The Best of 2010

So that’s it 2010 has come to an end. It has been a great year for games with records being broken at every major release and a host of superb games from all formats and genres.

It's only right that I make this post the obligatory, best of 2010. I am going to give a rundown of what I thought were some of the best games released this year. A few rules before we get things going:

- Games can be from any platform

- Games can be from any genre

- Obviously they had to have been released this year

- And most importantly......I have to have played.

So bearing that in mind I may miss some of your favourites as I simply didn't get round to playing the numerous titles released to the masses in 2010.

Now without further ado, let's get this thing started.

Bioshock 2

The year started out with a sequel, a big one at that, Bioshock 2 was a follow up to one of the most atmospheric games released in recent years. You take the role of a prototype Big Daddy, who is somehow more powerful than standard Big Daddy's, I think 2K missed the lesson on how prototype models work. Anyway the game plunges you back into the underwater world of Rapture which has now been taken over by a new menace. It is your job to uncover what is going on and escape as soon as possible. I was skeptical of this game at first as Bioshock was all encompassing and was in no need of a sequel, that's why I didn't play Bioshock 2 until the end of the year. I finally picked it up once the price dropped and gave it the time it deserved. Although the story wasn't as enthralling as the first game, the combat mechanics were tightened up making the action a lot more entertaining. Guns, plasmids and equipment were a lot more fun to use and made the game play extremely enjoyable, I'm looking at you rocket spears. If you are still yet to play this sequel, maybe due to the same reasons I had, put those feelings aside and pick up the game. You won't regret it.

God of War III

Kratos’s epic journey comes to its conclusion in the last instalment of the God of War series. Hell bent on his revenge with the Gods, Kratos along with his allies the Titans storm Mount Olympus to finally kill his father Zeus. Now many have said that this is the weakest game of the trilogy in terms of narrative and I’m inclined to agree with them however in terms of graphic capability this pushed the bar for what is possible on home consoles. The lighting effects and sheer scope of the levels is like nothing seen before in games. For that reason it earned a spot on my game of the year list. Oh and you can’t go wrong with tearing a gods head off with your bare hands.

Infinity Blade

As my review last week should tell you, I really enjoyed this game. Although I have now 100% completed it on my iPhone I am playing through again on the iPad. Something about it just draws you back in, its game play mechanics are extremely simple yet somehow very addictive. The perfect concoction for mobile gaming, add to that some of the best graphics on any mobile device thanks to the use of the Unreal Engine and you have a winner.

Mass Effect 2

Once again Bioware have done what they do best and created a world with a vast arcing story controlled by player’s moral choices, not only from within Mass Effect 2 but carrying choices over from the previous instalment to shape this sequel. You reprise your role as Commander Shepard, once again imbuing him or her with your own look and personality. The story is vast and has you travelling through space assembling a team to take down a common enemy, known as the Collectors.

To put it simply Mass Effect 2 is a mammoth achievement in game design and narrative. With over a hundred different player choices implemented to change the outcome of the game and a fast paced combat mechanic, mix into that heavy RPG elements and squad based shooter tactics. It is easy to see why Bioware reign supreme in this game genre. 

  

Heavy Rain

This was one of my most anticipated games for 2010. I had followed it from its early announcements, played the ARG game that preceded it and by the time its February release date rolled round I was ready to have my mind blown by Quantic Dream’s unique game.

In Heavy Rain you play the role of Ethan Mars, a man whose life is shattered when he loses his son Jason. Wrought with guilt Ethan blames himself for his son’s demise and spirals into depression. His wife soon leaves him and his only ray of light in the dismal world he inhabits is his other son Shaun. Unfortunately for Ethan the fates are against him as a serial killer on the loose known only as ‘The Origami Killer’ kidnaps Shaun. It is up to Ethan, and a few others to try and find the killer and Shaun before it is too late. 

I have been told i bare a striking resemblence to Ethan....What do you think?

Heavy Rain is an extremely story driven game and although there is not much in the way of game play, Quantic Dream did an amazing job in making the player feel immersed in the game world without breaking the stories somber mood. To call this a game though is an injustice, it is more an interactive experience. Borrowing techniques from the movie industry and melding it with great game design to make something that is truly unique. If you have the chance to experience this ground breaking title then do so. 

Darksiders

Very much a sleeper hit for me this year. Not many people bought this game as on the outside it looked like an average adventure game with the main character looking like something a World of Warcraft artist drew after taking a load of speed and being let loose with a paint brush.

However Darksiders was an entertaining romp through a fantasy world in a very much comic book style tone. This could be seen in both the character design, and the use of bold and vibrant colours added to the over the top feel. The game played very much like a Zelda game, action and combat mixed with some puzzle solving. All set to a story of Gods and Demons in an epic war with you caught smack bang in the middle. Honourable mention once again has to go to Mark Hamill for his superb voice acting as The Watcher, a character you just love to hate. 

Red Dead Redemption

Rockstar’s amazing Wild West saga has you taking the role of John Marston, a former outlaw who is forced to hunt down his old gang members in exchange for his family who is being held by the government. The open wilderness of 1911 America is simply breath taking and Rockstar have done an outstanding job in making the environment feel as alive as possible. Whether you are riding horseback across a barren desert to find lonely travellers or exploring the frosty snow peaked mountains in hunt of that elusive grizzly bear. Everything about this game just feels right, encompassing the player in a believable world where they can live out the fantasy of being a gunslinging bad ass. 

  

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Now I know that it is cliché to have this in the list and that the single player portion of the game was a whole load of average...BUT the multiplayer and zombie mode still stand out as some of the best game play modes consoles have to offer. I know the multiplayer is like marmite to people you either love it or hate it, but in my opinion it is a lot more balanced than Modern Warfare 2 and also contains the ever enjoyable Wager Matches. As for Zombie mode, I really don’t need to say anything about that. You already know how good it is.

....and that my friends are my picks for the year that was 2010.

I hope you enjoyed my little list and thoughts on the games that really had an impact on me throughout the year. As we look ahead to 2011 we have a LOT of great games to look forward to and I’m certain even more records will be broken and developers will find more ways to get us to engage with their games.

Who knows....maybe this will be the year where you will see my name in the credits of one of those all time great games.

Anyway whatever you’re doing and whoever you are with I hope you have a fantastic New Year and that good times are ahead for all.

See you all in 2011!!

Infinity Blade

This is the first game to utilise the mobile version of the highly successful Unreal Engine. Created by Chair for Apples iOS devices the game revolves around the player controlling an unnamed soldier who appears at a mysterious and daunting castle to avenge his father’s death. The player then moves through the castle tackling the many adversaries that stand in his way until he reaches the final boss, the ‘God King’.

The Controls

Chair has done a phenomenal job in fully utilizing the iPhone’s touchscreen to make the controls as simple and intuitive as possible. Navigating around the castle is done by simple taps on the screen at pre determined locations. This then displays a cut scene of your character moving around. The main bulk of the game is portrayed through fights with various enemies throughout the castle. Fight controls are again extremely simple. Swiping in any direction causes the player to attack with the equipped weapon.

For defensive purposes Chair have added a number of options, players can tap to dodge left or right of the enemies incoming attacks, they can use their defence points by blocking with their equipped shield or they can parry by timing a swipe in perfect sync with the enemies direction of attack. All these options should give the player the upper hand over any obstacle. I found during my time with the game the most effective form of defence is to simply dodge the attacks, as parrying is too difficult to time correctly and blocking with the shield does not give you enough time to counter.

Players are also able to utilise magic rings with a variety of abilities. Depending on what ring you have equipped will give you different powers, for example: A fire ring will require you to draw a circle on the screen, when prompted, to perform a devastating fire attack.

RPG Elements
Before its release, Chair announced that, Infinity Blade would carry elements of an RPG game. This can be found in the character customisation options. As with most role playing games you are able to equip your warrior with various sets of armour, weapons and magic boosting rings.

All of which can be levelled up with XP earned from your battles. Once a set is mastered it can then be sold in the store and new more powerful equipment can be bought and the process repeated. I think once players learn the attack patterns of the various combatants the core mechanic of the game switches to become more of a level grind, that’s not to say that isn’t extremely entertaining. You will have hours of fun working your way through the varied weapons and armour to reach the new level cap of 45.

The Looks

To say that Infinity Blade looks good on an iPhone is a massive understatement. This is easily one of the best looking portable games I have ever seen. In terms of visual quality it could easily rival games found on much more powerful handhelds like the PSP. Add to that a stirring orchestral score and brutal fight sound effects and you have got a game that truly stands above the crowd in terms of visual quality.

Overall

Although the campaign is extremely short, took me around 20 minutes to finish the first time, and essentially is the same game play over and over again I still found myself returning to Infinity Blade. Its simple controls and RPG elements create a game that just keeps you coming back for more. Using the age old hook of “oh I’ll just defeat this bad guy........then just level up this sword.......then earn enough to buy this armour” and before you know it your battery is drained for the rest of the day. To put it simply if you own an iPhone then make sure that Infinity Blade is a game that you own. You will not regret it.

I'll give Infinity Blade 8 out of 10.

Merry Xmas to everyone

I just want to thank everyone who reads and comments on this blog and to wish you all a very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.

Keep an eye out for my next post where I will be running down my favourite games from 2010.

See y'all next time.

VGA

Last night the L.A Convention Centre played host to the 2010 Spike Video Games Awards (VGAs). As you can imagine the industry’s biggest and brightest were there enforce to celebrate their accomplishments over the past year and announce the games we can look forward to in the year ahead.

The show was hosted by the Legen....wait for it.......dary Neil Patrick Harris, who himself won an award for Best Male Voice acting in the game Spider-man Shattered Dimensions.

The big winners this year were Rockstar for their game Red Dead Redemption. They walked away with 4 awards including Game of the Year and Best Original Score. An honourable mention also goes to Bioware for picking up Studio of the Year and Best RPG for their work on Mass Effect 2.

This is all well and good celebrating what has come and gone, however as always with our industry it’s about the future and what we have to look forward to......and oh boy do we have a lot to look forward to.

There were many game announcements last night including the hotly anticipated Mass Effect 3 and Batman: Arkham City.

I am extremely intrigued by the fact that Mass Effect 3 is coming back to Earth, I cannot wait to see what Bioware is cooking up for their vision of our planet in the distant future. As you can see from the trailer certain landmarks still exist, although a bit worse for wear. 

Batman is as always doing what he does best, taking down what seems to be the personal army of Dr Hugo Strange. So does this mean that the Joker has taken a side step in the proceedings or will he rear his ugly head later on? We will just have to wait to find out.

Along with these it is nice to see a welcome return for one of my favourite PS2 franchises, SSX Snowboarding. Although the trailer shows a more dark and rugged style of game play I’m not sure if this sits well with me as of yet. SSX was always a game that was bright and colourful filled with over the top stunts and tricks, whereas this reboot of the game seems to be taking a more serious tone.

I will keep my eye on this one.

Guillermo Del Toro the renowned movie director has also announced his move into game development and displayed a teaser for his new horror game ‘Insane’. He will be developing this with the Volition team, who were the people behind Saint’s Row. If you are familiar with Del Toro’s work then you will be more than aware he has a brilliant eye for visual flare and creating fantastical worlds and creates.

Naughty Dog also brought their heavy guns and released a teaser trailer for Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception. The video depicts Nathan stranded in a vast desert after seemingly crash landing a plane nose first. The entire video was apparently running in game and just shows off the amazing technical skill of the guys and girls at Naughty Dog. To say this game looks incredible is an understatement....its looks insanalicious (Insane and delicious crammed together to make a new epic word).

....and finally the pièce de résistance..... Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim!!

I am a big fan of the Elder Scrolls series and lost hundreds of hours playing Elder Scrolls Oblivion. So to finally see a date and a teaser trailer for the next instalment is pant wettingly exciting. Looks like Dan Bull finally got through to Bethesda...

That’s your lot for this week. A nice quick update on what’s been going on in the world of gaming. Look out next week for my review of the Unreal engine powered iPhone game Infinity Blade.

Have a great week people.

The Spire

This week I have something very special for you all. It is a preview of an amazing indie title from the newly formed Raw Games studio. 

Raw Games Studios

The Spire is a first person, puzzle, survival game based in an underground facility beneath the frozen plateau of the Antarctic. You take the role of David Samuel Maher who awakes in the confines of the facility with a very strange piece of equipment attached to his arm. ‘The Tool’ allows David to manipulate objects and the very world he inhabits, giving him the ability to push, pull, grab and even crush enemies and items from afar.

As he progresses he will gain upgraded powers for ‘The Tool’ like the ability to polarize objects, giving targets either a positive or negative charge and causing them to crash wildly into each other or repel sending them flying apart. With David suffering from amnesia he must uncover the reasons of how and why he came to be in this situation and using ‘The Tool’ solve the many puzzles to help him escape The Spire.

  

Eye Candy

To say this game looks amazing is truly an understatement. For an indie title this game could easily take on some of the Triple A big hitters out in the market today. The atmosphere and art work in the game is breath taking, giving it a ‘Portal’ feel but being portrayed in a much darker tone. Think Dead Space meets Portal and you will be on the right lines.

A teaser trailer was recently released to give people a first taste of what they can expect from this phenomenal title.

The Spire - December 2010 Teaser Trailer - Indie DB

Help A Brother Out

At the time of writing this blog The Spire and Raw Games are in the running for the Top 100 Indies of 2010. It would be amazing to see this game to get the recognition it so truly deserves. It is not often we see something so innovative and so polished that we can just let this pass us by. So please if you have the time, take 2 seconds out of your day to click the link here and vote for this game to win.

Right that’s it for another week. If you like what you see here then please I urge you to visit the Raw Games site, vote for them at IndieDB and generally pass the word around. It is imperative that we support up and coming studios like this if we want to see new, fresh gaming experiences.

Thank you all for reading. See y’all next week.