Ok here's the deal: I hate the Metroid Prime games. Really hate. Loathe. Literally every time I see them on the shelf I get pissed off for having wasted the money on buying them in the first place. So, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to pay for YOU to take my game. That's right. If you ever wanted to own either Metroid Prime or Metroid Prime: Echoes, now's your chance, because you're not just getting a game, you're getting a game and $5. What you're essentially doing is paying -$5 for each game. Either someone rescues these games soon, or they get thrown out of a moving car window, to be backed up upon. The artwork and manual will be burned. As you can tell, I hate these games.

How it works: people interested should PM me. I will choose whoever gets the game(s) based on size of collection and whether or not they actually own the game(s). In a few weeks, I'll PM the person, and that person will send me their mailing address. Do whatever you want to in case you think this is a scam, because I assure you it's not. Once I receive the address, I will place the game or games in question in a parcel. Inside of the game case, I will put $5. Then all you have to do is receive your money and game. Simple as that.

The games come with all their original labelling, and the case, manual, and artwork are in really good shape. The games are basically unplayed since I hated them so much. Wait too long, however, and their condition might worsen.

Bored at work, so I figure why not update this...it's been a year, after all...

* denotes total completion, + means it's new to the list.

.hack//INFECTION
.hack//MUTATION
.hack//OUTBREAK
Advance Wars
Advance Wars 2
Advance Wars: Dual Strike*
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney*
Banjo-Kazooie*
Banjo-Tooie
Bomberman Hero
Bully*+
Chrono Cross
Chrono Trigger*
Dead Space+
Donkey Kong 64*
Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure*
Dragon Quest I*
Dragon Quest II
Dragon Quest III
Dragon Warrior Monsters
Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires*+
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Final Fantasy I
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy IX
God of War
Golden Sun*+
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City*
Halo
Halo 2+
Half-Life*
Hitman: Contracts*+
Jak and Daxter*
Jak II
Jak III
Kingdom Hearts
Kirby's Dream Land*+
Kirby's Dream Land 2+
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land+
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time*
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap*
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages*
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons*
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete*+
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete*+
Mega Man I*
Mega Man II*
Mega Man III*
Mega Man IV*
Mega Man X
Mega Man Battle Network*
Mega Man Battle Network II
Mega Man Battle Network III: Blue
Metroid: Zero Mission
Mother*
Mother 2 (Earthbound)*+
Mother 3*+
Myst*
Paper Mario*
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door*
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney*
Phoenix Wright: Justice for All*
Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations*
Pokemon Blue
Pokemon Red*
Pokemon Yellow
Pokemon Gold
Pokemon Silver
Pokemon Crystal
Pokemon FireRed+
Portal+
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time*+
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within+
Radiata Stories*
Ratchet and Clank
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI*+
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga*+
Skies of Arcadia Legends
Sonic Advance
Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus*
Sly 2: Band of Thieves*
Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves*+
Suikoden*
Super Mario 64
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars*
Valkyria Chronicles+
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Warriors Orochi*+
Warriors Orochi 2+
Xenogears+

A pretty decent number of new games added to the list this year, most of which have a length well into the double-digits and even into the triple in some instances. Probably the most major additions to the list are the Lunar games, Digital Devil Saga, Bully, Earthbound,and Xenogears, all of which lasted 25+ hours. Unfortunately, looking at this list makes me realize how lopsided my buying versus completing ratio is: I completed about 25 games in the past year, but I've probably bought around 150, most of those being RPGs and extremely long adventures. But, that's still better than it was last year, which saw me beat only around 1/10th of the games I had purchased/received in that six month period, versus this being 1/5th. Continuing at this rate, my completion-to-retreival ratio should be even in around 2014. Joy.

So, contrary to what you might expect, I am not going to judge the best game released in 2008. Why? For the very simple reason that I only played a single game released this year, meaning I am unfairly biased in that department. Unlike some journalists, I try not to let personal biases affect my judgement, so I've decided to throw all of the games I played for the first time this year into the ring and see which comes out on top.

Without further ado, the contenders are:

SUIKODEN

HALF-LIFE

SKIES OF ARCADIA LEGENDS

MOTHER

APOLLO JUSTICE: ACE ATTORNEY

PORTAL

SLY COOPER AND THE THIEVIUS RACOONUS

SLY 2: BAND OF THIEVES

SLY 3: HONOR AMONG THIEVES

LUNAR: SILVER STAR STORY COMPLETE

LUNAR 2: ETERNAL BLUE COMPLETE

HITMAN: CONTRACTS

MOTHER 2 (EARTHBOUND)

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME

MOTHER 3

XENOGEARS

Those are the contestants. Now, lets have our game of the year! Drumroll, please...

THE WINNER IS:

XENOGEARS!!!!

That's right. The Playstation great Xenogears won my heart in 2008. Despite stiff competition from games such as Sly 2, Skies of Arcadia, Apollo Justice, and Mother 3 (all of which I'd probably rank in my top 15 games of all time), Xenogears managed to beat them all. Not only does Xenogears take my 2008 game of the year, but it also somehow managed to take my ALL-TIME game slot, too. Best game I've ever played, hands down, even over the venerable Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

There's more to the story. Truth be told, around August/September I was toying with the idea of giving up gaming as a hobby altogether. It had practically lost its luster for me, with what I then viewed as slipshod games being released on new platforms, as well as my marriage. I didn't see how gaming could fit into my busy schedule and was inclined to just drop it altogether, let the games I own sit for awhile, and eventually sell them. That all changed with the experience that was Xenogears. Let me just say to all of you who haven't played it: if you like high art, it's the game for you. Period. In my view it trumps the greatest Renaissance art as an expression of human spirit, it's that good.

STINKER OF THE YEAR:

HALF-LIFE

What can be said. I didn't like it. There were parts of it that were good but those were almost totally overshadowed by drudgery. I'll never understand why it was considered a great and why it continues to be viewed so highly by so many. To me, it's woefully average at best, and downright revolting at worst.

I will say, however, that during my very brief affair with World of Warcraft (not included on this list because I only played it for a few days), that WoW was much worse than Half-Life.