Best Gameplay "Hook"

[agn]

Which of these was your favorite in 2007

Feel free to nominate more and I'll add them to the poll

[Ezekiel]

I think Wii and Sixaxis controls shouldn't be on here, they launched in 06, if we're nominating them every year a game comes out that makes cool use of them that'll probably be every year... and the Sixaxis didn't even do anything that good (to my knowledge).

And I think Portal wins it, fucking fantastic.

(side note: free running is 100x better in Crackdown than Assassin's Creed)

[agn]

I guess I was nominating the implementation of the tech, but it should probably be connected to a specific game you're right.
I will leave them there for people to vote with a specific game in mind in the comments
Also i found the climbing in crackdown to be really mechanical and not nearly as fun as in Assasins Creed. Granted the superpowers in Crackdown made for some serious leaps and jumps, but I think the combo of freerunning/climbing is better in AC IMO.

[Moggraider]

Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 and Metroid Prime 3 made great use of the Wiimote this year, but I have to give the nod to Portal for being so downright original. I really hope a Half-Life game in the future lets you play co-op with one person using a portal gun and the other conventional guns.

[Burr]

Portals in Portal. At first it's a complete mindfuck, but then it just becomes so natural by the end that the possibilities feel almost endless.

Though you kind of have to feel for the Prey developers a bit. It's like.. "Hey, that was our hook!" Then again it was a bit different.

[Ezekiel]

Prey was still fun in its own right, it was the kind of fun Quake 4 should've been.

[Fearnot]

Perks in Cod4

They add varying gameplay and allow Cod4 to be more than the average straight up shooter.

[Violence in HD]

Parkour in AC. Fucking AWESOME.

Yes, there IS a difference between Parkour and free running.

[Sully907]

Gotta be the free running in AC. Nothing you scaled or jumped on felt out of place or unrealistic.

[broxy bear]

free running in AC is so much fun , sometimes better than the combat

[SeanB45]

I'm going with the Portals in Portal. It was awesome and different.

[BBboy20]

free running in AC is so much fun , sometimes better than the combatIt was.

But really, entertaining mind-fuck that is also the center of a refreshing game mechanic automatically wins.