What's your GOTY 2010?

[captaincabbage]

Hey there Escapists! A little backstory first.
I was having a comversation with a friend of mine today about the Game of the Year awards being held on various shows and sites and it inevitibly lead to the subject of our favorite games of the year.
We talked for about an hour on all of our favorite games, but we kept coming back to one game every time. It was Red Dead Redemption.

We eventually settled on the fact that to us, RDR was our GOTY. We loved it, were still playing it and were always in awe about the story, characters, settings and detail. I was in such a RDR mood when I got home today trhat I've started another game in story mode.

So, I ask you, fellow Escapists, what is your personal, unequivocal favorite game of 2010?

 

[Virgilthepagan]

Mass Effect 2. I nearly failed my first round of tests last semester finishing that sucker.
New Vegas seems like it has potential to be a more varied game but ME2 is my favorite.

 

[Link XL1]

new vegas was too full of glitches to be called a proper game. and im sorry to say that Black Ops and Reach are right out because of their horrendous stories (among other things). while God of war 3 would be if the entire series wasnt the same damn thing over and over!

I'd say Mass Effect 2 is goty, with Red Dead and Heavy Rain in close second. but looking back, i'm overall very disappointed with 2010 as a gaming year

 

[MrGalactus]

Case Zero. 6 hours per playthrough (that's longer than MW2), a LOT of replayability, all the fun and charm of Dead Rising, and it's $55 cheaper than every nominee.
Lot more bang for a lot less buck.

 

[MellowFellow]

Mass Effect 2 is my GOTY because I think that is the best game I have played so far. While I thought other games might overtake as the year went, but none of the games I have played this year have been as good in my opinion as ME2. I do think that Assassins Creed Brotherhood was close.

 

[Vampire cat]

World of Tanks, BETA I guess (seeing as it's not out yet). Maybe it's not an entirely viable option, but that IS the game I've played the most and had the most fun with this year.

 

[Krantos]

RDR is definitely the biggest contender for me.

Splinter Cell: Conviction could have been a contender if the single player had been as good as the deniable ops.

ME2 was too, IDK, shallow, for me. I did one play through in the space of a weekend and had no desire to do a second (thank god I only borrowed it).

Is the Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate edition a viable choice, because that on PC is great (I originally played the game on 360. My bad.)

Other than that... yeah, I guess it kind of was a disappointing year for gaming. Most of the really good games I've been playing have been ones from last year that finally dropped in price or came in new bundles (ACII, DA:O, etc.)

 

[IBlackKiteI]

Metro 2033. Guns feel heavy. Game is incredibly atmospheric (like REALLY atmospheric). While I don't like to mention them (though they deserve a mention here) the graphics are AMAZING. Even though I play it on the lowest settings possible, they still are much better than most anything on the market today. On the PC version, you even have the option to play it in RUSSIAN. RUSSIAN! No having to deal with depressingly poor English voice actors! Only drawback is that you have to read subtitles, but is that really a complaint? Don't listen to people complaining that the enemies take too many shots to kill, just play on a higher difficulty (the higher the difficulty, the lower both the enemies health and yours). If you buy it for PC or have some spare Microsoft points laying around, make sure to grab the Ranger Pack (comes free on the PC and is 240 MS points on the Marketplace) which adds in two weapons (Volt Driver [a portable railgun] and the Heavy Automatic Shotgun [a modified heavy machine gun that shoots shotgun shells]) and two new difficulties (Ranger Easy [pretty damn hard] and Ranger Hardcore [no HUD at all, bullets HURT, and you only get 1 or 2 rounds from ammo pickups]) to the game. Only real problems are the lack of a lean function on the PC version (not too important), and if you fuck up on a stealth section (even with a completely silent weapon), EVERYONE knows where you are (again, not too important). This game is amazing. Buy it. New, so the developer actually gets the money they truly deserve.

TL;DR. If you insist. Metro 2033. It's awesome. Go buy it new. Go read my text wall, you ADD bish.

Ahhh beat me to it, I freakin' love that game.

Everything in it is just so well done, and this is coming from a relatively small eastern european dev. Give them the money and capabilities of the big name designers and I can almost guarantee that they could make the best games in the world.

Theres also apparently gonna be a sequel, Metro 2034.

I really liked Mass Effect 2, but to me its really not GOTY material.
Combat is boring and extremely repetitive and the 'moral choices' change absolutely nothing but dialogue. NOTHING

 

[wulfy42]

I have to say Minecraft although it's only in Alpha it's certainly the game I have played the most this year and by far the best value I have gotten out of a game in years. Plant's vs Zombies was released last year I think (not in 2010) but I'm not 100% sure of that. If it was released this year then I'd nominate that as #2 choice behind Minecraft (it was released for alot of platforms this year at least).

I wasn't impressed enough with any RPG's this year and RDR while good didn't last long enough for me to be honest. Never been into FPS games that much so the story mode was it for me really.

Fallout: NV, Mass effect 2, FF 13 etc all were good but none of them blew me away. I enjoyed Fallout NV the most of the 3 and have spent more hours on it then any other RPG this year...but not nearly as many as I did on Minecraft and that game was 1/3 the price (and has far more long term potential still).

I do have a ton of games backlogged though that I have not played so I can't include them in the competition....but I think I have played the ones most people would consider the best of 2010....and Minecraft wins for me vs any of them. Super Mario Galaxy 2 was also a favorite of mine....as is DKCR....but while both are fun they didn't really do anything groundbreaking (I actually liked SMG better in fact if only because it was new then).

I'm not dissapointed by the games this year, but at the same time 2009 was certainly better over all. The only real ground breaking game for me was Minecraft which I think was a work of genius.

 

[Crowser]

Limbo
I've never played anything like it, and I mean that in the best way possible. That game NAILED atmosphere. I'd still buy it even if it was 60 bucks - and that's saying something considering it was a 5 hour 2d puzzle platformer.

 

[MrDumpkins]

Metro 2033. Guns feel heavy. Game is incredibly atmospheric (like REALLY atmospheric). While I don't like to mention them (though they deserve a mention here) the graphics are AMAZING. Even though I play it on the lowest settings possible, they still are much better than most anything on the market today. On the PC version, you even have the option to play it in RUSSIAN. RUSSIAN! No having to deal with depressingly poor English voice actors! Only drawback is that you have to read subtitles, but is that really a complaint? Don't listen to people complaining that the enemies take too many shots to kill, just play on a higher difficulty (the higher the difficulty, the lower both the enemies health and yours). If you buy it for PC or have some spare Microsoft points laying around, make sure to grab the Ranger Pack (comes free on the PC and is 240 MS points on the Marketplace) which adds in two weapons (Volt Driver [a portable railgun] and the Heavy Automatic Shotgun [a modified heavy machine gun that shoots shotgun shells]) and two new difficulties (Ranger Easy [pretty damn hard] and Ranger Hardcore [no HUD at all, bullets HURT, and you only get 1 or 2 rounds from ammo pickups]) to the game. Only real problems are the lack of a lean function on the PC version (not too important), and if you fuck up on a stealth section (even with a completely silent weapon), EVERYONE knows where you are (again, not too important). This game is amazing. Buy it. New, so the developer actually gets the money they truly deserve.

TL;DR. If you insist. Metro 2033. It's awesome. Go buy it new. Go read my text wall, you ADD bish.

Picked it up on steam during the sale, and I'll say that it is definitely, I haven't beaten it yet, because some parts(even though I'm on easy mode) are so freaking scary I don't want to go around another corner. It's definitely super solid. I'm loving it when I play it, and some day I'll get the courage to finish it. The atmosphere is great, just the whole setting is awesome.

ME2 was definitely GOTY though, man that thing is just awesome.

 

[Fenring]

Reach, atm. Following closely are Fable 3, MineCraft Alpha, Metro 2033, Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising, Borderlands: Secret Armory of General Knoxx, Chime, Mass Effect 2, Limbo, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Claptrap's Robot Revolution, Toy Soldiers, Serious Sam: TSE. Most likely in that order, or something approximating it.

 

[RedRussian]

Mass Effect 2!
The story was enjoyable, it had plenty of action, the rpg-ness was dumbed down a little, but had extremely lovable characters. (But why the hell can't i play with WREX!) And lair of the shadow broker was an awesome add on.

runners up:
Metro 2033 (very unique, amazing atmosphere)

COD: BLACK ops (fun-action filled campaign, more balanced multipayer then MW2)

Halo Reach: (lame campaign but forge updates and armor powers make multiplayer a blast)

RDR: (first cowboy game that works, amazing DLC, great story)

Limbo: (mind bending puzzles, AMAZING sound design and atmosphere)

 

[dbmountain]

Bad Company 2 because I am a Battlefield Fanboy

 

[Nikolaz72]

Uhh. I dunno i guess it was what i spent the most time on.. In that case my game of the year is Battlefield Bad Company 2

 

[Shinrae]

The fact that every person in this thread hasn't listed Starcraft2 as goty... Well, that disapoints me.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

I know, I'm fuckin' EXCITED.

Even better than them being really small (allowing them to work together better as a team), it's mainly made up of former employees of GSC GameWorld (the company that makes the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series). They tested the FUCK out of the 4A Engine on PC, 360, and PS3 to make sure that they were getting the most they could out of it. What more could you ask for out of a developer (except the option to play with Russian voices on every platform)?

Ruskie voices are without a doubt pretty sweet.

Also if your into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. the full sequel is set for 2012, new engine and everything, and its on consoles...
...lets hope they dont dumb it down...