2010 Game of the Year

With Christmas around the corner and the year slowly coming to a close, it seems only fitting for That Gamer Hub to share with the world our favorite games of the year.

It’s been an eventful year in gaming- Peter Molyneux continued to convince the world he was still creating the greatest games ever made, Kevin Butler showed up to modestly tell the world that PlayStation can apparently do everything and Shigeru Miyamoto sat back, accepted his well deserved BAFTA and counted his cash.

But non of this mattered as the video game industry simply continued to churn out hit after hit, not only by bringing us extremely successful and well made sequels, but also creating entirely new titles, some of which could be considered truly ground breaking… in some peoples eyes.

But what games have caught our eyes the most? Although there have been a few disappointments, it’s safe to say this year we’ve seen some of the most entertaining titles to date.

So, what titles have come out on top? Well, there’s only one way to find out.

Ladies and Gentlemen…

Helicopters. Do we really need to say more? With huge maps, destructible environments, well thought-out class structures, customizable squads and more, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 kept us coming back for hours and hours of pure, unadulterated fun. Flying solo? Great. Team up with a few friends? Even better. BC2 is well crafted and continuing (at the time of this posting) to crank out the maps. Did we mention helicopters? Yeah, we like those a lot.

Super Meat Boy won our beefy hearts this year by throwing the lot of us into the spikes of frustration, dragging us through a factory of swears before throwing the crew to Hell and back. Other than our relationship issues, it’s refreshing retro gameplay and tongue-in-cheek humor just plucked at the heart strings, and that’s why it’s earned That Gamer Hubs Best Downloadable Game. Now Team Meat wants a sandwich, so you’ll have to excuse us.

The story of John Marsdon was an epic tale of murder, corruption, love, revenge; bringing us right into the heart of the Old West. Red Dead Redemption’s superb writing guided the player along the epic journey, through trials and tribulations, concluding in a phenomenal, and surprisingly heart-breaking, finale. From corrupt law men to hilarious old hermits, it was the array of fantastically written characters that really made this story one the player could invest in, and our favorite this year.

Even though Solid Snake’s story ending with MGS4, there was plenty of room for Hideo Kojima to make another masterpiece in the Metal Gear Solid franchise. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker continues the back story of Naked Snake, aka Big Boss, and adds more content and gameplay than could be expected out of a handheld. MGS:PW is our choice for Handheld Game of the Year and shows that the PSP is anything but dead.

Rather than exploding onto the scene, this little indie game simply dripped slowly into the gaming consciousness. Minecraft’s basic graphics and simple premise quickly became the ultimate sandbox game, allowing players to create their own adventures in the randomly generated worlds. The game already has a well deserved cult following – not bad, since it’s still only in alpha!

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood was eagerly anticipated from the moment the ACII credits rolled. Building from the basics of previous games, AC:B had everything the players loved from the series – in-depth assassinations, brilliantly executed free running and beautiful environments – but with a multitude of new features. Throw in truly original multiplayer and an extremely engaging story line and it’s easy to see why it became the multi-platform game of choice.

14 years later, and it’s still getting better. In a strong revival, Nintendo manages to do right by everyone’s favorite ape. With tons of collectibles, challenging game-play, a fair attempt at a storyline and plenty of reasons to come back, Donkey Kong Country Returns is indeed our pick for the Best Wii Game of 2010.

An exciting and bone snapping (literally!) ending of the God of War series that left us speechless from start to finish. God of War 3‘s scale and beautifully rendered environments, not to mention it’s well written story of pure revenge, make it worthy of a place among the gods of this years games. From the fiery pits of Hades to the home of the gods, Kratos’ journey is nothing short of PS3 Game of the Year.

Bioware’s Mass Effect 2 took what was great about the first game, fine-tuned it and trimmed the excess, to create a superior action-RPG experience. Despite a few small hindrances to the fun (planet scanning, we’re looking at you) ME2 is an excellent game that should not be missed. We’re That Gamer Podcast, and this is our favorite game on the XBOX 360.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood had a lot to contend with, namely the fact that people were sceptical that Ubisoft could create a full sequel within a year. But boy did they pull it off. The main storyline alone kept the players engrossed for hours, with copious amounts of sub-stories to keep us enthralled in the universe. The multiplayer was a risky step, but one which paid off exponentially, as it’s overwhelming success and innovative execution is one that keeps us all coming back for more. Truly the stand-out game of the year.