I do things a bit differently than most sites out there. Rather than hand out the awards for the games released this year, I hand them out to games I played this year. So, here goes.
DuncanR2N's 2010 Year End Game Awards
2010 RPG of the Year
Nominees:
Final Fantasy X-2 PS2 2003 | Mass Effect 360 2007 | Kingdom Hearts PS2 2003 |
 |  |  |
I played several RPGs this year, but the three that stuck out the most were Final Fantasy X-2, Mass Effect and Kingdom Hearts. I've said several times that Mass Effect doesn't really feel much like an RPG but for this I'll follow the accepted classification of an RPG. Final Fantasy X-2 is in here because it was such a departure from the standard FF game it was refreshing. It continued the story presented from FFX but it was a totally different game. The dressphere was a nice approach to the Job system from previous FFs and gave you some nice flexibility in battle by letting you switch jobs on the fly. You were limited to three characters the entire game, but you could build the characters however you wanted. Mass Effect was a huge evolution in the approach of an RPG by making it almost a third-person shooter. The story was great, the characters were great and the fact that you could be a total jerk or the nicest guy in the universe was really great. It also happens to have one of my favorite opening cutscenes from any game ever. That takes me to Kingdom Hearts, a game I actually hated when I first started playing it. I ended up really liking it, so much so that I jumped into the GBA sequel and tore that up pretty quickly. Kingdom Heart was a nice mesh of Disney and Square. My two biggest beefs were that the battle system was a too simplistic and the story was a bit too bubble gum. I'm giving the RPG award to Mass Effect, but, know that Final Fantasy X-2 was in a very close second.
2010 RPG of the Year:
2010 Action/Adventure of the Year
Nominees:
Red Dead Redemption 360, PS3 2010 | Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood PS3, 360 2010 | Shadow of the Colossus PS2 2005 | God of War III PS3 2010 |
 |  |  |  |
This was a tough category for me this year not only in narrowing down the list to just 4 but also actually picking the winner. God of War III was released this year and there were a lot of expectations with it from a visual, gameplay and storyline aspect. For the most part, it met those expectations. It was stunning visually, with the camera zooming in and out frequently to show the scale of just exactly how big these titans really are. Gameplay itself was exactly what I expected (that's a good thing) and for the most part, the story was good. Red Dead Redemption blew my mind. The world that Rockstar created was so detailed that it at time I became lost in the experience. The storyline was fantastic; I was completely drawn into the story. Shadow of the Colossus was a singular experience, much like it's predecessor, Ico, you are given very little background about your character, your environment or really anything other than your objectives. It's a unique game that is hard to describe. Breaking it down to the core elements of gameplay do it a disservice as it looses the spirit of the game. Finally, there is Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. The continuing story of Ezio Auditore de Firenze. And what a story it was. Brotherhood built upon the previous games by taking some of the great parts of both games and incorporating them into a very unique package. So, now to the hard part. For 2010 I've settled on Red Dead Redemption. It was a fantastic experience and for someone like me who loves Westerns, it really hit a sweet spot with me.
2010 Action/Adventure of the Year
2010 Platformer of the Year
Nominees:
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy PS2 2001 | Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus PS2 2002 | Super Mario World SNES 1991 | Klonoa Wii 2009 |
 |  |  |  |
This one was a tough one for me. I played a lot of good platformers this year but I think these were really good. Jak was a straight up pure platformer. And I really enjoyed it, difficulty was just right. Sly was an interesting game, again with the more straightforward platforming but with some stealth additions and upgrades to your abilities. Super Mario World was, well, Super Mario; 2D platforming greatness. Klonoa was also a very unique experience, as it was essentially a 2D platformer in a 3D world. It starts out easy, but has some fairly complex platforming by the end. Again, a great game. It was really hard to pick a single game for the 2010 platformer. I waffled between Klonoa and Super Mario World but at then I had to give it to Super Mario World because Klonoa was just a bit too short.
Winner:
2010 Shooter of the Year
Nominees:
Halo 3: ODST 360 2009 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 360, PS3 2009 | Halo: Reach 360 2010 | Dead Space 360, PS3 2008 |
 |  |  |  |
I played a bunch of Halo. Halo 3: ODST was nice, a step in the right direction. Introduced you to another part of the Halo universe, as you stepped into the shoes of a regular old grunt. The game's structure was also a huge departure for the series as it was a hub-based game with you returning to the same main area in between levels. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is only on here for one reason, the co-op levels. That was the sole redeeming quality of the game, and it was really fun. The single player campaign was horrible. Halo: Reach was a great game. It holds the distinction of being the first Halo game that I actually really like and felt like it deserved the accolades that it got. Great start to the whole storyline, the new engine and the new 'vision' of the Halo universe was fantastic. Dead Space was interesting. I have a hard time calling it fun as it was so gruesome and you hated having to turn the corner. I guess then it did it's job as it filled you with a sense of dread through the whole game. It was an experience. Level design sucked though and was very nonsensical. To turn on a the power to a bridge, I have to go into a Zero-G tube (on the planet's surface?) to the end, flip the switch to activate the power which in turn not only activates the bridges but also the deadly rotating fan blades along the tube I just came down? Why would some put the circuit breaker at the end of the deadly Zero-G tube? Mine are in my garage. I guess in the future, all the smart electricians were killed in a freak accident. As you might guess, a couple of my nominees I don't seem too keen on but since I only played 4 shooters this year, they were all nominees. The winner?
2010 Shooter of the Year:
2010 Strategy of the Year
Nominees:
Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim PC 2000 | Defense Grid: The Awakening XBL 2009 | StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty PC 2010 |
 |  |  |
I actually only played three strategy games this year. Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim is a really great game, it's different than most in that you don't actually control anyone directly. You plan the kingdom by choosing the buildings and placement of the buildings, setting tax collection levels, choosing which tech to upgrade and so on but never once controlling a unit directly. Great game, but it gets difficult fast. Defense Grid is a tower defense game that was really fun and had a very different mechanic than last years nominee, PixelJunk Monsters. I spent a good many hours with this game. Last is the long awaited StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. This was a really fun game with loads of gameplay options. Really fun, high production values. What more is there to say other than, it's Starcraft!
Winner:
2010 Game of the Year
Nominees:
Red Dead Redemption PS3, 360 2010 | Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood PS3, 360 2010 | Super Mario World SNES 1991 |
| | |
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty PC 2010 | Mass Effect 360 2007 |
| |
Anyone who's had any sort of gaming-related conversation should know what game is the top one for me. I liked it so much I played it twice on both platforms. It was such a fantastic experience that I even now just writing about it and thinking about the atmosphere, music, characters, everything makes me want to stop and go play it. All the nominees were great games and all deserve to be on this list. But it is clear to me who the winner is, so without further ado...
DuncanR2N's 2010 Game of the Year:
Well, that's it for me. What was your favorite game of 2009?
Talk about a super stacked platformer category!
ReplyDeleteWell, I'd say my favorite game of 2010...was probably Ace Attorney, again. Man, I'm kind of a bum with that stuff.
ReplyDeleteThough I'd have to give honorable mentions to games like the Longest Journey, Assassin's Creed II, the Broken Sword games, Lost Odyssey, Super Mario Bros. 2, Valkyria Chronicles II...aughh
I imagine Dunc games like Dr. Manhattan. He's out on the surface of Mars murmuring to himself...
ReplyDelete...its 1991 and I'm playing SNES...
...a decade later, I'm playing PS2...