Blog #15 - AlisterCat's GOTY Awards

by alistercat

I'm posting this now since I won't have a chance to do it any other time until next year...

I detest placing unnecessary importance on completely abstract orders of value on games. Which game is the best? is Mario Galaxy better than GTA IV? If you're smart about things, you don't always have to choose. You can enjoy more than one thing and saying something is the best sort of detracts from the other experiences. So why do this? Well, I'm doing it for me. I don't get why some people write blogs but I am writing this to reminisce about the year in gaming.

I'm going to be using kind of Bombcast 2009 rules for this, so exclusives for platforms unless a multi-platform game has a platform that it's meant to be played on. There are games that I haven't played, and won't get to this year so I can't put them on the list. I'm an all platforms kind of guy, I have so many consoles (look at my console list).

Other Awards

Best In-Game Hamster
Best Person Trying to Steal Nolan North's Job
Best In-Game Broom
Best Zombie Game
Best Strategy Game
Best Downloadable Game
Best 2010 Game Not Released in 2010

Best PC Game

I have enjoyed so many PC games this year. A lot of them were not released in 2010 though, thanks to Steam and Games for Windows Live selling me games for almost nothing. Two of the most enjoyable are Starcraft 2 and Civilization V, both being strategy games and that genre is pretty tuned to the PC platform so it's not surprising. I enjoyed Mass Effect 2 most on the PC but since that is multi-platform I won't nominate it.

...and the winner is...
I feel like both Fallout games and Oblivion released by Bethesda were meant to be played on PC. A small part of that is the control scheme, but the largest is mod support. Gamebryo's modding capabilities is insane and Bethesda are really good at releasing that toolset (Obsidian followed up on that here too). The things that you can do to your game adds a touch of personalization and can even fix the game's problems.

The game itself, for most people, was broken and frustrating because of all of the problems. Looking purely at what Obsidian have done here I loved it. The world was smaller but better crafted. The writing, voice acting and overall story arch were much more enjoyable (but no Liam Neeson this time :/ ). A lot of people will disagree based on how busted it is, but I have to look past that. I experienced very few technical difficulties, am I supposed to reflect somebody else's busted experience?

Best Xbox360 Game

This is a tough category. So many of the best games for Xbox360 are multi-platform games. I bought Crackdown 2 and while that fulfils my lust for orb huntin' I can't recommend it as a game that's really worth it. I didn't get to play Alan Wake, so that doesn't count. I don't like Halo, so Reach doesn't make the list. That's not to say the Xbox360 didn't have it's good games but in terms of exclusives that appeal to me... not much stands out.

...and the winner is...
Technically this is a multi-platform title... or will be. The PC version will not be coming out this year, which for the purposes of a 2010 list means that it is an exclusive. I can see so many of your disagreeing with me. The entire bombcast crew definitely would. I think it is much better than Fable 3, does a lot of things that I enjoyed incredibly. It's not going to make a 'best games ever' list, it has a hell of a lot of problems, but I love what it does. I am eagerly awaiting the PC version but I had to give in and play the 360 version after borrowing a copy from a friend. I'm not going to bother justifying this choice, most of you have already made up your mind about this game.

Best PS3 Game

This is the year I bought a PS3, and I have played very little games. I haven't checked out the back catalogue yet. The only games I played this year were this years games so I suppose that makes this easy. I have the God of War trilogy, and I borrowed Heavy Rain (and I also bought Fat Princess and Trash Panic). It was really great revisiting the first God of War game in HD and actually getting to play the second one. Heavy Rain absolutely blew me away. The game's structure, story, graphics and animation really impressed me and the impact of the story left me feeling like this is one of the best 'experiences' I've ever had in a game. As a game though, I'm not so sure.

...and the winner is...
Yeah, this game is pretty stupid. I really enjoyed the story but the ideas behind the story and a lot of the dialogue gets ripped on because it's just such an overdose of masculine chest beating. The level design is so restricted. Completely linear, jumping from one set piece to the next. That said, I enjoy the combat so much, I think it's one of the best looking games ever made and the atmosphere in the world really drew me in. Plus ripping guys in half is so satisfying.

Best DS Game

If I could... I would put the Ace Attorney franchise as a winner for this every year. At the start of this year I discovered the first Phoenix Wright game and I keep playing through them all sequentially. I haven't stopped since I started, and I've gone through them all at least 3 times now. I can't stop, I'm addicted. I can't do that though, since the only 2010 ace attorney game is Ace Attorney investigations... which I do not really like. I want to so bad but I can't. Pokemon Gold/Silver were great additions to the series but I can't find time to play it between my phoenix wright playthroughs. The addition of the pokewalker was a lot of fun, it got me to walk around a bit more for a bit.

...and the winner is...
This was my first Picross experience. I genuinely got an incredible buzz figuring out the puzzles. The sound and visual provide satisfying feedback for the chipping away of the blocks which is really all you're doing in this game. The visual design for the menus and the things you are making feel really old, like kind of 80s/early 90s.

Best Indie Game

Super Meat Boy. I love everything Team Meat have done, I love the punishment this game doles out. Not going to say anything about this game.
Next.

Best Multi-Platform Game

Always going to be the toughest award. It used to be that exclusives were the best games, but these days companies realise that if they've got something good they need to exploit it on as many platforms as possible. Unfortunately Assassins Creed: Brotherhood won't make the list because I'm waiting for the PC version which comes out next yet but I know I am going to love it. I really enjoyed Dead Rising 2 despite how flawed it is. I even started a guide on the forums which got stickied and took a screenshot of every combo card to upload to Giant Bomb. Despite the 50+ hours I devoted to that game, I realise there were better made games, and games I may have enjoyed more.

The other issue plaguing this award is the 2 only real choices I have. Do I give one of them this award AND GOTY? They both need to be honoured in some way.

...and the winner is...
Mass Effect 1 was so enjoyable, and had a lot of interesting features. They took a big risk with Mass Effect 2 by stripping away and overhauling so much about it but the core that they kept was the conversations. It's the best in the industry and while being fairly simple the things you do have consequences, the way you talk to people changes up the missions in a significant way. They really improved this game in ways that made the franchise go from an ambitious cool game that was fairly well received to one of the best games released. The PC version looks absolutely beautiful.

Game of the Year 2010

Now that Mass Effect 2 is out of the way, there can only be one winner.
I have a hard time with the logic here, because if it didn't win best multi-platform how can it win game of the year? Well, this is a way of giving props to both of these games. They are on equal footing and they are very different games. Rockstar took their open world 3rd person shooting action framework, applied it to the setting of a Western and just ran with it. The voice talent, writing, graphics, settings, atmosphere, gameplay and everything else is really, really good. The controls are not as precise as I would like, but it didn't let me down when I wanted. This game is packed with content and high quality production values (have you seen that sunset?).

The actual ending for the game kinda of sucks, but the end phase of that game I found to be incredibly unique. Having the game continue after your character has completed their goal, essentially the entire point of the game, it becomes something else. Then tragedy strikes in a way that it doesn't normally do in games. You can argue that all this sucks blah blah blah but I enjoy it so much that I shut out all of that and just enjoy it.

Now for the minor awards...

Best In-Game Hamster

Got to give it to Mass Effect 2 this year. The writing and voice over kind of sucks ("Squeek"!? Come on) but it's so cute. Also, what kind of games lets you buy a freakin' hamster that has absolutely no purpose? Genius.

Best Person Trying to Steal Nolan North's Job

Yuri Lowenthal. He was in quite a lot of games this year, and some significant roles/releases too. Just look at his IMDB profile. He was great in Persona 4 but like North you can recognise his voice in other roles. Congratulations to Yuri, I hope he has many more roles in future games. He has a lot of talent.

Best In-Game Broom

While I am waiting for the PC version of Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, my friend brought his copy round and told me to kill someone with a broom. Why... just... why is that in the game? Great addition. I have to give it to Dead Rising 2 though, since it's actually incredibly useful as a weapon. Not for sweeping them but snap that head off and you can use it as a spear. Plus it makes the Knife Pole.

Best Zombie Game

Dead Rising 2, no question. Zombies are popular, and I am not tired of them but so often are they treated seriously which doesn't do much for me. Dead Rising 2 makes fun of that. I can't comment on Undead Nightmare as that will be arriving tomorrow and I won't finish it before the end of the year.

Best Strategy Game

OK, for serious now. Civilization V is going to take it. I enjoy Starcraft 2 a hell of a lot. It looks better, does good things for the RTS genre. The between mission stuff is really enjoyable. That said, in Civ I really appreciate how it is all grounded in history and the slow methodical pace. I can play a game for 12 hours. Going from nothing to conquering the world is very satisfying. The diplomacy isn't great, the AI don't act how they should a lot of the time but it's a really good game.

Best Wii Game

Disney's Guilty Party is so much fun. I don't own a Wii, which is why this is a minor award but I've had the opportunity to play through Wii games via friends and this is one of the only 3rd party Wii games that can compete with what Nintendo puts out. I wrote pretty much the entire Wiki article on this game so go take a look. I think it's a really well crafted game. The mini games are typical Wii fare but the characters and cases are so vibrant you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Best Downloadable Game

Scott Pilgrim vs the World is an incredible achievement. Ubisoft did great things with the source material and put it in to pretty much the only genre that wouldn't completely suck for a licensed game and isn't overplayed. The best thing about this game though is that it features the best combined talent in a game... ever? They got Paul Robertson for the graphics and Ananamaguchi for the music. I can't think of a better combination. I can't think of 2 better people to bring to this game and without those 2 this game would just be a standard sidescrolling beat 'em up. It has such style that I can't help but love this game.

Best 2010 Game Not Released in 2010

I bought Psychonauts right at the beginning of the year for £1 on Steam. How could I pass it up? I was completely blown away. I had heard so much about it and while I don't listen to hype I can see why it is held in high regard. I really felt like I was playing a Saturday morning cartoon, between the writing, the atmosphere and character designs. It's so enjoyable, and I just can't be too cynical of this games flaws. Loved every minute of it.

Well, if you read this you are a crazy person. I could have made this longer but I tried to keep it short. Nobody reads these things anyway but now I've thought about this years games and go it off my chest I feel better and it was good to think about all the great games this year.