Super-Evil-DOOM

Skyward Sword is the Wii game people have been dreaming about ever since the console was announced. The use of motion control is intuitive and interesting, and makes this one of the most unique and legitimately groundbreaking (if not, THE most) Game of the Year candidate of 2011. It's another wonderful entry in a legendary franchise with some actual challenge on the table as well.

Expectations exceeded. Great story, 10-ish hour campaign, multiplayer is a blast. There's polish that needs to be addressed but the dev team is competent and communicative. Looking forward to checking in on this one every month to see the further developments with the story and trying new heroes.

When it comes to a game that's easy to learn, but hard to master, with a vast amount of depth, tactics, and character/map design coinciding with polished gameplay of high levels, Overwatch is a top dog in the multiplayer genre. It's merely a cherry on top that this comes with a colorful cast of characters/classes that are bursting at the seams with personality and individual design, along with being very well-balanced for a game on release, both in terms of it's classes and it's levels and modes. This is worth checking out for anyone. It's a video game that's invigorating and just does FUN right, which is something that a lot of games seem to overlook. Overwatch is an awesome game. It does lack modes on launch, but when the modes it has are presented as strongly as they are, that's not necessarily a huge issue.

Portal 2 is fantastic. The humor is very well done and the things they've added to give variety to the gameplay are excellent. Portal 2 is definitely setting the bar for sequels in a year where the majority of hyped games are second and third entries of a franchise. This game is utterly hilarious and they outdo Still Alive with the new end credits song. This game is perfectly consistent throughout and has a very satisfying and well done ending.

This game is addictive, it's deep, beautiful visually, and it thrives on design, rather than fluffy bullet point features which is a common selling point of mainstream juggernaut franchises. It's not about checking a sequel out and now you have RACE CAR KILLSTREAK or now you have JETPACKS. It's just something you play, and the gameplay speaks for itself. That is something of real, true high quality, and well-crafted game design.

This game is insanely mediocre. It lacks depth and variety which is not a trait that should be found in a game that is 100% multiplayer. There is absolutely nothing special about Brink whatsoever which is a shame because it certainly has some style and an interesting idea in the whole freerunning element mixed with an FPS. The movement is clunky, like people were saying. There are lots of issues with sprinting and bumping into teammates that will just outright stop people which is pretty silly considering multiplayer games always spawn you next to the entire team. The SMART system isn't as precise as it should be which contributes more to movement issues. There would be several times where something wouldn't work or would be really slow and pointless to use and I would just think of how Mirror's Edge did the first-person free-running thing so much better. I remember watching these trailers and I questioned whether or not the parkour would really change FPS gameplay. Imagine stuff like wall-running or jumping off walls in an FPS. They try to show some of this in the trailers but the fact is, you will die if you try anything other than random sliding in the middle of a firefight unless you're trying to run away. Some of the level design is interesting but overall it doesn't feel that the majority of them took advantage of the fact that you can run all over the place. There is a lack of maps and the modes are all pretty much attack/defend with an occasional escort objective thrown in, with really long time limits. The majority of the time this makes it really easy on the attacking team because all you have to do is get one good run and you will get the objective but maps are broken down into around 2-4 different objectives, all usually with a 6-10 minute time limit which can makes gameplay extremely tedious and based around camping. The classes also don't bring too much to the table other than going for class-specific objectives. There's the Medic that every class-based game has, Engineer, Soldier, and Operative, which is kind of like a poor man's Spy from Team Fortress 2. The game itself is kind of like a watered down Battlefield with a style reminiscent of Borderlands, but even the general shooting gameplay isn't really tight. It feels like someone threw a wrench in the Call of Duty machine (and Call of Duty's formula already has some dead rats twisting in the gears) and out came an extremely basic FPS in an era full of them. I don't really care about a game lacking single player but it's absolutely ridiculous to call something a 2-8 player co-op campaign when it's just playing against bots. If you want a class-based multiplayer shooter, get Bad Company 2, Monday Night Combat, or Team Fortess 2. If you want to do cool free-running, buy Assassin's Creed or Mirror's Edge. If you want very little of both that leaves very much to be desired, buy Brink. It saddens me that this game doesn't bring anything special to the genre. I've been playing the Gears of War 3 beta for three weeks it's better than Brink.

Wow, this game is freaking awesome. It's so charming and hilarious. If you don't laugh watching one of these cutscenes, you have no soul. Super Meat Boy is unpredictable, it's challenging, but best of all, it's deep. Over 300 levels, stuff to collect, characters to unlock, and going all the way through everything will test your skill and patience. This is one of the best games to release all year, and is right up there with Limbo. It's so difficult at times that it makes Limbo look easy. There is constantly something to strive for while playing this game and that's part of what makes it so fun. There are bandages to collect which contribute to achievements and hidden character unlocks, warp zones in some levels for more retro-inspired challenge, par times to beat for every level (except boss fights) which unlocks a harder, Dark World version of the level with more bandage, warp zones, etc. to go after. Sometimes the level even "glitches" at random and if you complete it while that happens you go to a different, much more difficult world which is reminiscent to "Minus World" in Super Mario Bros. Constant nods to past classic games and great indie developer humor coupled with tons of fun characters to unlock makes this game a hell of a lot of fun. The characters have different abilities too. Commander Video from Bit.Trip.Video can glide through the air while Tim from Braid can rewind time for three seconds. There are so many levels to play and so many ways to play through them with a large variety of characters to unlock, Super Meat Boy is packed with charm and challenge.

There comes a rare time every once in a while where a video game hits the market, and it transcends the industry. Be it a huge impact, an unforgettable memory, or an intense experience like nothing before. For one reason or another, there is always something noticeably more special than everything else. This does not happen very often, but on the day Mass Effect 2 released, it did. Mass Effect 2 expands on the original formula of creating your character, gathering a squad, and having the universe at your hands. Literally everything that unfolds after is your choice, it is on your shoulders, and there are consequences. Normally games like KOTOR or Jade Empire (which utilize this choice of response system) are very clearly defined between good and bad. There is no shade of grey, there is just right and wrong. The beauty in Mass Effect is that there really is no right or wrong choice, it is simply the player's choice. This feature, making it feel as though it was an interactive movie playing out rather than a game, makes for one of the most unique and deep role playing experiences gaming has to offer. The original Mass Effect was considered an awesome game, though it had it's share of problems holding it back. Texture pop-ups, loading times, bland side quests, and rather mediocre gameplay all kept it from being what it truly could have achieved. It was not a bad game by any means, but it was clear that more work was needed. What BioWare has done since the period of Mass Effect 1's release and Mass Effect 2, is fix, or rather, completely get rid of all previous problems. The texture pop-ups? There are none. In my 40 plus hours of playing, there has not been a single issue with the graphics appearing properly. Loading times? Long elevators? How about five second load screens and no elevators at all? The side quests have been elevated to the scale where they are cinematic and made just as important as the story in presentation. There is no Mako to explore worlds, making these simplifications give the game a much more fluid and polished feel. The best improvement by far, is the gameplay. No longer being a bland, non-challenging system where you have cover but never use it, Mass Effect 2 relies on cover the way Gears of War does. You can rarely run out in the open and try to play this like the first game without proper armor, defensive powers, and precaution. No longer can you pile up every overpowered power in your arsenal on enemies to dispose of them in seconds. They have made it balanced and smooth. The guns all feel different, the classes all feel VERY different, and the restrictions to which class can use which guns/powers is very well done. You could barely tell the difference between classes in the original, but in the sequel, you would have to be blind not to. One thing that was awkward about such a dialogue, story-telling game in the first Mass Effect was the character expressions. The voice acting was superb (and is even better now), but the feel of immersion and belief was sometimes lost with the faces of character models being utterly inexpressive. Someone would raise their voice and their face would look like they just ate a rotten apple, it made no sense. Luckily this was all greatly remedied in the second game and there is no loss of feeling in these scenes. The camera was even made more cinematic in comparison to the static camera in the first game, which gives it a much improved cinematic scope. Furthermore, the character development itself has improved greatly. BioWare did a good job with the cast of the first game, but in the second, not only is the main squad more endearing, but even the NPCs come off very entertaining and interesting. I found myself applauding the backstory of each character, and I even enjoyed the logical development of characters from the first game greatly. Speaking of developing from the first game. Mass Effect 2 is really something else. Players can import a completed save game from the original (which means you HAVE to play both otherwise your gamer pass is revoked) and all their choices from the original carry into the second game. This is no exaggeration. EVERYTHING, every little thing you may have wondered the consequence or benefit of carries through. Playing Mass Effect 2 without importing a character or without having played the first one just isn't the same experience. It's the little things, the realism of the universe itself that BioWare has put together which makes Mass Effect 2 a nearly perfect game and easily one of the best games ever made and the 2010 Game of the Year. The gameplay, graphics, story, atmosphere, soundtrack, voice acting, everything about this game is absolutely amazing. Missing out on this is missing out on a great part of gaming history.

To say Halo: Reach lives up to expectations would be a dramatic understatement. It exceeds them. I thought Halo 3 was a relatively packed and deep game, but Reach has the kind of customization options and variables that change the game going for it, that it's almost like playing a PC game with access to mods. You can do anything, you can change anything, you can build anything. Seeing that one of the developers made Pinnacle/Ascension from Halo 2 with the Forge World tools is impressive, but seeing the active community make The Pit, Hang 'Em High, Beaver Creek, other remade maps, and some mind-blowing original ****'s astounding. Forge in Halo 3 was good, but there needed to be an excessive amount of time and a certain level of creative thinking to do something with it. Forge World on the other hand, is a brilliant canvas that can bring any of your ideas for a map to life without having to try too hard. Bungie makes Halo games to be played for years on end. That is literally the design goal for them. That goal has been achieved with every main series entry of Halo, and people will be playing Reach a long time from now. On the first day alone, 9 million games were played online. The changes to the ranking system allows players to enjoy the game and keep playing no matter what playlist or mode they are active in. The Commendations give those extra little goals to strive for, and the Challenges, weekly and daily, give players a reason to check in on the game whenever they can and always have something new to do. It's all the little things that count in making the online experience much deeper. Things like the Active Roster, things like being able to take three friends online with me for the ride, and things like sending out a Hologram that someone shoots at for three seconds before he realizes he's made an oops, and then I come behind him with my shotgun and deliver my fantastic chiropractic abilities at the end of the barrel. The campaign is great. Personally, I expected a bit more based around the events of the Fall of Reach, but what we got was good. Reach tells a story of war, and the sacrifice that comes with it. It starts out feeling very cookie cutter to be honest, but as it progresses, the overlying feeling of intensity increases. The set pieces aren't as epic as people who played the original trilogy may be used to. I remember so many moments from the campaigns in Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3, and the only real lasting memories of Reach's campaign are the space battle (which was like another game in itself) and the ending. The last half of that campaign is gripping. The way it closes out is touching. But as always, what makes Halo above and beyond many other games and the king of it's genre, is the gameplay. The foundation Bungie struck gold with, a fusion of traditional shooter elements fighting over map control and fixed weapon spawns, combined with the unique weapons, physics, vehicles, map design, and new armor abilities. All the fixes the game needed from the beta have been made. Reach is every bit as accessible as the past Halo games. Bungie loads this game up with so much content. There is something for everyone if you are willing to take the time to find it, and everything for someone open-minded enough to appreciate quality game design. All of the new modes are fun. Team Stockpile and Team Headhunter is surprisingly intense and enjoyable. The new Arena playlist is groundbreaking and a genius idea. They have taken Halo, taken a few little qualities from other series and fused them without compromising the core of the game and the roots it was built upon. Halo: Reach is a fantastic example of how to keep something going. It isn't a franchise, it's a phenomenon.