The Shack's Year in Review 2007

As seems to be the custom on the internets, we have created a tantalizing list. Here are the most-viewed stories and

articles on Shacknews from 2007. This is a good way for you to decide what is important to

you, based on what other people care about. So you can fit in. Also, maybe no longer wearing

those parachute pants from the 90s would be a good starting point. Just a tip.

Read on for our most-viewed and most notable news stories and features from this momentous, quality-laden, controversial roller coaster of a year, helpfully categorized by type and topic. We even reflect a bit on how far Shacknews has come over the last twelve months.

Game Announcements

Many great games were released this year, and many intriguing games were announced. Some were surprising, some were long-awaited, and some were delayed. These are some of the most-viewed announcements:

- Blizzard Announces StarCraft 2

- id Reveals Rage For PC, Mac, PS3 and 360

- Grand Theft Auto 4 Delayed

- Hellgate: London to Feature Paid

Online Multiplayer

- Team Fortress 2 Beta Launches on

Steam Today; Update 5: IT'S ALIVE!

- Valve Confirms Episode Two, Team

Fortress 2 Launch Date

- Capcom to Bring Lost Planet to PC

- FPS Command & Conquer-

Tiberium Revealed

- Buy Orange, Get Team Fortress 2

Beta Sept. 17, Half-Life Peggle; X360 Achievements Revealed

- Rock Band Announced for PS2,

Europe; Rolling Stones, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails Included

- Street Fighter 4 Details Emerge

- Microsoft Pays $50 Million for GTA IV Content

- Manhunt 2 Reduced to M, Releases Halloween

- Devil May Cry 4 announced for Xbox 360, PC

- Sonic to Join Smash Bros. Brawl; Game Delayed

Controversy

The past year had more than its share of controversy--legal quagmires, contract breaches, firings, false accusations, and general assholery. Politicians and public figures continued their crusades, and gamers continued on largely unaffected.

- Report: GameSpot's Gerstmann

Fired Due to Negative Kane & Lynch Review

- Star Trek Online Dev. Perpetual

Sued by PR Firm, Charged with Breach of Contract, Fraud (Updated)

- Manhunt 2 to be Blocked From Sales in UK (Updated)

- EA Staffer Attempts to Alter Wiki

History

- Harmonix: Activision Blocks Rock Band Guitar Compatibility Patch

- Simultaneous Installgate 07: 2K

Ups BioShock Install Limit, Plans FOV Adjustment Patch

- Time Warner Vows to Fix World of

Warcraft Problems, Denies Blizzard's Claims

Industry Happenings

This crazy industry was up to its wacky ways as ever in 2007, with grandstanding, sales records, moving and shaking, paradigm-breaking, outside-the-boxing, and plenty of synergy. Here are some of our most popular industry stories of 2007:

- Activision and Blizzard Owner Vivendi Games Merge, Create Activision Blizzard

- Bungie Going Independent; Microsoft to Retain Equity Interest, Publishing Rights (Breaking)

- Wii Breaks Monthly Sales Record in November With Nearly 1 Million Units Sold

- Midway's Allison: 93% of New IPs

Fail, Reviews Don't Matter

- PS3 Outsells Wii in Japan; Dragon Quest IV DS, Winning Eleven 2008 Top Japanese Sales Charts

- Nintendo Further Explains Wii Shortages, No Plans for More First-party Studios in the US

- Sony's Game Division Losses Double Despite Increasing PS3 Sales

- Nintendo Posts Staggering Mid-Year Results

- Bruckheimer and MTV Team Up to Found Game Studio

Duke Nukem Forever News

Duke was back in 2007, sort of. All sorts of hints and media cropped up regarding this mystery-shrouded game--including a teaser trailer, which we premiered, leading to our most-viewed story of the year. Here are our most popular Duke Nukem Forever stories of 2007:

- Duke Nukem Forever Teaser Debuts

on Shacknews

- Duke Nukem Forever Teaser

Releasing Tomorrow; This is Real and We Are Not Shitting You

- New Duke Nukem Forever Image

- Duke Nukem Forever Screen

Revealed via Internet Shenanigans

Game Media and Demo Downloads

Game media is released all the time, some more popular than other. There are far too many to fully cover succinctly, but here are some of our most popular of 2007:

- HD Rage Developer Walkthrough

Footage

- HD Rage Footage

- StarCraft 2 Media Bonanza

- Far Cry, Prince of Persia Free

Downloads

- BioShock PC Demo Released

- Free Download of Command &

Conquer Gold Begins C&C 12th Anniversary Celebration

- Crysis Single-player Demo

Released

- Unreal Tournament 3 Demo

Unleashed

- Tribes-like GarageGames Web Title Revealed by Alpha Video Leak

Jack Thompson

Jack Thompson's grandstanding efforts were going to be included in the "Controversy" section, until it became clear he would single-handedly double it. Here are some of the more notable exploits of everyone's favorite Miami-based legal eagle, including his backing out of plans to debate the Penny Arcade guys on stage.

- Thompson Guns Down PAX Debate Proposal

- Thompson Demands Wendy's Cut Wii Promotion

- Take-Two Pre-Emptively Sues Jack Thompson

- Take-Two and Jack Thompson Reach Settlement, Drop Charges

- Jack Thompson to Face Court Disciplinary Hearing

Turn the page for hardware news, developments on Shacknews itself, features, reviews, previews, and game-to-film adaptations.

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Hardware

With our current home console platforms still so early in their lives, hardware happenings were plentiful in 2007. Here are some of the most notable and most-viewed stories of the year.

- Sony CEO Now 'More Confident' in PS3 Prospects, Describes PS3 Software as 'Infinitely More Fun'

- Sony Confirms Full PSP CPU Speed

- TGS 07: Sony Confirms DualShock 3, US Release Set for Spring 2008

- Microsoft Confirms HDMI Port on

X360 Premium Model, Not Core (Updated)

- Microsoft Expands Xbox 360 Warranty, Takes Billion Dollar Hit

- 40GB PlayStation 3 Model Announced For U.S.

- Microsoft and Sony Flirt, Skirt

Console Price Cuts

- Intel Likely Entering High-End GPU Market

Shacknews

All things considered, Shacknews may have taken on more new things in 2007 than in any other year of its history. Streaming video, a full-time staff that has doubled in size, a podcast, a blog, a full site redesign, and more. Here are a few of them:

- Acclaimed Blogging Organization Shacknews, Ltd. Launches First Official Blog

- BioShock Contest Results and a New Community Direction (community manager hired)

- ShackCast Episode 1: E3 (We have improved, I hope)

- Universe at War: Earth Assault Trailer (We get streaming video!)

- Late Night Consoling (The last LNC ever)

- Welcome! (June 2007 redesign)

Features

We strive here at the Shack to bring you original interesting content; as with reviews, we considerably bulked up in this department during 2007. Here was our most popular feature content of the year:

- PC Gaming in 2008

- History of Duke Nukem

- Eve Online: Spy Game

- Developers on Unreal Engine

3 and the Silicon Knights Lawsuit

- Creative Director Ken Levine on BioShock

- id's Tim Willits and Todd Hollenshead on Rage

- EVE Online: The Bears and the Rat

- Replay Couch 1: Portal Dizziness

- Ken Levine on BioShock: The Spoiler Interview (My finest work! -ed.)

- Flagship's Roper on Hellgate: London's Future

Reviews

Here at Shacknews, reviews aren't our bread and butter, but we did step it up this year, reviewing many of the biggest games we felt were important to our audience. Here were a few of our most popular reviews of 2007, starting from the most-viewed:

- Crysis Review

- The Witcher Review

- BioShock Review

- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Review

- Hellgate: London Review

- Gears of War PC Review

- Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Review

Previews

The great majority of previews published in 2007 related to games released in 2007, but we did cover a number of games slated for 2008 (and beyond). Here were our most popular previews of games that have as of this article's publication have not yet been released:

- Fallout 3 Preview

- World of Warcraft: Behind Wrath of the Lich King's Death Knight

- Halo Wars Preview

- StarCraft 2 Multiplayer Preview

- E3 07: Grand Theft Auto 4 Demo Walkthrough

- World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Preview

- PAX 07: Far Cry 2 Impressions and Interview

- Left 4 Dead Hands-on Impressions

- E3 07: LittleBigPlanet Creation Tools Preview

Game-to-Film Adaptations

For some reason, people keep funding video game movies and, even more inexplicably, other people keep paying money to see them. Here is some news from the wonderful, marketing-infested world of industry cross-pollination:

- Warcraft Movie: First Concept

Art, 2009 Release, Better than 'Doom'

- Legendary Pictures to Handle

Diablo Film

- 'In The Name of The King' Dungeon Siege Movie Trailer Depicts Actors, Action

- Michael Bay Not Directing Prince of Persia Film

- Willis and Thornton Rumored as Stars for Kane & Lynch Film Adaptation

- Max Payne Movie May Star Mark Wahlberg

- Report: Kristin Kreuk to Play Chun Li

- Resident Evil: Degeneration Trailer Released

- Sony Pictures Entertainment to Helm Metal Gear Film

- Halo Movie Still Postponed, Nothing Has Changed

What did we miss? Angrily voice your indignance in the comments.