So, yeah, I've been playing a lot of 360 over the last year, and I figure I'll give a list of the best releases in the past year, and just WHY they are the coolest games evar. Or something.

First, a disclaimer: I'm an FPS freak, and I hate Real-Time Strategy. I love games like Civilization, though I don't really like those games on consoles (they're rarely very fun). While I usually like RPGs, I've yet to find one on 360 that can really hold my attention. And while Final Fantasy Tactics is probably on my top 3 list of greatest games ever, similar games on 360 -such as Spectral Force 3 - are really not that great.

So, without further ado... the list.

#5: Gears of War 2.

Okay, I'm a little bitter about this one. See, a good friend and I are pretty big fans of the original, and so we had decided that we'd play through the game on co-op once I bought my big screen TV, or I could get down to his place. Open the game together, and experience everything without the other person having any prior experience. You know, spend the whole day geeking out.

Turned out, he decided to just buy the game and play through it. By himself. When I finally got a chance to play it, I was a little upset because of this. But, the game is pretty good - it seems to lack something of the original. I never got to play it online, so I didn't experience any of that catastrophe... the co-op was kind of neat, though.

I still don't own... I've only played it for maybe an hour. But I've seen enough to know that it deserves a spot on this list (at least until I play Dead Space... which I really should pick up... soon).

#4: FarCry 3.

You're a "troubleshooter" sent to kill The Jackal, an arms dealer who is equipping two warlords in an unnamed African Country. The game itself is a sandbox-style FPS, with your character taking on jobs for the two main warlords, the african revolutionary underground, private arms dealers, and shadowy figures who give you assassination targets. Many missions are very open-ended, allowing you to plan your approach. Even the main missions have optional "sidequests" that can change the outcome of the game.

But I can't do the game justice without writing down some of my exploits, and that would take forever. But, I can say that this game allows you to make your own choices... choose your own missions... and plan out your course of attack. You don't have to be stealthy (it can definitely help, though... just today, I was able to sneak up on a guard and pick him off with my knife. And I felt good).

The big problem with the game is that it can be hard to see your enemies if you have a small TV. I had a 21 inch screen, and I simply couldn't play the game. When I bought my 42 inch TV, though, the game suddenly became very playable, and very fun.

I haven't played it online, or even multi-player (in fact, the multiplayer is online only... there's no split screen, which SUCKS), so I have no idea how it runs there. There is a map-maker (like the original FarCry), and it is pretty damn powerful. And you can make some BIG maps (I'd say one square kilometre?)

#3: Left 4 Dead

A first person shooter involving Zombies. And it has all the things you'd expect the game to have - dark rooms lit only by your flashlights, moments of utter quiet before the whole place is flooded with zombies, and moments of stark terror.

The basic premise of the game is that four human survivors are trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. There are several campaigns to choose from, each with a different theme and collection of levels. The game encourages co-operation - if you are tackled by certain types of zombies, you cannot take any action, and have to be rescued by your teammates.

Another plus is you can play as the zombies, and sort of direct the flow of action (The game will do this if you are the survivors, sending a flood of zombies at you if you sit still for too long - sort of like a malicious GM or something). You can even play a campaign on multi-player where all 4 survivors are pitted up against a player controling the zombies (the "special" zombies can be used to really screw up the players).

The game has some awesome details going for it, too. At the end of each level, you hit a safe room. And in each safe room are letters scrawled on the walls, graffitti ranging from "Jim, I waited three days for you, and I have to move on" to "Chicago has been overrun". The survivor characters will cry out in terror when something bad happens to them. And there are zombies called "witches" that will just lie in a slump and weep... unless you annoy them by making too much noise or by flashing a light in their face - then they attack you and scare the living hell out you.

#2: NHL 09.

In case you can't guess from my avatar, I'm a hockey fan. NHL 09 is a good hockey game. But if it were just like NHL 08, it wouldn't be here. However, it has a new feature that lets it earn a spot on my top 5 (and a high spot!)

Simply put: Be a Pro mode. You create your own hockey player, and you start out in the AHL, working your way up through the league until you can make it to the NHL. You are ONLY this player - when you are off the ice, you watch the hockey game. Of course, it's not like real hockey, where a player would be lucky to be on the ice for twenty minutes of a sixty minute game... in this game, you're going to be on the ice for at least half the game, and the time you're off the ice, you can watch how your teammates play and get feedback from your coach. I think there's also an option that lets you make coaching decisions... and if you want, you can always hit a button to go back on the ice (you choose when to play, not an AI coach). However, if you're fatigued, your play performance drops.

While on the ice in Be A Pro mode, an arrow will tell you where you should be on the ice (so you play like an actual pro), and you have to play your position. You're also graded on your performance each game in three categories (Team Play - how often you pass and whatnot; Stats - how many points you're getting; and Positioning - if you're actually where you should be on the ice).

Like every EA NHL game, there is a LOT in this game. I'm only scratching the surface. Trust me, though, it's an addictive game. I can sit down and say "I'll play only for ten minutes", and two hours will pass. That being said, it's also kind of cool because you CAN play this game for fifteen minutes. You can play a whole NHL game, as part of your regular ongoing season, in around twenty minutes. NHL 09 is my go-to game to play when the girlfriend is getting ready to go out. I can play a whole game (and contribute meaningfully to my ongoing 82 game "Campaign") while she's getting dressed, putting on makeup, and whatnot.

#1: Fallout 3.

It's a post-apocalyptic, cinematic, sandbox-style RPG. You can go wherever you want, and stories will happen. The ruins look real, and the environment feels real. Many times, you'll come across a story or an event that is so minor, but makes the game feel so much more cooler because of it.

As an example, I was exploring the wasteland when I found a radio tower. I picked the lock to the fence, and proceeded to turn on the radio tower. I instantly picked up a radio signal, which kept repeating the same message:

"... if you can hear this, I need help. Me and my son are hiding in a drainage tunnel outside of D.C. He is really sick, and in need of medical supplies." (or something like that).

I looked around for this drainage tunnel, following a spiral pattern. And I couldn't find it - the sun was setting, and my vision was not great. I didn't want to be wandering the ruins at night, because bad things can happen, so I hid inside a diner that had been occupied by raiders (until I had killed the raiders earlier) and slept in one of their beds until the sun came up.

In the daylight, I easily spotted the drainage tunnel, and entered it with my shotgun drawn, fully expecting ghouls... or something worse. I made my way down a narrow tunnel, and came to a metal door.

When I opened the door, I found... two skeletons, holding each other, on a bed. Surrounded by canned goods and and empty first aid kit.

No monsters, no "loot", or anything like that. Just a little piece of story... and a strange sense of loss that I had never felt playing a video game.

Seriously, this game is almost pure perfection. My only real complaint is the ending of the game (a real disappointment, but apparently it'll be fixed in a patch), and the fact that the game has a 20 level limit (again, it may be fixed in a patch). Until this patch comes out, I'd recommend that you avoid the perk that gives you extra experience, as well as the perk that gives you a free level. They sound good, but they're really just shortening your playing time.

Wik

Recently, I was trolling for games in my FLGS and found ERPS (or Eldritch Role-Playing System), written by Dan Cross and Randall Petras, and published by Goodman Games. A soft-cover perfect bound book of a mere 96 pages, the back text promised this was a complete Role-Playing game. Since I'm always interested in new game systems (and since it was only 21 bucks canadian*), I picked it up.

The basics of the game are simple - this is a heroic fantasy RPG that promises simple rules, and a flexible system that promises you can create almost any character type imaginable.

Unfortunately, it doesn't deliver.

Character Generation is simply a matter of picking skills (as well as advantages and disadvantages) from a huge list, and picking specializations from those skills. There are no attributes in the game, and all relevant combat stats (given annoying acronyms, much like RIFTS' MDC and SDC crapola) are derived from various skills you select. Since you only have a relatively small amount of points to spend, if you want to have any of these derived stats be any good, you're forced into taking the requisite skills. So much for a flexible system, right there.

Each skill has a die code, ranging from 1d4 (free for most skills) to 1d12. ANd if you have a have specialization in that skill, you add the specialization's die code if it applies. For example, you could have an Endurance skill of 1d8 (the max at first level), and a specialization of Pain at 1d4. If you had to endure physical pain, you'd roll 1d8+1d4 against a challenge rank set by the GM.

The similarities to Savage Heroes, by now, shouold be popping out at you. Skills work in a very similar way (albeit a bit more complex in ERPS), and Chargen is very similar (but SW is much better, in my mind). The gimmick? CHallenge ranks are not flat DCs, as in most RPGs, but are the result of a GM roll.

An Easy challenge has a rank of 1d4. Moderate is 2d4. Difficult 2d6. And so on. So, if I use a skill untrained (1d4), it's really a matter of beating the GM's roll. 50/50 chance, I guess (though I couldn't find if ties go to the PC or DM, I'd guess PC).

But, against a 2d4, even a character who had a max rank at first level (1d8) wouldn't often beat the DC unless he also had a specialization. And higher challenges almost BEG the PCs to master in skills (which work just like specialization, but add another die to the mix). A great way to encourage PC versatility... only, it never works like that. Inevitably, you will have players who will take a base skill (say, Resistance), and put their specializations in something that will never come up (Magic Resistance). So, I could even have that 1d8 Resistance (and another 1d8 in resisting magic!), but if I keep getting hit by poisons, well, I've wasted a fair chunk of my build points on skills that aren't going to come up.

Really, the system encourages players to take skills they know they're going to use, and these are the big skills in every system: Scrutiny, Melee or Ranged Weapons, Healing, and Stealth.

Oh, and many combat skills, already useful, are added to defense pools. IN other words, if you don't take as many of those skills as possible, you'll be weak in defence against them. If I were to ever make a character, I'd be maxing out Agility, Endurance, Reflexes, Melee Weapons, and Resistance** as fast as possible.

And, really, you don't have too many points to choose. You get 30 build points to select race, skills, and advantages - and you can get a few more if you take disadvantages. Fairly standard stuff. The races offered, though, are pure vanilla fantasy. The same races, with much the same descriptions, as those offered in the 3.5E PHB. But look at the prices for them! If I want to be an elf, it costs 14 points. Gnomes are 7 points. Hell, even humans cost 4 points! And what do they offer you? Merely preselected skills and abilities (to be a dwarf, you must have a d6 in Endurance, a d6 in Resistance, a d6 in Feats of Strength, and a d8 in Melee. And you must buy the advantage of Night Vision... paying the 13 points is essentially purchasing these abilities, with no discount from buying the package).

Granted, this means I can easily create my own race and play him, since creating a character is really just picking skills off a list and coming up with a flavour for it. I can sort of see an Oblivion style world coming together from this game, with a few oddball races running around the campaign setting.

Of course, the downside is that I'm spending points on skills I don't really need to play a race I want. If I wanted to be a dwarven wizard, for example, I'm spending way too many points (13 out of 30) on skills I don't need, with the noted exception of Resistance.

There are also class packages that you're encouraged to take, that further restrict character options. And, while I'm not sure, they seem to be mandatory. Good in a class-based game, maybe, but in a skill-based game, do we really need character classes, unless they're packages that maybe offer discounts?

The XP system stands out in this game, and I like it's basic idea - though the implementation is a bit wonky, in typical ERPS fashion. Essentially, you need 100 Roleplaying XP to get a new level, as well as a number of victory points depending on what level you hope to achieve. If you don't have both types of XP, you can't gain your level. However, RP experience can overflow into a pool, and if you fill that pool up, you can convert RP points into Victory Points. The system at it's core is simple, but the game had to muddy things up with some exceptions, and rules on how this can convert to this, and how this then converts to this, etc... that really aren't necessary.

Spells and magic are kind of neat, with seperate fields of magic and a listing of quite a few different spells. You can be a Mystical caster (Wizards, Alchemists), Primordial (Elementalism, Shamanism, Druidism), Supernatural (Summoners), or Psychogenic*** (Psychics). Many pages of the book are dedicated to the spell-point based magic system, and it actually looks pretty easy to create your own spells. Actually, it almost seems expected.

Unfortunately, it's hard to be a summoner, as there are no monster lists! I imagine there's a monster manual coming up, but I couldn't tell you what's in it. I have no intention of buying it.

This really might be a fun game to play, if you want something that's quick around the table, but I found ERPS to be a finnicky version of Savage Worlds that really adds little. The only real "gem" in the mix is the XP system, and that's more of a diamond in the rough.

*- or 19.99 american. You have no idea how much it annoys me that, even though the canadian dollar is higher than the american dollar, I'm still stuck paying more for books. Another FLGS nearby charges american pricings on most of their books, and I'm really considering following them.
** - why are Endurance and Resistance seperate skills? Why oh why? Only a fool will take Endurance over Resistance, as Resistance will be what keeps you alive. Resistance should have been a specialization of Endurance, with specific types of resistance (poison, drinking, and magic) acting as possible masteries.
*** - I keep thinking "Psychotropic", in reference to the drugs I'm sure the designers took at one point or another.

Wik