The Onion AV Club’s Best Videogames of 2008
For the Onion AV Club’s list of the best games of 2008, each of the writers nominated a couple games, which were then ranked Pazz & Jop style. Each writer came up with text for the game(s) they nominated that made the list. Mine were Left 4 Dead (which owned the top spot) and World of Goo. The piece as a whole is credited to Scott Jones (because he’s like that) and I’ve just excerpted my own bits here.
The entire lineup is at the AV Club.
5. World Of Goo
Even decades into the development of the medium, games struggle with core issues: What’s the balance between innovation and fun, or between tech and personality? Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel answer those questions with the exceptional ease of creators who don’t even know they’re making magic. World Of Goo is uncommonly weird and impeccably crafted, a brilliant technical accomplishment imbued with real soul. In musical terms, if Braid is the indie voice of 2008, World Of Goo is punk rock: joyous but crass, affecting and complex. And as a big fat bonus, it appeared on the Wii, which seemed like a barren landscape for much of 2008.
1. Left 4 Dead
Why go epic? Classics can also be writ small. Instead of expanding the field of play for this zombie outbreak, Valve went very small. Four humans, a sadistic “director” AI, unerringly designed zombies, and levels that feel open even as they herd players into a cattle chute. Together, they force important decisions. Save that dying friend, or preserve your own life? Patiently stalk a group of humans, or blow your guts all over an individual just for the hell of it? In the wake of this masterful flesh-feast, the measure of a multiplayer game may be judged by real-world fatigue felt after a match. Guiding one of four human survivors through Left 4 Dead’s undead gauntlet requires not only teamwork, but exhaustive concentration. Yet the desperation of each explosive last stand is too engrossing to play just once a night.
