2010 might go down in history as the year story-based DLC finally really came into its own, with significant new add-ons hitting some of the biggest games of the year and giving you some great reasons to fire those games back up weeks or months after you finished playing through their core storylines. But while plenty of this year's best DLC added onto and fleshed out the games on which they were based, no DLC felt like such a complete story and package in its own right like Minerva's Den.
Rather than trying to shoehorn a misplaced interlude into the events and framework of BioShock 2 itself, Minerva acts as its own self-contained story featuring entirely new areas and residents of Rapture. Minerva not only established and explored the technological backbone of Rapture with some fantastic vintage dawn-of-computing-style trappings (vacuum tubes! Alan Turing!), it also expertly told the tragic tale of Charles Milton Porter, the brilliant computer scientist who gave so much to his fellow citizens and was rewarded for it with betrayal. Minerva arguably surpasses BioShock 2 itself and is one of the best examples so far of how much can be accomplished with a low-priced downloadable add-on.
It shouldn't surprise you to hear that Halo: Reach is a terrific cooperative experience. Like the rest of the game, Reach's co-op follows in the footsteps of Bungie's previous Halo games, letting you work your way through the campaign with a crew, laying waste to everything in your path. Sure, you might not get the real feel of the game's story, since you're probably going to be yelling at your partners through most of the game, but working your way through waves and waves of enemy forces with a crew makes the campaign way more exciting.
Then there's Firefight mode, which was greatly expanded for Halo: Reach to make it a far more exciting take on the whole wave-based survival style. With the ability to tweak plenty of different variables when playing with friends to the variety of different maps you can use, Firefight might be good enough to take this category on its own. But when you add all that stuff together, Halo: Reach is the best cooperative experience to be had in 2010.
Arguably one of the strongest categories in 2010, the downloadable space saw a huge number of amazing original titles this year, though none captured our collective imaginations quite like this re-reimagining of that most venerable of pill-poppers, Pac-Man.
It's kind of unbelievable that Pac-Man could feel as vital now as he did when he first debuted some 30 years ago, but by shifting the focus from simple survival to a community-driven high-score race, and layering it with a jaw-clenching club-drug aesthetic, Namco has done precisely that. It's a miraculous balancing act between some really deep-seated nostalgic triggers and fresh, frenetic gameplay, and it's our pick for best download-only game of 2010.
I can scarcely recall a game so thoroughly dedicated to crafting an aesthetic as Kirby's Epic Yarn is. The latest platformer starring Nintendo's huggably squishy puff-ball of a hero, Kirby, is set in a world where everything has gone fully arts-and-crafts. All the characters (Kirby included) are constructed out of outlines of yarn, buttons, zippers, and other things you'd typically find at the local fabric store. Developer Good Feel stitches every single piece of this world with this patchwork art style, and manages to make it all mind-numbingly adorable in the process. Seriously, just watch Kirby morph into a little Kirby car, and dare yourself not to go "d'awwwww." Seriously, try it! If there's a heart in your chest, you'll fail!
With the launch of the Kinect drawing much of Microsoft's focus this year, it felt like the third-parties had much more to offer Xbox 360 owners in 2010. But Bungie still made a huge impact by leaving its final mark on the first-person shooter it created, Halo. Halo: Reach combines some of the best that Halo has to offer, including a quality campaign, terrific competitive multiplayer and the best cooperative play that we saw all year.
Reach also stands out for its interesting story, which fills in a key time in the Halo universe that, up until the release of Reach, had only been addressed in book form. Reach's story is great, and even though you know how it will ultimately end--the battle of Reach certainly ain't pretty for our side--the game makes the whole thing interesting by letting you see it through the eyes of the Noble Team, a great group of characters that are strong enough to make you forget about that " Master Chief" dude.
With its stellar suite of options and high quality throughout, Halo: Reach stands tall as the best thing that you can only get on an Xbox 360 this year.
" @Vendetta:@warxsnake: I know what the word means, it's the word itself that's weird to me. "Broker" is just like calling a teacher a "Taughter", a singer a "Sanger" or a runner a "ranner" "
I don't think broker means what you think it means....
" I completely agree with what has been said earlier about the best looking game. FFXIII and GOW III should have definitely been mentioned and strongly considered. Especially above punk-ass Alan Wake.. "
They specifically said that the category wasn't about pushing polygons and texture maps. It was about games that were visually striking like Limbo or Kirby. "
I'd be willing to drop FFXIII for that argument, but GOWIII looks fantastic and it's not that it didn't win but it wasn't even mentioned...
" I completely agree with what has been said earlier about the best looking game. FFXIII and GOW III should have definitely been mentioned and strongly considered. Especially above punk-ass Alan Wake.. "
They specifically said that the category wasn't about pushing polygons and texture maps. It was about games that were visually striking like Limbo or Kirby. "
" @Vendetta:@warxsnake: I know what the word means, it's the word itself that's weird to me. "Broker" is just like calling a teacher a "Taughter", a singer a "Sanger" or a runner a "ranner" "
I don't think broker means what you think it means.... "
Well fuck.
The meaning of the word is COMPLETELY beside the point here, I'm just talking about what the word looks like when it's written down.
" I completely agree with what has been said earlier about the best looking game. FFXIII and GOW III should have definitely been mentioned and strongly considered. Especially above punk-ass Alan Wake.. "
They specifically said that the category wasn't about pushing polygons and texture maps. It was about games that were visually striking like Limbo or Kirby. "
Need for speed? Saying God of War III's graphics are all about brute force tech is selling the visuals of that game short.
" @Vendetta:@warxsnake: I know what the word means, it's the word itself that's weird to me. "Broker" is just like calling a teacher a "Taughter", a singer a "Sanger" or a runner a "ranner" "
They really didn't talk about Undead Nightmare at all. It is like it didn't exsist in the convo which I hated. I think it was the best DLC this year in my opinion. The world was reworked to look more spooky, new storyline, new voice acting, new horses, new side quest, new mp content, and new weapons. There was almost 6hrs worth of new content for only 10 bucks and it was great. I didn't mind taken over the towns to much because the only time I really did them was when I first got there and getting all the towns safe at once was easy. Maybe my game was bugged or something because during the whole game I can only remember a few towns getting over run again maybe 3 times. Don't get me wrong I love ME2 I beat it almost 6 times Lair of the Shadow Broker was some cool DLC but Undead Nightmare to me kills it in the end. Didn't get to play Minervas Den wasn't feeling Bioshock 2 to much and had no desire to go back.
The crux of Brad's argument "there's more to it" but can't explain in any way what that is. This plus just repeating himself over and over without any backing up his point. /facepalm. If I buy a 2nd yearly sub for whiskey can I get the rest of the goty podcasts with his audio track cut out? Between the minervas/limbos basically cry until everyone gives up is painful to listen to.
I didn't really mind Brad standing up for what he wanted. I like to hear that sort of thing go down on a podcast. I can imagine myself in that room with them fighting till the very end for Undead Nightmare. Probably would have used some of the same arguments that Brad used when talking about Lair of the Shadow Broker.
God of War 3? If that's not the best looking console game out now then I'm blind. I understand picking Kirby because of the aesthetic but you have to at least mention God of War. The first level alone was an assault on the eyes.
Holy shit. Listening to this podcast, Brad just needs to cool it. He whined his way into getting Limbo yesterday, and today with Minerva's Den. It's just obnoxious as hell to listen to.
I loved the hour-long discussion about which DLC was the best. Seems like most of you agreed that Shadow Broker was definitely better, but wanted to give it to Minerva just to get Brad to shut up. :P
God of War 3 may look good zoomed out, but those textures got nasty up close. So the boss battles look incredible, but the rest of the game was meh... to me...
Surprised Reach was such a shoe-in for best co-op. I would make the argument for Lara Croft, since I had more fun with it, but that's likely just because it was more novel.
I found it totally out of character for Brad to have argued so strongly for Minerva's Den - in so many podcasts when Brad mentions something, and someone's had a different opinion, Brad's always gone "I... yeah, that's true... okay".
" Super Meat Boy is getting a retail box for the PC version... so it should be disqualified for download only. "
Lol, there's always that one person... Is Super Meat Boy getting a retail box in the US this year? Nope. Therefore it qualifies for the category of "Best Download-Only Game" of the year... You know how sometimes the Giantbomb guys use a nasally voice to say "Well, technically..." when referring to the inevitable Giantbomb member that will write in to point out something stupid, and irrelevant? Well, that's them talking about you. "
Cool, my personal troll is back. Remember to eat all your cyanide.
They never even talked about Undead Nightmare after announcing it as one of the three. I haven't played the other two, but UN was a combination of more of the original game, like Shadow Broker, and a new twist, like Minerva's Den. I thought it was a great add-on, giving more of what you liked in a new way.
Seriously, "add on", Brad mentions the "spirit of the award" for the other categories, well in this category Minerva's Den is not in the spirit of the award.
To "ADD" means you're adding something to an original. Even Brad admits that it only really works best as a standalone. Thats not best add-on in my opinion.
Was shouting at my ipod, wondering why God of War III wasn't even considered for Best Looking game of the year. That game made my eyes bleed in the best way possible.
So if Alan Wake isn't the best new character, not the best debut, doesn't have the best song ( Children of the Elder God), isn't the best X360 game or has the best graphics, how about a Rodney Dangerfield award?
God of War 3 isn't mentioned for best looking game? Wow! I'm cool with GOW 3 not being picked but not being considered is INSANE! I FEEL I SHOULD YELL LIKE KRATO'S WOULD IN THIS SITUATION, AND ANY OTHER SITUATION.
" God of War 3 isn't mentioned for best looking game? Wow! I'm cool with GOW 3 not being picked but not being considered is INSANE! I FEEL I SHOULD YELL LIKE KRATO'S WOULD IN THIS SITUATION, AND ANY OTHER SITUATION. "
This
I understand why it may not win in this group, but it has every fucking right to be mentioned. You talked about Tron and Blops yet completely ignored GoW3. It easily had the highest Jaw Drops per Hour of any other game this year.
I have to agree with everyone else I have to think they just forgot about gow3 by accident, I refuse to believe they just dident think it should even be nominated. Also Halo Reach second best looking in my mind. I may be shallow but i think Kerby and limbo look like flash games.
WHY wasn't Final Fantasy 13 even MENTIONED for Best looking!? Agh. I never really like playing that game but there is no doubt in my mind that it is the best looking game of 2010 both artistically and technically. I still still Kirby is a really good looking game but the fact that they never even mentioned for a second FFXIII or God of War 3 for that matter just seems crazy.
I absolutely LOVE your GOTY deliberations but I'm definitely disappointed...
At the end of the day, these are all just opinions and I also realize it must be hard to think back on everything that came out over the year but going over the "Best Looking" category without even CONSIDERING God of War 3 is completely unacceptable!!
If you're wondering why people think you guys are Xbots, this might be one of the reasons why...
" WHY wasn't Final Fantasy 13 even MENTIONED for Best looking!? Agh. I never really like playing that game but there is no doubt in my mind that it is the best looking game of 2010 both artistically and technically. I still still Kirby is a really good looking game but the fact that they never even mentioned for a second FFXIII or God of War 3 for that matter just seems crazy.
"
i completely agree. im not really into god of war, and i think ff13 was an attrocity, but both have undeniably amazing visuals. the excessive mention of limbo is just getting ridiculous at this point. yeah, its some indy game with cool visuals and some cool ideas. we get it.
Their opinion on why Reach is the best 360 game of 2010 is absolutely false. Reach's characters were bland, storyline destroyed the lore, and most of the extra features are horrible (laggy co-op, lack of Forge World items, 'X-ray vision'/'eyeballs behind head' enemies ruin campaign, imbalanced weaponry and armor abilities ruin multiplayer).
They should've made it Alan Wake, even if that game sucked.
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