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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Game of the Year Awards 2009 - Jon's Picks

Behold the first annual Gamerology Game of Year Awards! There were quite a few excellent games in 2009 and this year's recipients represent the best of the best (or in some cases worst of the worst). Agree of Disagree? Let us know what your personal picks are in the comments section below.

Most Disappointing Game

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Runner Up: Bionic Commando


Worst Game

Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust

Runner Up: Stalin vs. Martians


Best Downloadable Game

Shadow Complex

Runner Up: Trine


Best Shooter

Killzone 2

Runner Up: Borderlands



Best Platformer

Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time

Runner Up: New Super Mario Bros.


Best Fighting Game

Street Fighter IV

Runner Up: Tekken 6


Best Role Playing Game

Demon’s Souls

Runner Up: Dragon Age: Origins



Best Music Game

The Beatles: Rockband

Runner Up: DJ Hero


Best Racing Game

Forza Motorsport 3

Runner Up: Dirt 2


Best Real Time Strategy Game

Halo Wars

Runner Up: Brutal Legend


Best Action/Adventure Game

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Runner Up: Batman: Arkham Asylum


Game of the Year

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Runner Up: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Top 5 Most Anticipated Games of 2010 - Jon's Picks

Choosing only five games I’m looking forward to in 2010 is like choosing your favorite Backstreet Boy; it’s damn near impossible. The following are personally what I am foaming at the mouth to play. The new year is still infantile and many more games have yet to be announced, but as it stands, 2010 is shaping up to be a great year for game releases. Perhaps most surprising is the stellar first quarter release schedule which is the most impressive I’ve seen in ages.

1. Mass Effect 2

The original Mass Effect was not a perfect game by any means. It was however, an excellent game with tremendous potential. Mass Effect delivered a mature Sci-fi role playing experience that hasn’t been done this well since Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It featured an interesting and engaging story which was irreversibly affected by your decisions. Developer Bioware has not turned a deaf ear to the complaints of the gaming public. Expect Mass Effect 2 to be fine-tuned and highly refined. The engine is already built and implemented leaving plenty of time to craft a masterful experience. The best part is that your original game save from the first Mass Effect can be uploaded and the choices made will carry over. This has never been done before to my knowledge and I can’t wait to see it in action.

2. Heavy Rain

This is a game even Marc and I can agree on. Heavy Rain is being developed by Quantic Dream, the same team behind last generation’s sadly overlooked Indigo Prophecy. In-game footage is beginning to surface and the game looks gorgeous. The character models are highly detailed and are capable of expressing complex emotions. The gameplay seems to be more akin to an interactive film than a traditional videogame, but that’s what is so alluring. The concept of what constitutes a game is being pushed and opening doors to even more possibilities. The most exciting and possibly unnerving aspect of the game is that it never ends. Like a film, there is no game over screen with a checkpoint. If your character dies, the story continues. It is unclear exactly how this will work, but the concept is ground-breaking.

3. Final Fantasy XIII

There is scarcely a gamer past or present that is unfamiliar with the Final Fantasy series. For over 20 years, Final Fantasy has been the definitive Japanese RPG. No two games are alike, and each installment features a brand new story with all new characters and gameplay features. What makes Final Fantasy XIII so special? It’s the first in the series to make the leap to the current generation of consoles. Final Fantasy XII was one of the best games on Playstation 2, and given the console’s library, that is truly saying something. Imagine what can be done with a Blu-Ray disc and high-definition graphics. The new fluid and fast-paced battle system in place will most likely bridge the gap between Western and Japanese Role Playing Games even more. I am officially preparing to have no life beginning day one of its release. It is one of very few franchises that has met or surpassed my expectations time after time.

4. God of War III

The E3 2009 God of War III demo initially made available through pre-orders is now available with the purchase of the District 9 Blu-Ray. Luckily for you, District 9 is a fantastic film and one worth purchasing in its own right. The God of War III demo is just the muscle-bound, dual blade-wielding Spartan cherry on top. The demo is not even indicative of the final build and it already looks incredible. The action was absolutely brutal. I thought I’d seen it all when it comes to gaming and even I couldn’t help but cringe every time Kratos delivered a gore-laden killing blow. At its core this is still God of War. The controls and gameplay haven’t changed since the original God of War yet it still felt fresh and exciting. The team at Sony knows what they are doing and this could be the game that helps to level the playing field between Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in 2010.

5. Spec Ops: The Line

No doubt you are as surprised as I am about Spec Ops: The Line being included in this list. Logically this game shouldn’t be anywhere near a most anticipated list. The developer is unknown and the 3rd person shooter genre has had cover mechanics for years already. One question, have you seen the trailer? This game looks incredible. See our recent "Trailer Madness" update to check it out for yourself. If Rocksteady (a virtually unknown developer at the time) can strike gold with Batman: Arkham Asylum, why can’t the team at Yager crank out a surprise hit? The sand-caked buildings of Dubai are both eerie and breathtaking to behold. The concept is fascinating featuring a modern combat setting with a decision-based system that will affect the story progression. What if Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare series wasn’t on wheels? Imagine facing tough life or death choices amidst a global conflict. Very little is known about Spec Ops: The Line at the moment, which is undoubtedly what makes it so alluring.

Top 5 Most Anticipated Games of 2010 - Marc's Picks

For me, 'most ancicipated' is different than what I feel will be the best games of 2010. I have chosen five games that I think can change the balance of gaming and I’m trying to stay away from sequels, Mafia II being the only exception.

1. Dante’s Inferno

After playing the demo, I realized one thing. This game is God of War. It's almost exactly the same game, but with a different setting. The combat is smooth and silky and it controls exactly like God of War. It even has Quick Time Events (you press a certain button at a certain time), which was originally made famous by Resident Evil 4. It is now also a God of War staple. The demo, which is available on PSN and XBL, is worth playing through. It’s a long demo at about an hour and it gives you a full boss battle and a mini boss. It ends at a proper location, making you crave some more. It’s about the best game-selling demo I have played since Batman: Arkham Asylum. It may rank up there with Bioshock as one of the best demos I’ve ever played, period. I hope the story stays good as it has a lot to work with, being based on a poem (POEM!?, how many games have you ever played based on a poem) that is almost 700 years old. It’s like the stylization of Assassin’s Creed, only in Hell. You have to go through the 9 levels of Hell and each one has its own boss. People love boss battles that are smart and not too easy or hard. Here’s hoping they can get that balance down.

2. Heavy Rain

Indigo Prophecy is one of my favorite original Xbox games, lame ending aside. The next game from the same development team is Heavy Rain. It could prove to be too much movie and not enough game and end up being hurt by being a Playstation 3 exclusive. Still, nobody knows exactly what to expect from this game other than a twisted story and highly realistic graphics. It will be full of Quick Time Events (note a recurring theme here?) and you play as four separate characters. If one dies it affects the rest of the game! I have a lot of skepticism about how exactly that will work and how it will affect replay value, but it kind of worked in Indigo Prophecy. My only concern is how much will you actually be playing this game and not just clicking a button at a certain time. The demo can't get here fast enough.

3. Mafia II

The first Mafia was pretty good on the PC but stunk on PS2 and PS3. This one is being developed concurrently for PC/PS3/360 and looks to be the game that Godfather should have been. So far everything I’ve seen looks like this game is a combination of the best elements of the Godfather games and the GTA games. It's open-ended with a heavy emphasis on story and other mafias fighting with your crime family. It will not be as goofy as GTA, that's for sure, but can it be better? Can the world be much more alive than GTA IV was? It’s hard to tell until you actually jump into the game and start playing it.

4. Split/Second

I was debating which racing game I was going to put on this list, either Split/Second or Blur, and after thinking it over, I chose Split/Second. Why? Well as much as I love Bizarre Creations and Project Gotham, the developers of Split/Second also developed Pure which, aside from its lame career mode, was just plain fun. Now they are taking their awesome ATV games and making a bona fide car racing game. What’s the difference? Each race has a bunch of “special events” that once you build up your “powerplay” meter, you can trigger them and create obstacles, shortcuts or change the race course entirely. Burnout kind of had that, but it was very limited and each race only had 1 or 2. These tracks are supposed to have a LOT in each one. The story mode also sounds intriguing, using a reality TV show premise, broken up into numerous “seasons” with 24 episodes, and one episode consisting of 3 race events.

5. Alan Wake

I don’t usually take to survival horror games, but this one is not your typical survival horror. It’s what the guys over at Remedy Entertainment are calling a “psychological action thriller." This is a game that is about 5 years in the making, and the first game from these guys since Max Payne 2. The game was originally planned to be more free-roam, but that has since been removed to focus on a compelling story. I can’t thank them enough for that; not every single game needs to be free-roam. Sometimes I just want the story to progress and not have to do a million side stories to get the full experience. What has been shown of this game so far looks amazing, from the graphics to the “psychological action” scenes. I want a scary game that has nothing to do with monsters (Dead Space) zombies (Resident Evil) or fog (Silent Hill).

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

M.A.G. Beta Review

Hello again game fans! I hope everyone had a great time over the holidays. On Christmas day I battled obese cats and a fastidious toilet bowl. I wish I was kidding and literally dare you to top that. What better way to kick off the New Year than with a brand new review of one of the most highly anticipated shooters of 2010? Modern Warfare 2 is currently plagued by widespread hacking, glitching and a piss poor matchmaking system. Could Zipper Interactive have the answer for all of the disillusioned FPS fans?

M.A.G. is the latest from famed SOCOM developer Zipper Interactive. The team decided to forgo heading up last year's SOCOM: Confrontation and instead chose to tackle a much greater feat. They aim to create a structured and team-focused, online-only shooter featuring up to 256 players. The concept revolves around three Private Military Corporations or PMC's and the struggle to dominate the battlefield. You begin by choosing one of three factions to work for and fine tuning minor appearance options for your character. Next you equip your load out with one of the three starting weapons: Sniper, Assault or Light Machine Gun. As experience is gained in combat, you rank up and unlock skill points that can be used to purchase additional weapons and upgrades. The gameplay borrows from some of the industry's heavy hitters including Battlefield: Bad Company, Killzone 2 and the Modern Warfare series. You will have to heal yourself to survive continuous encounters since the decision was made to implement a non-regenerating health system, which honestly feels antiquated. The skill point progression system is a credit to Call of Duty 4 and the squad system is reminiscent of Killzone 2. Taking several elements previously done and combining them isn't necessarily a bad thing, however there doesn't appear to be much innovation or originality. M.A.G. is a shooter, it works, and that is its greatest strength.

This game is by no means a graphical powerhouse. The visuals are clean and crisp, but unfortunately lack fine detail. This isn't surprising considering the massive size of the maps populated by up to 256 combatants. The maps feature awful draw distance with rampant texture pop-in. There is currently not much customization in character appearance, but this is presumably because this is only a sampling of the final build.

Team Zipper aims to balance the lack of technical brawn with the use of dedicated servers. Having suffered several weeks of nearly unplayable matches in Modern Warfare 2, joining a dedicated server was a revelation. There was nearly no lag to be found in the several hours I've already invested. This introduced something that has been sorely missing from many online shooters: a level playing field. There seems to be an issue with scope accuracy that is unrelated to lag. There were several instances where I fired on a prone target with a Sniper rifle only to have the round seemingly disappear. Be prepared to wait excessive spawn times as well. I waited as long as twenty seconds on many occasions. Once you spawn, be prepared to trek a minute or so before you see any signs of life. That is of course unless you fall victim to spawn camping, which is already a concern in the game (I played several matches where the enemy team was able to target us at the pre-designated spawn location).

There is tremendous potential for MAG to have a strong presence in the crowded FPS market. With a now industry standard deep upgrade system and lag free dedicated servers, it could easily garner a tremendous online community. The beta is available now on PSN (allow at least 30 minutes to download) and the full game will be released on January 26th, 2010 on the Playstation 3.