Gaming Like It's 2008

[noiseredux]

Excellent write-up, thank you! I do mean to get back to IV at some point soon. And good call on the expansions. That's a good point.

[casterofdreams]

With all this talk I plan on jumping back in myself. After I typed that up I looked for any info regarding some things one can do to optimize it on PC. Will give it a shot.

Edit: I wanted to add this link

[Melek-Ric]

2008 was a great year for gaming, but those top 3 selling games of the year depress me.

[Soldier Blue]

I still feel like it's 2008 to be honest. I haven't upgraded to the current generation of systems. I don't even use that many of the technological upgrades they have been coming out with.

[Note]

We even ended up with the 360 HD DVD add on. At that point Blockbuster was still renting both HD formats. We had a legit 1080i game and movie set up for being poor.

... a many o' classes were missed. I worked to midnight often with my roommate. We'd BBQ at 12:30a, drink beer, and jump on Halo for a few hours. Sleep until noon ... no idea how we graduated.

We also got really addicted to The Conduit multiplayer on Wii. Amazing controls with full MP lobbies. Almost a point and shoot Halo. Apparently that was 2009 though looking at dates. All kind of blurs together. My wife (then gf) is a saint for putting up with us. She'd jump on Gears with us occasionally. I was protective of her avatar... in a video game

From last page, correct, Recon became ODST. I never cared for the final name. Maybe they thought Recon was too close to Reach.

Lol, beer and video games without much care in the world. Those were the days. Can't say I've played Conduit before, we didn't have a Wii at my place at that time and I never ended up getting one. My girlfriend has one now though, so I might have to check that title out.

Another funny story from around that time ... I showed one of my roommates Phantasy Star Online, and he ended up getting Phantasy Star Universe for the 360, around the same time he got a new flat screen TV. He played PSU so much, he burned one of the menus into that TV. Lmao.

[Nintendork666]

2008 was interesting because I was a die-hard Wii fan. That's the year Sega ported HotD 1+2, and released Sega Sonic Tennis (Super Tennis?) which was better than Mario Tennis on the Wii and had cool Sega themed mini-games. Also, SNK Classics dropped that year Some of the best multiplayer experiences I've ever had came from 2008. Hands down.

I still use Wiifit when I go on my exercise benders.

I'd be lying if WiiFit wasn't the game I miss most from that console.

Don't tell Xenoblade I said that.

[samsonlonghair]

I was poor in 2008. I didn’t play any current gen games at all, and I couldn’t have even if I wanted to. I had a beat up old Acer laptop, my trusty Genesis, an NES, and a PS1.

2008 was the year I bought my first SNES. A neighbor of mine sold me his old console for twenty bucks. I also offered him a dollar for every cartridge he could dig up. That’s how I got my copy of Super Metroid and a bunch of other cool titles.

I also got into GameCube in a big way in 2008. The massive success of the Wii made to GameCube obsolete. The GameCube stuff was so cheap that they were practically giving it away. You could buy a console for fifteen dollars and games were five to ten dollars back then. Soul Calibur 2 was rocking my GCN practically every day. GameStop sold me a game boy player for eleven dollars.

2008 was a good time to collect retro games. I wish I had a bigger budget for collecting back then. I don’t want to turn this into a tired debate about how “it ain’t like it used to be”. I just wanted to reminisce about when retro gaming was still a cheap niche hobby for poor people. On the other hand, when I take off my nostalgia goggles, I know that I was also impoverished, an alcoholic, and trapped in a toxic relationship. I was also partying like a wild deviant. *sigh* Memories... good & bad.

[Blu]

My Top 10 of 2008:

2008 was a year for me. I had just broken up with a long-term girlfriend (some bad moments of doldrums), was finishing up my undergraduate degree, worked 20 hours a week on campus, and was overall having a blast with friends. My favorites were, in no particular order:

Metal Gear Solid 4 - A great finale to the series. 5 doesn't count for me. Story losing me at times, the final boss fight makes for a great end to Kojima's series.
Dead Space - I remember playing this at my Aunt and Uncle's house while I was student teaching. My cousin scared the crap out of me one moment by coming into my room.
Grand Theft Auto 4 - The first GTA on this generation of consoles, and it didn't disappoint. "Hey Niko let's go play darts!"
Fallout 3 - I'm originally from Northern Virginia, so playing this back at home with my Dad was awesome. It was fun to play in a smaller scale District of Colombia. The old timey tunes were wonderful too. If I had a favorite out of all of this list, it'd be Fallout 3.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Not the strongest entry in the series, but it did good enough. Plus having Sonic and Snake was great.
Call of Duty 4 - I know it came out in 2007, but it was one of my favorites to play with my Dad long distance. It was a period in life that I'd enjoy connecting with him a few nights a week after work or class.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - This was peak WoW for me. I had jumped back into this game over the end of the summer with a bunch of friends from college, and this new expansion was wonderful in bringing what I feel is the best story arc in the series to a close.
Mirror's Edge: It was flawed, but it was such a great concept.