Every day this week, I’m counting down my five favorite gaming accomplishments over the last 12 months.

In 2008, my greatest elation with a video game had nothing to do with me.

Slowly but surely, I have tried to convince my girlfriend she would enjoy video games.

She loves “Tetris,” “Super Smash Bros.” and “Mario Kart,” but this year, she made great strides to enjoy the medium on another level.

She played “Braid” a few months ago, but what most impressed me was when she asked to play “Left 4 Dead” — a ridiculously fast-paced shooter — alongside me online.

Coming to grips with “Left 4 Dead” was not an easy task for her (or for me, her teammate). The concept of independent movement and aim was both foreign and frustrating, but something she took to with great gusto.

Outside of “Left 4 Dead,” she hasn’t shown much interest in playing more complex games on her own. She likes how “Prince of Persia” looks, but doesn’t want to play it. She thought the stories of post-apocalyptia in “Fallout 3″ were interesting, but hasn’t picked up the controller.

But she played “Left 4 Dead” and wants to play more. For me, that’s enough.

I played 16 PC and other miscellaneous games for fun in 2008 and finished three of them.

As I did last year, I’ve compiled a list of the games that I played for fun in 2008. One list per major gaming platform.

(Check out the rest of my 2008 Gaming Playlists for other platforms, updated daily until New Year’s.)

Today’s entry is all about the games that didn’t fit into my other posts. These are the PC games, the one iPod game, a GameCube game and other odds and ends.

What did I play? And which three games did I finish?

Take a look below: Read more…

I played three WiiWare games for fun in 2008 and finished none of them.

As I did last year, I’ve compiled a list of the games that I played for fun in 2008. One list per major gaming platform.

(Check out the rest of my 2008 Gaming Playlists for other platforms, updated daily until New Year’s.)

Today’s entry is all about WiiWare, Nintendo’s new-in-’08 download service for original games.

What did I play? And why didn’t I finish any?

Take a look below: Read more…

Every day this week, I’m counting down my five favorite gaming accomplishments over the last 12 months.

In 2008, a little game called “Left 4 Dead” helped me overcome some social anxiety.

There are a few reasons why I rarely play multiplayer games. Primarily, it’s because I enjoy the idea of starting a game, finishing it and moving on.

There’s another reason, though.

I seem to suffer from a mild form of what the Internet tells me is telephonophobia. It’s not a fear of telephones, per se, so much as it is a fear of taking and receiving calls.

Chatting over Xbox Live or something similar is a lot like a phone call, which helps explain why my stomach knots up before I start a multiplayer game.

But my girlfriend and others wanted to play online “Left 4 Dead” and I decided to answer their call. And so I played “Left 4 Dead” and really enjoyed myself. Maybe having my girlfriend sitting next to me reduced my fixation on voice chat anxiety.

I’ve always wanted to try “Call of Duty 4″ multiplayer. Maybe in 2009, I will.

I played 22 Wii games for fun in 2008 and finished five of them.

As I did last year, I’ve compiled a list of the games that I played for fun in 2008. One list per major gaming platform.

(Check out the rest of my 2008 Gaming Playlists for other platforms, updated daily until New Year’s.)

Today’s entry is all about the DS, a system I got a lot of use out of this year, surprisingly mostly with third-party games, not Nintendo stuff.

What did I play? And which five games did I finish?

Take a look below: Read more…

Every day this week, I’m counting down my five favorite gaming accomplishments over the last 12 months.

In 2008, I finally saw why some are drawn for so many hours — in my case, more than 60 — into open-world games.

All because of “Fallout 3.”

I spent an hour during a preview session with “Fallout 3″ physically agonizing over what I should be doing.

All my life, I have tended to prefer linear, driven experiences that don’t place the burden of what to do next on the player.

Every step of the way, “Fallout 3″ encourages you to break from the path, make your own decisions — something I used to describe as “make your own fun.” But since dropping several days into “Fallout 3,” I realized that’s not right. The fun is the exploration, choice and freedom not found in other games.

It’s because of “Fallout 3″ that I will absolutely play the next “Elder Scrolls” and “Fallout” games from Bethesda Softworks and no longer step away from other games like it. They’re a wholly different kind of gaming experience, one I’m anxious to have again.

I haven’t played a video game this long since the “Final Fantasy” games on the original PlayStation back in middle school. That’s incredible to me.

Thanks, “Fallout 3.”

I played 11 Xbox Live Arcade games for fun in 2008 and finished one of them.

As I did last year, I’ve compiled a list of the games that I played for fun in 2008. One list per major gaming platform.

(Check out the rest of my 2008 Gaming Playlists for other platforms, updated daily until New Year’s.)

Today’s entry is all about Xbox Live Arcade, Microsoft’s long-running service for downloadable Xbox 360 games.

What did I play? And which one game did I finish?

Take a look below: Read more…

Every day this week, I’m counting down my five favorite gaming accomplishments over the last 12 months.

In 2008, I beat a “Grand Theft Auto” game.

In years past, I started but did not finish “Grand Theft Auto III,” “Vice City” and “San Andreas.” Only with the first game did I even come close.

That’s mostly because I didn’t play video games for story, especially the “GTA” series. For me, it was all about screwing with the world.

The situation was the complete opposite with this year’s “Grand Theft Auto IV.” I’ve grown up, my gaming priorities are different and the game’s visual realism did not compel me to run over pedestrians, randomly mess with police officers or participate in the sadistic fun that once hooked me to “GTA.” Instead, I wanted to see the story of immigrant Niko Bellic to its conclusion.

However you feel about “GTA IV”’s storyline, Nico’s story is what kept me playing for more than 30 hours. Once the story was finished — marking the first time I’d competed a “GTA” game — “GTA IV” went back on the shelf.

But at least I beat it.

I played 29 Xbox 360 games for fun in 2008 and finished 11 of them.

As I did last year, I’ve compiled a list of the games that I played for fun in 2008. One list per major gaming platform.

(Check out the rest of my 2008 Gaming Playlists for other platforms, updated daily until New Year’s.)

Today’s entry is all about the Xbox 360, the system on which I played and finished the most games in 2008.

What did I play? And which 11 games did I finish?

Take a look below: Read more…

Every day this week, I’m counting down my five favorite gaming accomplishments over the last 12 months. We start at the bottom …

In 2008, I threw some games in the trash.

That might not seem like a big deal to some people, but it was for me.

I’m a pack rat, someone who still owns two Dreamcasts (one American, one Japanese) and scours used bins at EB Games for games I’m only mildly interested in playing but want for collection purposes…or something.

It was earlier this year that I realized that’s completely insane. All of these games were stacking up in my apartment, many of them B or C-list products that I had no emotional investment in except “oh, it would be nice to own that.” This likely applies to more than 3/4s of what I own.

A bunch of those — including Namco Bandai’s infamous first-person fist-based Xbox shooter “Breakdown” — were tossed out of the collection in 2008.

In early 2009, the purge will be deeper. I plan to throw out many more. The reason? The games I own should be ones I truly treasure. Don’t worry — the same philosophy will be exercised on my DVD collection, too.

I played 10 PSN games for fun in 2008 and finished two of them.

As I did last year, I’ve compiled a list of the games that I played for fun in 2008. One list per major gaming platform.

(Check out the rest of my 2008 Gaming Playlists for other platforms, updated daily until New Year’s.)

Today’s entry is all about the PSN, the consistently impressive service for downloadable games on the PS3.

What did I play? And which two games did I finish?

Take a look below: Read more…

I played 16 PS3 games for fun in 2008 and finished seven of them.

As I did last year, I’ve compiled a list of the games that I played for fun in 2008. One list per major gaming platform.

(Check out the rest of my 2008 Gaming Playlists for other platforms, updated daily until New Year’s.)

Today’s entry is all about the PS3, a system that was supposed to have a banner year, but managed something that felt more like just a decent one.

What did I play? And which seven games did I finish?

Take a look below: Read more…