I notice a lot of people are asking why there's no Wii love. If you ask me, Wii had quite a lackluster year among mainstream gamers, perhaps with the exception of Wii Fit. 2009 will hopefully be more interesting with games like The Conduit, Wii Sports 2, and, dare I say it? - Sonic and the Black Knight (the first one was half decent).

But putting "You Have To Burn The Rope" on the list? That took balls, Brian.

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It's not popular with gamers to go with GTA IV, but nevertheless it's still one of 2008's best. Whether it's #1 is a matter of taste, opinion. The game has a lot of flaws, the relationship babysitting was overdone, and it seems like with most people the game either needed more San Andreas in a game not called San Andreas, or the storyline wasn't good enough. Hopefully Rockstar can find some way to satisfy more people next time without abandoning the great things they did in IV.

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I yearn for the day when one can grab life by the Golden Crecentes, or a comedy movie gets panned for relying on kicks to the Golden Crecentes for laughs.

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Now I want one.

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When I was a kid, Mortal Kombat came out, and it was such a big deal that there were bloody deaths in a game. On the other hand, they were so over the top, and even as kids, we laughed at the cheesiness of them. My dad knew I played, and probably saw it as a silly kids' thing, which it was.

In games like Bushido Blade, you can kill people with various weapons, but they don't show damage other than being bandaged when they come back, and the blood and gore are limited to sprays of square red particles.

Playing a game like SoF2, you can actually maim people, and see organs depending on the damage. GoW isn't against humans, but it certainly takes that to the next level.

In GTA4, it's actually less comical taking people out because they react so realistically instead of goofy game NPCs. Kind of like Kojima was talking about showing the repercussions of your violent actions, it seems to carry more weight when you wing someone and they yell out, grab a wounded limb and hobble away, then get gunned down. It's not just depleting hit points. Blood splatters on the walls behind them and they leave a non-vanishing corpse (at least while you're in the area.)

I'd say if they're not neccesarily getting more violent, then the violence is gaining verisimilitude, and there is a definite difference in the feel of it. In cruder games, it can be pretty comical, but when it's realistic enough, it can get pretty heavy depending how it's portrayed.

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My question is, if you don't like violence, why are you a video gaming columnist?

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