As the year draws to an end, I realize I just don’t have the energy to regurgitate every detail of each game I played and sort the pre-digested matter in order from best to worst.  I would like to think most people interested in substantial gaming discussion may feel the same way, wanting thoughts rather than numbers.  I hope so, because that’s what I am writing this year.

First are the games I consider to be worth the time I spent playing them:

Fragile Dreams: Goodbye Ruins of the Moon
Read my review

Fragile takes place in post-apocalyptic Japan and follows one boy’s quest for companionship through an empty world filled with battered ghosts.  Being a sucker for post-apocalyptic drama may have helped this title carve out a special place for me in 2010.  The wonderful bitter-sweet story moved me more than I can recall any game doing so in my history as a gamer.  The playful art direction and memorable level design are certainly worth noting as well.

Hours played: ~40

Monster Hunter Tri
Read my review

In Monster Hunter, the player creates a character which they will use to slay enormous beasts.  From the corpses of said enourmous beasts, and the fat of the land, the player can then construct weapons and armor to become stronger.  Tri was not not my first Monster Hunter experience, however it was the first Monster Hunter title I played with decent multiplayer functionality.  This combination resulted in an addiction so severe I would liken it to that of an MMORPG.  The desire to collect coupled with subtle competition created a perfect storm of a game.  While not necessarily bringing anything earth-shattering to gaming, it certainly made its mark.

Hours played: >300

Persona 3 Portable
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Persona 3 Portable is a port of the massively successful PS2 title Persona 3.  I won’t insult your intelligence by summarizing the story.  All I will say is that Persona 3 Portable may be the first port which genuinely feels like an improvement and not a lazily executed give-us-your-money-again port.  This is especially impressive considering the step down in technology from Playstation 2 to PSP.  Atlus did a fabulous job making the transition not only seamless but actually feel like an improvement via art design and story enhancements.  This is how a game can be made better; subtly, but effectively.

Hours played: ~50

Resonance of Fate

This was the first game I played all year which gave me an old-school RPG feeling. Three characters in a futuristic city, simple nostalgic music…  Then I got into a battle.  I found myself staring up a learning curve so steep that 20 hours in was I just beginning to see the light.  In addition to a challenging and unique battle system, ROF also has a number of features which are clearly made by hardcore gamers, for hardcore gamers, such as a whopping 10 difficulty settings.  I haven’t felt challenge like this since Demon’s Souls.

Hours played: ~50

Red Dead Redemption
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I can’t avoid mentioning Red Dead Redemption, as much as I am still bitter about the way Rockstar handled the title’s DLC.  Bitterness aside, the game had an amazing story.  Even now certain parts of it are burned in my memory as some of the most poignant moments in a game I have ever played.  Where Fragile moved me with the whispers of a dead world, Red Dead moved me with one man’s surreal quest for redemption.

Hours played ~50

On the other end of the spectrum, there were some titles which left me feeling wholly unimpressed, let down, and maybe a bit insulted after playing them:

Valkyria Chronicles 2
Read my review

This game felt like a parasitic creature climbed up the urethra of a game I loved and wore its skin around like a jumpsuit.  I thought the fact that Valkyria Chronicles II was for the PSP would be my biggest deterrent, but in actuality it was the uninspired story and trite leading trio which made me put this game down.

Hours played >20

Fallout: New Vegas
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I enjoyed Fallout: New Vegas in between random freezing and sudden frame-rate drops.  The fact that these issues are still not corrected more than two months after this title’s release is enough to call it a disappointment.  Also, aside from a new map, the game feels only slightly like a improved tweaked version of Fallout 3.

Hours played >100

White Knight Chronicles
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New IPs are becoming rarer and rarer, so I was rooting for White Knight Chronicles.  The battle system wasn’t bad and the visuals were acceptable.  Where the game lost it for me was the cliche hero-princess relationship and a broken online system requiring countless hours of grinding for no real goal.  I am still on the fence when it comes to continuing this trilogy.

Hours played >100

That just about sums the year up, with a whopping 720 hours of gaming.  That figure doesn’t even include the games which didn’t make this list, either for not inciting strong feelings in me one way or the other (Final Fantasy XIII) or because I didn’t get to spend enough time with them (Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Z.H.P).

This time last year I was sure that 2010 would be a great year in gaming with a number of sequels from beloved series on the horizon.  As it turns out, most of those titles were let downs and any real enjoyment I got this year came from some surprising sources.  I never would have imagined that Monster Hunter Tri would snare me the way it did; I am still a bit disturbed at how consumed I was.  Likewise the humble Fragile whose release isn’t even listed on Wikipeida’s 2010 in gaming article came seemingly from nowhere but left a great impression.

While not feeling totally let down by 2010, I have at least learned to be more weary of hype especially surrounding the big name titles for 2011.  As always, I look forward to sharing my thoughts and love of gaming with you all for what will hopefully be a better year.