Was gonna post this earlier but I forgot. I'm just gonna post my list. These were my favorite games in 2010.

10. Starcraft 2
9. God of War 3
8. Halo: Reach
7. Bayonetta
6. Yakuza 3
5. Deadly Premonition
4. 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors
3. Red Dead Redemptopn
2. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
1. Mass Effect 2

Honorable Mentions - These games almost made it and were great too.

Alan Wake
Vanquish
Heavy Rain
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth


Bonus!
My top iPhone/iPod Touch GOTY for 2010.

5. Mirror's Edge
4. Robot Unicorn Attack
3. Dodonpachi Resurrection
2. Espgaluda II
1. Infinity Blade

A lot of great games came out in 2010 and 2011 looks INSANE. It's gonna be a good and very expensive year this year. Thanks for reading.

My impressions for this game is 100% SPOILER-FREE. So if you're playing the game or plan on playing it, do not worry. :)

I planned on posting impressions for some other games but I've decided to devote this post to 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors (DS) instead. I completed the game with all the endings during a weekend marathon and it was a AMAZING experience. This is one of the most well-written, well planned and most thought-provoking games I've played this year. In fact, it's probably one of my all time fave games in the patheon of awesome story-focused games. Why? Let me explain.

The game is filled with a cast of amazing characters and concepts that will make your head spin. Not only are the characters all distinctive and interesting, but they're also very well developed. What makes them great is that they're all not as they seem. They're unpredictable and what they say or do completely breaks apart the tropes we're used to. These characters are smart and that is refreshing to see. They make smart suggestions and comments with the tasks they're given. Characters that have common sense? Yea, it's unusual and great to see here. There is a lot of great dialogue tooand some really great humor which is sparse but welcome. The game is very dark and creepy at times so any bit of humor helps. I have to tell you that some of the sexual innuendo and puns are fantastic. Great localization!

The puzzles are also great (most of the time). The majority of them are basic logic and problem solving. They're not the type of puzzles that you would see in Layton save for a few handful. The majority are puzzles that require detective work in examining the locations and items you find. They make sense and made the puzzles fun to figure out. I HATE math and I even enjoyed the puzzles that involved numbers which surprised even me. Maybe a small handful of puzzles stumped me and they were because they're a type of puzzle I always hated and avoided. But other than that, it was fun.

Before I end my impressions, I have to tell everyone who plays this game to get ALL the endings. DO NOT PLAY THIS ONCE, especially if you get a bad ending. The multiple endings are integral to the overall story. The branching paths will give you a ton of info and insight into the characters and situations you were probably confused about at first. But once you find all the regular endings and get the True ending, it'll all make sense. OH MY GOD, what an ending! Be prepared to have your mind blown and have your brain messed with. It was amazing and totally worth it. By the time it ended, I was thinking about everything I experienced. I even went to look up all the real world theories and lore they mentioned in the game. It's really intriguing stuff.

Overall, amazing story, amazing characters and spectacular writing. One of the best games this year and one of the best experiences I've had with a game of this type. If you loved games like the Ace Attorney series or Hotel Dusk but with a more mature darker theme and some wild twists, then check it out. MUST PLAY.

I've been playing a ton of games recently but forgot to actually blog about it, lol. Here are all the games I've beaten to date.I'm playing NFS: Hot Pursuit, Gran Turismo 5 and Epic Mickey as well but I'll post impressions for those when I beat those. Big list here already. :3

Oh hey, why read my impressions for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (360) when you can read the full review I wrote for CAG here! Although I've played the MP after the review and it's a lot of fun and addictive if you play with a buddy. But the matchmaking is pretty bad where it takes forever to start a game at times, even if the room is full. I hope Ubisoft patches it soon. It's not a major problem but it happens often enough.

Finished Call of Duty: Black Ops (360) on Hardened. Fantastic campaign with lots of nice set pieces. It still suffered from stupid infinite respawn issues in a few areas of the game but it was a fun experience and had the best story out of all the CoD games, imo. The most coherent one at least. I have to admit that I have yet to play the MP. Yea, weird eh? Must play.

Beat Costume Quest: Grubbins on Ice (360) the same night I got it. The expansion was pretty fun although predictably shorter than the original. It was still quite lengthy at around 3 hours if you do everything (I got ALL the cheevos). Not bad for $5 so it's worth checking out if you liked CQ. Just remember it's not a full sequel. Recommended.

Decided to finally beat Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (DS) after holding off for a few weeks. I don't want it to end! Anyway, great game with the same types of puzzles we love in the series. This is the best game in the series because the story is awesome, epic and incredibly touching. It's probably Layton's most personal journey compared to the previous games. I was quite proud of beating all the final puzzles without a guide. It was weird because I had no trouble with 50-80 Picaraut puzzles but I was stuck with the 30 ones. Bizzare, lol. Highly recommended.

Got Pac-Man CE DX (360) because of all the positive reviews and it's fantastic. Fun and fast and very satisfying. A must play if you like Pac-Man or the original DX game.

Got Guwange (360) as well since I'm a CAVE fan. An amazing ****c shmup with incredible music and art. It doesn't play the same as other shmups cuz you actually need to traverse the levels on the ground and shooting enemies around you is way different. It's a pretty gory game with blood and other disturbing imagery so beware if you plan on playing this in front of your kids.The content isnot like CAVE's later games.

Marvel Pinball (360) is a fun addition to the Pinball FX2 collection. The tables are pretty good and addictive. I HATE the voices though. They are annoying and the heroes don't sound the way I think they sound from the cartoons and movies. Recommended if you enjoy pinball games.

Okay, Doritos Crash Course (360)is free on XBLA so why not? I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun I had with it. It's also quite challenging and will drive you nuts in spots. Definitely worth checking out if you like a fun platformer that uses your avatar. Lots of really great levels. One of the best free games evar. Highly recommended.

FINALLY, Harm's Way (360) is another free game on the XBLA. Looks great but not quite as fun as Crash Course. Thetracks were boring and the inability to join any online games due to lack of participatuion really kills it. You can't upgrade your turrent guns in any offline games. What a big mistake. They should've made a ton of online achievements because NO ONE is playing this online. Believe me, I tried. Anyway, pretty novel to be able to play as a racer and a turret in the same game. Check it out, it's FREE.

And my pick-ups from last month til now. Just gonna post pics and let you guys figure out what they are. :)

Completed VANQUISH (360) on Normal about a week ago and it's fantastic. Great graphics and sound and a pretty silly action story. The action is intense and just a lot of fun. The game is pretty challenging on Normal and downright tough as hell on Hard. There are a lot of enemies and some of the bosses are gigantic. For anyone who's played a lot of games, I feel like it's a parody of many games like MGS, Gears of War and Halo. They definitely grabbed a bunch of bits from those games for inspiration. Definitely one of the best action games this year. If you want arcadey action with s7yle definitely check it out. It's tons of fun. LOVED it.

Beat Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (360) over the weekend on Normal. Short game and the story blows. There are some nice set pieces and the graphics are really nice. The gameplay itself is actually fun but it's mired in repetitive level design and enemies. The QTE gets old fast. I was disappointed with it overall since I liked the first game. This felt uninspired and a rush job. Worth playing but because of its short length and dumb story, it's a rental.

Also finished Fable 3 (360) over the weekend. I've had a somewhat mixed experience with it. The overall main story is actually pretty good. There are some nice twists and many interesting characters you'll meet along the way. I also like how it's loosely connected to the previous game. I didn't like the last third of the game after the point of no return though. Not a fan of it.

The sidequests are the real winners. There are a lot of gems due to the writing and hilarious dialogue. If you haven't played The Game, check out that sidequest ASAP. It's awesome. Double bonus if you play as a female. So friggin' funny. The music is excellent with many returning tracks and the world is lush and beautiful.

But the game does have a lot of technical issues. Framerate stutter, broken breadcrumb trails, poor fast travel mechanic and a lot of weird glitches like the infamous mute Jasper bug. I missed out on most of his dialogue for probably 70% of the game because he ended up being silent. Sigh. The devs said they're working on a patch and I really hope it comes out soon.

Overall, I really enjoyed it even with the tech issues. Love the Sanctuary menu system and how easy it is to use. I really wanna replay this since my ending wasn't what I wanted so I really can't wait to play it again AFTER the patch comes out. Highly recommended.

New Pick-ups:

So much stuff this month.

An early Xmas gift from my brother-in-law. So awesome.

Gaming

VANQUISH UK LE

CoD: BO Hardened Edition with Preorder Bonus

Mario DSi XL

LAME Club Nintendo Gold Reward 2011 Calendar

Okamiden Plush e-Capcom Exclusive

My dog is confused! She has a twin!

Capcom Girls 2011 Calendar - The box. Don't feel like unrolling it yet until 2011.

Blu

BTTF UK LE

Enterbay 1/6 Ip Man Figure

WD 500GB 2.5 HDD

Finished Costume Quest (360) the week it came out. Great game with a lot of charm. The art design is very cute and the story is simple. The music and characters really reminded me of my childhood. I think many people will find nostalgia from this title if they went out to trick-or-treat as a kid.

The game is pretty easy and all the minigames are also pretty easy to complete. The only challenge I found was from a few bosses and the costume materials were well hidden. Kids and grown-ups will like thesimplicity of the game while hardcore RPG players might find it too simple. I found the combat to be pretty fun and the different mix of costume powers helps keept he game fresh throughout.

My only gripe with the game is the lack of voice overs. I was expecting the characters to speak but I ended up having to read everything. Oh well, a minor nitpick. Fun game and well worth checking out.

Finished Medal of Honor (360) on Hard over the weekend. The single player was fun and there are some exciting moments. But anyone who's a CoD: Modern Warfare 1 & 2 vet will find a lot of stuff that is quite familiar. Hard mode is a joke though. I made it through with no major problems. It seems to suffer the same issue as Bad Company 2 where the difficulty level seemed like a joke.

The story is pretty straightforward and more realistic than MW2. I think it's more like MW1 if you wanna compare them directly. I think the devs did a good job coming up with some original ideas for some missions but the majority is basically the greatest hits of the MW series.

But I did encounter some pretty annoying bugs or scripting issues. On one level, my AI did not move up to complete an objective. Restarting the checkpoint didn't work so I had to restart the level to fix the problem. I also noticed enemies pop up from no where in some areas and I had to kill everyone in another area in order to proceed. All these issues took away from the immersion and also showed the lack of polish it had.

I haven't tried the MP yet but it's worth playing. I suggest if you're only playing the SP, it's worth a rental at least. It's a pretty short campaign and I found it enjoyable even with the issues I mentioned.

Also finished Alan Wake DLC: The Writer (360). Great stuff and wonderful conclusion to the game. Some really cool set pieces. I WANT A SEQUEL!

Also, new pick-ups:

DJ Max Portable 3 LE

VANQUISH finally arrived a full week after it shipped out.

$20 sales from Best Buy.

Blu-rays + other stuff.
Professor Layton LE UK Import.

Ip Man 2 HK Import + MS 4000 Points Card

Finally, Hot Toys 1/6 T-1000 and Jill Valentine.

Finished Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (360) on Warrior mode about a week ago and it was fun. The levels are all very diverse and kept the experience fresh. This is a truly beautiful game and certain levels will make you say "wow". There are lots of very detailed locations that will make you wish you can control the camera. The first two chapters were meh but everything from Chapter 3 and onward was just stellar. Fun simple puzzles and a wide variety of awesome boss battles kept things going fairly smoothly. The combat got more fun as you unlock and buy more moves and powers. It just kept getting better and better until the climatic and shocking ending.

The story was alright but the voice acting is great. My main gripe with the game are some of the technical issues. The framerate was pretty poor during certain ares and using certain weapons like the Holy Water made it worse. I also encountered a few glitches and bugs that required me to restart a checkpoint. But overall, great game. Worth checking out.

Also finished Enslaved (360) on Normal earlier tonight. What a fantastic experience. The writing and voice acting is just stellar. I really loved the characters and their dialogue. Monkey is cool and Trip is just way cute. You really bond with them along the way. I loved how everything is explained so everything made sense in their world. Speaking of the world, it's beautiful and colorful. A true visual feast.

The combat is quite simple but gets a bit more interesting after you buy and unlock more moves. Hmm, sounds like another game I just mentioned. The traversal is pretty much identical to the Uncharted series so if you enjoyed that aspect of the game, Enslaved is perfect for you. But I do have to say that Monkey is way more agile than Drake. ;) There are some simple puzzles but they're fun and never repeat. Overall, Enslaved is a grand adventure that hooked me from the beginning to the end. Definitely worth playing.

Also, a few more pick-ups this month.

Whiskey Media tee.

Okamiden LE - e-Capcom Exclusive

Other games.

Hey now, some quick impressions for the games I've played or beaten in the past week or two and of course, new pick-ups!

Halo Reach (360) - Beat the game Solo on Heroic. Lots of incredibly tough spots and the enemy AI is quite devious. Great campaign even if the last third felt like it should be played in coop. And the multiplayer is excellent. The best Halo game in the series.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (360) - Just started this last night and it's alright so far. Voice acting is good and the graphics are very pretty and colorful. The whole shaky cam thing is annoying though and the music is incredibly generic. I'm only in the middle of Chapter 2 so far.

Metroid: Other M (Wii) - Played around 5-6 hours so far, I forget. The gameplay is pretty fun at times except the backtracking is a bit much. The voice acting for Samus blows and the writing is laughable. Thankfully, the combat is good enough that I'll keep playing. I hate the spots where they force you to pixel hunt though.

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (DS) - I beat Diabolical Box over the weekend and it was great so I bought the third game immediately. So far the first two hours have been great as well. Story is quite intriguing and I like the updated interface and memo function. It's Layton and it's good, what's new?

New pick-ups! Major 56k warning...lulz

Droid X and iPod Touch 4G 32GB plus random accessories. The SD card was free.

Needed a gaming mouse for my MBP. Playing games with the Magic Mouse is not optimal.

Games.

Blu-rays + The book CheapyD reviewed.

Figures.

And obligatory Scott Pilgrim book.

Ah yea, finished Demon's Souls (PS3) again in New Game+. It only took me a dozen or so hours in total to beat the game the second time around. My character was pretty strong already and I was able to beat most bosses on my first try. The 5-2 swamp was still a pain to get through though. I think if I didn't farm souls I would've beaten it sooner. I also tried farming the infamous Pure Bladestone for 6 hours and DIDN'T get it. But at least I got a ton of souls from it. I'm on my way in NG++ to finally work on the upgrade trophies.Yea, still addicted to this awesome game. ^^;;;

Also some new pick-ups. I forgot to post most of my August stuff.

Games and Kick-Ass Blu.

More Games.

Also got:
ALL Mass Effect 2 DLC (360) - Amazing stuff.
Shank (360)
Scott Pilgrim (360)
Lara Croft: GoL (360)

FLCL LE Blu - Japan import. Very expensive. :(

Posters - Special thanks to fellow CAG/Gaffer, JEKKI, for hooking me up with them. :D

Starcraft II LE Guide

RE5 Artbook

Hot Toys T-1000 in Disguise

Hot Toys Black Widow

Bayonetta Play Arts Figures

I beat Shank (360) in one sitting last week. It's a fairly short game but it's pretty relentless and quite tough in spots (last boss was HARD). The controls are pretty tight most of the time and the pacing is pretty good. Some people might find some levels too long but I liked how relentless it was. It felt like a really fast-paced brawler with lots of enemies at points that will kick your ass. It felt almost like a shmup to me. The different weapons you pick up did change up the gameplay so it doesn't get old.

Anyways, the graphics are gorgeous and smooth and the music is great. It felt like I was playing a cartoon from Adult Swim. Very slick animations. The story is barely there and characters are extremely cliche. So don't expect anything from that department. The voice acting was okay, nothing amazing about it.

Overall, really fun game and quite a challenge. Definitely worth checking out.

Also, finally completed my secondary setup today. This is pretty much the main location I'll be working on my projects. Not much else to say.

Close-up.

Ah, finally finished Demon's Souls (PS3). After I beat the final Archdemon I took a break and finished up some sidequests to obtain some unique weapons before facing off against the final boss. Last boss was a complete joke though. Anyways, I did it. I will probably play NG+ in the future when I'm in the mood and try to get Platinum. Great game, highly recommended! ^_^

Total Playtime: 52 hours