And the current game of the year goes to….

Yes I’m sure you all know what game I’m going to mention, but I’ll come onto that in a bit while I do a bit of a brain dump.

From the start of the year I’ve had two games in my head for Game of the Year – one which I thought would win it, and one which I hoped would win it. The one which I think will win is quite obvious – Halo 3. Despite the fact I’ve never completed the first Halo, never played the 2nd one, and not followed the 3rd at all, I just can’t see any way this will be anything other than brilliant. It has to be. The Halo series is almost the Xbox’s defining game, and MS simply can’t allow it to come out and get poor scores. It’s one of those games that even if it does come out with the odd flaw (which it no doubt will have), the reviews will gloss over it and give it a good score. I don’t see it getting anything less than 9.x/10 on any of the major review sites, and I hope the scores are all deserved.

The one I hope will be ranked GotY is different though. I want this year’s best game to be Mass Effect. If I knew nothing else about the game, the fact it’s being made by Bioware would be enough for me to get excited about it. Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire – the list is exceptional. They’re one of the few developers out there who are instantly associated with classic games, and you just know whatever game they’re working on will be brilliant.

I loved Kotor in a big way, it was the first Star Wars based game I played which truly deserved to be part of that universe (the Jedi Knight games were very good, but not quite brilliant). The action, the characters, the storyline (with the single best twist in video game history), everything just fit perfectly into the Star Wars universe like it belonged to be there. The sequel (developed by Obsidian while Bioware were making Jade Empire) was also excellent, but didn’t quite match up to the original, despite the extra features and powers in it.

Jade Empire on the other hand, did something I didn’t think was possible – it was better than Kotor. The storyline, always the key feature in an RPG, was on a par with Kotor, though the twist wasn’t as good. The action however was much more involved, as instead of queuing up a series of commands, you were able to control your character, to move him around and choose which martial art styles to fight with. The whole game world was just immense, and immersive, and dragged you in. It was simply brilliant.

I will admit to loving console RPG’s though, more so than their PC equivalents. I can only think of one PC RPG off the top of my head that I’ve completed – Fallout (I would have completed the sequel had my save game not corrupted itself). I can however think of 6 instantly that I’ve completed on consoles over the years – Phantasy Star 4 on the Mega Drive; Shining: The Holy Ark on the Sega Saturn; Kotor 1 + 2 and Jade Empire on the Xbox; and Oblivion on the 360. You could also add in Baldur’s Gate 1 + 2, and Champions of Norrath, though I consider them more action games than RPGs. I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting, but it’s too early in the day to strain myself trying to remember. I’m not sure what it is though that makes me prefer the console variants. Maybe it’s the comfort of chilling on the couch rather than being hunched over a PC desk. Maybe it’s using a controller which is generally easier than a PC and keyboard and multiple key combinations. I don’t know. All I do know is that Mass Effect is going to be exceptional. Bioware have got better every time, and from what I know of the game (which is actually fairly little, so I can find everything out myself when I play it), it’s looking like it could be a Game of the Year contender.

That does bring me back to my original point though, and the title of this post. As I’m sure you guessed, I am of course referring to none other than Bioshock. I hadn’t followed the game completely, but I knew a fair bit about it, and knew it was supposed to be excellent. It was only in recent weeks that I read more about it, and watched some gameplay videos, and the more I watched, the more I wanted. The demo was enough to seal the deal and make me pre-order it (the limited edition Steel Tin version), and thanks to those good folks at Gameplay (who I seem to mention a lot, they should pay me for pimping them), I received it a day early in the post.

I settled down to play it when I got home from work yesterday at around 3:30pm, and with breaks here and there for food, drinks and the occassional surf of the net, I stopped playing at 2:30am. Despite putting in probably 8 hours of solid gaming into it, I’m probably only 4 hours into the story. This is because the game is huge, and I’m a sucker for making sure I explore everywhere, see everything and listen to everything. People will no doubt go through the game a lot faster than me, but I simply can’t help checking everywhere to make sure I don’t miss a great item hidden in a corner somewhere. It’s a compulsion, I must have gaming OCD or something.

The world of Rapture in Bioshock is simple stunning. While it’s not quite as gorgeous as Gears of War, to call it anything other than a visual masterpiece is an insult (GoW simply set new standards in graphics others won’t reach for a while). The water effects are second to none, and I love the way that when you walk through water, a film of water covers your eyes and takes a second for the screen to clear up properly. It’s realistic and believable and just another way of drawing you in to this living, breathing world.

I love the Plasmids and Tonics in the game. While the effects of the Plasmids aren’t strictly unique, the way they’re handled are excellent. You’re limited to how many you can use at once (started at 2, working up to 6 as you go through the game), so there’s always a tactical consideration to be made about Plasmids (and to a lesser extent, Tonics) you install and use at once. Out of the 10 available I’ve used 6-7 of them so far, and while some of them are more useful than others (Lightning, Incinerate and Telekinesis being the best so far), all of them have their place and all are worth trying out. The Tonics are great too, giving you boosts to certain activities (such as hacking), or improving your physical attributes in one way or another. Like Plasmids you’re limited to how many you can use at once, but in doing so you can shape the way you play the game, which in turn makes it feel less linear than it is. On a side note, Telekinesis is just awesome. Catching grenades in midair and throwing them back into your attackers face is just plain cool. If you want to improve an action game, throw some telekinesis in there, I guarantee you the game will be better for it.

The Big Daddies are great as well. Lumbering and slow, they protect the Little Sisters who roam Rapture, and they’ll ignore you unless you provoke them. When you do provoke them (as you have to), they stop being lumbering and slow, and become very fast, very violent, very deadly opponents. Powerful enough to kill you with two quick hits, you’d better have a strategy worked out when you face them. Using Plasmids can give you an advantage here, though I won’t mention which ones, you can figure that out for yourself. There is a definite sense of achievement though when you finally put one down. I’ve killed 5 so far, but they’re all been hard, 2 of which have killed me. Thankfully though, in the wonderous world of Rapture, when you die you are simply regenerated in a nearby Vita-Chamber, with slightly less health and Eve (used to power Plasmids) than before. The good thing though, is that whatever damage done to your enemies will remain there, so you can die several times while trying to take down a Big Daddy and just keep on going back for more.

I’ve rambled on quite a bit now, but suffice it to say that Bioshock is the game of the year so far for me (edging out Crackdown which was great fun). I only hope the rest of the game is as enjoyable as what I’ve played so far. If it is, it might not be one of the games of the year, it could be one of the games of the decade so far.