Games I don't want to forget about by the end of 2010.
This list is here to make my game of the year deliberations easier. The games are roughly in chronological order (in terms of when I played them).
List items
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Mass Effect 2 is simply outstanding. The setting, voice overs, and characterization are all terrific. I was expecting all of that though. What I wasn't expecting was awesome moment to moment gameplay. The guns all behave the way you would expect them to in a shooter: you place your cross-hair on the guy and shoot, he gets hit. The addition of powers and enemy strengths and weaknesses to different abilities really lends the whole combat system a ton of depth.
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Redemption has a long and excellent story marred by the occasional boring, meandering plot thread. In that way it's a lot like GTAIV. However, vastly improved checkpointing, inventory management, and gunplay means that I actually saw the end of RDR. The setting, 1911 Texas and Northern Mexico, wins big points for originality as well.
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I've never particularly enjoyed first person dungeon crawlers, but SMT: Strange Journey is making me reconsider that stance. Strange Journey updates the first person dungeon crawl with an interesting story that keeps things moving along briskly. A brisk pace doesn't mean a short game, I'm halfway in and have spent 24 hours thus far. The demon summoning and fusion mechanics are just as complex and meaty as those in other SMT games.
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Toy Soldiers is a pretty neat spin on the tower defense game with a very cool aesthetic and surprisingly fun multi-player. Like with Pixeljunk Monsters, I find myself coming back to it long after I've beaten it to improve my scores on levels.
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Alright, so you know how Brütal Legend was a game about fighting hideous creatures while putting on the greatest heavy metal show of all time? Do you remember how instead of making good on that promise it was too busy being incredibly disappointing? Well, Alan Wake features a heavy metal stage battle that truly pleases the rock gods. The rest of the game is pretty awesome as well, turns out.
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Conviction is the first Splinter Cell game I've completed since the first one. I find it sits somewhere between Arkham Asylum and Assassin's Creed II in the pantheon of modern stealth action games. I find that there are plenty of times where, like in ACII, you can basically run up to a guy, kill him, and then use mark and execute to kill all his buddies in a go. As the game progressed, though, it became more of a stealth puzzle. I found myself using marks as a way to keep tabs on guys through walls while I slowly picked them off from the shadows with headshots and melee kills. Having both gadgets and executes to fall back on when things went bad was pretty cool. Also, it's pretty damn fun in co-op.
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Bayonetta is hands down the best amazonian-librarian-stripper-witch simulator ever made.
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Chime is a simple, addictive puzzle game with an excellent soundtrack. It only costs $5 and the money goes to charity.
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Heavy Rain is an excellent follow up to Indigo Prophecy. The feeling of tension and suspense that it fosters is gripping. There're some pretty gaping plot holes for a game that is so story driven, and it's a little disappointing to see that.
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Okay, I've never played Picross before. But then I watched the quick look and I got intrigued. So I picked it up and started messing with it a bit and then ... goddamn, I cannot stop playing it. I've had dreams where I'm just playing Picross. My brain is inventing unique shapes and I'm solving puzzles in my dreams.
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Ludicrously ultra-violent, God of War III features more deicide than anything else ever produced or conceived anywhere ever. The game is like a roller coaster, constantly bombarding you with stunning set pieces and bizarre, almost sicking scenes of horrible murder. The plot's sort of silly, and the events of the game make the attempt at a last minute redemption for Kratos kind of hard to swallow. Still, it was fun and crazy, except for those goddamned icarus vents.
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Darksiders succeeds for the most part as a solid Legend of Zelda clone. The various efforts made to streamline things are certainly well appreciated. I have a lot of nagging little complaints though. For instance, the combat system is good, but I felt that they either should have left it super simple or taken it all the way: with two dedicated attack buttons (and combos that use both) and a dedicated gun button.
I'm mostly excited to see what they do with a sequel. Maybe we'll see the addition of co-op?
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This game is six kinds of awesome.
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I have a soft spot for brawlers and Scott Pilgrim, so I love this game. I'm sure some people have hearts blackened with hate and won't share that sentiment. However, a fantastic art style, outstanding music, rpg mechanics, and all round great gameplay prove me right.
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Dragon Quest was excellent, it was old school, but with a fun and compelling story. The multiplayer stuff turned out to be super cool too!
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I love Halo, I really do, I also love jetpacks. With those two things in mind it's really not surprising I love Reach. What did surprise me was how effective the story was. You could see bits of this attention to narrative in ODST, which had a story that was told well but ultimately felt irrelevant. Reach seems like it would fall into this same trap given that we're told upfront everything falls apart. However, the story being told here feels dramatic and urgent. The characters are handled better here than in any Halo game, and the presentation is full of nice immersive touches like frequent first person cut scenes and a thing after the credits that I won't spoil.
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Civ has always been a ton of fun and V carries on that tradition. The combat improvements are really cool, and I'm sure I appreciate the streamlined UI more than I realize. Like all the Civilization games, I expect to be playing this off and on for a long time to come. If I can say anything bad about it, it's that I don't feel surprised by it.
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Enslaved is a good game that you don't need to play. It's definitely extremely well produced: the graphics are fantastic and the performance capture thing leads to some really impressive cut scenes. The characters are animated and lifelike in a way that is very natural. The gameplay though is just serviceable. Nothing's bad about it, but nothing stands out as particularly impressive either. And even though the performances are good, the over arcing story is much like the gameplay, functional, but not especially noteworthy.
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I'm still super early, but P3P is a super fun game and fits surprisingly well into bite sized chunks. I'll be playing this well into 2011 most likely. The only problem is that playing it reminds me I still haven't put strange journey to bed.
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Much like Assassin's Creed II before it, Brotherhood is super easy, but also incredibly engrossing. I lost an entire Saturday to it and several days apart from that as well. What can I say? It's got all the polish of II and then a little extra bit on top. The changes are slight, for sure, but appreciated. The story progression is meaty and meaningful. Lastly, the multiplayer is really cool, if a little underpopulated.
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SUPER GODDAMNED MEATBOY!
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Man, Galaxy 2 is rad, but I kind of forgot about it. I need to beat this game.
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Like Rock Band 2 before it, 3 is phenomenally fun. I can easily get a group playing for hours straight before we realize that it's 2 and the morning and decide to stop.
The keyboard controller is a great addition that I've found appeals to people who are traditionally turned off by the guitar controllers, and the ability to sing vocal harmonies on "Space Oddity" alone warrants game of the year consideration.
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