In January 11, 2005 Shinji Mikami created his masterpiece with Resident Evil 4 which became the biggest influence of the decade in 3rd person shooters. So many games soon adopted Resident Evil 4's 3rd person format and became the standard of today's 3rd person shooters. Today in 2010 he returns to create another masterpiece by refining his shooter concept once again by adding an even more stylish feature which now makes me wish I could do such when playing other 3rd person shooters from now on. Games like these are great reasons to have a console.

Hearing about another Castlevania game in 3D neither excited me nor made me ignore it until I finally saw the E3 trailer in 2009. It literally surprised me and raised my hopes for 2010 to come immediately as I also learned of Hideo Kojima's involvement with its development. Though I was disappointed with how Metal Gear Solid 4 turned out to be, I could not simply turn a blind eye to this title as its trailer was just downright epic along with famous icons like Patrick Stewart and such lending their talents to create a new face to the franchise. Then when I finally got my hands to it, It truly is a worthy addition to the Castlevania franchise and it being the 1st 3D Castlevania finally worth playing after several horrid attempts to modernize the franchise. Oh and I must mention I played this during Halloween so I guess it was an epic way to celebrate it with bashing lycanthropes and vampires.

By far it is the best competitive online shooter I have played this year and its enjoyable even after several months from its release. The gameplay is so intense especially having a good sound setup with its vastly superior sound design where the acoustics of gunshots are incredibly realistic which raised my standard for military shooters. Reinforced even more with its recent release of its multiplayer expansion "Vietnam" puts such an outstanding standard that should be a role model for modern online wargames.

The last time I ever laid my hands on this franchise was back in 1999 when Alpha 3 released. I never went for the sudden craze for 3rd Strike probably due to the lack of really interesting characters in the roster. Then finally came the return with Street Fighter 4 but somehow fell short with a mix of incredibly unbalanced characters which almost marred my image of Capcom's ability to take back the fighting game throne. Then came this shortly after. Somehow I can never understand why this one was a day one purchase despite me not liking its vanilla version and I have no regrets making the purchase as now my old love for the franchise since 1999 has finally rejuvinated. This year also marks the return of my enthusiasm for fighting games.

Bethesda has done the right thing giving the IP back to the original creators that made the Fallout franchise what it is now. New Vegas simply is better overall in following up the legacy of the developers at Obsidian who originally worked on Fallout 2 in 1998 and created nothing short of a masterpiece despite the numerous bugs found in the game. But hey I don't remember a Fallout game being bug free even during its humble beginnings. The story of the game as well as it's quest design is just as superb and exhilarating like the 1st 2 Fallout classics and I am hoping that Bethesda employs Obsidian again from now on in handling all projects related to Fallout. Man I can't count how many days I lost sleep because of this game.

This game started the year great with its incredible storytelling features putting the flow of drama directly at the hands of the player. And you know what thats what makes RPG's really fun, Right when you see extravagant ways on how you change the flow of the stories based on every choice and action you make. Even more rewarding if you have played through the 1st game as it personalizes the experience of literally making the story your very own.

The 1st release captivated me with such awe of the grim atmosphere of the zone. Though like it's predecessor it possessed several bugs that render some parts of the game impossible to finish, the overall game design and survival challenge the game offered placed me on such an immersive experience of life within the Zone easily making me look past all the game's flaws.

This game alone is proof that Japan still has the skills to make innovative games, and redefine the definition of fun and stylish action games. The beautifully crafted cinematics as well as the overall game design is just superb. I couldn't imagine such even if I tried so it definitely holds a unique presentation as well which started the year well. It's only real flaw is its short game length only lasting about 7-8 hours of play.

Make no mistake. I'm in no way a fan of strategy games. But this game however somehow gets my attention to the extent I found myself always saying "just one more turn" meaning I was always curious to see what happens next in the next phase. Before I knew it, I didn't even notice how many hours have already past actually playing this game. It definitely sucks you in once you begin to understand the game.

My recent experience with Rockstar Game titles almost made me skip this entirely until a friend of mine traded with me. Much to my surprise unlike the GTA series it actually offered a unique experience of an open world action game set in the wild west alongside a story worth following which was not a feature I experienced in the past Rockstar titles. The game is definitely worth a mention for this year as it consumed atleast a week or more of my time playing this.