2008 - Golden Year of Gaming?

I have begun to really take notice....

With Halo 3, Gears and COD 4 coming into their maturity and the release of GTA 4, MGS 4, Fable 2, Fallout 3, Force Unleashed, Dead Space, Lil' Big Planet, Ninja Gaiden2, Gears 2, Mass Effect, Team Fortress 2, Condemned 2, Devil May Cry 4, Burnout Paradise.... this might be the golden year of gaming for a long time.

I mean, wow. Gaming has really begun to hit it's stride.

Anyone else agree? I'm sure I forgot countless favorites and completely left out the release of two fairly successful MMOs.

Many good games are out, but I wouldn't call it Golden Year of Gaming.

I think such name should be saved for years that made difference in the industry, like 1997 when FFVII came out and Castlevania: SOTN came out, because it was the year that changed gaming world for good. It was the year where Sony takes up as the king of the gaming and essentially, death of Sega in console market. Which also marked the day where gaming moved into 3D smoothly as they learned to adapt the movie like presentation which made gaming never the same afterwards.

something significant like that.

2008 pales in comparison with 1998.foxhound_fox

Not this again. lol I think 2008 has the potential to be gaming's Golden Year. But none of us will really know until the year is actually over.gunswordfist

I'll say it. Yes, 2008 = the greatest year ever in gaming. To those who say otherwise, take off the rose colored glasses and look around. Look at what's been released this year.

GTA4, SSB: Brawl, MGS4, Little Big Planet, Chains of Olympus, The World Ends With You, Rock Band 2, World of Goo, Wii Fit, Fable II, Braid, Spore. And there's still two months to go. Gears 2 is still coming which will be huge, and there's still plenty of time to be surprised by other games on the horizon.

We have 3 consoles hitting their stride and 2 handhelds at their peak. All genres have received something new and great. No year has ever seen this much quality at this level of quantity. It might not be the most revolutionary year, but revolutionary and quality don't have to go hand in hand.

[QUOTE="gunswordfist"]Not this again. lol I think 2008 has the potential to be gaming's Golden Year. But none of us will really know until the year is actually over.foxhound_fox

I'll say it. Yes, 2008 = the greatest year ever in gaming. To those who say otherwise, take off the rose colored glasses and look around. Look at what's been released this year.

GTA4, SSB: Brawl, MGS4, Little Big Planet, Chains of Olympus, The World Ends With You, Rock Band 2, World of Goo, Wii Fit, Fable II, Braid, Spore. And there's still two months to go. Gears 2 is still coming which will be huge, and there's still plenty of time to be surprised by other games on the horizon.

We have 3 consoles hitting their stride and 2 handhelds at their peak. All genres have received something new and great. No year has ever seen this much quality at this level of quantity. It might not be the most revolutionary year, but revolutionary and quality don't have to go hand in hand.

Robio_basic

[QUOTE="Robio_basic"]

I'll say it. Yes, 2008 = the greatest year ever in gaming. To those who say otherwise, take off the rose colored glasses and look around. Look at what's been released this year.

GTA4, SSB: Brawl, MGS4, Little Big Planet, Chains of Olympus, The World Ends With You, Rock Band 2, World of Goo, Wii Fit, Fable II, Braid, Spore. And there's still two months to go. Gears 2 is still coming which will be huge, and there's still plenty of time to be surprised by other games on the horizon.

We have 3 consoles hitting their stride and 2 handhelds at their peak. All genres have received something new and great. No year has ever seen this much quality at this level of quantity. It might not be the most revolutionary year, but revolutionary and quality don't have to go hand in hand.

gunswordfist

It doesn't really matter if you agree or not. For instance lets look at Wii Fit. When a game that retails for $90 to $100 sells 9 million copies in months, the opinions of naysayers tend to get drowned out anyway.

[QUOTE="gunswordfist"][QUOTE="Robio_basic"]

I'll say it. Yes, 2008 = the greatest year ever in gaming. To those who say otherwise, take off the rose colored glasses and look around. Look at what's been released this year.

GTA4, SSB: Brawl, MGS4, Little Big Planet, Chains of Olympus, The World Ends With You, Rock Band 2, World of Goo, Wii Fit, Fable II, Braid, Spore. And there's still two months to go. Gears 2 is still coming which will be huge, and there's still plenty of time to be surprised by other games on the horizon.

We have 3 consoles hitting their stride and 2 handhelds at their peak. All genres have received something new and great. No year has ever seen this much quality at this level of quantity. It might not be the most revolutionary year, but revolutionary and quality don't have to go hand in hand.

Robio_basic

It doesn't really matter if you agree or not. For instance lets look at Wii Fit. When a game that retails for $90 to $100 sells 9 million copies in months, the opinions of naysayers tend to get drowned out anyway.

[QUOTE="Robio_basic"][QUOTE="gunswordfist"][QUOTE="Robio_basic"]

I'll say it. Yes, 2008 = the greatest year ever in gaming. To those who say otherwise, take off the rose colored glasses and look around. Look at what's been released this year.

GTA4, SSB: Brawl, MGS4, Little Big Planet, Chains of Olympus, The World Ends With You, Rock Band 2, World of Goo, Wii Fit, Fable II, Braid, Spore. And there's still two months to go. Gears 2 is still coming which will be huge, and there's still plenty of time to be surprised by other games on the horizon.

We have 3 consoles hitting their stride and 2 handhelds at their peak. All genres have received something new and great. No year has ever seen this much quality at this level of quantity. It might not be the most revolutionary year, but revolutionary and quality don't have to go hand in hand.

gunswordfist

It doesn't really matter if you agree or not. For instance lets look at Wii Fit. When a game that retails for $90 to $100 sells 9 million copies in months, the opinions of naysayers tend to get drowned out anyway.

Not to threadjack, but Nintendo has not had a negative impact on this generation (at least no more than Sony and Microsoft have created with their consoles). The people buying those games typically aren't the ones who are choosing between Carnival Games and Halo 3 you know? It's a totally different audience that, for good or bad, actually kind of like games like Deca Sports and whatever else gets thrown out there. But this is a whole nuther subject for another thread.

I'll say it. Yes, 2008 = the greatest year ever in gaming. To those who say otherwise, take off the rose colored glasses and look around. Look at what's been released this year.

GTA4, SSB: Brawl, MGS4, Little Big Planet, Chains of Olympus, The World Ends With You, Rock Band 2, World of Goo, Wii Fit, Fable II, Braid, Spore. And there's still two months to go. Gears 2 is still coming which will be huge, and there's still plenty of time to be surprised by other games on the horizon.

We have 3 consoles hitting their stride and 2 handhelds at their peak. All genres have received something new and great. No year has ever seen this much quality at this level of quantity. It might not be the most revolutionary year, but revolutionary and quality don't have to go hand in hand.

Robio_basic

GTAIV: Didn't enjoy as much as Vice City
SSBB: Didn't enjoy as much as SSBM which in turn I didn't enjoy as much as SSB
MGS4: Probably will enjoy as much as previous MGS's
LBP: Have no interest in playing
CoO: I prefer the main series to spinoffs
TWEWY: Not my kind of game
RB2: I prefer IIDX
WoG: I tried the demo and wasn't impressed
WiiFit: I play games, not exercise programs disguised as games
Fable II: Mild interest in, I have a lot more important games to play right now
Braid: Only thing you've listed that I would agree to being "fantastic"
Gears 2: Interests me about as much as a wet sock, especially after the first one

There is a difference between wearing rose-coloured glasses and not actually enjoying certain games.

I would much rather go back and play Dead Rising, Mass Effect, StarCraft, Shadow of the Colossus, Parasite Eve, Fallout 2, Thief and some of the others I listed again, than most of what has been released this year. This year is not at all impressive for me nor is it "the best ever." As far as most impressive releases in a single year goes, 1998 still takes the cake. This isn't about how they hold up today but the "at the time" factor... and 1998 reeks of amazing quality at that time.
foxhound_fox

Well ultimately it's your opinion and absolutely entitled to it. But I wasn't listing my favorite games of this year, merely the ones that in general have received excellent reviews. My main point is that this year quality games aren't dominated by one system as is so often the case, and that is pretty remarkable. Your list was half PC games, which also suggested what you are (or at the time) biased towards. I'm not criticizing that at all, but it does suggest that if you didn't own a PC, you missed out on half the good games that year. In 2008, not gaming on a particular system(s) doesn't mean that you didn't have a chance to play a lot of excellent stuff.

Well ultimately it's your opinion and absolutely entitled to it. But I wasn't listing my favorite games of this year, merely the ones that in general have received excellent reviews. My main point is that this year quality games aren't dominated by one system as is so often the case, and that is pretty remarkable. Your list was half PC games, which also suggested what you are (or at the time) biased towards. I'm not criticizing that at all, but it does suggest that if you didn't own a PC, you missed out on half the good games that year. In 2008, not gaming on a particular system(s) doesn't mean that you didn't have a chance to play a lot of excellent stuff.Robio_basic

2008 pales in comparison with 1998.foxhound_fox

What about 2007? And I really don't look at the years of gaming, but the eras. You know, 16-bit, 32-bit, etc.

[QUOTE="gunswordfist"]Not this again. lol I think 2008 has the potential to be gaming's Golden Year. But none of us will really know until the year is actually over.foxhound_fox

that year is beast. Well no matter how good games are that came outmost people cnat play them all because we dont ahve enough money to buy 20+ brand new games at 60$ a pop.

[QUOTE="Robio_basic"]

I'll say it. Yes, 2008 = the greatest year ever in gaming. To those who say otherwise, take off the rose colored glasses and look around. Look at what's been released this year.

GTA4, SSB: Brawl, MGS4, Little Big Planet, Chains of Olympus, The World Ends With You, Rock Band 2, World of Goo, Wii Fit, Fable II, Braid, Spore. And there's still two months to go. Gears 2 is still coming which will be huge, and there's still plenty of time to be surprised by other games on the horizon.

We have 3 consoles hitting their stride and 2 handhelds at their peak. All genres have received something new and great. No year has ever seen this much quality at this level of quantity. It might not be the most revolutionary year, but revolutionary and quality don't have to go hand in hand.

foxhound_fox

I agree with you. I loved StarCraft, Fallout 2 and Baldur's gate.

My favourite year hands down in terms of overall would still be 1998. In fact, I'm installing some of them right now cause of this thread XD.