Entry 119: a melting pot of pre-Best 2007 and some finicky tie-ins

You know, I believe I can be quite an objective gamer when comes the time to think about a Game of the Year - specifically what really makes a massively acclaimed game standing a notch above the rest. It must be near perfect in every compound, of course, but narrowing down to the most important at all: a game for all ages, all audiences boasting an immediate fun factor. Here's come the objective part: I'm a PC nut, in fact now an action junky dummy playing this gen's shooters: UTIII, Crysis, CoD4, Gears of War, TimeShift, Orange Box, and so on. A sort of break I needed to offset some brainstorming that tore my head apart after very long sessions at civ-like games in the past. I needed a break from strategy titles. And no great shooter on the PC will ever win the GOTY spot - for targeting a specific audience, that is. And their extreme violence we adore. So let me predict one I didn't play but should garner the awards by our own Gamespot admins = Super mario Galaxy.

Now bringing fancy lights to the rest of the flock:

• i) Will GS takes the Orange Box as a whole or games separately when comes the award season? I think Portal, Episode 2, and Team Fortress should be allowed to be casted.......so the PC GOTY candidates are, for me, BioShock, World in Conflict, Portal, Episode Two, and Crysis.
• ii) Sorry CoD 4 addicts, but your game although great doesn't belong higher than Unreal Tournament III, i.e a fluid gameplay a bit rehashed for specific gamers. 8.5. I like them both equally, but more innovations are expected to top the likes of Portal, Crysis or BioShock so to speak.
• iii) The most memorable gameplay sequence in a shooter wasn't in Crysis in fact, but the last big open fight against Striders & Hunters in HL2: Episode Two.
• iv) The ONLY decent ending I experienced when completing a game recently = Portal. I fully concur with one IGN reviewer ( UT III ) complaining about the way developers botch the ending of their games: this trend has to stop, and Epic should lead the way ( though GoW's ending not so bad after all if part of a trilogy à la Half Life or Crysis, yet storytellers up to the task like Valve are pretty scarce).
• v) Best explosions of 2007: Crysis and World in Conflict.
• vi) Best heat haze effects around weapon muzzles after firing/overheating!!! = Crysis and Gears of War dx10.
• vii) The Crysis' aliens are a nasty batch whose designers were profoundly influenced by various sci-fi icons, mainly: Matrix' sentinels; Independance Day; Aliens and Predator. At first sight, the clichés could have been incredibly lousy but the results have to be seen to be admired.
• viii) Quotes of the Year= all from our favorite Vortigaunt! ''No pit would be complete without a Freeman CLIMBING out of it''; ''Grim Pinàta''; ''Pity the generator that requires a Vortigaunt to operate it''; ''Ahhh....a puzzle predicament of the sort of which the Freeman is famed for swiftly solving. I will observe with great anticipation!''; '' The scent of ripe perfection beckons''.

Latest review: Crysis.