Best of 2010
EgoCheck616: Best of 2010
List items
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The Undead Nightmare DLC alone is a more worthwhile experience than most of the games that came out in the year 2010. There, I said it.
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Back in 2002 I was fortunate enough to have my first taste of the Battlefield series with Battlefield 1942. Now, while Battlefield: Bad Company 2 doesn't exactly meet the standards that the series was initially known for, it does a very good job of destroying all of the competition that surrounds it. Not since Counter-Strike 1.6 have I been so engrossed by a FPS game. Sure, you could say I enjoy my share of Team Fortress 2, but that has less to do with the shooting mechanics and more to do with my addiction of collecting hats.
There are a number of shooters in the market that do a good job of "defying the norm" and using different mechanics to tweak the experience. However at the end of the day when I just want to shoot dudes, I always know I can turn to Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
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Devil May Cry. Those are the first words that entered my mind when I first saw footage of Bayonetta. Yes, I know it both were created by Hideki Kamiya, however it is impossible to avoid making the comparison. Bayonetta is to date the ONLY next-gen game that I have actually broken a controller in frustration, yet I still loved every second of the experience. There is just something about the game's atmosphere that I feel is lacking in the rest of the industry. That "Woa, dude. This is totally messed up Japanese stuff" vibe that games many JRPGs were once known to provide. Not only that, but Bayonetta brings some of the most fluid controls I have ever experienced in a game. And a story that is actually engaging, even if it's about a witch who has hair that can eat monsters. At the end of the day I would much rather see a new Bayonetta sequel than that.. thing.. we saw Devil May Cry become. Oh, and if anyone is wondering. I bought the PlayStation 3 version of Bayonetta. Even with it's slightly "off" quality in graphics I still felt an immense amount of enjoyment from the game.
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StarCraft II did something that I did not believe any game would ever be able to do. It gave me a reason to care about the RTS genre again. A genre that had hurt me deeply with exploitation (C&C: Renegade) and questionable design decisions (SupCom2).
At first I was hesitant to even put money down on this game because of how much disgust I had for what the genre had become, however my love of Blizzard titles was enough to push me to make the purchase. And the rest is history.
The single player campaign alone uses story elements that you will not find in other games for another 2 years. Blizzard returns once again with some of the best cinematics I have ever seen in my life. And, oh yea, there is totally a game to be played. A game that might just be one of the most flexible experiences I have ever had. I know people who had never touched a PC game before who were able to fully grasp the bare minimum that the game had to offer, and veterans who were climbing their way up to diamond league within a matter of weeks. It is a game that you can easily go back to play after a long break and find a number of welcome changes waiting for you to discover.
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Hey. You know how everyone is giving Mass Effect 2 their GoTY award? Well, go look at what they had to say. Because at the moment my mouth is full of drool just thinking about it.
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My most recent experience with a Castlevania game was all the way back when I owned a Nintendo DS. Before that I had been relatively familiar with the series through its presence on other Nintendo platforms, but I had never really been very intrigued by the concept. At most I was slightly interested.
However Castlevania: Lords of Shadow has completely flipped my perspective upside down. A series that I thought was "neat" now finds itself positioned at the top of my list. I knew that going into this game I was to expect some sort of "God of War clone", yet what I got out of it was much more than that. The level design alone was enough to keep my eyes locked for hours. I can remember a number of areas that upheld a striking presence with the sheer use of lighting alone. Does it get slightly repetitive? Yes. Does it drag on a little longer than you may want it to? Maybe. Am I still enjoying my second playthrough? OH, HELL YES!
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I feel like Heavy Rain is going to be considered for many top 10 lists but won't quite make the cut for some odd reason. I actually ended up having an absolute blast with this game from start to finish. For a long time I've had a craving for something that was more than your standard "point & shoot" or "point & dialogue box". I've had a desire to play a game that went far beyond it's comfort zone and benefits from the idea of doing things differently. I found that game. And that is why Heavy Rain has a warm place in my Top 10 of 2010 list. (P.S. The kids were some of the worst V/O I've ever heard in a game.)
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Skate 3 has a very interesting place in my heart. Basically, I grew up with a fascination for the Tony Hawk series. But I think we all know where that ended up. So after I eventually lost all hope, I decided I would go ahead and blindly purchase Skate 3 without any real experience with the previous game. I figured a few positive reviews couldn't hurt me.
What happened next was enough to remind me why I enjoy playing games so much. From the FMV intro all the way to the final unlockable items. Skate 3 is an adventure to be had by anyone who is either a fan of games, skating, or My Name Is Earl.
It alone has caused me to write off the entire Tony Hawk series and instead save my excitement for anything coming out of Black Box.
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I'm just going to get this out of the way. Nintendo disappointed me more this generation than any company ever has before. And that's coming from someone who owned a launch Wii and a copy of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
But that's not why I chose Darksiders to be part of my top 10. I chose it because a developer (other than Sucker Punch) decided to take a love of comic designs and turn them into a video game. The two sides have been in a constantly battle when it comes to quality, and Batman: AA doesn't count because if anything it was more based on the Christopher Nolan film.
Basically, Darksiders is just an adventure. It is everything you want it to be, and then it has you looking like a total bad ass in the end. I love cliffhangers however have grown to become severely disappointed with the way they are used in video games, but Darksiders does it JUUUUUUUST right.
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I believe that any game worth 72 hours of my time just to get the platinum trophy has earned itself a spot on my "Top 10 of 2010" list. Also, the skybox looks like an orgy of angels.
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