Heyooo!

I'm not much of a writer so I'll keep it concise and very "me". I played a lot of new releases this year, however for this list I don't really count any remasters or HD remakes and whatnot, only actually new games. Sooo... here we go:

10. Velocity 2X

Fast paced arcadey shooter with a cool teleportation mechanic to keep things interesting. Also has some runner style 2D platforming parts, which were a lot of fun as well. Perfect game for the Vita.

9. Bravely Default

Very Final Fantasy style JRPG, in a good way. Not in the FF13 way. Story and characters are alright. I'm not a big fan of turn based combat but BD makes enough changes to the formula to keep my interest. Has some nice art and a superb soundtrack, possible the best OST this year.

8. Transistor

Awesome art and music, gameplay was alright and I really liked the world and characters Supergiant built.

7. Hearthstone

I don't think I need to say much about this. It's really easy to get in to but still has a lot of depth. King of virtual card games. It's free and you can easily play it like that too, I never felt that I HAD to spend money, but I did end up using it. Surprisingly though I used most of it on arena passes instead of buying boosters. Excellent example of F2P done right. It's weird to say this about a card game but the animation work is brilliant, everything just feels satisfying. Especially opening boosters. My only complaint is that it runs very poorly on my iPad 2, haha.

6. Shovel Knight

Awesome return to 8-bit era's best parts. Shovel Knight has tight gameplay and controls paired with excellent level design, some charming characters and a good amount of humour here and there. Really enjoyed my time with this one and can't wait for the Vita version to double dip.

5. Wolfenstein: The New Order

This one kinda caught me off guard with how good it actually is. The gameplay is really tight, everything works fine and the player is given some freedom on how to approach situations. As a huge stealth fan I was extremely pleased with the game giving me a lot of options to sneak through most parts. Also the knife kill animations were super satisfying, so I did tons and tons of nazi stabbing. Story and characters were surprisingly engaging, something that I didn't expect from a Wolfenstein game. Anyways, loved it.

4. Dark Souls 2

This was an excellent sequel to the best game of last generation but couldn't reach that same level, not having Miyazaki direct it probably did that. Everything I enjoyed in the first Dark Souls I also enjoyed in this one, just not quite as much. Still, most of the bosses are really challenging and fun and the areas are interesting to explore. The game is still pretty hard on the current standard. Somehow just where I can remember everything about the first Dark Souls, I can't recall much of DS2 except for a couple of bosses. Still, spent around 100 hours with this one and had tremendous fun, so it has earned it's spot on the list.

3. South Park: The Stick of Truth

This one was kinda surprising as well. First of all it's a licensed game and a South Park game and neither of those things tells you "Well this is going to be awesome!". Well it is. It is quite possibly the best licensed game to date, only thing that goes higher than this that I can think off is the Batman Arkham series. If you like South Park, you can instantly tell the game is super faithful to its source material, there's a nod at some episode around every corner. The battle system is really light but it works perfectly. The script is really funny, which definitely makes me appreciate that Matt and Trey were involved in writing it and there is tons of good stuff in the gameplay too, the whole Canada section being a perfect example of that. Awesome awesome game, think I played this one for around 12-15 hours in one sitting, reaching like 90% completion or something. Love it.

2. Bayonetta 2

When I played the original Bayonettas japanese demo for the first time, my mind was completely shattered by how awesome it was and I uttered the words "This is going to be the best game of 2010". And it was. Bayonetta 2 does almost everything as well as the first one did, my main complaint being that the boss fights were kinda flat compared to the first one. Super tight combat, badass main character who I personally like more with the new short hair and just the way the game presents spectacle is immaculate, there is nothing quite like it on the market. I played through the game 3 times and this fucking thing is on the Wii U, which means I couldn't do it for the trophies, which is usually the only reason i'd replay something in these busy times. Worthy sequel to the mind blowing first game.

1. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

A lot of controversy surrounded this game, mainly because of its length versus the price tag. I didn't really have a problem with it seeing how they told everyone beforehand the story content was gonna be really short and so I expected to be done within an hour and that is exactly what happened. But if you look deeper in to it the game has so much more to offer. The biggest thing about Ground Zeroes is how it completely revamps everything in the core gameplay. Everything in the gameplay is now much smoother, better flowing and tighter. The freedom the new level structure offers paired with Kojimas attention to detail creates something amazing that no other game has done quite so well. There's tons of stuff to find and unlock and all sorts of subtle and less subtle nods towards whats going on in the story and what's going to happen, keeping the players puzzled and guessing in the traditional Kojima style. I spent around 25 hours playing this "30€ demo", unlocked everything from Gray Fox costumes to weird torture tapes and kept wanting for more. The idea of having a game thats 10 times more of this is completely mind blowing to me. The Edge review perfectly summed up my thoughts so here's a quote from them:

"If it’s a demo, Ground Zeroes is the best demo ever; if it’s a prologue, it sets up the story so well you’ll spend the next year thirsting for revenge; and if it’s a tutorial, the systems it teaches are so intriguing that the prospect of spending an entire game with them is irresistible. Ground Zeroes is a resounding success in every respect bar its price tag, but value is relative. Fourteen hours in, we’re still learning."

So theres my games. Not a very surprising list and the number one spot is largely due to my fandom of MGS, if you're not already invested in the series I don't think you'll get anything out of it.

I have no intention of reading through this thing and tweaking it in any way, because I hate writing but somehow I was still compelled to put this list out there. So this post might be a bit of a mess. Happy new year and all that!

- Kim