Portal is a great concept than continued to develop rather than stay static throughout, but at heart, the game is a puzzle game. Nothing wrong with that since the best examples from the genre are often some of the most engaging games developed, but Portal ultimately felt like little more than a glimpse into new game play mechanics to be implemented into a proper game in the future. It felt like one big tutorial to introduce the player into thinking of applications for the uses of the portal concept.
Brilliant concept, but not a complete game experience.
Good, but not best of generation. Apply the concept in a full game, otherwise, it's not much different in concept and execution than MGS VR missions was as a tutorial for stealth game play mechanics.
Bioshock. Mixed feelings about this game, even though I've bought it for two platforms (I'll skip the PS3 version). The art direction defined the game from the initial boot up and thoroughly drew me into the mystery driven plot, but once the initial spell wore off, I found my interest waning and eventually stopped playing.
It wasn't until about two weeks ago that I resumed where I left off and finished the game, largely in part because I wanted to experience the entire game and see how the intricately crafted story would be brought to a conclusion.
Unfortunately, the last act of the game, following the big plot twist ended in a downward spiral, concluding with a ridiculous final boss fight and a conclusion (if you can call a one minute cut scene a conclusion) that was the equivalent of a big wet fart at the end of a piano concerto.
I would have been better off skipping the conclusion with an unresolved cliffhanger "so how does it end?!"
While I can't gig a brilliant game for an unsatisfactory conclusion, that was enough to keep it off my best of the best for the 360, which goes to the Orange Box, specifically Half Life 2, specifically Episode 2.
Not because of the play mechanics, but because of the story telling aspect, first and foremost.
Boomblox was an entertaining puzzle concept that was not without its share of control related hitches. Ultimately, is is one of those games best suited as a multi-player since the single play quest mode following the lengthy tutorial mode, does tend to drag on.
Best game play? No. Different and refreshing which is good, but revolutionary/best? I wouldn't make that claim.
MGS4 is pretty polarizing for obvious reasons. Either you like the MG universe and the presentation, or you don't. Since a good 50%+ of the game is spent watching the story, if you have issues with that aspect, it's virtually impossible to have a favorable impression of the game. Of any MGS game for that matter. If you don't like doing old-school style, pure skill driven speed runs, you probably won't see much replay value either.
I will say that MGS4 has been the most enjoyable game to play with since Uncharted for me personally. It was good enough for me to go back and play through every MGS game, having never finished a single one of them due to what were game breaking play related issues for me. It was never a story issue. If I didn't find that aspect interesting, I could have skipped the entire series as something that was not my thing, regardless of the stealth driven game play aspects.
