Listosaurus Rex

GameSpy started making annual top ten lists in 2002 at the latest.  Just by changing the year in the URL, you can go back to 2003, and they reference game awards back through 2002.  It’s possible there were earlier lists, too.  Here we are in 2008 and they’re still making them.

Their lists are really good, year in and year out.  First, the picks are always solid.  A good balance of mostly highly-reviewed titles everyone talks about with a few forgotten gems.  The clincher, though, is the writing.  It explains well what was good about the games that get picked.  I feel genuinely excited about playing these games after I read the picks.  In recent years, the site has had multiple perspectives on each games for some lists by having remarks from different writers about each game.  It provides points, counterpoints, arguments, and a variety of perspective.  This year Gamespy provided multiple perspectives for each game in the Top 10 Overall Games of the Year list.

Speaking of that list, here are the picks:

1. Fallout 3 (PC/360/PS3)
2. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC)
3. Left 4 Dead (PC/360)
4. Gears of War 2 (360)
5. LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
6. Grand Theft Auto IV (PC/360/PS3)
7. Rock Band 2 (360/PS3)
8. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC)
9. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
10. Professor Layton and the Curious Village (NDS)

2008 was a year in which more great video games were released than any year before, so it was probably quite difficult to pick and rank the games.  The writing explains why the picks were made and kept me hooked.  Here’s the link again.

My runner up choice for my favorite end-of-year games list in 2008 is one that isn’t even really a traditional list.  It’s GamesRadars’ yearly recap awards thingy.

I like it because of some unpredictable picks and an excellent big-picture analysis.  When I went to go find the link, I accidentally read the whole thing again, so I guess the writing’s pretty compelling too.

Too bad I’m a poor college student so I can only play games I download on my computer.