Top ten games of 2007 - Number Six : Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare on PC XBox 360 PlayStation3

Call of Duty 4 was a radical departure for the series, bringing players out of the hedgerows and trenches of World War II and into the modern day. It could have gone horribly wrong and resulted in the death of the series, halting the growth of period shooter series for years.

Thankfully, it didn’t. Call of Duty 4 is arguably the best in the series to date and uses a Clancy-esque plot filled with Russian megalomaniacs and crazed terrorists as players hop about to experience the best of the action.

It kicks off to a hell of a start too. The first level sees players form part of a crack SAS squad conducting a raid on a cargo freighter to salvage a nuclear missile in the middle of a typhoon. Rain hammers down, waves crash on the deck and players silently creep from room to room, killing bad guys in their sleep. When it all goes wrong and the ship starts to sink the whole world starts to turn upside down quite literally there’s a terrifying moment when you think you might not make it back to the helicopter in time.


Then the credits roll and you realise that you’re only five minutes in and that that level was just the introduction; a sign of things to come.

From there things get better in spades and players get to experience a regime change first hand, fighting on both flanks as the battle starts to build. The singleplayer campaign isn’t massively long—in fact it’s pretty damn short—but at the end there’s still plenty of intelligence to track down, an arcade mode to try and, of course the glorious multiplayer which is superbly put together.

The multiplayer mode alone is plenty praiseworthy too, using ranks and levelled unlockable attacks to create a multiplayer tactical FPS game with a distinct RPG feel at times so that the game is almost universally appealing.

The game may not be everyone’s cup of tea and there are plenty of people who will argue that the Call of Duty 2 was the high point of the series, but whether that's true or not doesn't detract from the fact that Call of Duty 4 is still one of the most involving and dramatic war-shooters we've played in a long time.

Source: Bit-Tech

Top ten games of 2007 - Number Seven : STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl 0n PC

For a game which was so massively delayed and annoyingly named though, S.T.A.L.K.E.R was fantastically enjoyable and used a surprisingly intricate plot which draws from modern Russian literature, notably Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strigatsky.

The game sets players off in the forbidden zone around the radiation-filled Chernobyl and tasks them only with the task of discovering their own identity – the main character wakes up amnesiac, only carrying a note which reads ‘Kill Strelok’.

From there, it’s a huge open-ended adventure with a dozen endings and a smoothly integrated RPG and FPS combo.


S.T.A.L.K.E.R falls down on a number of levels. The game is a little clunky to play and the story is very difficult to follow owing to translation problems and a frustrating design. Many of the available endings are disappointing and the entire RPG system is massively scaled back from the original design.

Still, when S.T.A.L.K.E.R gets it right then it does it very, very well. The combat is beautifully put together and the level of difficulty is honed to a razor edge so that although it is often frustrating and challenging, it is never unfair. Bullet physics are excellently integrated to the game and as you progress further towards the end-game and learn how to make the best use of your arsenal it becomes almost impossible not to appreciate the fine-tuning of the combat model.

To be praised for ambition and scope if nothing else, S.T.A.L.K.E.R didn’t just break the mould; it shattered it completely and sent the pieces back to its mother in hundreds of separate envelopes. There are some obvious holes in the formula and you can complete the game without ever realising that you messed up the main quest and have wasted twenty hours of your life, but as a whole S.T.A.L.K.E.R still manages to succeed thanks to a grimly realistic world which is consistently engaging and brilliant.

Source: Bit-Tech

Top ten games of 2007 - Number Eight : Unreal Tournament 3 on PC

Towards the end of this year, gamers were spoiled for choice when it came to multiplayer-centric first-person shooters and many of the big names found themselves directly competing. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Team Fortress 2 and Unreal Tournament 3 all ended up going head to head.

When the dust cleared, Quake Wars was left dead and bleeding, while UT3 managed to walk calmly out, secure in the knowledge that its delicate balance of complex mechanics and streamlined game design made it the most superior multiplayer shooter on the market.


If Halo 3 was the multiplayer game of the year for consoles, then Unreal Tournament 3 was its grossly superior, PC-orientated older brother. Gorgeous to look at and with a nice simple selection of mutators and modes, this was Unreal Tournament taken back to basics in many ways. There's only a handful of different game types in the vanilla install, but this is compensated for in the superior map design which manages to spew buckets of complexity into even the simplest CTF level.

Every time Epic had scaled back though it had also added on so that, while there is an initially simple set of available game types, it’s complemented by a huge array of vehicles and as good a singleplayer campaign as you’ll ever find in a game like this.

The strength of UT3 lies in two places – the longevity and alterability of the Unreal Engine 3, and the passion of the team behind it. We had a chance to chat to Mark Rein at the UT3 launch and his passion for the game was almost tangible at points.

The whole team at Epic has worked to create an engine which is not only used by several games in this list, but which continues to fully support the mod community – securing Unreal Tournament 3 a solid future for years to come.

Source: Bit-Tech

Top ten games of 2007 - Number Nine : Halo 3 on Microsoft XBox 360

Say what you will about Master Chief and the games he stars in – they do make one hell of a good shooter.

Halo 3 is the final game in what is one of the biggest franchises the gaming world has ever seen and the third instalment finally gives players the chance to finish the fight once and for all.


Taking control of Master Chief, the seven foot tall green-glad cyborg with a deep voice and a chip on his shoulder, players fight back against the alien Covenant and try to save the world all over again.

What makes Halo 3 the quintessential game in the series and the ninth best game of the year is that it manages to retain all the greatness of previous Halo games while still managing to expand in a number of ways.

The singleplayer was always fun, but it’s the multiplayer modes which have always been the defining part of the Halo experience. Halo 3 builds on the bog standard deathmatch modes by introducing the new Theatre and Forge features to the mix.

Theatre is pretty self-explanatory – it allows gamers record and take photos from their past matches and post them online. Forge on the other hand is a bit more exciting – it lets gamers create their own maps by repositioning and sculpting parts of the game world.

Neither of these things are revolutionary in and of themselves – screenshots and level editors have been on PCs since time out of mind, with Garry’s Mod beating Halo 3 to the post in regards to Forge. What Halo 3 does though is bring both of these aspects to the Xbox 360 – rounding out the already awesome multiplayer side of this seminal series. Forge alone is pretty revolutionary for the way it opens up the game into a newly creative and occasionally romantic arena.

Although it would be an understatement to say that the Halo series has divided gamers into love/hate camps, there's no denying that the Halo games have represented the modern pinnacle of multiplayer console FPS and that Halo 3 is the most rounded game of them all.

Source: Bit-Tech

Top ten games of 2007 - Number Ten : Mass Effect on Microsoft XBox 360

Aaah, BioWare – you’ve been gone too long. We need another fix of that high-powered, repeatable RPG high which only you can provide. Like you did with Knights of The Old Republic, remember?


Mass Effect is the first part of BioWare's new space trilogy and it tells the story of Shepherd, the first human to be enlisted to a secret military organisation called The Spectres. Shepherd, who can be a man or a woman and who can look however you want, quickly builds a team around himself and sets off to battle an intergalactic threat the likes of which nobody has ever seen before.

What makes Mass Effect such a great game though is how predictable it is. The game is classic BioWare and the game is dotted with hallmarks of the Alberta-based developer. There’s a combat system which blends real-time skill and luck with tactical role-play elements and the usual weighing up of which attribute to level up and which to leave behind.

At the same time the characters, all of whom have unique and established personalities, can be formed around the player as a group that you can have as little or as much interaction with as you want. There’s alien women to love, planets to explore and foes to vanquish so that, despite the sci-fi makeover, Mass Effect remains a very classic RPG at its core.

The game does have a few flaws – annoying vehicle handling and combat which can be dull after a while (not to mention the world’s longest elevator rides), but Mass Effect is easily the best RPG you’ll buy this year and is a worthy entrant to the Top 10 Games of 2007.

Source: Bit-Tech

Ten Video Games Facts you didn't know

TOP 10 VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY FACTS

1 US computer and video game software sales grew six percent in 2006 to $7.4 billion – almost tripling industry software sales since 1996.

2 Sixty-seven percent of American heads of households play computer and video games.

3 The average game player is 33 years old and has been playing games for 12 years.

4 The average age of the most frequent game buyer is 38 years old. In 2007, 92 percent of computer game buyers and 80 percent of console game buyers were over the age of 18.

5 Eighty-five percent of all games sold in 2006 were rated "E" for Everyone, "T" for Teen, or "E10+" for Everyone 10+. For more information on ratings, please see www.esrb.org.

6 Eighty-six percent of game players under the age of 18 report that they get their parents’ permission when renting or buying games, and 91 percent say their parents are present when they buy games.

7 Thirty-six percent of American parents say they play computer and video games. Further, 80 percent of gamer parents say they play video games with their kids. Sixty-six percent feel that playing games has brought their families closer together.

8 Thirty-eight percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (31%) than boys age 17 or younger (20%).

9 In 2007, 24 percent of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999.

10 Forty-nine percent of game players say they play games online one or more hours per week. In addition, 34 percent of heads of households play games

Source: XBox Family

No Mega Man for Nintendo Wii Super Smash Brothers?

We all know there's another character left to be announced for Brawl, and like me many of you were probably hoping it would be the mighty Megaman.

I'm sorry to say that your chances are really not looking good as the games chief developer, Keiji Inafune said the following during Capcom's podcast:

“Well, I really do love Super Smash Bros. It’s a great series…but, Nintendo hasn’t asked me yet if they can use Mega Man in their game. I’m still waiting…we have a little bit of time left, it’s not coming out for another few months. They might get around to asking us if we’d like to put Mega Man in Super Smash Bros. Maybe if somebody from Nintendo is listening to this podcast, they’ll give me a call.”

It could simply be that it's some sort of major secret and he himself hasn't even been notified yet.

Source: Nintencast.com

But I'm thinking it's a bit late to put Megaman into the game if like Keiji says, they haven't made any plans as they'll have to create attacks etc for the character. So what'd you guys reckon?

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams for Nintendo Wii - It truly is a dream

Okay, I'm going to level with you right now, before I get this article started. My experience with the original NiGHTS for the Saturn is limited at best.

I know all about it, of course, but I only played it very little several years ago when it came out.

I never had a Saturn growing up, so I never really got much of a chance to play it. However, if Journey of Dreams is any indication, I missed out on quite an experience. Many were unsure of how Journey of Dreams would turn out, seeing as it was developed by Sonic Team USA, who don't exactly have the greatest track record (Shadow the Hedgehog, anyone?).

However, in my eyes at least, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams redeems Sonic Team USA for Shadow the Hedgehog, and them some.

The story in NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams revolves around two children, Will and Helen, and their visit to Nightopia, which is a world that people can only visit in their sleep.



While there they meet NiGHTS, an androgynous jester, and get caught up in a battle to save Nightopia from the Nightmarens and their evil leader Wizeman. The whole thing feels like a Disney movie, with the characters learning important lessons about trust and themselves along the way.

The story is told through fully voiced (and sadly, unskippable) cutscenes that somehow manage to look worse than the in-game graphics. The voices all have a British quality to them, especially NiGHTS, who has a VERY feminine voice. There's also a very creepy quality to the characters, like their heads are far too large for their bodies. Or maybe that's all in my imagination, who knows.

More from: Siliconera

Another Nintendo Wii light gun - $6.50

GHT Simple Light Gun Accessory for Wii Remote

- Realistic playing for shooting game, just aim at the target on screen and shoot it using forefinger.
- Easy to install and remove.
- No external power required.
- Quality assures.

Another product from DealExtreme

The Nintendo Wii shark gun - just as it says...

So you've got yourself a Wii for Christmas, and you've managed to snag the system's best games, maybe a controller sleeve or one of those nifty charging cradles, but one thing still bothers you.

Where the hell's the shark gun?

Here the hell's the shark gun. $10.86 at DealExtreme snags you the Paga Shark Light Gun for the Wii, finally adding the "True Experience" of pointing a shark at your television, just like the U.S. Military.

Just slip the Wiimote up top, plug the nunchuk (also named mushroom head?) into the shark's anus and you are good to go! Marine sodomy has never been so much fun!

As you can see, I wasn't making up the mushroom head thing. In case you were wondering why you would need a shark-shaped light gun for your Wii, the answer is right there, plain as day.



"With lively appearance and smooth lines, shark gun makes you feel comfortable, and give you a strong sense of shark-like invincible force."

It kinda sounds like Cake lyrics if you space it out just right. I don't even know why I am still typing. You've already all left to order yourself one of these. Just remember, "This product shouldbe put in the dranghty and rentilafect no matter being used or leave unused."

Or else.

From : DealExtreme and Kotaku