Top 10: Games that most floated our boats at GC 2008

Now that we’re all back on UK soil, we thought it might be good and proper to run a Top 10 based upon our experiences in Germany last week. We considered several options: “Top 10 Sausages We Ate”, “Top 10 Crap Eurotrash Tunes We Heard” and “Top Awkward Moments We Had Whilst Conversing With The Natives” were mooted as possibilities, but we eventually settled for a list that some of you might actually want to read. So, without further ado, we present the Two-times-five games that most floated our boats at Games Convention 2008.

10. Pure – Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

This off-road racer from Disney surprised us a little. It doesn’t have the potential classic feeling as many of the others on this list, but it’s damn good fun. To be fair, we had a hard time deciding between Pure and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, but Pure edged it because of the exciting trick/boost system and the insanely high jumps. Flying high off a ramp is always good fun, but Pure takes this to another level. It’s so entertaining that we’d probably repeatedly jump from one ramp if that’s all the game had to offer. Thankfully it’s got loads of them, set in a number of stunning locations.

9. ArmA 2 – PC

Tsk, you kids of today… You have no idea how lucky you are with your “sandbox” games. There was once a dark age when players were herded like cattle down rigid gaming paths – and Bohemia Interactive Studios were the Che Guevara types who set them free. ArmA 2 is the latest title from these guys, and it has the potential to set new standards for military sims: the graphics were amongst the finest we saw at GC08, and with 225 km2 of gameworld to explore – and support for up to 50 players online – it’ll be a bitter disappointment if this is anything less than superb.

8. Lords of Shadow – PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

Sure it was only shown in trailer form, but this hasn’t prevented James from blabbering on about Konami’s Lords of Shadow since he came out of the Metal Gear Solid publisher’s Games Convention booth. You can see the trailer for yourself here and remember that what you’re seeing is being rendered in real time on a PS3 (the game’s also coming to Xbox 360), with Konami telling us that had the PS3 been there we could have moved the camera around. Lords of Shadow won’t be released until 2010 and it comes from the Spanish development studio responsible for Jericho – although we’ve heard this project had a few too many cooks – but we’re still super hyped by what we’ve seen. Oh, Konami tells us the actual game looks ten times better than the trailer.

7. GTI Club+ – PlayStation 3

GTI Club was one of those great arcade experiences, so when we heard a PSN remake was to be shown off at Games Convention our handbrake suddenly got a bit stiff. It’s an arcade racer through and through, with movie-like handling that’s easy to pick up but hard to master. Despite its 720p 60 frames per second makeover GTI Club+ felt just like we remembered. We only had a small part of the city open to race around and had less than 10 minutes with a controller in our hands, but the racing felt instantly familiar as our red mini screeched around corners on its way to a respectable 4th place finish. 8-player online and the promise of strong post release support through DLC makes this a PSN racer to rival Sony’s own WipEout HD.

6. Bayonetta – Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

A sexy witch with magical hair who has all manner of weapons strapped to her hands and feet. It sounds bizarre and yet proved to be one of the most impressive titles on show at this year’s convention. It could easily be dismissed as a new skin for Devil May Cry 4, but the relentless action, cool magical hair special moves – you can create a giant hair dragon to take on the enemy – and stunning visuals has us believing Bayonetta could end up as much more than a simple DMC clone. There’s no hiding its roots though; the game’s director is Hideki Kamiya, creator of the Devil May Cry series. We think SEGA could have a game to rival God of War 3 in 2009.

5. Left4Dead – PC and Xbox 360

How is it that Valve has managed to create a better zombie movie than Hollywood has, almost in its entire history? Well, it’s the director isn’t it. While people with lots of money keep insisting that the likes of Paul W.S. Anderson are put in charge of bringing the staggering killers to the silver screen, Valve simply built an artificial one. In Left4Dead the director is in charge of the experience, deciding when you’re going to encounter zombies and where they’re going to come from. Combine this with the fact that they appear to run faster than Usain Bolt and you’ve got a game that isn’t for the faint hearted.

4. LittleBigPlanet – PlayStation 3

There’s nothing little about LittleBigPlanet. The infinitely customisable platformer will be out in less than two months, and if the reaction of the Leipzig crowds are anything to go by, it’s going to be huge. Sometimes it’s easiest to let a game speak for itself; for all the buzz about user-built levels and online communities, it was the sight of row upon row of enraptured Germans that reaffirmed our faith in this game. Sony have refused to specify a target market for LBP – come October 29, they want everyone to be reaching for the nearest sixaxis. A game that caters to all tastes? Perhaps not, but the sheer fun factor is going to draw in a lot of people, that’s fer shur.

3. Fallout 3 – PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

From the booth done up to resemble a nuclear shelter to the omnipresent t-shirts and branded “purified water” bottles, Fallout 3 had a major presence at Leipzig. Of course, this would count for nothing if the game itself was a dog – but it seems that Bethesda has succeeded in baking a particularly sumptuous (and radioactive) Exploration Pie. At a time when the elf n’ goblin market feels completely over-saturated, Fallout 3 offers a genuinely different flavour. You may be sick of hearing about the VATS system, but take our word on the fact that you too will be gabbing about it for weeks once this game arrives: gun-based dismemberment has rarely been this much fun.

2. Far Cry 2 – PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

We saw a very close to complete version of Far Cry 2 at GC2008 and are just as impressed now as we were 12 months ago. There’s no question about it: Far Cry 2 looks bloody brilliant. It looks so good that numerous members of the VideoGamer.com team snuck into one of Ubisoft’s private meeting rooms without an appointment – naughty us. If you’re yet to be convinced by Ubisoft Montreal’s open-world FPS you simply need to see what happens when a Molotov cocktail explodes in the dry grassy woodland. Throw in a strong breeze and you’ve got a forest fire that’s realistically spreading in the direction of the storm. It helps that the AI looks top notch too and that you can create custom levels in minutes.

1. Heavy Rain – PlayStation 3

We’ve been duped before by what turned out to be little more than glamorous tech demos, but we’re hoping Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain is different. Perhaps the fact that the section shown at GC2008 isn’t even part of the final game should have sounded the alarm, and excessive use of QTEs normally isn’t the sign of a classic, but we were completely convinced. We’ve seen one gameplay scenario set in a house played through twice and yet we’re almost ready to label Heavy Rain as one of the top games of 2009. It’s an awfully long way off, but at one stage Spore seemed years away, and that’s out next week.

Based on what you’ve seen from Games Convention 2008 what are your picks for games of the show? Let us know in the comments below.