2008 is forever going to go down in history as one of the greatest years for the gaming industry. No matter which platform or genre you follow religiously, there was something for everyone. To the casual gamer to the hardcore, there is something that will appeal to you. This is just one person’s modest opinion of what stood out in 2008.
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So with all the hullabaloo going around about LittleBigPlanet, one would assume that the stellar title was a flop. Maybe, but that doesn’t mean that MediaMolecule or Sony are giving up on it.

The developer and publisher combo are working ’round the clock it seems to make sure they fix the game according to your standards. They just released the latest update, 1.07, with the following features:

Play
New Search Modes: More ways to find interesting levels like Most Hearted, Highest Rated and Busiest!

In-game Store: Browse, buy and play downloadable content, such as the soon-to-be-released Metal Gear Solid packs, without needing to go to the PlayStation Store

Create
Save As: Save your level to a different slot on the moon while mid-edit.

Share
Keyboard text chat: Plug a standard USB keyboard into your PS3 and just start typing. Or, press Tab on your keyboard to go straight to the standard PS3 text entry screen.

Image export: save the photos you take in game to your hard drive.

General fixes, polishing and improvements, including:

• Fixed “Wheel of death” bug where Sackboy could get stuck endlessly respawning out of a checkpoint
• Better support for third party controllers
• Fixed stretch Sackboy arms
• General server improvements and optimization
• Improved the corner (vertex) editing tool
• Improvements to how Popit deals with complex shapes
• Improved Sackboy animation and made it harder to slap accidentally while acting
• Fixed lights so they don’t forget their colour
• If anything I can say this cab is rare
• Improved Online multiplayer level selection
• And I yelled to the cabbie ‘Yo homes smell ya later’
• I looked at my kingdom
• I was finally there
• To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air

That’s a pretty hefty update and nicely rounds out the game to what it probably should have been upon release. Better late than never, I suppose.

You probably noticed the mention of the upcoming ” Metal Gear Solid packs”, and if not here, then you’ve likely seen the video:

Aside from being hilarious, there’s a lot here that’s apt to improve the game. The inclusion of the paintball gun is sure to open up all new levels of run-and-gun creativity, although it’s bound to become overused. The health meter also looks to be an interesting inclusion, sure to add greater enemy variety.

It’s a step in the right direction. My only complaint is that I’ll have to pay for something that really should have been there in the first place.

Oh, well.

There’s an assumed quality we expect from game reviews. When they’re professional, we expect long dissertations quantifying exactly why they are worth 60 hard-earned United States Dollars. Within that quantification, we expect numbers: hard numbers, often based on a 1 through 10 scale. These numbers dictate the value of a game; whether or not they do that arbitrarily is a different matter altogether. They do it! That’s what we expect.

However, there are nothing but problems with this system. The largest of which is that the industry relies heavily on these numbers. The reviews are written in order to give the consumer the edge when making a purchase, but when money’s tight, the consumer tends to lean toward only the best and is less likely to purchase anything below the magic 8. Games tend to work on a numerical hierarchy when employed in this scale: a tier, if you will.

10-8, a game’s worth buying; 7.9-6, rental; 5.9 and below, don’t bother.

Is this completely unbalanced? No. It’s incredibly ridiculous, but it’s naïve to expect less from the consumer. The publishers have latched onto this and are ardently doing their best to swing the score in their favor. Can you blame them? It is a business: a business of pumping out semi-decent product to meet end-of-year earning standards. So when it comes to making a sale, publishers are looking for that magic 8 in the Metacritic. This, of course, leads to some dubious behavior. Jeff Gerstmann was fired due to publisher Eidos’s complaints (unofficially), and the publisher has just recently started the same kind of controversy again, although they’re more honest about it this time around.

So what to do? Well, don’t listen to professionals. They’re not experts on subjectivity nor do they merely share their personal opinions. They are on the payroll and their wages are based on what’s expected of them. In essence, trust someone who plays games for fun. If you are such a gamer who would put his opinion down in writing, may I suggest you do not emulate the professionals. Look where that’s got us. The best thing to do is to do away with numbers. Certainly, it would be tough to adjust to something that isn’t immediate. We’ve no time to read, obviously. After the steep-learning curve, one could implement any number of prose-based assessments that could act as abstracts. A demonstration:

• Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) - A broken semblance of what once was that not only doesn’t make good on promises to restart the franchise, but instead repeats old mistakes and breaks them further. Obviously released too soon, it may only appeal to those who are truly devout to the series and are willing to overlook distinct flaws.

Perhaps a little heavy-handed, but accurate nonetheless. It sums up the idea of the game without going into full details and suggests who this might be for. This is the whole idea of a review, and this is what should be glorified. The actual article can take care of the finer details, but the abstract should make the judgment. If one felt so inclined, reviews could even simply be these short blurbs. Here’s a few examples:

• Little Big Planet - A whimsical, somewhat floaty platformer that, despite reliance on only two play-mechanics of jump and grab, remains fun and inventive due to the easily accessible yet deeply complex “create” tools. However, spotty online management inherent in Sony’s online platform and a total reliance on thereof causes the game to loses some of it’s charm and longevity. Unless you feel the innate drive to create under some heavy guidelines (read: restrictions), it may be best to wait.
• Soul Calibur IV - An excellent fighting engine bogged down by an out-dated story mode, a backwards create-a-fighter mode, a conditional online mode, the removal of of some of the better modes of previous installments, and gimmicky characters that serve as most of the new fighters (one of which will cost 5 USD). Some interesting character changes make up for the breaking of others, but essentially the game is only superb when played with friends in the same room, and merely decent at any other time.
• Bionic Commando: Rearmed – An offering of nostalgic gameplay with a fresh coat of high definition and self-referential humor that offers a challenging yet reasonable play experience that is appropriately paced and perfectly affordable. With nifty bonus unlockables, fun multiplayer modes, and a bevy of challenges, it’s well worth your time and time again.
• Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood - A melding of the idea of Sonic’s speed and the RPG genre and of Sonic’s wide canon and other media in which he appears, Sonic Chronicles offers an experience that feels fresh, innovative, yet still remains true to Sonic fans of all varieties and may still appeal to those who aren’t. With a dialogue tree system that branches some of the plot, although only just slightly, the game offers a rich story and plenty of lore, which, were the excellent Elite Beat Agent style battle system not there, would be enough to justify at least one play-through.

Even if the standards never change, do yourself a favor and at least find a critic who isn’t under the dollar of who he’s critiquing. If that proves impossible, pray they release longer, better, fuller demos to help you, yourself, form an opinion and justify a purchase.

As things are now, it is, by design, deceptive.