So it’s 2010 and I once again decide to fire up my much neglected blog. What better way to start than discussing some of the best & worst games of 2009. Yeah that’s original!
I generally thought 2009 wasn’t a stellar year for games, yeah there were a few decent titles but nothing really standout & exceptional. Certainly when compared to 2008, which was packed with brilliant games (Fallout 3, Dead Space, Far Cry 2, LBP, Fable II etc.) it’s been a pretty disappointing year. But what about Modern Warfare 2? I hear you cry, well I couldn’t give a shit about MW2, so it doesn’t factor into anything as far as I’m concerned. Onwards to the listery…
Lowlights
- Resident Evil 5 – Without question the biggest disappointment of 2009. No need to go into details here as I’ve already blogged on the topic. Needless to say Resident Evil 5 was a very shit game.
- Tim Langdell – There was a very long section here trying to sum up this whole drama, but it’s really a topic for a post it it’s own right. Summary: Tim Langdell is a very nasty piece of work that has made a living for 30 years ripping off hard working developers. A good place to start would be this summary on TIGsource
- Bionic Commando – Capcom fail again. I had been looking forward to this for a long time. The game turned to be a bit of a stinker. In fact very similar to Resi 5. The main problem was the swinging controls which clearly were the most critical thing in the game, were rubbish, clunky and totally robbed the game of flow. Grin, the studio responsible for the game (and the truly rotten Terminator: Salvation) went under later in the year. Make of that what you will
Highlights
- Shadow Complex – It’s indicative of how the game industry is changing when a downloadable Xbox Live Arcade title is my joint place Game Of The Year. Shadow Complex is a 2.5D Metroidvania game. It was well executed, polished & great fun to play. It didn’t pretend to be anything it wasn’t, and over reach itself which so many games do these days. All for the bargain price of a tenner. I suppose you really have to like Metroidvania sytle games in order to fully appreciate it’s charms. I’m a real sucker for the genre myself and this turned out to be an excellent example. Essential stuff.
- Assassin’s Creed 2 – My other GOTY. I rather enjoyed the first game, it was horribly flawed of course that much is well acknowledged, but I felt a sequel could be Ubisoft’s chance to finish the game they left as a bit of a husk with AC1. And I was right, AC2 improves on it’s predecessor in almost every aspect. There’s more to do, there’s more variety and it’s a fuller more fleshed out game all round. In fact if I had one criticism, they over compensated and put too much into the game and padded it out too much, resulting in an overlong experience which begins to drag towards the end. Still a brilliant example of how impressive videogames have become. Oh and it’s easy too and has no boss fights, a double bonus in my book
- Batman: Arkham Asylum - I really liked this game, I didn’t like it as much as some, but it was very good. In a word; polished. And I don’t mean in a Perfect Dark Zero shiny sense, I mean it’s a game that does very little wrong. However in the end, I felt I’d played a very good game, not a standout brilliant game that will be remembered for years to come. It’s here in my list of highlights out of necessity really, not on it’s own merits, but mainly due to the rest of 2009 was so uninspiring. I’d still welcome a sequel
- Honourable mentions – Borderlands, Uncharted 2 & New Super Mario Bros. Wii
So there you have it 
Utterly agree with Shadow Complex. It looked “OK” when the first shots came out, but once the fact it was a Metroid-style explorey OCD-map-colourer-in-er game, I got very excited.
It didn’t disappoint. In fact, it surprised me just how good it was. GOTY for me too.
I’ve not played AC2 or Batman (aside from the demo) yet though.
Wot no SFIV or MW2!!!
Assassins creed 2. mmmmm Just got this, chose to get this over Batman cheaply, as I picked this up from a pricing error on GAME’s website for £22.99 (its the limited edition too!).
My first hour impressions.
I didn’t play the first game. And this sequel doesn’t care. No idea really what is happening. First impressions are…
What is wrong with Kate’s mouth?
Why does it keep saying “press any button” to do not-a-lot?
Why does Kate tell me to “shut the fuck up” ?
We get outside and a fight breaks out. I randomly mash buttons and find that X is punch. As the fight comes to an end, I bag a few sneaky punches to the back of Kate’s head. I don’t like her at all and she can “shut the fuck up” with a smack to the back of the head!
There are some awkward NPC moments. She waits for me and I knock into her, and then a cut scene kicks in with me rushing to catch up. Mmmmm.
We meet a load of other people in some secret lab or something. They seem alright.
Then I am left to my own devices. I walk around a bit and don’t know what to do. I see the well-to-do chap in the corner, so I walk up to him. It tells me to “press any button” again. I do. He spouts off some bile at me, and I think, actually, your a bit of a cunt as well.
Walk up to the new woman. It tells me to “press any button” again. She seems quite nice. She tells me to sit in the chair. I go over to the chair and “press any button”. I do. It now says I cannot sit in the chair until I have spoken to everyone!
I have to speak to Kate again. Bitch. Now I can sit in the chair.
Then the game starts. Now it starts to tell me how to play the game a bit, although the control isn’t too clear. Get to do a race with, I think, my brother in the game. He says I have to beat him to the top of the church roof in a race. So I try, and fail. and fail. and fail.and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail
…to the point where I nearly give up, and then realise I am thinking too much about this and reading too much into the controls. I am pressing RT and tapping the A button to do things like jump, swing etc. But all I have to do is keep RT pressed and the A button AT ALL TIMES and it does the rest?!
The graphics look nice and it sure looks pretty in places. So after working out the controls, this so far appears to be a bit of an on-rails GTA open-world thing, where I am everyone’s “bitch” to be a messenger boy or thug.
Wow, great start eh! Please tell me it gets better.
After the skill and dexterity required of playing Bayonetta, this feels weak. Help
Dude, It does have a bit of a rough start.
And 4 hours in you’ll still be in tutorial mode.
As for comparing the controls to Bayonetta, shame on you! It not that sort of game, yes he climbs on his own because the skill isn’t in mashing buttons it’s finding elegant routes and paths. It’s actually sorta relaxing to play, combat isn’t about mad combos and bullshit, it’s pretty simple, but it doesn’t matter as combat is a tiny small part of the game. In fact if you are getting in big brawls you’re probably doing it wrong.
Stick with it, it is a rewarding game, but it’s by no means perfect (what game is!)
P.S. I think you should read the manual before starting
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