pat4327: Best of 2010
Showing 1-10 of 10 items
First and foremost, video games are supposed to be fun. And I'll be damned if I didn't have more fun stabbin' dudes in this game than I did in anything else that came out this year. Ubisoft took everything that was great about the earlier titles, and made it all awesomer. A clear winner in my book.
The soundtrack alone warrants Super Meat Boy a spot on this list, but the tight controls and ridiculously well-designed levels give it a nice berth at number 2. Seriously, who doesn't love the thrill of finally figuring the optimal path through each level and then spending hours getting the right timing down?
In Rock Band 3, Harmonix improved virtually aspect of the preceding games and delivered a streamlined, well-crafted rhythm game. The drop in / drop out systems made playing drunk Rock Band even easier--which is definitely something I can get behind.
In a lot of respects, Halo: Reach is similar to Rock Band 3. Both are likely the last games in their franchises by the original developer, and both go to great lengths to improve on their predecessors. Halo: Reach delivered a solid campaign alongside an incredibly fleshed-out multiplayer experience.
I didn't love this game as much as some people did, but it was still pretty great. BioWare made massive technical improvements from the first game, but at the expense of the same epic, sweeping plot of the original. Still, Mass Effect 2 is better than most of the games that shipped this year.
While Costume Quest wasn't terribly difficult or complex, an adorable style and wit gives this one a solid spot on my list.
In my mind, MNC is by far the best game to come out of the "Summer of Arcade" or whatever it was called. A great mix between DotA and Team Fortress 2, this game was surprisingly replayable--thanks in no small part to developer Uber Entertainment's constant support through patches and (free) DLC.
After 12 years, Blizzard came back to the StarCraft universe with a bang. A tight single player campaign coupled with an incredibly deep multiplayer experience make this game a top contender this year.
I didn't spend as much time with Civilization V as some addicts did, but damn, this game is addicting. The well-designed UI makes it far too easy to just "play for one more turn" which inevitably turns into another lost day.
Fun fact: I didn't actually play this game. I did, however, play the demo and that alone was enough to convince me that Bayonetta was something special. I'm not really sure why I haven't picked this up yet, but I need to get this soon.