I Should Have Done This a Long Time Ago…
By ANDREW STEEVES
steeves(at)uwm.edu
It occurred to me, a month too late, that I never picked a best game of 2007. Though the New Year has already come, I feel it would be remiss of me as a gamer, nay, as a human being, if I didn’t weigh in my thoughts on the issue.
When I first applied to the cactus for the post of video game correspondent, the game had just come out a couple of weeks earlier, and I remembered immediately wanting to write about it. But the world was busy, Jack Thompson was up to his old tricks and a slew of new and exciting games were just around the corner. But I will put it aside no longer. I will give it the recognition it deserves (and admittedly has gotten a lot of already).
The cactus award for best video game of 2007 goes to The Orange Box.
Now, this might seem unfair to all the other games out there, after all, The Orange Box is effectively five games rolled into one package; however, each of these games are incredible individually. If Valve (the production company for The Orange Box) had been so inclined, they could probably have packaged each game separately. Let’s go through them, however, and see what makes each one so awesome.
Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2
These three games make up the majority of The Orange Box, some of them making a return appearance for the 360 (Half-Life 2 originally debuted on PC and the original Xbox). It follows the exploits of Dr. Gordon Freeman, a scientist who finds his world turned upside down following the Black Mesa Incident (an accident that thrust the world into a dystopian state).
In many ways, the Half-Life series refined the first-person shooter,and has won over 35 Game of the Year awards from various institutions (not including ours, which I assure you is very prestigious). It has provided significant advances in game physics, graphics, AI, animation, and sound engineering.
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a strictly online game where teams compete in both capture the flag and checkpoint capture modes. Players can choose from nine classes to play as, ranging from Spy and Engineer to Pyro and Soldier. It’s as simple as that, but it’s one of the most enjoyable online games alongside Call of Duty 4. Need further proof? Check out — here, here, here and here. ’Nuff said.
Portal
This is the cherry on top of an incredibly delicious ice cream sundae. Portal, though short, is one of the most well designed, written and executed games ever. You are a test subject, stuck in the Aperture Science labs and left with one charge, to test a new weapon. GLaDOS, your computerized guide, promises you cake once you finish testing the weapon. However, as you progress further through the tests, you begin to suspect that something is amiss. Crazed rantings scrawled on the walls claim that the cake is a lie, but the computer insists that all is well, despite how the tests seem to be getting more and more dangerous…
Witty, endearing, and cleverly put together, Portal alone could win best game if only it were a little longer.
And there you have it. Cue the Fanfare; Best cactus Game of 2007 goes to The Orange Box. Let it not misuse the awesome power we have bestowed upon it.
Comments? Questions? Feel like your game was robbed? Let me know by commenting or sending me an email.
-Andross.