Best of 2008: Post-Christmas Edition

Happy Black Friday #2! If you didn’t get what you wanted for the holidays (I sure did), you’re probably out hunting for deals on this crazy day o’ shopping.

I swear I say this every December, but how great was this year for games? I didn’t think 2007 would top 2006, and it did, and then 2008 goes completely insane. Games are just getting so good, and with PSN and digital titles booming, there’s a seemingly endless amount of games to soak up more time than any of us probably have to spare.

The beginning of ’08 feels like ages ago, but not all of this year’s greatest dropped this holiday season. Take Burnout Paradise, for example, which released in January and got the year off to a quick start, and proved just how much added value a PS3 title can have via downloadable content. Mass amounts of trophies, the addition of bikes and even rumors of planes for the near future…if only every game got as much TLC as Burnout. That’s why it easily makes my Fave Five Charles and Dwayne Wade best games of the year (Jeff laid down his top five yesterday).

And looking at ahead at ’09, things are only getting better on the PlayStation front. Here’s to a great 2009 and beyond!

1. LittleBigPlanet – Even though I ultimately invested more time into each of the other four titles on this list, LBP earns top honors for pure inventiveness and for bringing user-generated content to a whole new level. Few games put a smile on my face when I play them, but LBP continues to do it over and over again.
2. Burnout Paradise – If I were to estimate, I’d say I “burned” over 100 hours in Paradise, and that’s not counting the time I’ve spent going back and earning trophies. Keep the DLC coming, Criterion. You’re setting a the bar high for post-launch goodies.
3. Prince of Persia – A huge Prince of Persia fan, I thought I’d never see another Prince game worthy of Sands of Time. But what the new Prince of Persia lacks in story and voice acting (plus it has characters that look like something out of a trashy romance novel) it makes up for with insanely fun acrobatics and an inventive fighting engine.
4. Call of Duty: World at War – I’m still shocked about World at War. With everyone thinking Treyarch didn’t have the talent or experience to pull off a proper follow-up to Modern Warfare, the studio delivered a Call of Duty game that is arguably the best ever…at least in terms of multiplayer.
5. Crash Commando – It’s new, yeah, but so far this clever take on the 2D shooter genre is barrels of fun. I can’t wait for the great PSN experiences to come, like Flower and Fat Princess.