EoFF's Top Games of the Generation: Revelations

[Ayen]

It's starting to look like the modern age bit wars up in here.

[Slothy]

There's absolutely no way you can argue that Mirror's Edge is a bad looking game on a technical level unless you're prepared to argue that more recent games like every Mass Effect and Gears of War title look like crap too. They all use the exact same engine.

Along with all of the Arkham games, Dishonored, and pretty much every other game released this generation.

And put in a disc? I play this on PC son. The way it's meant to be done.

[Hollycat]

There's absolutely no way you can argue that Mirror's Edge is a bad looking game on a technical level unless you're prepared to argue that more recent games like every Mass Effect and Gears of War title look like crap too. They all use the exact same engine.

Along with all of the Arkham games, Dishonored, and pretty much every other game released this generation.

And put in a disc? I play this on PC son. The way it's meant to be done.

Was just assuming on the disk, I have it digital as well.


And no that arguement doesn't need to be made. ME2, the arkham games etc. still look great. Be they in the same engine or no, they look fantastic when compared to Mirrors edge. Even the original mass effect looks better, especially when you take into account that ME is a much larger game with more varied environments.
Games made in the same engine don't look the same. All I know is, I've got Freelance and Mirrors edge pulled up side by side on my monitors, and Freelancer looks almost as good, and it is a much larger game that came out way back in 2003.

Final word: It looks like we are all going to just have to agree to disagree.
As for me, I like Mirrors edge, but it isn't even in my top 50.

[Del Murder]

Mirror's Edge is a first person game? I usually hate first person view. A game has to be pretty good for me to play it in first person view. Like Portal!

[Shauna]

Assassin's Creed 2
2009 – PC, PS3, Xbox 360
7 Nominations

In order to understand why AC2 is good, we need to know some things about the original. Simply put, Assassin's Creed was terrible. It had some cool ideas, but the execution left a lot to be desired. The setting was a bit bland, interactivity was low, methods of using stealth weren't all that varied, combat was a bit clumsy, and missions were repetitive. The best part about Assassin’s Creed was charging through crowds of peasants on your horse, but that just isn’t enough to keep anyone’s interest. I played through about half of it when I first bought it, but couldn't find the desire to finish it.

So when I heard AC2 was supposedly amazing, I was a bit hesitant to buy it, waiting until it was about $20 a year after its release. But before playing it I decided to finish the first one. It was possibly the most boring grind I've put up with in a game in a long time, and it left me questioning whether I even wanted to play AC2. But since I'd already bought it I didn't see why I shouldn't give it a chance.

And I'm glad I did because AC2 is a testament to what happens when you take a set of good ideas and spend two years refining them. Of course, throwing 400 people at the problem doesn't hurt either.

The boring little missions you had to do to gain information on the targets in the first game are gone, and the assassination and other missions became a lot more varied. The free running felt well refined. Combat, while somewhat simpler, was less of a pain to deal with and had a wider variety of weapons to play with. Add to it that Renaissance Italy was a far more interesting and better realized setting, and Ezio was a much more likeable character than Altair. AC2 is a game that was improved in every measurable way over its predecessor, and it took a game that was mediocre at best and made it amazing. That simply does not happen very often in gaming. And that is why AC2 deserves to be on this list.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent (3)
Persona 3 Portable (2)
Ni No Kuni (2)
Scribblenauts (1)
Kameo: Elements of Power (1)
Castle Crashers (1)
Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (1)
Call of Duty: World at War (1)
Etrian Odyssey (1)
HAWX (1)

Also RE: HD remakes and such, I didn't make a big deal that they could be nominated because I wanted to see games that were produced for this generation be high on the list, instead of games from 15 years ago. Perhaps I misled you all, but that's fine with me. x3

[Ayen]

Personally, I find graphics to be irrelevant to whether a game is good or not. There are games now that are horribly dated by today's standards that are still playable because the gameplay is good and/or it had a great story to it. Some times it doesn't even need a story, just good gameplay.

Mirror's Edge is a first person game? I usually hate first person view. A game has to be pretty good for me to play it in first person view. Like Portal!

I'm the same. I generally hate anything that's first person view but made exceptions for games like Doom, Metroid Prime and F.E.A.R. I suppose Fallout 3 and Skyrim count even though you can switch to third-person view on those.

And Assassin's Creed II! Cool. I'll be playing that in two weeks.

[Spuuky]

Is Rocket Slime really "this generation"? Doesn't feel like it, but I can't be bothered to go look. It's a pretty great little game, though.

Etrian Odyssey is not the best Etrian Odyssey, so I don't feel too sad about it only getting 1 vote (which wasn't mine, anyway).

[Shauna]

It was on the DS which I counted as "last generation", same as the PSP.

[Dr Unne]

The only reason I could suggest not playing Mirror's Edge is if you get motion sickness from first person games, like some people I know do. That game is a vertigo simulator. Even I had to put it down a few times.

I'm lucky to grow up with Atari/NES games. Any game with SNES-level graphics or better still blows my mind. Mirror's Edge looked amazing to me. Even if you ignore the level of detail, they did some great things with level design and color. The style of the cutscenes was also quite good.

[Loony BoB]

I've actually got AC & ACII on my Christmas Wish List to Danielle. £3.99 each at GAME at the moment, pre-owned. Bargain, I hope!

[Shauna]

AssCreed is a bit of a disappointing game, but the second one improves upon pretty much everything.

[Hollycat]

AssCreed is a bit of a disappointing game, but the second one improves upon pretty much everything.

It really does. I can't decide whether I like 2 or 4 better, and considering I'm still basking in the glow of 4, that probably means 2 is the better one.

[Loony BoB]

I just like playing things in order. Hopefully I don't have the same problem I had with Suikoden where I could never get around to finishing the (supposedly not as great) first game and therefore never start the (supposedly much better) second one... I own them both. xD

[Del Murder]

AC2 was great. A no brainer to be on this list. Some of the later entries polished up the gameplay and expanded it to some interesting levels, but nothing beats AC2's story, setting, and main character. I could run around through Florence stabbing people all day. In fact, I visited Florence for real last year and it was quite awesome to see all the areas Ezio explored in real life. Not much has changed!

[Shauna]

I know how that goes. The actual assassination missions of AssCreed were fine, but getting to them was a complete bore. For a bit of context before the assassinations you have to gather pieces of information about your target - which you gather in one of three(?) ways. They're not very exciting or entertaining, and you have to do it for every assassination. It gets old fast.

There's enough good in it to get you through the game, I found, but it does cut it really fine.

Play it if you must to get to AC2.