With the new year just around the corner so many of us are taking the opportunity to look back over 2009 and decide our favourite games of the year, however I don't think a game of the year list is quite right for me. There are many games of 2009 that look brilliant but I have not yet had the chance to play properly, while I've still sunk plenty of play time into games released pre-2009 and so I present to you not a game of the year list but a list of all the notable games I've played in 2009. I've omitted some games from the list that I didn't play significantly but aside from a few exceptions this is a pretty much of complete summary of everything I played in 2009.
America's Army 3
The original America's Army was a very unimpressive affair and seemed to come across as subpar in just about every way. I thought that perhaps two games down the line maybe they would have realised what had been done wrong in the past and at least partially started to fix the mess that was America's Army, alas it was not to be so. Once again I was met with an ugly, generic, boring shooter, although right from the start I managed to encounter many more glitches in America's Army 3 than I did in the original. It's pretty safe to say America's Army 3 is the worst game I played this year.
Brütal Legend
Brütal Legend seemed to be the real mixed bag of 2009, the pressure was on Schafer to come out with another creative and spectacular title and many felt he fell short of the target. The action-adventure portion of the game was satisfactory but really brought nothing new to the table and the strategy portion of the game was severely hurt by its controls, but the voice acting, animations, environments, characters and storyline of the game blended together to create an expertly woven world and that was where the enjoyment was to be found in Brütal Legend. It may not have been perfect but I thought it was a great game.
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
During my summer break this year I tried for the third time to immerse myself in the highly acclaimed Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I really want to like this game but once again I've found myself just unable to enjoy it. According to my brother I'd had the misfortune of ending up with the most boring selection of quests I could have possibly stumbled across and to be honest it felt like it. For whatever reason I also found it hard to get to grips with finding where the best place to be in the game was and what I should be doing to progress properly. I found myself floundering through areas quite a way beyond my level and never really finding a practical way to gain experience. Maybe I'll try again next year.
Elite Beat Agents
Back in the first half of the year when I was still in college I walked into one of my local stores in search of a game that I now can't recall, but whatever that game may have been they didn't have it, however my eye was caught by a rather reputable DS game that some of my friends also had a particular liking for which I bought instead and so began my time with Elite Beat Agents. The insane mix of visuals playing out all sorts of ridiculous stories, combined with the simplistic but challenging gameplay made this somewhat niche game an absolute joy to play through. If you have a DS I highly recommend taking a look at Elite Beat Agents.
Fable II
I actually started playing Fable II around Christmas Day 2008 so the huge majority of my time with the game has been in 2009. Right from the start I found the game an enchanting experience, it was one of the best first impressions I'd ever received from a game. For a long time afterwards I was enthralled by the wonderfully presented Kingdom of Albion and was blown away by the time I had finished the game. The game delivered greatly on both aesthetics and gameplay and had a unique charm to it. It's a shame that the DLC felt rather lacklustre when placed alongside the main game but Fable II is a big contender for the best game I played this year.
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
This wasn't a huge game for me in 2009 but when I want to just load up a game and get a few really good minutes of light gameplay in, Geometry Wars is where I turn. Even a year and a half on it's still fun.
Halo 3
With my consistent love of all things Halo this title was once again my go-to multiplayer game for the year. I played the game noticeably less this year than in 2008 but I think my 77 game Halo binge on that one day this year more than made up for it. I think Bungie still has an awesome game in Halo 3.
Halo 3: ODST
Being the Halo nut I am, this was a game I followed obsessively closely as Bungie divulged more and more details on it in the lead-up to its release and I was very excited when it finally hit shelves. Although with party-based multiplayer pretty much blocked out for me (stupid university firewall) I didn't get much of a chance to play firefight, I still got plenty of opportunity to play the campaign. While I didn't think ODST was as good as any of the games in the main Halo trilogy, the campaign still provided a good variation on the Halo gameplay I know and love, showed off some nice graphics and environments, particularly in the lighting of it all, had some good voice acting and O'Donnell's departure from his regular musical style for the Halo games provided a refreshing soundtrack. The disc containing the complete multiplayer content of Halo 3 and the beta invitation to Halo: Reach were sweet extras too.
Halo Wars
With highly-reputed strategy game developer Ensemble Studios behind it Halo Wars had the potential to be a great game. In some aspects Halo Wars could have been better, mainly in that the gameplay of Halo Wars felt shallow and somewhat simple when compared to other RTSs and that although it did a better job than most at trying to adapt an RTS game to the Xbox 360 controller, the controls still weren't perfect. The gameplay was enough to keep my attention through the campaign though and then some, Ensemble did a great job at keeping the look and lore of the Halo universe intact and those cutscenes looked damn good too. It wasn't everything I wanted from a Halo RTS but as a fan I was pleased with what Halo Wars had to offer.
Pokémon Diamond Version
Since the start of my time as a gamer I've found something extremely likable about the Pokémon games. Nothing invokes a sense of nostalgia in me as much as the Pokémon games, their graphical and musical style and obsessing over collecting as many Pokémon as possible. Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum have a heck of a lot of longevity for those interested and building my Pokémon collection was a great little distraction earlier this year.
Red Faction: Guerrilla
Not the best game of the year, but none the less a good game. The environments felt somewhat samey, some of the missions could get a bit repetitive and possibly the worst part of the game was the checkpoint races, however what it did right, it did very right. The game provided excitement by the barrelful in some of its more hectic scenarios and set up situation after situation where we were able to appreciate the raw fun of just demolishing massive structures with giant hammers, explosives or whatever the hell we damn well felt like.
Rock Band 2
Few games have the replayability value that Rock Band does and I've sunk a considerable number of hours into Rock Band 2 this year. When you're able to play a song you really like on a rhythm game you really like it's a wonderful thing and not only has Rock Band 2 been able to provide me with some really awesome songs on its original soundtrack but also a wide selection of DLC. I don't really have much access to this game now I'm at university (I wouldn't even be able to fit the drums in my room) but while I've had the chance to play it it's been unforgettable.
Team Fortress 2
I've had Team Fortress 2 as part of The Orange Box for a long time, but at one point this year with the chance of Valve bringing the TF2 updates to console seeming extremely slim and with the game at a reduced price on Steam I finally shrugged my shoulders and decided to get the PC version and I am so glad I did. I really don't know what to say to convey quite how much the PC version is an improvement over the console versions, but I'd like to at least say that Valve have been brilliant to their community and finished this year on Team Fortress 2 with a real bang. Bravo guys.
World of Warcraft
I actually left out a few other lesser-known MMOs from this list but I thought World of Warcraft was well worth a mention. While most seem to play games like this for months on end, I have a tendency to dart in and out of the MMOs I play, usually playing other games alongside them as well. Near the end of this year I started playing World of Warcraft again and started levelling at a rate I've never been able to before, exploring new areas and even got into a fair number of raids. For me World of Warcraft takes all the best elements of MMORPGs and fits the pieces together in a brilliant way.
That about wraps it up for 2009, this year has brought some really great games and I feel like I've only scratched the surface of what it had to offer. I'm sure 2010 will be a year of enjoying what I've missed up to now, continuing to play my old favourites and (finances permitting) experiencing some great new titles. I hope you've all had a great 2009 and I wish you an even better 2010.
-Gamer_152