TIME Magazine: GTA IV top game of 2008

09
Dec
2008
By Chris | 9th Dec 2008 at 03:14 GMT in GTA IV | 16 Comments

TIME magazine has named Grand Theft Auto IV as the number one video game of the year 2008. The well known magazine has a "Top 10 of Everything" each year, and I think it comes as no surprise to many people that GTA IV topped the video game list. Well done to Rockstar Games and all the studios that worked on the game. Here's the full list:

  1. Grand Theft Auto IV
  2. Braid
  3. LittleBigPlanet
  4. Rock Band 2
  5. Gears of War 2
  6. Dead Space
  7. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
  8. Hunted Forever
  9. Fieldrunners
  10. Spore

Source: TIME

Lonewᶲlf's photo
Lonewᶲlf 9th December, 2008 @ 03:52 - Permalink

And its well deserved indeed. Cheers Rockstar Games. :)

WRX22B1998's photo
WRX22B1998 9th December, 2008 @ 04:20 - Permalink

haha nice. although to be honest i havent heard of 2,6,8 or 9 LOL.

Shortbus's photo
Shortbus 9th December, 2008 @ 04:23 - Permalink

Here's my personal thoughts on the list.

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1. Grand Theft Auto IV

Probably doesn't deserve it, in my opinion. Still a fantastic game nevertheless

2. Braid

never even heard of it...

3. LittleBigPlanet

Cartoon version of Garry's mod, deserves to be like 15.

4. Rock Band 2

meh

5. Gears of War 2

pretty good. good #5

6. Dead Space

sucked

7. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

sucked even more than dead space

8. Hunted Forever

never even heard of it...

9. Fieldrunners

See #8

10. Spore

Doesn't deserve this good. Should be like #16.

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Probably it will be a battle for GOTY between Fallout 3 and Grand Theft Auto 4.

azn's photo
azn 9th December, 2008 @ 05:08 - Permalink

BAHAHAHA @ Star Wars. Lameeee. And GTAIV Ftw!

Artur's photo
Artur 9th December, 2008 @ 06:06 - Permalink

Yeah GTA IV was good but not extremely good, can't really think of GOTY this year but some of those games deserve to be up there but a lot don't. I think Braid was some XBL Arcade game or something, never heard of 8 and 9 as well. Gears 2 was quite awesome and definitely deserves to be in the top 5 if not higher. RB2 was basically a copy of the first game with more songs and I don't think music games should be in the top 5, they're fun at first but eventually lose their touch. TFU was fun the first time through but had no replay value basically and DLC is not worth downloading at all for the price you have to pay. Dead Space is supposed to be good but I only played the demo for like 2 mins so I wouldn't know. And I'm not too sure about Spore, sounded interesting but didn't seem that great. Like I said before, a lot of games missing from that list.

Edit: BTW, Chris you should credit Evo for finding this considering that's where you found the info. I believe he made a topic in the Gaming section

Earthbound's photo
Earthbound 9th December, 2008 @ 07:35 - Permalink
haha nice. although to be honest i havent heard of 2,6,8 or 9 LOL.

I'm with you there.

'grats to R*

QuickDeath's photo
QuickDeath 9th December, 2008 @ 11:23 - Permalink

Dead Space is 6th? That game sucks a*s.

Congrats R*.

chris82's photo
chris82 9th December, 2008 @ 12:33 - Permalink

Wow, no doubt IV deserved to be #1 but otherwise that list is horrible. Where's Left4Dead? Where's Saints Row 2?

Spore sucks.

Thomas.'s photo
Thomas. 9th December, 2008 @ 13:49 - Permalink

Out of that list, I have only heard of 3 or 4. Is this based on American sales or w/e not Worldwide because it's from an American Magazine that many people have said as being Biased and false occasionally.

Anyway, it's good that GTA IV is that far up it.

GTA Don's photo
GTA Don 9th December, 2008 @ 14:01 - Permalink

I haven't even heard of most of these games. Still good that GTA IV is first.

Mehhh's photo
Mehhh 9th December, 2008 @ 15:57 - Permalink

yea, well it certainly isnt news really to anyone.. This series has been in the top spots for .........

I came into the series on GTA III, I hadnt played a game like it b4.. It was cool but I wanted more.. Then VC made it even better, one of the funniest parts of the games has ofcourse been the ped dialog..

I wasnt crazy about soma the more suggestive themes, frankly I was "turned off" by the excessive sexual themes, goodgrief, I really could care less than to see poor cartoony characters in a game go through motions and sounds of sex, never saw the "hot coffee" scene dont care to, I'm sure it was explicit but I could imagine it on the low level, "ohhh what pixels!! , its the result of clever coding baby, I do like your textures, you got some fly resolutions "girl", uh huh 1600x1280!, lets integrate, ohh ohh, 010..101..1011..001..110".. lol :rolleyes:

Otherwise SA was coolest w/ the ability to fly planes, that jumbo jet was massive!! I REALLY miss the Apache and Fighter... The jetpack was cool too..

I liked being able to customize cars but as far as ingame it wasnt all that good, I mean they obviously werent focusing much on it, just an add-in.. You had some cars that lookt much better w/ out the mods as they were so cheesy.. Others lookt really good tho..

I dint like how at times when you take over territory, you could load up the game and find your stats showing you had none.. Other times I'd played & took over some territory, it'd be there next load, but upon taking over all of it, it later said I had none & ballas were out everywhere ..

GTA IV, nice to see better graphics and better cars, the HUMMER is my fav for car smashin & flippin as well as cop evasion! It kinda sux you goin through the windshield at most inopertune times, say when ya have 7 cop cars on your tail =oP Otherwise it is a cool feature, ESPECIALLY since other ppl, including cops fly through the windshield.. Unfortunately it doesnt have much get up & go, the "plane tower" at the airport is pretty good for head-ons & puttin ppl through the windshield, best in FP camera..

The missions are pretty good, but I really would like a lil more freedom in missions to be abit stealthier!! Like when I have to take out the baddies, I get my sniper out from x distance, only to zoom & see that they can already see me w/ their weapons pointed str8 at me .. Comon, ts part of the element of surprise man .. It sux when you try to get the baddies in that "open" multilevel building, they can see & shoot you from across the street..

I think lowering their field of vision would help, stealth & skill is part of what keeps you alive say in real-life or in the gaming world, so let us have more element of surprise.. I hate those missions where you have to follow or drive on a certain path only or you fail.. Granted there is some freedom in some missions but others demand a-b-c ...

The GPS was a nice addition since maps are so big & until you really learn them its hard to find places from here to "50 miles away"..

I dint like the few & somewhat sporadic safehouses. What happened to the purchase of properties ?? You get all that $$ in the game & nothin to spend it on cept the hospitals, that sux, proly tryin to keep it closer to real life, lol ..

The street parking was not bad, pretty convenient but cops atleast, would occassionaly steal my vehicles, I know, I seen em do it or I'd load up & the car was gone so I figured they took it or it was a glitch one.. We know cops often steal moving or parked cars to give chase or transport criminal.. I liked the fact the cops also go after other ppl & if you provoke them into hittin you w/out the cops seein you hit them, they arrest of shoot them, thats fairer ! I've also been able to help cops indirectly by running after a guy they're chasing, run into him, he falls, the cop paid me a compliment on more than one occassion, I even got in a fight w/ a prisoner in the yard, he hit me, a cop showed up to "arrest" him, heh, an extra cool-bit.

I'm not so much into "stunt" performances, but its good to have ramps & whatnot throughout for escape routes & resulting "stunts" can be pretty cool..

Obviously bail out has been improved, I don know how many times I've driven along, bailed & watcht the vehicle run into ppl & stuff, the cops wont come after you IF you arent in the vehicle upon impact, normally .. I'd like a lil less reactiveness from ppl gettin outta the way..

When you're on foot w/ grenades, the RPG or few other weapons, its cool to hear ppl acknowledge it & run like hell! lol

I'd like to see more weapons/customize option ..

The phone, its aight, good to have the option to cancel calls AND put it in sleep mode, dang, I was gettin tired of ppl callin to have a drink, play darts, pool, bowling or TITTIES ROMAN, lol .. Integration of codes was better than manual button mashes everytime but they dint make it that easy, closing the phone when you get shot, hahaha very funny .. Those dogon cops have TOO good an aim too, they are too many that pop up outta nowhere & it seems that honestly a certain bit of "HA you're OWNED" is programmed into the game.. For one, I noticed in Ps3, you can't get ridda the cops w/ one push of the code, it can take 50 or more pushes, its like for some reason maybe you blew up a cop car or 2, whatever, sometimes it goes off, otherwise wanted reappears, again,again,again,again and on and on.... I've also been blown up by the RPG firing on its own ??!!

Some cops got me when I was low on health so I took out some cops afterwards, there were some cars around, I RPG'd the cop cars, noticed a couple cars on fire, I was near a building abit, soon as those cars blew up & another cop showed up, I blew him up, then another was coming, I started to aim but b4 he got the RPG up, it fired on its own!! into the ground/building wasting Niko... Its like it got pisst cuz I was takin out the cops, so it took me out, thats happened on more than one occassion, it fired one or 2 times more after I was already in the "grey" "wasted" ... Almost like its programmed that way, where, hmm you been mean taking out these ppl or cops, so .. lol

Overall, its obvious I like this game the BEST! Despite the "pc issues", RS has proven they've only made the game better w/ just a few things we miss or would like in the (current) or next game, hint hint =oP

josef8's photo
josef8 9th December, 2008 @ 23:43 - Permalink

WTF NO METAL GEAR SOLID 4

spore, braid, starwars, FUCKIN rockband2

TIme magazine my a**

Pandora's photo
Pandora 10th December, 2008 @ 23:33 - Permalink

Haven't played GTA IV enough yet to comment, but seriously... What the effin hell is Spore doing on that list? It really was the biggest let-down of the year. Played it for something like 5 days. Haven't even started Spore up once after that.

Braid? What?

LBP looks awesome. Don't know if it deserves #3, but at least top 10.

Hunted Forever and Fieldrunners... again. What?

Where's COD5? That game was awesome, and Crysis Warhead was great too. Much, much better than Spore >.> And Far Cry 2, apart from the shitty AI, is a very amusing game too.

Super Smash Bros Brawl... Totally forgot about that one.

Anyway, seems the performance problem has been somewhat softened, can't wait to get going with GTA. Fuck. It's probably going to be the only thing I'll be doing on the first of Jan :P (if it is really much beter than San An that is (which I loved btw)).

The Bossman's photo
The Bossman 11th December, 2008 @ 15:44 - Permalink

Great that it won best game, but I agree with the other users, the list itself is utter shit. Where's MGS4, or COD5, or LittleBigPlanet, or GOW2, or Fallout 3, or Bioshock? Amazing they included some games I've never heard of, they don't deserve anything at all.

Ivan's photo
Ivan 11th December, 2008 @ 16:50 - Permalink

Wow, what a shit list, congrats to rockstar anyway.

Mike356's photo
Mike356 11th December, 2008 @ 21:00 - Permalink

that list damn near sucks like everyone else said weres the good games and wtf is braid