Software hit parade marks 2007 as a definite winner

Tech News

By Stevie Smith Nov 26, 2007, 11:33 GMT

Despite the lacklustre summer months, where quality traditionally dips amid a wealth of Hollywood tie-ins, the videogame industry has experienced a booming 12 months of business. Specifically, the upcoming ‘Game of the Year’ awards are far from being tied to a single title at this point, with a wide variety of potential winners having already amassed impressive review scores in the run up to the close of 2007. Super Mario Galaxy leads wealth of possible 'Game of the Year' award contenders. Credit: Nintendo.

Super Mario Galaxy leads wealth of possible 'Game of the Year' award contenders. Credit: Nintendo.Highlighting the difficulty associated with crowning 2007’s victor, a BBC report reveals that revered UK gaming publication Edge magazine, which is the seasonal version of Scrooge when it comes to scoring its videogame reviews, has handed out no less than three perfect 10s in the past few months alone.While Edge is certainly not the only respected review source perused by the gaming masses, it is generally seen as being extremely hard to please, especially as it scores ‘5’ as average, unlike other publications (specifically some of those online), which score ‘7’ as average. Arriving on the back of improved year-on-year hardware and software sales, the likes of Halo 3, Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, and Super Mario Galaxy have all scored a perfect 10 with Edge, while the likes of BioShock, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Crysis, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, have all scored impressive 9s."You have to look at the maturity of platforms in part to answer why there are currently so many good games out there," explained Edge editor Tony Mott, "It’s difficult to say across the board that games are getting better. But we are seeing publishers being more careful about the quality of games that they release." With a wide variety of quality software titles already threatening to burst 2007’s seams, Mott adds that some videogame publishers are holding back their games until 2008.According to review score aggregator GameRankings.com, Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) currently holds top spot on the review circuit, boasting an average of 97.3%, while Half-Life 2: The Orange Box (Xbox 360) sits in second with 96.1%, and BioShock (Xbox 360) holds third with 95.3%. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360/PlayStation 3) and Halo 3 (Xbox 360) round out the top five with respective scores of 95.1% and 93.2%.The rest of the current top ten includes God of War 2 (PS2) and Mass Effect (Xbox 360), both with 93%, Crysis (PC) with 91%, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (PS3) at 89%, Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360) with 87%, and Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360/PS3) with 84.5%.Notably, the software top ten is somewhat representative of the current standing in the hardware field. While both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have produced several high profile titles throughout the year as they push the software portfolios of their next-generation consoles, Nintendo, often criticised for its trickle of releases, sits atop of the pile with its only top ten entrant."On the strength of sales alone 2007 has been the greatest year in gaming – that much is certain," commented Margaret Robertson, the former editor of Edge magazine, "This year we have had the huge titles like Halo 3, The Orange Box and Super Mario Galaxy, which have had huge success and deservedly so," she added before enthusing that various other "next-tier down" titles such as God of War 2 and Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction have shown plenty of encouraging "ambition and confidence" to the point where consumers "can almost take the quality for granted."

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