TWHRs top ten 2009

Posted by TWHR in Console, Featured, Microsoft, News, Nintendo, Portable, Previews, Sony | 7 comments

Its the end of the year and its time for my first ever end of year top ten! What a year for gaming. What a year to be a gamer!

Lets get started

10 Pixel Junk Shooter

What makes shooter such a top notch PSN title has very little to do with its brilliant art style or jazzy soundtrack, no its the stripped back simple and charming gameplay that makes this Q games most accomplished and enjoyable game. If you get PSN credit this Xmas you would be doing a lot worse then splashing out for this inexpensive gravity based puzzle shooter.

9  Borderlands

This one had me split down the middle, so much so that I couldn’t even score it at first in my review. I ended up giving 3 star’s but as I said in my review; this is going to be a 5 star experience for loads of people. Arriving on the scene 2 weeks before MW2 it just seemed to hit gamers at a time when they were thirsty for something new. The huge barron wastelands filled with respawning enemies wont be everyone’s cup of tea but as multiplayer mini MMO this game is going to inspire as many developers as Infinity Wards opus.

Out performing Gearbox’s wildest expectation the game has gone on to receive praise from industry big hitters, enough so that a sequel is on the way.
Borderlands was 2nd biggest surprise of 2009.

8 Wipeout Fury

The most under rated game of the year and by far the best value for money on PSN or Xbox live. Wipeout fury took Wipeout HD’s already stunning 1080p engine and updated to dazzling effect. I had nothing but praise for it in my review and I stand behind every word of it. No other DLC catered for a fan base to the level studio Liverpool did for this pack. This game belongs on every PS3 hard drive and with a retail release hitting the shelves last month there really is no excuse for not owning it. Great game, great online community, great visuals, great soundtrack all for under a tenner if you owned the original. Epic.

7 Left4Dead 2

This is one I only got into in the last 2 weeks but already its had enough of an effect on me to pull me away from getting past Major in Modern Warfare 2. There isn’t that much to say really apart from this is still the best co op game available on any system.

6 Battlefield 1943

I probably put more hours into this title then any other this year, the fact that the game is there on you’re HD; looking at you every time you turn on you’re console makes it even harder to scroll past. Why would I go to the bother of reaching over to the shelf and loading up another online shooter when I have a fantastic online experience already there ready to be played. For a downloadable title this really is high end stuff.

Lovely visuals, insane sniping and hard to master vehicles made this one of the best online shooters of the year. What a year for online games when something of this quality is low on a list. Bring on Bad Company 2!

5 Dragon Age:Origins

I lied. This game sucked more of my time then anything else in 2009. Besides breathing,eating and working I really can’t think of anything else that I spent 45 hrs doing. Epic is used a lot in games and Bioware took offence to that; giving gamers an old school RPG that housed some of the best story threads in modern game history. So many standout moments. The initiation into the Grey Wardens, the first time you finish off an ogre, the Werewolf storyline. The game is too much to rank, I wasn’t up to the task of reviewing it and those who did either missed the point or had the balls to stand behind it and see past its visual shortcomings.

It’s combat feels stiff and unforgiving at first but once you hit the halfway mark you will be screaming like Aragon at the black gates, PC owners may have gotten the best deal but don’t let that stop you from experiencing it console because this game needs to be experienced.

4 Killzone 2

This was the first game I reviewed for shoryuken and was also my first PS3 title. Yes you guessed it, this was the game that finally made me take the plunge into PS3 and I couldn’t have picked a better title to start with. Shamefully ignored by main stream game jornos so far in their end of year reviews; Guerillas seminal next gen shooter done more for online multiplayer then any other title this year.Yes, Infinity Ward refined its old experience and gave gamers the carrot at the end of the string but Killzone 2 did something much more.

Bringing team work back into online gaming, with Warzone Guerilla mixes classic deathmatch and capture and hold game types all in one session, the result? Some of the best games I have ever played online. Don’t criticise this games multiplayer untill you’ve experienced an hour long game incorporating 4 different  game types 7 multi tiered classes and huge open world environments housing visuals that put most single player campaigns to shame.

This is a power house of title, its single player campaign may lack the lyrical finese of some (but not many) of its contemporary rivals but for lots of gamers, including myself – that was the main selling point.

You can pick this up for 20 blips in most retail stores now, do it.

3 Batman:Arkham Asylum

My review pretty much sums up how I felt about this game, yes after a third play through some cracks begin to show in the campaign - The boss battles are pretty lame but this game has so much more under the surface then just one of the most surprising and fun single player experiences of the year.

The combat system ruined games like Assassins Creed 2 for me, I can’t go back to anything in third person that doesn’t flow like Batmans combat system. It really would be like taking 4 steps backwards. Its going to inspire so many games over the next few years and I can not wait to see what Rocksteady do with the sequel.

Top notch visuals, stunning collectible content, meticulously realized environments and great effort to increase longevity. This all wrapped in a Batman cape and cowl. What the funk else could you ask for?

2 Modern Warfare 2

I’m not going to talk at length about this. Read our two reviews to see how we felt about it. It’s the best action movie of the year and the multiplayer turns a corner for online games. Glitches and corporate greed aside this is still one of the biggest and best out there at the moment. Plus, the enthusiasm of the guys at Infinity Ward does much to quench the hate I have for Activision and there bid to become the new bad guys of the gaming industry.

The campaign speaks to the guy inside you who watched movies like Toy Soldiers and Red Dawn every Saturday morning and imagined what it would be like to live in an action movie. Its pop corn gaming at its heart and never crosses the taking itself to seriously line. Also lets face it, when you realized who the prisoner was you got the same goose bumps I did.

1 Uncharted 2:Among Thieves

So here it is – my personnel game of the year.

It may be the popular choice but sometimes that’s for good reason.Ìn this case I can’t think of a game that deserves more praise then Naughty Dogs game changer, Uncharted 2 is the best reason to own a PS3. This game has more personality in its opening then most games have their whole 12 hr campaigns. Marco…..Polo.

Games I wish I had played but didn’t
Any suggestions?
Demons Souls
New Mario Bros Wii
Spirit Tracks
God of War collection
Flower
Shadow Complex
Trine

Honorable mentions

Doodle Jump
Doom Classic
Assassins Creed 2
Section 8
ODST
InFamous

Remember this is my personnel list, Kev will have the official Shoryuken best of the year up soon enough but in the mean time thanks to everyone who read my words and put up with my atrocious grammer and spelling over the year it can only get better.

Also thanks to everyone who is following me on twitter and a special thanks to Kev for letting me write!

Happy xmas!