I'm bored, so here's my ten picks for the year two thousand and nine; it was the best of years, it was the worst of years.
Yes, it looks cheesy and exactly like lists lots of others will no doubt post (what? Modern Warfare 2 and Dragon Age doing well???), but I don't care, I love these games, and that's that!
Ahhh Dragon Age - billing a game as "The spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate" (which is possibly my favourite game of all-time) was both a master stroke to peak my interest and a major concern. How many times have we seen such lofty promises shot down in flames before our very eyes? I mean hell, just look at Knights of the Old Republic 2... In fact no, don't, not now, not ever...
But anyway, for a beautiful change, this game came along and it actually managed to deliver on all the promises made; the world was massive and ludicrously detailed, with crazy amounts of love poured into every area, character and item you find. In-depth doesn't even start to cover this game.
Best RPG of all time, best game of 2009.
What can you say about Modern Warfare 2 that hasn't been said before? It's Modern Warfare, but better in every single regard.
The campaign mode finds itself on the short side, and a lot of the scenes feel like they may have been recycled from the first game. WIth that said however, it's still a thrilling six-hour ride packed with every single action film cliche you could ever want.
The addition of spec-ops mode was a master-stroke too, avoiding compromising the story-telling by adding a co-op campaign, this set of standalone co-op missions is, for me at least, the most fun aspect of the game; there are a wide variety of missions so things never tend to feel repetitive, and the action is brutal and non-stop. Thrilling!
They certainly didn't take the easy route with this one - with the noise The Dark Knight was making in cinemas, it would have been so very easy for someone to make another quick and easy (and also, terrible) movie tie-in game. It certainly wouldn't have been alone, and by now I'm so jaded by that whole mess that I wouldn't have been surprised.
But then they made THIS. Arkham Asylum is packed full of love, and you can tell. It seems that every few steps you take there's another little reference to the Batman world, little winks and nudges from a developer proving that they actually care about the licence, it's a beautiful breath of fresh air.
The combat some-how manages to be both simplistic (only two attack buttons?) and yet, as in-depth as you'd want - it's showing that while Batman has no actual superpowers, with his combination of gadgets and pure muscle you certainly wouldn't want to fall on his bad-side.
Haven't played it? Do it. Do it now - you'd be doing yourself a favour!
This one, for my money, came a little out of left field. When they first announced it my interest was momentarily grabbed, however then the game sunk back into the veil, clouded by all the other massive announcements of the time.
Then it came out...
This game is, in basic terms, Castlevania: Modern Warfare. It has all the trademarks of the genre; lots of upgrades that slowly unlock previously unaccessable areas, lots of backtracking and good, clean action!
The game looks beautiful, plays superbly, and is for me, the single player highlight of XBLA at the moment (Sorry, braid)
Again, what can you say about Spirit Tracks? It's basically The Phantom Hourglass reskinned with a train instead of a boat. However, when it comes to Zelda, that's never a bad thing.
Yes, the Zelda franchise has been riding the same basic formula since before the beginning of time (recieve main quest, go to temple, get item to help in temple and larger world, progress in quest slightly, go to temple, get another item, rinse, repeat.) Thing is, no matter how many times they do it, it is just SO DAMN SATISFYING.
To summarize; It's Zelda.
Let's keep this one short and sweet for the end;
It's left4dead, but with more weapons, more enemies and about three times as much badass.
"Boycotters", consider yourself silenced by the mighty power of Valve!
