That is an IGN opinion piece from Ryan McCaffrey, who labored at Official Xbox Journal from 2002-2012 throughout the unique Xbox and Xbox 360 period earlier than becoming a member of IGN, the place he stays “the Xbox man.” In the run-up to Xbox’s twenty fifth anniversary, he’ll be sharing his reminiscences from the platform’s first quarter-century.
Typically, online game launch schedules converge to create memorable superstorms that reside on for years after the reality. The Fall of 1998 (Half-Life, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Doom 3, Metallic Gear Stable, Grim Fandango) involves thoughts, as does the Fall of 2004 (Half-Life 2, Halo 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, World of Warcraft). However for my cash, the biggest season in gaming historical past was the Fall of 2007. It was so unbelievably good that you possibly can take simply the Xbox 360 releases from this window and it nonetheless in all probability takes the cake. However once you add in PC, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii releases, it’s an absolute assassin’s row of video video games that may in all probability by no means be topped in a 3-4 month interval.
At Official Xbox Journal, we knew it was going to be huge. However wanting again and remembering our Sport of the 12 months debate just a few weeks after the mud settled (Rock Band received, and no I’ve no regrets about that), I’m undecided we have been capable of absolutely recognize the gravity (gun) of the second. One first-ballot Corridor-of-Famer shipped after one other. Have a look:
BioShock (August 21): Should you tried to argue that August 21 continues to be the Summer time…I’d say I respect your perspective, however numerous children are already again in faculty by August 21, so it counts as the Fall! Anyway, the unique BioShock is an often-imitated, never-duplicated narrative-driven first-person shooter basic whose gorgeous underwater setting in the failed utopian metropolis of Rapture – with its terrifying Large Daddies and mysterious Little Sisters – took avid gamers on a journey match for an ideal novel,full with an enormous, jaw-dropping plot twist. Its solely blemish is its weak closing boss struggle, however I’ve by no means seen anybody attempt to argue for that being sufficient to disqualify BioShock from the checklist of all-time greats. Emergent gameplay prospects abounded, with Plasmids that allow you to ignite the swimming pools of oil beneath an enemy’s toes on hearth or to electrocute unhealthy guys standing in puddles of water. That is legendary sport designer Ken Levine’s magnum opus.
Halo 3 (September 25): It’s wild to consider now, however for as profitable as the Xbox 360 was, it didn’t launch with an enormous new Halo sport. As a substitute, Halo 2 was a late launch on the unique Xbox, and because of Halo: Fight Developed and Halo 2 having their backwards compatibility baked into each Xbox 360, avid gamers have been capable of proceed proper on enjoying the first sequel. However when Grasp Chief’s first next-gen journey lastly dropped and it was time to “end the struggle” that Halo 2 had left painfully unresolved, it was vastly anticipated and it really delivered. The Chief bought a correct sendoff in the closing cutscene, making it one among the few sagas that truly caught the touchdown.
The Orange Field (October 10): Typically, Valve simply does issues, kinda like The Joker. The Orange Field was a ridiculous package deal of 10 out of 10 video video games that any publicly traded sport writer would’ve cut up up and bought as a bunch of separately-sold 10 out of 10 video video games. However not Valve. Steam makes Gabe Newell more cash than he may ever know what to do with, so Valve, seemingly only for the love of the sport, bundled Half-Life 2, Episode 1, and the then-new Episode 2, Portal, and Workforce Fortress 2 right into a single $60 package deal. We’ll in all probability by no means see something like this ever once more…except Valve drops Half-Life 3 out of nowhere in a “Crowbar Crate” with Portal 3 and Left 4 Lifeless 3. Which, actually, we are able to’t 100% rule out.
Name of Responsibility 4: Trendy Warfare (November 5): Infinity Ward’s third Name of Responsibility (Treyarch dealt with Name of Responsibility 3) not solely introduced the sequence out of World Struggle II for the first time and into the fashionable period, but it surely additionally catapulted the franchise from Very Large Deal to The Largest Deal, placing it in the similar rarified air as Mario, Zelda, Halo (at the time), and Grand Theft Auto. It boasts an unbelievable marketing campaign and multiplayer on which the whole final 20 years of Name of Responsibility have been constructed.
Murderer’s Creed (November 13): You understand it’s a killer checklist when that is the “worst” sport on it. Nobody actually spends time wistfully recalling the unique. It was a heck of a four-hour gameplay loop that was kind of simply repeated a few occasions, and most agree that Murderer’s Creed 2 – the begin of the Ezio Trilogy – is the place the sequence actually took off. And as a rule, it’s a horrible concept to launch a brand new IP in the vacation season towards established tentpole franchise sequels. That Ubisoft not solely shipped Murderer’s Creed into the hurricane-force headwinds of Fall 2007 however the sequence gained a foothold and rose to turn into a megafranchise of its personal speaks to how good the core concept of this “social stealth” sport was.
Mass Impact (November 20): I’ve already shared my intensive reminiscences of this one elsewhere in this Xbox twenty fifth anniversary retrospective sequence. However every part I stated about Murderer’s Creed above additionally applies right here. Perhaps the lesson right here is that publishers ought to place extra huge bets on daring new concepts…
Rock Band (November 20): I’ve lined this one at size as nicely. You wish to speak about a sport that has aged superbly? Rock Band is in fine-wine territory. The one trouble is discovering functioning devices to nonetheless play it with. It’s not a software program drawback, it’s an gear drawback. Even typing this makes me wish to go play Rock Band instantly.
However despite the fact that the OXM workplaces had Xbox 360s on each desk, the workers have been avid gamers who performed each platform. So now let’s add in a PC unique, a PlayStation unique, and a Wii unique to actually cement Fall 2007’s GOAT standing:
Tremendous Mario Galaxy (November 12): My private favourite 3D Mario sport was additionally a daring reinvention of the 3D platformer from the masters of the style. At this level, there isn’t a superlative that hasn’t been written about Tremendous Mario Galaxy. Heck, it was so monumental that Nintendo and Illumination based mostly the Tremendous Mario Bros. Film sequel round it earlier this 12 months, virtually 20 years after Galaxy debuted on the Wii.
Crysis (November 13): Let’s simply say there’s a cause that “Can it run Crysis?” turned a meme. This wasn’t only a technical showpiece for the ages. It was additionally a tremendously good first-person shooter from the group that initially created Far Cry earlier than Ubisoft purchased it and took it over.
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (November 19): The primary Uncharted not solely launched Naughty Canine into the higher echelon of sport builders in the world and finally paved the method for a film starring Spider-Man, it took the mantle of third-person action-adventure gold commonplace from Tomb Raider, the sequence that arguably invented the style. You could possibly additionally make the case that this was the starting of PlayStation’s insane run of top-shelf first-party exclusives that helped propel the PS4 to just about the similar document heights as the PS2.
The truth that you’ll be able to slice up the Fall of 2007 in so many alternative methods – greatest Xbox season ever, greatest PC season ever, greatest November ever – and the argument for its unmatched brilliance nonetheless holds up is iron-clad proof that it’s, indisputably, the greatest season in online game historical past.
Ryan McCaffrey
Govt Editor
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s government editor of previews and host of IGN’s weekly Xbox present, Podcast Unlocked, and a co-host of Subsequent-Gen Console Watch. He is a North Jersey man, so it is “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.