Based on the games I got to play this year, might get updated when I get round to playing/finishing these: Heavy Rain, COD:BLOPS, God of War 3, Fall Out New Vegas, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Bioshock 2, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Metro 2033, Limbo, Pac-Man CE DX, Bayonetta.
The best game to be released this year, in my opinion. A great story, fantastic characters and game-play improved upon from Mass Effect 1. Firing a weapon felt far more responsive and satisfying. The improved engine also ran like a dream, compared to long load times from ME1. Playing on the PC, the game ran solid on full specifications and the graphics looked gorgeous.
A close second, Rockstar know how to make open world games. RDR was a great experience with an engrossing storyline, which is coming from someone who does not really appreciate Western themed anything. The whole game felt like a movie, especially with the score added in sections of the game for dramatic effect.
As someone who has spent most of my gaming time still playing Modern Warfare 2 multi-player, BC2 was a welcome retreat into a slower, large scale FPS experience. The sound design in this game is phenomenal if nothing else. The shooting is top notch with its more realistic take on bullet physics compared to the COD series. I am still holding out on BF3 before migrating back to this franchise proper though.
What can you say, it's a Mario game. It is just plain fun. Shigeru Miyamoto continues to be my idol, the man can do no wrong I'm telling you! Regardless of how much actual input he had in the game, his influence is still there. Nintendo still manage to make the game look amazing on such limited hardware, disguising polygons is hard but they manage to do it well. The music is great, the orchestral feel went well with most of the game which was very colourful if anything.
Probably the scariest game or piece of media I've had the pleasure of experiencing. Now, that statement is probably not saying a lot, considering I pretty much find all "horror" related media laughable. The fact that, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, sent chills down my spine however does deserve mention. I am not sure whether it's being chased down hallways with nothing to fight back with or the atmosphere in general but this game was tense.
I enjoy real-time strategy games. From Age of empires to Red Alert, I love the chaos that inevitably ensues. Though I did not play a ton of this game, I loved every minute of what I did. Where other franchises have lost me, Blizzard seems to still get it. I just want to build a big army and defeat that other guy. The story was ok, but the multi-player is where it's at.
I never got into the old Donkey Kong games - I was far more content playing Mario or Zelda as a kid. This revisit to the franchise however made me realise that this is some legitimate platforming action and playing it co-operatively just adds to the fun. Nice aesthetics through-out, from the visuals to sound design, an all round fun game.
This was not the game I thought it was going to be when it was announced five years ago. Now in 2010, I was a little disappointed with the far more linear focused level design, but this lead to well scripted story telling. The story was fine, though nothing incredible. The gameplay (the shooting insane shadowy people parts) was interesting to begin with, but became kind of predictable and monotonous. All in all though, I enjoyed Alan Wake, just a shame it wasn't the game I lead myself to believe it was going to be.
This game came out so close to 2009 I can barely remember it. Though post-apocalyptic scenarios have been rather played out of late, Darksiders did it in a unique way. The game felt a lot like fusing God of War with Zelda, certainly not a bad thing. It was an interesting experience that I am sure I will revisit again.
As a late comer to the franchise (starting my conquests turn by turn in Civ 4) I found myself in an odd position when I played Civ 5. Not a lot had changed, sure the game looked prettier and some UI elements were streamlined but I never felt Civ 4 was that bad looking or unnavigable enough to warrant these improvements. Having said all that though, Civ 5 is a great game. The game continues to fuel that clearly insane ideology of taking over the world. As an apparently immortal ruler, building anachronistic cities as bragging rights over my enemies. What more could I need.
