User blog:Lancer1289/Gameinformer's Best Games of 2010

In February's issue of Gameinformer, which I lost until just an hour ago, Gameinformer released its best games of 2010. I won't list all 50, but I'll list a few later. I'll break this up into sections for you all to read with some breakdowns with chosen selections.

Top 10 Heros
1) John Marston - Red Dead Redemption 4) Commander Shepard 6) Noble Six - Halo Reach 7) Michael Jordan - NVA 2K11

Top 10 Dorks
1) Samus Aran - Metroid: Other M 2) Michael Thornton - Alpha Protocal 5) Subject Delta - BioShock 2 6) Starkiller - Force Unleashed 2 9) Rebecca - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Top 10 Villains
1) Illusive Man 2) Edgar Ross - Red Dead Redemption 4) Sarah Kerrigan - StarCraft II

Top 10 Moments
1) Didn't see that Coming - Castlevania = Character twist and earth shattering revelation of sequel's setting. 2) Red Dead Denouement - At the end of the game when Marston feels like his life back on track. 6) The trip through the Omega-4 Relay - Mass Effect 2 7) Halo Reach - The Last Stand - Noble Six vs. the Covenant

Top 10 Publishers
1) EA - Previous Year - 2 2) Activision - Previous Year - 5 5) Sony Computer Entertainment - Previous Year - 1 6) Microsoft Game Studios - Previous Year - 7

Top 10 Developers
1) Blizzard - Previous Year - 4 2) Rockstar San Diego - Previous Year - Didn't Make List 4) BioWare - Previous Year - Didn't Make List 6) Bungie - Previous Year - Didn't Make List 7) Harmonix - Previous Year - 2

Top 10 DLC
1) Borderlands - The Secret Armory of General Knoxx 2) Red Dead Redemption - Undead Nightmare 10) Dragon Age: Origins - Darkspawn Chronicles

Top 10 Disappointments
1) Studio closuers, layoffs, restructurings - The industry was hit hard and several studios closed with some layoffs all around. 2) Infinity Ward Debacle - Split after Modern Warfare 2 with a lot of behind the seens action with lawsuits and a lot of namecalling to say the least. 3) Meteroid: Other M - Bad take on a series with bad writing, badly pased, bad everyting. (Their words not mine). 4) Patch Crunch: Developers releasing patchs for big things, example given is New Vegas, and fixes after release. Now it is unreasonable to expect that they fix everything before release, but here's their words. "It's great that developers can address problems after launch, but the first few weeks fo a game's release are staring to feel more and more like a beta for which you have paid full price." (Gameinformer Magazine, Page 38, February 2011 Issus # 214) 5) Medal of Honor Taliban Fiasco - Basically EA got slammed becuase it let players play as members of the Taliban during multiplayer. (Personal Opinion: Bad timing, bad idea, why wasn't that shot down before the press got ahold of it? 6) Japanese Game Development Slump - Japanese games are baiscally about 5 years behind the west and many Japanese based companies have seen layoffs, slumping sales, bad reviews. Bascially not good news. 9) What's up with LucasArts? - Apparently LucasArts is having problems with layoffs and Haden Blackman, a verteran project lead, left in September of 2010. It has also handed over Star Wars: The Old Repbulic over to EA for publishing. Previously LucasArts had planned to publish it themselves with BioWare doing the development. Curious what is happening there. 10) Ubisoft Talent Mass Exodus - Ubisoft Montreal has lost a large group of senior developers after Assassin's Creed creative director Patrice Desilets left the stuido and a large group of people followed suit. While Gameinformer states that Montreal has a large talent pool, it is staring to dry up with more studios opening.

Awards
In this section notations will be (S) for staff pick, while (R) will indicate reader pick.

Game of the Year - Red Dead Redemption (S) - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (R) Best Downloadable - Limbo (S)(R) Best Co-op - Halo Reach (S)(R) Best Racing - Gran Turismo 5 (S)(R) Best Fighting - Super Street Fighter IV (S)(R) Best Strategy - StarCraft II (S)(R) Best Shooter - Halo Reach (S) - Black Ops (R) Best Platformer - Super Mario Galaxy 2 (R) - Donkey Kong Conuntry Returns (S) Best Action - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (R) - Red Dead Redemption (S) Best Puzzle - Bejeweled 3 (R) - Ilomilo (R) Best Rhythm/Music - Rock Band 3 (R) - DJ Hero (S) Best Competitive - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (R) - StarCraft II (S) Best Sports - FIFA 11 (R) - MLB 2010 (S) Best RPG - Mass Effect 2 (S)(R) Best Xbox 360 Exclusive - Halo Reach (S)(R) Best PS3 Exclusive - God of War III (S)(R) Best PC Exclusive - StarCraft II (S)(R) Best Handheld Exclusive - God of War: Ghost of Sparta (S)(R) Best Wii Exclusive - Donkey Kong Returns (S) - Super Mario Galaxy (R)

Selected Games
Mass Effect 2, Bayonetta, BioShock 2, Heavy Rain, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, God of War III, Just Cause 2, Red Dead Redemption, Alan Wake, Blur, Singularity, Limbo, StarCraft II, Mafia II, NHL 2011, Civilization V, Halo Reach, DJ Hero 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Rock Band 3, Black Ops.

Personal Opinions
Well I can't say I'm surprised with the staff pick of GotY with RDR, but I'm surprised with the Reader Pick. I expected Black Ops to be perfectly honest. RPG doens't surprise me, nor do the split on shooters and music. However I'm surprised on the agreement on the exclusives but since I don't have a Wii I can't judge that one. I have played GoW III so I can judge that one. Some of the top 10s do surprise me, and I'm surprised ME2 isn't on the list given what else is on the list. Basically it is nice to see a lot of great games on here and some of the various names, I can't say that I'm surprised with the vast majority of choices. Overall a great list, some great games, some surprises, but overall a great article. Just noting that the main article for this issue was Skyrim, a.k.a. Elder Scrolls V.

So read and enjoy.