5. inFAMOUS Playstation 3 (Sony Computer Entertainment America/Sucker Punch)
I had zero interest in playing inFAMOUS, so imagine my surprise when, for quite a while, this was my favorite game of the year. It’s the first game since BioShock where, when I wasn’t playing it, all I could think about was playing it. I wanted to get back to Empire City and see how Cole’s story played out. I wanted to do one more side quest to try and make the city safer. Every moment I wasn’t playing it, was spent thinking about what I was going to do when I got back into the game. Was I going to roam the streets, or keep working towards the end-game. I finished the game as evil Cole, and I’m about half way through experiencing the game as nice Cole. While I can’t say there is a world of difference in the play-throughs, I can tell you that it’s just as engaging and fun as the first time. At first, the game’s story seems cliché and overdone, but in the end, you get one of the best superhero origin stories in a very very long time. inFAMOUS is definitely a game you might have missed this year that deserves a chance.
4. Borderlands Xbox 360/Playstation 3/PC (2K Games/Gearbox Software)
Borderlands was the opposite of inFAMOUS. I couldn’t wait to play it. Starting with the Game Informer cover-story a couple years ago, through the art style change, and to the rumors that it was canceled, I patiently waited. In September, when the game finally dropped and I finally had the chance to play it, it was everything I could have hoped for and more. It was an MMO on a console. It was a sci-fi-FPS-World of Warcraft. I used to play World of Warcraft a lot, and to be able to replicate most of what I loved about it in a console game is astounding. Throw in the FPS elements, my favorite genre of console game, and it was everything I had dreamed about the game come true. If there’s anything that holds Borderlands back, it’s a lack of story, but if you can put that aside, Borderlands is for me, a better four-player co-op experience than Left 4 Dead 2. Leveling my character, getting new weapons, and turning in quests scratches all the right spots for me.
3. Assassin’s Creed II Xbox 360/Playstation 3 (Ubisoft)
I am an unapologetic fan of the first Assassin’s Creed. I don’t care how repetitive it was. I don’t care how simple the combat was. All the complaints commonly hurled at Assassin’s Creed mean nothing to me. For me, it was all about the story. It had me completely hooked. Years later, I look back on Assassin’s Creed and do see many of its faults, but I still look back fondly. Assassin’s Creed II is a better game than the first one by leaps and bounds. Assassin’s Creed was not only repetitive, but it was also linear. The sequel is anything but. All the open world trappings are there, side quests, main quests, the ability to go wherever you please, but they feel like they are all meant to be there. Renaissance Italy feels far more alive than Crusades era Jerusalem ever did. There are far more people on the streets and, of course, a much wider variety of things to do. It’s fantastic, and maybe the best open world in a video game, ever. The dueling story lines of Desmond and Ezio are also much more evolved than Altair and Desmond’s stories. In the first game, Desmond pops up every couple of hours, but in Assassin’s Creed II, he shows up when he’s needed. This allows the player to become more immersed in Ezio’s tale of revenge. Assassin’s Creed II proves that the developers of a very popular game can make a sequel that doesn’t just feel like a lazy rehash.
2. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Playstation 3 (Sony Computer Entertainment America/Naughty Dog)
I hated the first Uncharted. Hated it, hated it so much, I wish all copies of it would burst into flames and become unplayable. So, just like inFAMOUS, I had zero interest in its sequel. However, around E3 time, the rumors started kicking up that Naughty Dog had fixed all the problems with the first game, it looks absolutely incredible, and on and on. It soon became deafening. People were already calling it Game of the Year. So, when I got a chance to get my hands on the game a few weeks early, I was still really skeptical, but wouldn’t you know it, Naughty Dog nailed it. The controls are much tighter, the enemies don’t take ridiculous amounts of damage before they die, the graphics are the best I’ve ever seen, and the story is outstanding. Uncharted 2′s story is dramatic, action packed, and laugh-out-loud funny. It is the highlight of the game. It’s an over-the-top 200 million dollar action movie, but done well. Throw in decent co-op and fun multiplayer, and you have the killer app for the Playstation 3. You no longer have any excuse not to own a PS3. If you consider yourself a gamer at all you need this game.
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360/Playstation 3/PC (Activision/Infinity Ward)
Modern Warfare 2 is not just the best game of the year; it’s three of the best games of the year. SpecOps mode is two-player co-op done so smartly other games that have a separate co-op mode are going to feel inadequate for years to come. The multiplayer is once again in a class all by itself, and it’s going to feel sad when 2010′s Treyarch-developed Call of Duty game rips it off because you know it isn’t going to feel quite right. Then there is the single player. A rock solid, tactical military FPS with a story so grown up and smart that if it was a film, it would be nominated for Academy Awards. The attention to detail is astounding. The game opens on a military base in Afghanistan where soldiers are playing basketball, cleaning their weapons, and preparing for the inevitable attack. It feels like a real world, and that makes what comes after it all the more disturbing. Modern warfare is the protagonist in Modern Warfare 2. You never stay with one character for very long, and there is a reason for that. Modern Warfare 2 is about the cost of war. Infinity Ward tells a story that could be real, that could actually be happening. I think it’s safe to say they are getting audited next year. When a nuclear bomb is set off in the upper atmosphere of the Earth, we see the explosion from the point of view of an astronaut in space. The explosion goes off, destroying the space station and killing the innocent astronaut. Millions upon millions of lives are saved on the ground, but this astronaut, and anyone in the space station, was killed. Victims of a war they had no part in. It’s an unflinching look at modern warfare. On November 10th, video games grew up, and that is why Modern Warfare 2, in my opinion, is the best game of 2009.