Looking ahead to 2008

With the surprising 2007 behind us this year should hold some tasty new treats and plenty of revisits to franchises, for better or for worse.
Amongst the Fifa Streets there are some long awaited sequels on the way - Fable 2 attempts to introduce emotional ties through man's best friend, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin controversially replaces cute characters with gritty visuals and GTA IV attempts to reinvent the genre it created.
Each console has exclusives to tempt gamers to its cause - with Final Fantasy XIII (PS3), Ninja Gaiden 2 (360) and No More Heroes (Wii), the choice is difficult but multiplatform titles like Fallout 3 and Devil May Cry 4 help ease the pain.
Those awaiting the recently announced Street Fighter IV can take respite in the hand drawn HD reworking of Super Street Fighter II while Soul Calibur IV will be back with exaggerated cleavers and cleavage.
I've still to play recent delights like The Orange Box due to the Christmas glut and with so many great games still to come i'm starting to panic! Sheesh, it's a hard life as a reviewer, especially with this five on the way -

Too Human - Xbox 360
Melding Geometry Wars style twin stick controls with a full blown multiplayer RPG, this sci-fi take on Norse mythology might just be the best thing for friends since Gauntlet.

Halo Wars - Xbox 360
Real time strategy games have had a checkered history on consoles yet this attempts to trump all previous attempts with intuitive controls. Prequel to Master Chief's trilogy, this is Halo as it was originally envisioned.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Nintendo Wii
Nintendo's chaotic 4 player beat em up comes with online play and a whole host of guest characters - now those Sega vs Nintendo playground arguments can finally be settled as Sonic faces off against Mario.

Metal Gear Solid 4 - PS3
With an aging and disillusioned Snake up against an army of nano augmented soldiers it looks like his last stand might be his best. Stealth action to the power of ten.

Alan Wake - Xbox 360
The makers of Max Payne deliver the long awaited, gorgeous looking, psychological thriller about a horror novelist with insomnia trapped in a nightmarish town of his imagination. Just don't look under the bed.

2007 in review

My 2nd year on this column has no doubt been the most eventful - 2007 has seen the rapid acceptance of gaming in the mainstream via Nintendo's phenomenal success as the casual gamer’s gateway while the undoubtably geekish Halo 3 smashed the first weekend takings of any Hollywood film this year. Times are indeed changing.
Once again the 360 has been my console of choice with a steady supply of quality titles like Crackdown and Forza 2, backed up by strong online support. If only the Deadly Ring of Death wasn’t such a blight on its facade.
The Wii has surprised with its success yet hasn't received the games it deserves. Recent titles like Super Mario Galaxy are indeed painting a brighter future while the same goes for the PS3, just without the stellar sales. A £300, feature reduced version and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune has certainly helped though.
The DS has been a trusty companion over the year with the likes of Pokémon Pearl while my PSP has remained covered in dust, awaiting the arrival of Loco Roco's spiritual successor.
Stinker of the year goes to the hideous Hour of Victory for being everything Call of Duty 4 thankfully isn't. On that note here's my top five (selected to complement fellow reviewer Paul Drury's top five)...

Call of Duty 4 - Multiplatform
Paul actually reviewed this but the hours i've put into CoD4's multiplayer are significant. The single player is short but oh so sweet while multiplayer introduces an addictive system that unlocks new features the more you play it. As a raw and gritty companion to Halo 3’s cartoon violence it has its very own online niche.

Final Fantasy XII - PS2
I never had the 100 odd spare hours to see the game to fruition but what I saw of Square Enix’s last adventure was enough to appreciate the reinvention of the turn based wheel and be in awe of the PS2 being pushed to its limits in an epic swan song for its final years.

Halo 3 - Xbox 360
Despite not quite matching up to it’s multimillion dollar overhype, Halo 3 delivered a feature rich package that refined a much love series to perfection through a polished campaign and a peerless multiplayer service. New maps and the Forge community will keep it alive well beyond you finishing the fight.

Bioshock - Xbox 360
Another 360 game, another FPS most people thought, yet Bioshock was like no other. Eschewing FPS clichés for an alternate history, Bioshock recreated the art deco of the 1930’s and twisted it into a neon nightmare with a disturbing story and sumptuous art direction.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - DS
I haven’t reviewed Phantom Hourglass yet but i’ve been playing it regularly and it’s proven to be an absolute delight. Utilising the DS’ touchscreen controls to perfection, it's a wonderful game full of charm and seafaring adventure, continuing the tradition of Zelda with some neat gameplay twists.

Mass Effect

Platform: Xbox 360.
Verdict: Stars and wars.
Rating: 4/5
Conversation has never been considered a skill of the stereotypical slack jawed, square eyed gamer. With our Grandparents adopting gaming through the likes of Brain Training, that mistaken cultural perception is thankfully on the way out. For those that still need convincing, perhaps Super Deluxe Conversation Simulator can help, otherwise known as Mass Effect.
Created by Bioware, the highly respected developers who made one of the only decent Star Wars games (Knights of the Old Republic), Mass Effect is a similarly epic Sci-fi, telling the Solar System spanning tale of civilisation’s stand against an ancient robotic nemesis.
With a state of the art spaceship and the fate of the solar system on your shoulders, you can travel galaxies as you choose, investigating leads, battling robotic monsters and talking your way into or out of situations.
Trading the light sabres and space cowboys of Star Wars for a cleaner aesthetic and emphasis on guns, Mass Effect still treads similar territory as George Lucas’ modern mythology while borrowing from 3rd person shooters like Ghost Recon.
With squad based gunplay and cover based mechanics, Mass Effect differs through its use of under the bonnet RPG elements. As well as levelling up through experience and upgrading skills, action can be paused at any time to issue Biotic and Tech commands (otherwise known as Jedi powers).
Touting a much hyped conversation system, Mass Effect allows you to talk (almost as much as shoot) with a convincing degree of flexibility. Although it can rest a little too much on friendly/neutral/aggressive branches, the freedom to choose if you’re a Luke or Anakin provides satisfyingly different results.
As engrossing, epic Sci-fi goes, Mass Effect ticks all the right boxes at creating a living, breathing universe through sublime art direction. Unfortunately it’s ultimately let down by a graphics engine that struggles to keep up with the action, some frustratingly placed restart points and combat that doesn’t quite work as well as it should. Still, there’s plenty to talk about.