maybe this should be in "user reviews" but I don't care
Well, if it isn't that time of year again for me to be brought to tears by the boring predictable staff picks for top 5 games.
all except for Susan Arendt's picks
never let crappy rip-offs and sequels stifle your spirit Susan
the thing I noticed about all but one of the staff's picks were that they all had at least sequels, rip-offs, or DLC expansions on them
but after a little bit of research I discovered to my dismay that there were only 2 games this year that can't be described as either rip-off or sequel that came out on my beloved Xbox 360
so with that in mind here's a pathetic list of my favorite games that came out this year
Special Mention
this section is reserved for a few games that I thought were fun but are sadly disqualified for not having been released this year
1) Rock Band 3
despite the 10/26/10 release date the only part of the game I actually liked was the part copied directly from Rock Band 2 which was copied from Rock Band which came out in 2007.
The rest of Rock Band 3 seems to be targeted at people willing to buy expensive Rock Band 3 instrument peripherals.
If I had any interest in playing a real guitar I'd play a real fucking guitar.
I won't spend roughly the same amount of money on a game that's going to make me play a real guitar.
unfortunately Rock Band 3's set list is the best I've ever seen in a music game.
so very fun but it should have just been DLC for rock band 2
2) Fallout: New Vegas
This short, pathetically linear EXPANSION PACK to Fallout 3 was DLC that came on a disk and made me start a new character.
Fallout 3 was one of my favorite games of 2008, and this expansion pack was no different.
except it's frustratingly linear.
You start a game. You go north...and get eaten by flies. You go west...invisible walls. You go east...visible walls.
in Fallout 3 you leave the vault and the world was your oyster.
In New Vegas the one narrow road south is your oyster.
The entire time I was playing all I wanted to do was hop the wasteland express back to DC and explore.
3)Halo: Reach
It's just Halo 1 built on the Halo 3 engine.
Now unlike Halo 1, 2, 3, and ODST it was actually good.
I've never been so happy to see 1 dimensional characters because they had 100 times the personality of the entire cast of the first 4 games.
and the single player campaign was more involved than "Hide from snipers for 9 or 10 hours."
but it doesn't change the fact that you played this game in 2001
now without further adieu
Mikeyfell's top 5 games of 2010
5)Bayonetta
A Devil May Cry rip-off... but there's more to it than that.
Bayonetta is one of the only games this year that let you have hacky-slashy-shooty-jumpy fun while you were playing.
I challenge you to name another game where you can shoot an angel's face off with your boot-mounted rocket launcher. or make your pubic hair eat a giant monster with a baby head.
I'd also challenge you to name something that sounds more fun.
[sub]It also has nothing to do with the fact that Bayonetta is sexy as hell[/sub]
Fun gameplay alone doesn't always catch my attention, but Bayonetta was such jaw-dropping fun that I couldn't ignore it.
4) Blade Kitten
Now I grew up with a PS2 instead of one of the old Nintendo systems so I never got much exposure to 2D side-scrolling platformers. I grew up on the 3D platformers like Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank, and Blade Kitten feels like those games.
While I was playing Blade Kitten I had the reoccurring thought: "This is how Ratchet and Clank would play if it was 2D."
I was blown away by the sheer volume of the 2D maps. it was amazing how many hidden collectibles were in nooks and crannies that I missed the first time around.
You could easily spend hours exploring this 2D environment and not find everything.
It would be remiss of me not to mention that this is basses on a web comic, but it's never been a videogame before so it gets points for that.
the writing grated against my ears a little but I'm pretty sure it was supposed to
"Win-Get!" ...ARGGGG SHUT UP
the story seemed to be set up for a sequel or something and if Krome Studios proves that they can handle a sequel I'd love to see Blade Kitten evolve into 3D and bring back the popularity of 3D platformers...and I would also like solid gold toilet and a harem.
3)Dead Rising 2
Dead Rising 2 is a sequel, in case it wasn't obvious from the "2" at the end, so why didn't I put it in the "special mention" section?
Well the answer to that is simple: Dead Rising 2 fixed shit that was wrong with Dead Rising 1.
DR 1 was almost unplayable because you couldn't read a fucking word of text on the screen. and an ass load of time sensitive missions all happened way to close together. and the AI for everyone you're supposed to escort was somewhere in between Hurr and Durr. and there was that one weapon that hardly ever broke and totally flattened the fuck out of the difficulty curve.
So even with all that stuff fixed how did a time management simulator exclusively featuring escort missions, fetch quests and weapon degradation manage to be so fucking fun?
The answer to that is simple to: There are FUCKING ZOMBIES IN IT!!
And killing them is FUN!!!
it's not a bad first person shooter (Left 4 Dead 2)
or even a good first person shooter (Left 4 Dead)
or a bad third person shooter (Resident Evil 5)
or even a fucking awesome third person shooter (Resident Evil 4)
there are real zombies in this game, not "the infected" or the "eastern Europeans" or "Africans"
they don't run, they can't use weapons they just kind of stumble around and eat. you could kill 1000 of them with your bare hands and they're still a problem. You can mow down 72000 of them in an SUV and they're still everywhere. don't even think about killing them all it's just your job to find the craziest most off the fucking wall way to get from point A to point B
do you want to ware a lawnmower hat and headbutt your way through a zombie hoard or just swing an electric guitar or a battle axe at them.
The boss fights are fucking amazing.
(I must clarify) actually fighting the bosses is a pain in the ass. but the pre and post boss fight cut scenes are amazing. These random psycho fights are a million times deeper than the main bad-guys in almost every other game. the cut scenes show how these people who were most likely unstable before the zombie outbreak completely snap and want to kill you for completely believable reasons. very UNLIKE most other games where the bad guy wants to kill you because the story needs an antagonist.
the story is also a big improvement over the first one. and there's a couple scenes in the middle that make the game feel a lot more like Dead Rising 2 than Dead Rising: Also
2) Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
I wish the platforming was a more open and there shouldn't have been any health regeneration upgrades (I didn't buy any until after I beat the game and I thought the combat was awesome)
other than those 2 complaints the game was perfect.
Perfect....
PERFECT!!!!!
It ripped off something that still had limbs to rip off and it handled the rip-off in an original creative way.
two words that I was afraid no longer existed.
Enslaved had the best voice acting, motion capture and graphics I've ever seen and writing that was fucking stellar.
there's not a lot more I can say about it besides that you should all go and buy this game.
Ninja Theory deserves your money for this unbelievable game
1) Mass Effect 2
it's hard not to put this game at the top of the list.
it was a necessary sequel to the best game that came out in 2007
and it fixed all the stupid shit that was wrong with Mass Effect
No more dumb level up system
No more annoying inventory system
No more difficulty breaking sniper rifle
All your team mates have different skills so taking them with you is a more tactical choice
No more retarded car physics
but the cover based shooting is still tedious
but that's not what we're here for.
This is a Bioware game mother fucker. Let's get our conversational dialogue on!!
the moral choices actually affect the game and your choices transfer over from ME 1 to ME 2 and ME 3.
So I guess we'll just have to wait until next year to see if the Mass Effect trilogy is the best thing ever, or not.
Well, if it isn't that time of year again for me to be brought to tears by the boring predictable staff picks for top 5 games.
all except for Susan Arendt's picks
never let crappy rip-offs and sequels stifle your spirit Susan
the thing I noticed about all but one of the staff's picks were that they all had at least sequels, rip-offs, or DLC expansions on them
but after a little bit of research I discovered to my dismay that there were only 2 games this year that can't be described as either rip-off or sequel that came out on my beloved Xbox 360
so with that in mind here's a pathetic list of my favorite games that came out this year
Special Mention
this section is reserved for a few games that I thought were fun but are sadly disqualified for not having been released this year
1) Rock Band 3
despite the 10/26/10 release date the only part of the game I actually liked was the part copied directly from Rock Band 2 which was copied from Rock Band which came out in 2007.
The rest of Rock Band 3 seems to be targeted at people willing to buy expensive Rock Band 3 instrument peripherals.
If I had any interest in playing a real guitar I'd play a real fucking guitar.
I won't spend roughly the same amount of money on a game that's going to make me play a real guitar.
unfortunately Rock Band 3's set list is the best I've ever seen in a music game.
so very fun but it should have just been DLC for rock band 2
2) Fallout: New Vegas
This short, pathetically linear EXPANSION PACK to Fallout 3 was DLC that came on a disk and made me start a new character.
Fallout 3 was one of my favorite games of 2008, and this expansion pack was no different.
except it's frustratingly linear.
You start a game. You go north...and get eaten by flies. You go west...invisible walls. You go east...visible walls.
in Fallout 3 you leave the vault and the world was your oyster.
In New Vegas the one narrow road south is your oyster.
The entire time I was playing all I wanted to do was hop the wasteland express back to DC and explore.
3)Halo: Reach
It's just Halo 1 built on the Halo 3 engine.
Now unlike Halo 1, 2, 3, and ODST it was actually good.
I've never been so happy to see 1 dimensional characters because they had 100 times the personality of the entire cast of the first 4 games.
and the single player campaign was more involved than "Hide from snipers for 9 or 10 hours."
but it doesn't change the fact that you played this game in 2001
now without further adieu
Mikeyfell's top 5 games of 2010
5)Bayonetta
A Devil May Cry rip-off... but there's more to it than that.
Bayonetta is one of the only games this year that let you have hacky-slashy-shooty-jumpy fun while you were playing.
I challenge you to name another game where you can shoot an angel's face off with your boot-mounted rocket launcher. or make your pubic hair eat a giant monster with a baby head.
I'd also challenge you to name something that sounds more fun.
[sub]It also has nothing to do with the fact that Bayonetta is sexy as hell[/sub]
Fun gameplay alone doesn't always catch my attention, but Bayonetta was such jaw-dropping fun that I couldn't ignore it.
4) Blade Kitten
Now I grew up with a PS2 instead of one of the old Nintendo systems so I never got much exposure to 2D side-scrolling platformers. I grew up on the 3D platformers like Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank, and Blade Kitten feels like those games.
While I was playing Blade Kitten I had the reoccurring thought: "This is how Ratchet and Clank would play if it was 2D."
I was blown away by the sheer volume of the 2D maps. it was amazing how many hidden collectibles were in nooks and crannies that I missed the first time around.
You could easily spend hours exploring this 2D environment and not find everything.
It would be remiss of me not to mention that this is basses on a web comic, but it's never been a videogame before so it gets points for that.
the writing grated against my ears a little but I'm pretty sure it was supposed to
"Win-Get!" ...ARGGGG SHUT UP
the story seemed to be set up for a sequel or something and if Krome Studios proves that they can handle a sequel I'd love to see Blade Kitten evolve into 3D and bring back the popularity of 3D platformers...and I would also like solid gold toilet and a harem.
3)Dead Rising 2
Dead Rising 2 is a sequel, in case it wasn't obvious from the "2" at the end, so why didn't I put it in the "special mention" section?
Well the answer to that is simple: Dead Rising 2 fixed shit that was wrong with Dead Rising 1.
DR 1 was almost unplayable because you couldn't read a fucking word of text on the screen. and an ass load of time sensitive missions all happened way to close together. and the AI for everyone you're supposed to escort was somewhere in between Hurr and Durr. and there was that one weapon that hardly ever broke and totally flattened the fuck out of the difficulty curve.
So even with all that stuff fixed how did a time management simulator exclusively featuring escort missions, fetch quests and weapon degradation manage to be so fucking fun?
The answer to that is simple to: There are FUCKING ZOMBIES IN IT!!
And killing them is FUN!!!
it's not a bad first person shooter (Left 4 Dead 2)
or even a good first person shooter (Left 4 Dead)
or a bad third person shooter (Resident Evil 5)
or even a fucking awesome third person shooter (Resident Evil 4)
there are real zombies in this game, not "the infected" or the "eastern Europeans" or "Africans"
they don't run, they can't use weapons they just kind of stumble around and eat. you could kill 1000 of them with your bare hands and they're still a problem. You can mow down 72000 of them in an SUV and they're still everywhere. don't even think about killing them all it's just your job to find the craziest most off the fucking wall way to get from point A to point B
do you want to ware a lawnmower hat and headbutt your way through a zombie hoard or just swing an electric guitar or a battle axe at them.
The boss fights are fucking amazing.
(I must clarify) actually fighting the bosses is a pain in the ass. but the pre and post boss fight cut scenes are amazing. These random psycho fights are a million times deeper than the main bad-guys in almost every other game. the cut scenes show how these people who were most likely unstable before the zombie outbreak completely snap and want to kill you for completely believable reasons. very UNLIKE most other games where the bad guy wants to kill you because the story needs an antagonist.
the story is also a big improvement over the first one. and there's a couple scenes in the middle that make the game feel a lot more like Dead Rising 2 than Dead Rising: Also
2) Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
I wish the platforming was a more open and there shouldn't have been any health regeneration upgrades (I didn't buy any until after I beat the game and I thought the combat was awesome)
other than those 2 complaints the game was perfect.
Perfect....
PERFECT!!!!!
It ripped off something that still had limbs to rip off and it handled the rip-off in an original creative way.
two words that I was afraid no longer existed.
Enslaved had the best voice acting, motion capture and graphics I've ever seen and writing that was fucking stellar.
there's not a lot more I can say about it besides that you should all go and buy this game.
Ninja Theory deserves your money for this unbelievable game
1) Mass Effect 2
it's hard not to put this game at the top of the list.
it was a necessary sequel to the best game that came out in 2007
and it fixed all the stupid shit that was wrong with Mass Effect
No more dumb level up system
No more annoying inventory system
No more difficulty breaking sniper rifle
All your team mates have different skills so taking them with you is a more tactical choice
No more retarded car physics
but the cover based shooting is still tedious
but that's not what we're here for.
This is a Bioware game mother fucker. Let's get our conversational dialogue on!!
the moral choices actually affect the game and your choices transfer over from ME 1 to ME 2 and ME 3.
So I guess we'll just have to wait until next year to see if the Mass Effect trilogy is the best thing ever, or not.