Q? Entertainment consistently puts out innovative titles that fit my tastes perfectly, I'm a sucker for everything they've done but Rez is extra special. The sound design, striking visuals, and hypnotic gameplay add huge amounts of replayability to the game, It's fun to return to even for just a few short minutes. Art gaming meets comfort gaming, I guess. I played through Rez on the Dreamcast but never owned a copy, so really getting to sink my teeth into this definitive version of a classic was one of the highlights of the year for me.
Braid isn't really a game that gets any better over time, and I don't think I've booted it up once since the day I beat it. Still the time I spent with Braid won't soon be forgotten. Tight controls, some truly brain bending puzzles and a real weight to it's surreal narrative makes Braid much more than the sum of its parts, even when those parts are of fairly high quality to begin with. And the way the game utiizes time is probably the most ingenious we've seen yet. The best platformer of the year for me, and one of the most artistic titles released as well.
It took me ages to get around to trying out World of Goo. For some reason I had this idea that construction based gameplay and an art style that seemed lifted from any number of generic flash games just wasn't for me, despite my love of a good puzzler. I could not have been more pleased to have the critics be right and my instinct be wrong. World of Goo's art style and mood is way more charming and original than screenshots or clips give it credit for, and the actual physics based puzzle mechanics are deliciously satisfying to play around with.
This would have been higher on the list had I not gotten sidetracked with other games around 3/4 of the way through, and the fact that Persona 4 improves upon nearly everything P3 does puts the games flaws in perspective. Still this was my introduction to the series, and I was blown away to say the least. As a former JRPG nut in the 16-bit and PSone days, I've become burnt out on a genre that rarely brings anything new to the table. And though the extreme length and repetitive nature of Persona 3 can slow the pacing to a crawl at times the game is such a breath of fresh air that it's really a must play for all JRPG fans, both old and new. At 35 bucks and with extra content in the FES release, it's a great deal too.
A fun time waster that I'll boot up every few weeks or so, and it's been like that since the game arrived in February for the most part. Some tracks and genres work better than others but the game still holds up even when the synthenasia doesn't. I could care less about the high scores or even perfecting any one particular mode, what keeps me coming back is the added bonus of mindless interactivity when I feel like going through my music library. It's only 10 bucks on Steam, a great value for the hours you can get out of it.
