Having finished Darksiders last week, I feel like I can finally decide on my Top 5 for game of the year.
It's hard to pick favorites amongst such heavy hitters, but here is my personal top 5:
1. Mass Effect 2 2010's Game of the Year. When playing this in january, I already knew that not a single game was going to top the full package that was Mass Effect 2. New characters AND old characters (Garrus and Tali FTW), more locations, more dialogue and more action than it's predecessor, Mass Effect 2 was exactly what I hoped it would be: "Mass Effect, the second one".
Three word summary of what made this game part of this list: Third Person Chatbox
2. Super Street Fighter IV Not since Warcraft 3 and Battlefield 2 have I thought to myself: "I'm going to get good at this one". When Street Fighter 4, the not-super one, came out, I was peer pressured into buying an arcade stick. I went for the Mad Catz SE, which I then modded with Sanwa parts from Germany. Sadly, the arcade stick did not make me much better at the game and I only played it when my friend asked for some 1 on 1s.
Then Super came out. I was going to give SSF4 the chance it deserved and dusted off my arcade stick. This was around the time I discovered that the GB forums were actually worth looking at (I've never been much of a forum person). When the PS3 community was hosting a 2 v 2 tournament I knew I just HAD to enter. Not expecting much from myself, I took the first teamless guy I saw and promptly won the tournament together with Ricetopher. This is when I finally acquired the taste. That and a new found source of frustration.
It's the GB community that made this game the runner-up for Game of the Year 2010.
Three word summary of what made this game part of this list: "Goddamnit. Fuck! YES!!!"
Demon's Souls was my most anticipated game of this year. Coming out in june 2010 in Europe, the wait was so intense that my expectations were sky-high. Regardless, Demon's Souls managed to deliver. Every battle felt like a boss fight. The boss fights themselves often seemed impossible, but were always overcome with effort.
Three word summary of what made this game part of this list: Zero Hand Holding.
4. Bayonetta I can be brief about this one: I was late to the party called Bayonetta. And a party it was. Picking the game up at a budget price, I was very skeptical of this PS3 game. With the constant mumblings of bugs, frame drops and lock-ups, I had no desire to ever play this. I'm glad that I still did.
Three word summary of what made this game part of this list: Hairy Gun Shoes.
5. Darksiders Another game that I've played WAY outside of it's release window. It's gameplay is solid and reminds me of a bloody Twilight Princess. But the game-play wasn't what impressed me the most about this game, it was presentation. Not a single game this year comes close to the the brilliant voice-acting of stars like Mark Hamil, Phil LaMarr, Liam O'Brian and Troy "Get bent!" Baker.
Darksiders was a great story and 2012 will hopefully bring us a Darksiders 2.
Three word summary of what made this game part of this list: Bloody Talking Zelda.
Saw this on SRK, a guy from New Zealand travels the world to interview and report on international Street Fighter scenes. In this case, The Netherlands at DN2 on August 28th:
This was the first SF tourney I went to, so it's kind of special to me that it all got filmed. I'm in a crowd shot at 2:56 (blue jacket, grey hat), but I did not get interviewed or anything. Like I would have anything to say lol. I'll bet I could have some useful insight as the only T.Hawk player in the world :P
I've recently discovered the uStream Android App on my Samsung Galaxy S. I'll be using it to stream some SSF4 PS3 gameplay from our PS3 community in the Forums. Get Hype?!
Here's the scenario: there is a hang-up Ikea Billy Bookshelf hanging in my room, 1.80m from the floor. It's filled with Dutch Law books. Now, here's the second part: I'm in front of my computer, 10 minutes before I turn 23 (which I just did, yay me?), when the screws in the bookshelf give up.
BAM. Shelf comes down, knocks over a standing shelf filled with books and trophies and a Buddha statue. It's HELL ON EARTH in my room. noise is deafening, 35+ books averaging 300 pages are thrown to the ground along with trophies.
Buddha is fine.
Just got done cleaning up, missed my birthday minute while cleaning glass of the floor. Amazingly all my trophies and statues are fine safe for one real old one of a white proud standing cat. I liked that one. Also a frame containing small-photos of my friends from elementry school is smashed to pieces. That wil be the first thing I'll replace.
Gonna go to sleep now, got to be fit for my family tomorrow. Good night!
I'll post some pictures of the new situation. Was too stressed out/angry to make pictures of the disaster itself :(
Here's the aftermath:
Here's where the Billy used to hang. Screws snapped in half after further inspection. Nice for a fast clean up, but having even less room in, well, my room, is less than ideal.
Here's Buddha! He must have some kind of guardian angel for surviving this mess. 30 Comments
I felt like doing another blog, since I rarely use this feature on Giantbomb.com, which is a website about video games. I'll cover four topics here, meant for people that I interact with on the site, yet don't know very much about me. If you don't know me nor care to get to know me, stop reading here.
(G)olden Times
Ever since I've quit playing Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, I haven't been loyal to a single game. I've made the jump to Counterstrike: Source for a short while, but then was convinced by a friend, who was way into pro-gaming, to switch to Battlefield 2. This friend had a contract and sponsors and everything and, on the infantry-only mode, I could give him a run for his money. This got me on the reserve list for the Dutch National BF2 team. Played a few matches, but due to horrible organisation and the fact I was going to the University that year, I quit the team. I've been playing DotA and League of Legends since then, untill I bought a PS3. This brings me to the second topic of this blog, my current situation.
University
I'm Dutch, Hollandian, or Netherlandish, whatever sounds best to you. The next part you will read has nothing to do with gaming, so skip it if you aren't interested in my personal life.
Since finishing high-school I have attended University in Rotterdam: Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR for short). I've studied Dutch Law for 3 years and it got me my Bachelor Diploma. For my master's diploma I've chosen to follow Criminal Law. The courses went smoothly, but not everything did. My final paper, or Dissertation, whatever word you find suitable, is the hardest thing I've ever done. I've been busy with it for about 7 months now, while I didn't expect to have it last longer than 4.
Lesson to be learnt here is, if you have to do a dissertation in the near future, IS TO NOT FUCKING UNDERESTIMATE IT. Learn from my mistake. I moved to another house during the formentioned 7 months, which did not help me doing the work necessary for the final paper.
Back to gaming!
The Overflood of games
The people who know me on these forums know that I like to play SSF4. This game takes alot of effort to actually get fun out of, so it consumes my time for other games. If you'd have told me 5 years ago my main game would be a 2d Fighting Game I'd laugh in your face, fart in your general direction and make several other Monty Python references. At that time I was a hardcore FPS and RTS player and had absolutely no interest in fighting games. Sure, I was pretty decent at Super Smash Brothers Melee, but that wasn't really a fighting game. My SNES SF2 and Killer Instict experience from more than 13 years ago didn't exactly count for much either.
Back to my original point: SSF4 takes up alot of gaming time. I have in my possesion such games as Killzone 2, Saint's Row 2, Demon's Souls (I'm on my first NG+) , Bayonetta, Dark Void, Bionic Commando and Brutal Legend. All these games deserve my attention, but won't be getting it in the forseeable future. That's a damn shame.
In about 2 days, I'll be getting started with the online section of Starcraft 2. This will be a turning point in my gaming: Choose between SSF4, Starcraft 2, or a combination of both. Remember, these games are known by the steep learning curve and require your full attention if you want to get any good at. This is a huge dilemma for me.
The Fatal 4-way and DN-2
If you are a regular on the SSF4 forums, you will know GB user DBZ1995 is hosting a new Giantbomb PS3 tournament: a 4 versus 4 teambattle. I'll be participating of course with team Rice Balls, together with Ricetopher and others. I highly recommend people who own both a PS3 and SSF4 to join this tournament. There is no gate of any kind, so even if you are balls like me, you can still join.
The 28th of august there will be a SSF4 tournament in Utrecht, Netherlands namend DN2. I'll be participating together with 60 (and counting) others. The best of the best of Holland will be there, so I'm bound to pick up some tips and get my ass kicked back to my hometown, Spijkenisse. You can see the previously mentioned dillemma of SSF4 vs. Starcraft 2. SSF4 will be very important this month, but my love for (Blizzard) RTS's might prevail!
If you have survived my ramblings and are still reading, I hope to see you in the Fatal 4-way, or even just in the GB forums. Now you will actually KNOW the guy that is Trolling you.
2 Comments
In about 2 hours my small town in the Netherlands, Spijkenisse, is about to be reached by the Tour de France. I'm Gonna be on the big red bridge watching them come by! Watch it!
Been playing alot of Hawk since SSF4 came out, and really liked him. That being said, his weak matchups are starting to get on my nerve so I'm trying out some new characters. Been giving Fei a bit of a spin, and liking what I'm seeing but I do miss that huge health pool that Hawk has. Might give Abel a try later, since I do like to have a command grab (can't land Fei's grab alot).
Any of you guys thinking of switching your mains, and who would it be? Discuss!
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