With the current generation now drawing to a close, each member of the VideoGamer.com team share their own games of the generation. For the sake of making them struggle, they've been restricted to picking just three…
Read Editor-In-Chief Simon Miller's Games of the Generation here.
Read Video Production Editor Matt Lees' Games of the Generation here.
Read Editorial Director Tom Orry's Games of the Generation here.
Editor's Note: The generation was classed as PC, Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. If we included handhelds, these lists would never have been finished…
I played and finished Heavy Rain back in February 2010 yet from time to time I still sit and think about some the decisions made and actions I took during my two evening's with David Cage's masterpiece.
To this day I can't believe I left fingerprints on a phone in the typewriter store, and failed to release poor Lauren's seatbelt leaving her to drown as I swam to safety. The last half an hour also completely glitched out on me, meaning no vehicles were shown on screen, leaving Nathan to make his way to the final encounter in an invisible car. I was so caught up in the story that this simply didn't matter.
Press X to Jason has given the game a somewhat comical and unfair legacy, but no other game before or after has equalled Heavy Rain's cinematic quality. The brilliance of Heavy Rain only makes Beyond an even bigger disappointment. I just hope David Cage still has another excellent game in him.
I've never been a fan of the MMO – I tried to like World of Warcraft, but could only manage two weeks of slaughtering boars and getting lost in a giant world – but Football Manager Live took over my life. I started in the beta and only stopped playing the day before Sports Interactive shut down the servers, producing some of my greatest gaming memories. As manager of the Juicy Dangler I carved out a name for myself as a nurturer of great young talent, with my star striker Lemaire terrorising defences across the St John game world thanks to his blistering pace and acceleration.
My career high came with a nomination for manager of the year, at which point my team's automatically generated bio read:
"The side have been applauded in recent times as one who truly epitomise the 'beautiful game'. They manage to achieve great success with an open, flamboyant style which has resulted in the side becoming known as a favourite of the neutral supporters."
I don't think I'll ever play another MMO.
Pacifism is perhaps the greatest score-based game mode every created – well, since 1080 and Wave Race stunt mode on the N64 – and is the kind of game which appears to be lacking at the launch of Xbox One. I enjoyed Geometry Wars' other game types too, but didn't enjoy its shmup gameplay anywhere near as much as guiding the weaponless craft through a series of gates, all whilst avoiding the enemy. It was like a game of chase, only with the ability to make the chasing pack explode just at the point when they believed they had you cornered.
The game also pioneered competition with Xbox Live friends, posting mini-leaderboards which transformed high score chasing into something more addictive than crack cocaine or peanut M&Ms.
In fact, Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 was so good, that Bizarre Creations' closure was even sadder. Not because we'd never see another PGR, but for the very real possibility that no more Geometry Wars titles would be made...
Honourable Mentions:
Game Dev Story, Limbo, Stuntman Ignition (high score gaming at its finest), Mount Your Friends, New Star Soccer, FIFA series (Xbox 360), Tiny Wings.
