Widescreen Gaming Forum

It looks like Portal will win WSGF GOTY. But I thought it would be fun to pit it against the strongest GOTY contenders that weren't certified.

In case you're curious why each game was not certified:
BioShock has stretched HUD and 2D screens in 16:10 resolutions.
Call of Duty 4 is fine AFAIK, but nobody bothered to write a DR for it.
Crysis has cropped FMVs.
Sam & Max: Season One has no widescreen support at all.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has a stretched HUD.

Not exactly a bountiful PC game crop this year.

I enjoyed CoD4 way more than I enjoyed any of the others. Crysis was close... STALKER was close...

:P what still no World in Conflict listed

I voted for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. because although I adored Portal, it didn't really give me the many hours of true immersive gameplay and atmosphere I got from the exclusion zone of Chernobyl power station. Okay driving was cut out and there was that whole widescreen/vista issue when it finally arrived (thanks Racer_S for the patch!), but once you sat down and played through the game it became sort of compelling.

With fantastic art, level and sound design (brain scorcher anyone?), the game was one of the first I have ever played that I felt was truly frightening!

I was really excited about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in the months leading up to its release and its the only game in the last year thats lived up to my expectations. I loved every minute - so much so I've just started it again :) Plus I've always had a mild fascination with the Chernobyl power station anyway!

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. .... Portal was ... well ..... down right boring.

CoD4 was an outright blast to play so there's a vote from me.

CoD4 for me was a total bust. The multiplayer isn't "that" amazing, and the singleplayer (imo) was terrible. If you layer on any difficulty less than veteran, it seems as if you were practically invincible. If you played on veteran, you got screwed over by AI EVERY TIME. I cannot tell you how many hundreds of times I played over the second-to-last mission on veteran because my AI kept pushing me out of my cover.

[/rant]

Bioshock was amazing, however.

Ain't it great the way games can polarise us? :) Or interesting, at the very least. ;) Kinda like films and music... or indeed, anything creative.

...I now have to admit the idea of 'games as art' is gaining on me. ;)

I thought Bioshock was an utter failure, except for in the graphics department. Steam-punk System Shock 2, but dumbed-down for consoles. ;)

If you layer on any difficulty less than veteran, it seems as if you were practically invincible. If you played on veteran, you got screwed over by AI EVERY TIME. I cannot tell you how many hundreds of times I played over the second-to-last mission on veteran because my AI kept pushing me out of my cover.

Agreed, I finshed it on Hardened And it wasnt bad till what I think is the second to last mission. The sniper one By the Farris wheel was stupidly hard. Played it probably 20 times or so, And i ended up having to be rather lame, I hid behind the Bumperkarts and watched as they ran all the way around it and would shoot them as soon as they poped around the corner.