The continuation of my series about stories in games is still in the works, and will be appearing as I manage to parse my thoughts enough to put them down for posterity without guilt or shame. You can correctly assume by reading between the lines of the above statement that I can't follow any sort of schedule, including one I've set for myself. Congratulations! Not to be outdone on the sarcastic entitled internet asshole front, I've done a bit of logical deduction on my own and have come to a startling conclusion: your mother. Simple, elegant, and altogether true. Sherlock Holmes would applaud.Now that you've been properly 'owned', we can continue with what looks suspiciously like another game of the year list. Don't be fooled. I'm not standing in the crowd of gaming journalists eager to hand out trophies and accolades in order to draw controversy, which is like page view gold or something. I'm different for two simple reasons.
1) I'm not a journalist. I'm a smarmy enthusiast with too much time on his hands.
2) your mother.
Still, your mother or not, we have the list issue to deal with. I've allowed my love of categorization to take over my hands and mind yet again this year, with the usual results. These games are organized from my fifth favorite to my 'Game of the Year'. That probably doesn't merit capital letters, but fuck it. The delete key is all the way over there. It's not that bigg a deal. Two letter "g's" isn't that big a deal either, if you think about it: english is a screwed up language anyway. Why not two "g's"? Your mother.
5) Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. This game is weird. The controls are sort of 'meh', it kills you in many unfair, didn't see that coming kinds of ways, and lasts about two hours too long. These are serious problems, but the presentation and dialogue are so well done that it transcends its mechanics to become one of the best overall experiences you can have pushing buttons not to die.
Maybe it's the insane level of detail the characters and the world they inhabit have. In one section, you walk at a snail's pace through a peaceful Tibetan village, following someone to meet the village elder. There is no action, very little dialogue, and no way to explore. That kind of shit drives me nuts in most games, but watching children play soccer while their mothers gossip is somehow interesting to me in Uncharted. The fact that the entire rest of the game is one ridiculous set piece after another doesn't hurt: a little down time in the Himalayas might even be welcome after a firefight ON a collapsing building. Uncharted 2 is a perfect example of just how far excellent graphics and art design will take an otherwise average game. That is to say, to number five.
4) Demon's Souls: I've stated before on this very blog that games that are designed to be brutally difficult and punishing quickly earn a place on the pile of games I'll probably never touch again. In an age where more games come out in a week than I can possibly play all year, why inflict that kind of pain on myself? Just to make a hypocrite of me again, From Software designed "Demon's Souls"; not just an assault on proper grammar, but a declaration of outright war on the ego of anyone who thinks of themselves as a hardcore gamer.
It's almost impossible to describe Demon's Souls properly in the little space I can afford to give it, but to summarize quickly, it's an action RPG with some interesting online mechanics and a brutally unforgiving difficulty curve. Combat is slow and purposeful; hitting your enemies without leaving yourself open to attack takes patience and strategy. Speaking of enemies, any one of the normal, joe-shmoe enemies that litter the levels are a serious threat to your character, unlike the cannon-fodder style enemies typically found in this type of game. The bosses are brutal, the power ups are rare, and dying is all too common. In short, this game is hard in a way that most modern games would never dare to be.
I gave a lot of thought to why I like Demon's Souls so much. Is it more because of its iconoclastic approach to design, rather than my actual enjoyment of it? Do I like it precisely because it's so different than anything else I've played his year, or does it stand on its own terms? In the end it doesn't matter: I had a lot of fun with Demon's Souls, and even though I can't recommend it to everyone, I'll be the first in line to buy the sequel.
3) Flower: This game deserves a spot on the list for many reasons, but the most important to me is that my girlfriend loves it and plays it on her own time.
Beyond being something non-gamers can enjoy, Flower represents something new and interesting in professional games development: non-arcade based gameplay. Flying around collecting flowers is your goal, but the game doesn't make it something to stress out about, even when things take a turn for the dark near the end. You can play the game to advance the minimalist plot, or just sort of fly around. It's rare that a game is this relaxing for me, and even though I beat it in an evening, I find myself booting it up every now and again to take the edge off a hard day. I hope we'll see more games like this in the coming year.
2) Retro Game Challenge: The lone portable game on the list this year, RGC is a clever collection of brand new "eight bit games" that were created specifically to evoke hard line nostalgia in folks who, like me, grew up on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Each game is designed to remind you just a little bit of classic games such as Xevious, Mega Man, and RC Pro Am, but stand as interesting and fun experiences all on their own: I would have happily paid thirty dollars for some of these twenty years ago.
Each game is playable just as it is. That is to say, as a classic style eight bit game. The real genius is unlocking more games by completing challenges within the games, such as getting a certain score or reaching a certain level. Fake magazines with cheat codes and previews of games you'll unlock later add a superb meta game angle to everything. So basically, this game rocks. I usually eschew experiences designed to take savage advantage of my overly vulnerable nostalgia gland, but the cleverness and uniqueness of RGC was too much for me to ignore. This lived in my DS for months.
1) Street Fighter IV: Smack yourself in the head if you didn't see this one coming.
I love fighting games, and Street Fighter IV is an excellent example of the genre, but it earns the number one spot for reasons that lie outside the actual game itself. I've been heavily involved with the tournament scene for Street Fighter IV, which has made me new friends, introduced me to other games, and basically enhanced my life significantly over the last ten months. That's the most important thing about fighting games to me: the wonderful community around them.
As a game, Street Fighter IV is no slouch either. While certain characters have far better match ups over all when compared to others (such as Sagat), the balance is very well designed. The addition of the Focus Attack is my favorite new mechanic in fighting games ever: it's easy to learn at a basic level, but the depths of its uses are still being explored. Cancel out of a whiffed move to avoid being punished, absorb projectiles to build Ultra meter, punish jump ins and overly aggressive opponents, pressure someone in the corner, bait throws or wake up Ultras... It's an awesome system.
The online is serviceable, and it's a pain in the ass to be forced to unlock all the characters, but the game deserves respect for bringing the fighting game genre back from near death. No matter how you feel about the game itself, it's added a LOT of new blood to the scene, and that should be saluted. Well done, Capcom: here's hoping Super Street Fighter IV is just as good.
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