Everyone else is doing it. These are the ones I reckon it would be a shame not to experience.
DO NOT MISS
Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3) – sublime action adventure; you genuinely get to feel like you ARE the batman as you swoop down on psychotic criminals from the shadows.
Shadow Complex (360) – surprisingly polished and addictive platform/2D combat/exploration fest. (And it’s going to be 800 MS confuso-dollars instead of 1200 in the next week or so.)
Flower (PS3) – Beautiful, serene, and satisfying… simply an amazing experience. Unique among games.
Assassin’s Creed 2 (360) – spectacular setting (renaissance Florence and Venice? Yes please!), beautiful to look at, fun to traverse, engaging story… sure, it could’ve lost the timed sections, fixed up Ezio’s habit of leaping off into space and implemented a better quick travel system, but it’s a first-class experience despite those faults.
‘Splosion Man (360) - silly but polished and satisfying platforming with an engagingly demented main character and ludicrous trial-and-error gameplay that remains fun no matter how many times you rocket across the screen and plunge to a splodey death.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3) – Spectacular and the closest thing we’ve seen to an interactive movie since Half Life 2. (It’s not a patch on HL2, of course, but at least it pays attention to characterisation and knows how to make a linear experience feel epic.)
NOT QUITE THERE (BECAUSE THEY TOOK A GOOD THING AND STUFFED IT UP)
Modern Warfare 2 (360). Close, guys, but next time try
- a story that makes some sense (remember COD4?)
- multiplayer that’s not utterly broken for anyone not in the US (try a local filter).
Left 4 Dead 2 (360). Also close, but next time
- don’t COMPLETELY wuss out just because A Certain Country has an idiotic rating system. Release it in shops without the offending material if you must, but don’t prevent the people in that country from downloading the censored content and enjoying your game as it was intended.
- multiplayer that’s not utterly broken for anyone not in the US (try a local filter).
OKAY BUT YOU’RE NOT MISSING ALL THAT MUCH
Prototype (good/bad), Borderlands, Tom Clancy’s HAWX, Katamari Forever, Beatles Rock Band, Guitar Hero 5, Red Faction Guerilla (and its invisible walls).
What’re your picks? Have I left anything out I shouldn’t have?
UPDATE 8/3/2010:
I didn’t know about this at the time, but PixelJunk Shooter (PS3) definitely deserves to be in the above list. Amazingly innovative and enjoyable. Rescue a bunch of stranded astronauts with your Geometry Wars-style ship from caverns filled with realistically-flowing lava and water and gas and a number of other environmental elements. Need to get past that lava? Release water so it falls on one end, and then shoot a passage through the rock so created…
The tragedy is that like most PSN titles there’s no demo, so I passed it up the first time. It’s worth taking a punt on, definitely.
Not entirely sure you can lump Beatles Rock Band and Borderlands in a category with loads of meh games, it boils down to personal preference really, and they’d be among my games of the year.
I do however completely agree with you about Left 4 Dead 2.
Beatles Rock Band was an education, sure, but it’s not something I go back to a lot. It’d probably rank higher if they hadn’t deliberately left some of their best songs out so they could sell them later as DLC.
Borderlands would score higher with me if it had a bit more variety in the world itself.
Your list is really great, I disagree with Assassin’s Creed 2. I wish there where MORE timed sections. I like that fact if your not paying attention your outcome will change. I know I will be the first to pre-order Assassin’s Creed 3. Comon’ we all know it coming with and ending like that. It seems like its gonna be set in “Modern Times” Can’t Wait ^_^
Also, Beatles Rock Band is the GOTY in my opinion. Sure they could’ve put more songs, but HMX loves the DLC. Can’t wait the complete Rubber Soul album is out tomorrow. Now if only they put the “White Album” I would NEVER play a Guitar Hero game again.
I’d keep my trap shut, but I just can’t. This year has blown serious chunks for gaming. AC2 is the only thing you’ve mentioned that I don’t entirely disagree with even being listed as as potential.
And even then, it’s only good because of the paltry remainder of this year’s offerings.
Like you did with MW2, let me sum up my general feelings about this year in gaming.
So, what did this year miss?
- Narrative. See any that aren’t Michael Bay arse-hattery? No? Me neither. AC2 is the closest, but it still has a heavy-handed dose of Dan Brown and a stupid meta-story.
- Unique gameplay. Any. At all. Ever. They’re all genres that are well established, and at best all they do is mimic the luminaries of their genre – never mind actually expanding upon them or at the very bloody least gaffa-taping two genres together to give the impression of uniqueness or ingenuity.
Why didn’t Dragon Age: Origins get even a bit of a mention? The only game I played all year that totally sucked me into the story, other than Uncharted 2, wholly through brilliant writing and interesting gameplay.
I have to confess, I haven’t played it. I am not all that into the Bioware RPGs. In the summer quiet period I’m going to sit down with Mass Effect; after that I might give DA:O a shot. And if it’s as great as you say I might come back and edit this post to include it.
Rohan – what about Flower and Splosion Man? The gameplay of the former is entirely unique.
Could you give us an example of games (not from 2009) that demonstrate what you’re looking for in “narrative” and in “unique gameplay”?
Flower and Splosion Man didn’t grab me, but they did seem kinda cool for what they were.
And, sure. Try games that at least partially defy categorisation. The Clue!, Floor 13, Conflict: Middle East, Alter Ego and Dangerous High School Girls In Trouble! all spring to mind.
‘Spore’ might have made this list, had it not been advertised as Hot English Mustard and turned out to just be piss-weak French Mustard instead.
Mmm, hot english mustard.
I don’t know anything about those other games you mention. I will look them up.
What games do “narrative” well, for you?
Nice list. Haven’t played all of them, but agree with you on ther ones I have. I really dug Batman and AC2.
I would add:
“don’t miss” (but you need to order in) — Demons Souls and, if you never played them on PS2, God of War collection.
Not quite there — inFamous, Brutal Legend.
Have you played MW2 lately, downloaded the latest patch? Because it looks like they finally listened and implemented local search behind the scenes. I’m getting five times the amount of Australian games as before.
Looks like you missed out on Braid. That has to rate as one of the best of the year. And Rohan, how’s four kinds of time manipulation for original gameplay?
I didn’t include Braid because although it only came out on PS3 this year, it was a 2008 Xbox 360 game.
I am playing MW2 regularly, and I’m still being shoved in US matches. I want the option of waiting for a local match rather than having my win/loss ratio killed by quitting or my kill/death ratio ruined by remaining.
Pevva – I’ve got the GoW collection and The Saboteur on the way from Playasia. Haven’t played the other three – enjoyed the BL demo, but apparently it chucks in a ludicrous console RTS at the end. The inFamous demo didn’t grab me – maybe I’ll give it a go in the new year. (I didn’t play Oblivion until this year – maybe I should include games from previous years I only played this year.)
I’ll have a look for Demons Souls, although from what I hear it’s more frustrating than fun…
Lefty, I agree that Demons Souls is frustrating, but it gets its hooks in you regardless.
You have to play it differently from other action RPGs. You can’t really be a damage-absorbing tank like you can in Oblivion. Most enemies can kill you in a few hits, so blocking, evading and timing your attacks are as important as having kickass equipment or high stats. You learn to really appreciate the benefits of a good ranged attack.
You progress more or less by learning the layout of a level and its enemies (who respawn every time you die). So there is trial and error involved, but the flip side is that it feels extra rewarding to get past a sticking point.
Still, one person’s challenge is another person’s dealbreaker.
I may also mention one title that seems to have been missed in the crowd, not GOTY but I found it jolly good fun regardless — the new Ratchet and Clank.
Loved Borderlands, Co-OP was great. Agreed on MW2 and L4D2.
I’m a bit slow, I did hardly any gaming this year, the games I did play were released in 2008, I almost finished Fallout 3 which I enjoyed immensely, I had a decent crack at Bioshock too but got bored.
Considering I thought Fallout 3 was totally awesome and Bioshock was pretty damn good what 2009 releases should I have not missed? Also I loved the very first CoD, would I like Modern warfare 2?
Hi RobJ, some suggestions –
Fallout 3 expansion packs, if you haven’t already. More Fallout 3 can only be good, right?
If you liked the aspect of exploring a well-realised enivronment in Fallout 3, then have a look at Assassin’s Creed 2.
If you just wanna shoot stuff, CoD 4 (Modern Warfare 1) is way cheap now and its single-player campaign > or = MW2. I can’t comment on the multiplayer tho.
Wolfenstein has a similar game mechanic to BioShock in that it’s a shooter where you get magical abilities too.
Otherwise, I reckon Lefty’s list (and my additions of course!) is a prety good starting point of the games that are worth looking into.
Thanks Pevva.
I reckon I’ll take a look at CoD-MW1
What we need though is another SimCity and Descent4 is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overdue (ie no prospect of it ever existing).
COD4 and COD:WAW are both $29 new at JB at the moment – if you missed either of them, they’re certainly worth purchasing.
RobJ, back in the day I had a housemate who was a freak at Descent, played on a PC keyboard. The manual contortions he had to perform to pilot the ship were far beyond my abilities.
If ever a game cried out for twin joysticks, it was that one.
Heh, I played Descent 1 with the keyboard, bought a joystick especially for Descent 3.
No gravity makes things heaps easier, though disorientation is common.
And thanks for the recommendations (Jeremy too) I may have to pay a visit to JB.
“The manual contortions he had to perform to pilot the ship were far beyond my abilities.”
He should have done what I did, and bought a SpaceOrb 360, a gimmicky gamepad that really came into its own with Descent II. I’ve never had such control over a 3D game since then. After some practice, I could pull off manoeuvres that would stymie the most dexterous of keyboard users. I can’t express how intuitive and fluid my connection to the ship became. Moving in three directions at once while blasting away was natural and easy, almost instinctive.
I loved that thing. Then I finished Descent II for the second time, and never used it again. But it still lives in my memory as one of my peak gaming experiences.
/nostalgia
[...] wrote a post on When Games Suck at the end of last year on my picks for 2009. The problem with such a list is that I didn’t actually play every game released in 2009, so [...]