Welp, this is it. The last day here at Ensemble. All the paperwork has been turned in, the boxes packed, the goodbyes said.

It's been one hell of a run. I had more to do with some games (Age of Mythology) than others (Age of Empires III) but I love them all, and the teams that put them together.

I've been incredibly blessed to work not just at one or two world-class game studios but at three. The people at Ensemble were incredible -- talented, cooperative, and a family. I can't say enough good things about the people all throughout the studio but particularly those at the top: Tony Goodman, Harter Ryan, Patrick Hudson. Folks like that who can run a business but also genuinely care about the people that work for them are rare treasures indeed. I can't even begin to list all the awesome folks I worked with in almost a decade of time at Ensemble.

I'm not sure whether updates here will be more or less frequent once I'm unemployed. I hope that my next venture will give me a lot more freedom to talk about the "inside baseball" of game development, something I've always wanted to do on this blog but have been unable to for a variety of factors.

Stay tuned for the next chapter... I've still got a lot of games to make, one way or another.

Halo Wars has shipped off to manufacturing!

http://www.halowars.com/

As is normal in this process most of the heavy lifting had to be finished up a few weeks ago, but it's really nice for all the T's to be crossed and the I's to be dotted. I'm looking forward to seeing people's reactions to the demo. It's a different sort of RTS than our PC titles but the core Ensemble vibe is there IMO.

First off, let me clarify a bunch of games I think are probably great that I didn't play yet: Dead Space, Gears of War 2, Resistance 2, Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway, Force Unleashed, Mirror's Edge, Little Big Planet, and Fable 2 (plus piles of others, but those are the biggies I think). I am slowing working through the stack, having finally gotten to Lego Batman, Call of Duty: World at War, and Prince of Persia just in the last few days...

Anyways, here are a few other games I thought were quite good but not quite in the same tier as my "best of" list...

Saints Row 2 -- Zany action and a very generous gameplay structure made this quite enjoyable throughout. They still haven't quite mastered the arts of world building and character the way that GTA has, but it's nice to see the series trying to move in its' own direction.

Spore -- Revolutionary tech and awesome ambition trapped in a rather boring actual game. If all that amazing customization actually made some differences in the gameplay, there would have been some real magic here. Maybe Spore 2?

Valkyria Chronicles -- Probably the best reason to own a PS3 right now. Fantastic combat system and a gorgeous look. The actual narrative isn't much above standard J-RPG fare, but at least it's decent J-RPG fare. I'm quite enjoying this one, and aside from some niggling complaints I have about the combat system I definitely recommend it if your like tactical RPGs.

Red Alert 3 -- Way too fiddly and micro-managey, but I still love the cheesy cutscenes and the overwhelming amount "stuff" going on sometimes. The RTS highlight of the year, I think, though that may say more about the state of other RTS releases this year...

Siren -- Even if they kind of backed off being truly episodic, I loved the format and the presentation. The actual gameplay didn't quite do it for me, but was interesting and it delivered on the core experiences of a modern survival horror game quite effectively.

Sins of a Solar Empire -- This is surprisingly making a ton of big name Best Of lists that I never would have guessed. It's a very good game, but I found it a little too RTS-y and not quite MOO-y enough for my tastes. I didn't really get into multiplayer with it, and the lack of single player structure was a big deficit in the title, IMO.

Left 4 Dead -- I want to spend some more time with this one, for sure. There are some amazing moments, but it's no Dead Rising 2 -- nor is it really trying to be, which is why I feel kind of unfair in my criticism of it.

Battlefield: Bad Company -- The singleplayer is pretty mediocre, but the multiplayer is best version of the core Battlefield experience yet. I hope they can take what worked about BC and someday turn out a definitive BF 1942 sequel.

Man, there are a lot of other games I quite enjoyed over this past year -- it's definitely been a good one. Here's hoping 2009 delivers just as well!

Now that 2008 has closed out (and I'm not too sad to see the end of it), here are some of the games I enjoyed most over these past 12 months. In (almost) no particular order...

Rock Band 2 -- Harmonix has managed to transform it from a game, into a platform. Cross-game DLC compatibility is a stroke of genius. Even if the game itself is only an incremental improvement over RB1, it now completely defines the music genre, and the once-dominant Guitar Hero is reduced (again) to clumsy imitation.

Lego Indiana Jones -- Not to put down Lego Batman, which I also have been quite enjoying, and not to overlook the flaws in the game (which are certainly there). But Lego Indy captures the spirit of an important part of my teenage years in way that resonated with me quite strongly. I would probably happily go play through all the levels in that game yet again, even after almost getting a full Achievement score on it.

Fallout 3 -- While I enjoyed Oblivion, something about it never fully came together for me. Fallout 3 proved to me what a difference that extra something can make. A beautiful destroyed world, tons of clever mechanics, and a great sense of exploration and story. It's minor flaws are easily overlooked in light of all the positives it accomplishes.

and of course...

Grand Theft Auto IV -- While Fallout 3 came close, in the end I think this was my favorite game of the year. A lot of people didn't like it because of preconceptions of what they wanted it to be, and I'll admit that I would love to see the GTA series return more to the gameplay of San Andreas. But what it did deliver was easily the most astonishingly realistic and detailed city environment ever built, with a compelling story and a great sense of style and tone. Nothing else this year could quite compare for me to particular moments in GTA IV's story, as well as the moments of just pure immersion as I looked out across the Liberty City skyline. Rockstar delivered on the emotional promise made with that first Koyannisquatsi trailer for the game, and that's exactly what I was looking for. I don't want to whitewash the faults of the game -- the story definitely goes off course in the last third, multiplayer fell short in a few key ways, and they built way more city than they had game to fill up. But those faults didn't detract from the core experience for me.

I can only hope we have a 2009 with as many awesome gaming experiences as 2008 held, as there were certainly FAR more games in 2008 than just these 4 that I would unhesitatingly recommend.