TVG Hall of Game 2008 Feature

It's time to put aside feuding format rivalries, time to cross the line between casual and hardcore, as gamers from all kinds come together to enjoy some festive activities.  We've knocked our heads together to come up with the twenty games that impressed us the most during 2008.  After dumping Halo 3 into a lowly position  last year, 2008 is again likely to cause plenty of disapproving nods, bitter rants, and hopefully one or two surprises. 

Like any list of this nature (that always appear to be popular around this time of the year), it's by no means THE definitive list.  But we're sure you'll agree it covers a wide variety of genres across an even spread of platforms and would be an entertaining way to waste away the hours if you ever found yourself stranded on a desert island or stricken with flu.  So we're giving you the chance to win them (well most of them) simply by watching the video below and following the link to answer a question.  Just the thing should you ever find yourself washed up on the said island, and miraculously found the consoles, HD TV screen and mains electricity waiting for you.

Stat fans can feast on the figures below, but one glaring absentee is the lack of any Nintendo.  After running home with the top accolade last year with Mario's outer space exploits, Nintendo's heavily publicised break-up with the traditional gamer has certainly been felt.  Instead, Sony took top billing on our list with four of the top twenty, closely followed by Microsoft and Sega each of whom notched up three positions.

By Format
360 titles (13)
PS3 titles (12)
PC titles (9)
PSP titles (4)
Wii titles (2)
PS2 titles (2)
DS titles (0)

360 exclusives (4)
PS3 exclusives (3)

By Publisher
Sony (4)
Microsoft (3)
Sega (3)
EA (2)
Ubisoft (2)
Activision Blizzard (1)
Bethesda (1)
Codemasters (1)
Konami (1)
Rockstar (1)
THQ (1)

Leading the formats with 13 featured titles is the Xbox 360, four of which are exclusive to the format.  The gap between the PS3 is barely noticeable however, with 12 games appearing on Sony's unit, three of which were exclusives.  Both the Wii and DS had a terrible year as far as TVG is concerned, the quagmire of mainstream "me too" releases far outnumbering anything of note.  It's only third-party titles that provide anything noticeable on the Wii, although it wasn't the Wii versions that earned them a spot in the first place.

So that leaves settles the dispute, all that's left is to wish all TVG readers a Happy New Year and remember to enter the competition to win a range of goodies from the games featured.  The bursting treasure trove of prizes includes a copy of Spore signed by Will Wright, Saint's Row 2 Special Edition, FM 2009, FIFA 09, Far Cry 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Naruto: Broken Bond.  Our thanks to the publishers who've supported TVG Hall of Game 2008 and congratulations on the fine games.

See you in the New Year.