The best games of 2009. Well, the first six months of 2009

Games
41

The only games from this year that I’ve played are Prototype, Demigod, and Blood Bowl, so uhh, those three and two blanks I guess?

42

  1. Resident Evil 5. I think I have played this game a bit more than is probably healthy, but it’s just so much fun.

  2. Well, I meant to play other games (Killzone, inFamous…etc), but between Rock Band DLC, RE5 and Midnight club LA (which is apparently like crack to me) I never got around to it.

  3. Flower.

43

Look, I know that this sentiment SEEMS over the top, but as one of the lucky few who imported the game (which works seamlessly with a US PS3) I agree entirely with the emotion, if not perhaps the specifics. It is a wonderful game, which felt tailored exactly to my gamer DNA. The dreamy, implacable hostility of this game was completely unexpected and entirely compelling.

44

We have the jetpack for this.

45

Spelunky is almost certain to be my GOTY for 2009. Depends on how Elemental shapes up.

46
  1. Killing Floor
  2. Magic the Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers
  3. Sword of the Stars, which I’m counting since it got a mini-expansion and I hadn’t heard of it before 2009 so what the hell.
  4. Plants VS Zombies

Only 2009 releases I’ve picked up.

Edit: Ah! Looked at the rest of the thread and forgot PvZ.

47

for some reason I aways get a funny image in my head of magicans dueling on the wing of a plane whenever I read the title of this game.

48

Playable as a 4 player free for all on Xbox Live!

49

WIN.

Dawn of War 2, Wolverine, Prototype, and Red Faction: Guerrilla pretty much do it for me this year. Hell, they’re the only 2009 games I’ve played! And I found them all damned festive.

50

Oh, right. Dawn of War 2 was 2009, wasn’t it? I guess that’s my #5 then.

51
  1. Plants vs Zombies
  2. (as it is my current drug) Magic the Gathering : Duel of the Planeswalker
  3. Red Faction Guerilla
  4. Demigod
  5. Battleforge (a GREAT game that has been overlooked, and that’s a shame)
  6. Drakensang
  7. Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection (yeah I know but I can cheat)
  8. Cryostasis (don’t ask me why, this game is full of flaws but it made a lasting impression on me)

…and that’s it. Damn.

I’ve yet to play Resident Evil 5.

52
  1. Blood Bowl
  2. Arma 2
  3. Killing Floor
  4. Neotokyo
53
  1. BlazBlue (Xbox)
  2. Blood Bowl (PC)
  3. Demigod (PC)
  4. King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Match (XBL)
  5. Dawn of War 2 (PC)
  6. Prototype (PC)

Beyond #6 I start to struggle.

54
  1. Red Faction: Guerilla
  2. Resident Evil 5
  3. Infamous
  4. Space Invaders Extreme (360)
  5. (I’m assuming it will be after I actually play it, anyway) Fight Night Round 4
55

Stuff missing from your list…

UniWar (GOTY)
Street Fighter IV
BlazBlue (maybe… too early)
Bit.Trip Beat
Raiden Fighters Aces
LIT
Mighty Flip Champs
Blood Bowl

Probably a few other things that really deserve consideration.

What’s interesting to me about 2009 so far, is a lot of the best games aren’t being sold in stores. UniWar (iPhone), Bit.Trip Beat, LIT (both WiiWare) and Mighty Flip Champs (DSiWare) are all available online only on their respective machines.

That’s going to make many end of year lists end up with only the stuff that’s available in stores bubbling up to the top even if it’s not as good as these other titles. That sucks.

56

Well shit, I just looked through my backlog and realized I haven’t finished a single 2009 retail PC release. I’m only a third of the way through Men of War, which is nice but not earth shattering. I have picked up a few games through bargains (Elven Legacy, Zeno Clash, etc.) but I ought to keep my current backlog a bit more open so I can absorb new games without putting them down a few spots in my list. Hmm.

For freeware releases, I enjoyed:

  1. SpiritsRL - 2009 7DRL entry that tickles me so much because it’s built like an SRPG.
  2. MindWall - Ludum Dare 14 entry (winner?), stylish and brief puzzle game.
57
  1. Red Faction: Gorilla
  2. Cryostasis
  3. Mirror’s Edge (PC)
  4. Plants vs. Zombies
  5. ?
58

LK I’ve got a jonesing to do another F3 playthrough - can you give me more info on what mods you’re using? It sounds awesome…

59
  1. Plants vs Zombies.
  2. Red Faction: Guerilla
  3. Street Fighter IV

And that’s it. I’ve played many more games this year, including infamous, prototype, resident evil 5, demigod, and dawn of War II and found almost all of them underwhelming.

Next up on the list is Anno 1404, and possibly Demon’s Soul.

60

Sure. And that’s not even tapping the really radical changes to the game available, like the ones that let you command the Enclave or play it as if it were a free form Stalker type game (the fallout nexus is a black hole of time. My main goal was to make actually going through all of the official DLC through Point Lookout (but ideally skipping Anchorage which I only needed to do once, thanks, but I still wanted the stuff from it because the stealth armor is hilarious) as painless and bullshit free while enhancing the difficulty of things I like, such as fast paced, high damage combat that forces me to capitalize on the pc’s high res and aim accuracy. Also, I got a lot of ideas from that mod thread I link in that post, so you might want to look at that as well.

The only conflicts I’ve had have been when I took a mod that offers you scalability of implementation and just turned everything on, which is not how they work (EG, you only choose one out of the choices in a category).