Mass Effect 2 (XBOX 360)
Alan Wake (XBOX 360)
Costume Quest (XBOX 360)
Limbo (XBOX 360)
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Darksiders (XBOX 360)
Halo: Reach(XBOX 360)
Metroid: Other M (Nintendo Wii)
Might & Magic Clash of Heroes (Nintendo DS)
Just Cause 2 (XBOX 360)
What an incredible year for games! So many great experiences. New leaps in hardware with Kinect and Playstation Move, it’s going to interesting to see what the future holds. In any case, Mass Effect 2 won for me hands down. This is simply the best written, best acted and best developed video game I’ve ever played. The gameplay was fun, the story was compelling and the characters were so rich that it made you care about what was happening at every turn. I’m salivating for Mass Effect 3!
Alan Wake was a bit of a surprise. Take a Stephen King novel and infuse a sort of Twilight Zone atmosphere and you have something close to Alan Wake. I really enjoyed the episodic nature of the game and the subsequent DLC that continued the story. If you want to ‘experience’ a dark fiction tale with fun gameplay and a solid story, this is right up your alley.
Costume Quest! This is the most adorable game ever created, it could definitely be suitable for young kids but I completely fell in love with this game. A quick downloadable from Double-Fine (the folks behind Brütal Legend and Psychonauts) this game oozes personality and fun, it really transported me back to my childhood and the days of dressing up for Halloween and pretending to go on adventures.
Limbo is one of those rare games that challenges what a video game can be. Beautiful to watch in stunning black & white, fun to play due to it’s puzzle-based level scheme. Such risk-taking with this game but it really pays off.
Lastly, Words with Friends snuck into my top 5 simply due to how much time I spend in this game. What a genius idea, a non-stop running Scrabble game with your friends. Great work.
Dan Almasy 