Shanicus said:
Hate to break it to you, but that came out 2010
As for me...
Lets arrange a top ten...
10. Skyrim
Not good enough to get any further down. Not enough atmosphere, challenge, story (It is too short is what I mean here) and some potentially game breaking (And at the very least quest breaking) glitches.
9. Mass Effect 2.
A rather 'meh' story (Still good, and still with a focus, but I get the feeling I could skip 2, just play one and three, and miss very little. Even Cerberus hating Shepard would make sense). Combat, whilst mechanically improved, was toned down to a monotonous hallway cover grind, the shared cooldown on abilities was IMO there just to take more fun out of things, Complete lack of any weapon customisation and crappy DLC only vehicle sections dragged it down to here, despite the other things it did right.
8. Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Lack of replay value, the xp imbalance towards on stealth despite being a 'Pick your style' game (I don't mind that battles are hard to win. I find them harder to win with stealth. What I mind is that if you stealth you get more XP and more Praxis kits. There should be equal XP for all paths, not just max for the stealth), terrible boss fights and the endings that I didn't like dragged it to here. Other than that, a great game.
7. Bioshock.
Poor mechanics and an imbalance toward lightning and shotgun, as well as the inability to lose bought it to here. That and the occasional monotony in some missions and pathetic last boss fight. Other than that, great game.
5.5. Mass Effect.
Occasional Glitches and some clunky mechanics drag this game down, along with its annoying menus and too much loot drop. Other than that, a brilliant game, despite its rather generic story (But lets be honest, unless its really wacky or niche, what game isn't going to have a generic story>).
5.5. Dragon Age Origins.
Bought down by the sheer grind that playing some of it becomes, too much loot (Thankfully optional to pick up), and some clunky menus drag this down. Despite having a very cliché story it was done well enough that I didn't mind. A great RPG overall, and far better than its sequel IMO.
4. Battlefield 3.
The occasional glitch and imbalance against you when you first start playing (Anything but recon you have no scopes, no attachments and likely don't know much about the game, whilst everyone else is using advanced weapons, scopes, attachments and knows the maps by heart, utterly destroying you for the first few matches) drag it down, but other than that the game is brilliant. The campaign, whilst not original, was not as monotonous as others have been, and did not have any stupid slo-mo moments. My only gripe with it was the rails shooter Jet section where you barely even had to aim. The multiplayer however is absolutely brilliant, and one of the few shooters to keep me playing.
3. Sins of a Solar Empire (+expansions).
Whilst lacking a campaign, you are given enough backstory that the skirmishes themselves actually act as the campaign, and you still have context to what is happening. Large scale and real time, with 3D space combat (Usually doesn't do much, but I have had matches where instead of coming in from either side of the gravity well to engage each other, the two fleets charged at each other coming from the vertical axis of the gravity well, one from the top, one from the bottom. Crazy stuff). Matches can last a LONG time, even on small maps, making multiplay impractical unless you have a good 4 hours on your hands. Overall a great game, even without a campaign.
2. Starcraft 2.
The opposite end of the spectrum to Sins, Starcraft 2 is fast paced on small maps with relatively small battles. The balance is brilliant, and the custom maps add a ton to the game. Multiplayer is intense (Unless your pro apparently) and is one of the few games that will leave my physically drained after playing it. The campaign, whilst with a rather crap story, has varied and interesting missions. The game is brilliant overall, with little that I had a problem with.
1. Civilization 4 +expansions.
A large world (Dependent on what size you set to) and brilliant 4X mechanics combine into what I consider the peak of Civilization games. With an in depth Espionage, Research, Civic, City and most anything else system, reasonable AI and a large variety of ways to win, the game is just brilliant. This is all not including some of the mods that you can play on it, like the Fall From Heaven mod, which add even more to the game. I personally prefer it to its sequel, and find it to be the best game I have ever played.
Honourable mention to Batman: Arkham City. I originally had plans to include it, but I didn't have the space in the end. Personally, I consider it and Skyrim interchangeable, though with differing reasons for Arkham city being there than Skyrim.
And that is my list, with very short explanations as to why everything is where it is. Being a PC only person, I may have missed out on some great console games [Insert PC elitist comment about no good console games here for teh lols], and I most certainly have not played every game that some mention as being in their top ten. Out of the games I have played though, these are they, with 3 games from this year listed, each surprisingly almost evenly placed through the list.
