Feature: 'Gamasutra's Best Of 2007'

Author: by Staff

Gamasutra wraps up 2007 in a compilation of all of the lists we've been doing over the course of the past two weeks. Visiting such important topics as the Top Developer, Most Poignant Moment, and Top Trends, this offers the editorial staff's (hopefully) educated and personal take on the year as it draws to a close. In addition, after publishing #10 to #2 of our Top 10 Game list yesterday, we finish things off by revealing our pick for top video game of the year. We also take a look at what you thought on our various countdowns, by including comments made upon the first publishing of many of these stories. Pac Man Championship Edition for Xbox 360 was named our best downloadable, as we explain: "With all the flavor and excitement of the original, the multiple new modes - many of them with explicit time limits and related high scores - layered even smarter strategic gameplay upon the peerless original. And with smart art direction, the title looks amazing in HD. Tremendous." We also gave Harmonix its due -- we recognized Rock Band as the year's #4 title among our top ten and noted the iPod-based Phase as the top among most overlooked titles this year, and named the developer itself #2 on our developers' toplist, as we discuss: "When a developer thrives after its signature franchise has been taken away from them - that's when you know they're destined for greatness. And Boston's Harmonix did just that with Rock Band, possibly the best multiplayer game of all time -- while sneaking in officially overlooked (see above) iPod breakthrough title Phase along the way. It's not just the pure technical execution, either. In the innards of Rock Band, you can feel the love of rock music screaming out to be heard from the developer, something that's widely agreed to be somewhat lacking in Neversoft's still competent Guitar Hero III. It's a game that makes you feel -- and most often, that feeling is great. Bravo, Harmonix." All our picks represent nothing more and nothing less than the collective opinions of our editorial staff, offered here as our personal -- and, hopefully educated -- take on the best of 2007. You'll have to read the full feature to find out which title we chose for the number-one game of the year! (No registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from other websites).