I am terrible at this blog thing. This isn't going to be pretty, that much is assured, but I figure that it's the end of the year, and games this year have been pretty okay you guys. Note that this is a personal list, and that I haven't had the chance to play every game that came out this year, despite my best efforts. Also, I'd somehow be even more of an asshole if I was going around posting my thoughts on Game of the Year lists without letting my own opinions be publicly ridiculed, so... here we go!

10: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I've done a fair amount of bitching about this game, make no mistake. I think that the glitches, bugs, and general brokenness that pervade every area of the game are shameful, and someone probably deserves an actual punch to the jaw for allowing it to be released in such a state, especially to PS3 users. That said, I can still understand and appreciate what they attempted, and it's not like they made a bad game in the process. They just made a great, very broken game, which is arguably the more depressing outcome. At least the Argonians look awesome this time around.

9: Dead Space 2

I'll admit to not liking this game quite as much as the first one, due in large part to the shift from survival horror towards... action-horror? Whatever it is that Resident Evil has become in recent years. That doesn't stop it from looking downright incredible and still managing to, if not make you nervous and jumpy in dark corners, at least turn your stomach with some serious eye-related trauma. It's got likable enough characters that you don't want to see horrible things happen to them, and this being Dead Space, it inevitably will anyways, and the gameplay still feels rewarding and manages to keep things interesting until the end of the ride.

8: Batman: Arkham City

About 85% of the population loves Batman unconditionally, or so I've been told in the past. Arkham Asylum, while critically loved, failed to inspire much more than disappointment from me when I played it in preparation for this one- And make no mistake, the boss battles were entirely to blame for that. That issue has been more than resolved with this game, which handles the major villains and showdowns with as much aplomb and grace as you'd hoped for in the first game. The combat is improved in some small but important ways, and the Detective Vision thankfully gets a break, allowing you to really soak up some of the downright fantastic environments scattered around. The only real shame is that there isn't a little more to do on the rooftops and streets, but I suppose there has to be something saved for the sequel right?

7: Portal 2

How do you make everyone's Game of the Year lists? Make a sequel to Portal, and don't fuck it up. It sounds a seemingly insurmountable trial, but it's been done, and in some people's opinions it's actually even better than the first. I tend to sit more with the crowd who found Wheately a little annoying... wait, I was the only one? Oh... okay, then. It was fun, it was clever, it was hilarious, and actually playing it feels as good as it did the first time around. The added Co-op was a nice touch that actually provided some of my personal favorite content in the game, but even without it this game solidly deserves to be on most Game of the year rundowns.

5: Alice: Madness Returns

That's not a typo. I was expecting to remember some amazing game that I totally forgot about, but that never materialized, so we're left with a dark void where Number 6 should go. I'll use said vacuous abyss to store my memories of Alice, because holy shit you guys, this game got dark. It's gorgeous, it oozes style every time you glance at it, the levels are both smartly designed and intriguing, and the characters feel alive. That's perhaps unfortunate considering some of the territory that the story edges into later on, pulling some truly twisted material out of left field. I actually considered leaving this game off the list, because when I think about it I feel unhappy, and I find myself literally wishing that I hadn't played the game so that I could stay ignorant of the last few twists they pull. I'll have to live with the knowledge, however, like some unwanted black spot on my memories, but any game that could so thoroughly affect me has to be on a list like this. I wouldn't have it any other way.

4: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

This game came in late, to be sure, but it's hard not to be immediately grabbed and pulled in by the signature style of the Zelda world. This isn't a familiar one, though, and the changes allowed by taking a far-removed approach from the Hyrule of earlier (later?) games in the series is refreshing. A lot has been said about the slow start to the game, which I suppose was mitigated in my case by unabashed joy and nerdy revelry at the discoveries I was making about the series as a whole. For instance, I now know why there is a red bird on the Hyrulian shield, and that fills me with an unusual amount of joy. Make no mistake, this is a Zelda game at heart, and fans of the series will find themselves knowing where to go and what to do instinctively. For those not as well versed, Fi makes an excellent addition to the ranks of Link's companions, providing hints about puzzles, item suggestions for new areas, and even allowing you to search out and pinpoint particular goals. On top of that, the motion controls finally come into their own here, and had this game been released at the start of the Wii lineup instead of the end, I imagine the gaming landscape today would be quite different than it is.

3: Catherine

A lot has been said about Catherine on this site. It seemed like no one really knew what to expect from the game, and when everyone found out that the majority of gameplay was a block-puzzler, the reactions went everywhere. To anyone who says block puzzles can't be fun, I say that while I understand it's your opinion, you can go directly to hell. Forget slogging through the block puzzles, I was waiting for Vincent to shut his mouth- despite my love for Troy Baker- so that I could get back to those awesome Nightmare stages. It's tense, it's exciting, it makes you think harder than a lot of games will just to get up the tower, not even mentioning when they're asking you what you'd do if you caught your partner in an affair. The game tackles some uncomfortable material in traditional Atlus style, by throwing it at you and letting you drown in the awkwardness and pressure that at times can feel scarily realistic. The side characters manage to be some of the most entertaining and endearing you'll ever meet, and several are inarguably more interesting than the cast of other games on this very list. Despite a few misgivings I have with the way the story wrapped up, namely the illusory nature of a certain character, and despite my intense personal distaste for Vincent Brooks as a person, there's no way that this game isn't completely deserving of the top of the list.

2: Dark Souls

But that wasn't the top of the list? Well, not technically, but these last three games are all so damn good that I can't actually pick between them. They all tickle different areas of my mind in just the right ways, and all three, including From Software's brutally punishing Dark Souls, claim the top spot as far as I'm concerned. This one, in particular, lets me really sink in and enjoy the story and the world. Everyone said this game's story wasn't important, or that it barely had one? They weren't paying enough attention, then, because Dark Souls actually has one of the more ingenious stories of any game released this year. Perhaps more impressive is the manner in which it's delivered to you, by scarce dialogue from the few NPCs and more often than not from the informational text describing the items lining your pockets. It's all the more amazing when you manage to piece together the bits you need to uncover the actual story of Dark Souls, to find the characters driving things from behind the scenes, and to once and for all understand your place in the world. There's a complex web of lies, betrayal, and tragedy just under the surface of the game, and uncovering it was one of the most memorable experiences of the year.

1. Saints Row: The Third

Saints Row The Third prioritizes having fun. This takes it a shockingly long way towards excellence, in no small part due to the fact that when they set out to do something, they set out to do it as big as they can. A lot has been said about the comedy, the outlandishness, the insanity that pervades the game world, and I feel like in all that joy and glee something has been missed, and that is the fact that this game is surprisingly good, even without all of that delicious icing on top. The driving is smooth, a must for a game like this, and the smart addition of in-world racing arrows to steer you around lets you enjoy the scenery, style, and spectacle of the game without risking performance, and the shooting is more than serviceable for this sort of outing. The improvements it makes to the old formula that the GTA series made popular are minor, but they are numerous and always appreciated. Everything serves the purpose of allowing you to more easily do the things you'd want to do in a game like this, and while simple it's effective in a primal way. I don't think I've had quite as much fun with a game, this year, as with Saints Row The Third, and considering that I am currently on playthrough 3 and a half and still looking forward to my next adventure through Steelport with yet another outstanding voice to experience, I think it clearly earned a place here.

There are so many commas in that list that I am almost physically ill. I can't edit all of that, that's crazy talk. You're just going to have to deal with what you got.

Honestly, it's a little hard to believe that the Re-Endurance Run has actually lasted long enough to justify this Fourth and Final thread.  The real test of interest may just be beginning, however, as we come back from a week-long break brought on by the general insanity and deluge of content provided by the annual E3 coverage.  Regardless, as long as the comments keep coming, the Re-ER will continue until it ends.  Anyone who feels so inclined is still perfectly welcome to drop in and comment on whatever episode they feel like!  Just remember to keep your spoilers marked for the benefit of people watching for the first time.

Duder, it's over!

  

Re-ER Thread 1: Episodes 1~35

Re-ER Thread 2: Episodes 36~70

Re-ER Thread 4: Episodes 119 - End

The Re-Endurance Run has entered its third incarnation with Episode 71! Hard to think of a better way to start. Anyone who feels like it is still welcome to jump in, rewatch, and comment, even if you're not planning to sit through the entire thing again. Just make sure the big spoilers are marked as such! There are still some people watching for the first time, after all.

  

Because enough people wanted it, and because it was the two year anniversary of Giant Bomb's Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 Endurance Run, a thread was created so that we can start to rewatch it... together.  It started a day early because a new computer and my calendar teamed up to make a fool of me.  This first post will be updated daily, with the current episode we're on and the previous four. We'll switch to a new thread periodically, whenever it feels dramatically appropriate, to keep these things from becoming too massive. Unless everyone really wants to keep a single thread the entire time, I guess, you guys are crazy so who knows what'll happen. Wingin' it!

Re-ER Thread 2: Episodes 36~70

Re-ER Thread 3: Episodes 71 - 118

Re-ER Thread 4: Episodes 119 - End

  

The Persona 4 Endurance Run is pretty daunting.  It's more than 150 episodes long, a lot of them stretch out for more than an hour long, and it's now been almost two years since it began.  Still, the Catherine quick look brought back some fond memories of one of the greatest Giant Bomb features, some users have expressed an interest in rewatching the thing.  Crazy, right?

Having already seen it in full twice myself, I feel a little awkward at the idea of going back and watching it alone, so I came up with an idea- I'm going to be rewatching it, and I'll be posting a blog here with the episodes I watched and some thoughts on them.  Those who want to rewatch, or who never saw it and feel the urge, why not watch it together?  Go back, watch the episodes starting from the first, post new comments and breathe some life into an old, revered part of Giant Bomb history.

Good idea?  Terrible?  Would anyone be interested in a community revisit of the old ER?  Give me your thoughts!  If I'm the only one interested, there's no point, after all.

Edit: Enough people here are crazy enough to want to do this.  Starting the 9th!

Spoilers included within, obviously.
I don't like to make Blog posts a lot.  I don't think that whatever I have to say is usually interesting enough to warrant an entirely new blog post or forum thread or what have you.  Unfortunately, if I don't go ahead and make one large post with my thoughts on Metroid: Other M and all the claims that it's ruining Samus' character, I'm going to literally explode from the blood rushing into my heart out of anger.  It'll be messy, and I don't want anyone to have to clean that up.

I know not everyone is saying that Other M is Sexist, or that it flies in the face of Samus' character.  I just want to address some of the issues I've seen brought up so far that I disagree with.  I'll try to tackle them in large segments, but they will probably bleed into one another on several occassions.

1. Ridley Cutscene
Being Ridley's appearance, and Samus being scared into inaction at his sudden appearance.  I understand that a lot of people were angry with this one, and I understand why- Samus has been pretty consistently a total badass in all of her appearances.  To have her suddenly paralyzed with fear when Ridley shows up for what must be about the 7th fight they've had over the series seems ridiculous and comes out of nowhere, and having one of the other characters in the game appear to save her is enough to make even the most hardened Metroid fan glare with anger in the direction of Nintendo headquarters.

You have to recall, though, that Ridley isn't just any old enemy for Samus to battle, he's an enemy that is specifically related to the death of her parents when she was a child.  He's been overused in the games, to be sure, and I think it's to the detriment of the story that Ridley is reused over and over for so many boss battles in nearly every installment in the series.  In this particular instance, though, it makes sense that Samus would be more terrified of Ridley than she ever was before- as Samus herself has said, she considered Adam, her CO, as a replacement father figure.  Samus may have faced down Ridley time and time again in the past, but on this occasion she wasn't making a solo attack on a Space Pirate base- she was onboard an isolated space station with her old Commanding Officer and her old allies from her time in the military.  To make it more obvious, there is a moment during the cutscene after Ridley appears where Samus imagines her childhood self from when her parents were killed standing in her place again- Samus isn't afraid to fight Ridley, she was afraid of losing her 'family' yet again.

Some people would disagree with that, which I understand.  Samus has never been much of a talker, and especially has rarely commented on her family or any possible friends she might have.  I will point out Metroid Prime 3 as another example of Samus losing the people close to her, though- she didn't even seem to know the other Bounty Hunters that well, but as soon as she heard that they'd lost contact with them, she ran to her ship to go track them down.  Upon finding them and being forced to kill them, Samus shows increasing amounts of regret, being unable to even look at Gandrayda as she is absorbed by Dark Samus.  Samus has a long history of losing everyone around her - Her family, the Chozo, the Metroid hatchling, and even people who she only knew for short periods of time.  It's perfectly understandable that after reuniting with her old team, the sight of an enemy like Ridley who she shares a long and painful history with would be enough to make her pause.

2. Samus waiting for Authorization to use her weapons and abilities
A lot of people are confused about this one, citing that Samus is a Bounty Hunter, and that she wouldn't just follow the orders of the military because someone she knew was in charge.  They're right.  She'd follow the orders no matter who was in charge.  Samus has, at the point in the story that Other M is taking place, never directly disobeyed the Federation or any orders she received from them.  She even trusted them enough that, immediately after destroying all of the Metroids except the final hatchling, she turned it over to Federation scientists.
The idea that Samus distrusts the federation and that they are on uneasy terms was only introduced in Metroid Fusion, which takes place some time after Other M, and more importantly, takes place after Samus' CO and father figure Adam Malkovitch is killed.  Samus states that she was young and inexperienced when she had last worked with Adam- clearly, his death soured her views of the Federation to some degree, and only the discovery that the Federation was planning to use the Metroids as weapons, along with their plans to capture the X-Parasites, finally led to Samus disobeying and destroying the research facility and home planet of the X-Parasites.  In the timeline, when Other M is taking place, Samus is still clearly working with the Federation quite closely, and would have no trouble following their orders as she has in all past games.

That was long, and I probably should have broken those points up more, but damnit, it's getting late and I don't want to argue about something as stupid as people claiming Samus is a weak character.  Samus has almost completely destroyed several planets, made enemies of nearly every major faction in the galaxy, almost entirely destroyed a criminal army that was on the verge of taking over all of civilization, wiped out an entire species of genetically engineered bio-weapons and the shapeshifting parasites they were created to destroy, and killed several super-powerful copies of herself.  If she wants to be a little worried in one game that the only people she knows who haven't already been killed by her enemies might die, then damnit, she can.

I'm loving this whole wiki thing the site has going on, and was just waiting for a good game I could really geek out over when I noticed that Evil Zone doesn't have a lot of info, especially in the character sections.  I spent ages back when I first got the game reading through all of the encyclopedia entries that went to exhaustive lengths to give a name and significance to every detail of the characters, from their attacks, their names, their birthdays and bloodtypes, all the way down to the backstories for pieces of their costumes that weren't even visible on the character models.  This brings me to my first dilemma - should that sort of information be added to the wiki, or is going into that much detail about such an old game, no matter how much I love the ridiculous encyclopedia entries, just not what people want in the pages?

My only other issue is my browser of choice, Opera.  It can't edit the wiki pages here on Giant Bomb, and I absolutely cannot stand firefox, so if anyone could throw me a suggestion for a browser I could use as a wiki-editing device, that'd be awesome.

...This thing seems too short.  That means it's time to add something.  Rambling about the Motion controls!

As with most of my more brilliant thoughts, this one came to me in the bath right after I slipped and nearly fell face first into the horrible spider-nest that is the area behind the toilet where men dare not tread or spray pest-killers.  Holding myself above certain disgust by a precariously rigged shower curtain, I began thinking as I often do about the technical limitations of the Wii remote, and motion control in general.  I was one of maybe 20 people who was lucky enough to play Soul Calibur Legends on the Wii shortly after it came out, and a thought ocurred to me as I looked at a large, goofy, flashing toy-lightsaber looking attachment for the Wiimote that they included with the game.  They were on to something.

I realized that 1 to 1 motion control is nigh impossible in many games these days for the simple reason that while you may be swinging a sword in the game, in real life you're swinging a near weightless piece of plastic, or in the case of Kinect, just waving your arm.  It's simple, sure, but realizing it gave me a new appreciation for the difficulty in trying to deliver what people want in a game like Red Steel 2.  It makes me realize that the Katana, more than just a stylistic choice for the game, was really one of the only choices they could have made to keep the game as responsive as they did.

Imagine playing a motion controlled game where your character swung a massive sword ala Siegfried in Soul Calibur, or Guts in Berserk. (Obligatory anime reference achieved!)  No one would have appreciated swinging the Wii remote and watching a slow, lumbering chop, but on the other hand, to make the character's swing match the player's would look absurd with weapons that size.  Somewhere around here I had a stroke of genius - This was what all those people in Star Wars were talking about when they mentioned a lightsaber.  You've got an incredibly dangerous weapon that feels like it's not even there!

So basically, they need to make a Jedi academy style game for the Wii stat, and take off all of the usual motion control restrictions they have.  If I aim the Wiimote a little too far to one side, I want to be able to lop my own damn arm off and die painfully.  If I hold down B and activate the thing with it pointing at my face, I should have to reload the game after a hilarious shot of me crumpling to the floor.  It'd be perfect.  Any thoughts on any of this, please, feel free to comment.  ...I'm so alone.