No, I try to avoid all coverage I can when it comes to heavily story-driven games. Wow, 96. That’s pretty amazing too. Between the mining “game”, the entire 4? story missions, the anemic customization and the dead-silent, cipher-like companions (and I did ALL the loyalty missions) and and and … I had more than enough reasons to dislike it on my own :)
Anyway.
Ooh, Din’s Curse. Ok, so I have a top 3!
Fair enough. The mining “game” is truly awful, but doesn’t comprise enough of the game itself to have even come close to ruining my experience. I thought the companions had plenty to say if you engaged them in conversation on the ship, but no, they didn’t talk all that much while walking around the various areas or during battle. That didn’t bother me a bit as I wasn’t really looking to chat at those times. As for complaints about the lack of missions, I think I clocked in just over 30 hours with the game on my first playthrough. Not liking the missions is one thing, but complaining that there weren’t enough of them seems way off base to me.
Mario Galaxy 2 has not yet been mentioned in this topic. Therefore the topic is heretical and corrupt.
I bought Mario Galaxy 2 and played maybe an hour of it. It made me realize that maybe that type of game just isn’t for me anymore. I’ve yet to feel any desire to go back and play it.
Yeah, even though I ended up not really liking ME2, the complaints about the mining minigame were really overblown I thought. I think I spent maybe a grand total of 20 minutes of my 30-ish hour playthrough on the mining game, and I also didn’t think it was as odious as others did in and of itself. I thought the code hacking minigame was actually worse, though I eventually adjusted to it.
As for complaints about the lack of missions, I think I clocked in just over 30 hours with the game on my first playthrough. Not liking the missions is one thing, but complaining that there weren’t enough of them seems way off base to me.
The complaint is that there’s a dearth of main story missions, not missions overall, and I agree with that one. So much of that game is spent doing things that are at best tangentially related to the main story, and at worst have nothing to do with it all.
Mass Effect 2 tops my list. Of Tom’s picks, Bayonetta, Just Cause 2 and Split/Second would also make my top 10 so far. I haven’t played BioShock 2 much yet, but I will sit down and fix that once Comic Con is over and things have calmed down a bit.
So far MH: Tri has captured my interest the most in 2010.
The complaint is that there’s a dearth of main story missions, not missions overall, and I agree with that one. So much of that game is spent doing things that are at best tangentially related to the main story, and at worst have nothing to do with it all.
Sounds like the majority of RPGs and games in general. I don’t see why a narrative has to be soley focused on a “main story” - why isn’t the act of characters and their backgrounds being fleshed out considered part of the main story? They are, after all, the actors of the story. And sometimes less is more when it comes to keeping the suspense and mystery.
Yeah, sure, most RPGs have side content that may or may not be connected to the main plot, but again, the specific complaint here is that the overwhelming majority of the content in the game didn’t have anything to do with the main plot. It felt like a good 80% of the game was spent doing things unrelated to the crisis at hand (which in turn made it feel like far less of a crisis).
I agree with Tom on Bioshock 2. It’s going to take a lot to move that game from my top this year. Like Tom, I found the story moving and the entire experience one of a kind.
Going down the list, I’ll add STALKER: Call of Pripyat, Bayonetta, Mass Effect 2, Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising, and Alpha Protocol.
Also, this is the year I played Uncharted 2, so it should be on the list somewhere.
I agree with Kebooo on this one. It didn’t bother me a bit that a lot of the “side” missions weren’t related directly to the main plot. I regarded them as discrete vignettes that fleshed out the characters and the universe. I mean, it’s nice to get out and experience some of this universe that I’m saving and get to know these people I’m saving it with. I can see criticizing a movie for being filled with “filler” unrelated to the main plot, but in a game I love it.
Wow, I totally missed that the next Peeler game had come out. I’ll definitely check out Din’s Curse.
I guess I’m not making myself clear, because I don’t disagree with anything you’ve written here in the slightest. I’ll try again: my problem is with the fact that the main story comprised so little of the game. I don’t have any problem at all with a wealth of optional side content, but I wanted a meatier main plot. I felt that the central narrative in ME2 was very thin and weak, particularly when compared with the first game.
I think the main story in ME2 was fairly light on content as well, but Bioware more than made up for it with two hours of the most epic, cinematic gaming I’ve ever experienced. They wove the story with the gameplay brilliantly, absolutely brilliantly. Yes, I’d have loved more of it but I’m also grateful for what is there.
The overall reaction to Mass Effect 2 seems to have been hugely (I might even say insanely) positive. But the game does have substantial flaws and a lot of recent discussion about it has revolved around those flaws.
Myself, I thought it was basically enjoyable but compromised by terrible design decisions. I am deeply disheartened that Bioware apparently thinks Dragon Age 2 should be more like it, as there is no question in my mind that the first Dragon Age was the superior game. Oh well.
I can’t rightly say what games would be on my personal list. There’s not many recent ones I’ve even played. Alan Wake, Alpha Protocol, maybe Bioshock 2 when I get more into it.
Settlers 7, Royal Envoy and Carcassonne on the IPad are my top 3 for this year. I have not played any of Tom’s top 10 but that’s mostly because I don’t play FPS/Shooters. Ancient Traders is on the console, and I’m playing less and less console games.
I see what you’re getting at now. Rereading the portions of your previous posts that I quoted, it did seem like you were upset about the side missions not being specifically related to the “main” plot and not the main plot itself. The story mission plot of ME2, limiting it to just what you do against the Collectors (I’d argue that the loyalty missions are essential story missions as well, but whatever), is pretty straightforward when it comes right down to it. It definitely feels like a grand excuse to gather a dirty dozen and then kick some butt.
Yes and yes.
As to the “fleshing out” - see, I thought both the recruiting and the loyalty missions were terribly anemic. A handful of lines, a decision point, blammo done and your now loyal companion will never speak to you again until the endgame. And this process is repeated over and over and over again until you’re drowning in loyalty “vignettes” - for some reason it felt like a very long time - and then one two three game over.
I would have much rather cut the roster in half or more and have them be truly fleshed out. ARGH I can’t even talk about it without getting worked up about how “budget” the entire game felt. See what you did! :P
Mass effect 2. While not perfect (over streamlining of rpg elements, disconnected feel of companion missions and weak story/character elements compared to the first one), it is just more perfect than anything else.
Bioshock 2, overrated, but good. I just have problems getting in to games where the primary story device is being told stuff indirectly over the the radio (or similar) and then everything you meet being hostile. The last game like that i enjoyed was system shock 2 and bioshock is no system shock 2.
Alpha Protocol also deserves mention in pioneering choices and consequences. While it is vastly underrated (although far from perfect), for me it simply comes down to it being more fun to be Sheperd (mass effect) than Michael Thorton (alpha protocol). I wish games like this were more popular though because it would convince other companies to invest in giving the player an influence on what happens in the game rather than having it all preset (completely linear game) or not having a story at all (open world). The fight with the russian who has a fetish for American rock was also one of my favorite boss fights in a while.
p.s. i agree that dragon age is a better game than me2 and would be sad if bioware decides to take the same streamlining everything that isn’t 100% perfect until it is no longer there at all approach.
I liked Bioshock 1 a lot, but with Bioshock 2 I was just going through the motions. I never felt they had anything interesting to say or add to the world of Rapture. After 4 or 5 hours I put it down and never felt like picking it up again.