2010 was a decent year for gamers. We were blessed with a broad selection of high-quality AAA titles, as well as a number of sleeper indie hits. When all is said and done though, what were the games that really stood out in 2010?
Of course, these things are always completely subjective, so instead of arguing amongst ourselves, we decided to let each of our writers share their thoughts on what their favourite game of 2010 was, and why.
Nic Simmonds – fearless leader, consummate sugar coated cereal aficionado, closet PC gaming fanboy, maybe.
It’s always hard to pick a favourite game when looking back over an entire year. A number of titles touched my heart in 2010. From Red Dead Redemption’s classic western charm, to the epic space opera that was Mass Effect 2, and of course StarCraft II’s fiercely competitive online leagues.
I bonded with Bioshock 2’s Big Daddy – surely one of the most tragic figures in video game narrative – as well as various characters from the PS3 exclusive Heavy Rain, which was the cinematic masterpiece everyone hoped it would be. Civilization V kept me up into the early hours of the morning, promising myself ‘just one more turn’, and The Settlers 7 pleasantly surprised me with a fresh approach to the iconic franchise. Then of course there was Gran Turismo 5 which brought out my inner petrol-head, Medal of Honor (I’m sure I’m the only person who enjoyed its multiplayer portion), Limbo, R.U.S.E, Mafia II and Splinter Cell Conviction, all of which stood out for me.
Sadly, God of War III, S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat, Alan Wake, Metro 2033, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Lara Croft and the Guardian of the Light, Castelvania: Lords of Shadow, Fable III and Vanquish all joined my ever-growing back catalogue of must-play games.
There were also a few disappointments for me. Halo: Reach failed to make a Halo fan of me. Call of Duty: Black Ops was released broken, and The Force Unleashed 2 and Fallout: New Vegas both failed to impress. Dead Rising 2 and Enslaved were also non-events in my gaming calendar.
So what was my game of the year? Well, it’s a tossup between Mass Effect 2, StarCraft II and Battlefield: Bad Company 2, with DICE’s shooter edging out the competition thanks to its remarkable longevity, startling depth, and continued support from EA with new maps, and the recently released Vietnam expansion pack.
Thanks for reading, I hope your year was as great as ours. We can’t wait to see you back in January, revived and ready to share in another great year of gaming with us.
James Etherington-Smith – All round writer of things, sub-editor, expert coffee maker, and loved by many for his affable, hobbit like demeanour
It’s really tough to choose one favourite game for 2010. Bad Company 2 would be an easy choice for my multiplayer game of the year simply because I’m always going back to play it, but I will just as soon ditch BC2 in favour of Battlefield 3. I thought a single player game that provided a memorable experience was more deserving of my ‘Game of the Year’ accolade.
I choose Mass Effect 2 – an engaging story, superb voice acting, stunning visuals, refined gameplay and tons of content. I would still recommend this game to anyone looking for a great single player experience, and I fondly recall my 40+ hours shared with the Normandy crew. This will ring true as we move into 2011, and I wonder which gaming title will be able to ‘wow’ me as significantly as ME2. Perhaps Mass Effect 3?
Myles Gray – columnist, reviewer, MMO/RPG guy, and the only person we could find to write about Japanese RPGs. R.I.P Final Fantasy 🙁
Being asked to pick a GOTY I suddenly came to the realization that 2010 was a pretty weak year in gaming for me personally. The majority of the games that sprang to mind were from 2009, which was vexing. However, the one title that stood out in my mind was Mass Effect 2, so it gets my vote.
From the get-go, Mass Effect 2 weaves am impressive story involving interesting characters, all wrapped up in a brilliant sci-fi setting. While it did not hit all the right notes as far as being an RPG is concerned, I felt the immersive qualities behind the characters, stories and the choices more than made up for it. Gameplay was also a blast and I cannot wait for the third installment!
Tarryn van der Byl – columnist, reviewer and newsy writer, Tarryn writes good, and eats trolls like you for breakfast (if you’re not a troll, she will happily shoot your face off in *insert online Xbox 360 shooter here*).
Maybe it’s just my latent inner cowgirl or something, but Red Dead Redemption grabbed me by the honky-tonky from the get-giddy-up-and-go.
The rootin’, tootin’, six-gun shootin’ gameplay in both single- and multiplayer was terrific in itself, but the game also features a superlative, authentically mature story that’s pretty much unequalled in anything else that’s come out recently, or even at all. Also, wiping out the plains buffalo was a bonus.
Dan Parmenter – columnist and reviewer, Dan has more facial hair than head hair, and loves his PS3 almost as much as he hates rhythm games
While it was certainly short and in need of refinement in a few areas, Heavy Rain still gets my vote for the best game of the year. I also loved God of War III and Red Dead Redemption, but neither really did anything I hadn’t seen before or take any leaps of creative faith.
Quantic Dream however took some bold steps and made a game that gave us a glimpse as to just how powerful a good story can be and what may be possible in future titles if developers are willing to take risks; how can we not reward a game which manages to bundle multiple endings, numerous story paths, superb casting and an innovative control scheme into one package? It’s also a great reminder that huge open worlds, cutting-edge graphics or even developer pedigree are not always crucial ingredients for a stellar release.
Chris Kemp – Columnist, feature writer and MyGaming RTS guy, Chris spends most of his time smugly waving his mouse and keyboard in the air with an air of elitism, while occasionally admitting that console games are “kind of fun, I suppose.”
When Nic first asked me to explain why StarCraft 2 should be Game of the Year, I thought it was some kind of rhetorical question. One of those ‘Is the sky blue?,’ ‘Is Bobby Kotick evil?’ kinds of questions.
As it turns out, there are still a tragic few out there who are not convinced (who also most likely eat paper and get lost in their own bedrooms). For their benefit then, I will simplify this into an easy-to follow-list:
– It’s Blizzard. They may have that Activision monkey riding their back with a whip clutched in its tiny, powerful fist, but name one game this amazing studio has made in the last 10 years that hasn’t been ground breaking and incredible. I’ll wait.
– Playtime. Mass Effect 2, touted as potential GOTY, has an average playtime of 30-40 hours if you get all you can out of it. Pretty respectable. To fully complete the Singleplayer of Starcraft 2, you’re going to need about 30 hours, almost on par with ME2. However, Multiplayer StarCraft 1 is still played competitively today, over 10 years past its release. Since StarCraft 2 is already more popular than StarCraft 1, we can predict a life of at least 10 years. That makes it 30 + 87600, for a total of 87630 hours of playtime! Take that ME2!
– Complexity, depth and accessibility. StarCraft 2 has hundreds of websites devoted to strategy. Professional coaches make their living teaching StarCraft 2. Often described as “chess on steroids” there are few games out there with a skill ceiling to match that of StarCraft 2. That being said, the game has been designed to cater to both the casual gamer, as well as the hardcore. Studies* have shown that intelligent people pick StarCraft 2 for Game of the Year.
*Research by Chris Kemp (2010); sample size: 1.
Readers’ choice
The most important thing, is what our readers enjoyed most. According to our end of year poll, these were the games most loved in 2010 by you guys and girls:
Percentage indicates what portion of the vote the game received
1 – Mass Effect 2 – 23.2%
2 – StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty – 20.96%
3 – Red Dead Redemption – 15.12%
4 – Battlefield: Bad Company 2 – 12.2%
5 – God of War III – 8.58%
6 – Call of Duty: Black Ops – 7.04%
7 – Other – 5.5%
8 – Gran Turismo 5 – 3.09%
9 – Heavy Rain – 2.41%
10 – Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood – 1.89%
Overall, with two votes from MyGaming staff, and the largest portion of readers giving Mass Effect 2 their thumbs up, it seems safe to give EA’s sci-fi RPG our official Game of the Year 2010 status. PS3 fans will finally get a taste of BioWare’s epic franchise come February 2011, and the final iteration of the series is due out in Q4 2011.
Discuss the MyGaming 2010 Game of the Year awards on the MyGaming forum.
