Our Favorite Games of 2010, Your Emails and more!
This week Shawn, Julian and Elysium dive into their favorite games of the year. We also have a special segment with Lara and Cory offering their picks!
To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind. You can even send a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined. You can also submit a question or comment call in to our voicemail line at (612) 284-4563!
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Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks
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Preparing for Starcraft 2 and Cataclysm mentionings.
Personally, my GOTY is Mass Effect 2. I've played it over and over too many times to say anything else. With Red Dead Redemption coming second.
imbiginjapan on Vanquish:The difficulty is punishing but it knows enough to punish me while wearing stiletto heels and a push up bra, so I forgive it.
Hey my email got read! Thanks for the input guys I hadn't really thought of that perspective. The comparison to GTA is apt.
imbiginjapan on Vanquish:The difficulty is punishing but it knows enough to punish me while wearing stiletto heels and a push up bra, so I forgive it.
Awww, gotta love the 30 year old senility moment. "Left 4 Dead 2 was this year."
Well, the Hunter was last year also. Let the emails begin!
How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?
MilkmanDanimal wrote:You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.
You are, of course, correct. The way I gathered up a bunch of the games was I looked through show notes from all the podcasts. We did talk about The Hunter in 2010, but now that I listen to the show, it was because Rob wanted to talk about the new bow they put out.
I blame Rob.
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ― Howard Thurman
I can live with that.
How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?
MilkmanDanimal wrote:You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.
Just the opposite for me. RDR is my #1 with ME2 a very close #2. I absolutely loved ME2 (and should really get around to picking up the Shadow Broker DLC sometime), but I've put at least 50 hours into RDR. It completely sucked me into the Old West world Rockstar San Diego created. I was so immersed that I even spent several hours (5 at least) playing poker and blackjack. Then they released Undead Nightmare, which was awesome. That was another 10 hours or so right there.
Yeah, when I heard them say L4D2 was this year, I was like "umm, no." So I'm guessing L4D2 was talked about in two separate GotY discussions (2009 and 2010).
Steam: [GWJ]MeatMan | "Now I know where to go if I have a hankering for testicles." –Higgledy
No mention of Civ V as being a bit of a letdown?
I wish you guys would stop encouraging him.
EvilHomer3k wrote:You are an evil, evil person.
Baron Of Hell wrote:YOU VILLAIN!
I have 45 hours into Civ V. How big of a letdown can that be?
The thing about smart people is they seem like crazy people to dumb people -- Thing I saw on the Internet
I've got about double that with Civ IV and I doubt I'm going to get that close.
I wish you guys would stop encouraging him.
EvilHomer3k wrote:You are an evil, evil person.
Baron Of Hell wrote:YOU VILLAIN!
Should the Android app be linked in the OP now as well?
You bastard, Tanglebones. :)
ClockworkHouse wrote:Yay! My Sony bone is getting tangled!
thrawn82 wrote:Tanglebones is a better man than I, in tears at my desk.
Good point!
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ― Howard Thurman
Yeah, but once the AI gets (even more) fixed, the inevitable expansions happen and we see some great mods you may clock in as much. May.
Civ V had a bad launch, but it's hardly a bad game. So, I can see people not mentioning it as a letdown.
How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?
MilkmanDanimal wrote:You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.
I'm hoping they do something along the lines of Beyond the Sword, but for now it's a vanilla Civ game that just doesn't feel as fun or as addictive Civ IV.
Edit: I'm not saying it's bad, it's just not as good as its predecessor.
I wish you guys would stop encouraging him.
EvilHomer3k wrote:You are an evil, evil person.
Baron Of Hell wrote:YOU VILLAIN!
goty for me has to be Just Cause 2 and Red Dead Redemption. Both are games that just pull me into their atmosphere and refuse to let go even when I am not playing them. I still have Mass Effect 2 to play, but I didn't even get through ME1, so I don't have much hope for it holding up to my current gotys.
I made a game once upon a time. http://www.card-dungeon.com
Don't suppose you could link the prediction episode from late 2009? I'm sure we'd all like a little trip down memory lane before you guys put egg on your own faces
Love others, weird and wonderfully. | "Life's a trip. You've only got one shot, let her rip." - K.Flay | My Games
I hate being cockblocked in my own territory by an ally's worker unit.
Certis: Quintin is both smart and attractive.
Fedaykin98: Good lord, I wouldn't have expected brilliance like that from that nemeslut Quintin Stone!
Yonder: It's weird to say this, but Quintin Stone may be the wisest person here.
Even if Civ V is not a strictly better game than Civ IV, I think it's a stretch to call it a disappointment. The people who have serious issues with Civ V are the extreme fanatics who mastered the systems of the previous games and are disappointed this game isn't a step up in complexity giving them new systems to master. From a casual perspective, Civ V has a number of appealing graphical and interface improvements and lets say a more aesthetically pleasing combat system. Also it's still basically Civilization. This is why Civ V is considered one of the best games of the year. It's a slick pretty new design of a game people already loved.
Steam : Latrine | Curse: MeanShift | Origin : LambdaLatrine | Battle.net : Latrine#1784
Elysium, I'm with you on Alan Wake. As a game, there isn't much to recommend it.
Edit: Thanks for answering my question about the DS. And thanks, Elysium, for being the first to man up when answering it. I'll get Advance Wars: Dual Strike and see what I think, although Super Scribblenauts will be next in line.
I think Lara would have recommended Dragon Quest IX.
Professionally offended. Does not understand jokes. Needs a man to explain them to me.
DOW 2 Chaos Rising was an excellent game/expansion overlooked in the podcast.
I wanted to also lend my support to Elysium for enjoying Singularity as well. It was better than Metro 2033 for me since I just had a hard time seeing things and none of the weapons really felt "good" to me. I guess a lot of games like Metro 2033 are trying to do things that I feel Half Life 1, 2 did better.
Another game not mentioned is Front Mission Evolved. I really enjoyed that game and feel it was really overlooked. It followed along the lines of a straight forward, directed shooter like Singularity. The customization of weapons and mech parts was far superior in Front Mission Evolved so the directed mission goals can be completed differently depending on your chosen role loadout. (missiles, rocket launcher, shotguns, miniguns, melee, shield bashing, sniper, support, grenades)
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
redfang#1780
Same here. I picked it up as a result of the love heaped upon it in the conf call and Giant Bomb, but it fell pretty flat for me. The story, although interesting, was delivered with too much monotone (both the narration and pace). The gameplay wasn't anything special either.
I'm with 'the Urge' on Heavy Rain being amazing. Forgot to put that on the other thread. I only did the one playthrough, since it was such a harrowing experience, but it moved me in a way that only a few other games have been able to.
You bastard, Tanglebones. :)
ClockworkHouse wrote:Yay! My Sony bone is getting tangled!
thrawn82 wrote:Tanglebones is a better man than I, in tears at my desk.
Apparently there has been a massive overhaul of Hydrophobia in the form of a patch. Has anyone tried it and has it fixed the game? It looks good in the video but I'm guessing the original did also.
I actually bought the Red Dead Nightmare pack dlc when it was on sale (now I just need to borrow the game off my cousin's kid.) I've also bought Bioshock 2 on the strength of what I'm hearing about the second half. I'll probably get to it sometime in March.)
It's been a superb year for games. So many developers nailing the balance between innovation and retention of the elements that work.
I hope you like thrill rides - Luis Serra, Resident Evil 4 Remake
Uncharted 4 Multiplayer: Half Nelson
Wow, here's the full list of changes:
That's a lot of work for a patch. Good on them.
Professionally offended. Does not understand jokes. Needs a man to explain them to me.
I don't see that Civ V was a disappointment. It's not Civ 4.5, but how could you expect that to happen? Civ IV is eminently moddable and several very excellent free mods of the game already exist, especially multiple ones that cater to increasing complexity to downright ridiculous levels. There is no need for Firaxis to do what fans are already doing quite excellently.
Civ V took Civ back to Civ 3 and went in a different direction. I like it just fine. Indeed, I like it more than Civ 4, though I've been partial to Civ 3 over Civ 4 to begin with (and Civ 5 is like Civ 3 in several ways, so that's hardly surprising).
"...mahal ko ang longganisa!" - Demosthenes
There were a lot of excellent games not mentioned in the podcast, especially from the Wii platform. 2010 is really such an awesome year that it isn't possible to cover all the awesomeness in one podcast and finish short of 3 hours.
Just on Wii, there's:
SMG2
Tiger Woods 2011
Kirby
Golden Eye
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
Sin and Punishment
Metroid
Donkey Kong
Monster Hunter
Red Steel 2
Epic Mickey
Sky Crawlers
Fragile Dreams
and perhaps some others I'm forgetting. On PC, there was talk of Mass Effect 2, but no Transformers, no Borderlands, no Sins: Diplomacy, and certainly none of the ton of short indies. A significant part of the HD console list could also not be mentioned.
even assuming that we'd spend no more than 2 weeks each on every game, which is a travesty for games like SC2 and Civ V, our cups for 2010 overfloweth. Mass Effect 2 alone got me about 180+ hours or so (about 2 playthroughs for every class).
"...mahal ko ang longganisa!" - Demosthenes
Borderlands was last year. And damn its hard to believe they cranked out so much DLC in one year. (dr. ned, gen knox, moxi, claptrap)
I just got ME2 on the steam fire sale so I am looking forward to that. I held off because I really didn't like the combat in ME1. I just felt there were a lot of games that had a much better mix of rpg/shooter going all the way back to Jedi Academy. The fact they made it more a shooter in ME2 pleases me greatly.
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
redfang#1780
That's ... insane.
How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?
MilkmanDanimal wrote:You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.
No, that's just really hardcore.
28 playthroughs is insane...
Steam: [GWJ]MeatMan | "Now I know where to go if I have a hankering for testicles." –Higgledy
double post
Steam: [GWJ]MeatMan | "Now I know where to go if I have a hankering for testicles." –Higgledy
No, it's only half insane. The other half was a mixture of Hardcore, Veteran, and Normal.
"...mahal ko ang longganisa!" - Demosthenes
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