Top 10 Suprisingly Good Games in 2009
Right, these are my top 10 games that had "no business being good" (at least from what I read or expected), but ended up suprising me and some even made it to my overall top10 goty list!
List items
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After growing bored of both Guitar Hero and Rock Band the last few years, I had no idea what to expect from this game... it looked alright, but way too expensive to get over 2 other games. I ended up getting it as a gift from a friend, and I fell in love with it. The gameplay couldn't be more different from the guitar based games, and it just felt so fresh and unique. Amazing soundtrack and a good controller makes DJ Hero not only one of my biggest surprises, but it knocked RE5 off my GOTY top 10 list.
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Number2 with a bullet...or a pair of claws, Wolverine puts most movie based games to shame with solid god of war-ish gameplay, good graphics in general, and BUCKETS OF GORE that would make Mortal Kombat games cringe. If it wasnt for the blatant repetition throughout, this would provbably even have sneaked into my top 10 games of the year. Considering the trash that most movie based games are, this was a awesome surprise.
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I didn't finish RE4. There, i said it. I liked it, but somewhere in it I just stopped playing and never got back to it. So the more I read and saw of RE5 the less I felt like playing it, but I still bought it at launch... and then proceeded to not play it for 7 months. when I finally got around to play it, I actually loved it and finished it in 2 or 3 sittings. Maybe the fact that I didn't really play much of RE4 helped, but the fact is I loved every moment of RE5 and it barely didn't make my top 10 GOTY list (in fact, it was 11th).
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Coming from the makers of the bland (for me) Smackdown series, nothing about this game appealed to me. That and I knew little about MMA (which completely changed this year and im notwa avid watcher) made me wait until this was on the cheap side to get... and I wasn't disapointed. Great gameplay and graphics, and a very unique feel made this a nice surprise this year... if only it wasn't so stripped of features... theres always UFC2010
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A Halo RTS felt like milking the cow syndrome from the moment it was announced, but Emsemble (makers of the Age Of Empires series) made one of the best console RTS games as their last game as a studio. Some say its stripped down, I say its perfectly adapted to a console. Great gameplay, great graphics (for a RTS), gorgeous CGI cut scenes, if only it wasn't so short it would have made a bigger impact. It's still one of my good surprises this year and I wish Emsemble would have sticked around to make a better sequel... oh well.
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I was quite excited about Bionic Commando until all the tepid (and even negative) reviews started coming out. I decided, as usual, to not pay much attention and I'm glad I did, since I ended up quite enjoying it. Not the best game ever by any stretch, it still had some solid third person shooting and for me, awesome grappling hook action that I'm sure made many people frustrated, but I loved it. The voice acting was silly, the story was bland, the graphics were alright at best (what was up with the weird draw-in all the time), but for some reason I enjoyed the hell out of it. And that's why it's on this list.
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This barely made this list for the sole reason that the only reason it "surprised" me was because of the mixed reviews it was getting. Like Bionic Commando, it didn't stop be from buying it, and I'm glad I did. A kickass game from start to finish, which got unfair comparisons to Infamous, when it really plays nothing like the electricity based Cole. In fact, I actually prefered the gameplay in Prototype, I loved the movement, powers, violence, and the overall freedom it offered. It was also one of the most chaotic games I've ever played, with battles going on ALL THE TIME. It was a bit (a lot?) jenky, a bit ugly, the story was so-so (although I loved the twist) but I loved every minute of it. Before you ask "why isn't it in your top 10 goty list then instead of Infamous?", Cole's adventure was just a much more polished and better game overall in my opinion.
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Another that goes in the "High expectations deflated due to tepid reviews and word of mouth". While it wasn't the amazing game I hoped it would be, it was still a cool game, with awesome voice acting, great graphics (I loved the art direction of the game), and the gameplay was nowhere near as bad as some people said. I thought the RTS battles were actually enjoyable and well done, but I spent most of the time battling out with Eddie himself in them,so they never became boring. the story was really cool and imaginative aswell, if a bit on the rushed side near the end. In fact, thats the game's biggest fault... strip out the side quests (of which there are only a few types and aren't very exciting) and the game is really short. Tim Schafer's best game this is not, but it's still a Tim Schafer game in the madness department... and that's enough for me.
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And we end up with another "this has no business being this good, Batman games suck damn it!" initial reaction, but DAMN this game was awesome. another in my Top 10 GOTY list, I was half excited when I first heard of it, but half cautious because usually super hero games..well, blow. The positive reviews made my fears go away, but actually playing and finishing it made me love this game even more than i thought I would from the reviews. Hopefully the sequel will be better, even if it seems a little too fast for a sequel... oh and that one will not be in any "surprise" lists, I will go into that one with full blown expectations after the first one :P
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