I think I’m getting old, because it took me awhile to figure out what even came out this year. Still, I’ve managed to put together a list of my favorite games of the year. 2011 was a bit weird, I didn’t really feel like there were any new IPs that got me excited – instead it was a year filled with sequels. Well done sequels, but sequels nonetheless. Nevertheless, there were a lot of games worth playing, even if I didn’t get around to them all.

LA Noire
There were a lot of problems with this game, but it still deserves respect for introducing an amazing motion capture technology to the world of gaming. The storyline and characters varied from hokey to awesome, but overall I really enjoyed the game and found it well worth playing. Originally I was excited to see what the team could do in the future, but alas, Team Bondi is no more. Hopefully other developers can piggyback off of what they have done and continue to have characters who emote in such amazing ways.

To the Moon
Like I said in the review, you don’t play To the Moon for the gameplay. If the game DID have gameplay to speak of, I probably would have made it my game of the year. The story was just that compelling to me. It’s a short and sweet downloadable title for the PC that I’m sure few of you will end up checking out, to your own detriment!

FIFA 12
I don’t play a lot of sports games, but if you are looking for bang for your buck, you can sink hours and hours into FIFA 12 without even scratching the surface of all there is to offer. The new tactical defending really changes the way you defend and makes the game more true to the actual sport. The only down side of FIFA 12 is the lack of Champions League (whose rights are owned by PES), but with so much else to do, you (almost) don’t miss it.

Portal 2
The first Portal was so shocking in its ingenuity that it was going to be hard to top. Portal 2 didn’t quite manage that feat, but it came pretty close. The expansion of the Portal world along with some hilarious moments helped solidify this first person puzzler as one of the best in class. Valve really knows how to make their video games and Portal 2 is no exception.

cmfl3x’s 2011 Game of the Year – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
I really tried not to make Modern Warfare 3 the game of the year, but the simple fact of the matter is I sank almost as much time in MW3 over the past two months as I did into all my other games for the previous ten. I had actually hit a bit of a gaming lull before Modern Warfare 3 came out, but after release I was back to my gaming ways.

The single player wasn’t as strong as the previous two games, but the multiplayer just keeps me coming back for more. For some reason, the formula isn’t stale yet – in fact, I find it more addicting than before. I’m not sure if that’s a product of game design or changes in me personally, but either way, Modern Warfare 3 has been my go-to game since November, and thus it’s my game of the year for 2011.

Another year is almost over. Time sure flies these days! Over the course of this past year, I feel like I’ve leveled down the most since the blog started in 2008. By the end of 2011, my gaming library has dwindled down to only a fraction of the games I owned at the beginning of the year (I only own 2 PS3 games now!), I’ve actually skipped the purchase of several notable titles I would have usually bought (Dead Island, Catherine, Dark Souls, etc.), and generally feel like I may not even be buying more than a handful of games going forward (perhaps only Diablo III and Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm next year).

For our last entries of 2011, cmfl3x and I decided on providing our thoughts on our game of the year for 2011 as well as any other reflections on the year. As you can see from above, my thinking is that I’ve leveled down a lot over this past year. But, I did enjoy some games this past year as well! Hit the jump for my favorite games of 2011.

Crysis 2
While there have been several major titles released in the last several months of 2011, there were some good ones released early in the year as well. As I looked through the list of games released in 2011, the game I fondly remember most was Crysis 2. For fans of the first game, Crysis 2 may not have been what they expected, but for fans of more contemporary shooters, Crysis 2 was just what we needed. The scope of the sequel was changed from the open world “driving” around North Korea to a much tighter contemporary shooter in New York City. It’s probably one of the longest shooter campaigns I’ve played in recent memory, and it was very cool to basically feel like the Predator in NYC. Enemy AI could have been better, but all in all, it was quite an epic campaign. Multiplayer was also quite enjoyable, and I was sad that it never took off as much as I’d like. It was basically Call of Duty multiplayer with all of the interesting Predator-like features and unlocks you could get from the Crysis nanosuit, and I had a lot of fun playing the multiplayer in the early half of 2011.

Portal 2
When I beat the last level of Portal 1, I exclaimed to myself, “The game is over now? This last level where I’m actually out in the open world with my portal gun is what I want to be playing – not all of that labrat stuff!” Portal 2 definitely delivered in that aspect, allowing us to play through an entirely new campaign in an open world and all sorts of new puzzle related elements were introduced. On top of that, Portal 2 had some great voice acting and humor – it’d probably win my award for the funniest game of the year. Sadly, for some reason or another, Leaderboards and Time Trials were noticeably absent when the sequel launched, but the problem was eventually rectified with free DLC months later. Portal 2 also introduced co-op, and it was a hefty number of levels. Unfortunately, as much as cmfl3x and I played it together, I never really enjoyed it at the level of the single player campaign. I found it more frustrating than fun, and maybe it was due to the pressure of having to not only solve puzzles with another player, but also having to coordinate exactly with the other player as well. I remember being more frustrated with the co-op levels than entertained by them!

Uncharted 3
For some reason or another, even though I have to somehow force my way through the campaign of every single Uncharted game, I still like the series. I have a huge man-crush on Nathan Drake, as he’s basically a contemporary Han Solo and such a great character to follow the exploits of. While the gameplay hasn’t changed too much in this third game in the trilogy, I enjoyed the storyline most in this game of the three due to the exploration of Nathan’s and SUlly’s past. It brought great character and emotion to the epic scope of the series, and I would give Uncharted 3 my vote for the game with the best character design for 2011. Uncharted 3 also has a slew of co-op and multiplayer modes. While they are quite functional and entertaining in their own way, the Uncharted series’ primary strength has always been about its story-telling and characters, and not its gameplay. The multiplayer is a decent diversion, but with other bigger multiplayer titles around, it has a long way to go to be able to compete with them.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
The Modern Warfare series of Call of Duty is my favorite shooter series. I thought when Modern Warfare 3 came out, I would have been sick of the entire Call of Duty series by now as I quickly got bored of Black Ops. I am glad to have been completely incorrect with Modern Warfare 3. At this time, it’s probably the game that I have spent the most multiplayer time on in 2011. The tweaks made to this game from earlier titles are all made for the better – different playstyle choices, more counters to pointstreaks, more game modes, etc. With everything going for its multiplayer, Modern Warfare 3 easily wins my award for Best Multiplayer Game of 2011. Its campaign is decent and closes out the trilogy relatively well, but it doesn’t quite stack up to Modern Warfare 2′s campaign. Spec Ops missions in Modern Warfare 3 also seems a bit weaker than Modern Warfare 2′s missions, and I’m still perplexed by the addition of a Survival Mode in Modern Warfare 3 but only limiting it to 2 players max.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
I haven’t even opened the shrinkwrap on Skyrim yet, but I pretty much have an idea how good the game is. The last two games Bethesda Softworks developed, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3, both won my game of the year awards the years they were released. I can’t imagine Skyrim being worse than either of those two epic games, and as soon as I find some free time, I’m going to get myself lost in Skyrim once again. Several gaming outlets have already declated Skyrim as their game of the year for 2011, but with how similar it seems to Oblivion and the fact that I haven’t even played it yet to know for sure, I’m not quite ready to call it my game of the year. I’ll at least give it my pick for Best RPG of 2011.

My Previous Game of the Year Choices
Here are my picks for Game of the Year the last five years:

2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
2007: Bioshock
2008: Fallout 3
2009: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2010: Starcraft 2

My 2011 Game of the Year Choice

Gears of War 3
This may surprise some, as I never enjoyed the first two Gears of War games that much, but love Gears of War 3. The game, overall, is the total package. It is the only game on this list that provide so many different things, and does all of them well. It’s what I would consider a perfect video game and the pinnacle of the series. The campaign was lengthy, epic, emotional, and improved over the first two games. On top of that, Epic was able to finally provide 4-player support to the campaign, something that very few other shooters can accomplish these days. The Arcade mode and the addition of mutators allow for multiple playthroughs of the game, something that I have already partaken in.

Outside of the campaign, there’s also a well designed survival mode that lets up to 5 players play together through up to 50 Waves of progressively more difficult enemies. Not content to just leave it the same as Gears of War 2′s Horde Mode, Epic decided to provide players of this new Horde mode the ability to earn money and spend it on defensive structures and fortifications to aid in surviving. It easily blows away Modern Warfare 3′s paltry 2-player Survival Mode. And while I prefer Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer over Gears of War 3′s, it’s all a matter of taste. I find Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer to be so enjoyable due to its epic “Michael Bay” style over-the-top frenetic action (and sometimes imbalanced) gameplay.

I also appreciate Gears of War 3′s multiplayer, and will return to it once I start getting my fill of Modern Warfare 3. Gears of War 3′s multiplayer is classic FPS versus game design: start everyone off with the exact same weapons and equipment. Provide them with the ability to change their skins and weapon colors as they level up, but always keep pure gameplay equal at all times. In many ways, Gears of War 3′s multiplayer is more hardcore than Modern Warfare 3′s, but with the addition of a Team Deathmatch mode in Gears of War 3, it opens the game up a lot to newer, less experienced players like myself. It’s great.

Gears of War 3 is not only the best sequel of the year as it improves over its predecessor in every category, but it’s such a complete game that it’s hard for me not to award it my choice for Game of the Year. And with the January DLC allowing for the ability to “Prestige” in Gears of War 3, I may end up playing this game for a lot of 2012 as well!

I had trouble not filling this entire list with sequels so I had to stretch for one of them. In general, I think I’m a bit more into the “blockbusters” than espion4ge, I get really amped up for them and they are always what I anticipate the most. Thus, unique titles like The Last Guardian don’t garner anticipation from me (though I am curious to check it out), while titles like Gears of War 3, even though they feel derivative sometimes, get me kind of excited. What’s on my list for this year? A lot of sequels. Here they are, in order of anticipated release date.

Portal 2
I’m pretty excited about Valve’s Portal 2, although I’m a little worried that they might not be able to pull it off. The original Portal was a perfect experience – it was short, had an amazing narrative, and was funny to boot. Portal 2 is going to be released as a full $60 game, as opposed to being part of a larger compilation. Can it still stand up? I’m sure the gameplay will be fine, but will GlaDOS still be funny? Will the game still be able to balance fear for your life with subtle humor? Portal 2 also is introducing cooperative play that has a chance to be a real winner. I’m not sure it’s going to be worth $60, but if anyone can make it so, it would be Valve.

Star Wars: The Old Republic
This is my reach pick, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I’m not even sure I’ll be even able to purchase this game. I’ve avoided MMOs all my life because, frankly, I’m afraid that they are a black hole I will never return from. Secondly, I’m not even sure I have a computer that is going to be handle The Old Republic. What I AM sure of is that after my PS3 purchase I won’t be getting a new computer anytime soon. Regardless, I am excited to see what Bioware might be able to pull off in a MMO. They already did a great job building the Star Wars universe in KOTOR (and Mass Effect, for all intents and purposes). What I’m most excited about is seeing how they use choices people make in the gameplay. How are they going to handle their choice system in a MMO? It’ll be interesting if they pull it off, and if they do, it might bring about some innovation to the genre. Nothing is going to kill WoW, but it’d be nice to see another game at least be successful at doing some things differently.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
The Uncharted series is amazing and one of the few PS3 exclusives worth getting. Uncharted 2 was first on my list of PS3 games after my recent purchase. The story telling and cinematic feel of the previous two games have been great, and I think Uncharted 3 will be no exception. It’s a typical AAA blockbuster – lots of flash, lots of gunplay, and Nolan North (look him up – he’s voiced every male video game character you know). It should be a lot of fun and I can’t wait until November!

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
I’m a long time Zelda fan who has been tiring of the series as of late. Dungeon crawling has started to feel a bit old, and thus I haven’t been able to finish a Zelda game since Twilight Princess. Nintendo is promising some innovation for Skyward Sword – Motion Plus support, less dungeon crawling, and other new ideas. Nintendo’s first party games are always excellent – but I still haven’t managed to use my Wii more than a handful of times over the past year. I’m hoping Skyward Sword can change that, I got completely lost in Twilight Princess and would love to have that feeling again.

Mass Effect 3
My history with the Mass Effect series: Bought the original when I first purchased my Xbox. At the time, I had my Xbox vertical, it fell over, I tried to pick it up with the disc spinning, and catastrophe ensued. I bought another copy of Mass Effect and finished the game, twice. As espion4ge can attest, that game was kind of broken. I bought Mass Effect 2 at launch – beat it, beat it again on Insane, and then sold it back to Amazon. Then I cried because I missed the game so much, and a kind friend sent me a new copy. I am now seriously considering buying the PS3 version that comes out in 2 weeks. Needless to say, I am obsessed.

Mass Effect 3 is at the very top of my anticipated games list. Will Shepard defeat the Reapers? How will the choices in the first two games (they are supposedly taking into account 1000+ variables) affect the finale? Who is going to be in my party? Can the game possibly live up to the hype? Come this holiday, I’m itching to find out.

Happy New Year! It’s now 2011 so we’re going to kick off this year with our top most anticipated games for 2011. Of course, there is a slight possibility that one or more of these games may not make it in 2011, as well as a possibility that they may not turn out so well. My most anticipated titles for 2010 under-delivered, but I think this year I have a lot more to be excited about. (Plus, I’m going a little less risky with my picks!) We have big sequels like Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3, Dead Space 2, etc. so 2011 is already shaping up to be a better year than 2010 (at least, in my humble opinion). Yet, it appears that my most anticipated games are all “sequels” that have not been churned out in a long time. Hit the jump to see all of these major franchises that are returning in 2011 that I can’t wait to play.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (360/PS3)
Looks like I don’t have to wait too long to play one of my top most anticipated games of 2011. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 hits streets here in the States the day after Valentine’s Day: February 15, 2011. The last time we got a Marvel vs. Capcom game was back in the year 2000, when Marvel vs. Capcom 2 hit the world, so it’s been basically a 10 year wait between the last one and this new one. Based on how excellent Street Fighter IV was and how it revitalized the fighting game scene, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 should be well embraced. Of course, for a terrible fighting game player like myself, I’m very excited about Marvel vs. Capcom 3 not for the fighting game aspect of the game, but to be able to use Capcom characters I know and love – even if  they end up being completely bottom tier. I just hope that Dante, Chris Redfield, and Albert Wesker end up pretty decent – that’ll probably be my primary team. Although maybe I should swap in a female character for some variety. We’ll see!

The 3rd Birthday (PSP)
Like Marvel vs. Capcom 3, The 3rd Birthday is the 3rd game in a franchise that hasn’t seen a release since 2000. The 3rd Birthday is really the third game in the Parasite Eve series, with Parasite Eve II released on the original Playstation 1 in the year 2000. The 3rd Birthday already released in Japan last month, and is on track to be released State-side around March this year. I’m not going to deny it at all that I have a bias towards Japanese developed games – maybe it’s their linear yet intuitive gameplay design, their anime/manga influences, style, presentation, etc. It just totally works for an old-school gamer like myself. While I enjoyed Parasite Eve on the Playstation back in the day, The 3rd Birthday looks to be quite different – almost more like an action-based game. If it feels anything like last year’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, I’ll be in heaven with my PSP all over again.

The Last Guardian (PS3)
Can you believe I’ve never played a game by Team ICO? This Japanese development studio is famous for two cult-favorite titles: Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Both of these titles were released on the Playstation 2 in 2001 and 2005 respectively. The next major title from these guys is The Last Guardian, and it’s estimated to hit in the holiday season of 2011. I know how beloved Team ICO’s previous two games are, and I think part of my bias for putting The Last Guardian on this list is influenced by the fact that an HD remake of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus is also going to be released in the next few months so I’ll get to play all 3 titles in 2011 for the first time. But about The Last Guardian – it seems to have similar gameplay elements to Team ICO’s other two games, this time centered around a boy and a giant creature. What draws me in most to the game is the question that is asked: which one is the guardian – the boy or the creature?

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360/PS3/PC)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim may very well be my most anticipated game of 2011. While there hasn’t been much information on the game besides the teaser trailer released, I can’t imagine this game not being awesome, considering Bethesda Softworks’ The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was my game of the year in 2006 and Fallout 3 was my game of the year in 2008. Will Skyrim clinch it in 2011? Who knows, but it is already starting to look like the favorite. While the Fallout 3 world was fun, the washed out post-apocalyptic look along with the mutants and firearms can’t compare to the lush, vibrant, and varied fantasy world of The Elder Scrolls. I guess if it came down to it, I’m more of a sword and magic type RPGer than a modern/sci-fi one. I embedded the video just to show how cool the title transitions to its 2011 release date.

Diablo III (PC)
This was kind of a cheap pick, since I’m not 100% sure that Diablo III will make it out in 2011. But if we go by the leaked release schedule, I have hope. Diablo II was released back in 2000 (wow make that a 3rd game on this list!) and its only expansion a year after. Can you believe that people still play Diablo II today, even in its 800×600 resolution? I’m very excited about Diablo III, since my brother and I spent so much time playing Diablo II together. I almost feel like Diablo III is the perfect game to play for someone like me today that can no longer play World of Warcraft. With Diablo III, you get all the leveling, item hoarding, and enjoyable Blizzard gameplay, but without the time commitments to all the social aspects and raiding that World of Warcraft sort of forces you to shape your life around. I’ll be able to play Diablo III solo just how I like it, or party up with friends on our own schedule whenever we want. I’m even interested in this whole Team PvP thing that Blizzard is going to implement for Diablo III – that should be interesting.

Stay tuned for Wednesday when cmfl3x shares his 2011 picks!

Aside from Starcraft II, espion4ge and I had pretty different lists of anticipated games for 2010. As espion4ge pointed out on Monday, a lot of his picks turned out to be busts. My list fared a little bit better – hit the jump to see why.

Mass Effect 2 was so close to game of the year for 2010 – soon PS3 owners can see why!

Mass Effect 2
This game was pretty awesome. Even though the story didn’t live up to the first, I loved the new characters and I thought the gameplay was greatly improved. I’ve purchased a couple of the DLC packs and hope to play through the game again early next year (as FemShep) – moreover, I’m even tempted to buy the PS3 version! If Starcraft II hadn’t come out, Mass Effect 2 might very well have been my game of the year. Worth the hype.

The Investigations game was popular enough to warrant a sequel.

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)
As a huge fan of the Phoenix Wright series, I was curious what a game with Edgeworth at the helm might feel like. This game was a bit of a departure, abandoning the courtroom for a more adventure game style that ended up working out great. They’ve already announced a sequel, so I’m looking forward to it. But when are we going to continue the Phoenix Wright saga? Where is Maya!? Questions that need to be answered!

Conviction was a bit different than what people were expecting, but still enjoyable.

Splinter Cell: Conviction
This probably was the weakest of the games I was anticipating, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Actually, I don’t remember too much about it though, so I guess it could kind of be labeled a bust. I did have a lot of fun playing it, but I also traded it in pretty quickly. I guess I was thirsting for something akin to Metal Gear on the Xbox, but the Splinter Cell series doesn’t live up. Still, I thought the innovations were pretty cool, so it wasn’t a total bust.

Heavy Rain is perhaps the best PS3 exclusive game released in 2010.

Heavy Rain
Despite a billion plot holes, Heavy Rain’s story was pretty good and the merging of gameplay and context was stellar. It’s really impressive that Quantic Dream took what basically amounts to quick time events and turned it into a game that made you feel like you were really in control of your characters. The cinematography was top notch as well and made the game feel like you were watching a movie. I could have done without the terrible accents though. Jay-son!

If you haven’t bought Starcraft II yet, you’re missing out on the year’s top game.

Starcraft II
Not much I need to say about this game, except for the fact that I’m trying to finish up this post so I can go play it. Game of the Year!

Even if you’re not a Western fan, Red Dead Redemption should not be missed.

2010 Surprises and Favorites
Red Dead Redemption probably tops my list of surprises, but that’s because I expected so little out of it. Mostly I only bought the games I was anticipating this year and they all turned out to be pretty fun. I think DJ Hero 2 deserves mentioning, it’s probably the best music game nobody is playing. Also, I hope to check out Kinect sometime soon, though I’m pretty sure I’d never buy one. Frankly, I’m a bit disappointed by the insistence of game companies to make things more casual-friendly, but I guess that’s just the way things are going. I don’t like it, but I don’t have to buy those games either, so I guess it’s okay.

Hope all of you had a great Christmas weekend! So we’ve made it once again to the end of another year, and cmfl3x and I decided to recap our 5 most anticipated titles for 2010 since we’re getting ready to share our top 2011 titles for 2011. Hit the jump to see the games I was most looking forward to in 2010 at the beginning of this year and my thoughts how they eventually ended up.

The entire Final Fantasy XIII game sometimes felt like one long battle screen.

Final Fantasy XIII
I hate to say it, but Final Fantasy XIII was the biggest disappointment of the year for me. Sure there were plenty of mediocre games released this year, but the thing about Final Fantasy was that I expected it to be good. Conversely, I didn’t have high expectations for games like Crackdown 2 and Lost Planet 2 – sequels to titles that I didn’t think were so hot in the first place. But Final Fantasy XIII? I have literally grown up with this series, starting with the original game on the NES all the way until now. Before this year, I would have considered Final Fantasy XIII to be a lock for one of the top games of the year, but how could a Japanese RPG company as large as Square Enix mess up on all of the aspects that make Japanese RPG games so enjoyable? Freedom to roam and do sidequests? Not until after you beat it. Ability to customize your party? Maybe 20-30 hours in after you get past the first half of the game that was the tutorial. A captivating story with interesting characters? I guess that ship has set sail on the Final Fantasy franchise since Final Fantasy X. So what’s left for this game? A 50-hour linear hallway in which you spend most of your time in combat. I’m surprised that the Japanese 360 version just released has an “easy mode”. I thought the entire game was already “easy mode”! Square Enix has to do something with its Final Fantasy franchise – the combination of both Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIV both turning out mediocre can’t be a good sign for the series.

Resonance of Fate may be the J-RPG of the year, but was overshadowed by Final Fantasy XIII.

Resonance of Fate
Whose idea at Sega was it to release Resonance of Fate, a Japanese RPG, one week directly behind Final Fantasy XIII, the biggest Japanese RPG of the year? Fire that guy. I never got a chance to play Resonance of Fate for that very reason – I was too “burnt out” on J-RPGs on the console after the dozens of hours I sunk into Final Fantasy XIII, but I will go back for this one. After all, it’s still sitting in shrinkwrap on my shelf still and what I am probably considering this year’s best J-RPG game. Why did I anticipate this game so much? 3 factors: a Japanese RPG (you can tell, I’m a fan right?) developed by tri-Ace (the studio behind such J-RPGs as Star Ocean and Infinite Undiscovery – a J-RPG I actually enjoyed a lot), set in the future revolving around guns. The last J-RPG game I played that made use of guns in the present/future was Parasite Eve. So, it is a winning combination all around for fans of the genre like myself. Unfortunately, with its length, it’s sitting at the very end of my backlog queue as I try to clear through shorter games for the moment.

Starcraft II’s campaign was also highly entertaining and innovative.

Starcraft II
If you’ve been following our 2010 awards/holiday guide, you probably saw how many awards Starcraft II won at Leveling Down (including our 2010 Game of the Year), so it wasn’t too difficult a call to make on this one. The game turned out as fantastic as we’ve come to expect for a game from Blizzard, and this was the only game that both cmfl3x and I listed in our respective 2010 “most anticipated” lists. Neither of us were let down, and have probably each put in over a couple hundred hours since the game has launched this past summer. I find myself having very left to say about the game due to the amount of gushing I did in our awards already!

There is still hope for Elemental – I’ll probably check it out in 2011 when it’s stable and good.

Elemental: War of Magic
Sadly, like Final Fantasy XIII, I was let down by Elemental: War of Magic. After how much time I enjoyed playing Stardock’s Galactic Civilizations II, I thought it was an easy lock for Stardock to bring their 4X strategy gameplay to the fantasy world of Elemental. It sounded so good: a strategy game with RPG elements, questing, treasures, diplomacy, and warfare – this was going to be the game to take over my life when it released and I was ready! Sadly, it was a bust. The game turned out to be very buggy, the gameplay a mess, features missing, etc. My primary suspicion is that the developers decided to try to push the game out the door as soon as they could so they wouldn’t have to release it after Civilization V – its main competitor. Well, unfortunately, the game got destroyed by reviews and word of mouth, and Stardock is now trying to regenerate good will letting everyone know that they are going back to the drawing board and fixing all sorts of gameplay issues – such as actually including a tutorial. Considering how polished Galactic Civilizations II ended up, I have hope that Elemental will eventually also become good. But for now, I guess I’ll just play Civilization V.

I didn’t know it was possible for a modern shooter to score so low. Congrats, Medal of Honor!

Medal of Honor
Before Call of Duty 4 hit the world, Infinity Ward claimed that they wanted to give Halo multiplayer a run for its money. That sounded like a very lofty ambition at the time, but Call of Duty 4 did eventually prove itself to be a ridiculously competitive game with Halo 3, knocking it off the top spot many a time among Xbox 360 gamers’ most played game each week. So without knowing much of what was going to be released this year, I went with Medal of Honor, as EA had decided that they wanted to try to beat Call of Duty. Hey, if Call of Duty can beat Halo, I am open-minded about the idea of another franchise being able to beat Call of Duty. Unfortunately, Medal of Honor not only failed to beat Call of Duty, but it probably sent the franchise back to the grave. I’ll probably end up checking it out once I can get it for cheap just for my own curiosity.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker really felt like the next game in the stellar franchise.

2010 Surprises & Favorites
Three of the five games I was most looking forward to this year ended up as busts. Talk about bad picks. Who would have thought with the pedigree of studios behind the classic Final Fantasy games, Galactic Civilizations II, and the Battlefield franchises could put out games that ended up under-delivering? Well, fortunately, there were some bright, unexpected titles I got to play that I loved more than I would have ever thought. The biggest surprise for me was Mass Effect 2. After not really loving the first one, I didn’t expect the second one to be a game I would care much for but it was a total pleasant surprise. I also picked up a PSP for the first time just to play Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker – and it was totally worth it. If I were to set the record again for my favorite titles of 2010 (in no particular order), they’d be:

Bayonetta
Mass Effect 2
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Hopefully my anticipated titles for 2011 fare a bit better!

It all boils down to this: our game of the year for 2010. cmfl3x and I had some discussion over the various games we decided to nominate for game of the year this year, so have a look and see what we have to say. Keep in mind that all games on this list are worth playing, but if you can only play one…look no further than our game of the year.

Nominees for Game of the Year 2010

Bayonetta

espion4ge: I’m slightly sad that cmfl3x never got into Bayonetta like I did, so it’s been all me pushing for Bayonetta in the various award categories as well as getting it an entry here in one of this year’s top games. By now, all of you have probably read how much I have gushed over Bayonetta – and it’s for what I would call good reason: it is probably the best action/adventure game ever made. Of course, this is going to be debatable, since its storyline simply cannot compare to games like God of War, but for me, most games come down to the gameplay and Bayonetta was an adrenaline rush from start to finish. You know an action game is good when you can sit and play through it multiple times in a row and still have so much fun. I think the only reason I stopped playing the game was that I beat it on its hardest difficulty so there wasn’t much left for me to do!

What I love most about Bayonetta is the combination of the sultry heroine and the feeling of being a total badass once you get the combat system. Then you can feel almost like an artist as you traverse the screen tearing apart bad guys and getting graded accordingly for it. If you enjoy action/adventure games – do not miss this game.

Mass Effect 2

cmfl3x: I don’t have much to say about Bayonetta, but I didn’t get to write about Mass Effect 2 and I just want to say I LOVED it. As espion4ge mentioned, Mass Effect 2 improved a lot of the shortcomings in the original. What I love about Mass Effect 2 is that your choices from the first game are persistent – I really felt like they had an effect on the Mass Effect world. Moreover, Mass Effect 2 introduced a lot of new cool characters, and almost (almost) introduced an acceptable Wrex substitute. The gameplay improved a lot as well. I love Bioware’s dialogue trees, and Mass Effect 2 is a worthy successor to one of my favorite games of all time.

espion4ge: Mass Effect 2 is my runner-up for game of the year in 2010. BioWare has really turned the Mass Effect series into something quite amazing with the sequel. It improves many aspects of the original game, making for quite an enjoyable game from a gameplay standpoint. It comfortably walks the thin line between RPG and shooter, allowing for fans of both genres to have fun. It weaves an interesting storyline that actually continues choices you made in the original game by checking your save game file. The last time I saw something even remotely similar to this was in the orignal Metal Gear Solid game where Psycho Mantis was telling me I liked to play Castlevania and Suikoden (two other Konami games). Mass Effect 2 deserves all of the accolades it has won, and I highly encourage anyone even remotely interested in the game to check it out.

Heavy Rain

espion4ge: As a new PS3 owner this year, Heavy Rain was the top PS3 title of the year that I wanted to play. Of course, with my brother and cmfl3x both already having played through the game and loving it, I instead decided to devote my time towards other games to write about for you readers. I hear nothing but good things about the game, and it looks to be a very unique experience that the Xbox 360 has not yet been able to provide. Hopefully I get around to it in the coming months, but for now, I’ll let cmfl3x do the gushing on this one.

cmfl3x: The best thing about Heavy Rain is that it takes risks for video games in general. It has a radical control scheme (basically everything is a quick time event), and its emphasis on story really makes gamers feel like their decisions have weight. It’s probably a good argument in the “are games art?” debate, but I don’t usually mess around with those deliberations. The thing I loved most about Heavy Rain is that I really wanted to see how the story played out AND I also felt like I had a huge role to play in the story. When you are “fighting” bad guys, it’s nerve wracking – make the wrong move and your character might die. It’s tough to explain, but I really felt more involved in Heavy Rain than I do in other games. I think every PS3 owner should at least rent it to feel how different it is – it is truly a unique game in a sea of copycats.

Halo: Reach

cmfl3x: The next game on our list is Halo: Reach. Of course, the last Bungie developed Halo title needed to be on the list, so it’s a good thing that Reach is one of the best. Although I miss the openness of ODST, I did enjoy the story in Reach and I thought the multiplayer tweaks were good as well. Reach was the game that finally made espion4ge a believer in the Halo series, so I’ll let him finish up.

espion4ge: While Halo: Reach is not what I would consider innovative as it has built on previous Halo titles, it is what I call THE “definitive” Halo experience. In the box, Reach provides a decent campaign, several co-op options through the Campaign and Firefight modes, multiplayer, and an experience point system that ties all of the modes together into your single Halo: Reach profile. If you like Halo, you already have Halo: Reach, and if you don’t have it yet but are considering it – you won’t be disappointed. It’s the series that saved the Xbox and is probably responsible for the Xbox 360 today!

Call of Duty: Black Ops

espion4ge: Treyarch has come a long way with its share of Call of Duty games, and Black Ops is the studio’s best game – netting it a spot on this list of top games of the year. Like its competitor, Halo: Reach, it provides a full package of an interesting campaign, co-op zombies, and a full-fledged multiplayer. While the Call of Duty series is starting to get a bit worn out, Black Ops carries the torch well and will keep Call of Duty fans busy until next year’s game.

cmfl3x: I don’t have much to add to what espion4ge said, except that I am still playing Black Ops now, so that’s pretty high praise. It’s Call of Duty. What else is there to say?

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner]

espion4ge: If you’ve been following our 2010 awards since the beginning, you’ll probably note how many awards Starcraft II took this year. It will also take our final award as the game of the year for 2010. While the game is not perfect (lack of chatrooms, clan support, LAN support, replay rooms, etc.) the whole package is a game that is worth far more than its asking price. Consider what you get in the box for Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty:

1. a campaign that is dozens of hours long, innovative, interesting, and enjoyable.
2. various non-campaign related single-player modes such as skill-based tests, matches against the AI or even partnered up with the AI, etc.
3. a full fledged multiplayer with 1v1 through 4v4 support with automated matchmaking, ladder rankings, and custom game types.
4. An achievement system that awards achievements for playing everything the game has to offer, with point scores, gamer icon unlockables, etc.

What Blizzard has done is not just create a game in Starcraft II, but an entire system for it. And guess what? For what it is nowadays, it could easy be worth a monthly fee, as it gives so much and executes so well. It’s not perfect, but it’s perfect in all the areas that count. Starcraft fans have been waiting many years for a proper sequel, and Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty has been delivered with flying colors. Through the course of these awards, I’ve already got Starcraft II on my mind again and find myself itching to play whenever I think about it. That is the mark of a good game – and our game of the year.

cmfl3x: Oh man – I absolutely love Starcraft II. I want a new computer so I can play Starcraft II better. A friend of mine said that he gets an unhealthy adrenaline rush from playing the game. The great part about multiplayer is that you will always win 50% of your games. The matchmaking is well done, and that ensures that you’re never frustrated or never bored. I cannot wait for the Zerg campaign!

espion4ge: This wraps it up for 2010! Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty nearly sweeps the competition, winning practically every category it is nominated in. If you have yet to try this game out – the only excuse you can possibly have is that your computer cannot run it. So get a new computer – this game is so worth it!

We hope you had fun reading through our awards and shopping guide. Hopefully there are more terrific games in store for 2011!

Our Awards & Holiday Shopping Guide are just about done, but today I get to talk about some of my favorite categories. Which stories really stuck with me this year? What new IPs are out there that might stand the test of time? And how do all the sequels this year stack up? Hit the jump to find out!

Best Story

Mass Effect 2
Alan Wake
Heavy Rain
Red Dead Redemption [winner]
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Fallout: New Vegas

I really enjoy the stories in games, and this year had a few good ones. Mass Effect 2 didn’t necessarily live up to the story of the original, but I still enjoyed the story a lot. Even though it was mostly about building up your squad, I found the back stories and personalities of each character very compelling. Mass Effect 2 isn’t the greatest story, but it’s still an enjoyable ride, and the last mission is a great payoff.

Alan Wake almost won this category, until we realized the ending was a bit cheesy. It’s too bad, because this story about a horror fiction in a creepy lake town had all the makings of a real winner. The ambiance, the twists and turns in the story, and the premise are all great. It’s just too bad the “twist” at the end is a little too cliche. Still, Alan Wake is a story worthy of Stephen King.

I loved Heavy Rain and was seriously considering picking it as the winner as well. Then I started thinking about it more, and realized that if this is the STORY category, Heavy Rain just has too many plot holes to win the category. It’s still a great story, but there is a website out there that points out all the plot holes (Google it if you’re interested). I really enjoyed searching for a serial killer and the dark story – it’s just…did I mention plot holes? As a game, though, the plot holes are kind of fun!

At first, Red Dead Redemption seemed like a long shot, but I eventually decided to give the game a try. I’m glad I did, and Red Dead Redemption ended up winning Leveling Down’s Best Story award. Red Dead Redemption is a great……redemption story, one with a cool main character, a unique old school western world, and a lot of fun side missions. GTA IV kind of wore on me at the end because Niko’s character rang hollow – I don’t feel the same way about John Marston. The story keeps you wanting more, and the ending really tugs at the heart strings.

My runner up in this category is Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Red Dead Redemption is a deeper, more nuanced story. Enslaved is a summer blockbuster. The story is a fast and action packed ride that never stops. You are moving from locale to locale, set piece to set piece as the game just barrels on towards it’s conclusion. It’s a lot of fun: the popcorn flick of this year’s crop of video games.

Not surprisingly, Fallout: New Vegas rounds out the nominees in Best Story. Obsidian, the makers of the original Fallouts, did an amazing job with the story. They have taken all the great things in Fallout 3 but improved on the story. New Vegas involves a series of different warring factions and you have to decide where your loyalties will lie. It’s a lot of fun and feels a lot bigger and graver than Fallout 3′s story: that’s a great thing.

Best New IP

Bayonetta [winner - tie]
Darksiders
MAG
Heavy Rain
Alan Wake
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West [winner - tie]
Vanquish

It was actually kind of tough to come up with a winner in this category. As espion4ge has mentioned, 2010 kind of feels like the year of the sequel.

espion4ge chose Bayonetta as his winner in this category. He absolutely loved this game, and this is what he had to say about it:
When I think of the Best New IP category, I think of the game that I would like to see a sequel from moreso than any other. Since Bayonetta was my favorite action/adventure game of the year, I can’t imagine anyone being surprised that this is the game I would love to see a sequel from most. The game had what I considered perfect gameplay design, oozed a sexy style in its female protagonist and combat mechanics, and has set the new bar for action/adventure games. If other current action/adventure games matched the level of gameplay that Bayonetta provided, I wouldn’t be as zealous to play a new Bayonetta sequel. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to see anything out now or on the horizon that can provide this old-school hardcore gamer the thrills and highs that Bayonetta could. Even if the sequel has a storyline as non-coherent as the first, with the gameplay so good, I won’t even care. Now Platinum – please release a sequel!

Darksiders feels like a Zelda knock-off, but in a good way. The game feels like an homage to Zelda, but a worthy game in and of itself. Even though it feels like Zelda, the premise is very un-Zelda: in a post-apocalyptic world, you play as one of the four horsemen in the apocalypse. Instead of killing weird things that shoot rocks out of their mouths, you are killing angels and demons. Anyway, Darksiders is a lot of fun and a nice little new IP.

MAG (Massive Action Game) is a super ambitious first person shooter on the PS3 that almost lived up to the hype. It allows up to 256 players to duke it out in massive battles. More interestingly, there is a promotion system where you can work your way up from a grunt to a commander who oversees squads in battle. It takes unlockables in a new direction, and a sequel should be coming soon.

Now while the story was riddled with holes, Heavy Rain as a whole is an amazing new IP. Quantic Dream billed it as interactive drama, and it stands as one of the most unique games released this year. The control scheme makes a player really feel like a part of the action, and the different ways that the story can play out really make your decisions feel weighty and important. I doubt there will be a sequel (it wouldn’t make sense), but I’d love to see another game in this vein released.

Alan Wake is also a great new IP, and the story was continued through various DLC offerings. I’m pretty sure the series could still sustain a sequel, although there’s not much more for me to say that I didn’t say in Best Story.

My winner in this category is Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Besides being a popcorn flick, this game is also a lot of fun. The gameplay is pretty simple to pick up, but deep enough not to get boring. It also takes place in a unique post-apocalyptic world, a completely different world than Darksiders. I really hope this game gets a sequel, but I don’t know if it has the niche following that Bayonetta does – my fingers are crossed!

Rounding out this category is Vanquish, a third person shooter that takes place in the future (but not post apocalyptic! Seriously, what is with the future!?) You have an awesome suit. You fight Russians. DARPA is involved. It’s kind of like Metal Gear Solid, minus sneaking and extended cut scenes but plus Gears of War type action. The game has kind of flown under the radar, but with mostly positive reviews, it’s worth a look.

Best Sequel

Mass Effect 2 [winner - tie]
BioShock 2
Dead Rising 2
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Civilization V
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner - tie]

To start things off, here’s espion4ge:
How does one decide on the best sequel for a game among this year’s so many sequels? I like to think of a Best Sequel as a sort of “Most Improved” award. What sequel among this list of nominees has considerably improved over its predecessor? While all the games in this category are good in their own way, some of them are arguably not better than their predecessor. Mass Effect 2 is a definite huge improvement over the first one. In my review of the first one years ago, I was actually not a huge fan of the game at all. The storyline was interesting, but the game itself was short, the scope of the world was tiny with mundane optional planets to drive around, and the Achievements were poorly designed (how many times am I supposed to go through this game?). Bioware listened to all of the negative feedback from the first game, and fixed every issue I had with the original game – making the sequel an amazing product. The game is lengthy now, the galaxy feels a lot more vast, there are new characters to recruit, and even the choices you made in the first game affect the sequel – something that I have not ever seen done before to this degree. In short, Mass Effect 2 is the best sequel of the year and I applaud the developers for learning from the first game.

People weren’t sure that Bioshock 2 should even have made, but in the end it turned out pretty well. Even though it couldn’t top the story of the original, subtle tweaks to the gameplay and plasmids along with a brand new protagonist AND antagonist combined to make a game that drew on all the great aspects of the first. Thus Bioshock 2 is a solid sequel, it isn’t a major improvement but it didn’t feel like a cheap cash in either.

Dead Rising 2, on the other hand, did feel a bit like a cash in. Ameliorating that feeling is the fact that the original came out like four years ago. Dead Rising 2 is one of those sequels that feels exactly like its predecessor, for better or worse. It’s still the same zombie killing fun you remember from Dead Rising, but it also contains a lot of the same glitches and bad design choices as well. It’s a game for fans of the original, but I’d personally recommend Case Zero.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, feels like a major expansion pack to Assassin’s Creed 2 – an awesome one. You get to gallivant through the one major city in Italy you missed, Rome, while advancing the story and setting things up for Assassin’s Creed 3. The combat has been streamlined for the better – one of the few things I didn’t like about Assassin’s Creed 2. More importantly, there is this awesome new guild of assassins that you can use to do your assassinations for you. How is that not a winner?

Of course, a list of best sequels wouldn’t be complete without the token Call of Duty game. Treyarch seems determined to get out of Infinity Ward’s shadow, and Call of Duty: Black Ops is their best Call of Duty game yet. With an interesting single player and a slower but more balanced feeling multiplayer, Black Ops is a solid entry in the series. I wish they could have included SpecOps, but with so much to do on one disc, it’s tough to complain.

As espion4ge pointed out elsewhere, if you are interested in jumping into a time machine and traveling 24 hours into the future without knowing where the time went, Civilization V is your best bet. The game has become more user-friendly and accessible and is still just as addicting. What that pretty much means is that you’ll get addicted faster. Civ V is THE turn based strategy game, and you could feasibly get by playing ONLY Civ V for the next year.

Speaking of games you can play for one year straight, my winner in this category is Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty. Although it feels a lot like the original, Blizzard has made a lot of tweaks for a better experience. The interface has become easier to use with “smart” groups, making the gameplay more accessible and less frustrating. The addition of the Wing Commander-esque navigation menus between missions is a lot of fun, and the story is great and ends on a nice cliffhanger. The only thing bad I have to say about Starcraft 2 is that it gets me in trouble with my wife. It’s difficult for me to pay attention to her when my allies are in combat!

Today is the portable awards day! As an owner of both the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP, I am going to share with you the top portable games released this year, as well as what cmfl3x and I felt were the winners of each respective category.

Best Nintendo DS Game of 2010

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
Pokemon: HeartGold/SoulSilver
Infinite Space
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Picross 3D [winner - tie]
Dragon Quest IX [winner - tie]
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
Super Scribblenauts
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

There were several notable DS titles released in 2010. The only unfortunate thing is that nearly all of this year’s top games are from Japan and sequels of some sort or another. But, that doesn’t mean they can’t be good. Let’s see what the games are all about.

The biggest title to start 2010 off on the Nintendo DS was Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. Unlike the traditional Ace Attorney games of investigating and courtroom scenes, this particular title focused on the pure investigations starring the previous antagonist and now friend of Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth. cmfl3x got a chance to take this game for a spin earlier this year and enjoyed it. If you’ve grown attached to the main characters of the first few Phoenix Wright games (before the series moved to Apollo Justice in the 4th game) and don’t mind the lack of courtroom gameplay, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is worth a look. But if you are completely new to the Ace Attorney universe – definitely start with the first one: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

It wouldn’t be a year on Nintendo’s portable system without another Pokemon game being released, and this year we got to see the release of Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver. While the game has traditionally been very popular with children and hasn’t changed drastically since its original release on the Gameboy, there’s a reason why the series is so popular: it actually has good gameplay under all of that “child-friendly” design. The primary element in these games revolve around catching various Pokemon – with different temperaments, personalities, abilities, and rarities. From there, you get to construct your own teams to engage in battles or to trade with other Pokemon trainers – AI based or against other humans (which is why Pokemon is popular with the school kids). There is a very competitive aspect of the game, as everything you do to raise your Pokemon for battles has a strategic element to it. The main difference between HeartGold & Soul Silver is the different type of Pokemon available in each game. If you want to collect them all – you’ll need to acquire both games or trade with another player of the title you don’t have. If you’ve never played the Pokemon games or want to get back into the series, HeartGold/SoulSilver is a great place as any to enjoy the world of Pokemon as it doesn’t really require any knowledge of previous games in the series.

Amidst the major release of the new Pokemon games back in March, a more mature game by the name of Infinite Space was released. Infinite Space is a sci-fi opera RPG and the third of four games in a Platinum Games & Sega deal (the other three were Mad World, Bayonetta, and Vanquish). It’s the only new IP we see among the best Nintendo DS titles this year, but it’s not for everyone. The game has a steep learning curve, and a lot of the game revolves around managing and engaging with your spacecraft. If you can get into this type of game, its epic storyline will definitely immerse you.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is the 4th game in the Shin Megami Tensei series, and has gotten excellent reviews for a Japanese RPG. For those unfamiliar with the Shin Megami Tensei series, the major gameplay element that is present in these games is the ability to encounter and recruit demons to aid in your quest. Strange Journey is primarily a dungeon crawler with random turn-based battles, but navigating through the dungeons is in first-person. You do not need to have played the other games in the series to get into this one.

This may come as a total shock to some of you, but Picross 3D is my Nintendo DS Game of the Year. Compared to all of these other titles on the list, Picross 3D seems like a simple game that not many would even bother checking out. But when I did the math, the game that I logged the most hours on my DS with this entire year was Picross 3D. It makes an amazing jump from the first one, as it goes from 2D puzzles to 3D puzzles. The game consists of hundreds of puzzles, and starts you off with a huge cube of blocks with some numbers on them. Each number represents the number of blocks that need to be kept in that column/row, and by doing math and using logic you can figure out how to chip away at the block until you carve out the hidden 3D item. It’s easy to learn, yet remarkably addicting – the perfect game to play on the go as I would often find myself playing this game whenever I took my wife out shopping. I love this game!

cmfl3x chose Dragon Quest IX as his Nintendo DS Game of the Year, and has this to say about it:
“Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is probably the only reason I’d even consider getting a PSP, but I don’t have one, so my vote went to a NDS game. The DS has long been a hotbed of JRPGs, so much so that Dragon Quest IX was released as a DS exclusive. Dragon Quest has always stuck to old school conventions, and IX is no different. They have also added some DS specific features such as multiplayer and touch-screen controls. Even though it seems crazy to have multiplayer in an RPG (and it is a little), the multiplayer aspect of Dragon Quest IX also allows the player to create his or her own party from scratch, which is pretty cool. There are also infinitely generated treasure maps and dungeons that you can play through if you enjoy that sort of thing. I play my DS on long trips, so a J-RPG totally fits that bill. DQIX is one of the best.”

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future is the third Professor Layton game released in the Nintendo DS in as many years, and just like the first two before it, strongly delivers. If you’ve never played the Professor Layton games, they revolve around Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke traveling around visiting towns to help people solve their various puzzles and mysteries that are often completely unrelated to the plot (but are enjoyable nonetheless). The Professor Layton series has already had five titles released on the Nintendo DS in Japan, and is considered one of the most popular DS titles ever. Now is a good time as any to check out the series, but it’s probably worth playing them in order starting with the first if you are new to Professor Layton.

The only Western-developed Nintendo DS game to make the list of top Nintendo DS games this year is Super Scribblenauts, the follow-up to last year’s Scribblenauts game. Coming out so soon after the release of the first game hurts it a little bit in my opinion, but the major gameplay changes to Super Scribblenauts were for the better. In short, Super Scribblenauts is what Scribblenauts originally should have been. The original Scribblenauts game was a word-based puzzle game that allowed you to write in any noun to solve various puzzles (often requiring you to navigate your character to get to a star on the level that is out of reach through normal means). You could write something like “jetpack”, and it would appear and you could put it on to fly to where you needed to go. The premise to the game was quite innovative, but the control scheme was terrible as you couldn’t control the main character with the d-pad so it became quite an exercise in frustration. Physics were also all over the place. Super Scribblenauts fixes many of these major issues, and even introduces the gameplay mechanic of writing in adjectives now. If you haven’t gotten burnt out by the original Scribblenauts game or have yet to check it out, definitely give Super Scribblenauts a try – go right ahead and skip the original Scribblenauts game as there’s not much of a storyline to begin with.

The final top DS game to be released this year is Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It ‘s the third game in the Golden Sun Japanese RPG series that had the first two games released on the Gameboy Advance in 2001 and 2003. Since then, fans of the Golden Sun series have had to wait 7 years until finally playing the third game in the series this year. Dark Dawn is a pretty traditional Japanese RPG, and takes place 30 years after the second game. Because the game takes place so long after, the primary characters in the game are the sons and daughters of the first two games’ characters, and therefore Dark Dawn can be played without having played the first two games. Of course, you just won’t get to enjoy all of the references to the parents in the first two games!

Best Playstation Portable Game of 2010

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker [winner]
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable
Valkyria Chronicles II
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
God of War: Ghost of Sparta

I may be slightly biased in choosing Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker as this year’s PSP game of the year, as it was the main reason I bought my PSP. But I was not let down at all with the game. It was fantastic from start to finish, and in my head, really felt like what it was originally titled: Metal Gear Solid 5. The controls were fixed to be far easier to play than the Portable Ops control scheme, the number of missions, base management, and overall storyline and presentation were top-notch efforts, and the game has so much replay value that you could hit the 100 mark if you were so inclined. Gamers even asked for it be re-released on the PS3 just because they did’t want to pick up a PSP to play it. To them all I can say is: you’re really missing out.

PSP owners had to wait until June’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker  for the first major title on the PSP worth playing, but since then, there have been a decent monthly release list for Japanese game fans such as myself. After Peace Walker, PSP owners were graced with Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable, a remake of the original Persona 3 game on the PS2. I never got a chance to play the original Persona games on the PS1 and PS2. Personal 3 Portable adds several new features to the original Persona 3 game – including the ability to play as a female protagonist and gameplay combat changes taken from Persona 4. Persona 3 Portable is regarded as the best Persona 3 version to date (even though it has already been released in two different versions on the PS2).

I was among many gamers disappointed when I first heard that the sequel to the PS3 hit, Valkyria Chronicles, would be released exclusively on the PSP. “How the heck am I going to be able to play it then?!” I thought to myself. Well, the combination of Peace Walker and Valkyria Chronicles II led me to acquiring a PSP to solve my problem. Valkyria Chronicles II is a stunning sequel to the first game, and holds up remarkably well on the PSP. Unlike the larger battles in the first one, the sequel has battles of smaller scale to fit with the PSP’s portability. The series is well regarded for its innovative turn-based RPG battle system, and apparently the second one was so successful on the PSP that Valkyria Chronicles III has already been announced for the PSP. Good thing I have a PSP this time around!

Strong PSP game of the year nominees are often those that actually get their own limited edition PSP bundled with the release of the game. Besides Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the new Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep game was also in its own limited edition PSP. The only Kingdom Hearts game I played was the original one on the PS2, and I actually never got into the series since I found all of the Disney references to be a bit too childish. But I’m currently playing Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep now, and it is much better than I ever expected it to be. While it has various elements of Disney characters, the game is still quite traditionally an action-RPG, and the plot and various gameplay mechanics of this game would have made this my top PSP game of the year if Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker had not been released in the same year. Regardless of whether you are a Disney fan or not, definitely check this out if you like action-RPGs. It’s a prequel to the first one, so you can play it on its own. Now I know what all the hoopla was about for this game.

The final top PSP title to be released this year is God of War: Ghost of Sparta (which also had its own limited edition PSP bundle). While God of War III ended the main storyline on the PS3 earlier this year, Ghost of Sparta is the second PSP God of War game after 2008′s Chains of Olympus and takes place between God of War 1 and 2. It has released excellent reviews, with many gamers quite impressed with how good the game looks running on the aging PSP. If you are a fan of the God of War games or want an action game on the PSP, Ghost of Sparta is among this year’s top titles – but consider checking out the previous God of War, Chains of Olumpus, if you haven’t since it’ll be a lot cheaper.

As someone that is a big fan of gaming in all of these categories, I’ll be presenting the best shooter games, games with the best gameplay, and the most addictive games of this year. See if you can guess the winners before the jump!

Best Shooter of 2010

MAG
BioShock 2
Halo: Reach [winner]
Medal of Honor
Vanquish
Call of Duty: Black Ops

MAG was the first major shooter released this year as a PS3 exclusive, and came from Zipper Interactive, the team behind the Sony exclusive franchise: Socom. The primary unique differentiator between MAG and other FPS games is its 256 player matches. While traditional multiplayer shooter games are 4 on 4 to 8 on 8, 128 on 128 completely blows it out of the water. Unfortunately, the sheer scope of the game highly encourages team play and objectives – something that gamers seem to have a hard time grasping these days. Combine that with the fact that once you pick one of the three factions in the game and you’re stuck with them for the rest of your MAG career and we can see why MAG didn’t quite live up to its hype. But, if this does sound interesting for you as a PS3 gamer, consider checking it out.

Shortly after MAG was released, BioShock 2 made its way to the masses. I was a huge fan of BioShock 1, picking it as my Game of the Year in 2007 over Call of Duty 4. It was basically a perfect game with a fitting end. Yet, most likely because the statistics showed far more people having played BioShock than the number of sales, Take 2 decided to put together a sequel with multiplayer in the hopes that more people would hold on to their copies of the game. Unfortunately, while the core BioShock 2 campaign is enjoyable and brings more BioShock gameplay for those that couldn’t get enough of the first, its multiplayer and even its relevance aren’t quite good. If you want more BioShock, definitely give BioShock 2 a look since it’s only $20 now and is a lengthy adventure. But is it necessary? Definitely not.

Halo games traditionally launch in the Fall and mark the beginning of the holiday season. Halo: Reach was no exception, and unlike Halo: ODST last year, Halo: Reach delivers the most engrossing experience for a Halo game to date: a campaign, Firefight, and multiplayer. While its campaign is a bit weaker than previous iterations of the game, as a whole – Halo: Reach is the pinnacle of the Halo series to date. Of course, the game is not an overhaul as much as it is a refinement of the series, so for those that never enjoyed Halo or have gotten sick of traditional Halo gameplay – you may want to avoid this one. But even with me as a Halo “non-fan”, I can appreciate the amount of effort Bungie put into their last Halo game – and the game rightfully deserves the place of Best Shooter of the year.

Medal of Honor is EA’s reboot of the franchise, and while it isn’t quite good enough for cmfl3x or I to have picked it up just yet, it can be enjoyable for the right type of shooter fan. First off – the game’s campaign is decent and seems to be getting praise. It’s the multiplayer that seems to really alienate the shooter user base. First off, keep in mind that the Medal of Honor multiplayer is not by the same team that did the campaign – it’s by DICE, the team behind the Battlefield and Battlefield: Bad Company games. DICE was riding high off of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and its strong team-based gameplay, but they decided to make Medal of Honor’s multiplayer a hybrid of Battlefield and Call of Duty style mechanics. This worked out to displease strong fans of both Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Modern Warfare 2, but for some the combination was actually quite enjoyable.

It’s very rare for a non-Western shooter to be good, but it seems like many gamers besides me love Vanquish. Vanquish is a unique shooter that straps the player into a jetpack-like device, allowing you to slide, dodge, and slow down time as you run and gun your way through the game. The gameplay never seemed that amazing to me, and combined with its short 5 hour length was enough for me to hold off on buying it for now. But, critics and fans seem to really dig it – so here’s a game that I didn’t really think was too hot but I’ll probably check it out when I can get it cheaper.

The final, and biggest shooter of the year comes out last: Call of Duty: Black Ops. In this four year since the Call of Duty series rose to prominent fame, we have another Call of Duty game that does do nearly everything right to satisfy the shooter fan: an interesting and engaging campaign, co-op through an infinite zombie mode, and a more balanced and refined multiplayer experience. The biggest negatives going for it though are that it’s the 4th Call of Duty game in as many years in a row, and it doesn’t quite deliver as an overall package compared to last year’s Modern Warfare 2. But for those that still can’t get enough Call of Duty, Black Ops delivers and is only slightly bested by Halo: Reach this year in the shooter category.

Best Gameplay of 2010

Bayonetta
Super Street Fighter IV
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner]
Civilization V

As a hardcore gamer, gameplay is the most important feature a game can provide for me. Each of these games I am about to describe are simply at the pinnacle of gameplay for their respective genres through a proper combination of input, feedback, challenge, skill, and enjoyment. For a game to even be considered on this list, it follows a very important requirement: easy to learn, hard to master.

Bayonetta is the pinnacle of action/adventure gameplay design, and something that I hope Western developers will eventually get to understand. The feel of combo-ing several enemies in a room, watching your rating go up, performing finishing moves with over-the-top theatrics, slowing down time as you dodge attacks and counter opponents into oblivion all require a certain amount of skill to pull off. You can’t just hit one button over and over again like Western action/adventure games, and one thing that Japanese action/adventure gameplay design has over Western action/adventure gameplay design is that you personally feel like the badass, not the weapon you are holding. For games like Bayonetta – the weapon is irrelevant as you could be wielding a toothpick and still kick butt. Bayonetta can be so daunting, but when you get it, you don’t wish for the game to ever end.

The Street Fighter games have come long way. Even with the move towards more complicated gameplay elements in games like Street Fighter III and Capcom vs. SNK, Street Fighter IV (and Super Street Fighter IV as a result) brings the gameplay back to its roots. The gameplay is not overwhelming enough that it turns away less hardcore fighting game fans, yet is not underwhelming or imbalanced enough to drive away the more hardcore fighting game fans. In short, it may very well be the fighting game with the most perfect gameplay design – making it sit right here among this year’s nominees. Of course, it’s a bit cheating to consider Super Street Fighter IV as a game of this year, as it is more an expansion to last year’s Street Fighter IV so it gets some points deducted when considered for the winner of this category. But, with the amount of content put into the game, it is worth every penny.

So far on this list, we have a nominee that is the pinnacle of action/adventure gameplay design, and another that is the pinnacle of fighting gameplay design. It should be of no surprise to anyone then to see Starcraft II weighing in as the pinnacle of real time strategy gameplay design, and winning the category altogether. Starcraft I was released over 10 years ago, was perfectly designed, and became a sport in Korea with several TV channels dedicated to the game. What other game has people clicking everyone as fast and as much as they can in order to raise their average APM (actions per minute) in order to become better Starcraft players? Starcraft II’s gameplay had a lot to live up to and did not disappoint. Starcraft II has taken gameplay from Starcraft 1, added in innovative new units, buildings, and gameplay elements, all while still preserving the Starcraft look, feel, and balance. Like Street Fighter, Starcraft II is played very competitively, but can be enjoyed on so many levels. Starcraft II is the most entertaining game released this year to simply spectate – I can watch replays of matches for entire days and not miss a beat. It’s this level of gameplay that makes it worthy of winning the Best Gameplay award of the year.

While the gameplay of Super Street Fighter IV and Starcraft II have elevated both games to international competition, Civilization V makes the list of nominees for Best Gameplay purely due to how well it plays for a turn-based strategy game. Every new Civilization game is met with great fervor and acclaim for good reason: they are remarkably designed. Save for the arguably iffy AI, Civilization V introduces several new gameplay elements to the series such as the switch to hexagonal grids allowing for six sides of attack, and the removal of the ability to stack units on the same tile. These major gameplay changes combined with the Civilization polish have strategists learning the game all over again and enjoying every minute of it.

Most Addictive of 2010

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner]
Halo: Reach
Civilization V
Call of Duty: Black Ops
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

What a surprise: Starcraft II wins another category on this year’s 2010 list. This time around, cmfl3x and I both easily voted for Starcraft II as this year’s most addicting game. (I think I’ve logged over 200 hours into the game myself.) There are a combination of features in Starcraft II that make it so addicting. The first off is that its gameplay is just so well designed that you want to keep playing it. The beginning to the end of a game of Starcraft II is so much fun to play that you’re ready to play another one right behind it. On top of this, Blizzard has set up matchmaking and leagues for levels of play, enabling all players to get competitively matched with players of their own skill level – making each game quite thrilling and interesting. The final “nail” on the coffin that can suck you in for Starcraft 2 are the Achievements and Portrait unlocks. Starcraft II has a huge Achievement point system just like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, drawing players in to do various things in both the single player and multiplayer game to increase their Achievement score. Then there’s the portrait unlocks that you also get for completing various challenges in the game online and offline, as well as wins in particularly multiplayer modes. Just the gameplay would have been enough for the game to be considered among this year’s most addictive, but everything else just brings it to the top.

I speak from firsthand experience when I say that Halo: Reach is addictive. After all, I’m not even a Halo fan but I just kept playing it. The reason? Challenges. Halo: Reach’s tiny addition of Daily and Weekly Challenges and a revised leveling system that takes into account cP gained from all modes of play as well as Challenges completed had me like a dog jumping through hoops to acquire those delicious Challenge bonus cP. The Challenge system opened up the game for me, persuading me to try new modes or things I would generally skip over otherwise. But yes – I will admit that without the new cP leveling system and Daily/Weekly Challenges, I would have stopped playing the game much sooner than I did.

A Civilization game being nominated in an “addictive” category is about as surprising as a McDonald’s serving french fries. Unlike the other games in this category, Civilization V is one game where if you are not watching the time, you could miss out on sleep entirely. It’s not hard to see why a game that allows you to build up and empire and rule the world can be considered addicting. The biggest problem about the game is the whole “one more turn” desire. When do you stop playing? After you sit for several minutes analyzing the current landscape to make a move but quit so that you don’t get to see what happens as a result of the move you planned to make? Or how about after you’ve made a move, and then you see all of the other nations responding to your move. Do you quit then without getting to react? How can you quit this game at all?!

While Call of Duty: Black Ops is not as addictive as last year’s Modern Warfare 2, it still follows the new Call of Duty formula of playing online, earning points for killing opponents or completing challenges, and then leveling up to unlock new items and gear. The concept of playing an enjoyable game to unlock more stuff is always going keep people addicted, and Call of Duty: Black Ops has enough of this going on to land itself in this year’s nominee list. Unfortunately, it may be among the least addictive games in the Call of Duty series, either due to features lacking compared to last year’s Modern Warfare 2 or the fact that the series itself is just getting stale. I liked leveling up to unlock stuff 4 years ago – but why am I doing this again for the fourth year in a row?

One game that cmfl3x and I did not want to mention on this list but I feel like the list would not be kosher without it is the new World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm. I almost don’t want to consider the World of Warcraft game and its expansions in the gaming category, as the franchise is more like a drug than a game in how addicting it can become. Of course, many ex-World of Warcraft fans thought the original core game was fantastic and that these subsequent expansions have never been able to restore the glory of the primary game, but I don’t see how Cataclysm won’t be enough to hook in current World of Warcraft addicts. It’s hard to evaluate this game as it’s just throwing more content for the World of Warcraft player – who would already be addicted to the game should this expansion have never come out. Regardless, I highly recommend avoiding this expansion and the entire game if you want to actually see daylight and have some real world responsibilities but for those in the hole, might as well enjoy more content!