Best of 2010

melcene: Best of 2010  
 
(This one is for the 52 Annual Giant Bomb Best Games thingie)
 

My Top Games of the Year

Ok here it is.  My top games of the year.  No, I didn't get up to ten of them.  I realize there are a lot of games NOT on this list that are on other people's lists.  Either I haven't gotten a chance to play them yet, or they just really weren't my thing.  Red Dead Redemption, for example.  It's sitting in my husband's Christmas stocking right now.  CoD:BO just isn't my thing.  I can recognize that these may be great games, but to me, they just aren't in my TOP games of the year.  Oh well.

List items

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  1. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

  Blizzard figured out how to really do an expansion, I think. Not only did they add some new areas (officially more new areas than in WotLK), but they complete redid the lands from original WoW. This sort of thing usually happens in a sequel, not an expansion. I don't like that much change in my games, but from what I've experienced, the change has been good. The old world stuff is more fun, more streamlined. The new expansion stuff, from what I understand, is tougher than people are used to from the last couple expansions, kinda hearkening back to older MMO days, where you actually weren't sure you'd make it through the next fight. I was loathe to get back into Warcrack again, but here I am, and I think they've done a great job.

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  2. Fallout: New Vegas

  I realize a lot of people talk about how damn buggy this game is, and maybe I've just been lucky, but I haven't really experienced much of that. What I DO know is that I sank over 30 hours into the game before even getting to The Strip. How much time I spend on a game is a huge indicator to me of how much I'm enjoying it and how much there is to do in the game. I still haven't finished the game, though I certainly plan on it. But that puts this one right up there on my list.

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  3. Mass Effect 2

  I spent a good amount of time with this game. I don't usually dig sci-fi games, but this one I thoroughly enjoyed. However, I can say that I was a bit disappointed that in some ways it wasn't as involved as Dragon Age was. I didn't feel quite as drawn in as I did with DA:O. And while the game isn't incredibly linear, it was more linear than I would have liked. BUT! I still spent a ton of time with it, and actually beat it (which is more than I can say for A LOT of games, especially sci-fi games).

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  4. Rock Band 3

  Rock Band has to be on my list if for no other reason than it's such a party hit at my house. But I do like some of the things the new game did. I'm glad they did away with the tour mode the way it was. I do have a couple problems with the game, like how the mic doesn't set off overdrive most of the time, or how my Stage Kit doesn't work with it, or how the disc track list isn't that great. But it seems like when it comes to the game itself, Harmonix only seems to continue to improve upon the original model.

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  5. Perfect Dark

  XBLArcade re-released Perfect Dark this year. Notice this is on my list but not GoldenEye? This re-release captured EVERYthing that was so fun about the game in the past. It didn't change a damn thing but the controllers. And I like it that way. I can completely relive the nostalgia without the feel of clunky N64 controllers. I loved this game in the past, and I still love it today.