Best games of 2010

[ljkkjlcm9]

My favorite game this year was Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Monster Hunter Tri at a close 2nd.

Other games that I bought this year: (No particular order)
God of War 3
Final Fantasy 13
Sin and Punishment
Mario Galaxy 2
Donkey Kong Country Returns
White Knight Chronicles
No More Heroes 2
Golden Sun Dark Dawn
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Arc Rise Fantasia
3D Dot Game Heroes
Metroid Other M
Sands of Destruction

Other Games of note that I have not opened but own
Bayonetta
Resonance of Fate

Definitely a good year of games, and I know some big titles I don't have, but don't want. Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2, and Fallout New Vegas come to mind.

I guess Starcraft 2 wasn't as significant as I thought it would be for people.

THE JACKEL

[kotora]

oh yeah forgot about SC2

despite the ty multiplayer system it's still a pretty solid game. I liked the units from the original better though. Some of their replacements were pretty untactical for my style of playing.

[Shiny]

Red Dead Redemption

This is the best game of 2010 imf.

In my fact.

Every other company should be learning how to write a story like this because they're not getting it. Mass Effect 2, Heavy Rain, and Dead Rising 2 were pretty cool too.

[Pete for President]

Red Dead Redemption

This is the best game of 2010 imf.

In my fact.

Every other company should be learning how to write a story like this because they're not getting it.

However, Rockstar could learn a thing or two about how to make a game challenging gameplay wise. Imo, this game is overrated.

[JKTrix]

I don't think I can spend the time to explain these or rank them in any order, so I'll just pour it out.

Mario Galaxy, Monster Hunter Tri, Mass Effect, DQ9, SMT Strange Journey, 9 Hours 9 Doors 9 Persons, Infinite Space, Vanquish, Bayonetta, Picross 3D, Resonance of Fate.

Hon. Mentions: Yakuza 3, Halo, Super SF4.

As much as I say I don't like JRPGs these days, there are 4 on that list. So maybe they're special.

The only 2 games that I really want to play but haven't yet are RDR and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit.

[Madame Adequate]

Herp derp I didn't realize ME2 was even this year. Yeah that goes on the list blatantly.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Red Dead Redemption: Is the game of the year beyond a doubt nuff said!

Final Fantasy XIII: Liked it starting off but all in all was kind of disappointed. I'm save sits at the end of Chapter 12 & I've very little desire to finish it which is a crying shame because I love FF games normally!

Army Of Two: The 40th Day: Great 3rd person shooter because it was fun to play especially when you play through the campaign with someone else!

Fifa 11: I love the Fifa series & to be honest I wasn't expecting much difference between 10 & 11 but couldn't of been more wrong!

WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011: This game is great for one reason, it is FUN! So many games now try really hard to give the player intense gaming experiences & Hollywood Blockbuster rivaling visuals but this game just focuses on being fun! One of the reasons I still game at this age is because it's a fun form of escapism!

[Freya]

ME2.

[Iceglow]

This thread starts with the PS3 guys here giving wonderful mentions to ps3 titles however they mistakenly believe that they're quoting the only best games when they really only mention the ps3 only titles.

My list would say the following titles are held in contention in randomized order:

Halo Reach (I'm going to upset a fair few of my halo brethren here, I like the campaign storyline. Don't get me wrong it got some points where it didn't quite get up to the intensity of previous games where it really should have. But it's got massive scope and the sheer size of the battlefields you participate in is mind blowing even compared to 3. AI as well, dear god the elites in solo legendary put up a fight)

Red Dead Redemption (What can I say? Game of the year was well deserved. I liked how GTAIV played, but I found it hard to care for the characters at all, but I found it impossible not to care for John Marston from the opening few minutes he was introduced to me. I cared about the outcome of his mission and the chances of him getting his family back and thus was hooked on the game. Not to mention, if I'm angry nothing is more relaxing then spending my days hunting in game)

Fallout New Vegas (not picked it up yet due to unfinished business in 3 but I know how damn good the game is)

Final Fantasy XIII (I'm going to say I have thoroughly enjoyed this and unlike some people I don't see it as the worst entry to the series so far either)

Mass Effect 2 (I loved every second of the game where I wasn't scanning planets, unfortunately that was a huge chunk of my game play time.)

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood (how can you not love the assassins creed series?)

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (imho better than GT5 which disappointed me severely)

Starcraft 2 (I haven't played multiplayer, haven't finished the single player even because I got too bogged down and aside from Blizzard not letting me play my game on my starcraft account offline I have been very happy with this game, I wasn't disappointed in this considering 10 years wait and hype should have killed the game much like GT5 suffered)

Call of Duty Black Ops (I was very disappointed with the game, lets face it Treyarch always have potential to do better than IW but they always manage to screw it up and BO was no exception)

Gran Turismo 5 (As previously stated and much like COD Black Ops, this game disappointed me, no amount of work put in to the game could have made it live up to the hype of 5 years delays but smurf it I expected better than GT4 level graphics for over 80% of the cars in game. Game play wise, GT5 did deliver as the best driving simulation however I feel as a racing game the fun I experienced with NFS or Forza wasn't there this time)

Dwarf Fortress 2010 (I suck at raw DF, lets face it I have a problem reading the ASCII interface. However, give me a tileset and load up the fort in stonesense occassionally and I've learnt to work wonders in this game I've certainly come a long way from my first tenative steps in the control, building and expansion of a fortress from the early days of EOFF DF I've still got marathons to go before I understand everything the game is exceptionally good and independent which means it's never really gonna get the credit it deserves but I will mention it)

Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver (Oh yes, I went there and did it I named Pokemon as a contender for my game of the year! Reason being, aside from DQIX which is forever ruined for me because Jedward were who Nintendo got to advertise it on TV ick! and Golden Sun DS which has only just come out and I've not been able to pick up yet theres not been many notable DS releases this year. Pokemon has never failed to do what it says on the tin and Gold/Silver were my favourite pokemon games released of all time. Therefore their DS updates come in highly reccomended.)

Castlevania Lords of Shadow (Even OPM admitted it in the review of this game but the game is actually significantly better than God of War 3, GoW3 was a massive game and deserves it's high rating and yet here was new addition to a classic series far longer running what done the same but better. I doubt theres much more to say than this, if you like God of War on the ps2 but brought a 360, get this game you'll not be disappointed with it)

Bayonetta (Well it was never taking itself seriously but what it did do seriously was make the latest entries to the DMC series feel crap. The first DMC and even the second DMC were awesome, 4 lacked any of the awesomeness of the start, Bayonetta gave me same style gameplay but with the added values of tongue in cheek humour and awesomeness. I wish I had bothered to pick this game up sooner for my home rather than play it at work or at friends houses. Will be getting it soon no doubt)

Dead Rising 2 (hahaha ok, ok I know I haven't even fired the first one up at home guys, yes it's true but I have played the Dead Rising games. First game was amazingly epic even if it did suffer a relatively broken save feature, note I don't use broken lightly here, my mate who has loaned me his copy of DR1 indefinitely has done so because he actually couldn't stand the save feature, it made the game unplayable in his opinion. Dead Rising 2 however lacking the camera I can't say was as diverse as DR1 but still it's Zombies, you tape different items together and end up with chainsaws on a canoe paddle...it's the game version of Zombieland or Zombieland is what would exist if DR was made in to a film...sweet jesus smurf yes!)

Dance Central (By far the best of the Kinect launch titles, and still the best game out now on Kinect. Dance Central is perhaps the single most advanced dancing game in history and whats more it teaches people who can't dance to dance so long as they can move to a beat. If we were to mention the best motion control game of the year, I would hapily place my vote here, theres nothing on the wii (whose best game was Just Dance 2) or on PSMove that beats it hands down)

DJ Hero 2 (Perhaps one of the better music games of the year though the next game on my list kinda steals the show I feel this is an honourable mention here. DJ Hero wasn't as good as it could've been it relied too much on constantly scratching/mixing/crossfading to get points. DJ Hero 2 has improved massively on this and is now much more fun to play for it, sure you gotta do all the rest but the game has another way of ranking your performance which is how much the crowd in game enjoy it and if you're over the top on the crossfade sections or overcooking it slightly with the scratches and volume adjustments then the fans don't like it so much and you get less points. It's complicated to do right but it's such a vast improvement on the first DJ Hero that I feel it needs a mention here, especially since you can actually learn how to operate a real vinyl deck here without the hundreds being spent on wrecking LS or SS vinyl (12" single or 7" Single to clarify) which is not a bad thing)

Rock Band 3 (OK everyone bitches about the music games "Oh they're e go learn to play a proper instrument" ect ect ect however Rock Band finally addresses this issue with a massive smurf you to those people, Rock Band 3 with Pro instruments, expensive as hell but seriously, learn to play a song on a real 6 string and then once you can do it in game take the 6 string jack it in to the supplied amp and play for real without the game. Argue with me now that music games are not trying to teach or encourage people to play real instruments or take an interest in music really? DJ Hero 2 and Rock Band 3 prove otherwise imho)

I probably have more honourable mentions/contenders based on different categories but well I can't be bothered to list them right now if theres any major ones I think of they can have their own little post.

[Roto13]

This thread starts with the PS3 guys here giving wonderful mentions to ps3 titles however they mistakenly believe that they're quoting the only best games when they really only mention the ps3 only titles.

I usually don't tell people when I do this, but you are finally going on my ignore list right smurfing now.

[Flying Arrow]

I don't think I've had too much experience with 2010 games in general. I only got my PS3 in February, so I've been playing catch-up most of the year. At this point I'm caught up more or less on everything that's interested me, so I'm looking forward to having a more "relevant" 2011.

Anyway, 2010.

Overall, a bit disappointing. Bunch of the heavy hitters really didn't hit hard enough for me:

Final Fantasy XIII: Huge disappointment! It's no coincidence that I got my PS3 a month or so before its release (my console purchases are usually centered on FF in some way) so to say I was looking forward to it is an understatement. Nevertheless, it might be the worst game I've played to completion in years. I've played bad games that were broken or overly-buggy in some way. FFXIII isn't this kind of bad - technically it's fine. The game's major sin is being boring, uninspired, badly written, and more or less content-free. It had a few moments, but in hindsight they were only good because it originally seemed like the game would go somewhere with them.

Super Street Fighter IV: Best game of the year for me, although it's basically just a re-jigged expansion on last year's game. But I'm still logging plenty of hours into it and having a blast with my friends is Vs. mode (the only way to play). Unfortunately the buttons on my stick are about to give, so I may have to set it aside for a while. No matter though, since the PSN community seems to have degenerated into an endless string of Ryus, Kens, and Akumas these days. Shame.

Bayonetta: A surprisingly excellent game! I had no idea what to expect and was really intrigued by the demo. I ended up buying it used and put a good deal of time into it. As a whole, the game frustrates me (I'm a perfectionist who isn't happy without a Pure Platinum in each encounter) but I can't say it's not a blast. I'll probably pick it up again to see if I can get through Infinite Climax mode. No witch time - should be interesting. The only thing I hate about the game is the completely pointless cutscenes and very sudden QTEs that MAKE ME LOSE MY NO-DEATH RUN THROUGH REALLY TOUGH STAGES.

Heavy Rain: An interesting concept, but I think it could have been handled a little bit better. Some people say that the identity of the killer should change depending on how you play, but I don't think that necessarily needs to be the case. My problem with the game was that it was outright boring in parts. I get realism, but opening a car door, putting on a seat-belt and turning the ignition aren't interesting. It's neat at first, but a few hours in I started to roll my eyes. On the other hand, when a scene climaxes the game can be really thrilling. It just doesn't keep that momentum up throughout, and the times it tries to come off as forced and really, really stupid (almost any scene with Madison, who really only exists because the gaming demographic is made up of manchildren). For such a story-driven game, you'd think they'd have put more effort into constructing a proper story.

God of War III: Disappointing. Not bad, but not particularly good either. It's basically just God of War with shinier graphics. The combat is absolutely untouched and the level design seems less interesting than last games (or maybe that's only because they've gone to the well one too many times). It's still a good time though because it's God of War, and God of War is always a good time. Still, it could have been better and it just feels clunky and old in 2010. The complete opposite of the wonderfully fluid Bayonetta.

Being a PS3 owner, I also didn't get a chance to play that other big game that everyone is raving about: Mass Effect 2. Luckily it comes out for PS3 in about a month in a package that is for all intents and purposes a GOTY. I didn't get to play Mario Galaxy 2 either since I don't own a Wii. I'm also not really into open world action games, RTSs or FPSs, so no RDR, Starcraft, COD or Halo here either.

Overall, 2010 was a little underwhelming. Here's hoping 2011 will be stronger with Deus Ex 3, Skyrim, Arkham City, Journey, and The Last Guardian. Definitely more my style!

[kotora]

Super Street Fighter IV: Best game of the year for me, although it's basically just a re-jigged expansion on last year's game. But I'm still logging plenty of hours into it and having a blast with my friends is Vs. mode (the only way to play). Unfortunately the buttons on my stick are about to give, so I may have to set it aside for a while. No matter though, since the PSN community seems to have degenerated into an endless string of Ryus, Kens, and Akumas these days. Shame.

it's not like that wasn't the case with SF4 already. At least on xbox live that's all I fought against.

[Flying Arrow]

Actually, for a long time after I got the game there was a nice balance of different fighters. Lotta Dudley, Adon, Guy, Ibuki, Juri, Sakura, Cammy, Bison, etc. There were days when I wouldn't even see a single shoto. Not sure why, but the PSN community seems a lot deader recently when it comes to SSF4. Maybe it's just bad timing on my part. Who knows.

[Rase]

This thread starts with the PS3 guys here giving wonderful mentions to ps3 titles however they mistakenly believe that they're quoting the only best games when they really only mention the ps3 only titles.

I wasn't aware that Dragon Quest IX, Rune Factory 3, No More Heroes 2, Halo Reach, Alan Wake, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Professor Layton, and Mass Effect 2 were PS3 only. What have I been playing them on then I wonder?

[Slothy]

This thread starts with the PS3 guys here giving wonderful mentions to ps3 titles however they mistakenly believe that they're quoting the only best games when they really only mention the ps3 only titles.

I wasn't aware that Dragon Quest IX, Rune Factory 3, No More Heroes 2, Halo Reach, Alan Wake, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Professor Layton, and Mass Effect 2 were PS3 only. What have I been playing them on then I wonder?

Didn't you know, Iceglow only sees PS3 fanboys everywhere he goes.

To stay on topic though, my favourite games of the year would have to be Heavy Rain and 3D Dot Game Heroes. I haven't played a lot of Gran Turismo 5 (getting it on Sunday), but I'd have to say it's pretty much everything I'd hoped for so I'll include it as well.

I'd probably have included Starcraft 2 but the longer I played it and followed it the less pleased I was with some of the decisions made by Blizzard regarding the management of it's online community and custom maps. Great game, but they've got the stink of Bobby Kotic rubbing off on them and I don't care for it too much. I want to like it but I have a hard time praising a game when I don't feel a company is putting it's fans first. So yeah, I'll stick with the three titles above, and only partly because it will annoy Iceglow. There are still a handful of games from this year that I haven't played but would like to though. But even if it turns out I really liked them it's been a slow year for great games if you ask me.

I'll also mention some great games that weren't of the video variety though. Puzzle Strike and Flash Duel, both made by David Sirlin are easily two of the best games I've played all year. Probably topping my choices above for the most part to be honest.