1. BioShock 2: Sure, in retrospect, it's not the most memorable game of 2010. But at the time I played it, I was spellbound by its story/world, and its gameplay was my crack. There's something addictive about scouring each room and corpse for ammo and supplies, and simply drinking up the sights of Rapture while listening to the dark personal thoughts of the people who dwelled there. There are endless possibilities in combat, too, from your weapons and plasmids to the environment and enemies themselves... Nothing beats creating hologram decoys of myself to lure Splicers into rooms rigged with tripwires, proximity mines, turrets, trap rivets and whirlwinds charged with electricity and fire, and then adding insult to injury by unleashing a thrice-powered-up swarm of bees from my fingertips, firing off rocket spears and finishing off each sap with a drill dash... There were some standout moments, too, including
. This game's Sander Cohen, I say.
2. Heavy Rain: I'm not sure how it holds up in second play-throughs, but that first time through is just AMAZING, a true edge-of-your-seat thrill ride of mystery and suspense, well-worth the price of admission. It's more than a game -- it's an experience. The characters are lovingly realized with heart and humanity, which made me care about them and their plight. And the fact any one of them could die at a moment's notice made each fight, Origami trial and Houdini-esque escape scene a nail-biting, heart-thumping, brow-sweating exercise in tension. It's a game I wanted to cozy up to each night -- the world it creates just has a very inhabitable warmth to it. There's nothing else like it, but here's hoping we'll see many more that try.
3. Red Dead Redemption: What a dense, richly layered game. I won't comment on RDR to the degree I did BioShock 2 and Heavy Rain, since people seemed more divided on those two and I felt more qualification was needed. But suffice it to say, the Wild West as depicted in RDR is the best case of "setting as character" since Rapture in BioShock. The wildlife, weather, rugged terrain, and batshit crazies that live there all made for emergent scenarios and a sense of spontaneity and life rarely achieved in games. And the game's meditation on the theme of redemption, as encapsulated in the life of John Marston, is a powerful one, punctuated by a memorable twist at the end. And that's just the tip of the iceberg where story is concerned -- there are also very topical themes of modernization, xenophobia, big government and more to chew on... That is, when you're not chewing up banditos in slow-mo with the brilliant Dead Eye mechanic.
4. Super Mario Galaxy 2: I feel something was missing with this game... Perhaps it was a sense of "place" due to the downsized overworld, which made level selection easier but at the cost of a "nucleus" to the proceedings. That said, what a wonderful game, an endless barrage of creative gauntlets that begged to be played. The controls were airtight, the camera unparalleled and the pacing impeccable, with a sumptuous feast of color for the eyes and orchestral delights for the ears. And Yoshi is brilliantly realized here in 3D, with his pointer-controlled tongue the game's masterstroke where new features are concerned.
5. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: For me, this game was the big surprise of 2010. To find out why, read my thread on the topic.
As for the rest...
6. God of War III
7. Read Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
8. Kirby's Epic Yarn
9. Donkey Kong Country Returns
Gil's Tetsuo-esque fate, and the ethical quagmire of whether to mercy kill him
2. Heavy Rain: I'm not sure how it holds up in second play-throughs, but that first time through is just AMAZING, a true edge-of-your-seat thrill ride of mystery and suspense, well-worth the price of admission. It's more than a game -- it's an experience. The characters are lovingly realized with heart and humanity, which made me care about them and their plight. And the fact any one of them could die at a moment's notice made each fight, Origami trial and Houdini-esque escape scene a nail-biting, heart-thumping, brow-sweating exercise in tension. It's a game I wanted to cozy up to each night -- the world it creates just has a very inhabitable warmth to it. There's nothing else like it, but here's hoping we'll see many more that try.
3. Red Dead Redemption: What a dense, richly layered game. I won't comment on RDR to the degree I did BioShock 2 and Heavy Rain, since people seemed more divided on those two and I felt more qualification was needed. But suffice it to say, the Wild West as depicted in RDR is the best case of "setting as character" since Rapture in BioShock. The wildlife, weather, rugged terrain, and batshit crazies that live there all made for emergent scenarios and a sense of spontaneity and life rarely achieved in games. And the game's meditation on the theme of redemption, as encapsulated in the life of John Marston, is a powerful one, punctuated by a memorable twist at the end. And that's just the tip of the iceberg where story is concerned -- there are also very topical themes of modernization, xenophobia, big government and more to chew on... That is, when you're not chewing up banditos in slow-mo with the brilliant Dead Eye mechanic.
4. Super Mario Galaxy 2: I feel something was missing with this game... Perhaps it was a sense of "place" due to the downsized overworld, which made level selection easier but at the cost of a "nucleus" to the proceedings. That said, what a wonderful game, an endless barrage of creative gauntlets that begged to be played. The controls were airtight, the camera unparalleled and the pacing impeccable, with a sumptuous feast of color for the eyes and orchestral delights for the ears. And Yoshi is brilliantly realized here in 3D, with his pointer-controlled tongue the game's masterstroke where new features are concerned.
5. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: For me, this game was the big surprise of 2010. To find out why, read my thread on the topic.
As for the rest...
6. God of War III
7. Read Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
8. Kirby's Epic Yarn
9. Donkey Kong Country Returns