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GOTY.cx 2010

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What're your GOTYs of the year?

For me it comes down to Red Dead Redemption and Fallout: New Vegas. I absolutely loved Red Dead Redemption's atmosphere, world, and some of the acting. The problem is that I absolutely hated almost all of the major characters' writing, especially Marston. The dialogue is so stilted and awkward and the themes are so overbearing and beaten over your head, especially by the time you get out of Mexico. Despite this, I had so much fun with the first two-thirds of the game, coming away with five days of singleplayer play time. I think RPGs really need to figure out how to maintain player progression into the late game, I think that would have made Blackwater a much more enjoyable experience. It may be as simple as locking away more unlockable content behind the later chapters, as I loved unlocking and buying all the guns.

Ironically, I encountered WAY more many bugs and glitches during RDR than I did during FNV. The writing in FNV is spectacular, and the world as well fleshed out as RDR's. I love the absence of a 'save the world' main quest, the bad guys are bad, the good guys are also bad, basically everyone is bad. Your choices seem to have more consequence, and the reputation system is a vast improvement over the binary karma system present in so many RPGs. The game play is a little stale, but the iron sights go a long way to making it better.

---

Honorable Mentions:

Sam and Max: Season 3 kinda came out of nowhere for me. I'm not a huge adventure game fan, and wasn't a big Telltale fan from a poor experience of S&M Season 1. I went ahead and picked up the Telltale pack during the Steam summer sale and was really caught by surprise. The writing was top notch and the toys made it a blast to play. It definitely made a Telltale fan out of me.

I began and beat Assassin's Creed II in 2010, but since it's a 2009 game it doesn't really count. It'd probably be a three-way tie for GOTY if it did. However, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood DID come out in 2010, and it's Roman setting set my Latin major a-flutter. Somehow I just didn't enjoy the game nearly as much as II, and I think it's solely due to the narrative structure. It just feels smaller and more condensed than II, with an overly simple story. That said, the multiplayer is a ton of fun, and will keep me playing the game for a while I think.

Minecraft. What can I really say about Minecraft that everyone else doesn't already think too? My only real complaint is that the game is limited by your own creativity, so when that goes, my impetus for play the game goes. I haven't played in a while, but I'm looking for any excuse or inspiration to get back in.

Alright that's me. Your turn.

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Hey, good timing.

GOTY.cx

1. A tie between -

Civ 5

and

Elemental: War of Magic (despite how incredibly poor it was at launch, and still sort of is.)

2. Hegemony: Philip of Macedon - This has been out for a while (this year, yes) but has only recently shown up on Steam. The best way I can think to describe it is "Sins of a Solar Empire in the Ancient World." Specifically around the time of Alexander the Great. It's hard to explain this game, but it has probably been my third largest time vacuum. And with sandbox play (not limited to a single nation) coming out soon, that will probably double. If you like Grand Strategy with some interesting new quirks, give a review a read.

2.5 - Team Fortress 2 - Wait! Hear me out! Team Fortress 2 has finally reached general stability. The classes have their major modifications done, the game is in the state it's probably going to remain in for the rest of its life (and it's certainly a long way from 1.0) and it has reached a balance that all class-based shooters should strive for. While not strictly released this year, I think it was "finished" this year. (Of course, with this beta going now, who knows? But I figure it's pretty much reached where it needs to be in terms of balance.)

3. MineCraft - This has consumed probably less man hours than most of my games, but has certainly consumed the most mental time. I've spent more time away from my computer suddenly stopping whatever I'm doing and tuning out the world to think about MineCraft than I have sleeping. I am a sad, sad human being.

Honorable Mentions: (Thank you Squid, I don't have to leave these out.)

- Frozen Synapse: An excellent Rainbow Six successor, turn-based, top-down squad-based, strategy game. Hyphen. (Not technically released, but hey, neither is MineCraft.

- World of Warcraft: Catackaclysm: An incredible amount of polish for a now six years old game. Shame it's not enough to make me stick around.

- ArmA 2: Operation Arrowhead: For having the greatest dialogue line ever; When you hear sound of dying Russian you not stop shooting! When you hear sound of dying russian, you shoot some more, then stop!

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My GotY would definitely be LIMBO.

I think that's a perfect game. I have literally NOTHING bad to say about it. Everything is top notch -to borrow from Rab - from design to fucking execution : controls, animations, sound design, storytelling and, god, the puzzles. Those are better than Portal's, better than Braid's, better than Samorost's, better than the best of the Mysts', better than anything I know or can remember. It's all about trial and errors but it's very fluid, never frustrating, it builds on previous things you've seen or done without ever turning trivial; it never points to the solution yet the clues become noticeable at the proper pace ... and because of that, I never noticed the underlying structure even once. And I never tried anything reckless because the death were so damn traumatizing. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that they seem to have tailor every little things and never stopped at 'good enough'.

Yes, I just quoted myself:getmecoat.

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I would agree with Vimes and give my vote to Limbo, but edging out that game for me is VVVVVV.

VVVVVV has gorgeous play control, pitch-perfect music, and makes excellent use of its flip mechanics.

I think I hit every spike in that game and I still love it.

Honorable Mention: Oh yeah; Mass Effect 2 came out in 2010. That certainly was a game I played a lot.

Is anybody going to choose Just Cause 2?

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I didn't play a lot of games that actually came out in 2010, so I'll just mention the game I played *most* in 2010, Torchlight, which I poured a little under 13 hours into. 'twas nice.

I'll see if I manage to finish Sam and Max S03 'fore the year is up. That could be my GotY, if the last two episodes are up to par.

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This is pretty tricky, actually! If I had to make non-specified list of top games, it would go something like this:

* Mass Effect 2 (gorgeous game, somewhat less impressive than the original but extremely good nonetheless)

* Red Dead Redemption (I just really had fun roaming the prairie and shooting grizzly bears, even if I never did the multiplayer)

* Starcraft 2 (incredible fun and a pulp story that had me hooked. Plus the most intense, nerve racking multiplayer I ever played)

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1. DeathSpank

The only thing that could make this game better would have been a cyberpunk setting.

2. Mass Effect 2

It's the sequel to ME1, 'nuf said.

Possible candidates:

New Vegas and Enslaved. I haven't had the time to play them yet. And I'm actually still waiting for them to arrive.

Honorable mentions:

Just Cause 2 It's not really a great game (not GOTY worthy), but it's a game I've had a lot of fun in. I've clocked over 36 hours in the game. I just like messing around in that world.

Most disappointing game of the year:

-1. Darksiders. The demo was quite nice, the game started out quite nice. But after completing 2 chapters it's the same shit, different color. I'm really put off my repetition of this scale in games.

-99. Alien Breed: Impact. Seriously, wtf... DO NOT BUY THIS. It's not worth $1. Team17 really did their best to get people to hate this game.

PS. I'm not considering Minecraft because it's not really released in 2010.

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I have so few 2010 games that I could basically name all of them as contenders for GOTY.

Mass Effect 2 was, in my opinion, a vast improvement on the first one in terms of gameplay. Furthermore, the story was interesting enough to keep me playing till the end and the dossier and loyalty missions were constructed really well to introduce you to the various characters in your posse. I don't think I have ever played an RPG this good. The production values are just ridiculous.

Red Dead Redemption was lovely as well. The setting well realized (despite some really stupid things like the grave digger) and I really enjoyed roaming around the wild west. The gameplay was mostly good but I would have hoped for the game to be less like GTA.

Mafia II, again, had an amazing setting, even better than in RDR: the music, the city, the cars, the people, the music all were spot on in my opinion.The story, too, and especially the way it was told was much better than in your average action game. I didn't mind at all that there were "boring" bits as well, not having to shoot your way through every mission or district was actually really refreshing. The action parts were good but certainly not the best part of the game.

Civilization V is the first Civ game in which I'm comfortable with all the mechanics. I have sunk tens of hours into this game and plan to sank tens more when I can find the time.

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OK, then. Games of 2010 that I actually bought, played, didn't necessarily finish:

- Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent

- Poker Night at the Inventory

- Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse

I'm already writing a review for Puzzle Agent for my backlog review blog thing, Poker Night I enjoy with a couple of friends when they come over and Devil's Playhouse I liked a lot up to where I played, but I was tired of adventure games then and they kind of tapered-off of my play-now list.

Games I wanted to buy but couldn't:

Costume Quest, Deathspank 1 + 2, Metro 2033, Napoleon: Total War, Sonic 4, Sonic Colors, a billion other things.

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It feels ridiculous to say it, but mine is Minecraft.

Of the proper, 'real' games, I guess Mass effect 2 or New Vegas. Did Call Of Pripyat come out this year? That was pretty great too.

Edited by spindrift
CoP not Clear sky, that one sucked.

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GOTYs

1. CODBLOPS - Don't really need to explain this one.

2. Just Cause 2 - I love the world and the crazy addictive properties. (Guess who got all the achievements. This guy.)

3. Metro 2033 - I've said it once before but it bears repeating, this game is Half-Life 2, Cryostasis and all the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games jammed together by crazy Ukranian mans.

Honorable Mentions:

1. Cataclysm - I've only played the beta so I can't really call it a GOTY and I can't really call it a 'would have been GOTY' so it's got to be an honorable mention.

2. Bad Company 2 - I don't really like it quite enough to call GOTY on it, but I do have to mention it, if only for it's graphics and sounds which are both pretty stunning.

and of course

3. Recettear - I can't really give this on of my precious GOTY spots, but damn, this game is great.

Games that WOULD have been GOTYs (If i'd played them):

1. Red Dead Redemption - One day I might get to this game, I really hope I do.

2. Episodes from Liberty City - I might pick this up during the Christmas Steam sale, so maybe i'll get around to it.

3. Poker Night at the Inventory - Purely for the level of thumbs involved in it's development I must give this the benefit of the doubt.

Dishonorable Discharges (From the anus of the video games industry):

1. Plain Sight - For being probably the worst 7 minutes of my life I cast this game into the pit of oblivion that is the uninstalled games list on Steam.

2. Medal of Honor - The game had real promise and the singleplayer did turn out pretty well all in all, but the multiplayer was the second worst (Only behind Plain Sight) online experience of my life.

3. Half-Life 2 Episode 3 - For not releasing for yet another year. (I still love you Valve)

Douchy extra game:

Minecraft - Because fuck you! That's why.

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Limbo

Minecraft

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Call of Pripyat

I also don't remember if Pripyat was this year, but it was in IGN's list so maybe it was.

Honorable mention: Mount & Blade Warband. The only multiplayer game I've played for hours and hours in recent years.

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Oh yeah, I completely forgot I also played Starcraft II. Well, I guess that only goes to show that it wasn't my g of ty.

I'm yet to play but planning to buy Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and possibly Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Both will likely be good fun but I doubt they will have an effect on my GOTY list.

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Man this is tough. I like a lot of the 20 or so 2010 games I played. Also I don't really have a good way to check which ones are 2010, because Wikipedia doesn't list a lot of indie titles.

I guess these are my GoTYs?

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle This game just knocked my socks off with how it improved on the original NMH's progression. Although a lot of people praised the mundanity of it, gone was the fairly annoying open world and instead there was a map menu? In 2010? Good on you Ubisoft! That and fun retro minigames, so many clothes customization options, weapons you can change on the fly and great and tough bosses!

Super Meat Boy Great perfectly solid platforming with 100s of levels and no pauses between deaths! This game has the perfect combination of bite sized accomplishments and larger incentives to go find bandages and finish dark world levels.

Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse I was blown away. I really didn't expect that much of a leap in graphical fidelity, or that many mechanical changes, both for the season and episode to episode, and for the ending to be as poignant as it was. Story-wise actual things happened in this season, like losing characters I really enjoyed, and introducing new ones that I thought were really great and very much in the S&M vein.

Other games I think are cool if not GoTY

Sonic Colors After the incredibly derivative Sonic 4, it was great to play a new Sonic game that felt new and still played great! Amazing music, fantastic settings, fun powers are coupled with incentives to S-Rank levels and find all the Red Rings meant I spent a lot of time poking the nooks and crannies of these levels. They even made a couple changes to current Sonic homing attack controls to make it more manageable in a 2d setting, something Sonic 4 failed to do completely. Also the tone of the characters was great! Makes me feel good about Sonic again, and that's a tall order.

Starcraft 2 I've played a ton of this game, just on the strength of it's team multiplayer and that doesn't happen often. Spent many a night staying up too late with friends, trying to crack a strategy on how to beat the next pair or trio. Tons of fun, although I haven't gone back in a while.

Just Cause 2 I probably put more time into this game just grinding basically the same actions, because it is so much fun to do! This game for me, above all other games, deserves it's open world, because the amount of ridiculous things you can do is staggering. Not only do you have the shoot something build wanted level mechanic, but you can also fly jets and helicopters, jump from cars on the freeway to others, and generally be a badass who doesn't look at explosions. Also, best title ever.

Games I liked but won't really talk up because damn this post is long:

Assassin's Creed 2 (PC) Improved upon the first games base.

Rocket Knight A fun sequel to a series I loved back in 16 bits. Hard.

Civilization V Love it, but had too much other stuff to do to play a lot of it. Will revisit.

VVVVVV Great platforming. I have a soft spot for it.

Beat Hazard Fun shooter, has some moments where you must simply avoid obstacles that are punctuated with soft music. It's a great effect.

Mass Effect 2 Damn this is down here? There were way too many good games this year.

Games that kinda blew

Red Steel 2 Ugh. Empty boring levels, boring quests. Fights are great, although the controls fail every once in a while, but most of the game is walking around empty areas smashing detritus for money. It's like some sort of Japanese Cowboy Hobo simulator.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 Destroyed by Colors in retrospect, this game had terrible music, partly super derivative levels, bad controls for it's playstyle and copycat bosses. I liked the parts that shied away from literally copying old mechanics, but there wasn't enough of it. I'll buy the next episode with hopes that Dimps/Sonic Team move away from nostalgia, and focus on providing a new fun experience.

Bit.Trip Beat Man fuck the

Pong

boss at the end of world 3. It's so fucking unfair to

split into 4 paddles

. And the level is hard/long enough that I just don't feel like trying anymore. Otherwise the game is great.

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Bioshock 2: I got the same reaction than people did back in 2007 when Bioshock 1 was released. I remember being a little put off by the overly enthusiastic praises that the first one got from the media and people on message boards, and ended up not paying attention to the story whatsoever. With Bioshock 2 I started playing with no expectations or hype and thought it was fantastic.

Mount & Blade: Warband: What I love most about Mount & Blade is that it doesn't have any story progression or a main quest. The game opens up and you're free to do whatever you want, wherever you want. It reminds me of Sid Meier's Pirates!, in a medieval setting with more role-playing.

Limbo: Even if it does lose some of it's momentum in the second half of the game, it still think it's one of the best games this year due to it's atmosphere, design and style.

Honorable mentions:

Amnesia: The Dark Descent: This would've been on my GOTY list, but I haven't finished it because something always interrupts me. I was playing it today when suddenly my mouse stops working. Needless to say I need a new mouse.

Super Meat Boy: The fact that I've died over 5500 times now and still enjoy the game definitely make's this platforming piece worth mentioning.

Minecraft: Minecraft in some ways is one of the most impressive games I've seen in a couple of years. Even if I don't have the imagination or interest to make something, it's still fun to join a multiplayer server and check out what other people have built in this elaborate sandbox.

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5. Lost Planet 2

4. Super Meat Boy

3. Tobes Vertical Adventure

2. Limbo

1. Vanquish

Honourable mentions:

Resonance of Fate

Darksiders

Flotilla

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Mass Effect 2 - the shooting elements were hugely playable, which I don't often find is the case; At the time this came out, I was completely engrossed in the story + character development as well. Tons of little improvements add up to a whole new experience from ME. (Though I still can't shake the feeling that it's a step backwards in story-telling.)

Alpha Protocol - Of all the games on this list, I think this game was the closest to bringing legitimately new ideas to the table. (Specifically, the way that gameplay structure and narrative structure interact.) When this game is going well, it's fantastic, but those moments are fewer than they ought to be. It's also held down by some mediocre gameplay and writing.

Bit.Trip RUNNER is extremely hard, but also extremely satisfying. (I'm still 4 levels from the end.) The auto-restart on death is a small yet important innovation for keeping death from feeling frustrating. The sound and graphic design is phenomenal - the best I can think of in any games this year.

Costume Quest is adorable. Super fun and Tim Schafer's writing is superb. A bit shallow.

Lara Croft - This was a genuine surprise for me. I'm a fan of Crystal Dynamics previous takes on Tomb Raider, but I had no idea how much better the combat-puzzle-platform-repeat pattern works in isometric 2D than in 3D. This game had absolutely pitch-perfect pacing. The very moment you start to get bored of one thing, it throws you into something else. This is complemented by an in-game achievement system that rewards various different playstyles (speed-run, secret-finder, person-who-pushes-the-mechanics-to-their-absurd-limits.) Seriously, this was top-notch work.

Sam & Max Season 3 is the best thing TellTale has produced. Particularly impressive was how well the focus shifted from episode to episode. Jumping from sci-fi to adventure to noir to horror kept this season's episodes from feeling "samey" like they sometimes did across Seasons 1&2.

I was going to try to pick one of these, but...eh, screw it, it's a six-way tie.

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My top picks of things I played would be Mass Effect 2 & Red Dead Redemption. With Minecraft in there if it counts as eligible.

I don't know if anyone mentioned it at the time when RDR discussion was at it's peak, but the fact that you can whistle for your horse makes the whole thing way more approachable for me despite all the similarities it shares with the GTA formula (NONE of which I finished despite having played all of them, versus RDR which I did).

Runner up tier of Civ 5 and Sam and Max.

Of the things I haven't played, I suspect Fallout: New Vegas has the potential to maybe have a place.

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I thought ME2 might get forgotten since it was released so early in the year, but it looks like everyone is still in love with it

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I didn't play a lot of games this year (SURPRISE!*) but of the games I did play, I really enjoyed Super Meat Boy (maybe the most well made indie platformer I've ever played. the mania and precision of great hardcore indie platformers with the pacing and structure of the most addictive casual and mobile games is an unstoppable combo), and Minecraft (I've helped build a working continental subway system, and a 4 or 5 story tall stone flaming "Congrats Nick" sign. Yes that's all it takes.), and BioShock 2 (specifically Minerva's Den which condensed down most of the things I liked about Bio2 into a short burst of good times).

I watched Famous play a lot of Red Dead and that game looks sweet, but I've only played the first 10 minutes myself. I played further into StarCraft II than I would have expected but not as far as I wanted to, so its not on the list either.

* Utilizing the tragically underused [soiler] tag.

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I don't play new games, only baby and bullshit games :(

Guess that means Starcraft 2 is my one and only default GOTY 2010. I guess I did play Donkey Kong Country Returns as well, but I'm not done... and it definitely isn't a GOTY.cx, but rather, just a plain goatse.cx

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This was a disappointing year. The games I was anticipating failed spectacularly in some essential way.

Civ 5 : AI that burbled and ran into walls.

New Vegas : IT DOESN'T WORK I HATE YOU

Puzzle Agent : Piss poor puzzles.

Though the first two have fixes out and nigh. Maybe they will be GOTY.cx for 2011. Maybe I need to manage my expectations.

In a similar vein GOTY.cx for this year is Minecraft, because my expectations were 'minewhat?'.

I have plans to buy a white smoking jacket, and give tours of my glorious underground menagerie.

edit: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Diablo 3, Portal fucking 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, XCOM. Holy hell 2011.

Edited by Cult of Jared

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Man, looking at all of these, 2010 was a fucking great year. I played and loved so many games this year. I need to boot up my desktop (still in moving-in limbo) and check out my completed games list to make a top 5. There was an amazing amount of stuff, and I still haven't played Enslaved, Vanquish, New Vegas, AC: Brotherhood, or a bunch of others that seem like potential candidates either. Anyone who says that 2010 sucked lived under a damn rock. These past 12 months offered a lot of good.

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