Our picks for Game of the Year
Wow! Where did those past 12 months go? Well, it's actually quite obvious where they went - they went on playing some of the finest games to grace store shelves over the year (as well as a few of the ones we missed in 2008 too). Last year, our team of writers (and one technician) pooled our brains to offer you our top five titles of the year gone by, along with an overall favourite, which received the highly prestigious Golden Bosh Award.
This year, the award is back, with a whole host of additional brains adding their valid, intriguing and sometimes controversial opinions to the mix. In addition, we've asked each writer to contribute one game that wasn't quite up to their high standards this year, whether it be one that was flat-out awful or just generally disappointing. What will follow Fallout 3 as the winner of the second annual Golden Bosh award? Read on to find out, starting with a list that's very dear to my heart. Because it's mine.
5. Forza Motorsport 3 (360)
How hard can it be to make a racing game? In the gap between the release of Gran Turismo 4 and 5 (which seems to get bigger every few days), we've seen the release of three Forza games across Microsoft's console formats, the third of which emerged this year. Perhaps the most accessible Forza yet, 3 presents players with a quick upgrade function, allowing them to give their car the best, most balanced upgrade they can afford, putting an end to the old problem of creating a super fast car that's impossible to handle. Add in awesome customisation and community options (allowing you to sell custom designs to other Live users), the return of point-to-point races, and the clever new Season Play career mode, and you've got yourself several hours of sublime racing action to enjoy. GT 5 is supposedly coming in Summer 2010, but unless all you've got is a PS3, should you really care?
4. Modern Warfare 2 (Multi)
When I look back on my 2008 GB list, there were a lot of games I either missed out on playing in time or simply wish I had included. GTA IV falls into the latter category, which is why I didn't want to make the same mistake in 2009 with this year's most hyped and (likely) best selling release. As mentioned in my review for the game, Modern Warfare 2 is definitely not the best game of the year (it's not even the best Call of Duty game I've played this year), but it's damn good fun. I'm not the sort of person that can usually play through a game a second time immediately after finishing it, but an exception was made in the case of this title. Sure, the story's crap, and the "controversial" mission is a waste of time, but there are some awesome moments - driving the Snowmobile is pure Bond-esque fantasy fun - and as you'd expect, there's plenty of multiplayer action (even if it is slightly buggy) to keep fans occupied long after they've put For The Record back in its sleeve.
3. The Beatles: Rock Band (Multi)
Rock Band was my personal choice for Game of the Year last year. So what happens when you combine an awesome game with one of the most awesome bands of all time? An explosion of awesomeness, that's what! The Beatles: Rock Band took fans and newcomers, young and old, through the career of the Fab Four, mixing classic singles with somewaht lesser known album tracks. While there were some notable omissions from the set-list, stripped down features (as part of the licensing agreement), and the additional costs of album-based DLC, this was still a must-have for any Beatles fan with a shred of interest in gaming. From the inclusion of studio chatter to the lavish dreamscape sequences and recreations of live performances, you can tell that this was a true labour of love from start to finish. And let's face it, love is all you need.
2. Batman: Arkham Asylum (Multi)
This generation of consoles has seen several sub-par superhero outings from the likes of Superman, Spider-Man, Hulk and the Fantastic Four, but Batman: Arkham Asylum was a different story altogether. Instead of being a cheap, rushed movie tie-in, AA was an original story based around a comic book series. The Caped Crusader heads across the water to the infamous nut-house with the recently (and quite easily) captured Joker, only to discover it was all part of a ploy by the grinning villain, and that - as the old cliché goes - the inmates are running the asylum. With a great story, sublime voice acting and cool puzzle-based side missions, Batman: Arkham Asylum will go down in history as one of the best superhero games of all time.
1. Assassin's Creed 2 (Multi)
While the first Assassin's Creed was a decent game, its repetitive nature and drab "modern day" segments stopped it from living up to the hype that was poured upon it. The sequel sought to write the wrongs of the original, and did so in a big way. Missions were more varied, side quests provided hours of enjoyable distraction, and your time as Desmond was, thankfully, kept to a minimum. The addition of puzzle solving and Tomb-Raider/Prince of Persia-esque platforming segments added more strings to a nicely established bow, and truly gave us gaming's greatest experience of the year. Despite the presence of Danny Wallace.
King of Fighters XII (Multi)
To be perfectly honest, I've had a pretty good stab this past year of avoiding what I'd consider to be bad games. Whether I've refined my tastes somewhat, or simply had enough missed classics from 2008 to catch up on, it's been a generally pleasant year for me on the gaming front. Although I did have the misfortune of playing "It's My Birthday" for the Wii (don't ask), my disgruntled nod has to go to this near featureless 2D fighter. Released a number of months after Street Fighter 4 set the bar for fighters higher than it had been in over a decade, King of Fighters tried its very best to drag the genre kicking and screaming back to the dark ages. Released on SNES in the mid-90s, it would have been decent. As competition for the likes of SF4 and Tekken 6, it's little more than a whipping boy.
5. Deadly Creatures (Wii)
I'll begin my rundown with one of the most original ideas for a fighting game I've seen in a while. Playing as either a scorpion or a spider the player scuttles along the canyon floor of the blistering desert on the lookout for nourishing grubbs whilst kicking the ass of any insect who dares get in your way. Meanwhile two redneck thieves (voiced by Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thornton) frequently cross your path looking for lost gold and inevitably fall foul of your incisors. Who'd have thought such a simple premise could be so much fun? It's wonderfully designed, has easy to master motion-controlled combos and great voice work. Highlight: Burying your scorpion in the dirt ready to launch at any unsuspecting prey dumb enough to approach him.
4. Dragon Age: Origins (Multi)
Flawed as it is, you've got to give kudos to Bioware for the sheer ambition and quality of story in their latest RPG. Lesser games would throw you straight into the action but a lot of the pleasure found in Origins is born out of setting up each of the six different characters (male or female, elf or human). It's more of a novel than a typical game since it's largely based around class struggles, romantic entanglements (will you flirt with the subject of your arranged marriage or give them the cold shoulder?) and moral choices that are entirely your own. The spells and weapons are also relatively straight-forward, meaning this is a rare RPG that even girlie-girls might find themselves hooked on. Highlight: Shining on enemy soldiers with phrases like "You are so dead right now".
3. Another Code: R - A Journey Into Lost Memories (Wii)
There have been several decent point and click mysteries on the Wii this year (Cate West, Secret Files 2) and though Journey Into Lost Memory is closer in tone to a teen novel rather than a detective story, it's all the better for it (think of it as a Japanese Veronica Mars presented in the form of Okami-style watercolour graphics. Simples). In a world where most movies and games spoon-feed the player information it's great to have a game where you're required to figure out stuff on your own, like feeding beef jerky to a dog so your character Ashley can squeeze through a fence, or just trying to bond with dad whilst on a camping trip. It may be low on action but it's high on drama and has engaging characters. Highlight: The way the beautiful cut scenes transition quickly and seamlessly into live play.
2. Killzone 2 (PS3)
Call of Juraez: Bound in Blood and Riddick: Dark Athena were good but, alas, Killzone 2 was better. In fact it's hands-down the best shooter I've played since...well, ever. The wet-dream graphics, the no BS game-play, the weapons, the explosions, the voice-work (we bow to thee Lord Brian of Cox - oops, that didn't come out right) are all superb. If God is in the details then you feel inclined to fall to your knees and thank him for Killzone 2's beautiful lighting effects, kick-ass exoskeleton suit, tank action and formidable A.I. Add to this some brilliant online battles and you've got yourself just about the perfect FPS. Highlight: Switching your PS3 on to play it for the 100th time and still feeling excited.
1. Pain (PS3)
Find me a game more fun than firing The Hoff out of a catapult into a glass window or under a car and I'll call you a liar and punch you in the back of the head. Pain was originally a download-only title in 2007 but in 2009 it finally made its début on Blu-ray disc, immediately becoming one of my most prized possessions. Thanks to the limb-flailing brilliance of the Havok physics engine no matter how many times you launch a character out of the catapult, the resulting bone-crunching, squeal-eliciting impact against people, buildings, cars and helicopters never fails to put a smile on your face. You can even challenge people online to beat your carnage-related score. Highlight: Striking a Superman pose whilst headed straight for a concrete wall. BAM! Right in the kisser!
Yamaha Supercross (Wii)
Console dirt-bike racers were already pretty much dead when I was still in elementary school but every so often some chump releases another cheap and nasty one because...well, actually I've no idea why; They just do. Like a cheese-binge-induced nightmare of an old Commodore 64 game, Yamaha Supercross has many different tracks that are somehow all identical, rain effects that suck worse than an asthmatic Anteater and stunts that inevitably end with your rider crumpled in a heap with the rear tyre of his bike lodged in his colon. To add insult to (colon) injury there are no tutorials, it's impossible for you to explore anywhere off-track and should you manage to time a boost off the starting line then you'll just be thrown straight over the wall on the approaching bend. It's games like these that make me throw up in my mouth when someone mentions the word 'supercross'.
Up next: Emily King and Kit Goodliffe
