The Fourth Annual Coint and Plick Video Games Poll - Part Five: #1 - 20

What's come before:

The Fourth Annual Coint and Plick Video Games Poll - Part One: #106 - AKA the 26 games that got one vote and five points

The Fourth Annual Coint and Plick Video Games Poll - Part Two: #80 - 105

The Fourth Annual Coint and Plick Video Games Poll - Part Three: #53 - 79

The Fourth Annual Coint and Plick Video Games Poll - Part Four: #21 - 52

Two way tie for #19.

#19: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey – DS – 45 pts – 2 votes - 1 top game votes
Official Game Site

http://bulk.destructoid.com/ul/165108-review-shin-megami-tensei-strange-journey/141681-strange-620x.jpg

Lamp: smt: strange journey had the best and most interesting story of any game i played this year, even if it was poorly presented. the game has great atmosphere and a brooding, dangerous feel to the gameplay - it certainly makes every fight feel like something is at stake. but the game isn't nearly expansive or, well, enjoyable enough to counterbalance what a complete fucking slog it becomes and how pointlessly it handicaps the player, over and over. the inorganic nature of the difficulty is really the one thing preventing this from being a truly great game.

Destructoid review
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kpgrqz407y1qzp9weo1_400.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24nMjEWuFho

RPG Fan review

http://www.wingdamage.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/shin-megami-tensei-strange-journey-anticipated-ds-games-q1-2010.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cb2xFGuBcY

http://dsmedia.ign.com/ds/image/article/105/1054986/shin-megami-tensei-strange-journey-20091214000706405_640w.jpg

as a footnote, Strange Journey has possibly the most strikingly pug-fugly box art since Phalanx

Yeah I really loved the atmosphere of Strange Journey and to a point the oppressive difficulty helped but about 40 hours in it just got too much hard work and I gave up. I think it was soon after the maze in which teleporters constantly send you back to the start.

ha, i just started playing Nocturne for the first time. the dialog when you are trying to recruit demons can be quite funny.

i gave up with the final boss which was just ridiculous. according to faqs you are supposed to develop a character that's immune to almost everything in order to beat it. f that.

#19: The Saboteur – PS3/360/PC – 45 pts – 2 votes - 1 top game vote
Official Game Site

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/9/2009/12/saboteur.jpg

jjjusten: This game sits in the perfect sweet spot between Assassins Creed, Just Cause 2, and Red Faction Guerilla with just a taste of GTA WWII Paris tossed in for fun. Blow shit up! Find hidden shit! Climb buildings! Drive cars into things! Pwn Nazis! Yes, there are points where mission goals can be shall we say unFUCKINGclear, and some of the plot points and game mechanics are a bit shrugmoticon but BLOW SHIT UP BLOW SHIT UP BLOW SHIT UP ok then.

http://greghorrorshow.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/saboteur3.jpg

Wired review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhTizv7XYeU

Euler: This is the first open world game that I've loved for its openness. Paris is my favorite place on earth, & the game does a good enough job of modeling it (& occasionally better than good enough: climbing Saint Eustache was excellent). Plus you get to kill lots of Nazis, & the foreplay tasks of blowing up endless Nazi sniper towers & search lights is super satisfying. With GTAs I feel bad about the people I'm slaughtering: they're not necessarily horribly bad people, they're just low-level drug dealers or whatever. But here, the bad guys are Nazis with penchants for flaying political prisoners. So when you drive a car bomb into a crowd of them, you're a force for good! There's lots to do in the world, & the climbing mechanic means you get gorgeous views of the city on the reg + can get around quicker than just by driving through maze-y neighborhoods. Plus you can find anti-air guns & spend time shooting down zeppelins making mad bank. Plus: did I mention PERKS! Yes, you have to do dumb things like collect every Nazi vehicle but when you do, you get IN GAME value instead of boosting your dumb gamer score that no one cares about. Hey, I'll take the seratonin boost & the extra firepower, no prob. So yeah, my #1 with a terror-scoped rifle bullet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eEgwqDWJlQ

Eurogamer review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTZfR9PBZa0

omg how have i never seen that game before

lol same!

#18: Donkey Kong Country Returns – Wii – 45 pts – 3 votes - 0.33 top game votes
Official Game Site

http://gamerfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Donkey-Kong-Country-Returns-Art.jpg

Captain Lorax: It's just the same old DKC rehased with better graphics and more moves than normal. You'll be happy to know that there is at least one mine-cart level. And this game is so much more challenging than other nintendo platformers. Plus there are things to collect that will unlock a few new levels. And there is time trial for each level. It's possible to do 2-player and one person would be on the same screen as Diddy but I don't think I would want to play this game that way. One of my top 3 games of the year

Telegraph UK review

http://wiimedia.ign.com/wii/image/article/113/1130930/donkey-kong-country-returns-20101027053231386_640w.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMhEs78Zix8

ilxor: Donkey Kong Country Returns has been an obsession since its November release. Feels like an awesome, fresh update on the original SNES franchise. Very challenging in the later levels. Two-player co-op mode is a winner here as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIII8jE4oqc

IGN review

http://www.funny-potato.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/donkey-kong-game.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ja70QXfkr0

remy bean: As a Latin American male, I'm proud to relate to prominent video-game role models like Donkey Kong.

http://gamrland.webs.com/photos/Super-Mario/design,funny,mario,video,game,donkey,kong-13916781492538ce54667bb7c1a3c7f2_h.jpg

#17: Madden NFL 11 – PS3/360 – 45 pts – 3 vote - 0.5 top game votes
Madden Site

http://diehardgamefan.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/madden11_2.jpg

Mordy: Two huge things have made Madden 2011 unexpectedly my favorite Madden release ever. 1) They tweaked running backs so that the experience of moving them feels much more fluid and responsive. There's nothing quite like ducking and weaving between DEs with Shady McCoy and breaking off a big game. 2) They tweaked the defenses to actually have decent AI. Instead of impossibly high scoring Madden games with tons of successful hail mary's games are actually somewhat reasonable. Stupid offensive plays rarely pay off and as such is goes from being a really fun arcade'y game to being the closest Madden has ever come to capturing the feel of a real football game.

http://www.gamezone.com/images/screenshots/Madden_11_-_360_-_Jets.jpg

MTV review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-zfyHy4C4U

forkslovetofu: aw man, why did i go and buy this...

Bleacher Report

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra8_jjSQiyI

http://cdn.uproxx.com/assets/images/421/421_27269b50de9044518b6f07691dfb2379.jpg

boom! where'd that truck come from??

spelled forks' name wrong, lol

#16: Heavy Rain – PS3 – 45 pts – 3 vote - 1 top game vote - top PS3 exclusive
Official Game Site

http://www.unwinnable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Heavy-Rain.jpg

if: I'm thoroughly enjoying most of Deadly Premonition so far but haven't got far enough through to be at all confident about putting it on my ballot. Can't help but feel, though, that it's a sign of an overemphasis on graphics and similar technical matters that it got hailed as a game which did a lot of things hilariously wrong but still managed to produce a story and experience which was bizarrely compelling, and Heavy Rain didn't get the same treatment. Zombies aside, my enjoyment of Deadly Premonition certainly feels like it's coming from very much the same place as enjoyment of the melodrama and cackhanded QTEs of Heavy Rain.

Heavy Rain - Now with QTE SPOILERS

Eurogamer review

http://www.gameplayreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ps3-heavy-rain.jpg

Zero Punctuation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFPu0zNjT4A

Mitch Krpata: Never have I felt that my actions would affect a game's outcome like they did here. When I wasn't playing Heavy Rain, I found myself worrying about Shaun. Would he survive? There was only one way to find out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1rHke0deSQ

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/06/heavycosplay.jpg

#15: Bayonetta – 360/PS3 – 48 pts – 4 votes (including 10 points / 1 vote from last year's poll)
Official Game Site

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2009/03/bayonetta2.jpg

bayonetta

Jamescobo: Unequivocally the most embarrassing game for a girlfriend to catch you playing ever, but then again odds are most folks who would love this game aren't going to have that problem anyway (/wrists). Also unequivocally the best pure beat-em-up since God Hand (and maybe even a little bit [is he gonna say it? is he gonna say it? oh shit he's actually gonna say it!] better due to the refined presentation). Plus, how often do you come across a game where even the LOADING SCREENS are action-packed?

http://www.analoghype.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/bayonetta_butt.jpg

Jim D: Ridiculous and audacious and hugely funny. And it feels like it manages to mock every stupid video game idea that's emerged in the last ten years, while simultaneously showing how cool those ideas could have been if they were handled less stupidly. I'm in love with it.

Gamasutra on The Cultural Clash of Bayonetta

http://www.ripten.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/bayonetta-spalin-are-the-same1.jpg

Versus Clu Clu Land

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvEkMpue9Ew

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/104/1045149/bayonetta-20091113032448120.jpg

Lolzy Costume Customization

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2564/3754815305_f2f236fc4a.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiFyMVblhRw

Gay Gamer Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tPN2NEmQ38

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/images/bayonetta.jpg

Jeff Levine: To be honest, I didn't get very far, like chapter five or so? It was one of those games where I put it down and kept meaning to go back to it, but just never did. I didn't have any super negative reaction to it, but I guess I never felt compelled to want to play it further? It sat on the shelf unplayed for so long that I eventually realized I wasn't going to get back into it and traded it in when I needed money for something else. I don't think it was exactly the game's problem, more just my changing tastes and almost complete indifference to playing through a single player, story driven game. In fact, this may have been the game that made me realize I can't maintain enough interest in a solely single player game to justify spending $60 US on them, since I never seem interested enough to play them through to the end, no matter how highly they're rated. The basic structure of cut-scene, fight a series of small enemies, cut-scene, boss fight, then repeat, is just a type of game that now bores me horribly.

Zero Punctuation Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6UiZpVMaDk

Mitch Krpata: I was embarrassed to play this game, but I was having too much fun to care.

Sexy Videogame Land

Captain Lorax: honestly, I've only seen people play it but I wanted to give it 5 points

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxE6H83Xw0s

Cozen: u can play it w/one hand u know

#14: Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale – PC – 52 pts – 4 votes - 1 top game vote - top PC exclusive
Official Game Site

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/10/108167/1527409-recettear_01_super.jpg

Nhex: A complete surprise to me. Admittedly, I have a weakness for these little-indie-PC-games-that-
could, and graphically this game looks like it could've been done on the original Playstation, but this was a wonderful little game. Recettear has an interesting structure in that there's an extreme range of choice in how far the player wants to take it - one could play it as a casual shopkeeping sim, and "complete" the game at the end of the first month, or you (well, me) could spend endless hours going through the random dungeon generator, hunting ingredients to get 100% completion. It's suited for pick-up and play, long sessions, or grinding and farming. The story, characters and world are slight, goofy, and charming, which is completely appropriate and ingratiating. I actually feel guilty about getting this for effectively $1 in a Steam sale over Thanksgiving.

http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb/GamesRadar/us/Games/R/Recettear%20-%20An%20Item%20Shops%20Tale/Bulk%20Viewers/PC/recettear%202010-09-12%2011-20-47-26--article_image.jpg

RPGamer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmRN3AFRbZA

PC Gamer

abanana: a fairly generic japanese sim game, but without as much of their usual
sexism. short and sweet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJeQuWF9Nc4

http://www.thebigpixels.com/storage/screenshots/pc/2010-12-05%2022h27_34.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1291647657890

a passing spacecadet: I am slightly ashamed by how much I loved this given how awful I find the graphical style and how wildly inaccurate the tutorial's own instructions are. Can't stop to think about the game any more or I'll talk in nothing but high-pitched Japanese exclamations for the next day. Ganbatte kudasai!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7heBJ_PGQlc

Eurogamer

http://fnsna.net/side/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/a2c15247efca159c6e235a16af811afd.png

Full disclosure, I'd only played about 20% of bayonetta when I voted for it last year and I never finished it. It starts out great but runs out of inspiration pretty fast.

Recettear looks pretty awesome!

Yayifications!

really interested to see what beats out DKC for Wii game of the year

i blasted through bayonetta and sold it back right afterwards, but it was a pretty fun ride - def does get a little more of the samey as time goes on tho

#13: Dragon Quest IX – DS – 61 pts – 4 votes - 2 top game votes
Official Game Site

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2009/07/dragonquestixscanl.jpg

DRAGON QUEST XI: WEAPONS OF MAP DISSEMINATION

Salsa Shark: I really had to drag myself kicking and screaming into the final battle of this game?-not because the final boss was incredibly difficult and fear-inspiring (if anything, I over-levelled)--but because I really didn't want the game to end. And that was even after 80+ hours of gameplay, including various side quests, alchemy experiments, and re-classing just to postpone having to end my adventure.

One of the things I particularly liked about this game was the way some of the towns? stories were like scaled-down versions of Professor Layton plots (the story in Bloomingdale is a good example of this). And, like a Layton game, there aren't really any ?evil? characters, just sympathetic, misguided beings who become consumed by their desires.
Also, I should probably admit that at least 5 of the points I awarded for this game were for the fact you can alchemise a slime costume, and that this slime costume is necessary in order to complete one of the side quests. Amazing.

http://roboawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/dq9.jpg

Telegraph UK review

Lamp: dragon quest ix is a well-made game. its the jrpg equivalent of a functional hollywood blockbuster & its not surprising that the game was immensely popular in japan or that nintendo was willing to take a gamble on its north american publication: it works. the story is bland but enjoyable, the world bright and soft, the game's mechanic rewarding w/o ever overwhelming or frustrating the player. it lacks the imagination or dark undercurrents of the shin megami games or the joyful challenge of etrian odyssey but dq9 was never a chore, the multiplayer was well-integrated (if mostly unused), its a good game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP7hcopq5VM

Fluffy Bunny Pwn review

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kysh5e0qWD1qzyou9o1_500.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m8fgk28PkU

abanana: the series needs some streamlining (this game literally put me to
sleep several times) but the basics are still great.

Furu Anime Panikku review

http://www.ripten.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Dragon-Quest-9-Giant-Slime.jpg

haha i was so sour when i wrote all my comments!

i dont think i ever finished the slime costume sidequest :////

really interested to see what beats out DKC for Wii game of the year

Galaxy 2. you were hating on it on the other thread but its the best 3D platformer ever made.

Do you guys want 11 & 12 today or tomorrow?

Today!

Okay, I was trying to spread it out this week but might as well finish up.

today

This next one is a shocker!!!

dead or alive: full body contact (wii)?

bring on the madness

NAUGHTY BEAR

#12: Bioshock 2 – PS3/360/PC – 65 pts – 7 votes - .33 top game votes
Official Game Site

http://uk.playstation.com/media/gnRcfCxo/Bioshock2Hero.jpg

Bioshock -- the "sequel in spirit" to System Shock 2

Captain Lorax: Pretty much on the same level as the first one. Maybe the combat is better with a few more options. The atmosphere is amazing. The story is interesting; well it's not extraordinary (the premise is) but I'm compelled to listen to the audio diaries. And you will finally learn a thing or two about the little sisters. One of my top 3 games of the year. I wanted it to last longer so that I could use my final plasmid upgrades more often (maybe if I had chosen to harvest the little girls). The worst problem with the Bioshock series is that chopping at a tough enemy and then regenerating over and over again just to finish them off feels like cheating.

http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/bioshock2.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8lngIFXRi4

Destructoid review

jjjusten: It really could have been so much better, and the O_O promo shit for bioshock sky city or whatever really didnt help the good will toward this game, but its better than people seem to think - i guarantee that if you go back to bioshock 1 (which is great, jesus christ calm down already) youll start to notice some of the work that went into the environment reboot. Multiplayer never really came together but the few times a lobby would get rocking it was actually a ton of fun, just dont expect this to uh ever happen again unless you set it up w/yer pals, sorry. Big Sister attack waves were fucking hard as nails and unnerving most of the time (although unfortunately if you figured out how to game the system a bit they werent, which is too bad). That being said, the game sorta just peters out in the middle and tbh i dont know many people who finished it so buy it cheap.

http://images.wikia.com/bioshock/images/8/84/Subject_Delta.jpg

Mitch Krpata: Before BioShock 2, I would have said that BioShock didn't need a sequel. After BioShock 2, I can't imagine a world without one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVTJVZNl82k

Giant Bomb review

bnw: hollow echo of a great game.

http://cdn2.mixrmedia.com/wp-uploads/wirebot/blog/2010/02/pax_cosplay.jpg

cozen: better than the original but w/slight performance issues & originality questions. still, a solid shooter front to back and a damn sight better than the other bioshock retread released this year ('singularity')

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwqMsxX9X0o

#11: 9 Innings: Pro Baseball 2011 – iPhone/Android – 75 pts – 5 votes - 2 top game votes
Official Game Site

http://f.cl.ly/items/2v3R3E1E353T1R3u0I3q/IMG_0041.PNG

Time for a frickin' 9 innings thread on ILG, folks... ― schwantz, Thursday, August 26, 2010 10:26 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

Mordy: 50% baseball sim game and 50% card collecting extravaganza, 9 Innings 2011 hit the pleasure center of my brain that loves collecting better and better cards while combining that with the best sports mechanics I've yet seen on the iPhone. It was hopelessly addictive and even with season ending bugs (I had two, the second of which actually ended my interest in 9 Innings 2011) it was still great enough to be my 3rd favorite game of the year.

http://wp.appadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Untitled-21.jpg

App Advice

jamescobo: In sheer value terms (price : amount of enjoyment derived), 9 Innings 2011 may well be the biggest gaming bargain I've ever found; it's months and months and months later and I'm STILL ducking out to play this game compulsively even though it still won't let me check my swing. For a game which wiped out 100% of my progress during FirstUpdateGate, that's a pretty substantial accomplishment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tlJgXBMhkg

Touch Arcade

Z S: Sure, after the first 20-year cycle, the replay value is pretty much destroyed, and once you've managed to release a single million-selling game, you can pretty much coast through the rest of the game without trouble. But the first 6-8 hours of gameplay are totally addicting, great for killing trainrides, very much worth 99 cents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CMeiTi05mM

Will M.: Thank god this game doesn't track how many hours I played it because enough games have made me feel embarrassed about that this year. And I probably played this more.

bnw: played the shit out of it

http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2006/players/08/15/first.person0821/t1_howie.jpg

That's it for me! FREEDOM

Z S: Sure, after the first 20-year cycle, the replay value is pretty much destroyed, and once you've managed to release a single million-selling game, you can pretty much coast through the rest of the game without trouble. But the first 6-8 hours of gameplay are totally addicting, great for killing trainrides, very much worth 99 cents.

This comment was addressing GameDevStory. But I put 9 innings near the top of my ballot, if I remember, mainly for the reasons that jamescobo cites - the value is just crazy.

did they ever do roster updates for 9 innings?

xpost ha I thought you did 20 consecutive seasons or something

Thank you, polyphonic!

Thanks, polyphonic! Good work all round, psyched for top 10

This comment was addressing GameDevStory.

Oh, sorry!

xpost what's crazy is that I feel like I pumped at least a few dozen hours into this game, probably more, and I'm STILL only on game #120 or so in my first season! I don't have the inning skip cards to go straight to the playoffs, so I'll always wonder what happens if you win!

no prob, polyphonic! Who knows, I may have accidentally misplaced my comment in my original ballot. My comments for 9 innings and GameDevStory are pretty much identical - crazy, ridiculous value

Thanks polyphonic!

oh shit, there's gonna be some kind of iOS sweep ain't there

I eventually burned out hardcore on Recettear but man did I love it.

Saboteur is great...I'm in Paris again & riding the bus tonight I saw a couple of buildings that my animal mind thought "shit I bet I could climb that side & then there's probably a fuel truck inside next to a guard tower..." I guess if you live in NYC or maybe one of the San Andreas places this happens to you all the time? the disorientation is so new to me

I was grumbling to a friend a few months back about the old having to play male NPCs thing, and he suggested I pick up Bayonetta. Ngghghgh. Like recommending 'lesbian' porn because there are lots of strong roles for women in it.

per something that placed a while ago, picked up Nier today in the hopes that it will scratch some of that bizarro deadly premonition itch. if it doesnt, there will be HELL TO PAY ILG.

(ok it was $10 so not really)

The thing about it that reminded me of DP was how bizarre and counterintuitive the gameplay felt to me. No crazy sandwiches or Twin Peaks references that I can recall. Although it does have that Japanese in translation thing.

really interested to see what beats out DKC for Wii game of the year

Galaxy 2. you were hating on it on the other thread but its the best 3D platformer ever made.

the closest game I own to a 3D platformer is Infamous so w/e, the genre just doesn't work for me.

also in retrospect I wish I had voted for DQ9

also also who is the other correct individual who had 9 Innings at #1?

#6: Pac Man Championship Edition DS – 360/PS3 – 112 pts – 8 votes - 1.5 top game votes - Top PSN game
Official Game Site

Eurogamer

Cozen: If you own a current gen system and you are not currently playing this game, then you are a n00b.

http://xboxlivemedia.ign.com/xboxlive/image/article/112/1127340/pac-man-championship-edition-dx-20101012064438254_640w.jpg

Gametrailers

Polyponic: It is the perfect Pac Man game, basically. Easily the best re-imagining of a classic arcade game ever and arguably more fun than the original. The revamped gameplay is like eating all of the pixie stix on God's green earth at once.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0qngXmMPX8

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TYpE7TOumVM/TXd-q9Cs-NI/AAAAAAAADiE/cC48o4CI8lQ/s1600/Pacman%2Bchampionship%2Bedition%2BDX-4.bmp

The Pac Man Dossier

Antexit: I'm a little uncomfortable with how much the giant five-second serotonin burst that comes with nailing a line of 100 ghosts feels like an orgasm. It makes me not want to play too much.

http://resource.mmgn.com/Games/Xbox/PAC-MAN-Championship-Edition-D-3DN-1.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21F2x7R9ArM

http://www.consolemonster.com/media/0000001934/screenshots/0000001934-L-0da265e.jpg

Unpredictable Johnny Rodz: Basically "Pac-Man: The Benny Hill Years".

Pac Google

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC70qYhKPi4

http://www.gamezone.com/images/screenshots/PacManDX_1.jpg

Will M: Not as mindbendingly fun and fresh as the first one but still a hell of a lot of fun. Plug in your arcade stick for maximum greatness.

World's Biggest Pac Man

Forksclovetofu: Compulsively replayable and intense to the point of tears. Somebody explain to me why they don’t put a mini version of this to play during the loading screens of every other game ever made for the rest of eternity.

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs37/i/2008/265/a/d/PAC_MAN_by_LabrenzInk.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXffgP9oYTY

http://i.imgur.com/4qkrT.jpg

top 5 baby!

one more and we'll do the final four shortly when i'm not work swamped.

HATER WARNING: i was so excited to play the mass effect games. i had to wait until ME2 was already out before i could get my pc good enough to play the first one. so much anticipation had built up in the meantime. the excitement about the idea of the game carried me thru maybe half of ME1 before it had all been burned up by the unengaging gameplay and the mindbogglingly tedious world they had created as a backdrop. how do you take something with the limitless potential of space and the future and make it so boring?? i borrowed ME2 off a friend just to see, but i couldn't play it. i had nothing else to play at the time and i still couldn't bring myself to load it up. the end.

i keep loading up ME2 to retry it but alas can never muster interest past the same bit everytime. but if feels like i SHOULD love this.

#5: Game Dev Story – iPhone/Android – 122 pts – 12 votes - Top iPhone game - Top Android Game
Official Game Site

if: A couple of years ago a friend gave me a football management game which was written and played entirely within Microsoft Excel. It was, of necessity, somewhat simplified - you changed the team each game based on injuries and tiredness, gradually made money and used it to replace your players with those with better stats (well, "stat" singular; it was just one number) then watched your team climb the divisions through results based on those stats with just a slight added element of randomness. Just plugging through the routine and gradually watching all the numbers go up was necessarily limited but weirdly addictive. While playing Game Dev Story I was acutely aware that in terms of complexity, it was very much closer to that football management game than to, say, Sim City. For at least the first two thirds of the twenty year lifespan of my imaginary game company it was a brilliant experience. Some of that was from the same basic enjoyment of watching the numbers go up, some was from its presentation, but the largest element was probably from its propensity for games industry satire - deliberate satire on the part of the makers, deliberate satire on the part of the player, but also an accidental, light touch satire which it just consistently seemed to generate almost every time something happened, every single success or failure a damning indictment on the tastes and actions of someone out of the industry workers and/or the fans at large.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xU-q6IfG8M

Why Is Game Dev a Great Game?

Jamescobo: Ten hours of fun for $4 doesn't sound like that great of a deal, especially compared to the value proposition offered by about 468438432038464 other games on the app store. On the other hand, it's a game that lets you make a game called ANUS LANDLORD. You'll definitely burn out quickly but those 10 or so hours where the game has its hooks in you are a magical blur of whimsy and profanity

The Tragic Story of Game Development

Sgt Biscuits: This thing functions as like a surrogate girlfriend to me, in that it provides a means for me to make unacceptably shit, offensive jokes without needing to have a "woman" there so I'm all "in a comfort zone" with to the point where I have "no filter". I paid $800k getting a renowned children's artist in to devise an art style for my romance simulator. I then titled it "Shrub Rapist". It shifted 4.9 million units. This game is Japanese, right?
The 14 character limit is kind of a drag though, if there was a bigger limit you could get cracking mileage out of making up lots of pretentious modern game names with colons in them, instead of not even being able to fit the "2" in when you make a cash-in straight-to-DS shovelware sequel.

http://www.gameblurb.net/wp-content/gallery/121010-game_dev_story/Game_Dev_Story_31.jpg

Eurogamer Review

Polyphonic: Also known as the week I accidentally stayed up until 3am every night and was a complete wreck at work.

http://www.wingdamage.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/game-dev-story3.jpg

govern yourself accordingly: The fact that i'm now taking extended bathroom breaks to play this while at my ACTUAL JOB AS A DEVELOPER is super weird.
That being said, I'm really happy that Dong Collapse was a massive hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsMMnnOp7RU

antexit: Other notable failures: My foray into dating simulators for the 8-bit market, Lonely Too Fat, was far ahead of its time. I also overestimated the demand for the town simulator Fuck Your Face 3 and rushed it prematurely into the marketplace near the end of its console's lifespan. The golf arcade game Cup My Balls was greeted with confusion in the press and the cool reception City of Pubes received in the same season nearly did me in. Thank god I had a surprise cash infusion with the one-off bookstore simulator Fuck Cunt Book. The rest is history...

In describing GDS, I tell people it's a game where you run an office, which sounds boring (and it mostly is) but you get to engage in videogame nostalgia and make up funny titles. See? It says Fat Fuck Guy is popular with 12-13 year olds! So if you're as entertained as I am by giving profane, offensive, obscene or ridiculous titles to mundane objects, it's a godsend. A little bit of game holds a mechanic together which allows me to make myself laugh with my tourette-y jokes without alienating my loved ones.

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/10/brokeback_game_dev.jpg

ZS: Sure, after the first 20-year cycle, the replay value is pretty much destroyed, and once you've managed to release a single million-selling game, you can pretty much coast through the rest of the game without trouble. But the first 6-8 hours of gameplay are totally addicting, great for killing train rides and very much worth 99 cents.

Ron Gilbert discuss GDS

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4091/5092821656_a0bd19c879.jpg

FART MAGNET STUDIOS IS SCREWING US AGAIN!!!1!1!!!1!!

s1ocki: this game plateaus so hard. once you do okay once, it's easy peasy street and there's nothing new for you to do or new challenges to face. Kinda lame.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4132/5092226153_d731fd48a8.jpg

Euler: When my dating life game "The Quims" made the hall of fame, I knew BumweiserWare had finally reached the top.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS9eP-3rcx8

Craig G: Of course I know it's just A Rockstar Ate My Hamster with 'funny' names for games, but damned if I didn't sink a lot of bus/waiting room/office lunch break hours into trying to even get a game that scored a 30.

Sequel on the way

forksclovetofu: Dude, if i paid you 2.4 mil you don't get to say "I don't know if I'll do well this time". It's 2010; designers are a dime a dozen. In good news, the Toot Toot harbor motion franchise is in full bloom and I expect an NYT trend piece shortly.

http://ui11.gamespot.com/1546/img0669_2.png

JimD: BOOBS! Game BOOBS story! Game Dev BOOBS! LOL!

... too much?

this quote from one of those angry bird links is kinda WHAAAAA

More compelling is the fact that not only do huge numbers download this game, they play it with such focus that the total number of hours consumed by Angry Birds players world-wide is roughly 200 million minutes a DAY, which translates into 1.2 billion hours a year. To compare, all person-hours spent creating and updating Wikipedia totals about 100 million hours over the entire life span of Wikipedia (Neiman Journalism Lab).

this is in my head now. I think i'm gonna finish it.
Sorry the time lapse has made it less of a grand finale and more of a grand finally.
thanks again to poly for helping me limp to the conclusion.

Let's do this!

woo hoo! Thanks for doing this gents.

#4: Super Mario Galaxy 2 – Wii – 149 pts – 10 votes - 2.33 top game votes - Top Wii Exclusive
Official Game Site

http://files.g4tv.com/rimg_606x0/ImageDb3/232903_l/Super-Mario-Galaxy-2.jpg

abanana: Proves that Nintendo's drones can pump out just as good a good a game as Miyamoto can.

Miyamoto New Yorker Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yat9LvFtixs

Zero Punctuation Review

if: Putting this at number one feels a lot like the easy route, the vote for the Arcade Fire as album of the year, but in this case there really is no other option. The best game of this gen, remade with new levels and with all of the same invention and creativity intact, as well as a few minor fixes (like the clock pickups making the timed levels more thrilling than frustrating). Clearly it was never going to have the same revelatory effect as the first one, and I'll take Rosalina and her storybook over the faceship every time, but the basic happiness from playing stills beats everything else.

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/03/rock_mario.jpg

Mario and Marston

Polyphonic: This was the year I finally played Super Mario Galaxy 1, and of course this game is not a huge departure from that one. Collectively these two games prove that Nintendo is still unmatched when it comes to level design. Constantly changing but always intuitive and built in a manner that is fun for gamers and noobs alike. When faced with the innovation of games like Portal and Braid, Nintendo proved that they can do stuff like that with their eyes closed without sacrificing mass appeal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK2ARyVHodY

Breaking Up with Mario

ilxor: Super Mario Galaxy 2 was my go-to game for most of the year. I played it two or three times through; am currently hunting for green coins. The puzzles are extremely clever and can be frustrating in parts (in a good way, promise). Two-player mode is addictive, and the nature of the P2 controls having a simple, secondary role allows for my elementary-aged kiddo to get in on the fun. Well-done Mario games are pretty much in a class of their own as far as I'm concerned. This one's perfect.

http://admintell.napco.com/ee/images/uploads/gamertell/super_mario_galaxy_2_luigi.jpg

Brainy Gamer sez “Nintendo does best on a flat earth”

tomofthenest: It's very good. More of the same, but so many ideas and so much fun. Most of the boring stuff from SMG1 has been ripped out and replaced with new cool stuff that works. Only criticism is that it's been a little on the easy side.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4_uixjvG5k

http://www.thespeedgamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Super-Mario-Galaxy-2.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh1uexrKEJI

A Metacritic Exploration of how SMG2 hit an overall 98 (now 97) score

Jeff Levine: Picked this up tonight and played for about an hour. There's something about hearing Mario go, "yeah" and "woo hoo" that is instantly more fun than most other games and puts a big, stupid smile on my face. Design and graphics so far impress (no surprise there). I especially enjoyed the first 2d section that introduces the game (I understand the game plays with 2d more?) and riding around on Yoshi - who feels especially powerful - so much better to be able to eat up those enemies than to bounce on their heads, toss star bits at them, do the spin attack, or run away.

http://cdn.gamerant.com/wp-content/uploads/miyamoto-on-super-mario-galaxy-2.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rD5AskvHWc

Iwata Asks

J0hn Darnie11e:I agree that the linear "you're here to do this task right now" nature of it is a little bit of a drag but the game is a blast otherwise. The purple coin treetrunk race was a fucking blast.

http://images.g4tv.com/ImageDb3/155843_S/Mario-Hails-A-Cab.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rw0KYdjQpw

Game Informer Rave

Autumn Almanac: I gave up on Sarah Michelle Gellar 2 after star 55 because of all the lazy timed/racing shit. It's 2010 and I don't want to be pissfarting around with that crap. It's a shame, because up until star 40-odd I was infatuated with this game. Thoroughly inventive but very, very boring when you're expected to execute the same perfectly-timed series of pinpoint jumps etc. 100+ times in succession. That's not fun.

http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/super-mario-galaxy-2_01.jpg

New Statesman Rave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WccS6q8Mo-U

A Comprehensive and Short Exploration of Mario History

Captain Lorax: This is better than the first one. I feel that it has a bit more emphasis on the gameplay. One of my top 3 games of the year.

http://www.lukejudge.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/1282342868-63.jpg

#3: Limbo –360 – 163 pts – 10 votes - 1 top game votes - Top XBLA Exclusive
Official Game Site

http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/microsoft/playdead/limbo/limbo610.jpg

if: The first section of Limbo was unrivaled in atmosphere all year - it may have been mostly basic 2D platforming but that was not as important as the darkness, the sense of dread, the creeping realization that yes, the entire world is against you! It later went on to lose the singular feel a bit and do some clever but rather more conventional puzzling, but the art and feel of it was still strong enough to make it all still hang together as one enjoyable experience. I enjoyed the deadpan sick humor of the deaths in it a lot more than similar in other games, too.

Zero Punctuation Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFvB3LNbs_U

Salsa Shark: One of the things I absolutely love about this game is that all of the puzzles can be figured out if you just think about them a bit. Limbo often rewarded contemplating and surveying your environment rather than jumping right into it.

Violence, Mystery and Meaning

http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb/GamesRadar/us/Daily/2010/06-Jun/25/overlooked%20e3%20games%20feature/limbo--article_image.jpg

Popmatters on Brutalizing Children

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1vexQzA9Vk

Brevity is etc

forksclovetofu: If you liked the idea of braid but couldn't handle the preciousness, this is your game. Best played after it gets dark; it's not an appropriate before noon game. That goddamn fly puzzle! And the moment when you see your sister, there she is, in the light, so close AND THE GODDAMN BRAIN WORM TURNS! Totally worth fifteen bucks and one of my favorite gaming experiences of '10.

http://www.popmatters.com/images/blog_art/l/limbo_splash.jpg

Mitch on Limbo’s “Smoke and Mirrors”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0mZ1iL11go

Craig G: I dropped the full 1200 MS Points just to play this for Coint and Plick a day before the end of polling and I'm so glad I did. The atmosphere is great and the puzzles were *just* hard enough that I eventually figured them out, but at times they kept me occupied for quite some time. The game is brutal, both in how violent the deaths your character suffers at the hand of bear traps, giant spiders, crushing blocks, etc and in how it teases you with glimpses of (what I assume is supposed to be) a way out of Limbo before snatching them away because a brain worm forces you to go the other way and when you return the landscape has changed into further trials.

Playdead Used a Skull to Test Limbo’s Audio

bnw: Beautifully done. We really need more games like this.

http://img.youtube.com/vi/Y4HSyVXKYz8/0.jpg

ledge: Very reminiscent of Another World (aka Out of This World). Inventive puzzles, evocative atmosphere, yadda yadda.

About that One Puzzle...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeigIQLgP_g

Gamespot on What Limbo Teaches the Industry

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lp54oRI0N7A/TF7VEl0jBII/AAAAAAAABqw/FwcRuA23yUY/s1600/limbo-4-spidey.jpg

Gamasutra on When Is Too Short Too Short?

http://inadawords.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Limbo-Screenshot-.jpg

Polyphonic: Another game that goes a long way with atmosphere and good level design. Everyone I've shown Limbo to has loved it, gamer or not. Reminds me of sidescrollers like Out of this World and the original Prince of Persia, but with great intuitive puzzles that never veer into the absurd like Braid and enough story to intrigue but never get in the way.

Learning from Death

Jordan: I love its positive attitude toward dying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRtXwqFig8A

Sorry, this one’s 360 only

#2: Fallout: New Vegas – PS3/360/PC – 189 pts – 10 votes - 3.5 top game votes - Top PC Game
Official Game Site

http://i.imgur.com/1E3Sp.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKIkw3LIoQ

Mordy: This had a multitude of bugs that kept it from placing higher, but despite those I still gave it about 20 hours or so before deciding to wait for a major patch or two. Half my vote is for what I've already seen -- a sharp, well-written game that is deserving of the Fallout brand (if you include Wasteland it's my favorite video game series of all time) -- and half for what I hope: that further patched play will reveal an incredible game. I'm embarrassed to admit that like a fallout-crack fiend, despite being disgusted by the early crashes, I still played about 4 hours of this last night. I got down to Primm and cleared that shit out (took a couple reloads tho, I'm not in love with my character build atm). It's very familiar to F3, especially wrt the types of items you find lying around. I'm playing on hardcore which is actually kinda hard (gotta remember to tote around purified water and food) and led to one of my cooler Fallout experiences. Someone got a critical head shot on me while I was in the middle of clearing Primm and since stimpacks don't heal critical damage on hardcore I basically continued to fight with my head in poor condition (since I didn't want to run away and see a doctor). Every few minutes the screen went all blurry and shaky and static came up, which was a really cool way of indicating trauma and reminded me of the malaria mechanics in Far Cry 2. It's hard killing gangers when you can barely see the screen or aim your gun.

Ice-T approves

http://i55.tinypic.com/25k4ck4.jpg

jjjusten: So yeah, people keep saying that this is just a content expansion pack for fallout III but eh I call bullshit, its a better swing at the fallout universe than III was in pretty much every way that matters - the characters are far better, your companions are more than just bullet sponges, the plot actually has legit moral choice based branches, the locations look better. yeah sure, its the same game mechanic, but once you peel back the grime filter from gta4 yer still pwning pedestrians and boning prostitutes, so whats the big deal. still loving this game but:
A) no one in the entire world will ever get excited about the stupid survivalist thing
B) some of the fixit quests are a little badly designed ie "here is a broken food processor, and here is the list of 74 pieces of junk you need to fix it. no, we will not keep track of this for you, so i hope you have a pen and paper handy"
C) some of the quests are pretty counter-intuitive, I've had to gamefaq a couple which always sucks.
that being said roaming the tight vault passages fuckin' peeps up with a chainsaw is like the best shit ever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOt4ToY0CdU

Zero Punctuation Review

NI: one of my favorite moments of the game was me and boone spending about an hour blowing away the mother and alpha male deathclaws and their clan in that mining pit. avoided it for so long as i'd heard deathclaws were pretty much unkillable this time round but boone + missiles + incinerator + my cunning technique of running up a mine chute squealing like a girl soon sorted them out.
im up to about level 24 now, only just entered the strip and i can sense the old FO3 syndrome of it getting too easy starting to kick in. been doing a bunch of no-risk 'wander about and chat to people' missions in camp mclarran and freeside and it's all getting a bit zzzz. the xbox loading times between locations is frustrating as hell too.

http://i.imgur.com/nTs9y.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibk-VudrLvE

Fallout Wiki

http://geekadelphia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/fallout_new_vegas.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7BmDzYSYxk

5 Essential PC Mods

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnyvF797X5A

Princess TamTam: combat's wayyy better imo - the true iron sights are a great addition, and because of that i've barely touched VATS so far. sneaking and sniping is my tactic of choice. enemies are still bullet sponges (im playing on very hard btw) which is unfortunate because I really prefer shooters where one well-placed headshot = a kill no matter what. the ammo variety is great, AP bullets actually work, and the new guns are all awesome and make bethesda's weapons look retarded (it's really jarring when you equip say the 10 mm pistol and it's this weird clunky made up gun that doesn't fit in with anything else), reload animations are sick nasty too. I was fully on-board when I walked into Nipton and the fucking Necropolis music from Fallout 1 started playing. Also, fucking JOHNNY GUITAR. Just as an aside, I think this game will be remembered as one of the most progressive AAA titles ever wrt its treatment of gay characters. Most of the v/o is a huge step up. It reminds me of how impressed I was by the presentation of the first Fallout... it was really cool that whenever you had a talking head convo, you knew you'd get some great voiceover from people like Clancy Brown, Ron Perlman, Keith David, Frank Welker, Richard Moll, etc. I took a break from the game this week, but I'm playing again today. I just got to Jacobstown, and lemme just say that I'm glad mutants have personality again instead of just being bellowing hulks.
Magnificent *kisses fingertips like a french sommelier*

http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Fallout-New-Vegas-e1287427297542.jpg

New Vegas Nexus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpVaSLTBlDY

http://admintell.napco.com/ee/images/uploads/gamertell/fallout_new_vegas_01.jpg

jeff: bugs so far today: got stuck between two crates that were seemingly stacked right next to each other. guess not. and then one where my fire button stopped working and my weapon would only fire when i exited out my pip boy menu. had a really fun vats experience where i just watched a gecko run at me in slow motion for a minute while my gun did nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr8SAAKhGVw

Gametrailers Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szvFN6P9slg

Craig G: A new Fallout game and Cowboys must be cool this (last) year I guess. A lot of people criticized New Vegas because it looked dated, still using the Gamebryo Engine. I guess I didn't notice this because it hadn't been that long since I finished playing Fallout 3 and all the DLC. That said, in spite of the fact it is my game of the year, for me New Vegas wasn't as good as Fallout 3, but in an intangible way. I guess it could be because Fallout 3 was something new, and I spent way more time just wandering around the environment looking at things, and exploring for the heck of it. New Vegas was familiar, and for that reason just not quite as exciting. It brought lots of nice additions though; modding weapons to stick a scope on my usual favorite the Hunting Rifle makes it pretty fun to wander the wastes picking off Bad Dudes. The new factions cover a wide range, and it was a pretty satisfying hour and half clearing out Cottonwood Cove and The Fort of the Legion jerks. I think it will be better for multiple playthroughs too, as the options available, both for side quests and main quests, seems more flexible than Fallout 3 was. Cannot be assed with playing Caravan though.

http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/fallout-new-vegas-dead-money-dlc-screenshot.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgSHKQO3wi8

Bare Life in the Wasteland: Biopolitics in F:NV

http://gamerfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Fallout-New-Vegas-Dance-Screen.jpg

Take the Tour

bnw: I'm playing hardcore mode. It's not really that tough so far, we'll see when my resources dwindle further. One fight gave me problems so far, took like 10 tries. I've had a couple freezes and a corrupt auto-save. Seen some coyotes stuck in the ground and some other animal stuck motionless on the road. Overall a bit of letdown as it's like a more buggy fallout 3. Also seems lacking in the great underground tunnels fo3 has. seems kinda silly that hardcore mode cripples you so realistically and effectively wrt injuries and weight and yet you can still "fast travel". You can even walk/run as fast as a gimp, you just limp at equal speed. I do think you're more vulnerable in those areas if crippled though. Also not a big fan of CRAFTING. So far it is completely unnecessary and just a pain to manage 8000 different ingredients. My character is a black lesbian obv.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ROU40z-9D2Y/TDq54ywROcI/AAAAAAAAAUU/o9CZqcULpjo/s1600/fallout-new-vegas-20100428000742851_640w.jpg

Ste: Some of the feelings i get from this game are too real and not fun enough lol. one mission had me lure some guy in front of a sniper. but i got told off for having no evidence. it was quite funny to see the guys head explode as i talked to him, but i felt really shitty when i was told off by the sniper guy.
need to level up before i go lurking into areas with deathclaws, they're sons a bitches but at least i got my egg!

Eurogamer Review

EZ Snappin: Might have been my game of the year if it didn't ship horribly fucking broken. Better story than F3, even more of a mess technically. If Obsidian ever manages to release a finished, working, product the world might end. I believe their "unnamed development project" after Dungeon Siege 3 is scheduled for release December 20, 2012. Make of that what you will. No bugs, still lovin' it (almost 10 hours in), playing with Wacky Kooky Wasteland but haven't seen anything kooky or wacky - just radscorpions, ghouls, molerats and the like. I'm enjoying it more than F3 at the beginning, and the humor seems less LOOK! FAN SERVICE FUNNY! than Fallout 3.

Forks’ Fallout 3 Soundtrack:
The Master Keys - I Don't Mind the Rain (Unreleased, radio)
Charles Brown - It Ain't Gonna Be Like That
Nat King Cole - Nature Boy
Son House - Low Down Dirty Blues
Dizzy Gillespie - Oop Pop A Da
Jack McVea - Open the Door Richard
The Stanley Brothers - Death Is Only a Dream
The Big Three Trio (Willie Dixon) - I Ain't Gonna Be Your Monkey Man
The DixieAires - Joe Louis Is a Fightin' Man
John Lee Hooker - Crawling King Snake
Amos Milburn - Bad Bad Whiskey
The Big Three Trio - Signifying Monkey
Redd Stewart - Brother Drop Dead Boogie
The Dominoes with Clyde McPhatter - The Bells
Earl Hooker - Sweet Black Angel
Eddie Boyd - Third Degree
June Christy with The Stan Kenton Orchestra - Everything Happens to Me
Howlin' Wolf - Evil
Junior Wells - Somebody Hoodooed The Hoodoo Man
Little Walter - Mellow Down Easy
Lambert Hendricks and Ross - Standin' On the Corner, Whistlin' at the Pretty Girls
Little Richard - Slippin and Slidin' Peepin' and Hidin' (Piano/Drum Demo)
The Starlight Gospel Singers - I Got a Right To the Tree of Life
The Weavers - Sixteen Tons
Bobby Blue Bland - You Got Bad Intentions
Bo Diddley - Hey! Bo Diddley!
Chuck Berry - Maybelline
Eddie Banks and The Five Dreamers - Sugar Diabetes
Elvis Presley - Blue Moon
Patience and Prudence - Tonight You Belong to Me

Nhex: coming back in 3 years after the fan patches make this playable

and your #1 game of 2010 with a bullet is:

NAUGHTY BEAR

#1: Red Dead Redemption / RDR Undead Nightmare – PS3/360 – 292 pts – 18 votes - 4.5 top game votes - Top PS3 Game - Top 360 Game - Most Votes - Most Top Game Votes
Official Game Site

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/101/0/5/Red_Dead_Redemption_by_patrickbrown.jpg

Matt D: It's pretty much pitch-perfect Western from the voice work to the vistas. The world has a great amount of verisimilitude and immersion, and a sort of weird self-awareness. At one point while searching for buried treasure, I realized I was in a cactus-free zone and the very moment I said to myself, “Damn, what am I doing here?”, Marsten said, “What am I doing out here?” Creepy, Rockstar. Everything sort of reacts as you'd expect: bandits are bandits, varmints are varmints, coyotes are coyotes. The combat is a step up from GTA IV (which I found a bit anachronistic); there's endless freedom to explore and the storyline is surprisingly good. This competes for the top spot among Rockstar's many offerings for sure. Can we have Tokyo next?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2r8S4uke34

Mitch Krpata: This being a Rockstar game, the story of Marston's quest for revenge — and, yes, redemption — is adorned with endless side missions and mini-games. At their best, they flesh out the world. What would an Old West setting be without some back-room poker? Some of this is busy work, like the series of challenges that send Marston into the wilds to hunt game under increasingly stringent conditions. Yet it's all worth pursuing just to experience the harsh environs, and to marvel, evenings, at the red sky in the West. Rockstar builds incredible worlds. Red Dead still showcased some of their worse qualities, but it also gave us their most compelling hero and their most beautiful environment.

NY Times Review

n/a: Admittedly this is pretty much the only 2010 game I played in 2010, but it's also almost the perfect game for me. I feel justified in naming it the best game of the year.

http://www.techlivez.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/RedDeadRedemptionLegendsandkillers2.jpg

jjjusten: Loved it to death until it became terribly terribly samey and boring; find the herb/critter hunting quests for level ups are total bullshit. On the plus side, this is the first game where riding a horse didn't make me want to break shit in my house. It looks absolutely gorgeous.

Zero Punctuation Review

Lamp: There are so many aspects of Red Dead Redemption that I found deeply stupid ,but its one of the rare games i felt compelled to finish this year. Others will, I’m sure, write more fluently and more passionately about it but damn did I ever... uh... finish it.

http://www.gameplayreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/PS3-Red-Dead-Redemption.wmv_000095217.jpg

ledge: Who knew a GTA clone set in a desert (wait a minute, that's literally a sandbox...) would be so fun. Less irritatingly repetitive gameplay than GTA IV, a more engaging story and and less ridiculous cutscenes; plus it was good fun just to chill out in the desert and spend some time shooting rabbits and coyotes and pumas and armadillos and bears and crows and wolves and boar and eagles and... I do agree that the missions end up being repetitive, but it's not as bad as GTA IV was for that, and also the various challenges do add a bit of spice. Okay, picking herbs gets a bit dull but i had fun trying to find all the different critters to kill, searching out the treasure, etc. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the depth in the gameplay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYdCvN-ukRY

bnw: King Kong of 2010. Writing, atmosphere, and voice acting all on a different level then the rest of the field. Biggest complaint would be that it gets a little grindy with repetitive side quests.

Red Dead Wiki

Polyphonic: A few of my friends and I brought our 360s together to play this game as one big posse. It was probably the nerdiest thing I've ever done, and caused me to seriously question the life decisions that led me down that path. But fuck it, it was fun. There are few moments in my gaming life that I will ever treasure more than when I killed that bear in the snows of Tall Trees with only my knife, or when I drifted up on my RS to see a starry sky as I hunted for armadillo carapaces -- only to be mauled to death by a cougar.
The single player storyline was very good, probably the best Rockstar has done to date, and the closest they've come to gameplay that is actually fun in and of itself. But the star of this game is the atmosphere. Also, the zombie overrun multiplayer co-op is fucking great.

http://wallpaperswide.com/thumbs/red_dead_redemption_raccoon-t2.jpg

Jimmy Mod : I just met my first cougar. The meeting did not go well.

A World In Motion

http://resource.mmgn.com/Games/PS3/Red-Dead-Redemption-Undead-Nig-1.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI8lAbwUoEk

The Value of Rewards

Captain Lorax: Sort of on the short side but this game was real sweet. Especially the HD graphics. Perhaps the best part of the game is the first couple days of playing it.

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Red-Dead-Redemption-Lasso-3-e1282570567790.jpg

JimD: I didn't actually finish RDR, and I don't think it's that good as a game (it shares a lot of GTA's flaws while lacking a lot of its dumb fun) but as a world it's fucking amazing. It just feels like a totally believable immersible recreation of a certain time and place, which is kind of a new thing for games to do, and I hope lots more games do it in the future. Bonus points for multiplayer too, which was good for big stop-shooting-me-in-the-horse lulz.

Get Your Tropes On

ZS: The "shoot 5 flying birds from a moving train" challenge was like the chillest assignment I have ever received. If only real life challenges were so relaxing. YES, I want to name my horse, YES I would like to name it Michael Lindington, and NO I don't care who knows it. I've been getting up and down off the horse every time, listening to John Marston say "ooooh...this is DIRTY"

http://www.bild.de/BILD/digital/spiele/2010/actionspiele/03/19/red-dead-redemption/bilder/13-rdr-15487223-mbqf.jpg

Tracer Hand : i have logged approx 5,000,000,000,000 hours with this game. i was just about ready to launch my assault and unlock mexico but my horse died right before the big race - the one i'd spent hours getting to know! so fuck - i spent a good while looking for the kentucky saddler but never found him so finally i just went on an all-night hunting binge, leveling up enough to buy the kentucky saddler outright
something happened while out hunting that sums up this game, and all its nonsensical, fabulous breathlessness
1 - trying to kill a coyote i somehow ended up aiming straight down into my horse and pulled the trigger (!)
2 - my horse was still alive but my honor dropped and suddenly lawmen were on my tail
3 - trying to outrun them, i heard the sound of a train and realized one was headed past right in front of me
4 - i managed to race the train and dart just in front of it, cutting off the lawmen and saving my sorry ass!
total movie moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KixTRyxkyU

Things that get you an M these days: opium and sex on a table

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVVXyKP1FVk

http://i44.tinypic.com/24y20yt.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZUUVV2rjoc

Forks’ RDR Country Soundtrack mix:
Buck Owens - I Got A Tiger By the Tail(1965)
Cherryholmes - Black and White (2007)
Cherryholmes - Don't Believe (2008)
Anonymous Young Girls - Hopali (1930's?)
The Carter Family - See That My Grave Is Kept Green (1933)
Cinderella G Stump - Temptation (1947)
The Carter Family - Keep On the Firing Line (1941)
Chet Atkins - Tennessee Stud (?)
Bill Monroe and Doc Watson - Chicken Reel (1963)
Alex Hood's Railroad Boys - L and N Rag (?)
Alfred G Karnes - I Am Bound for the Promised Land (?)
Alfred G Karnes - We Shall All Be Reunited (?)
Basil May - The Lady of Carlisle (?)
The Carver Boys - Sisco Harmonica Blues (?)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford - Lulu Wall (1939)
Buell Kazee - A Short Life of Trouble (1939)
Charlie Bowman and His Brothers - Moonshiner and His Money (1929)
Blue Highway - Where Did the Morning Go? (2007)
Charlie Poole and The North Carolina Ramblers - If the River Was Whiskey (?)
Cal Stewart - Monkey on a String (?)
Ben Curry - I Heard the Voice of a Pork Chop (?)
Ben Curry - It's A Fight Like That (?)
Daddy Stovepipe and Mississippi Sarah - The Spasm (?)
Bill Carlisle - Feet Don't Fail Me (?)
Asher Sizemore and Little Jimmie - Little Jimmie's Goodbye to Jimmie Rodgers (?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Di2eOr-kqs

Mayor Jingleberries: played this drunk last night and my horse got killed by some rampaging animal. So I got upset and starting killing anyone I came across to get their horse. I guess your not allowed to murder fools for their horses when you think its convenient. I guess you’re supposed to find a riderless horse out there...?

goole: i think i'm around the 40% mark, in the game's second act in Mexico, and i haven't interacted with one indian yet. i don't think there are any in the game at all. i think this is significant, somehow. i like that the game is in 1911, a "late western" about the closing of the frontier rather than an early one about opening it. maybe this is just to allow them to put more interesting guns in the game, or riff off the meta-westerns like the wild bunch or there will be blood (a town called plainview? really?). plus it doesn't shy away from politics at all; every other dude wants to talk to you about federal power. anyway, the setting's early-20th-century-ness is really present and apparent to me and i'm really liking it. speaking of politics, there's the politics of Rockstar's media reputation, and i'm getting ongoing chuckles from the (what i take to be) anti "hot coffee" vibe of the whole thing. no matter which path you take, the John Marston character is (so far) faithful to his wife as a given. the prostitutes say stuff like ""I hate to see a man with such a dry pecker... can I help?"and our killer just says "my wife wouldn't like that" or something. the writing and v/o is head and shoulders above even IV. the mission design is finally good. the secondary challenges are interesting well-thought out, hit that grinding w/o grinding sweet spot. the body physics and gun combat are excellent (the gta games are kind of bad as shooters, really!) I'm not totally without complaints but most of the things that bugged me about the GTAs have been mostly fixed. and the things it does well it does really really well. you can't underestimate how important it is to have a game be pretty. funny i think it's closest to bully in terms of uh vibe, maybe cos of the atmosphere and hazy old-timeyness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD2ywdtvK-8

Cozen: jesus, the sky in this game

Get Your Tropes On

Jim D: Huge lolz last night - I wandered up to that little cave where West Dickens lives, and found him stood there rambling away to himself while pissing onto his own bed. Went a bit closer to try and get a better look (yes, I was looking for his winkie), but accidentally bumped into him, which caused him to fall face first into his own pissy matress and lie there shouting about what a bastard I was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8IonrlZp74

Forksclovetofu: On a river bed, I found an old man doubled over holding his head. A woman was laid out in front of him, bloody and dead. When I stopped and walked up to him, he stood up and shakily held a gun to his own head. I ran up and pushed him. He dropped the gun and began weeping and then finally glaring at me angrily until I rode away. That’s not a video game, that’s a Cormac McCarthy short story.
My main issue with this game is: riding along minding my own business, "help save my baby" from the side of the road, I pull off my horse and before I know what's up someone is shooting at me, I return fire, kill some old lady and now the game is shaking its head at me with a “what were you thinking” attitude. Then, cougar attack.
I just went south of the border and the amazing and very clearly directorially planned moment with the Jose Gonzalez music was awesome; as deeply affecting as anything I’ve ever seen in a game. Then I got eaten by wolves. This is a lot less like GTA and a lot more like Fallout 3
There’'s a lot less relatably icky gang bullshit and putting caps in people's asses than GTA but the game is about two steps away from blatant racism; the first guy I met in Mexico might as well have been Al Pacino playing Tony Montana which didn't even make sense. There is a definite parochial "save us old white guy we cannot survive without you" vibe. Also there's a real disregard for life that even GTA never fostered; the game invites you to kill kill kill every animal you encounter... weirdly, that puts you somewhat of the game’s time though?
All the above aside, I recommend this wholeheartedly and would definitely say it's the best thing Rock Star has ever done.
BRB LEVELLIN' MY DONKEY

Machinima Directors Are Suddenly Taken Seriously

MPx4A: I lassoed a guy off a hooker to try and go the taking him alive route, but it just made him fall headfirst into a wall and he died anyway. The drunk guy that sometimes falls out of the bar seems to be immune to punches. I tried to lasso his body to drag him to the cells for the night and he disappeared, leaving only his hat. I kind of hope they don't patch any of that shit. It's happened to me twice that I've seen a guy standing on his own in the middle of the wilderness, waving his hands and looking scared, and then I've got off my horse to talk to him, he's immediately tried to ride off on it, and I've shot him and then lost 50 honor as a result. I too have accidentally shot my horse in the neck, minutes after maxing out its loyalty. I did not skin it. Do you know why? It was out of respect.

forks shot me in the head. never forget.

lol, u were asking for it.
anyways, sorry this took six months to finish. Hopefully it stands up for the future and for the rest of your 2011 gaming as these are all now heavily discounted or cheap games to get and they're all at least worth a look.
Anybody wanna do a final list round up for me maybe?

ooh good job forks (+ poly). guess i should switch on my xbox & buy limbo then huh.

highly recommended.

in retrospect i have one huge regret that i forgot to vote for and really loved, and that is mafia II. hands down the best soundtrack for a game ever, esp if you are into some fairly obscure shit from the era

ledge: Very reminiscent of Another World (aka Out of This World).

Sold! Or, uh, would be, if I had a 360

http://mafiagame.wikia.com/wiki/Mafia_II_Soundtrack

i actually used to pop the game in and just park the car and wander around listening to the ingame radio play - its that awesome. gameplay is pretty great too - shortish, but tells a good story.

good job forks and poly. have been told how great new vegas supposedly is more than once now, will stop having a life and get on it.

regarding #3, be sure to check out "indie mode" in Upgrade Complete 2

thanks forks
now I'm the one with some catching up to do

dam man

thanks forks/polyphonic!

(lol)

http://chiakiproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/psp-kon.jpg

should've used this pic for ME2:

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/40299_488645109198_602254198_6935537_3221638_n.jpg

i was banking on fonv making the top 3 with an outside shot at #1 - i gave it the highest number of points i could - i havent even heard of many of the games on the list since i dont have a smart phone and im not a console gamer (what in the hell is Limbo)

great job dudes!

definitely convinced me to pick up a lot of stuff here, esp. Limbo and Pac Man DX

JimD: I can't explain why I haven't got bored of this, because in a sense I was bored as soon as I started playing. It really doesn't feel very different to any number of flash games that have gone before, but perhaps it's one of those situations where the game is just a perfect fit for the format. Angry Birds is exactly the kind of non-game you want for a 15 minute train journey and that's where most of my gaming happens these days. The constant drip feed of new levels is a plus too.

otm on Angry Birds

Arrgh not to be mr contrary corner but I just played limbo for an hour and while I like the atmosphere the jump button recognition is fucking terrible

Ok never mind, switched controllers and I guess I have a sorta worn a button in that one, carry on

I guess I have a sorta worn a button

It's-a me, jjjusteno!

Limbo would've got points from me too, if I'd played it in time. Probably not enough to put it ahead of FONV though.

Oops, when I posted last night I hadn't noticed we'd reached #1! Many thanks, forks and poly.

hahaha nice jimD

still on the fence on limbo, it teeters right on the hairline between fun and frustration - i dig the puzzles that take clever thinking (and actually this seems to have more of these than most platformers i play these days) but i hate when they sink into the lazy end of precise timing and placement of jumps and repetition - basically once I figure out the trick to what you want me to do, I don't feel any further reward by replaying the sequence until i get it just right.

atmosphere is great tho, and some of the tweaks (brainworms and ambiently lit rotating worlds) are really great ideas.

ending is great
the less backstory they try to provide for the game, the better it is imo
really impressed that they managed to avoid being overly twee or goth all the way through

About halfway through Limbo now. Great stuff. These guys clearly loved Out of this World and Prince of Persia. Good job, ILG.

hmmm.... I also love out of this world and prince of persia. guess I should play this one.

thanks forks and poly, as ever this was a blast to read. feel bummed that i didn't get it together to vote in time, though i don't think i played many 2010 games in 2010: spent most of the year playing Fallout3, which was a revelation tbh. Have to say I've played so much Worms2 on the iphone that I would've voted for that, but I am a Worms addict so ymmv.

Is New Vegas still too broken to play? Have been waiting for it to get real cheap.



http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=128148751

I have no idea where that link came from, but I suspect trypo thread, probably best not clicking.

ending is great

I do not concur. Not as bad as LeChuck's Revenge, but it's up there. TBF I can see how for other people they'd be down with that style of conclusion (but that moment when you beat the final puzzle was like whoaaah~~).

Still, great game! Agree w/jjjusten about the puzzles that required death after death until you got the split-second timing down being a bit of a letdown, especially compared to Portal 2's approach. But the majority of the puzzles were clever and satisfying (there was only one puzzle where I cheated to look for a FAQ towards the end - the first time where you have to hit a switch in mid-air, because I had no idea that even was a switch), and the art and sound design tops. I really love a game with such effective emotional direction.

See i LIKED the lechuck's revenge ending so we're just on different pages

sometimes it's like, i don't even know you dawg

I'm forks.