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...

I played six PSP 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 PSP, a powerful system with disturbingly few games released for it in 2008.

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

Take a look below: Read more...

Patrick, Tracey and I are gone for the rest of the year, but we won't let the Multiplayer blog lie dormant.

Between now and New Year's Day, look for daily posts from me looking back on every game I found worth playing on each system. (I started today with the Wii).

And starting next week, check out a special series from Patrick about the personal gaming Achievements he unlocked.

What you won't find are our Game of the Year picks. We need more time with 2008's games before we declare what we think were the best.

Happy holidays, everyone!

[Photo Credit: Tomb Raider Chronicles]

I finished 38 video games in 2008.

So much for the theory that people whose work involves games don't finish them.

As I did in 2006 and 2007, I have tallied my video game playlists for 2008. Somehow, in this my first full calendar year being married, I managed to start more and finish more games than ever before.

I owe this to two things:

-The privilege to work on a beat that enables me to secure copies of games for free from all gaming publishers.
-The immense patience of my wife.

I'll be on vacation until January, but between now and then you will still see daily posts from me between now and then detailing the roster of games I played (and sometimes finished) for every major gaming platform.

I can tell you now that the system I played the most games on was the Xbox 360. The longest game I played through was probably "Fire Emblem" on the Wii; the shortest was PC darling "You Have To Burn The Rope." I finished one GamCube game this year and only started one game on my iPod.

Hopefully you can use them as a jumping off points to discuss what you played in 2008. Click this link between now and New Year's to see the growing list of my 2008 Playlists.

And here are some fun comparison stats:

My final 2006 tally was: 102 games played; 21 finished.

My final 2007 tally is: 118 played; 35 finished.

My final 2008 tally is: 135 played; 37 finished. [UPDATE: Added 2 more games played to PSN and PC lists]

(Note: The Games Played number counts only 2008 games that I played for fun, outside of work or industry events. The Games Completed stat counts games from any year that I finished this year.)