Finished:

• BioShock – Xbox 360 – beautiful, fun, scary, creative, impressive game. Highly, highly recommended.
• Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two – Xbox 360 – Solid, polished, worthwhile single-player FPS’s.
• Portal – Xbox 360 – engaging, inventive, creative puzzle/action FPS. I did finish the game, but I liked it so much that I hope to revisit it at some point, and play it at a higher difficulty level.
• World of Goo – Wii and Mac – see full post.

Currently Playing:

• Braid – Xbox 360 – I almost put this on the “Taking a Break” list, because I’m kinda stuck. But it’s so good, I don’t want to give up yet. Highly recommended, a great deal. And coming to PC in Q1-09.
• Grand Theft Auto IV – Xbox 360 – is amazing on many levels, but I’m getting a little tired of the gameplay, it’s a little repetitive. That said, it’s hard to tire of driving through Liberty City and wreaking mayhem. Multiplayer is pretty good too. May move to “Taking a Break” list soon.
• Halo 3 – Xbox 360 –  I bought this way back in December 2007, and actually finished the campaign a year ago, but I still play online. Especially with all the extra map packs installed, it’s still a great multiplayer game.
• Spore – Mac – amazing accomplishment, but I’m semi-stuck in Tribal phase, which I find somewhat boring. I think I’ll probably get through it though – I’m really looking forward to the Civilization and Space phases.
• Trism – iPhone – an excellent puzzle game, perfect for a those small pockets of spare time in the subway or waiting in line, and a great deal at $3

I’m also currently “playing” Wii Fit, but I personally don’t think of it as a game, so I’m not including it here.

Taking a Break:

• Call of Duty 4 – Mac – I basically bought this game just to see how well my new aluminum unibody MacBook would run a modern 3D game. Pretty well, it turns out. Too bad the game is repetitive, rigid, and ultimately boring. I’d try playing multiplayer online, but the game browser sucks big time. This sort of crap is what makes Xbox Live really, really great.
• Mario Kart – Wii – I was really excited when I picked this up, but somehow it just didn’t do it for me. Maybe it’s because I was hopeful about playing it with Elina, but she wasn’t interested. Just not as much fun as Excite Truck, I guess.
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption – Wii – Check out that website, it’s waaaay over the top! A fun game that I really liked, but it got a little repetitive, and I was distracted by the Xbox 360 FPS’s. I do plan to take it back up at some point.
• Super Mario Galaxy – Wii – very cool game, but I got stuck on a level (one with sand, if I remember) and it pissed me off. So I took a break. I’m sure I’ll come back to this one soon.
• Team Fortress 2 – Xbox 360 – Cool game, but I had trouble finding good games to join, and never got into the mechanics. I hope to try again at some point.

I hope to write up some thoughts on my various gaming platforms, and also a list of games I’m looking forward to in 2009.

World of Goo might just be the best game I’ve ever played. I just finished it, and I’m flabbergasted, amazed, delighted, awestruck by how incredibly good it is. It’s wonderful, amazing, brilliant, beautiful, spectacular, fun, deep, challenging, educational, funny, cute, tasteful… it’s a masterpiece. I can’t tell you how many times I laughed out loud while playing this game. And it was made by four people in coffee shops!

If you like or have ever liked video games, puzzles, construction toys such as Lego, physics, bridge-building competitions, or multimedia design, you should download the demo for Mac or Windows, or just go ahead and buy it – it’s $15 for the Wii, and $20 for Mac or Windows. I purchased the Mac version first, before the Wii version was available. Once the Wii version was released, I bought that as well, thinking that it might be really great. And it is!

I definitely recommend the Wii version, it’s my favorite. That said, now that I’ve beaten it on the Wii, I might start playing it more on the Mac, because only the Mac and PC versions can load custom levels made with GooTool, or other mods. The fan community that has formed around this game is really impressive.

Check out the trailer:

The New York Times recently posted a business-oriented piece on the “independent” nature of the development of WoG. David Rosen, another “independent” video game developer, posted a Design Tour of WoG, which is fascinating but includes spoilers – so play the game before watching!