I decided to spice things up a bit in the award this year and give out a few extra awards to games that deserved some special recognition
Honorable Mentions: PC games that are entertaining but just missed getting in the top 10 for 2007 included Timeshift, Stranglehold, World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade, Gears of War for the PC. Lord of the Rings Online and Universe at War: Earth Assault. Again, there were a ton of impressive PC games in 2007 but if you have the money you should try out all of these titles.
Best PC Game That Other Critics Hated: Shadowrun was a title that got slammed by other people in the game press. I think most of them didn't care for it because it was a first person shooter when they though it should be an RPG title like the original Shadowrun pen-and-paper game. However, I found the game to be a worthy title thanks to its unique gameplay decisions (classes that combined weapons and magical powers, true multi-level maps) and some solid AI. Yes, the game's graphics were not up to snuf. Yes, there were not enough levels. Yes, you could only play it on Vista. Yes, the whole PC-Xbox 360 cross-platform deal turned out to be a gimmick. However if you find the PC version of the game in the bargain bin in your local Gamestop (and you will) I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
PC Games That Shouldn't Have Been Released: When Microsoft announced that it would be porting over Halo 2 specifically for Windows Vista, we expected to see at least some cool DirectX10 graphics added to Bungie's original Xbox shooter. The final result, however, was a simple port of a over two year old game with little to no graphical changes and gameplay that in the PC world has moved on to bigger and better things. Microsoft should have just abandoned this project. The same goes for Painkiller: Overdose, a pale continuation of the great People Can Fly 2004 shooter that began life as a third party free total conversion mod from Mindware Studios but then got turned into a full scale commercial game by publisher Dreamcatcher Studios. The end result was an unimaginative and mindless shooter that used the three year old Painkiller engine and had none of the imaginative art and level design of the original. We think People Can Fly would be appalled at this title.
Best Non-Hardcore PC Game: Telltate Games's Sam and Max Season 1 began life as a downloadable title via Gametap but now the entire first season of the episodic comical adventure game (based on Steve Purcell's comic book characters) has been released as a retail game via The Adventure Company with lots of extras. If you missed checking out the episodes as they were released online in 2006 and 2007 you owe it to yourself to buy the retail version. You won't be shooting mutants and you won't fire nukes and you certainly won't task your PC hardware but you will laugh a lot and enjoy the puzzles and jokes that Telltale has created.
PC Games That Went AWOL In 2007: While heavily hyped when they were first announced in 2006 or even earlier, little to no info on upcoming titles like Alan Wake, Marvel Universe Online (rumored to be cancelled) Rogue Warrior and The Crossing in 2007 made us wonder if these games will ever be released.
Best Console Games Released in 2007 That Should Be Ported To The PC: BioWare's sci-fi RPG for the Xbox 360 Mass Effect was as deep and as compelling as we had hoped and we also hope BioWare won't wait nearly two years to get this game to the PC (as they did with Jade Empire). Real Time Worlds' Xbox 360 game Crackdown was a terrific super hero themed open world action game that turned you from a wimpy cop to a leaping-tall-buildings-in-a-single-bound crimefighter. It's unlikely this title will be ported to the PC but we can dream.
Elemental: Fallen Enchantress Preview Elemental: Fallen Enchantress is a standalone expansion pack and follow-up to developer Stardock's previous game in the series, subtitled War of Magic. That 4X strategy game was highly-anticipated and slated to compete with games such as Sid Meier's Civilization V for your turn-based strategy play-time, but was released in an incredibly broken and unfinished state that it never fully recovered from. Lead designer Brad Wardell apologized profusely to fans and set out with his team to go back to the drawing board and try again.
Almost two years later, the result of that proverbial mulligan is currently undergoing closed beta testing. In today's article, Will reports his thoughts on how Fallen Enchantress is shaping up, and will tell you whether or not you should be keeping an eye on it as it nears release later this year.
The Elder Scrolls Online Details Leak - Should Fans Be Excited? The Elder Scrolls Online, long rumored to be in development, was officially announced yesterday. Still in development at Zenimax Online Studios, this MMO aims to combine traditional genre mechanics with the spirit and sensibilities, not to mention setting and lore, of the immensely popular series of single-player RPGs. Though the game is set for a full unveiling in the next issue of Game Informer magazine, what appears to be the entire cover story article has been leaked to the interwebs already. In today's article, you'll find summary and analysis of all the alleged details, as well as feast your eyes on the very first screenshots and concept art from the game. Of course, the burning question now is, should you be excited?
ANNO 2070 Review
The year is 2070. The majority of life on Earth was devastated when global sea levels surged after the melting of the polar ice caps. Swaths of previously habitable land are now deep underwater, and sovereign nations are a relic of the past. But there is still hope...
This city-building RTS/simulation game from Ubisoft tasks you with re-colonizing what little land areas are left on the planet following a global warming apocalypse. Does it have what it takes to be worthy of your time and money, or should it be cast out to sea with the rest of civilization? Find out in today's review!
Mass Effect 3 PC Review
This latest release from EA/BioWare is the final entry in their trilogy of sci-fi action RPGs, putting you in a dire situation: rally the troops to save Earth at all costs. There was a lot of hype surrounding the final act of what has been a vast and highly-customizable story-telling experience, and the reception among many hardcore fans has been less than stellar. Even people that haven't played the game have probably heard about all the nerd rage going on over Mass Effect 3's ending...
If you want to cut through all the crap and find out whether or not the rest of ME3 is worth playing, come check out Will's spoiler-free take on the first blockbuster game release of 2012.
Batman: Arkham City PC Review Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to 2009’s smash-hit action game Batman: Arkham Asylum. As the name suggests, you will be reprising your role as the Caped Crusader and going against an even larger 'prison' filled with Gotham's criminals and villains. A textbook example on how to do a proper sequel, Arkham City takes what worked in the original, excised or improved upon what didn’t, and elevated everything to an even greater scope. The PC version suffered from a few months of delay, but in that time, Rocksteady worked closely to NVIDIA to implement some familiar technologies from the last game, such as PhysX and 3D Vision, along with new DirectX 11 optimizations. But how well was the whole package executed? Read on to find out!
Saints Row: The Third PC Review Saints Row is one of most unique series of games to build upon the open-world action template forged by Grand Theft Auto, and has met with plenty of critical and commercial success since it began on consoles back in 2006. This latest iteration, titled Saints Row: The Third promises the most outlandish fun and freedom of customization of them all, and in a much more PC-friendly package than its predecessor. Does it live up to those expectations and, more importantly, is it worth the price of admission? Find out in Will's latest review!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim PC Review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Bethesda Softworks’ latest offering in their series of epic fantasy RPGs, as well as one of the most highly-anticipated PC titles of 2011. As the Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn, prepare to take the fight to the mythical beasts that have returned to the realm after centuries of slumber, all the while exploring a huge and highly-detailed open world.
The PC version of the game promises enhanced graphical fidelity, standard RPG trimmings such as hotkeys and quick-save, as well as unbridled mod support, something we’ll all be thankful for once they release that SDK. Skyrim has already sold millions of copies and set records for play-time on Steam... Find out why in today's review, which happens to be one of the biggest and most in-depth articles on the subject out there!
L.A. Noire Complete Edition PC Review L.A. Noire, as the name clearly states, is a video game built on the tropes of one of the greatest periods of American cinema: film noir. Developed by the now defunct Australian developer Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games, this title has been out on consoles for a full six months before finally making its way to the PC. This “Complete Edition” of the game features improved graphics, keyboard/mouse controls, and every bit of previously-released DLC for free. But was it truly worth the wait? Read on and find out!
Mass Effect 3 PC Demo Impressions Mass Effect 3, EA/BioWare's third iteration in their series of sci-fi action RPGs and one of the most anticipated titles of the year, is fast approaching its March 6th release. This week, though, they released a playable demo on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 that offers a glimpse into both the single-player and multi-player portions of the full game.
Whether you're waiting impatiently for your download to finish or don't have the time to check it out yourself, go ahead and read some impressions of the demo from resident FSers Synch and Vandy in today's article!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Xbox 360 Review
The self-appointed "most anticipated game in history" launched worldwide this past Tuesday. Why, it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, of course (of course), what else? Unsurprisingly, the military FPS debate between this and Battlefield 3 rages on, but now that both have been released, surely we can take a look and objectively evaluate them both? Luke's taken the Xbox version of MW3 for a spin this week, so to find out what he thinks of it in today's review!
The top 3
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
SU
furl
