and over. I prefer a game where i can earn some stuff my first playthrough then if i want to go through again i keep the abilities/guns/equipement i unlocked from my previous playthrough for the next one. For me JRPG's is too tedious.

MGS4's gameplay is a bit on the short side of the spectrum compared to previous installments. But it still is a average length game of about 15 hours of gameplay. Yeah you can finish the game "in 5 hours" but it actually takes hours upon hours to actually reload segments you messed up on. I should know seeing as i beat MGS4 in 5 hours in 6 minutes to get the foxhound rank but i spent at least 2 hours and over 100 attempts trying to get pass the on rails section of act 3.
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kewlkat007 - 529 days 8 hours ago
6.2 - "See that's the thing i don't really like about JRPG's is the grinding."
Hey Jrpg's is not everyone's cup of tea.

JRPG's in general are suppose to be EPIC with Huge Plots/stories and Exploration that take up most of the game.

You could easily make a game where every time you fight you gain 1000HP's, were "9999" is maxed out, you would beat this game in like 4 Hrs.

All that grinding your talking about happens over the span of the game as you wander around new towns/caves/dungeons/temples and new Bosses. What you didn't know, is that in "Lost Odyssey", you cannot Grind forever, there are Limit CAPS for every AREA.(It forces you to continue/Move on)

And in some JRPGS getting too strong is a "negative" as a Boss you may eventually fight will be at the same level(at it's strongest) making it more difficult to fight. But the developers wouldn't tell you that. Really it's the Story that keeps JRPG games together and tha tis why Getting stronger through out your adventure is pivotal, if you wanna beat the game.

As far as grinding, you are not LIMITED to one specific area, they have much BIGGER AND BADDER Bosses throughout out the world if you dare challenge them to gain Levels. But No, JRPG's are not about just Grinding.

With a Great Soundtrack, Story, Visuals to keep it together all through out and a balance of ones grinding/ skills/magic/items/tactics is required to beat any Jrpg and especially Lost Odyssey.
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Dark General - 529 days 7 hours ago
6.3 -
I know those things about JRPG's but like you said it's not everyone's cup of tea. My girlfriend loves them but i can't get into them. I know grinding isn't just the same place but still it feels like a chore for me. I know JRPG's are all about story but i can't get into the stories either. It's strange because i LOVE anime but i don't like JRPG's (ironic i know) but i don't know JRPG's just don't scratch my gaming itch.
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kewlkat007 - 529 days 1 hour ago
6.4 - Dark General -Yeah I feel in love with the Stories and the Music of JrPG's
I'm a Jrpg music nut...

Look at theHater's 5.2 comment, see not all of us see games the same way, which is fine. I beat Eternal Sonata in 24Hrs, and Lost Odyssey thoroughly in 135Hrs with one pass through.

In Lost Odyssey, the music was great and the story was awesome and the same as Eternal Sonata, but in Eternal sonata, it's action based and you could easily run past Monsters, not having to fight, while in LO it's random battles which added the element of surprise.

I liked that there was CAP LIMITS in LO because the developer want to continue the story and not become a BEAST after only the first world, then the game would not be challenging through out, if you were so powerful in such small amount of time, so it worked well as you progressed in LO and made the game difficult.

some Jrpg are too easy if you can grind FOREVER on the first area and go on to beat the game.

Diffferent strokes for different folks.
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AclayPS3 - 529 days 9 hours ago
7 -
I get so sick and tired everytime I hear someone call MGS4 more of a movie than a game. In my opinion, MGS4 had about just as many cutscenes as Metal Gear Solid 3, and MGS3 had pretty lengthy cutscenes as well, but some of them weren't as lengthy as MGS4's. Either way, I feel that MGS4 has the same amount of gameplay as MGS3 because it took me almost the same amount of time to beat MGS4 the first time that it took me to beat MGS3 for the first time.

But, MGS4 is the best game I'v played this year so far hands down. To be totally honest, I haven't even finished GTA4 because I got bored with it and haven't played it since May. I'm beginning to think that GTA4 might not even get game of the year from many game sites just because it was such a let down for many people. If Rockstar isn't going to make another GTA game that has the same amount of stuff as San Andreas or more, they better not even release it.
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Dark General - 529 days 8 hours ago
7.1 - I disagree
MGS3 had more gameplay than MGS4. It also had better gameplay throughout. As good as the last few acts of MGS4 was i still think MGS3's gameplay trumps MGS4's gameplay. Also i don't remember quite as many cutscenes in MGS3 as there was at times in MGS4. Sure the gunplay in more accessible in MGS4 than previous titles but it turned more into a shooter with stealth aspects instead of vice versa.
7.2 GametimeUK | 529 days 8 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show
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Dark General - 529 days 8 hours ago
7.3 -
Yeah i agree with you. In acts 1 and 2 you CAN be stealthy but even Otacon encourages you to fight with the rebels. Act 3 was something completely different. Act 4 i loved since it focused heavily on stealth and act 5 is a perfect blend in my opinion of stealth and action. It includes one of the best boss fights and experiences in gaming i've ever had.
7.4 GametimeUK | 529 days 8 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show
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Dark General - 529 days 7 hours ago
7.5 -
I know alot of people that feel that way about Act 4's robots. But they do give you a good challenge if you're not trying to get spotted. Also the ****SPOILER ALERT**** Boss Battle with Crying Wolf and the frogs required a good amount of stealth. I like how that boss battle played out it felt like a scene from a movie. ****End Spoiler****.

I didn't like Act 1 the first time around but now that i'm on my third playthrough i'm noticing just how many different routes of stealth that's actually available in Act 1 the same can be said for Act 2. Act 2 would have been better for me if i didn't just finish playing through Uncharted again and doing the jeep racing scene through the Jungle. But i do like act 2's homage to MGS3.
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RecSpec - 529 days 9 hours ago
8 -
That's right, not one but TWO ds games on the list.

And of course everyone will end up complaining about MGS vs LO.

Oh well.
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Tacki - 529 days 8 hours ago
9 -
MGS4 is definitely my GOTY as well. At least so far... but I don't see anything coming out to change that. Even despite how great Gears of War 2 looks to be.

GTAIV as their #1 is pretty predictable if you ask me. Though the rest of their choices beyond those two are a bit of a surprise. Still haven't gotten to play Lost Oddyssey, however, I just LOVE how they go into say MGS4 is more movie than game. If it were an RPG such as Lost Oddyssey then no one would mention any of that. Yes, alot of RPG's might be longer and have 'more gameplay'... but what does that gameplay consist of? Long battles, level grinding, collecting items. The vast majority you're doing the SAME stuff throughout the entire game. With MGS4 you get those long cutscenes... but quite possibly more variety than any RPG ever made (your usual J-RPG's that is). With a multitude of replay value and different ways to accomplish your mission. I'm not trying to bash J-RPG's because I love them myself.

@ AclayPS3
I agree with you. I think MGS4 had the same amount of gameplay as MGS3. Though MGS3 would be my least favorite MGS game anyway. Minority I know... but I really struggled to enjoy playing that game.
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kingme71 - 529 days 8 hours ago
10 -
Don't forget GoW: Chains of Olympus.
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thereapersson - 529 days 8 hours ago
11 - This is what happens when non-videogame publications decide to make top-whatever lists
Epic FAIL
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RunamukK - 529 days 8 hours ago
12 -
Gta is my favorite franchise but MGS4 should be game of the year by far. I've never really experienced a game like i did with MGS4
13 Agent VX | 529 days 5 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show
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thehitman - 528 days 22 hours ago
14 - List======God like failure
1. MGS4
2. DMC4
3. GTA4
4. SSBB
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Rusted - 528 days 21 hours ago
15 -
My pick is MGS but im sure GTA will win because is multiplatform, even with the frustrating gameplay, but hey! will have DLC for XBOX...

sigh.
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