Now that the Golden Joystick awards are over, with no big surprises, I have to ask which games would you have stand out as exceptional from the last year.
You see, the GJ awards are fun, but they do stick to the big-name players, and a lot of great games never even stand a chance of even participating.
So, do tell: which great, non-big-name, non-multimillion dollar sales games will you honor?
I'll have to start with a game I recently finished, "Alice: Madness Returns". I was a big fan of the original all those years ago (10? 11?) and I was cautiously optimistic for the sequel, and it didn't disappoint by any measure. In fact, it started off surprising me by giving me the original game in the disc, which I gleefully played start-to-finish before embarking on the sequel. That out of the way, the sequel gave me a truly brilliant gaming experience, with a game that is not only great fun to play, but tells an original, gripping, adult story with beautiful 2D cinematics and a wonderful voice work. Not only that, but the game is LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG without having to resort to cheap padding or grinding. A beautiful game that deserves to be played, and the inclusion of the first game should be a deal maker.
Next, I'll go with a game I never would've considered by myself, without outside aid. By coincidence, on the day I bought "Alice: Madness Returns", I was looking for another game to play. I was curious about "Shadows of the Damned", but the more the guy at GAME tried to convince me to buy it, the more I resisted. It had all the ingredients I avoid. Crude humor. A Japanese developer. And all the mentions the guy kept making to "Bayonetta" and "Resident Evil", games I never cared about. But I folded, and ended up buying it. And I'm glad I did! The game is a BLAST! The action is fun, the unique vision of Hell is more than interesting, and the humor is... well, let's just say it seems like they anticipated why "Duke Nukem Forever" would fail, and decided to show how it's done. I've since thanked the store dude for his insistence, because if not for it, I would've missed this brilliant game. And since then, I made it a point to hunt down and play other Suda 51 games, starting with "No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise".
This last one is probably the more surprising of the three. A movie licensed game. And a derivative one at that. But, if you're gonna steal, steal from the best, and "Captain America: Super Soldier" did just that, by stealing freely from "Batman: Arkham Asylum". You can tell with every step you take in the game, but the truth is, you're having so much fun, especially during combat, that you just won't care. It won't (and didn't) win any awards, but it did surprise me by being not just movie-license good, but actual GOOD.
What are your choices?
You see, the GJ awards are fun, but they do stick to the big-name players, and a lot of great games never even stand a chance of even participating.
So, do tell: which great, non-big-name, non-multimillion dollar sales games will you honor?
I'll have to start with a game I recently finished, "Alice: Madness Returns". I was a big fan of the original all those years ago (10? 11?) and I was cautiously optimistic for the sequel, and it didn't disappoint by any measure. In fact, it started off surprising me by giving me the original game in the disc, which I gleefully played start-to-finish before embarking on the sequel. That out of the way, the sequel gave me a truly brilliant gaming experience, with a game that is not only great fun to play, but tells an original, gripping, adult story with beautiful 2D cinematics and a wonderful voice work. Not only that, but the game is LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG without having to resort to cheap padding or grinding. A beautiful game that deserves to be played, and the inclusion of the first game should be a deal maker.
Next, I'll go with a game I never would've considered by myself, without outside aid. By coincidence, on the day I bought "Alice: Madness Returns", I was looking for another game to play. I was curious about "Shadows of the Damned", but the more the guy at GAME tried to convince me to buy it, the more I resisted. It had all the ingredients I avoid. Crude humor. A Japanese developer. And all the mentions the guy kept making to "Bayonetta" and "Resident Evil", games I never cared about. But I folded, and ended up buying it. And I'm glad I did! The game is a BLAST! The action is fun, the unique vision of Hell is more than interesting, and the humor is... well, let's just say it seems like they anticipated why "Duke Nukem Forever" would fail, and decided to show how it's done. I've since thanked the store dude for his insistence, because if not for it, I would've missed this brilliant game. And since then, I made it a point to hunt down and play other Suda 51 games, starting with "No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise".
This last one is probably the more surprising of the three. A movie licensed game. And a derivative one at that. But, if you're gonna steal, steal from the best, and "Captain America: Super Soldier" did just that, by stealing freely from "Batman: Arkham Asylum". You can tell with every step you take in the game, but the truth is, you're having so much fun, especially during combat, that you just won't care. It won't (and didn't) win any awards, but it did surprise me by being not just movie-license good, but actual GOOD.
What are your choices?
