Best of 2010
GrendelPr1me: Best of 2010
List items
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Red Dead Redemption is a game that is filled with the all too common bugs and glitches that permeate games in this current generation. It is with an incredible display of litheness that this game ends up on the top of my list. Yes, it is becoming cliche to say that the game world is really big, so the glitches can be forgiven. But until RDR, I would ever have truly fallen for that. But the way the story unwinds, and the world spreads out before you, is without equal in the open world genre. Rockstar masters this genre, that arguably they pioneered. So it is with a bit of irony that I saw almost an autobiographical approach being taken in analogous form when playing this game. The opening sequence to me almost was them admitting they knew that gaming was moving on without them, and they would have to come to terms with reinventing themselves. Only, in doing so, they wove a story, a world, and a character that you felt at one with. There are some minor hang ups in the story, but that world... oh that world. The first time I came over the ridge in the carriage with Bonnie McFarlane in tow, and saw the horizon far away, and the world there, I knew I was in love.
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This game should be number one. It should be. But the nagging suspicion that the phrase "streamlined" is code for "gamers are stupid" fills me with pause. I love Mass Effect, the first game, the franchise, and this installment. But removing so much, to add so little seems a bit disingenuous. It's like someone in the PS3 design team joined BioWare during development, and saw all the things that have been promised, and said they had to go. If I can paraphrase Seth from Superbad; "What? That's like slapping God across the face for giving you a beautiful gift." Mass Effect was a beautiful gift, but it felt like this time they regifted their own gift. Like they stole into our houses in the middle of the night, took off with Mass Effect, kept all the cool parts, and then put it back thinking we wouldn't be the wiser. But seriously, I do love this game.
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What the? Where the? How did you know? I've been looking for you all my life... well, since 2005 and the release of the Wii.
Darksiders is Zelda in HD. Let's just get that out of the way. We know it, they know it, we've moved on. But it's Zelda that actually has something we haven't seen in nearly 30 years... A new fucking story. A protagonist that you don't feel a little bit like a Catholic Priest would love watching you move about the screen for long periods of time, and of all things, great graphics. While Miyamoto gets dragged out on stage to be a trick pony waving a glorified remote around, and make us believe they are about to release Zelda HD, someone already did. Only they did it much better, and with room to grow. Will we see that come to fruition as a franchise that takes the potential this bore and grow? Who knows. All I know, is this is one of my favorite gaming experiences, not only of this year, but of all time. And I'm old... Like... old.
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I have my doubts about this pick. Only because I have had some incredibly debilitating bugs, like scorpions that are attacking me from UNDER the map. NCPs getting caught in the environment, and not having the ability to correct their direction, and my character TWICE falling through the world into the netherworld that resides under all game worlds. Yet... I soldier on, because the story is so engaging, it reminds me of how good the story of Alpha Protocol was because Obsidian knows how to tell a story. They just haven't all passed programming school yet.
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Here's a question: How many bus stops have you missed because of this game? If you had to think about that, you are not alone. Angry Birds is exactly what the games industry needs once in awhile: Something the casual and hardcore can love, and not butt heads on how one is ruining the other's fun. Angry Birds' success lies not in the simple graphics, but in the way you get addicted to watching that "5000" pop up as many times as possible with the shot of one specialized bird. If you haven't played Angry Birds... well, then you're alone.
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Are games art? Who cares? This game, while gorgeous, also proves story can be told without shoving it down your throat. Simple, elegant, and sometimes absolutely the most violent game you will ever see, Limbo doesn't stand up to the argument that games are more than a shooter, it kicks it square in the teeth. With an art style that will give it a timeless quality, much like Zelda: Windwaker does, Limbo will be a game that we look back to in a decade, and still reminisce about the first time the bear trap went off - then wince remembering our shock and horror.
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In the dictionary Alan Wake can be found under two words. Underrated and Unfortunate. The former says it all about a game that weaves a story through a genre that had almost capitulated to its own divisive limitations, and entertains from beginning to end. The latter of the two words, means it would have succeeded in the market a lot more, had it not been sent out to slaughter the same day as the runaway juggernaut, Red Dead Redemption.
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This game will probably move up the charts once I get further into it. Even with the pedigree that is AC2 (one of only a few games I have S-ranked) Brotherhood's story seems good to start with, but the camera (oh that camera) that doesn't allow you to manipulate it until the animation is complete is still one of my biggest gripes with the series. But once I get my groove back in this game, I am sure it will be placed up there with my 2009 GOTY, Assassin's Creed 2.
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Double Fine? Check
RPG? Check
Halloween costumes turn into robots, knights and witches? Check
Okay... I think that's all I need to say about this game.
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The addiction I have to this game is so bad, I had to buy a Mophie Juice Pack Air just to keep up with it. I beat the "End Boss" when he was a level 50, and I was a level 22. I thought that was a good accomplishment, so I decided to do one more playthrough. Then I got to the boss and he was a level 100, and even harder. Now I have to beat him again. I see what you did there Chair. Well played, well played indeed.
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