Hi all!

Here, just for fun, are a few reflections on my favorite games of 2010. Naturally this is limited to the games I actually got around to playing. There are many undoubtedly great games I just didn't manage to squeeze in.

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5. Super Meat Boy

While the Super Mario Galaxy games continue to take 3D platforming to incredible new heights, Super Meat Boy (and to a lesser extent the excellent Donkey Kong Country Returns) demonstrated that with excellent controls and great level design, side-scrolling 2D platformers can be as exciting today as they were when the original Super Mario Bros. burst onto the scene 25 years ago. Super Meat Boy may treat me real bad, but it always feel so good. (Van here in the office got the achievement for 100% completion. He's my hero.)

4. Super Mario Galaxy 2

When the last decade came to a close and I wrote about my favorite games of the 00's, this is what I said about the original Super Mario Galaxy:

"Super Mario Galaxy is as close as any game has come to perfection for me this decade. It's an absolutely incredible achievement, feeling both like a natural extension of the series' roots, and a totally fresh, at times exhilaratingly innovative experience. The level designs are nothing short of brilliant, and the music, visuals and gameplay frequently combined to foster a sense of ebullient joy in me akin to what I might feel at the most inspired moments of a great Pixar or Miyazaki film."

Super Mario Galaxy 2 delivers more of all the things that made the original Super Mario Galaxy one of my favorite games of the 00's. It's amazing to me that the geniuses behind Galaxy had enough brilliant ideas to fill not one but two games with this magic.

3. Mass Effect 2

The first Mass Effect seemed to have all the necessary components to be the ultimate "You are the starship captain of your dreams" role-playing game: a richly developed sci-fi universe, a crisis that places all of said universe in jeopardy, and you, as a bad-ass starship captain of your own making, on a mission to save that universe. But while I enjoyed Mass Effect well enough, the pieces just didn't come together for me in an entirely satisfying way. Mass Effect 2, on the other hand, is the sci-fi fantasy fulfillment game of my dreams. With excellent pacing, a terrific ragtag crew to organize for a desperate suicide mission, exciting combat that incorporates shooting and wonderfully fun Jedi-style abilities, a wide range of gorgeous and atmospheric worlds to visit, and the chain-smoking, eerily Martin Sheen-like Illusive Man chiming in from time to time, I became thoroughly caught up in Bioware's space saga. I'm positively desperate to play the next chapter when it releases later this year, though the pain of waiting for that sequel has been mitigated a bit by the excellent downloadable add-ons that have been released, giving me a great excuse to return to the deck of the Normandy and seek out new adventures.

2. Bayonetta

For my money, easily the best pure action game of the year. The combat here is exceptional, striking a perfect balance between accessibility and depth--it rewards skill and good timing but doesn't force you to memorize lots of complex combos before you can start kicking major ass. The game's eponymous heroine is a phenomenal addition to the realm of video game stars. Sure, some aspects of Bayonetta's exhibitionistic behavior and often literally in-your-face sexuality struck me as perhaps pandering to certain segments of the audience, but she's so strong and confident and draws so much power from her identity that I was often too caught up in the nonstop, over-the-top style and energy of the game to care. Nods to Sega's arcade history via gameplay references and musical references to games like Hang-On, Outrun and Afterburner were a constant source of delight for me. Far from a straightforward action game, the levels often play with gravity and perspective in inspired ways that seem to owe something to Super Mario Galaxy. And in a game that's all about connections between Earth, purgatory, hell and heaven, it's appropriate that the ending is an audacious and spectacular affair that truly felt to me like a transcendent religious experience.

1. Red Dead Redemption

(WARNING: I discuss the story and ending in detail. Only read this section if you have already finished the game or don't care about having it spoiled for you.)

For me, the best game of 2010, and the game with what is in my opinion the best story ever told in a game. (I could go on about the thrilling and diverse gameplay, but in the interests of keeping this from becoming too terribly long, I want to focus on the story here.) Of course, this is nothing new for me. Before RDR came along, I would have said that Rockstar's outstanding GTA IV had the best story told in a game. But with Red Dead Redemption, they've outdone themselves. Here we have dialogue that communicates a richness, depth and complexity of character unseen in any games and even many films. In John Marston's struggle to leave his outlaw past behind him and make a new, peaceful life with his family, we have a sympathetic goal that we yearn to see come true, even though we are often given clues that there's no escaping the things he's done, and that his dream will never become a reality. People often describe the end of the game as satisfying, and it is immensely satisfying, but it is also tragic, for we see John's son Jack taking up the outlaw mantle of his father to exact revenge on the man most responsible for his death, and in that moment we know that all of John's hopes for a more peaceful life for his son have come to naught. Violence breeds violence, both on the personal scale and the national scale, as Red Dead suggests via its glimpses of a revolution in Mexico and in the treachery of the government men whose promises to John of a chance to make a new life with his family prove to be empty. (This theme of prices that need to be paid is common in Westerns. If you see the Coen Brothers' fine new Western, True Grit, you'll see that in the end, the main character's revenge comes at a cost. If you haven't seen it, you should, if for no other reason than there's a man wearing a bear suit in it.) The storytelling in Red Dead is often subtle and insightful. There's a moment, for instance, when we see Bonnie sadly kick some dirt as John Marston rides away, and this one small moment communicates volumes about how she feels for him, all the things she never said. Generally speaking, games just don't have this kind of observational storytelling.

I also adore Red Dead's use of music, particularly the way that, when you first cross into Mexico, a song plays that could not possibly accompany the visuals more perfectly. Riding into that stark new landscape while "Far Away" played was simply a shivers-down-the-spine moment of beauty on a level games rarely deliver.

Red Dead Redemption is an unparalleled achievement, both intimate and tremendous in scope, and it's my favorite game of 2010.

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Extremely honorable mention: Pac-Man CE DX

Pac-Man and I go way, way back. What astounds me is the way that, in recent years, the Pac-Man formula has been shifted in ways to make the original arcade blockbuster irresistibly addictive all over again. I thought I'd permanently recovered from my full-blown case of Pac-Man Fever way back in 1984, but I've caught a bad case of it all over again, and I couldn't be happier. There's something amazing about turning off the lights, turning up the music, and losing myself in the neon, dance-club visuals of Pac-Man CE DX, a game that forces you to react instantaneously, with no time to think--only to experience the moment. (Tom may be kicking my ass right now, but this battle isn't over.)

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Best racing game: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

High-speed, high-impact car chases. Criterion got some Burnout in my Need for Speed, and I love it!

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Special Jury Prize: World of Warcraft

I played a lot of World of Warcraft when it launched, and it was a great social experience, but I found it hard to get invested in the game as a game rather than as a diverting thing to do while chatting with friends. That's primarily because I like to feel as if I'm having a lasting impact on a world as I play a role-playing game, and in WoW, you had no impact whatsoever. You would kill an evil gnoll chieftain or a powerful demon of the netherworld, only to have these baddies respawn a few minutes after your victory so that the next group of intrepid adventurers could defeat them, too. In a sense, WoW was literally a game I was playing for little other reason than it's what everyone else was playing.

Now, in the wake of last year's "The Shattering" patch, World of Warcraft makes frequent use of "phasing" to make the world around you change dramatically as a result of your actions. This has made a huge difference for me, making me feel more invested in my character and the world. I actually enjoy WoW as a game now and not just as an attractive and addictive chat room. And seeing this phasing technology work in WoW gives me hope that this year's The Old Republic *might* actually manage to be an MMO whose story makes me feel invested in that world, which is something I once was skeptical would ever happen.

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Game I most wanted to love but just drives me crazy every time I think about it: Heavy Rain

I absolutely adore what Heavy Rain tries to do. I think its ambitions are thrilling, and that it comes so very close to delivering the immersive, interactive story experience it sets out to deliver. Moment to moment, when you're not thinking about the big picture, each individual scene is exciting on its own. But for me, that only makes its massive issues all the more glaring. There's nothing holding these scenes together, and when you devote even the slightest bit of analysis to the story, it completely falls apart like a house of cards. No, seriously, what the hell is up with stuff like Ethan blacking out AND THEN WAKING UP WITH ORIGAMI IN HIS HANDS?! There are so many massive things that the game makes no effort to explain. I think with a little more work on the plot, Heavy Rain could have been something really special, and I admire it for blazing new ground and telling a new kind of interactive tale. I just hope that someone takes this idea and actually uses it to tell a *good* story next time.

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Best game I played just because it had something to do with TRON: TRON: Evolution

Yep, I totally played this game.