The 30's - Part 5

Welcome everyone to our final day of our award show, The 30's!  All week we've been posting up weird categories and the games that won them.  Today is the last day, and we only have one thing to talk about:  The Game of the Year.  To be eligible, as always, your game must have been released in 2010.

Game of the Year

Mass Effect 2 was originally going to be the Best Game on 360 that we actually played, but then we thought about it a little bit, and remembered that it was also appearing on the Playstation 3.  That would make it a great candidate for Best Multi-Platform Game that we actually played (despite it not being out yet), and also appeared on PC.  Then we thought about it some more.  Mass Effect 2 was definitely the best game we played all year.  So, bringing all of this together, it seemed a natural choice that it was our pick of Game of the Year.

Mass Effect 2's story picks up where the original left off, and if you saved your save game from the first one, allows you to import your character and all of the choices you made to the new game.  Those choices are then seen as you play through the excellent gameplay and storyline.  Characters react to you differently, and remember what you talked about in the previous game.  

The mix of RPG and Third Person shooter is done flawlessly.  Combat sequences are action filled, and the RPG elements let you walk around and talk to people to explore how the universe works.  There was never a feeling of being forced into a particular route or decision that happens with so many games of this type.

If you have an Xbox 360 or PC, get this game.  If you have a PS3, reserve it now, it comes out in a few weeks.  This is one of those games that everybody should give a shot, and earns the Game of the Year award.

The 30's - Part 4

Welcome to day four of our end of the year awards show.  Here we make up random categories for things we liked and didn't like and give them awards that they'll probably never really accept.  In any case, to be in contention for any given category, your product/service must have been released in 2010.

Best Game that won't win any Game of the Year Awards

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood was a fantastic game that was unfortunately released in a year with some truly extraordinary games.  It probably won't win anybody's coveted GOTY award, but I wanted to give them at least a well deserved nod.  I highly recommend this game.

Biggest Tease of the Year

Bioshock: Infinite was announced on August 12, 2010 with a release date of "sometime in 2012".  Looking at their previous release schedules of August and October, I would say it would be safe to split the difference and assume a September 2012 release.  That's over two years from when it was first shown.  The thing that really gets me about it is that it was not just a small announcement, no.  They had a full fledged several minute long cut scene made, and then just weeks later had several minutes of gameplay video that the internet drooled over.  It doesn't make sense to me why they would announce something so early with so much footage, unless they planned on moving it up to 2011 to catch everybody by surprise.  We shall see.

Best Original RPG on the Iphone

Ash on the Iphone was made with RPG Maker and is every bit of a JRPG that you would expect to play.  As somebody who grew up with these kind of games, it's always fun to go back to see what people are doing with them.  Most of the time they don't hold up, but the excellent writing and storytelling done here is really what makes this game.  Go check it out, and SRRN, I'm looking forward to the next one.

The 30's - Part 3

Welcome to Day 3 of our annual award week!  As a reminder, to be in contention for any given award, your product or service must have been released in 2010.

Best New Movie for Video Gamers

Oh sure, us gamers have latched on to different movies over the years.  Super Mario Bros, Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider, Max Payne, but they were all based on the games themselves.  Scott Pilgrim vs the World is based on a short series of graphic novels that happen to have a lot of game references in them.  It's good stuff, and if you haven't seen it (or read the series), you're doing yourself a huge disservice.  Go get it now.

Biggest let down for a Series

When we heard Team Ninja, famed for their Ninja Gaiden series, was taking on the next Metroid installment, we were thrilled.  Imagine, Samus doing flips and using her arm cannon like a precision instrument.  Screen shots of combat only bolstered these dreams and when the game was released earlier this year, it received some really harsh reviews.  Averaging a 79 from Metacritic, it falls far below the average 97 received for Metroid Prime, and squares off evenly with 2005's Metroid Prime Pinball.  Yeah. 

Worst Call Made by VG30

I'll admit when I was wrong.  I called Goldeneye for the Wii "November's first big failure".  Well, it turns out that it wasn't just a nostalgia sale, it actually has some pretty good gameplay behind it.  If you're a fan of the original, or if you're looking for a first person shooter for the Wii, you can do a lot lot worse than Goldeneye.

Best Game for the Xbox 360 (that we actually played)

Halo: Reach was Bungie's farewell to the series, and they topped themselves in terms of storytelling and gameplay.  I don't know how any other developer is going to live up to what Bungie could do in their universe, but I sure hope somebody comes along.

The 30's - Part 2

Welcome to Day 2 of our highly acclaimed award week that we like the call "The 30's".  Here we give props to the games that made some impact this year, and mention a few less than inspiring things as well.  To have been eligible for a "30", your product/service must have been released in 2010.  Onward to Day 2's Categories!

Worst DLC

No surprise here.  I had people thank me for my quick download and review of Dragon Age's Witch Hunt.  As a short adventure that was maybe half of its price, it could have been passable.  The characters you meet were fun, and it breathed some new life into a great game.  How they tagged it was the problem.  To bait players into thinking that they might get answers to questions they had from the end of Dragon Age, and then offer up absolutely nothing is just wrong.  

Best MTG Expansion

 

Worldwake was a fantastic set that added quite a few staple cards into our decks.  Abyssal Persecutor, Avenger of Zendikar, Basilisk Collar, and of course, the ever popular Jace the Mindsculptor has made this set out of print.  We can only hope that the next small set to be released will have as much of an impact on the game as this set did.

Best Xbox Live Arcade Title

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light  was my favorite Arcade game of the year by a long shot.  Fun gameplay, local and online co-op, challenges that rewarded you with new items for completing them, but completely unnecessary to do so, all in all just a fantastic representation of what a Arcade game should be. 

Most Pageviews on VG30

GenCon was good to us.  Our coverage of Day 1 on the Floor not only has doubled the readership, but brought in a very close knit group of D&D players on Twitter that welcomed me with open arms.  We're really looking forward to making it out to GenCon 2011 to see everybody again, and to share what we find with everybody who follows us.

Best PS3 Game (that we actually played)

 

Despite some hangups, God of War 3 is the best PS3 title that we got our hands on this year.  I made fun of some of the camera effects, and the final boss left some to be desired, but GoW3 was visually stunning and a great reason to own a PS3.  I wonder how much further they can take the series, and hope to see future installments really push the boundaries of the the system can do.

The 30's! Part 1

Welcome everyone to our annual critically acclaimed and highly regarded award week:

This week we'll be giving awards out to what we think the top in any given field for the year are in gaming.  This year, the judges deliberated for what seemed like minutes to determine the categories and nominees and then after painstaking debate with the entire videogamesat30.com staff, came up with a single winner for each category that we will now share with the world. 

In order to have been in the running, your product /service must have been released to the public in 2010. 

Best Interactive Story Experience

Heavy Rain is the finest example of interactive story telling that I've ever seen.  The game cannot be described properly without spoilering everything to it.  Quantic Dream, I don't necessarily want a sequel.  No, I want another story.  Bring me more of the magic that you used to create this world, and I'll be first in line to buy it.

Best Game that was Fawned Over Way Too Much by the Gaming Media

Congrats, Limbo.  Here, have another award.  Limbo was a good game, and while I have no problem with a good game being short and leave you wanting more, Limbo wasn't memorable enough to leave me wanting more.  The main character didn't evoke emotions, nor did the story attempt to explain itself.  Despite this, they won several awards and are sure to earn several more in the downloadable games categories for year end wrap up posts like this one.  Fear not, this is the last we'll see of this game in our award show, damnit.

Best Way to Drain Your Iphone Battery

 

Infinity Blade drained my battery four times this weekend while spending Christmas with the in-laws.  The graphics are beautiful, the gameplay is simple and addicting, and you constantly find yourself saying "just one more fight".  If you haven't picked it up yet and you have at least a 3gs, do yourself a favor and get it.

Best Wii Game (that we actually played)

We played exactly zero Wii games this year that were released in 2010. Weren't there ANY good games released this year on the Wii?  Sure there were.  I would have happily played Mario Galaxy 2, Epic Mickey, or Tatsunoko vs Capcom, and I definitely wanted to try No More Heroes 2, but the allure of the Wii is dying. The best games are coming out for the Xbox 360 and PS3, and now that they both have motion control (as gimicky as they may be), there's little reason to boot up the Wii anymore. Nintendo is going to need something major announced in the next year to hope to compete in the next generation of gaming, or risk going the way of Sega.

Happy Holidays from VG30

From us at Video, Gaming at 30, to all of the readers who come and visit, and give me purpose and reason to keep writing, Happy Holidays.  Keep safe, and keep playing!

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - Review

I wasn't looking forward to having to write a review on this one.  Writing the review would mean that I would have to finish the game, and after several weeks of time spent with it, I have, and I'm so happy to say it's easily the best of the series.  Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is the direct sequel to last year's Assassin's Creed II.  Different from the others, this one picks up at the end of the second and leads you to discover the large single city of Rome.

And Rome looks GOOD

Don't let the single city fool you.  There's more to do in this game than there ever was in any of the other games.  Traditionally you would get into a city, carry out a few quests to learn where your mark was, and carry out the assassination.  This one deviates strongly from that formula by having you bring factions together.  You're completing missions for the thieves, fighting along side mercenaries, and training up your own lethal band of assassins.  I spent a large chunk of time avoiding completing main storyline events just because I was enjoying the side missions so much.

While the factions are interesting to work with, none of them compare to building and training your group of assassins.  This extremely diverse group can be called on to lend aid in battle, remove a troublesome guard, or even take out your marks for you.  It's one thing to leap onto your target from a roof top, but it's extremely cool to watch two assassins take out a guard post while you try to remain anonymous.

Combat has received a big improvement.  Prior games had you wait for an enemy to strike, counter attack, and then wait for the next enemy to strike.  This one encourages getting through combat quickly with chain attacks.  You block and counter once, and then jump from enemy to enemy, taking them down with one fluid move.  Some enemies are easier to take down with different weapons, offering a reason to fight sometimes with a sword, and sometimes with a dagger. 

Combat looks good, too

I spent some time with multiplayer and found it to be way too fun for its own good.  Players take on the roles of assassins and are given targets that they must hunt down in a city full of lookalikes.  High scores are gained by killing your target with stealth and finesse, and for escaping your own pursuers.  The game has a level up system which allows you to unlock tricks as you advance such as disguises, poison, and benefits for getting multiple kills.  I'm planning on spending some more time here in the future.

So we've come to the section of the review for the parts that I didn't like.  Even as much as I gush over this, there's some.  The assassins, at times, can make things a little too easy.  Getting through areas undetected isn't a challenge when your assassins don't raise any alarms by themselves.  The ending, in true AC fashion, is a bit crazy and far fetched, but that's part of the appeal.  The path leading up to the ending feels somewhat forced.  Once you step on the last quest check point (which you won't realize you've done until its far too late to do anything about), you become thrust through the rest of the game.  I would have liked to see something more organic than just teleporting between important times for the last chapter of the game.

I love these types of games.  I liked Hitman when it came out, and I'm a big fan of this series, even with the flaws that it has from time to time.  This is an excellent game, and I would hate for anybody to dismiss it as a glorified expansion pack.  If this is the direction that the series is going, I approve very much with the model, but would like to see them bring back a few major target marks to deal with again.  If you haven't played anything from the series, I'd recommend starting with Assassins Creed II before taking this one on.  The assassin's story goes far beyond than what most reviews will ever elude to.  Nothing is true.  Everything is possible.  Get this game.