My top 10 games of this year may be quite easy to decide on, because I only just managed to play about a total of 10 or 11 games this year. Once again, being a poor student really slows down the amount of big game titles I can play, I've been relying a lot on Steam sales so I can play some of the smaller indie titles. Anyway, here are my top 10 games of the year.
That's right, LEGO! Originally I couldn't decided between GTA and DOTA for this top spot, but decided to just push both of them down and give LEGO Marvel the top spot. But that's not the only reason. I haven't played a LEGO game since the first Star Wars one, so making a big jump from that game to this one was pretty big, it looks so much better even if the game play is still quite similar. Although the open world was new to me, flying around LEGO New York as Iron Man, or swinging around with Spider-Man may never get old, so fun! Also it helps that I'm a pretty big fan of both the Marvel films and comic book. Considering it's going to be a very long time before we see Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Avengers on screen together this is a great place to see them all in action together, even if they are made of plastic blocks. The world definitely seems to be based of the recent movies, judging by Stark towers, the Hellicarrier and some of the suits the characters wear, but it also throws in some pretty deep references to stuff only seen in comic books so far, such as the Hulk Buster suit, The Superior Spider-Man cover art done in LEGO style, various Deadpool sightings and even my personal favourite; Captain Britain.
The gameplay may be pretty lackluster and easy, but it's still fun and gives you a big open colourful, LEGO filled, Marvel world to play in, which is A-OK in my books.
I haven't played a GTA game since San Andreas, so it's been a while since playing a GTA game. I haven't had much time with this game so haven't experienced everything this game has to offer yet, but what I have played is so addictive. After playing a mission I just want to get back in the world and find something else to do, and there always is something else to do in this crazy world. All the characters are great, the story is really insane and I loved the structure of the heist missions. One thing that made this that little better for me was that I recently visited LA, so seeing this virtual LA was so awesome, from Rodeo drive to Beverly Hills, even that one restaurant where I had lunch outside of Santa Monica Pier (you know the one). Such a realistic and exciting world to play in.
Before you read this, let it be known that I really struggled deciding on between my top three games of the year, if I could I would say they all tied for first place, but I can't, so here is the order I begrudgingly gave them.
More free to play games! Also the second game on this list that I never would of played had it been for Brad Shoemaker (that guy may be just be a gaming genius). Hearing Brad's tales of Dota at first sounded something I never wanted to be a part of, I had never played a moba before (although did get quite deep into Awesomenauts this year) and heard all the talk about the experienced players giving the new players shit. But for some reason I decided to download it and give it a shot, I tried the tutorial and some bot matches but it just didn't click with me. It wasn't until I found out a few of my friends played the game as well, so I started playing some bot matches with them until we all started getting better and learning the basic ropes of the game. We then started some PvP games and really got deep into this game, every game is so exciting, matches can take 40-90 minutes but still be fun and so incredibly close, the huge variety of characters means there is always someone new to play as, our a new combination of character to team up as. This is one game I could see myself get addicted to over the next year or two?
What is there to say about this game? It's a great rouge-like(-lite?) with progression that helps you feel you've achieved something after each run, with a variety of randomised character to choose from with different powers and play types which keeps the game interesting run, after run, after run.
I could only find 4 games better than Brothers this year. When I first saw this game it looked like a simple puzzle game with frustrating controls, turns out it was an emotional journey of two very close brothers with frustrating controls. This is the second game I've ever played through and completed in one sitting, the game isn't too complex, the puzzles are pretty simple, what is great about this game is the scale of the world, the variety of environments, the characters and situations you encounter on your journey, and of course the ending, it was nothing like what I imagined, it was emotional, powerful and painful to play through. Man...
2007 was a crazy year the first iPhone was released, the Wii has just been released, Blood Dragons roamed the Earth terrorizing our Scientists and the Anaheim Ducks finally won the Stanley cup! Wait a minute, I don't remember any dragons? I must be getting mixed up with totally radical 2007 of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon!
I didn't even play Far Cry 3, but after seeing the trailer for Blood Dragon I knew it was something I had to play, everything about this game is so ridiculous, the characters, the setting, the music, the story. All totally bonkers, not to mention being completely overpowered allowing you to drop 100s of feet out of the sky from a hang-glider into a raging battle. The only downside to this game was how short it was, and did get slightly repetitive with the small range of side missions, but the ending sure than hell makes up for it.
I never played the original Shadowrun, so have no nostalgic value with this series, but this game looked pretty fun so I picked it up. It's a turn based strategy game with some RPG elements to leveling up your character. The game has a really interesting story revolving around your characters best friend being killed and you having to track down his killer. The best bit about the game may be the level creator, not for me though, that thing was way to confusing to do anything with. But people are using these tool to create their own stories that are just as good as the original story, including one which creates an entire open world to explore.
Not the best Gears of War game ever made, but it's not that bad, Baird isn't exactly the most interesting character in the Gears universe, so the story can be a bit lackluster, although the way they tell the story through flash backs told in a courtroom that's currently being attacked by Locust, is pretty cool. The gameplay changed a bit from previous Gears games, each level sees you trying to achieve the highest score by racking up kills and getting multipliers and combos, this gives the game some re playability if you want to get the highest score on each level.
This is a great little game, really awesome graphics and lighting effects used in a smart way to show the characters field of view. The music goes a long way to make you feel like you're in the middle of a sneaky heist, or getting chased out of a building by security guards. Unfortunately I couldn't find many people to play this with, both online or offline, which is a shame as the few times I did get into a 4 player online game it was really fun and hectic.
Like I said, I didn't play many games this year, so Plants vs Zombies kind of automatically got a spot on this list. Saying that, it's still a pretty fun game, it's a game that works well on the iPad. The free to play aspect of the game never bothered me because I felt I didn't need to pay to advance, I enjoyed getting the three stars per mission as it added an extra layer of challenge to the game.
