10. Transformers: War for Cybertron: I'm a Transformers fan, I'm also a fan of well made shooters with good game mechanics. WfC took the third person shooter and injected its own unique mechanic of transforming on the fly and becoming a fully adaptable robotic weapon of mass destruction. Combine with some truly epic bosses and stages, you've got a winner in any shooter of Transformers fan's book.
9. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker: Best PSP game ever? Possibly. Peace Walker took the game play of Guns of the Patriots and infused it with the addictive Pokemon like "Gotta Catch em All" mentality of recruiting soldiers from Portable Ops. The result is a portable title with a ton of great action, a sharp story and characters, and a never ending list of soldiers to recruit, missions to beat, items to find, and boss battles to fight. Peace Walker rarely left my PSP, and will probably remain there for a long time into 2011.
8. Goldeneye 007: It was a return to from for this Wii FPS based on the original N64 title. Combining levels and characters based on the original, but infusing it with slick controls and game play, made this a great FPS for the Wii and a fun way to relive some golden memories (no pun intended) with friends whether its online or with its split screen multiplayer. It was quite a trip to play through the singleplayer mode and see the old levels and characters remade for 2010. One of the most enjoyable shooter's I've played all year, in a year of a ton of enjoyable shooters.
7. Heavy Rain: Much more than Indigo Prophecy 2.0, Heavy Rain made for some of the most tense and cinematic moments of the year. With multiple outcomes and encouragement for more than one play-through, Heavy Rain was completely engrossing from beginning to end and showed some serious innovations in the hybrid between gaming and interactive storytelling.
6.(TIE) Halo Reach/Call of Duty Black Ops: Bungie's final Halo title was a monster. A fun and epic campaign, a option ladened multiplayer, and a fully customizable firefight mode made this one of the best games I played this year. Even now I still jump in every now and then to frag some space marines. A ton of fun to play and feels much more like a change than the play it safe Halo 3. For Black Ops, Treyarch re-balance the multiplayer to reply less on killstreaks and more on player kills, they crafted an engrossing single player campaign with a ton of twists and turns and a slew of customization for your online avatar, a full feature zombies mode with past American presidents, and even top down shooter. Treyarch did what the fans wanted, and gave them even more.
5. Vanquish: Like Transformers, Vanquish took the third person shooter and turned it on its head with a fast paced shooter with some huge boss battles and a cheesy, over the top story lines about Russians and their robot army taking over a space station and using the sun as a doomsday weapon. Your suit in Vanquish still stands as one of the coolest things in modern video games. You can jet boost into cover and into enemies, slow down time, and even level up your weapons for more powerful guns. It's fast, it's furious, it's fun as hell. Gears of War 3 officially has its new measuring stick.
4. Battlefield: Bad Company 2/Vietnam: BC2 was my FPS of the year and with good reason. Not only does game play focus on team based multiplayer rather than frag everyone game play, but the amount of weapons and gadgets you can unlock is staggering. If that's not enough, the Vietnam expansion added even more maps, guns, and vehicles. Even better, VIP members and even some late adopters can get all of the maps and modes for on $14.99, with the Vietnam expansion also only costing $14.99. Keep in mind that most multiplayer maps cost about this much just for 1 map pack. That's a whole lot of shooting for your buck.
3. God of War III: A satisfying way to close the trilogy, GoW III had some of most epic boss battles ever, along with draw dropping set pieces and the trade mark combo combat system. Everything about this game was epic and huge, a fitting end to a larger than life video game trilogy.
2.(TIE) Sin and Punishment: Star Successor/Super Mario Galaxy 2/Donkey Kong Country Returns: It was an amazing year for the Nintendo Wii and it was very difficult to choose between these three Wii titles so, I ended up making them a tie. All three have brought fantastic game play and excellent controls. Sin and Punishment was a white knuckled shoot em up from the wizards at Treasure. Featuring some of the coolest bosses this year, it was a difficult but very fun and rewarding shooter. Super Mario Galaxy 2 featured all of the great features of the original, but this time, makes the levels even more creative and fun to play with great graphics and the addition of Yoshi makes this a great sequel. Donkey Kong Country Returns is a great return to the DKC's of old and features some excellent and wildly creative side scrolling levels. All three were amazing experiences to play, and proof to all the naysayers that the Wii isn't up to par with other consoles in terms of games.
1. Mass Effect 2: No other game was more fun to play, more addicting to play, more engrossing, and more awe inspiring than Mass Effect 2. From the refined game play to the epic tale of recruiting the galaxy's biggest badasses, to huge and well thought world the characters inhabit. Even the beginning of the game still stands for me as one of the most shocking openings I've ever played and when combined with your save game choices from Mass Effect 1, makes this an entirely personal story as well that no two people will play completely alike. Mass Effect 2 is a modern masterpiece and I absolutely cannot wait for the final chapter.
So that's it, it was hard but that's my picks for 2010. It was a great year for gaming, and I hope that this year proves to be just as awesome. Keep in gaming!
Runners up (close, but not close enough):
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Videogame: Probably the best movie video game this year... or the last several years.
Red Dead Redemption: Could have been in the list but have not finished it yet, very much like what I've played so far.
Kirby's Epic Yarn: Also dangerously close to making the list, but got slightly edged out by the equally excellent competition.
Persona 3 Portable: An excellent portable version of Persona 3. What more do you need to know? Still too similar to the original to make it though.
No comments:
Post a Comment