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GOTY 2009: GET HYPE!

By lordofultima December 17, 2009 16 Comments

Since my Game of the Year awards were so gigantic last year, there was no way I could replicate it. So I did what any good person would do, and just half-assed the ones for 2009. Still took a pretty long time to put together, but it had nothing to do with the games or awards themself. I would have liked to do a gigantic feature like last time, but you see -- nothing came out in 2009, and what did I most likely didn't play. So we have a little predicament. Anyway, on with the awards!

These games captured the heart and soul of gamers around the world, all the while I breathed disingenuously. They're good, but not good enough to make up some dumb award category just so they can win. Call these honorable mentions I suppose.

Assassin's Creed II

You are dead?

I really like this game a lot, mainly for the elegant mechanics for scaling buildings, and fighting tons of city guards. It's just a bunch of fun to do nothing in the game but run around on rooftops, a condition I like to call "Crackdown Syndrome." I grinded through this game in 2 or 3 days, accomplishing absolutely everything there was to accomplish. I even got all the treasure chests, and there's no award or achievement for that at all. That's dedication.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Shootin' shit!

I bought this game for the single player, and I can't say I was disappointed. It was short and definitely sweet, the story may have not made much sense, but there were constant set-pieces piled on top of one another, that you couldn't possibly get bored of the campaign. A truly epic moment in most of the missions means this game is definitely great. Pile on top of that a good multiplayer component that almost everyone on my Friends List has, and you have a game with a long life.

Left 4 Dead 2

Coach is the black dude.

Left 4 Dead 2 has been largely overlooked this year-end, if only because of MW2's super popularity. I'm sure early on next year when people get burnt out on Call of Duty, that they'll resurface in L4D2, at which point I am totally up for bashing zombies heads in with various blunt objects. The game is really a hell of a time, and I'm just waiting for that right opportunity to take advantage of that fact.

Torchlight

Clickin' shit!

A game that literally came out of nowhere, Torchlight shocked me and I'm sure a lot of other people because of how polished and fun it actually is. If you like Diablo-style dungeon-crawling loot-hording games where you click the left mouse button a lot, then you'll love this game. I said it best in the video, "This is the best Diablo since Diablo." I wasn't joking.

The pickin's were pretty slim for soundtrack of the year in 2009, but one downloadable title surfaced and clearly stole the show. It's a good thing this game came out this year, otherwise this category wouldn't exist either. I don't actually say who won this in the video, but it is implied.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2

Gief lookin' all manly.

I don't even think I need to say anything about this soundtrack, other than the powers it has over you, may indeed "take you for a ride!" HO HO HO. It's jazzy-infused fighting game music, and it's as great (possibly greater) as the day the game came out. If you're not turned off by the chill bass lines and elevator style, you'll find a lot to love in this games music.

There is one game I spent a particularly long amount of time with this year, but the problem was that it came out in 2008. Make one of these forgiving award titles however, and the problem is solved!

Dead Space

Wonderful sunset!

I love Dead Space. I don't know how I didn't realize it's awesomeness back in 2008, but boy am I grateful for it in 2009. It let me sink my teeth into something substantially meatier than most of the actual 2009 releases, I must have played through this game 4 times this year. It's a scary game at first, but once you get past that you realize that it's a great shooter. The controls are so eloquent and functional (unlike some other survival horror games I know) and the combat is visceral and satisfying. Dismembering aliens never gets old, and I'm a sucker for sci-fi horror in the vein of Aliens, with a little twist of Doom 3. The final stretch of this game, the final boss of this game, the ending of the game. They are so amazing, and those alone make it worth the price of admission. Please play this game, I beg of you.

This award celebrates a lack-luster disappointment of a game that while wasn't necessisarily bad, it could definitely be classified as "poopy."

Resident Evil 5

Chainsaws are serious.

I'd consider myself to be a pretty big fan of Resident Evil games, but this one just doesn't do it for me. The strange co-op mechanic might be ok for online play, but why am I forced to deal with it in a single player game? The shooting just feels like crap as well, the movement speed is real slow, the setting doesn't interest me, and it's motherfuckin' broad daylight. The inventory management was also batshit annoying, just thought I'd throw that in there. Not very spooky. Not very Resident Evil. Not my cup of tea.

Awards the best Street Fight of the year, a.k.a. this year's version of game of the year. There really was no deliberation here, and all of the people reading this now probably have already made assumptions on what I've chosen for game of the year. Well, just letting you guys know, you're all right.

Street Fighter IV

Gief is looking mad hype in his Haggar outfit!

Hey look, SFIV won game of the year! Get hype!

I guess 2009 wasn't THAT bad of a year, but it just wasn't the nuclear catastrophe of video games that 2008 was. I don't feel so bummed about it now that I think for a while, since I was mostly playing SFIV for the majority of the year anyway. Sorry that some games aren't on here at all, I simply didn't play them at all and have no real opinion of them (Uncharted and Borderlands come to mind). Maybe I'll check those out in the future, maybe one of them can be my 2010 game of 2009. YOU NEVER KNOW. Until next year though, this is loltima signing out.

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