After several hundred hours in skyrim, It's pretty much one of the best games I have ever played. And i'm 27. So that has some weight to it.
For me personally, its better than that entire list combined. Literally without added drama.
Mind you, I would call the witcher 2 one of the best games of the year. And bastion was incredible and by far the best indie game of the year.
Deus ex, as well. Incredible.
Skyrim might not have the detailed and involving central storyline of the witcher 2, it might not even have the soul of bastion. But what it does do is hand you a world. A world that continues to evolve every day as well (modding).
Not many games hand you a true world. And the sub-threads and sheer amount of memorable moments in that game, outshine anything I have seen in a single product in my 27 years of life.
I hadn't even heard of Straight to the Moon, but checking the developer homepage, it does look somewhat interesting, although the page only presents the story but doesn't seem to have any information about how the game is actually played. Is it a point and click thing?
If you do try it, you should consider writing something about it (if you didn't already plan on doing that :)). I'd be interested in hearing more.
Same for me. I finished the game, but I had to force myself quite a bit...and only could play 30 minutes at a time. I played on PC, but on TV with x360 controller, so it's not that. The game just did not click with me at all. Although art and soundtrack are pretty, yes.
I liked sewers in DI too. I read a lot of hate on them on the net, so it really surprised me how fun and detailed and atmospheric they were. And not *that* long. And city was my favourite act, precisely for its hardcore zombie atmosphere of postapocalyptia. Those sounds in the distance, wailing and screaming...
Don't agree with you 100%, Mr. Chick - not a big racing game guy, and Dark Souls is high up there for me, probably just after Arkham City and before Bastion and Deus Ex: HR - but an interesting set of games, all deserving of kudos. Especially nice to see Supergiant recognized again; they're a great bunch of guys who took a huge risk, left the safety of corporate game development, worked their asses off to make the best damn game they could exactly as they wanted it to be...and it paid off.
Which reminds me, I need to get back to my Bastion New Game + playthrough.
So SpaceChem doesn't even make your list of games that you had hoped to spend time with? Bah! It definitely has a "not for everyone" flavour to it but it's an absolutely unique little gem of a game, and it deserves your attention, or at least, your vague gesture in the direction of thinking about possibly paying it some. I have spoken!
Personally I enjoy Imperialism more than Civilization (controlling everything at a capital is much more fun than fussing with dozens of cities).
BUT, there were significant flaws with it. The sequel seemed to be an inverse version; it improved upon all the flaws of the original while screwing up all the good!
The original was colorful, had lots of charm, and I preferred the "fixed" technology that anyone could just outright buy with cash when it became available.
BUT...amphibious invasions were ridiculously overpowered, the computer cheated so massively (even on normal) that surprise amphibious assaults on its capital was the only way of winning (sink his entire merchant marine? his cheating still lets him maintain that massive military), AI dogpiles were too frequent and permanent, and the only military unit worth building was horse artillery.
The sequel introduced the great new world mechanic to ease early dogpiling, the computer could now be crippled by destroying its shipping, and resource networks were simplified.
BUT...the colors were muddy, the jingoistic charm was gone, traditional tech research meant more inactivity, horse artillery was still the only unit worth buying, and late game forts were now impossible to assault unless you were at least a whole tech level ahead in artillery (forts were also absurdly underpriced for the benefits they gave).
I keep bouncing between the two as the flaws of one make me quit and go to the other. Maybe I just need to bone up on strategy but a lot of mechanics aren't apparent and there is VERY little material to be found on the internet.
Nice list Tom! I haven't played all of these yet, but I definitely share your love for Bastion, which was a terrific experience with a surprising amount of replayability (is that a word?)
I liked Portal 2 more than you did, so it would probably be on my top 10, along with the Minerva's Den DLC for Bioshock 2, which only came out for PC this year.
Also, is this the place to mention that I have a higher score than you on all the Bastion dream sequences? You'll have to tell me how you beat me on the story though.
Frankly, I'm a little afraid of SpaceChem. Every time someone tells me about it, they include disclaimers and caveats that frighten me away. :) But, here goes: I hope to one day give it a shot.
I did give a mention to Sims Medieval at the top! I was disappointed with the Pirates and Nobles expansion, but I still think it's a great game. I love what they've done and, for what it's worth, it's one of those games that I didn't uninstall after writing the review. :)
As for Marvel vs. Capcom, I find it hard to care so much. I'm not a huge fan of fighting games -- I suck at them, and I rarely stick with them long enough to get much better -- so even though I had a much longer, uh, "relationship" with MvC3, I feel that Capcom's neglect and nickel-and-diming drove me away. I still consider MvC3 one of the most disappointing games of the year, but it's no longer one of my favorites. I was particularly bummed that the Ultimate re-release did so little.
But, funnily enough, playing the Thor and X-Men tables in Pinball FX2 certainly brings back fond memories of MvC3. :)
