Playing the Games: Game of the Year 2009 - VOTE NOW

[Anders]

I would like to remove Dragon Age from my previous suggestions, because Bioware/EA has decided to fuck me by suddenly flagging my DLC as unauthorized. EA Support have been utterly useless, as usual, and I haven't played the game since this happened.

I would like to add Modern Warfare 2 instead.

[Muttley]

I've played very few new games this year, in fact I still have a massive pile of games from last year I've not touched. Oh for more free time.

I might have time to play Brutal Legend before voting closes hopefully so that may get added if it's any good...

My pitiful list:

• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Gridrunner Revolution
• Left 4 Dead 2

[wanye]

dunno if it counts, but i'd like to vote for wipeout fury. i know it's an expansion pack for an older game, but damn is it good! the new game types it adds are fantastic. i LOVE the battle mode.

other than that, i'd say flower and ghostbusters. oh, and beatles rockband because of the love that has gone into creating it.

*edit*
and i know its a 2008 game, but i havent had a wii since it got stolen in january, and i've only recently discovered the joys of BOOM BLOX. brilliant multiplayer fun, even when drunk. was up till ~6am a few weeks ago playing it with my mate.

[KidQuaalude]

It finally arrived last week

Mushihime Sama Futari (Xbox 360) is my GOTY.

[ShadowTail]

Modern Warfare 2
The campaign story is stupid but loads of fun. The multiplayer is even better than the first MW - making multiple playstyles viable and fun. Plus, the co-op spec ops are awesome.

Dragon Age:Origins
Excellent voice acting, and actually enjoyable dialogue makes this, in my mind, the best fantasy RPG since BG2.

Batman:Arkham Asylum
A superhero tie-in that actually works! The free-flowing combat system somehow balances perfectly with the stealthy bits. Plus excellent voice acting again.

Mirror's Edge
I think I can get away with this as 2009 - PC version was released in January? I know it was a little frustrating at times, but when you get a nice flow going it's an incredible feeling. Bonus points for trying something a little different.

[limb_clock]

BRUTAL LEGEND! \m/

[Devlin]

I'm placing a single hand on Gridrunner Revolution

[Fuseball]

Lots of games that I've enjoyed and then not felt compelled to go back and play this year. The few that have actually captured my imagination AND time are...

Borderlands (PS3)
Flower (PS3)
Gravity Crash (PS3)
Wipeout Fury (PS3)
Space Invaders Infinity Gene (iPhone)
Dirt 2 (360)
Machinarium (mac)

Gridrunner Revolution is lovely but I so rarely boot my mac in to windows that I've hardly played it. Uncharted 2, Assassin's Creed 2 and Arkham Asylum have been barely touched but I know I want to go back to them when I have more time. Did not get along with Modern Warfare 2 at all (weird motion sickness and thought the US homeland missions were rubbish, like wandering round a deserted film set) - that's been my one disappointment this year.

[Mark]

Ok, here's my list:

Demon's Souls

This just edged out Spelunky for me as GOTY (although ask me tomorrow and I might have changed my mind). Yes, it's hard and can be quite punishing, but it is generally fair, and you can level yourself and your weapons up to give yourself more of a fighting chance (I've become hooked on this so much so that I'm making painfully slow progress through the game because I want a really nice set of weapons). The thing that really makes this game special is the combination of the wonderfully atmospheric setting, and the constant feeling of threat, making every step into unknown territory genuinely scary. Awesome game.

Spelunky

This and Demon's Souls are so far ahead of the rest of my choices it's not funny. I'm not usually a big fan of platformers, but this blend of old-school 2d platformer and rogue-like has had me hooked. I'm probably approaching 2000 games played across the year, and I've no intention of stopping playing yet. It's digital crack. And next year a revamped version will be released on XBLA (crack with achievements!) - I think I already know one of my games of next year.

Batman: AA

Somebody got Batman right! I really enjoyed this. From a gameplay POV it's perhaps not actually as good as a lot of people give it credit for, but the magnificent use of the license buys it a lot of favours. And Mark Hamill deserves an award for his voice work.


From now on in these are in no particular order:

Call of Juarez: BIB

It's not the best game ever by a long shot, but it's one of the best Western games ever, and that immediately gets me on its side. It's a solid FPS, but the Western setting elevates it a long way for me. The two playable brothers come across as really tough sons of bitches, and the scenery sets the mood nicely. Didn't like the duelling though, but due to the one-hit-kill nature of this section and the slow raising of the pistol hand it did lead to me shooting most of my opponents right in the cock, which tended to raise a giggle.

Trials HD

I'm a big fan of games that require mastery of tricky control schemes, so this was right up my street. This version takes many of the features of the PC original and polishes them until they shine. It then adds a shedload of silliness and explosions to the mix to make it so much better than the original. I got side-tracked from this by a few other games, so I'm really looking forward to next week's DLC as a good excuse to get back to it.

WET

In any other year this perhaps wouldn't have featured, but I really enjoyed it. Stupid, mindless, stylish fun. Right up my street. Take brain off hook, shoot bad guys.

Plants v Zombies

Popcap's take on tower defence. Bags of charm, as usual, and a surprisingly good game, despite initially looking a little too over-simplified. Played through this fully twice and completed almost all the mini-games.

Streetfighter 4

Not my genre, I've not really played SF much before, and I'm hopeless at it, but I really enjoyed this for the most part (Seth excepted). Looks awesome too.

Borderlands

This hasn't grabbed me totally, but I've notched up a fair few hours so far, and mostly enjoyed it. Too many bloody skags though.

Shadow Complex

Liked this a lot. The powering-up aspect was particularly good - running across the lake ftw. Still need to get back and finish up the collectables though.


Missing out:

Assassin's Creed 2

Loved the first, this one suffered from my aversion to sequels, and the domination of my gaming time by Demon's Souls, Spelunky and Dwarf Fortress. Borderlands almost suffered this fate too, but I went back to that rather than this when I wasn't playing anything else. Need to find time over Xmas to give it another pop.

Shatter

A really nice updated breakout clone. Just not quite nice enough to figure in the main 10.

Gravity Crash

This was so close to getting an entry, but the more I've played it the more it's fallen out of the running. It's a lovely little game, but the levels start getting a little too large and sprawling, and it really needed something extra (like Thrust's grapple mechanic) to maintain my interest.

Gridrunner Revolution

Was waiting to get a new PC to give it a proper go. The bits have only just turned up...

[Phineasfool]

I want to add Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 to my list. Really like all the fixes they made from the 360 version.

[teamonkey]

I haven't really played much this year, but all of these were great:

Batman:AA
Flower
Chinatown Wars
Left4Dead 2

I'm not voting for the two titles I worked on this year

[Duck Turkin]

In approximate order, first being best (ish):

Demons Souls (PS3)

Uncharted 2 (PS3)

inFamous (PS3)

Dragon Age: Origins (PS3)

Nostalgia (DS)

[ESY]

I would like to add Leave Home because it is simply wonderful.

[Firefox]

This thread has brought home to me just how far out of touch with gaming I've become.

[Mark]

I would like to add Leave Home because it is simply wonderful.

Forgot to add that to my "Missed out" section. It is properly ace, I just haven't had time to play it as much as I'd like. It's in the Xbox 360 Indie game store, for those that are unaware of it. Well worth checking out the demo at the very least.