Features// SPOnG's Games of the Generation

Gareth Edwards - Programmer and Gamer

Warhawk
Holding down the rewind button until the tape goes "clunk", Warhawk was there at the beginning, cupping its balls.

"What balls?", you ask. Why, those sizable, multiplayer-only cojones. Forsaking any single-player nonsense, Incognito produced the finest piece of multiplayer action this generation has seen. And that's an indisputable fact of science.

It's beauty was its simplicity. None of this crap about jiggering your load-outs or levelling up so you could summon a grade 5 Magic Sparkle Bomb. Anyone, from noob to 1337, could immediately drop in and take command of an anti-aircraft gun, missile emplacement, jeep, tank, Warhawk, dropship... the toys were tipped out of the box and strewn across the floor for all-comers. Accessibility was it middle name. Probably it's first and last, too.

To this day publishers roll over like little kittens, offering their cute but tiny campaign underbellies for a short-lived tickle. Stop it, you pussies! Don't squander the cash on some half-arsed story and costly Hollywood voice actors. Polish your maps. Hone your balancing. Embrace multiplayer-only. And stop it with the bloody load-outs and elitist Magic Sparkle Bombs.

Portal
Remember Tetris? Of course you do. It's what primed you for Candy Crush Saga. Well Portal was nothing like any of that. It's was proper puzzler, and none of that time-pressured jigsaw puzzle three-of-a-kind repetition.

A quantum leap in being bamboozled, Valve took the guts (and the development team) of the scrappy homebrew game "Narbacular Drop", pass it through a still of transcendent perplexity, and fortified it with the simple yet perfectly executed narrative.

Now I realise that Portal wasn't a stand-alone game on this gen's consoles, what with it being part of the Orange Box compilation, but the indelible mark it has left in the videogame timeline cannot be denied, making it the standout title in the box. Just try mentioning "cake" to gaming geeks. You'll see what I mean.

Red Dead Redemption
Prior to RDR, the Wild West (the genre, not the movie) dredged up memories of rainy Saturday afternoon TV. A video game in that setting, I thought, would be as entertaining as drizzling onion juice in my eyes. It wasn't until I listened to the Joypod guys reminiscing over their favourite vignettes from the game, that I shoved my prejudice aside. I took the plunge, and it had me. Seriously. Not so much late nights, as early mornings.

Riding from the station to Hennigan's Stead wasn't much to write home about, until I caught the sun, slung low above a ridge, sending the light dancing through the cactii. I gasped. Literally. From thereon, the visuals continued to smack me in the gob.

The story - so utterly enthralling, from the main arc to the tales of the strangers you'd encounter. To this day, the story of Sam Odessa, seeking fortune in California, and the discovery of his final letter to his family, gives my the shivers.

Between the stories and the scenery, I never once felt the need for "fast travel", and the Read Dead Nightmare add-on was a genius finishing move. "Hang on!" you chelp, "Why RDR and not GTAV?"

As amazing as GTAV is, a lot of that latest Rockstar game's charm and visual splendour comes from the groundwork laid out in RDR. Plus, I don't think I'll ever reminisce over a single chapter from GTAV, where there are many in RDR.

Bioshock/Bioshock Infinite
Is this being greedy, or just pathetically indecisive? Both of these games stand-out almost equally.

Arguably, I wouldn't have enjoyed the latter without the former, but the story in Infinite batters the feeling of finding something new I got from the original. The discovery of these impossible worlds, beautifully realised and expertly crafted, was almost impossible to pull away from. A real "one... more... checkpoint..." experience.

Where skill trees and experience points leave me as cold as freshly hauled Haddock, I would pore over the careful selection, progression and ever-entertaining application of Adam and Vigors. It would be remiss to not applaud the characters; from fearsome Big Daddy/Little Sister combo, to the enchanting Elizabeth, Bioshock as delivered some of the finest characterisation. I think I've just convinced myself to back and find a lighthouse, a man and a city.

Burnout Paradise
We've had driving games dribbling from our ear holes this generation. A stream of Forzas, Need For Speeds, Test Drives, GRIDs, DiRTs, Motorstorms, not to mention the lowly newcomers that failed to cut the mustard. In their midst came Burnout Paradise.

A whole county beckoned, free to roaming so long as it involved doing seriously dangers stuff on two or four wheels. It was a break from the straight-laced worlds conjured by other titles, often constrained by the whims of dickwad car manufacturers or a mindset that dictated driving must feel "real".

Pah! Not one of those pretenders came close to the exhilaration delivered by Burnout Paradise's unique take on the genre, where blazing down a mountain pass, trading paint with oncoming traffic, shooting through intersections and jumping several lanes of traffic was an everyday occurrence. Making it to the finish line in one piece was a cause for jubilation, but so were the more prolific and splendidly spectacular collisions.

Burnout crashes were almost a spectator sport. Yet creator Criterion's latter-day creations, Need For Speed Most Wanted and Hot Pursuit, pale next to the buzz delivered by Burnout. I blame it on the dickwad car manufacturers.

Yes, we know, we missed out your FAVOURITE. We're idiots. Cretins. How did we not know? Tell us about it in the comments, eh?

Here's to another generation of great games...