My Top 50 Favourite Video Games of This Generation, 20 - 11

Written By: Tyler Selig

20: Bastion (360)

                Bastion is fantastic on all fronts. The gameplay is easy to get into but has just enough depth to stay interesting, as they give you different weapons and whatnot.

                The choice to make the world literally materialize in front of you as you move was a good one and made it original among other games in the genre.

                The soundtrack is definitely one of the finest of this generation, and ranks pretty high up there in the history of video game music.

                The story is emotional. The last bit of the game is especially so.

                Bastion got a lot of credit and it deserves it.

19: ZP2KX: Zombies and Pterodactyls (360)

                This series is one of my favourite recent multiplayer games. It’s just a 2D action game, but I don’t know, I just really dig it. I like that this one added jetpacks, and the variety of guns, swords and bombs make it worthwhile to run around the map and try to find them.

                The only thing that sucks is that there really is no community. You can play bots online, mixed with real players, but I wish this indie game had more of a following because it really is a lot of fun. I’d like to see this type of thing made by a big company with lots of money, so long as they don’t fuck it up.

18: Metroid: Other M (Wii)

                I’d probably get hate here, because I guess a lot of people didn’t like it, especially since I put this above Metroid Prime 3.

                I dig the side-scrolling Metroid. I come from that school, what can I say?

                I don’t even care that Samus talks in it. I’m really not caught up in that kind of bullshit. I actually thought it was a nice touch.

                What matters to me is that this was a solid, direct sequel to the best Metroid of all time. Finally.

17: Halo: Reach (360)

                I’m useless when discussing Halo. I say this because all the games blend together for me. Halo fanatics can tell you the difference between them, why this one sucks and that one doesn’t, which game the pistol is overpowered in, etc. They can debate this because they’re really passionate about it and don’t have a shitty memory.

                I like Halo a lot, it’s important to the genre and it’s one of my popular shooters that I feel deserves it, even if I don’t like it as much as the fanatics and think there are better shooters.

                Halo, as a whole, is a shooter I’ve spent a fair time with in multiplayer, so it has that going for it when it comes to being placed in the list. It also allows me to play the campaign with a friend, split-screen, which is always a bonus for me.

                I chose Halo: Reach because it’s the only one that sticks out to me. Halo 3 was probably the best (?), Halo 4 was Halo 4, but Halo: Reach sticks out because of jetpacks and the fact that it is a little bit different in some ways.

                I don’t know if it’s technically better. Probably not. Usually in a case like this I’d just pick the newest game in the series, but I’m going with Reach. Just for shits and giggles.  

16: The Darkness (PS3, 360)

                It’s not a multiplayer shooter so it doesn’t have as much replay value as some of the other shooters on my list, but story-wise? Pretty much without equal in the genre. There are probably a few shooters with stories as good or almost as good, but none are popping into my head.

                The Darkness was more open than its sequel and has one of the most amazing video game scenes of all time (watching your girlfriend get killed right in front of you, while The Darkness prevents you from saving her… powerful stuff). The sequel was probably more fun from just a shooting perspective, as it was more linear and you were always in the action. Plus it was constantly making you wonder if you were crazy or not. I also thought the ending was great and the song that plays during the credits was really beautiful and fitting.

                So it’s hard for me to pick one game, because both are incredible, but I make it a rule to only have one game in a series when I make these lists. There are exceptions, and I usually have some justification, but The Darkness 1 can represent both games.

15: Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (PS3, 360)

                This is probably my favourite game in the genre. So knowing this, it’s weird that I placed it 15. I think I said this before, in a previous entry, but you could switch around a lot of these games, place some of them higher, and I’d be cool with it.

                Within the hack n’ slash/action RPG genre, this has my favourite levelling up system. In an RPG that’s pretty important to me. The story is kind of silly and the game has a sense of humour, and some of the character classes are cool (like a dog with a hand cannon).

                I can’t wait for Sacred 3.

14: Fight Night Champion (PS3, 360)

                Maybe to some people it would seem weird that a boxing game is this high, but nothing makes me more obsessed than a good combat sports game. I will spent hours upon hours just sitting there building my fighter up. I’ll say, “Just one more fight” but one more fight becomes the whole day.

                Fight Night is the best boxing game to date. The type of game I can walk away from but then want to go back to a month later and start a new fighter.

13: Borderlands 2 (PS3, 360)

                Co-op gun-porn FPS. You know the game. It does the RPG element well enough, and the shooting feels fine. I have criticisms of the series, but they’re minor… mostly just things I hope they do for the third.

                The best thing that was added to Borderlands 2 was Handsome Jack, for sure.

12: Journey (PS3)

                I don’t think I’d ever actually want to play Journey again, but I place it on here because when I did play it, it was an amazing experience. It’s a multiplayer game but it’s so different. You don’t have usernames, people drop in and out of your game, and yet the game does little things to encourage team work.

                I will never forget my play through of Journey because it’s the type of game that you need to play once, and see a different direction that games can go in. It’s the type of game that impacts you on such a deep level that you get the urge to start talking like you’re a poet, which I’m restraining myself from doing here because I don’t want to make a huge post.

11: F.E.A.R. (PS3, 360)

                I think it’s one of the scariest games I’ve ever played.

                By the time you figure out the tricks the game uses to scare you, the game is over. The sequel tried to do the same thing but it wasn’t really the same.

                Outside of just being scary, the story is interesting and the bullet-time mode helps you a lot.

                I know some people don’t think that F.E.A.R. is that scary, but I do.

                Mad at me for including Halo: Reach and not 3 or 4? Let me know in the comments below. Also make fun of me for being scared by F.E.A.R. if you want.

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'Cause I Gotta Have Faith-a-Faith-a-Faith... The Wolf Among Us Episode 1 - Faith Review

Written By: Tyler Selig

Rating: 8.5/10

Verdict: Episode 1- Faith treats us to a compelling story and an incredible first episode, where the choices you make matter.

"Where is it? Where is my Lorde CD?"

I am going to start this off by throwing out a blasphemy. I have never played The Walking Dead. My reasons are ignorant, but I never played it, so I had no idea what I was getting into in The Wolf Among Us. I heard great things about the developers and The Walking Dead, but I avoided videos and articles about the game. I went in mostly blind.

                I also never read Fables. It has always been one of those comic book series that I put on my “To Read” list, but haven’t gotten around to actually checking that one off.

                You play as Bigby, who is the Big Bad Wolf, only now he is a Sheriff. He has put all the bad things he did in the past behind him and is now trying to help people out. The game starts with you meeting Faith, a prostitute who eventually meets an untimely death. So of course, Bigby wants to know what happened to here, and the rest of Episode 1 consists of you putting on your detective hat to solve the case. From that point on, you meet a compelling cast of characters from fables of all sorts, and each interaction is intriguing.

                The main draw of The Wolf Among Us is the decision making, and it succeeded in making me feel like every question I was asked was important. Whether it’s being aggressive, or saying nothing, I thought hard – in the small amount of time it gave me, which is important because it forces you to make hard choices on the fly – about every decision I made. I was always at the edge of my seat in anticipation of how what I decided would impact the world around me and my relationships with other characters.

                An adventure game with a focus on decision making could end badly if you don’t feel that how you react is important in some way. If you can’t guess it from what I said above, Faith gets it right in a big bad way. Ultimately there is a story arc that the game will follow, but how you go about your business will change things to some degree.

                Since the first episode falls within the hardboiled detective genre, it only feels right that the game is sufficiently dark. From the way characters talk to one another, to the moody comic book visuals, and to the music which admittedly ended up subtly drawing me into the situation rather than bringing attention to itself, TellTale has done everything they could to make you believe in the world you’re inhabiting for this short period of time (though there are more episodes on the way).

                Like Beyond: Two Souls (review coming in the near future), the game is pretty heavy on making you watch, outside of some periods where you can walk around in a limited area. However, the story never fails to be interesting and the questions you get asked making you keep your hands on the controller or keyboard and mouse, because you only have a set period of time to answer most of them. So you’re always involved.
               There are slight technical problems, frame-rate hiccups during transitions for example, but they really aren’t a big deal and I can’t understand anybody making a big deal out of them. Still, as a reviewer, I feel it is my duty to at least point it out.
               Sometimes they throw in fight scenes and these are a blast, despite the fact that you don’t actually move Bigby. Fight scenes consist mostly of QTEs… move left, move right, press up, down, press a button repeatedly. I’m not big into the whole QTE movement, but Episode 1 makes fights action packed by allowing you to move your cursor to objects that are highlighted. What this means is that you could be fighting someone and you have a choice to hit them with a glass, shove them into a wall, etc. This little touch does make you feel more engrossed in the actions on screen.

                Faith is a wonderful first episode, and it ends with such a heart-wrenching scene that I can’t wait to play the next one. Fans of this genre take heed, because this is something to keep an eye on.

               

My Top 50 Video Games of This Generation, 30 - 21

Written By: Tyler Selig

30: Super Street Fighter IV (PS3, 360)

                When it comes to fighting games, Street Fighter has always been my jam. Not because I’m awesome, because even at my Street Fighter 2 prime I was only pretty good, but just because I like the characters and I like how the fighting operates.

                While 4 doesn’t hit the same magic for me as 2, it’s still a wonderful fighting game. It has more to it than ever before, and the action is as intense and strategic as before.

29: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)

                I’m a big Metroid fan but I’m more of a fan of the 2D Metroids. I still think Super Metroid is one of the best games of all time. However, I can’t deny just how great the first-person shooter Metroids have been. Corruption is another notch on the Metroid belt.

28: Saints Row: The Third (PS3, 360)

                While a lot of people prefer GTA, I much prefer Saints Row at this point. I think it’s mostly because we have so many games like GTA, that I’m kind of burnt out on it. Saints Row plays much like it, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also batshit insane. It’s like a silly action movie, and even though some of the humour is juvenile, some of it is clever. It hits that balance really well.

27: Xcom: Enemy Unknown (PS3, 360)

                I never played the original Xcom, but I can tell ya, this tactical/strategy RPG is amazing. It’s awe-inspiring how great it is. You always have to be paying attention in battle, and outside of it, there’s quite a bit to do.

26: Dungeon Defenders (PS3, 360)

                Oh Dungeon Defenders, one of the few games I bought twice. It’s better on PC but I also played it on 360. It’s a nice twist on the Tower Defense genre, and I got to say, I love the music that plays when the battle starts.

25: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3, 360)

                Some will scoff that this isn’t higher, like my girlfriend, but I’m not as in love with The Elder Scrolls as everyone else. I definitely really enjoy it, and love what it does, but there are aspects of the series, and specifically Skyrim, that knocks it down a bit for me.

                But you can’t deny how much game play there is here, even if some of it is fluff. And I will always say that these games have one of the best levelling systems in any RPG.

                Admittedly, it’s a better experience on PC because it doesn’t have the horrendous loading times providing you have a decent computer and the mods are insane.

24: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (PS3, 360)

                I like Kingdoms of Amalur a little bit more than Skyrim, to be honest, even though it borrows some from Skyrim. I love the world it creates more than Skyrim, and the battle system is a hell of a lot more fun. I’m probably alone here, but I think it’s a better game. It isn’t as polished but I still really like it.

23: Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PS3, 360)

                Always been a big fan of Deus Ex. It’s weird that it’s this high, but you could stick this in the Top 10 and I’d have absolutely no problem with it. It’s hard to place games in an order.

                I love the world it creates, because I love Sci-Fi.

                The soundtrack is AMAZING.

                I was fearful of it not being so great, not being able to live up to the original, but it mostly did.

22: Bioshock (PS3, 360)

                You could put Bioshock or Bioshock: Infinite in here and I’d be okay with it.

                The shooting feels wonderful and weapons hit with the impact that it should. It’s extremely satisfying to shoot things, but you also got your Plasmids to kill people with.

                Bioshock is a great FPSRPG, and it takes special care to make Rapture a memorable place to be, and the story is fantastic. The twists… oh god the twists.

                It’s also a pretty terrifying game.

21: Hitman: Blood Money (PS3, 360)

                Just from a pure gameplay perspective, the Hitman series is one of the best. It starts you in a level, you walk around, scouting the area, and then you decide how you’re going to assassinate people from the many options available. It doesn’t need an amazing story, it just needs to do this, and Blood Money does this much better than Absolution.

                It also has an extremely satisfying part at the end.

                I hope you enjoyed these picks, but if you didn’t, oh well, I got your page view. Just kidding. Leave me a comment below to tell me how much of an asshole I am for saying that. Make sure to check in tomorrow for 20 – 11. Almost Top 10 baby!

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