I finished Lost Planet 2's campaign, checked out the multiplayer and wrote a review. Overall it was fun as a co-op game but awful as a singleplayer one. The multiplayer had some interesting ideas but there is essentially no community at all, which is a shame. The game also has fantastic graphics, and runs unbelievably well considering how good it looks. It was also super stable and quite polished, not one crash or frame rate hitch.

Which brings me to Call of Duty: Black Ops. First off I'll say that gameplay wise black ops seems like a big step up from MW 2, and the campaign was actually very good (I managed to finish it in the brief time that I had the game running well). The only problem is that the game is broken.

RANT INCOMING

I played Call of Duty 1 on my 2001 Toshiba satellite laptop that had a 30gb hard drive, a 1.8ghz Celeron CPU, 256mb of ram and a 16mb ATI graphics card. Once I turned the settings down a bit, the game ran fine.

I played Call of Duty 2 on my 2004 Dell desktop that had 512mb of ram, a 2.8GHZ P4 CPU, and a Ati X300 graphics card. It ran fine in direct x 7 mode.

I played Call of Duty 4 on the same Dell desktop but with upgraded ram (1.5 gigs) and a upgraded GPU (8600GT). It ran perfectly on the highest settings with at 1280x1024 with 4xAA and anistrophic filtering on.

Call of Duty: World at War and MW 2 I played on my current rig, although the former I played with a 9800GT and the latter with my current ATI 5850 (the game came with the card). Both games ran flawlessly.

Even though the Call of Duty games do nothing remarkable in terms of gameplay, the series had a legacy of performing well on modest rigs with total stability and sharp, clean controls. This makes the series very appealing since you just start the game and play without hassle.

Along comes Call of Duty: Black Ops, the worst game launch that I have ever taken part in; it takes this well earned reputation and singlehandedly destroys it. This is the most poorly tested, and one of the most poorly supported, releases I have ever known. The problems with this game make the launch issues with Bad Company 2 and New Vegas look like nothing.

My experience with the game can be found in this post:

I got the game working ok after the first patch, but the second patch re-broke it.

I've tried Validating the game files, turning off steam community and cloud in game, re-installing Direct x, rolling back to an older version of direct x, making tweaks to the config file (many many tweaks, every single one listed in the steam forums and on various websites), deleting the config files and starting fresh, matching the sound quality of my sound device to the game's sound quality, changing the game's priority in the task manager, trying different sound and video drivers, cleaning my computers registry, turning all of the settings to max in order to take load off my CPU, turning off the MS DNS client, typing "/sns_restart" into the console at the beginning of every match... basically every single fix that has been posted since the game was released.

The game still crashes in MP every 10 minutes, and stutters like mad unless I turn shadows off and Vysnc on, then I get input lag and the game still stutters occasionally in singleplayer.

This is the single worst game launch I have ever seen.

For reference, I've been able to play every single previous COD perfectly, and have played almost every single major PC release, including the infamously buggy New Vegas, and the CPU intensive BC 2 and Metro 2033, absolutely perfectly on the highest, or at least high, settings.

Broken game is broken.

with_teeth26

So basically the game is more broken now than it was at launch. I now get great frame rates, but they come at the cost of constant crashing in multiplayer, terrible, terrible stuttering, and sound looping. After making claims about fixing the game, and releasing a couple of useless patches that probably passed QA on the rigs that weren't having any problems in the first place, those of us who are still having problems with the game have been left high and dry with only vague comments about the game updating cycle as to whether more fixes are on the way. Really Treyarch, how hard can it be to take a game engine that has worked flawlessly with oh, what is it, 4 games, and just do THE EXACT SAME THING? You know, make it work?

I know my computer isn't top of the line, and I expect to have some minor difficulties in CPU intensive games like GTA IV and Bad Company 2, but a static, graphically unimpressive game like Black Ops? I'm sorry, but this is unacceptable. I also heard that Treyarch employees were given a 1 week holiday for thanks giving while the emails concerning their broken failure of a release continue to flood their inboxes, and the game itself continues to sell like some kind of Christ-endorsed piece of immortality granting software.

Well Treyarch you have lost my already dubious respect and earned my middle finger with this malfunctioning piece of horribly written code. I'm giving this game a 1/10 until Treyarch fixes it, the longer that takes, the lower my final score will be.

I think i'm going to uninstall it until the next patch comes out. My patience has run out, my optimism has turned into rage and remorse. I'll go back to Bad Company 2 in the mean time, a game that is superior to Black Ops both in optimization and in depth of gameplay.

/Rant

I've continued playing Fallout: New Vegas, I'm about 30 hours in to my first playthrough and will probably finish the game soon. Easily my favourite game this year, I encountered next to no issues, and the depth and number of ways you can complete the main quest is staggering. I'm going to be replaying this game for sure.

I also talked a couple of friends into getting L4D 2 so i've been playing that a fair bit with them, Versus in a friends only game is a blast especially if you can round up 8 players, I've gotten a lot better since I started playing and now if there only a few of us playing its usually 2 vs 1 against me, and I almost always win by a huge margin. I'll be sure to keep playing it, the problems I was having with playing with random people have been eliminated as I have gotten better, although there are still stupid people here and there. Only difference is now I'm the one doing the vote kicking.

Incredibly busy these days with school work, trying to figure out where I am going next year, and playing all the games that keep piling up in front of me. Things in the foreseeable future are only going to get crazier, so I'll have to endure this insanity for a long time yet even though I'm already pretty burnt out. Oh well, lots of great games to play right now and not many coming out after November so I should be able to catch up on the gaming front.

Gothic 4

I was aware going in that Gothic 4 wasn't really a proper Gothic game because it was made by a different developer, similar to Ubisoft developing Far Cry 2. The outcome was pretty disastrous – the game looks absolutely stunning, apart from some aliasing and clunky animations. Textures, lighting, and environments are all really great looking. The rest is pretty rubbish though, read my review to find out why. It works ok as a simple action RPG but it has none of the components that made the Gothic games and Risen so compelling. It would be like a Stalker game with Call of Duty styIe weapons and health regeneration and absolutely no depth.

New Vegas

I've only been able to put about 8 hours into New Vegas so far due to time constraints, but I am loving it so far. If it continues to be as good as it has been it will likely end up being my favourite game to have come out this year, and by association my favourite new game since Mass Effect 1 came out in 2008. It has the same great gameplay as Fallout 3, but with a bunch of tweaks that make it so much more compelling – also it doesn't give me BSOD's every 20 minutes like Fallout 3 did, although I think that can be blamed on faulty ram that I have now replaced. The writing and voice acting is on a level only paralleled by Bioware games, and even then the writing seems to be even sharper in New Vegas. So many interesting characters to meet, and so many interesting places to explore and quests to complete. The faction system is really interesting, there are no clear good or bad guys, but rather each faction stands for different things. I've fallen in with the NCR, but other smaller factions like the Children of the Apocalypse seem really interesting as well.

The number of ways you can complete some of the side quests reminds me of Dues Ex, one quest I completed recently required you to adjust a number of solar panels that would increase the power of an NCR power plant. Once you enter the building where the controls are, you are faced with a large and complex automated security system. You can either try and blow it up, or hack into a nearby computer to disable it. Later in the mission, you learn the control panel is damaged, and if your repair skill is high enough you can repair it. If not, you there is a nearby robot that can be activated if your science skill is high enough, otherwise you will need to search for an activation card. Brilliant, brilliant stuff when combined with the great exploration and improved combat, which while still not great outside of VATS is much improved with the addition of iron sights. The game also runs perfectly with that .dll fix that is floating around, and it looks better than I expected. Bugs have been minimal thus far. I can easily see myself dropping a hundred plus hours into this game.

Lost Planet 2

Just picked this game up recently after hearing the PC version was way better than the console version, I remember enjoying the first Lost Planet game on the PC so I figured I'd check this one out. I'm about 2 hours in so far, and I'm not a big fan of the co-op only design of the game, but once I figured out how to set up missions and such its actually decent. The knock back attacks are really annoying, but some of the boss fights are pretty epic, the gunplay is solid, and the visuals are spectacular. Honestly, I feel that with games like Metro 2033, Gothic 4 and now Lost Planet 2 the bar for visuals on the PC has finally been raised after so many years of little graphical advancement. Too bad most of the games boasting these great visuals haven't been anything special.

I'll post a review of Lost Planet 2 once I've spent more time with it, but so far it's better than I expected.

Upcoming Games/gaming

Next week Black Ops comes out, and I think I'm going to get it. I was going to skip out on MW 2 altogether but it came with my graphics card so I did end up playing it. It was ok, singleplayer was probably the weakest of any COD game on the PC, and the multiplayer was full of hackers which really brought down the overall experience. Black Ops is looking pretty full featured so I'm not overly unhappy about spending 60 dollars on it, wager matches look particularly interesting.

After black ops, there isn't much of anything coming out until January that I'm interested in, so I'll probably catch up on some of the games I already got and put some serious time into New Vegas and Left 4 Dead 2 versus, which I have dabbled in but haven't been able to really get into due to time constraints.

My chaotic and highly insane schedule continues and will grow even crazier over the next few weeks as mid terms and term papers come into play. I might even try to get my old job working at a computer store once a week back because I need some extra money. I'm taking the less-sleep, more-coffee approach to life right now in order to keep everything under control. I only really have the time to play one game seriously at a time, so it's not necessarily a bad thing that the fall and holiday season are relatively dry for big releases this year – not to say there isn't a lot to play.

Darksiders Review

Overall I enjoyed Darksiders quite a bit, it borrowed heavily from other games but the pacing and quality of the gameplay was quite good. Worth playing if you are a fan of Action Adventure games.

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Recently I received a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 from a kind gentleman, and I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. I never bought L4D 1; I played the demo and passed it off as something that would be boring and repetitive thanks to the limited weapon selection and drab environments.

So far I have mostly been playing through the campaign and have finished the first 4, and while the gameplay is solid the environments are really what impress me, each campaign is set in a very different location, and they are all really fun to play through. Dark Carnival is my favourite campaign so far thanks to its moody atmosphere and dark humour. I also spent an hour in survival mode which was a good deal of fun, I'm guessing that mode will get old fairly quickly but I'm probably going to play it a bit more and try all the maps regardless. I have yet to try versus, which is apparently the best mode, but I'm going to finish the Campaign first.

For the most part I have been playing with random people online, and have been impressed with the level of skill and maturity that has been present for the most part. Only one or two annoying players, the rest have been great teams that work together and communicate well. I almost want to get a mic so that I can co-ordinate with my team and start screaming HELP! When I get pinned by a charger or jockey. I'm amazed at how much content there is in the game, everything that was present at release as well as a year's worth of DLC and add-ons, all free thanks to Valve being awesome. I've been able to play it quite a bit this weekend, but once I get Gothic 4 later this week, then Fallout: New Vegas after that, I will probably play it as a secondary game until winter break when I will have more free time.

My main issue with the game so far is the lack of iron-sights. Also, a few more weapons would be nice, although there are a decent number already. It definitely has Valve written all over it in terms of quality and polish though.

I'm looking for people to play through the rest of the campaign with, or any other modes for that matter, so if you want to give it a go my steam name is with_teeth26.

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I also got Dead Rising 2 a little while ago when it came out, and haven't really played it that much since I find it rather annoying a lot of the time. The combat and weapons are all fantastic, but the whole time limit thing is a bit overdone, and I'm getting tired of being grabbed all the time. The boss fights practically seem broken, and the story missions aren't all that much fun either. I can see why some people like it but I'm glad it was relatively cheap when it came out because I would have felt ripped off had it been 50 or 60 dollars.

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I did end up finishing Amnesia, I started late last week and finished the last couple of hours in two sessions, the first of which I played light on and with my speakers, the second with lights off and headphones on. Fantastic horror game, now that I think about it the puzzles were suitable because they kept the pacing relatively fast and the tension extremely high. There was one bit near the end where I was escaping from somewhere, running like hell and being chased, when I ran into a door blocked with debris. Trying frantically to remove this debris while evil was bearing down on me was one of the most frantic and terrifying moments I have ever experienced in any form of media, sheer panic and terror was all I could feel, and that made me realize how brilliant a game Amnesia was. Easily the scariest game I have ever played.

It's been a while since my last blog, which is mainly because I haven't had much time for games since glasses started. My current schedule sees me on campus for most of the day with huge breaks in between classes so I don't get home until relatively late each day.

I was also going to wait until I finished Amnesia to do this blog, but I'm going to put the game aside for the time being for a variety of reasons even though I'm fairly close to the end. One of the reasons is that it's simply too oppressive to play at times. I'll go in thinking "I'll make some real progress this time." Ten minutes later I've quit the game because the atmosphere is simply too overbearing. I found with Penumbra the emphasis was on the puzzles and the horror aspects were in the background so it was basically a puzzle game with the added element of terrifying creatures and a creepy story.

With Amnesia it's a horror game first and a puzzle game second, and the puzzles suffer for it, although the atmosphere definitely doesn't. I found myself doing almost all of the puzzles right away without much thought at all, which means you keep progressing and continue encountering strange and terrible things at a fairly quick pace. I need to be in the exact right mood to enjoy this kind of game, but I'm so damned busy right now that mood almost never comes upon me. I even bought some new headphones and played in the dark to try and instigate this mood, but still my high levels of brain activity meant I found playing the game rather unpleasant due to the horribly oppressive nature of the levels. I recognize that it's an incredible horror game, but until I'm a bit less busy I'm going to put the game aside. Unless I suddenly get the urge to play it, which could very well happen.

I also picked up Darksiders for the PC when it came out on Thursday, and honestly it's a ton of fun. At first I was horrified that it would be a terrible port because there is only one graphics setting – resolution – but honestly it looks great, runs great and controls very well with a mouse and keyboard. I almost never get to play these kinds of action hack-and-slash games because they generally seem to come out on consoles, so I'm really enjoying the experience. Probably about 4 or 5 hours in, and I'm loving the pacing and the brilliant level design. I wish there were a few more weapons, but the different combos and upgrades are keeping me entertained. I'll be reviewing the game, but probably not for over a week because I don't have that much time to game and its supposedly fairly lengthy at around 15 hours.

I also played through the latest DLC for Mass Effect 2 – Lair of the Shadow Broker – and honestly it has what is probably the best Mass Effect content yet. It had the soul and the feel of ME 1 with the improved combat mechanics of ME 2. If ME 3 is like this DLC I will be a happy man. Anyone who enjoyed ME 2 in the slightest should definitely check it out. I did encounter a number of fairly serious bugs though, mostly involving getting stuck in the terrain or in cover. On one occasion you need to traverse the exterior of a ship in space (similar to the ending of ME 1 actually) and I wasn't sure where I was supposed to go at first. It seemed like you were supposed to vault over some nearby cover, but the game wouldn't let me. Eventually I found a way out of the starting area, but it turned out to be a terrible glitch where I was wandering around in a part of the ship that was supposed to be inaccessible. I couldn't get back and had to reload the most recent save. Still, the content was fantastic, and I had a ton of fun playing it.

I've also been devoting an unfortunate amount of time to a free turn-based fighting game a friend told me about called "Toribash" where you have to control the individual muscles of your player in order to get the other player to hit the ground. It has a brutal learning curve but once you get used to the mechanics you will realize how many sweet moves are possible, and each fight turns out differently. How it works is you have ten seconds to change the state of your muscles, while a ghost-image of your character indicates what changing each muscle will do. After the 10 seconds, 90 frames (or less depending on the game mode, Judo is my personal favorite) of action will play out. You then get another 10 seconds to change your muscles until either the frame counter runs out (1000 frames per match in Judo) or one of you hits the ground with anything other than your feet or hands.

Teh Review

Well, i'm a bit dazed and confused because Mafia II is the game I have been waiting for, in the back of my mind, for the last several years. Now that its here, and i've finished it, I don't know how to proceed.

guess i'll keep playing games.

All the big releases of 2010 (for me at any rate) have been either released or pushed into 2011, except for Amnesia: The Dark Descent which comes out on the 8th of September. I still think the Penumbra games are the scariest game I've ever played so i'm really looking forwards to this game by the same developers.

I'll also probably pick up Dead Rising 2 and Darksiders to keep myself entertained. Still undecided on Black Ops and Medal of Honor, although the former is looking better than MW2. There was an article in the local newspaper recently about Medal of Honor, a bunch of mothers of soldiers in Afghanistan are unhappy that the game is set in a war that is still occurring. They want it to be canceled which I find quite funny since the game is late in development. It'll be interesting to see what happens when the game comes out.

I've started playing Bad Company 2 again, and a lot of fun has returned after giving the game a break. Probably the best multiplayer game to have come out this year.

CIasses start again next Tuesday for me, and my first day will see me on campus for 11.5 hours! Tuesdays are going to be crazy for me this semester, but other than that my schedule is great and my course load should be manageable. I need to up my GPA this year so I plan to actually do textbook readings and, you know, try, which I haven't really done since I was 11 or so.

Q1 2011 is looking pretty sweet as far as game releases go, so at least I have something to look forwards to on the gaming front.

Starcraft 2 Review

For those too Lazy to read the whole thing (its pretty damn long, probably my longest review yet), I thought it was really good, the singleplayer campaign was pure awesome although i found a few missions overly frustrating, the multiplayer is kind of annoying but its incredibly addicting and very fun.

I was placed in the Silver league fore 2 vs. 2 and 3 vs. 3 which i think was a mistake on the games part because I seem to be losing a lot more than winning. I'm already growing tired of some of the tactics like Reaper harassment and Void Ray blobs (how can you stop them? Is it even possible!?!), I think every game I have lost to a protoss player or team has been to Void Ray blobs - no exceptions.

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I'm also playing the Company of Heroes Online beta which is really good, all my Dawn of War II training has made me way better at Company of Heroes than I was before so i'm having an absolute blast with it, I've had a few super close matches that I really enjoyed both when I have won and when I have lost. The hero squad system is really good and so are the ability unlock and upgrade trees, they really add more depth to what is already a fantastic multiplayer component. I remember now why Company of Heroes in my favorite RTS.

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I played, and loved, the Mafia 2 demo, and i'm super excited for its launch next week. The demo really retained the feeling of the original, which as you now know is my favorite game of all time. Every developer interview i've heard encourages my thinking that they are doing exactly what i want them to do with the sequel - modernize some aspects such as the gunplay and health system while retaining what made the original great - a focus on storytelling, varied missions and uncompromising authenticity. I'll be reviewing Mafia II as soon as I can at NGN.

Just a quick update (entering this straight into the message field in GS - please excuse spelling/grammar errors) - i've been away a lot lately and am going away again this Saturday for another week. My absence can be attributed to work, and vacation, the latter of which was rather exciting as I got to climb some of the highest mountains in the lower 48 states of the USA - the highest of which was about 14,500 feet tall, called Mt. Massive, which is the third highest mountain in the lower 48. I climbed 2 other mountains over 14,000 feet, and i'm pretty damn proud of it. I also drove for an entire day which was terrible, all the way from Price, Utah to Vancouver, Canada, which was a 1,700km drive. Well, the way I put it was a bit misleading, I didn't do all the driving, but I was in a car that drove said distance. You know what I mean.

Now onto the free games - when I got back from the trip I quickly found out about Alien Swarm, the free co-op game released by Valve recently, based on a mod. Its pretty fun, I played through the game LAN with a friend and we had a good time. I've spent about 6 hours in the game and i'll probably play a bit more because its pretty fun, but I cant see myself playing it a lot.

More significantly, I managed to get into the beta for Company of Heroes online, which i'm super excited about because Relic is my favorite developer, and Company of Heroes is my favorite RTS of all time and one of my favorite games of all time. So far i'm absolutely astounded by how much you get in this game - which will be free on release - its basically the original Company of Heroes with a more flushed out multiplayer component. You get the entire singleplayer campaign, the full set of tutorial missions + a new set of tutorial missions for the Axis faction. You get 17 maps and 4 game sizes (1vs 1 - 4 vs 4) across 2 game modes, each of which can be played online with humans or against AI - which is pretty damn good. I can barely get my head around the fact that this is all free - and still in beta - since its already pretty polished and balanced, although so far there are barely any people online.

I'll be getting Starcraft 2 when it comes out on Tuesday, a fact which may shock some of you is that I have never played a Blizzard game before, so i'm interested to see how I like it. From what i've seen, I doubt it will become one of my favorite RTS games, but i'm guessing that I will still enjoy it. I hope there are other incompetent players online. I will probably be reviewing the game at NGN at some point, maybe mid August, but it may be later than that.

I Recently finished System Shock 2 for the first time which was an incredible experience, it would probably go in my list at around #4 but its fresh in my memory so that may change.

This is a long-ass blog so I won't take up any space with preliminary banter

# 10 The Witcher (2007)

If Crysis is the new face of PC gaming, The Witcher has to be its heart and soul. No other game has managed to adopt the mature, personal tone that The Witcher maintains throughout, despite its rough edges and quirks. The Witcher made me feel things I didn't even know a video game could make me feel. It's a shame some elements are a bit under realized or overly complex because The Witcher is truly a fantastic experience that anyone who enjoys RPG's in the slightest should play. Few other games put the same gravity into the decisions you have to make, and the fact that most of these decisions are so much deeper than good or evil is a testament to how far ahead the game is in this department. Most RPG's offer such choices as kill this guy, or don't kill him; save this character or save that character; save this town or that town. The Witcher has choices that actually seem more plausible, and your actions have consequences, something that even the best of RPG's seem to struggle with.

#9 Half-Life 2 (2004)

you know that giddy feeling you get when you are playing a new game, and it manages to be fun and fresh and like nothing you have experienced before in a video game? What makes HL 2 so truly fantastic is that is manages to maintain this feeling for its relatively lengthy duration. The sheer variety of gameplay and environments is staggering, and the fact that they are all so well done is equally impressive. No one element of Half-Life 2 sets it apart from other FPS games – the combat is good but not great; the puzzles aren't anything special – rather it's the breadth of the gameplay and the consistently high quality missions and level design that make it a sheer joy to play. It seems that each new level introduces some new element, which keeps the game fresh and exciting throughout. The characters, great weapons, voice acting and story are like icing on the highly varied and near perfectly executed cake.

#8 Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (2002)

This game may seem out of place in my top 10, but it has a special place in my heart for various reasons. First of all, it was the first action-oriented, highly scripted FPS I ever played (I had only played ghost recon and rainbow 6 games prior). It was also really similar to Saving Private Ryan, my favourite movie at the time I played this game (and I later learned that Steven Spielberg was involved in making the game). MoH:AA was intense, fun and highly varied with missions ranging from solo spy/stealth ops to full on assaults. I still hold the Omaha beach assault mission as my favourite single game mission ever in an FPS. Its authenticity mixed with its action is a great combination that no other game has managed to pull off to the same degree of success. It is my favourite WWII fps, and seeing as how the industry is moving away from the era it will probably remain so.

#7 S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (2007)

When Shadow of Chernobyl finally came out, I was not prepared for what I was heading into. A brutal, cruel and relentless world full of horrible people and mutants that all want to either kill you and loot your corpse or eat your face. Easily the most atmospheric game I have ever played and one of the creepiest, Stalker: SoC does immersion right, and despite its bugs is probably the most complete and enjoyable game in the trilogy (although it's not nearly as polished as Call of Pripyat). Words cannot describe the funny unease that comes upon you as you venture into an abandoned soviet factory, odd sounds and flashing light coming through the windows produced either by anomalies, humans or perhaps some horrid beast. A flash of lightning from behind broadens the small circle of light cast from your headlamp into a brief glimpse at the surrounding landscape – one full of turmoil and hungry mutants, the massive breadth of the factory now apparent. Then, once again, darkness, total darkness, surrounds you as you trudge forth into the entrance of this gloomy factory. Pretty much every moment of this game is as atmospheric and tense as this one, and the sense of mystery is almost complete at the beginning of the game. You really need to play this game to understand its appeal – words simply don't, and cant, do it justice.

#6 F.E.A.R (2005)

I love Fear for the same reason I love the Max Payne games – the game allows you to truly revel in the glory of combat. As it stands, no other game has combat as good as what is found in F.E.A.R – the gunplay, the A.I. and the weapons themselves are all top notch. Add slow-motion and fantastic visual effects into the mix and each firefight is a glory to behold. The horror aspects of the game aren't the best, but the story is great and pretty creepy, and there are lots of tense, atmospheric moments throughout the duration of the game. But in the end it's the glorious, slow-motion firefights where bullets are whizzing through the air kicking up dust and scattering boxes while limbs fly and enemies try to communicate with each other that put this game in my top 10.

#5 Mass Effect (2008 )

There is no one element that makes me love Mass Effect, and I have a hard time explaining why I like it so much better than Mass Effect 2 (as awesome as the game is), but I'll do my best. The original game has much more personality and a much better story – I think these are the two main elements that made me love the game. The galaxy is full of wonder and mystery and just begs to be explored. The ambient soundtrack is probably the best I know of. The environments are gorgeous form an artistic standpoint and impressive from a technical one. While the main storyline is rather short, the replay value is spectacular and the missions themselves are incredibly fun, and almost all of them feel super epic and important, unlike the sequel. The number of characters in your party feels just right; in ME 2 it's hard to get to know all the characters well while in ME 1 I had a much better understanding of them and what they were about. Some people may struggle to understand why I have this game so high up on my list; I do as well sometimes, but the fact is that I enjoyed it a lot, and I have enjoyed each of my three playthroughs of the game as much as the last.

#4 The Elder Scrolls III; Morrowind (2002)

Duking it out with Oblivion for the title of my most played game, Morrowind was a much better game than Oblivion simply because it had personality, character and a ton of charm. Despite its dated graphics, the hand-crafted world was one of incredible detail and wonder, and required extensive exploration to get the full benefit of. And that is what I did – I explored like there was no other purpose to playing games. All the hand-placed special items made exploration incredibly rewarding, and the assortment of dangerous creatures made exploration even more interesting – some areas are simply off limits early on because your character is so weak. The sense of character progression is truly incredible as you rise from someone who landed on a prison boat in a shore town who can have his ass handed to him by a rat to the man who saves the entire island (reminds me of Risen now that I think about it). The story is also incredibly complex and interesting, full of politics and lore; racism and religion. The world that the game takes place in is just so incredibly rich that I couldn't get enough of it. Bethesda's best work to date and my favourite RPG, Morrowind is one hell of a game.

#3 Company of Heroes + Opposing Fronts (2006/8 )

I bought this game on a whim because I felt like I needed a new RTS, and I'd hard good things about the game. What I got in the end was something truly incredible – deep, technically advanced, complex and glorious in all modes. The singleplayer campaign of the original and its expansion are by themselves really incredible, with some missions taking several hours to complete with non-stop action. Recently RTS's have been moving from large-scale to small scale, and Company of Heroes strikes a perfect balance of this – you still build a base, and you still control quite a few units, and there is still a lot of strategy involved, as well as tactics and small-scale battles. The depth and breadth of the game is rather staggering, there is simply so much one has to take into account when playing this game. Unit build orders, unit placement, upgrades, tactics and overall strategy all need to be managed at once, which means intense focus is always required when playing this game, especially when you play online. It was also by far the most technologically advanced game available when it hit the market, with fully destructible environments, insane detail, and particle and explosion effects that are still some of the best on the market today. Opposing Fronts even manages to be atmospheric at times thanks to the slow paced, armour-oriented missions that occur during lightning storms. These two games come as close to perfection as an RTS ever can if you like the tactical, combat heavy modern RTS without giving up overall strategy.

#2 Deus Ex (2000)

Deus Ex, like Half-Life 2, doesn't do any one thing better than other games. In fact, the gunplay really isn't spectacular, and the stealth elements really are a bit awkward. But it's the scope and the freedom you have access to in this game that make it truly exceptional – it is an RPG in far more than just the choices you make and the stats you choose. The game really does allow you to play through every mission any way you want – you can by sneaky, you can go in guns-blazing, you can navigate puzzle-like hallways with hacking skills and EMP grenades – whatever play ****you can dream up, Deus Ex accommodates for. The rest of the RPG mechanics are great – choices and character building, and the story is complex, well told and very interesting. But it's the variety of the gameplay, the number of different ways each mission can be approached, that make the game so exceptional.

#1 Mafia (2002)

As predicted by PredatorRules, my number 1 game is Mafia. Its uncompromising, relentlessly realistic gameplay, mixed with a few small tweaks that prevent it from being frustrating (most of the time), create what is for me the ultimate gaming experience. It takes the realistic approach of the GTA games but does it right. The police system is easily the best I've ever seen; if you speed they pull you over and give you a ticket. If you do something more extreme, you have to escape or face the consequences. Yet, if you drive at the speed limit when a police is near, and avoid crashing your car, you won't be pulled over or hassled by the cops. The driving in the game may annoy some, but for me it added to the immersion in a big way – you live the life of a gangster down to the last detail, and driving around town is just one more thing you need to do. Combined with a fantastic, brilliantly told story, incredibly varied missions, and some of the most memorable set piece moments I have ever seen in gaming and you have something truly special.

One mission in the game involves robbing a bank, and it many ways it symbolizes the climax of the game – the character you play, and his most trusted gangster friend, are fed up with getting money fed to them by their corrupt mob boss, and decide to hold up a bank for some extra cash. To get to the bank, you need to ride a train all the way across town. There is no loading screen, but instead you experience this trip in real time – the tension is incredible as you have been versed on the plan, and its complexity is pretty great. Unlike other games, in Mafia these complexities aren't shown in a cutscene – you are required to do everything yourself, and it was this mission that put me into such a state of awe and made me decide I had never experience as grand in a video game before or since. Simply put, Mafia is the best game I've ever played.

Games I forgot about that would otherwise have been on my list:

Dead Space – probably would have been in the high 20's

Battlefield: 1942 – probably would have been in the low 20's/high teens.

Games I have played, and liked, but haven't played enough to include on my list:

Half-Life 1 – (got stuck part way through then lost the saves when a hard drive failed)

Homeworld (got my ass handed to me part way through, great game but brutally difficult)

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War + expansions – (just couldn't get into the game, enjoyed what I played though)

System Shock 2 – (playing through this right now actually, loving it, will probably make my top 10 if it continues)

Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines – (I have this installed now, just need to get back to playing it...)

Thief 2 (still got it installed, may resume playing it eventually).

Assassins Creed 2 – (will finish eventually, platforming controls pissed me off so I stopped playing in the 9th sequence or so)

I'm pretty well out of new games to play as i have recently finished Dragon Age: Awakening and given up on The Ballad of Gay Tony

Dragon Age: Awakening was a great expansion that was just a bit too easy, my review of the game can be found here.

Regarding The Ballad of Gay Tony, I finally managed to get past the first helicopter mission after remapping the controls but got stuck again a couple of missions later in a mission where you have to jump out of a helicopter to catch someone that you just pushed out of the same helicopter! Not only is the premise absurd but the mission itself is incredibly difficult, even with the checkpoint system. I've probably tried that one bit about 30 times but i'm too frustrated to try again; my rating of the game remains at 4.0. Garbage imo.

Ok, back to my list.

#20 Crysis (2007)

It's easy to dismiss this game as nothing but a pretty face, but the fact that I first played through it on my slightly upgraded 2004 Dell desktop with a single-core CPU using mostly low settings, and still loved the game, is a testament to how high the quality of the gameplay really is. I'm sure the people who disliked Crysis simply played it like they would a normal shooter without using the suits capabilities to change the way you play. The fact that the game features some of the best gunplay I have ever seen, coupled with great AI and glorious visuals and physics are just icing on the cake. Crysis isn't about the story, or getting to the next level, it's about playing how you want to play, depending on my mood I might spring into battle, spraying bullets at everything that moves punch a hole in a building and throw a barrel at a Korean. Or I might stay back, use cloak to get really close to my enemies then finish them off with a quick silenced pistol shot to the back of the head. Crysis is all about variety and customization, and this is does to a tee.

#19 Mass Effect 2 (2010)

Even though I recognize that Mass Effect 2 is in many ways a more refined game than its predecessor, as great as it is I simply couldn't get into the game like I did with Mass Effect. The story line, short missions with tame objectives and music just don't feel as epic as they did in the first game. But the gunplay is significantly improved, and there have been lots of small but significant improvements to the gameplay that make playing the game less clunky. It is very common these days to find a game that is better than the sum of its parts. Well, Mass Effect 2 is worse than the sum of its parts – even though all the mechanics that come together to create Mass Effect 2 are very well implemented, as a whole package it's simply not as impressive as it should be (from my perspective anyways). Still, the game is bloody fantastic; well written with quality and varied gameplay, it just doesn't strike me as really special like the original did.

#18 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)

Without mods, Oblivion is a poor RPG but a great action adventure game with loads of exploration, huge battles and enjoyable quests. With mods, Oblivion is so much more... all the supposed problems with vanilla Oblivion can be fixed with mods – the creatures that level up as you level up being the primary problem – which makes Oblivion into something truly special. This game is high in contention for the game I have spent the most time on overall, competing only with its predecessor Morrowind for this honour. Even though the plot if rather generic and the world can seem somewhat dead at times, Oblivion is incredibly immersive and capable of entertaining you for vast amounts of time – I don't think I've ever spent more time on a single playthrough of a singleplayer game, and I probably played through Oblivion at least 3 times. While not perfect, Oblivion is a hell of a game.

#17 Team Fortress 2 (2007)

Is not often that I play a FPS with no real sense of character progression in the form of levelling or unlocks, but the balance and generally fun gameplay of Team Fortress 2 had me playing for hours on end even before Valve started updating the characters with unlockable items. Somehow this game manages to stay fresh no matter how long you play it – while I rarely play the game seriously or as my main title, it's always installed on my computer and always there to play if I run out of newer titles. It's the perfect go-to game thanks to its brilliant online community and dedicated support from Valve. I almost always play the Heavy, and I'd say I'm a pretty damn good heavy, yet I'm still learning new things every time I play – like how you need to duck and move unpredictably when firing to avoid snipers. I find it hard to fathom that each of the ****s requires so much time and dedication to master, which when thought about makes Team Fortress 2 incredibly deep, even though it's so freaking easy to pick up and play.

#16 Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (2004)

Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (2004) – My personal favourite Splintercell game, Pandora Tomorrow was almost as ruthless and unforgiving as the original but a tiny bit easier, just enough to make the game much more playable and enjoyable while still retaining the tension and thrills of the original. The tropical setting was great – the combination of indoor and outdoor rural and urban settings really isn't found in any of the other games, especially the jungle levels, which reminded me of Far Cry but with much better stealth. While it felt like all the splinter cell games after Pandora Tomorrow were more focused on action, this game was all about getting around silently, and I found myself using all the gadgets I had at my disposal to get through each successive level. Probably the most varied and for me the best overall Splinter Cell game.

#15 Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault (2004)

Medal of Honour: Pacific Assault (2004) – probably one of the most overlooked and underrated games of all time, Pacific Assault was completely overshadowed by all the huge FPS games released in 2004. In reality Pacific Assault was right there with them, and with the exception of Half-Life 2 better than them. It featured a campaign that was both historically accurate and extremely fun – better than almost all of the Call of Duty games in fact. It was atmospheric, challenging, varied and most importantly incredibly fun. The game had a physics engine similar to the one found in Far Cry – but with a few important improvements. Rivers actually run, vegetation sways as you walk through it and shakes violently near explosions. There were even a few destructible buildings in a couple of parts. Most of these features weren't seen again until Crysis came out in 2007. But apart from all this technical prowess is a great story that is deeper than the usual "It's WWII – let's kill some Nazis!" crap usually found in WWII games. Like with the Band of Brothers games you are with a few squad mates throughout most of the game, and there is definitely some impressive character development. Great game, great gameplay, good story.

#14 Battlefield 2 (2005)

My standing favourite multiplayer FPS of all time, Battlefield 2 was complex, engaging, tactical and glorious with massive, open levels and all kinds of options for squads and commands. It even had an unlock and levelling system which precluded Modern Warfare by two years. I spent a ton of time on this game, and enjoyed almost every minute of it – because of the scale off most of the maps it's simply not that frustrating because you don't get killed that often. The action isn't nearly as intense as with most modern FPS's – instead it's slow and tactical, with conflict occurring not all that often. This is also the most balanced battlefield game, with all the kits being fun to play and all having numerous uses in combat. It's a rock-paper-scissors strategy game masquerading as an online FPS. It's brilliant.

#13 Max Payne (2001)

I love Max Payne for all the same reasons that I loved its sequel, but because it came out first and was essentially the same as Payne 2 I'm putting it higher on my list. The combat model is identical to Payne 2, the only real difference being that the graphics are a little bit worse. Firefights are fast and deadly, the writing is sharp, and the story one of revenge. Its great fun all around, highly polished and very well made. It was also a pretty big breakthrough when it came out, with gunplay that was way ahead of any other action games of the time.

#12 World in Conflict (2007)

Flat out my favourite multiplayer game of all time, WiC kind of played like battlefield from the top down with separate CIasses(armour, air, infantry and support) and even similar game modes. This is the first RTS (or RTT) that focuses entirely on combat with no base building and hardly any point-capping getting in the way of the fighting. The fact that the multiplayer matches are 8 vs. 8 is insane – each player only handles a handful of units, but still multiplayer matches are always fast and furious with action occurring all around you. Each cIass is difficult to play, and must be used to support other cIasss to be used successfully – kind of like in TF2 or BF2. If you're playing as air, you can decimate enemy tanks in seconds but you are susceptible to enemy AA. A successful assault will see friendly tanks rolling in and taking out the Anti Aircraft while the air playing focuses on the enemy tanks. Its all very tactical, yet it plays like an action game on steroids because of the frequency and intensity of the combat. Oh yea, the game also has a singleplayer campaign with a fantastic story and highly varied gameplay. Just another bonus.

#11 Call of Duty (2003)

With the best singleplayer campaign of the entire Call of Duty series and essentially the same multiplayer as Call of Duty 2, it shouldn't be difficult to figure out why Call of Duty 1 is the highest ranked on my list. The game has no bad missions, and loads of variety within the missions, which range from defensive to offensive to crazy car chases and even some stealth like missions. This game had such an incredible pace it never gave you a chance to catch your breath; games like this simply didn't really exist before Call of Duty hit the shelves. The multiplayer was also very fun, and while it didn't have all levelling and unlocks of more recent fps games it still had a good variety of maps, game modes and weapons that allowed for a good variety of play StyIes.

Well Its going to be a busy week what with E3 and work and all that but its going to be a good one as well. I've been playing through Episodes from Liberty City and Dragon Age: Awakening; both games are good, i've finished The Lost and Damned which was excellent, and started The Ballad of Gay Tony. If you have seen my 4.0 rating for the game you have probably already figured out that I have some problems with it, i will be reviewing both expansions once i'm done with them (here, not at NGN) so i'll explain why in my review unless my opinions have changed - the main problem is related to the helicopter controls, i'll give you that much.

Awakening so far is a great expansion although the price tag was a bit steep, it seems to have more character than the original game thanks to some darker, more interesting environments with some truly horrific enemies that are worse than anything seen in DA:O. The only oddity is that the difficulty is almost non-existent in the expansion, I have yet to reload a save once because the combat is just so easy. Often I can just let my team fend for themselves and they will win the fight, but this is on normal difficulty, so i may try to increase it in order to achieve some kind of challenge. I will be reviewing this game at NGN.

Now on to the list

From this blog forth, the games in my list are all gamesloved, some I just loved more than others. These are the games that explain why I am still a gamer, the ones that help establish total escapism from the trials and tribulations of every day life.

#30 Dragon Age: Origins (2009)

Dragon Age was my GOTY of 2009 for a reason – it's incredibly well made and designed with generally fun game play and a very well told and intricate story. The only reason it isn't higher on my list is that it severly lacks creativity and does little to make itself stand out. The setting is hyper generic fantasy that totally lacks any creativity, and the main plot lends itself heavily to Lord of the Rings. Regardless, the combat is fun, complex and engaging and many of the characters are interesting and well rounded. It was also incredibly long with fantastic replay value and lots of important decisions to make. Probably the highest ranking 'traditional' RPG on my list.

#29 Trackmanis Nations: Forever (2008 )

The only free game on my list, also the highest ranked driving game, trackmania has given me over 100 hours of entertainment both in its singleplayer mode, its multiplayer modes, and its track editor. What makes the game so infinitely repayable is that the racing isn't about the cars, it's about the tracks and the technique – everyone is on an exact even keel since everyone has the same car and access to all the advanced moves as soon as they download the game, the thing is, mastering all these techniques and moves is incredibly difficult and time consuming. This game fits neatly under the "easy to learn, difficult to master" category that so few games have managed to achieve. It also helps that thanks to the brilliant track editor there are literally an infinite number of tracks to be made, and each track that is at least somewhat complex requires many tries to get just right, and if you want to set any kind of record you are going to have to spend some serious time on that one track. It's so simple its brilliant. It also looks incredibly good and caters to an extremely wide group of gamers thanks to its relaxed yet challenging and engaging racing. It's also a lot of fun to make tracks and get a track just the way you want it, at which point you can share it with friends or the entire world using TMX. Brilliant game.

#28 Fallout 3 (2008 )

Although it may have more in common with Oblivion that the original Fallout games (which I still haven't played), Fallout 3 is still an incredibly immersive and engaging game thanks to its gloriously detailed and rich world and abundance of important moral choices. It has some of the most satisfying and rewarding exploration I've ever seen; it seems that every nook and cranny has some hidden treasure waiting to be discovered and horded. While the in-game gunplay is pretty poor, VATS is a great system combining RPG styIe hit-percentages with some great slow-motion take downs. The story is interesting, the voice acting is of high quality, and many of the quests are a ton of fun, but when it comes down to it the world is the highlight of the game, brought alive with roaming bandits, mutants and places that demand to be explored down to the last square inch.

#27 Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (2003)

In most games it seems combat is an obstacle, something to be gotten through to complete a mission. In a few games, combat is something to be relished and enjoyed, the core of the game, instead of the barrier. The Max Payne games fall into this slim category, showcasing some of the best combat I have ever seen – probably the best in any third person shooter that I know of. Who doesn't love flying through the air in slow motion, firing duel-wielded pistols into enemies who are returning fire but just missing you and instead landing in the wall behind you, kicking up dust and throwing objects all over the place. The great graphic-novel styIe interludes and dark, moody voice over's drive the game forward, giving structure and purpose to these brilliant, joyous firefights that are usually over all too quickly. Max Payne 2 does little to improve on its predecessor, but it's pretty much just as fun and truly worth experiencing for any shooter fan.

#26 Penumbra: Black Plague (2008 )

– Probably the most frightening game I've ever played, and also the best puzzle game I know of, Penumbra: Black Plague is better than Overture in a number of ways, but the biggest way it sets itself apart from other survival horror games is the fact that you have no way of fighting your enemies; you have to avoid them and hide from them – if you are seen, your only chance of survival is to flee. NOTHING is scarier than being chased down a narrow maze of hallways by some horrific creature, trying desperately to find a good hiding place, and coming to a dead end. You then try desperately to pull a desk in front of the door to stop the creature from coming in, but the creature bangs on the door eventually destroys it AND the desk, leaving you helpless and alone. The puzzles are totally logic based, and often physics based, which makes for some complex but always logical puzzles. The story is also very interesting and complex, and you will grow to question your characters sanity when he begins hearing voices in his head, telling him to do things... it's not often that a game so well incorporates different kinds of horror, yet penumbra: black plague achieves this balance and so creates a mentally stimulating yet utterly terrifying experience that is wholly unique and without equal in the survival horror genre.

#25 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)

The game that revolutionized competitive multiplayer fps games, CoD 4 brought the famed FPS franchise out of WWII and into modern times. The single player wasn't as good as previous Call of Duty instalments, but the multiplayer was deep, addicting and incredibly action packed. If Modern Warfare 2 has some bigger maps and more varied gameplay modes it could have been the best online fps out there, topping even the battlefield games, but as it stands the maps are all rather small and cluttered, making for some frustrating yet compulsively addicting online play. The fact that this entirely brilliant levelling up and unlock system has been used in almost every serious online fps since CoD 4's release is a tribute to how good it is – there is actually a sense of progression in this games multiplayer, which for me is a must in most online games, and that fact that there were so few problems with the system is a tribute to how well designed and made Call of Duty 4 is.

#24 Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005)

– In many ways Chaos Theory was the peak of the splinter cell series – it retained the stealth of its predecessors, but ramped up the pace of the action and made the difficulty much more forgiving. Now if you are seen, you have lots of ways to get yourself out of the situation, and you really aren't punished that much for doing so. While stealth is still the primary method of getting through levels, Chaos Theory is more of an action game in that you can shoot/stab your enemies more often, and without the same consequence as can be found in the first two games. It feels like it's almost too easy to kill enemies in these aggressive ways, which kind of takes away from the stealth, but Chaos Theory was still a great game with quality missions and lots of ways to deal with the various encounters. Overall an excellent, exhilarating game that's just a tad too forgiving compared to its predecessors.

#23 Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear (1999)

the very first FPS I ever played, Rogue Spear was loads of fun in its campaign and custom mission modes, but makes it this high on my list because of its pivotal role in turning me into a gamer. It took patience, time and skill to get through the tougher missions, and I would spend hours making and planning missions, perfecting my squad load outs and making plans for completing the mission. I don't remember a lot of details about this game since it has been so long since I have played it, but I do recall enjoying it immensely and playing it to death, so it's going on my list for nostalgic reasons.

#22 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat (2010)

(ok that image might be concept art for Clear Sky, but thats not important)

Easily the most polished and well designed of the Stalker games, Call of Pripyat is a ton of fun to play and is incredibly immersive, all things I have come to expect from a Stalker game. Call of Pripyat actually has side missions that are worth doing, as well as a highly functional weapon and armour repair and upgrade system, which may sound minor to those alien to the Stalker series, but really is very important. You see, in the Stalker games, equipment is expensive yet incredibly important. When you get and assault rifle, you have to repair it, upgrade it, and customize until it's your assault rifle. This lends itself to the incredible immersive qualities of the game, and the fact that the levels are much bigger only do more to make you feel like you are part of a functioning world in this strange post apocalyptic land. Unfortunately it doesn't do enough to make it as fresh as the original Shadow of Chernobyl, which will arise later in the list, but Call of Pripyat is still a remarkable game that is immersive, atmospheric and hauntingly beautiful in its alien yet oddly realistic setting.

#21 Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996)

The first RTS I ever played, the one of the first 'real' video games I ever played, Red Alert was a fantastic game that brought me into gaming. Like with Rogue Spear my memories of playing the game are foggy, but I do remember that I spent almost all of my time with the game playing skirmishes against the A.I. I remember that I would put almost all of my time into making a large, well defended base before I would slowly build a massive army and charge at the enemy base with my massive blob. Not exactly advanced tactics, but it did the trick. Red Alert taught me about how gratifying it was to succeed in a video game, and it made me aware of how effective video games are as a medium of pure escapism. For that, Red Alert will always be remembered fondly when I think of the Command and Conquer series as well as RTS's in general.