So it all comes down to this: The best games of 2009! All year long, you've rented games here at GameFly, but which are the ones you kept longer than you thought? True, there haven't been many breakout new franchises - that's why you'll notice a lot of sequels on Game of the Year lists. But, arguably this year's sequels are even better than the games that came before them. Teams have had more time to refine game engines and tweak gameplay. Was 2009 the year the music game died? Sales of The Beatles Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 are below expectations. Or, could you say 2009 was the year PlayStation 3 finally showed its true power (with titles like Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2)? Regardless of your perspective on the industry, here's a look at the absolute best games I played in 2009.
Modern Warfare 2 broke all sales records this November.
Assassin's Creed 2, set in Italy, is bigger and better than the first.
It may be for handhelds, but GTA: Chinatown Wars deserves to be played.
Frequent readers of this column know of my love for Uncharted 2, Naughty Dog's PS3 exclusive. But it's not just me. Last time I checked, the GameFly user rating for Uncharted 2 was 9.3 - one of the highest I've seen in recent memory. Simply put, this is a game that charts a new course for the action-adventure genre. Sure there's running, gunning, and traversal puzzles, but it's all wrapped in a huge cinematic adventure. The graphics will wow your girlfriend (just like the commercial says), and the best moments are sequences where you think you're watching a cutscene, only to realize you can interact with the environment. Everything blends together seamlessly as explorer Nathan Drake and other characters travel from snowy mountains to jungles, and fight set-piece battles on board moving objects like trains. Uncharted 2 isn't overly violent either. It's like a big-budget Jerry Bruckheimer movie that you can't miss. It's my favorite game this year.
Could you say 2009 was the year PlayStation 3 finally showed its true power with titles like Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2?
The sleeper hit of the year was unquestionably Batman: Arkham Asylum. At first glance, the odds didn't seem to be in this game's favor: Rocksteady, an unknown developer in London, was working on a game starring a comic book hero (And we all know that most comic book hero games just don't work). But somewhere along the way, Rocksteady created the superhero version of BioShock. Arkham Asylum is dark, gritty, and one of the top games of the year. The Joker traps Batman inside the walls of Arkham Asylum and you have to fight, sleuth, and grapple your way through thugs and villains like Poison Ivy and Scarecrow. There's no big Batmobile chase - the action is all focused on Batman's freeflow combat and stealth sequences where you fly up into the rafters to avoid detection. The writing is excellent, the world is rich, and the gameplay delivers. It's nice to see a game come out of nowhere to blow you away.
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2
By now, you've read the headlines: Modern Warfare 2 is the biggest video game launch of all time, amassing $550 million in just five days. Here's the better news: The game deserves every penny. This modern-day military action-shooter takes you on a mission around the globe to fight against Makarov, a Russian terrorist. For most of the game, you play as a U.S. or British soldier, but there is one controversial mission where you play as the terrorist himself as he takes over a Russian airport. The campaign is big, loud, and visually stunning. Online is where the game really takes on a life of its own. The multiplayer mode is deep and engaging, with tons of maps and new features like killstreaks and deathstreaks, which reward players for a string of kills (or deaths). Then there is Spec Ops, which is the most innovative mode with a series of co-op missions for two players, all inspired by locations in the single-player campaign. Examples including racing in snowmobiles or barricading yourself in a remote house in the woods while enemies attack. Modern Warfare 2 provides the best value out of any game on this list with three distinct and deep game modes.
I'll be the first to admit that I was kind of underwhelmed with the original Assassin's Creed. The game looked great and sold well, but the gameplay was repetitive (pickpocket, hide on bench, repeat) and frustrating to play at times. Ubisoft kept saying that Assassin's Creed 2 would fix all the first game's shortfalls. They were right. I finished playing Assassin's Creed 2 a few weeks ago and was blown away by the experience. Set during the Italian Renaissance, you play a young man who becomes an Assassin and seeks revenge for his father's murder. With excellent historical accuracy, what impressed me the most was the game's story and cutscenes. Combine the story with the open world setting and Assassin's Creed 2 feels a lot like Grand Theft Auto: Italian Renaissance. This is also a very deep game. Once you finish the single player, there are tons of hidden Assassin's Tombs and other puzzles to solve. While the gameplay could still use more variety (the horse carriage and flying machine missions are incredibly brief), Assassin's Creed 2 deserves to be played.
The handheld gaming market is often forgotten when it comes to Game of the Year awards. After all, it's hard to put things in perspective when you're comparing primitive handheld graphics to cutting-edge 1080p visuals in a PS3 game. Still, this year there is one handheld game that stands above the rest and it is Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. First released for the DS (and now the PSP as well), this is a full-scale GTA experience on the handheld set in Liberty City. You play as Huang Lee, a Chinese immigrant who gets caught up in his family's Triad crime ring. You do all the staple GTA activities including stealing cars, but there are cool twists on the DS. For instance, to hot-wire a car, you need to connect wires using the DS stylus. Translating a game world as epic as Liberty City to the DS and PSP isn't easy, but Rockstar once again proves its mastery of open-world gameplay. If you have a handheld, you don't want to miss Chinatown Wars.
Happy Holidays, I'll be back next month with a look at the big games of early 2010 - and there are a lot of them, like Mass Effect 2 and God of War III!
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