Quarterlies 2005

[TomChick]

For the 2005 Quarterlies, I took each game's score from Gamerankings and Metacritic, weighed them according to the 7-9 scale, entered them into an Excel spreadsheet and arranged the list from top to bottom, adjusting them by fun factor and innovation. Then I deleted the file and made a list of my own favorite games.

Please feel free to post any corrections below, since the lists aren't nearly as important as the arguments that result!

-Tom

[Mattc0m]

Personally, I think Mercenaries belonged on that list. It's still my favorite console game of all time. But hey, otherwise, it was pretty good. Not my top 10 list, sure, but I can see top 10 potential in all of them.
I'm also now considering "Timesplitters: Future Perfect". It never appeared on my radar, but yet it looks like it just might be my cup of tea. I also love the titles for all the awards. But "The Funnest One" has to be the best, though.

[TomChick]

Yeah, Mercenaries was awesome. It was right behind We Love Katamari as the hardest game for me to drop from my top ten. But if I'd been doing a top twelve, Mattc0m, it would be there!

I also think Mercenaries probably got overlooked on a lot of folks' lists since it came out so early in 2005.

-Tom

[Moggraider]

The "More Features by Tom Chick" link doesn't work. Please fix it! And write another Shoot Club while you're at it.

[chet]

Originally Posted by Moggraider

The "More Features by Tom Chick" link doesn't work. Please fix it! And write another Shoot Club while you're at it.

Fixed, kinda. Works but should really list everything by that person and break it by categories. Will add that to the todo list.

Chet

[Brooski]

Nice list, but where is Ticket to Ride Online?

[MyNameIsWill]

I really need to subscribe to Computer Games Magazine to read some reviews by Tom.

[Jim Preston]

Woops! For the Well Written One you accidentally mispelled P-s-y-c-h-o-n-a-u-t-s as K-i-l-l-e-r 7.

[Rorschach]

Originally Posted by Jim Preston

Woops! For the Well Written One you accidentally mispelled P-s-y-c-h-o-n-a-u-t-s as K-i-l-l-e-r 7.

IAWTP. Everything Tom said about Call of Duty 2 and FPSs can be said for Psychonauts and Platformers.

[Dave Long]

TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is truly deserving of being on any top ten list for 2005. The writing is funny, Cortez is a true videogame star if there is such a thing, and when it comes to gunplay, it really doesn't let you down there either... ever. When you've finished the main game, you've still got all those monkeys to blast with a shotgun. What's not to like?!

The only game that bugs me that Tom leaves out is Phantom Dust. I think it's easily among the top three.

[Simpilot]

With no explanation and in no particular order, here is my Top 10:

10. The Movies
9. Myst V
8. City of Villains
7. Dead or Alive 4
6. Geometry Wars
5. Guitar Hero
4. Age of Empires 3
3. Need for Speed Most Wanted
2. Project Gotham Racing 3
1. Battlefield 2

[Doug Erickson]

"It’s also a reminder why innovation is dead, as disingenuously dismayed observers will note from time to time. It’s dead because we don’t need it, and we really never did. Not every game needs to be Darwinia, or Deus Ex, or Guitar Hero, or Katamari Damacy. Innovation sits in its niche -- moribund or overlooked or dead, whatever you want to call it -- until it hits it big, at which point, it’s no longer innovation. Remember when the original Half-Life was innovative?"

Great quote, Tom.

[Troy S Goodfellow]

For the record, I think that "They’re myths from a language you don’t know." (from Tom's Shadow of the Colossus review) is the best single line from a Chick tract this year.

Troy

[TomChick]

Jim, Psychonauts was fine for its inspired lunacy, but the wacked out socio-sexual political meta freaky-deaky psychosis of Killer 7 made much more of a lasting impression on me. You might consider actually playing it before making your own decision. :)

Besides, I can't really address Psychonauts impartially since co-writer Erik Wolpaw and I were briefly involved when we worked as sheepherders in Wyoming.

And, yes, what Dave Long said about Timesplitters: Future Perfect. The best shooter of the year and absolutely my second favorite game!

-Tom

[TomChick]

the best single line from a Chick tract this year.

My father Jack will be proud. :)

-Tom

[fuzzyslug]

Tom, just out of interest, did you check out Resident Evil 4 this year?

[Slothrop]

I found this article edumucational, because I learned that the problem with Perfect Dark Zero was "the way the team is managemed". Maybe Rare should have gone to a managemed seminar. Ha!

[Funkman]

Tom, just out of interest, did you check out Resident Evil 4 this year?

Yeah, he did.. and he didn't care for it. I think it got some blood on his beret. :P


PS. Those handmade emoticons just don't cut it.

[TomChick]

Originally Posted by fuzzyslug

Tom, just out of interest, did you check out Resident Evil 4 this year?

Yep and I have to confess I wasn't as big a fan as so many other folks. It's a fine game, but as I've said in other threads, I really think it got most of its props for simply fixing things in the series that should have been fixed long ago. You don't get a cookie for doing what you should have done in the first place.

For instance, as an action game, it was cleaned up a lot, but it's really got an erratic pace. Jumping to an inventory screen to change weapons? Puzzle bosses? Quickbutton minigame cinematics? Adventure game elements? The escort Ashley (was that her name?) stuff.

As a horror game, it was pretty silly, all the way up to the jetski escape. The little Napoleon guy was just goofy. The story was dumb dumb dumb. Dumb! Seriously dumb. The robed cultists yammering their little chants would have been creepy when I was thirteen and freaked out by the evil Jawas in Phantasm, but they're silly to me now. Hey, guys, if you want to catch me, pick up the pace! Chop chop, fellas! Even zombies can barely get away with that slow inexorable shuffle anymore!

It looks great, and some of the bosses were cool (Del Lago was probably one of my favorite bosses up until I played his counterpart in Shadow of the Colossus), but I think there were far better games this year.

-Tom

[Luke M]

Originally Posted by Dave Long

TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is truly deserving of being on any top ten list for 2005. The writing is funny, Cortez is a true videogame star if there is such a thing, and when it comes to gunplay, it really doesn't let you down there either... ever. When you've finished the main game, you've still got all those monkeys to blast with a shotgun. What's not to like?!

Caveat emptor. Don't buy this thing if you want to play pick up games over X-box Live. Online performance can be atrocious at times; I played quite a few games where players would jump around so severely that I felt like I was playing pre-patch Unreal 1 online. Part of the problem is that the host screen defaults to the maximum of 16 players rather than choosing an upload-bandwidth appropriate setting, and most players don't know to lower it when they create a game. Even in smaller games, though, I never had a particularly smooth experience over Live. With competent buddies, you might be able to achieve a contained and playable experience online, but I wouldn't bother with this one if you're keen on PUGs (of course "X-box Live! is only as good as your buddy list", but what if your buddies don't have the game?). Also, a patch released in June added connection quality indicators throughout and other features that might improve the experience, but, according to the patch notes, nothing was done to address the actual net code. And I can't comment on the PS2 version's performance - it might be gravy.

Sorry about raining on the parade. Back to the unmitigated praise.

[Dave Long]

Playing online really isn't the focus at all, though. No one should be buying TimeSplitters: Future Perfect expecting to get Halo 2.

[Luke M]

Originally Posted by Dave Long

Playing online really isn't the focus at all, though. No one should be buying TimeSplitters: Future Perfect expecting to get Halo 2.

That may be the case, but it's a feature, and it doesn't work well. I like online play in FPSs like this one, Future Perfect didn't deliver, I got rid of it. To each his own.

[Tom Ohle]

Originally Posted by Dave Long

The only game that bugs me that Tom leaves out is Phantom Dust. I think it's easily among the top three.

Oh Dave, we know you liked Phantom Dust :) And if I still had an Xbox, your consisten praise of the title would probably have driven me to buy it.

Tom, good list--lots of titles on it that I still need to play (Guitar Hero, Shadow of the Colossus, Killer7). I take it no RPGs really stood out to you this year?

[Alan Au]

The strange irony here is that Age of Empires III wouldn’t be the most disappointing game of 2004 if I didn’t like it so much.

2004? Intentional dig at Ensemble's gameplay or typo--you make the call!

- Alan

[Old Man Gravy]

Originally Posted by Chick

Killer7

I was happy to see this post for no reason other than I had forgotten the name of this game.

After having my interest piqued by your review in the mag a couple months back, I got caught up in some of the other features and forgot about it. Then recycled it.

Then I got a PS2 for Christmas and was thinking, "Okay, what was that ridiculously cool-sounding Japanese game that Chick reviewed a few months back" when I was trying to put together my to-buy list. I couldn't find the mag, of course, so I was thrilled with the quarterlies.

Then outta my trousers cruel fate ripped my boner, like Dungsroman ripping so much viscera outta a donor; for I saw the Gamecube tag.

Gamecube, what the fiznuck? Do any of the Seven wear red overalls and a plumber's hat?

[Charles]

It’s also a reminder why innovation is dead, as disingenuously dismayed observers will note from time to time. It’s dead because we don’t need it, and we really never did. Not every game needs to be Darwinia, or Deus Ex, or Guitar Hero, or Katamari Damacy. Innovation sits in its niche -- moribund or overlooked or dead, whatever you want to call it -- until it hits it big, at which point, it’s no longer innovation. Remember when the original Half-Life was innovative?

Otherwise, the same old stuff is just fine when it works and it’s Quake 4 or Serious Sam II when it doesn’t work. But “same old” has a proven track record. People know how to do it and sometimes they even know how to improve it, as Infinity Ward has done slightly and surprisingly sufficiently with Call of Duty 2.

Tom, this is the best thing you've ever written, and I really really really wish that more people could understand it. I've shared the same POV forever.

[Dave Long]

Killer 7 is available for both Gamecube and PS2. In fact, the PS2 version was in the Toys R Us bargain bin for $10.

[Kalle]

Mercenaries wasn't polished enough to make a list IMO.

The driving parts were uninspired and dull, regardless if you were driving a tank or a sports car. Considering how much time was spent getting from place to place and the general lack of helicopters in which to do it in it's a pretty noticable flaw. Oh, and the bugged bridge on the southern map that would fling any tracked vehicle into the sea. Did I mention that your highly skilled death-machine mercenary can't swim? It's an action game, get some action in the damn vehicles. The tanks and APC's do get some credit for being heavily armed, but that is kinda outweighed by the fact that they are also slow as molassess for the most part.

[Old Man Gravy]

Thanks, Dave; of all the Daves, I think you're my favorite!

[Charles]

Please! No Canadian pop culture! I love Kids in the Hall as much as anyone, but that skit, and many others, are as overused as Chapelle's Rick James. Actually, probably more so. If your name is Dave in Canada, you probably hate Kids in the Hall.