[YIR] My Favorite Games of 2009
As 2009 will be over in a few short hours, I’d like to take a chance to look back at the year and review some of my personal favorite games that were released this year. Unfortunately, with the recession hitting hard this year, many of my most anticipated games were delayed until 2010. Despite these delays, some games were still able to make record sales and even provided some of the most enjoyable gameplay since that plumber in red hit the scene.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
Release Date: 16 June 2009
Genre(s): Action, Third Person Shooter
Publisher(s): Atari
Developer: Terminal Reality/Threewave Software
Rating: 12+
Ghostbusters: The Game is what every other movie-tie in game should be and is what I will compare every future one against. The great thing about Ghostbusters is that it doesn’t pretend to be what it’s not. It takes the idea of playing through the movie as one of the characters and instead plays more like a sequel to the hit movie pair. You play as the latest recruit for the Ghostbuster’s that along with the rest of your favorite characters from the films will be pulled back into the mess that is the spiritual nexus of New York City. Along with cameos from memorable locations in NYC to the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man attacking downtown Manhatten, this game is exciting, hilarious, and one that anybody who is a fan should play through.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Release Date: 13 Oct. 2009
Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Third-Person Shooter
Publisher(s): Sony Computer Electronics of America
Developer: Naughty Dog
Rating: T
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is to Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune as Spider-Man 2 is to Spider-Man. Both Spider-Man and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune were amazing pieces of entertainment, but Uncharted 2 takes the adventure to an entirely new level of amazing. For the first time playing a game I felt like every moment was exactly like I was playing through an Indiana Jones movie complete with gun fights, intricate puzzles, and breath-taking chases. One of the most memorable moments is of Drake being chased down and shot at by people in a jeep as he attempts to not get run over and take out the vehicle. It feels like straight out of any number of action flicks. This game was well worth the money and made every moment of it enjoyable.
Brütal Legend
Release Date: 13 Oct. 2009
Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Real Time Strategy
Publisher(s): Electronic Arts
Developer: Double Fine Productions
Rating: M
Brütal Legend from Tim Schafer is one of the funniest and unique games I played this year. Like Psychonauts, it has many inside jokes, references to pop culture, and other subtle hints that this is definitely a Double Fine produced piece of art. The music is a perfect companion to the gameplay if you’re a fan of metal, which I’m assuming you are since you’re basically playing the biggest badass heavy metal Roadie there is. The art style was of course very creative with skulls in all the appropriate places but still had the hint of Schafer’s style.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Release Date: 25 Aug. 2009
Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Beat-em up, Stealth
Publisher(s): Eidos Interactive, Warner Bros
Developer: Rocksteady Studios
Rating: T
Batman: Arkham Asylum is what I think all comic book hero games should be like. The fights were fantastic and made you actually feel like you are Batman with the smooth animation of the martial arts fighting and amazing reaction animations are superb and makes for an entertaining and visceral feel to the action. Of course it wouldn’t be a Batman game if there weren’t the requisite stealth parts, but these are done so well that it only adds more depth and immersion in being and thinking like Batman does. If you always attempt to go in “guns blazing” you will almost certainly be slapped down like an insolent child.
Prototype
Release Date: 9 June 2009
Genre(s): Action (Sandbox)
Publisher(s): Activision
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Rating: M
Not often do you get the chance to play the bad guy, let alone a bad ass one that can transform himself into any number of shapes and weapons and also completely absorb a person allowing you to take their identify completely. Prototype allows you to do these things and more in a diverse sandbox experience that never leaves you wanting. The first 20 minutes of gameplay where you are introduced to Alex Mercer (your character) and the extent of your powers while decimating part of downtown along with helicopters, tanks, and civilians is extremely satisfying and leaves your thirsting for more.
So, dear reader, what games were yours of 2009? Which ones did you hate? Was I completely wrong on any of the games above? Love to hear from you in the comments below.
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Author: Justin "Trip" Drew (39 Articles)
Justin is a full time Network Security Admin for Rackspace and technology geek. When he's not securing people's networks he can be found playing video games, watching movies, and occasionally playing fetch with his dog Mac.
31 Dec 2009, 7:45 pm
Actually ghostbusters was really terrible. Maybe you’re thinking of something else.
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
31 Dec 2009, 7:59 pm
Perhaps you could elaborate on your complaints with Ghostbusters? I thought it was an excellent game. There were some annoying and confusing parts, but every game is like that. I thoroughly enjoyed it and loved many of the parts, especially taking down Stay Puft. It was great.
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
31 Dec 2009, 9:51 pm
just ran into some bugs. The guns also felt lifeless, like there was no contact even when directly hitting. I remember at one point the ghosts i was fighting got stuck inside a wall, and it happened the next time i restarted the level as well. I will commend the voice acting and screenplay though. I played the pc version if this helps. I also got to meet 4 of the team members that worked on creating the game, and had really high hopes.
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
01 Jan 2010, 1:55 am
Ghostbusters was extremely buggy, and shared in common with the unfortunately-released Prototype, the fact that there were ‘boss fights’ (which are normal for the genre), and then there were ’super boss’ fights (which seem to be rare, except between these two games, and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 for PS2/PS3), where generally 1 hit meant death or critical damage for you (with typically no/little way to regenerate), and you had to spend 15-60 minutes per attempt getting its health down in a frustrating trial of "to beat ths game, you need to have nothing better to play, do, think about, or see". And no, I find most games pretty easy on Hard and fun on Insane/Nightmare/WTFBBQ, and deliberately go after every sidequest/whatever in RPGs. .-. Those aforemented pieces of crap are just exceptionally tedious and dull, though. Just really bad games all around that could’ve been decent/average with about a dozen fairly minor gameplay and storyline tweaks overall.
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
01 Jan 2010, 3:10 am
I’ll agree that the guns took some getting used to, but I thought that was what made it fun. They were proton packs, the streams aren’t a uniform single line shooting out, they arc and move as you shoot, just like in the movies. It was more like a fishing rod than a laser beam. It made it more like being in the movie to me.
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
01 Jan 2010, 3:33 am
Gooooo tooo beeed
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
01 Jan 2010, 9:20 am
LOL, way ahead of you. Just had to reply before going to said bed… :p
This comment was originally posted on Reddit