I thought some of use might want to share our top games of the year. Given that we are not always on the cutting edge of gaming releases, the game doesn't need to have been released in '09, just played and enjoyed in '09.
Here are my personal top NINE of '09
9. Resident Evil 5- Playing this game co-op online with Derrick then again couch co-op with another friend was a great time. Gameplay flaws aside it was a memorable experience. For that alone, it makes the short list.
8. Halo 3: ODST- Firefight didn't quite have the legs that I hoped it would, but that has more to do with the savage 4+ hour matched that resulted from that mode. Too much time commitment for busy adults. Still the campaign co-op, atmosphere, and music made this Halo game a welcome departure from the formula. Its no secret that I've long been a fan of ODSTs, so playing in their shoes was a treat for me. Having most of the male Firefly cast in there didn't hurt.
7. Battlefield 1943 (and Battlefield Bad Company to a lesser degree)- This game along with Battlefield Bad Co. made me a dedicated fan of DICE studios multiplayer experience. After experiencing the train-wreck of MW2, I long for Battlefield: Bad Co. 2. See, these games are actually fun in competitive multiplayer. 6. Halo Wars- I am really upset that the multiplayer died so quickly with this game. I've played it off and on all year. I played it to milk as many achievements as I could on solo. I played it on the tiny 7" screen I use to take to work. Hell, I'd play it right now if womeone asked. It was the best (and bestselling) RTS on a console ever. Halo Wars provides some complexity and rewarding micromanagment without being too cumbersome. It ranks with LotR: Battle for Middle Earth 2 as one of my favorite console RTS games. Plus the title is WAY shorter.
5. Borderlands- I'm still not done with this game. This is truly the Diablo example of a joyous grind. The story is minimal; the quests make you feel like a glorified errand boy but, damn, the loot, gameplay and presentation set some deep hooks. With tons of DLC in the pipeline, more co-op needs to happen.
4. Fallout 3- This is an 08 game, but I sank hours and hours and hours into Fallout 3. I've still got content left to cover including the Point Look-Out and Mothership Zeta DLC I downloaded this week. Fallout 3 got in my brain like Oblivion never could. I spent 80 hours roaming Oblivion's landscape but never felt like I accomplished anything. Fallout 3 had a story that I liked in an environment that I wanted to explore. Maybe it didn't have the rich sidequests that Oblivion managed, but I always felt a sense of power and progression that was lacking in my time with the Elder Scrolls. I think H&Sers will agree that this game was/is phenominal.
3. Batman: Arkham Asylum- In this game, YOU ARE BATMAN. I don't think I need to say more.
2. Dragon Age- This game did the impossible: it generated two new lengthy discussions on the mortibund H&S Forum. A miracle. This games praises have been sung enough.
*1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves- I say again Indiana Jones + Tomb Raider + the personality of Mal Reynolds from Firefly = The greatest serial action game ever. Plus the Multiplayer is pretty alright as well. A far less busted 3rd person shooter than Gears of War.*
Biggest Disappointments:
- Modern Warfare 2 had some real novel story moments than made you feel inside a big dumb action movie. Then I played Uncharted 2 which had some real thrills as if you were in a smart, well-acted action serial with characters you love. That seriously overshadowed the adrenaline moments in MW2. The multiplayer could best be described as a glitchy, unbalanced clusterfuck with underpinnings of greatness. The only mode that remains untarnished is the 2 player co-op Spec Ops mode, which is not free from flaws. In Veteran difficulty, it continues the Call of Duty tradition of being unfairly, ball-punchingly difficult.
- Even after some game patches well into '09 Gear of War 2's possibly great multiplayer continued to be a similar glitchy, unbalanced clusterfuck. Big companies with big egos need to stop releasing broken multiplayer games. Or at least really fix them soon after release.
Allow me some honorable mentions:
- Left 4 Dead 1 & 2: I played more L4D1 this year than last and I suspect I will play more L4D2 next year than I have in '09. These games continue to be cool, laugh til it hurts multiplayer experiences. I hope we can get some vs. matches going in the New Year.
- Shadow Complex- This game presents old game tropes in a new way. Metroid and Castlevania have never looked so good. And the game is cheap and downloadable. My only complaints is the games association with Sci-Fi writer Orson Scott Card. While I don't always hate Card's work, the plot is taken from a book where ultra-leftists takeover the American government using a private advanced military. Leftists? Really? They can't agree on where to eat lunch. Plus Card is savagely anti-gay. Thankfully, the game leaves all the politics behind and delivers a really cool pseudo-2D experience.
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2- The first game was a mostly nonsensical romp through the Marvel universe with paper thin plot threads running the player from famous comic location to location. MUA2 was a much tighter, more familiar story. The RPG elements were stripped down a bit as were the crazy character appearances and locales. I thought those choices were for the better, some critics disagreed. Still as a fan of Marvel's Civil War story, the game scratched most of those itches. I could have written a better ending in my sleep however.
- Valkyria Chronicles & Operation Darkness- Both are relatively plodding, turn based strategy RPG hybrids. Valkria (only on PS3) is a stunning, stunning well crafted game with a relatively sappy, dull alternate WWI-WWII world. Operation Darkness is a poorly made, ugly, clunky game with an totally awesome alternate WWII world where the allies have Mages and Werewolves and the Nazi's have Zombies and Vampires!! Op: Darkness was also $10. I wish I could mash them together and marry them.