Game of the Year 2010

Martel

Martel

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What has been the best video game you've played this year? Is it a game you'd been following for a long time and anticipated for every second, or is it one that came out of nowhere? What made it so good?

My answer to this question is pretty obvious:

NIER-Title.jpg

Game-wise, 2010 has been an incredible year for me, with the likes of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Mass Effect 2, Dante's Inferno, BioShock 2 and Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver eating into my wallet. But NieR is my Game of the Year for 2010.

I'd been following NieR ever since the first trailer was shown on here, with Kaine swearing at Weiss. The information that it was an indirect sequel to Drakengard immediately captured my attention, and as soon as the site went live the soundtrack captured my attention as well. I was expecting a slightly above average Zelda-esque title. I got a masterpiece.

What made NieR so good? With the exception of the graphics and the complete lack of difficulty, I really can't fault it at all. The storyline, whilst confusing, was extremely emotional - it even moved me, a complete android, a couple of time - and it was quite dark as well, yet with an awesomely dry humour coming in the form of the in-party banter. The cast was small, but a constantly swearing hermaphrodite and a talking book make for two of the most awesome party members ever. I also like the father looking for his daught mechanic - whilst most people don't like the old NieR and would have preferred the typical girly-guy the Japanese got in Replicant, I think we got the better end of the deal. Brother saving his sister has been done to death in RPGs.

Gameplay was simple and fun. Nier runs pretty damn fast for an old guy, and whilst I wasn't overly keen on the text-walls it occasionally threw at me, the side-scrolling, horror and top down sections, as well as the first-person shooter sections in the DLC, added some much-needed variety to it. Multiple endings was nice, as well. It gave me a reason to replay the game, especially since some of the gaps in the story were filled in each time.

That, plus the soundtrack is the best I've ever heard. The soundtrack alone would get this game a special mention in this topic if I'd chosen another title for my favourite game this year. Words cannot do it justice, really. Its without peer.

So, how about the rest of you? What would you say was your Game of the Year?
 
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Mass Effect 2 for me.

In fact it's so good that it would probably figure in the top 3 on my list of favourite games of all time. Amazing storyline, gameplay, characters, and graphics. They took the few negative things from the first Mass Effect and removed them and then they took all the good things about the first Mass Effect and fine-tuned them to near perfection. I have a couple of minor complaints about the game (not enough dialogue between Shepard and his crew and the ending is not nearly as epic as in the first game) but these are very minor complaints. Fantastic game.
 
i saw a listing a couple of days ago that had battlefield 2 at the top, and i'd probably agree with that. this year i've barely played any games because my interest in the whole industry has just gone right out the window over the last couple of years.

the campaign mode was pretty average and not all that hard, but it was fun. it was an absolutely immense game online. i've played cod and i'd definitely rather play battlefield 2 than that. there were just a lot of little things that made battlefield more enjoyable because it was purely team based, like team healing, reloading and reviving. some games could spin out to be hour long epics at times. i loved how pretty much the entire environment was destroyable, so if there was an annoying sniper in a tower then you simply got an rpg and blew the house down.
i'll probably be getting the vietnam dlc when it's released later this week because i've read some very good things about that.
 
Call of Duty Black Ops.

...just kidding. I'd have to go with Mass Effect 2. It had an immensely compelling story, it fixed all of the technical bugs and issues with Mass Effect 1, it gave you a lot more romance options, a LOT more overall dialogue (I find), more meaningful quests/sidequests, the leveling system was dumbed down and gave you fewer options but was still great, the core gameplay was also refined to give you more flexibility, and the musical score of course was superb. Can't wait for Mass Effect 3.
 
How do I answer this without people throwing stones at me or calling me a tool..?

For me, my Game of the Year is Final Fantasy XIII.

I haven't played a lot games that came out in 2010 (just Final Fantasy XIII, Star Ocean: Last Hope International, NieR, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, Pokemon HeartGold, Persona 3 Portable, Ys Seven, and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep). Maybe I missed out on some more deserving gems over this, but I doubt I could appreciate those games anyways-it's all opinion in the end, right?

Anyways, I personally was really pleased with FFXIII. The new battle system really caught my intention. Not just because "Wait Time" and turn-based were gone, but also the whole Paradigm Shift more or less was a group job swap. Figuring out combination and deciding the appropriate time (sometimes matters of seconds) to switch really got me going. I appreciated the restart option and post-battle heal up because a lot of enemies in the game are ridiculously hard and can kill you in a literal stomp. The amount of times I would've spent in potential backtracking would've been monumental X_x

Next, I loved, loved, LOVED the characters. This game definitely focused on characters on their relationships. I found myself connecting to most of them for a variety of reasons. Whether I loved, hated, sympathized with them, something about each of them made them memorable to me. One of the main things I really liked were the character interactions. Gave a lot of depth to each of them, while making things interesting in terms of gameplay. 3 POVs certainly made me pay attention. I also was fond of most of the character designs. C'mon, an afro as a chocobo nest? How do you not go "d'aww ♥"?

The story concept was pretty stellar too. I'll admit there were some pacing issues for me and confusing plot points, but I appreciated the idea behind the story. The idea of prejudice spurred by fear of the unknown and unwanted powers and how a group of strangers got together to, what the hell I'll say it, defy fate with a tattoo timer. Spread through the dark story were moments of hypocrisy and out of character stuff, but it was still alright. Pretty cheesy at times, but that's something that every FF game had to an extent, lol.

The music was pretty good too. I liked the introduction of tech-ish stuff meshing with the rock and orchestra I was used to hearing already, along with some more emphasis on vocals beyond a theme song. Gave the game a more modernized touch to it, I think.

And what the hey, might as well state the obvious most people agree, even grudgingly-the graphics were AMAZING. Scenery, area, characters, facial features, and the little tiny attention to detail really came through.

They were definitely things I didn't like in FFXIII, but you know what? I still liked it, and it's still my fave of 2010.
 
Heavy rain for me,
This game was different and it blew my mind already when I played the demo. I saw some commercial on tv, but it never really showed the game so I got curious. The graphics were amazing and the gameplay was pretty fun as well (I love investigating games)
I bought it right away and wow. The story was amazing, really clever. So many options you had, you could play it many times since you haven't seen some options.
Voice acting could have been better sometimes, but that was the only thing that was negative.
 
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood!

Best storyline I've seen all year. Best gameplay, best originality out of any game released for the last year. I've never played a game like it, but it's frickin' awesome.

You'd understand how epic it is, if you played it xD
 
Gran Turismo 5 for me.

It's refreshing to step out from the lines of RPGs and Shooters and take the wheel behind an extremely powerful supercar. And the best thing about the game is that it's a simulator, so mostly everything is comparable to RL.

Best Racing Game ever.

But if you really wanna see more diversity, try having a GOTY with different Categories.

Like,

GOTY RPG -
GOTY Shooter -

Get me?
 
2010 was a weak year for gaming but I'd say Red Dead Redemption.

Even though RDR was too long to hide the blatant repetition of it's game mechanic and objectives, the developers did a brilliant job of not only creating a truly believable Wild West both in it's layout and character design, but also in the brutal physics engine it employed. The story was the most compelling I've played through this year and they did a great job of making an empty world feel inhabited.

Mario Galaxy 2 is likely better, but I haven't played it so I wouldn't know.
 
Hmm for the 3 consoles:

Wii:
Donkey Kong Country Returns!
Awesome game, awesome graphics for the wii, the two player mode is some of the most fun I have ever had in a game ever, it has so much lasting appeal, you've got kong letters to collect, puzzle pieces, time trials Plus what you get for beating the game! ;)

DKCR is my favourite game of this gen!

Play Station 3
Heavy Rain
I Loved Heavy Rain so much that I stayed up for 24 hours straight and beat it. It made me feel so many emotions through my entire play through, sad, horror sometimes it was even kind of funny.
I loved how different the controls were for it and I hope more games are made like this in the future.
Sure the game had some issues and a lot of the story actually made NO sense, but I still recommend this game to anyone and everyone!

Xbox 360
Fable III
To be honest I didn't actually find much on the Xbox that I personally liked this year but I did really enjoy fable III even with all its glitches. I've always been a fable fan, I love the choice system and I ADORE the puppy dog :D
Getting to use three different weapons (Gun, Sword/Hammer and Magic) keeps the battling fresh and the ability to mix magic is really fun too.
Although probably not the best game in many people's eyes (specially if you happen to get a buggy version of the game) I still found it a joy to play :D


overall though I think DKCR should get game of the year but i would be happy if any of the other two did :D
 
I'm sure the official list has been posted on the net somewhere but my personal opinion, surprise surfuckingprise, is Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty.

A sequel anticipated for 12 years, though wasn't what we expected, did not fail to disappoint. The best video game villain of the year (officially voted for - Kerrigan) was back fierce as ever, the plot thickens in the first of 3 final chapters, the graphics had a 10000% boost and the gameplay stays true to the original.

Trailer (recommend watching it, it's like a film):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgyL08nhtkw
 
Final Fantasy XIII was an awesome game for me. I enjoyed the graphics, simple storyline and fantastic character development, and it's definitely a game I'll play again sometime.

Basically I can quote Fusionist's post, say QFT and be done with it.

Next, Left 4 Dead 2. It's just a fantastic game all around and one I'll certainly be playing for a long time. Not exactly a 2010 release, but DLC came out for it, which is good enough in my eyes.

It's a team based game, where you won't survive on your own. I've been playing with Tia and Jay (who dies a lot.) and I can safely say I'll be playing this game for a long time to come.
 
Admittedly I haven't played many games this year, so I'm currently missing out on what people say are the classics of 2010 such as Red Dead and Assassins' Creed. So far I have an odd tie between two rather different (though Japanese) games: Dragon Quest IX and Vanquish.

Starting with Dragon Quest IX, what I expected from it that I actually got unsurprisingly, would be a crazy number of hours worth of gameplay. I'm currently at around 230 hours on it and still going even after completing the game aaaages ago. Normally I'm never the completist kind of person and I easily lose interest in one game after a while, but DQIX has just managed the impossible and I'm still playing it to this day, something its FF counterpart FFXIII has failed to do. The story as ever, is nothing groundbreaking and rather generic with a soulless cast of characters, but where it matters is the gameplay. There's the part in me who doesn't enjoy the conventional grinding in games like this, but there's the dominant part in me who just loves to explore the game's wacky little world and its silly puns.

Now Vanquish I only recently purchased from Amazon before the snow brought the country to a halt. I'm not terribly far into it at the moment, but I've sampled enough already to tell me that I'm starting to absolutely love this game. There's just something very satisfying with seeing your enemies explode into a cacophany of glowing remains while the mechanics are smooth and effective. A simple button press can get Sam to cover behind the nearest object easily. A simple button press can also change Sam's weapon on the spot. It works really well with the speedy pace of Vanquish's gameplay. Vanquish is one of those really busy shooters because of its speed and frankly, I love this sort of thing. I'm usually the run and gun kind of person, even though I do need to be careful when it comes to bosses as they are capable of quick kills with their deadly abilities. If I do have criticisms so far, it's the narrative and the story. I know I shouldn't expect anything groundbreaking from this kind of game, a stronger narrative would have been nice, although I still rather like Sam (especially as he finds time to sneak in a cigarette puff during a fight) and Elena as characters at the moment.
 
For me there can only be one game of the year and it has to be Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Ubisoft really outdid themselves with quite possibly the finest AC title to date.

Not only does it brag 20+ hours gameplay on the single player campaign but the multiplayer is so brilliantly thought out and so bloody addictive it's going to be quite a long time before people put it down.

The characters are unique, the story nothing short of epic, the way multiplayer has been tied in with the series as to not detract from it is ingenious, Ubisoft made a rather clever move by linking Project Legacy, the facebook game that tells the backstory of the game as well as the story of the Templar assassin's of whom you become better aquainted with in multiplayer.

Several more gameplay modes are on the way as well as a whole new system to increase the longivity for the completitionists amongst us, so far the announced/released content include new Advanced modes, brand new and quite massive Maps and a whole new game mode (chest capture) and thats before they even get to the Premium DLC!

Because of the amazing balance of the skills in the multiplayer there is also a real competitive ladder, what can I say, the game is fantastic and I cant wait for the Sequel!
 
AC Brotherhood ends on quite the cliff hanger which really leaves you going....."what the heck just happened?" But it is the end of Ezio Auditore's travels in the main series, there will be one more main series title to come, which will be Assassin's Creed 3, despite Brotherhood being a continuation of the story, it is not a Numberical so is Technically classed as a spin-off despite it being such a great addition to the Creed series, I personally cant wait for 3, so many questions I look forward to being answered.
 
I already talked about this game to death but I'm gonna have to go with Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Oddly enough, I had only heard about this game about two weeks before I had purchased my PSP so I can't really say that I had followed it. When I played it, though... Holy SHIT!!! It was epic. Just epic. The design, the weapons, the customizations, the story, the characters. Just pure fucking epic. I was not expecting this game to be as good as it was. I wanted to play it because it was an MGS game and when I heard Big Boss was gonna be the main character, I got really psyched. This was all I played for about two months straight. And even now, with having clocked in almost 100 hours, I'm still not bored with it. The game offers alot of replay value, and there are plenty of Extra Ops to keep you occupied with earning and creating new equipment. You can tell they went all or nothing with this title in the series. Amazing how for what was probably the biggest game in the franchise, it was made for a hand-held console. But that didn't hold Kojima back from giving it his absolute best and I applaud him for making such a damn fine game. I can only hope that any future games in the series hold as much appeal and are given as much time and attention as this game was.
 
Call of Duty Black Ops

I really dont even like these type of games. I live in a barracks and everyone in it went gaga over this stupid game and i was like wtf is going on... I watched them play for awhile, not very interested in it. Then I saw a game mode called "Notcy zombies" and it was just so awesome to me. I went out and bought this game just for that game mode. We would get like 3 monitors with a room filled with people and just play for 6 hours straight. Good memories. Though eventually after playing so much, day after day, I got bored and never picked it up since. Even so, I dont think any game this year has took so much of my time besides maybe WoW.. Recommend both games!
 
Mass Effect 2 hands down.

This has been a pretty bad year for games (for me), and almost every title I was looking forward to disappointed me in some way. God of War 3 had its epic moments, but there wasn't any reason to remember the game. Kratos is still boring and the game is still obnoxious. Bayonetta is possibly the most irritating game of all time, plot-wise. I had high hopes for Lords of Shadow to deliver a well thought out story and character depth, but I guess I was wrong. While I enjoyed all of them, I've built a sense of distaste towards them save Lords of Shadow. The only two games that I truly enjoyed from beginning to end with very few annoyances were Final Fantasy 4 Heroes of Light and Mass Effect 2.
 
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