2010 was the most important year of my life. I received the two most wonderful things in the world, my reasons for living, my beautiful twins. I finished law school and the ridiculously difficult bar admissions course (it almost killed me). I left my job at the mental hospital after nearly six years and started my first career job as federal prosecutor.

In retrospect I was a little dramatic at the beginning of the year talking about how my twins would be the end of my gaming. I have still found time for my favourite hobby, albeit at a greatly reduced rate. Ahh to be back in school, skipping class and playing Killzone ten hours a day. Now I'm lucky to get a couple hours in twice a week.

As for video games 2010 was a terrible year. If 2008 was the best year yet and 2009 was the year of surprisingly good games then 2010 was the year of the disappointments. I thought it would be great, seeing as how the launch schedule looked so strong early in the year. How was I to know most of those games would be huge letdowns and pretty much nothing of any significance would be released in the fall?

So let's put 2010 behind us and look forward to what will surely be the most epic year in the history of video games. My 2009 gaming resolution was to write game reviews for all my games (kind of like a gaming diary for myself). For the most part I succeeded. My 2010 resolution is to stop playing bad games and stop avoiding games I want to play because of trophies. As per usual here is the list of PS3 games I played this year and whether or not I managed to earn the platinum.

(p) Demon's Souls – 10/10

(p) Heavy Rain – 10/10

(p) Transformers: War for Cybertron – 9.5/10

(p) MAG – 9/10

(p) Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions – 9/10

(p) Bioshock 2 – 9/10

Fallout: New Vegas – 8.5/10

(p) Mafia 2 – 8.5/10

(p) Dante's Inferno – 8.5/10

(p) Call of Duty: Black Ops – 8.5/10

X-MEN: The Arcade Game – 8.5/10

(p) ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West – 8/10

(p) God of War 2 – 8/10

(p) God of War 3 – 8/10

(p) God of War – 7/10

(p) Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands – 7/10

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – 7/10

(p) Red Dead Redemption – 7/10

Castle Crashers – 7/10

(p) Final Fantasy 13 – 6.5/10

NHL 11 – 6/10

(p) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – 6/10

(p) Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 – 6/10

White Knight Chronicles – 6/10

(p) The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest – 5.5/10

Modnation Racers – 5.5/10

(p) Trivial Pursuit – 4.5/10

(p) Iron Man 2 – 4/10

(p) Cars: Race-O-Rama – 3/10

Worst Games

So much of this year was spent playing games I didn't like. Almost every release was either a mild disappointment (Bioshock 2, GOW3), a big disappointment (RDR, Castlevania, NHL 11) or a humongous catastrophe (the following list). It was actually very difficult to pick only five games.

5) White Knight Chronicles: A lot of friends and people I respect enjoyed this game but I still can't understand why. While the concept of the game sounded great, the execution was horrible. Embarrassing graphics, dialogue and tone set this game back but the horrendously dull combat is the worst part. So many flaws...

4) Iron Man 2: Everything about this game stunk. This is the quintessential horrible movie game. You know it is bad when the menus are so terrible you beat the game twice before you realise you could switch equipment. I have to take a moment to mention those turrets that automatically knock you out of the sky without shooting bullets. You hear it shoot and you are dead. You can't block, you can't dodge, you can't see anything coming at you. Those things were awesome.

3) Modnation Racers: I bought this game for a Mario Kart clone I could enjoy with my wife. Little did I know that I was in store for the most difficult, broken, cheated racing game I have ever played. For a game that wanted to be the LBP of racers the customization options were very limited and lame. Other than goofy, googly eyed monsters that all look the same, the best thing you could do is make copies of licensed characters. The whole drift and shield system was broken, terrible game physics and the load times were ridiculous. Best of all was the stupid trophy that kept me from my platinum. All I needed was 64,000 people to download my karts... I was so close.

2) Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2: This is the worst I have ever felt after buying a game. I honestly feel like they stole from me. How can they get away with releasing a game shorter than most DLC and charging full price for it? 3 hours for a purely singleplayer game is criminal. Recycling two of the three levels in a 3 hour game is sadistic. If this were any product other than a video game they would have been sued. The game has no story. The most absurd, contrived "choice" ever put into a video game ending. And the gameplay was mediocre at best.

1) Final Fantasy 13: I was a huge Final Fantasy fan. I have played almost every game and spin off. We had a Final Fantasy song for our wedding march. My cats and my daughter have a Final Fantasy names. So I would have liked nothing more than to have enjoyed this game but it is so bad no one should be able to enjoy it. I want to make it clear that I'm not a "fanboy scorned" who is pissed off because they kept out my favourite character or took out a gameplay element I enjoyed. When I complain constantly about Killzone 3, I will admit that I am a whining fan scorned, but objectively there is absolutely nothing redeeming about FF13 aside from the graphics.

It is so bad, it is insulting. This was supposed to be the JRPG for western audiences. The Japanese game industry is in toilet and so they are constantly saying, "We need to make games that appeal to the West." At some Square Enix board meeting it was decided that the average North American is barely intelligent enough to dress themselves and has the attention span of a goldfish, because that is who this game is designed for. "Western friendly" apparently means "for complete morons" to Japanese game developers. I don't mind the linearity (that's why you play JRPGs) but the entire game is played by holding x. I finished most of the game holding x while surfing the internet or looking after my infant twins. It was that simple.

FF13 is not an RPG, by any definition. No meaningful levelling, equipment, story, characters, dialogue, customization. Iron Man 2 was literally more of an RPG than FF13. The worst part is that people liked this game. What was there to like? Do you enjoy being treated like you're stupid? Do you enjoy games that don't make any sense and have no challenge? The cherry on the top of this fiasco was the end game grinding. At the same Square Enix board meeting they said, "How pointlessly, repetitive and horrible can we make the grinding without putting in any effort at all on our part?" And I answered by collecting six freaking trapezondrons and a bunch of dark matter by killing the same basic turtles hundreds and hundreds of times.

(Honorary Worst Game) Cars Race-O-Rama: When you are a trophy whore you expect to play terrible games. On rare occasions they are surprisingly good (Monster vs Aliens) but most of the time they live up to your expectations. Then there are games like Race-O-Rama that are horrible beyond what your imagination could have conceived. Due to the fact that this game was released in 2009 it cannot make my 2010 list, but it may well be the worst game I have ever played. Sometimes in games you can get hit with a spell or something that randomly inverts your controller and switches the buttons every few seconds. That's what playing Race-O-Rama is like all the freaking time. The physics just don't make any sense. I still have no idea how to control the carts in the Guido races. I'm not exaggerating when I say that you will not understand how to control the cars in this game. Every other aspect of this game is horrible but I especially wanted to mention the music and sound. I played three quarters of this game on mute. Why would your car yell the same irritating thing every time you used boost when you need to boost dozens of times in every single race?

Best Games

It was difficult to pick the best games of the year as well, but for a different reason. Normally there are three to four amazing games each year that really stand out. In 2010 there was really only one game that I would consider a really great timeless game. The rest are decent games that probably wouldn't place in my top five in any other year.

5) Fallout New Vegas: This game doesn't deserve to be on my top five due to the ridiculous number of glitches and the fact that it is essentially a big Fallout 3 expansion. But I can't help it, I love Fallout. After a three month drought with nothing good to play New Vegas sucked me right in and comforted my broken gaming soul.

4) Spiderman Shattered Dimensions: This was an awesome game! It was hilarious, it had a ton of variety and it was a lot of fun. There were some frustrating aspects for sure but it captured Spiderman wonderfully and the diversity kept me hooked. While it isn't Spiderman's Arkham Asylum, it is fairly close. It's too bad most people wrote this game off.

3) MAG: How can I not put MAG on this list when I sunk over 200 hours into this game? This game was a great shooter and so underappreciated. I can't believe it isn't at least nominated in the FPS categories when most gaming sites see fit to include absolute crap like Medal of Honour. It did things that no other console FPS even comes close to attempting. The leadership stuff was brilliant. The maps were so perfectly put together (no easy task in a game of this scope). The way they managed 256 people on a single map and kept it from becoming a big cluster was nothing short of amazing. I think this game suffered from very solid but bland gameplay basics, bland setting/story/design and a tough learning curve. That's my only explanation for why this game got no respect. No other game will capture that feeling of defending the last bunker as dozens and dozens of human controlled soldiers pour at you from all directions.

2) Transformers War on Cybertron: The only game of 2010 to really surprise me in a good way, this game is a Transformers fan's wet dream. It captures the original series' tone and characters perfectly and makes them even more awesome. Toss in co-op, escalation mode and an amazingly solid multiplayer and you have yourself a pretty sweet game. Seriously this game deserves to be my number 2 for the year, it was a blast.

1) Heavy Rain: Was there any doubt? Heavy Rain was epic. An emotional gaming experience like nothing else. There were some small issues that broke the immersion, but I would love to see more games like this to refine the genre. Looking back on my review I had quite a few technical complaints but ten months later all I remember is how this game made me feel. I am left with just the resounding emotional impact. From cutting off my finger to watching my son die to the cliff hanger ending. Heavy Rain is a beautiful game.

(Honorary Best Game) Demon's Souls: Demon's Souls can't be my GOTY because it was technically released in 2009. That being said Demon's Souls would not only have been my GOTY for 2009, 2010, 2008, it would be my game of the decade. Demon's Souls is the best game I have ever played. I can't say it is my favourite game ever because other games have had a greater emotional impact or done more to define a period of my life. But if anyone is curious as to my perfect game, Demon's Souls is it and then some. Everything about this game from the epic and varied environments, incredible design, airtight skilled controls, depth of customization and levelling, balance and difficulty is perfect. Combine all this with the most creative take on multiplayer in the last five year and this game is an absolute masterpiece.

Most Anticipated Games

There are literally two dozen absolute must have titles for 2011, I have no idea how I will find the time or money. This year will be epic! Enjoy this golden age before iphone games, DLC and motion gaming ruin everything we love about video games.

5) Portal 2: Portal was brilliant and this long awaited sequel kicks it up a notch. The co-op looked great at PAX.

4) Project Dark: Demon's Souls 2? If it's even close then I'm in. Here's to hoping they don't dumb it down like every other game that gets released for the 360 after being an exclusive.

3) Deus Ex: The best game trailer of all time. I hope it lives up to expectations.

2) Mass Effect 2 and 3: I have been dying to play this series from the beginning and I finally get my shot. Thank you so much EA and Bioware.

1) Resistance 3: Killzone 3 ruining itself reminded me of how much I love the Resistance series. The first game was the only thing I had for my PS3 for the longest time and I liked everything about Resistance 2. Resistance holds a special place in my heart and this game looks outstanding. Insomniac is the best studio out there and giving their games an extra year will yield incredible results.

Have a wonderful 2011!