The Nevada Sagebrush

At the end of every year, gamers look back at the best games of the year and pick favorites. While everyone has their own choices, all the games on this list are our picks of the best titles in their respective genres and are all worthy of a purchase. These are the best of the best games of 2009.

Best Rhythm Game

Sometime in the future, we could look back at these past couple of years and accurately describe this as the age of the rhythm game. The deluge of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and karaoke titles this year is bordering on ridiculous, yet there are always some standouts. These are the games that rocked out the hardest in 2009.
Nominees
“The Beatles: Rock Band”   360, PS3, Wii
“Guitar Hero 5”   360, PS3, PS2, Wii
“DJ Hero”   360, PS3, PS2, Wii
“LEGO Rock Band”   360, PS3, Wii, DS
And the winner is…”Guitar Hero 5!”
Most people think that “The Beatles: Rock Band” was the best game rhythm game of 2009, but I will have to disagree. Guitar Hero 5 offers more than any other music game, with 85 songs. Unlike LEGO or Beatles, this game has a broader range of music genres, which really works in the game’s favor, from more popular music like Coldplay and Kings of Leon to classics from Tom Petty and Bob Dylan, all the way to metal favorites Megadeth and Iron Maiden. The game has also been streamlined to better fit the party-centric gameplay these types of games are known for. An example of this is how the game’s “Press Start” screen actually doubles as a random music playlist of the game’s songs, which people can jump right into at any time with any instrument on any difficulty, making it just so easy to get in and start rocking. Add in a deep “create a song” mode that players can upload online for others to try, and you have the best value in music games this year.

Best First-Person Shooter

Shooters are becoming one of the biggest draws of the industry, providing blockbuster action scenes and deep, competitive multiplayer modes, but are these things what make a good shooter? Yes and no. To be a great first person shooter these days, it takes a thrilling single player or co-op campaign, rewarding multiplayer that’s balanced and  encourages replayability and tight and responsive controls. The reason why “Halo” continues to have so much success is because of these core principles. These are the best First Person Shooters of 2009.
Nominees
“Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2”   360, PS3, PC
“Halo 3: ODST”    360
“Killzone 2”    PS3
“Left 4 Dead 2”   360, PC
And the winner is… “Modern Warfare 2!”
“Modern Warfare 2” stands head and shoulders above its competition this year because it nails the fun factor. The single-player campaign is short like the previous “Modern Warfare,” but there is not a second of downtime. Every mission wows, sometimes through shocking violence, sometimes through pure adrenaline-pumping vehicle sections; but from beginning to end, the game plays like the best parts from all the best action movies of the past 20 years. Then there are the Spec Ops Missions, special designed co-op levels that are an absolute blast to play through with a friend. They are varied and keep things interesting with a range of different objectives and a choice of difficulty. Finally, the online competitive multiplayer is unrivaled, making use of a hugely deep leveling system that rewards and challenges players for almost every conceivable way to play. There is a reason so many people play this game.

Best RPG

A great role-playing game needs to do everything right. The story should be engrossing and lengthy, without becoming repetitive. The characters need to make a connection with the player, so that as the story progresses, the player will care what happens to each of their party members. Most importantly though, the gameplay needs to be solid, rewarding the player with a steady level of progression, providing incentive to constantly work towards leveling up. These are the four best RPG’s of 2009.
Nominees
“Borderlands”  360, PS3, PC
“Demon’s Soul’s”   PS3
“Dragon Age: Origins”  360, PS3, PC
“Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story”   DS
And the Winner is… “Dragon Age: Origins!”
“Dragon Age: Origins” is the best RPG of 2009 because it has so much to offer and it gets everything right. From the start of the game, the story pushes the character into difficult situations, forcing the player to quickly bond with their character, which pays off in a big way once the world opens up. That dark fantasy world might not be the most original, with themes seemingly taken from the most popular fantasy fiction out there today, but it feels authentic. The game’s developers, Bioware, have a history of creating a rich lore, and they do not disappoint here. Extensive voice acting makes each character feel alive and meaningful. The story takes a large chunk of time, somewhere around the 50-hour mark, yet the game is worth being played multiple times just to see how everything plays out. Luckily the combat is on par with the rest of the polished world. While it plays better on a PC, the game does a good job of constantly making the heroes of the story feel badass yet vunerable. Each of the other nominees might have done certain things brilliantly, but this game is the grand encompassment of what makes RPGs fun.

Best Sports Title

Being the best sports title is tough. It requires enough meaningful additions from the previous year’s edition to justify the price, without changing too much of what core sports fans want. Game makers have to deal with contracts with professional leagues, stay up to date on the status of all the big players and make the game feel like a genuine sporting event. These are the sports titles of 2009 that capture what it’s like to play these sports.
Nominees
“Fight Night Round 4”   360, PS3
“Madden NFL 10”   360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii
“NBA 2K10”   360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii
“FIFA Soccer 10”   360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS
And the winner is… “Fight Night Round 4!”
Now I might catch some flak for this choice but I stand by it for this reason — the jump from “Fight Night Round 3” to Round 4 is a massive improvement. This comes from the extra development time, as the last game came out over three years ago, but the game is a true sequel and makes the game a lot closer to the actual combat of boxing. Other yearly installments push minor upgrades and new features to sell, but they could learn from the Fight Night series, making a fantastic game every few years instead of a slightly better game every year. The emotions of the fighters are clearly displayed as they go toe to toe in the ring, trading shots and sweat. The animation, the physics, the controls; everything flows together to make a dynamic and thrilling experience that usually culminates with one man left on the ground.

Most Disappointing Game of the Year

Nobody wants to be disappointed, but when every game is hyped as the next evolution in gameplay, sometimes it’s just going to fall flat. A disappointing game isn’t always a horrible game (although sometimes that is the case), but it’s just one that promises something great and misses the mark completely. These games are the ones that failed to deliver on their promises.
Nominees
“Fuel”   360, PS3
“Tony Hawk: Ride”   360, PS3, Wii
“Bionic Commando”   360, PS3
“Wolfenstein”   360, PS3
And the loser is… “Tony Hawk: Ride!”
The Tony Hawk skateboarding franchise practically singlehandedly started the extreme sports genre, and it was king for a good while. After a slew of less than stellar sequels on the latest consoles, the boys at Activision dreamed up a reboot, one involving a big plastic skateboard. Hey, it worked for “Guitar Hero,” right? Well, what we gamers end up with is a $120 game that barely works. The board looks cool and feels sturdy, but that’s where the compliments end. The game only picks up on what the user is trying to do about half the time, and it’s nearly impossible to do any one specific trick with the imprecise foot controls. If that’s not bad enough, the graphics are average at best, the game spends about half the time in load screens, in-game advertising pops up everywhere and the online component is barebones. It might not be the worst game of the year, but with all the potential this game had, it definitely fails the hardest.

Best Action-Adventure Game

The action-adventure genre is always home to some great stories and cool moments. To be a great game in this aspect requires giving a player the feeling that they are really on an adventure, with twists and turns that constantly keep things interesting. These games do just that and rival Hollywood blockbusters in terms of sheer amounts of awesome.
Nominees
“Batman: Arkham Asylum”   360, PS3
“Uncharted 2: Among Thieves”   PS3
“Assassin’s Creed 2”   360, PS3 “inFamous”   PS3
And the winner is … “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves!”
This is what the latest Indiana Jones flick should’ve been. “Uncharted’s” hero, Nathan Drake, has a lot in common with Indy, such as international treasure hunts, beautiful ladies with their own agendas and a hero who is able to survive even the most ridiculous circumstances, making this game feel like a 12-hour action movie. Everything about this game is well done, from the cinematic storytelling to the amazing graphics. It all impresses. The new online multiplayer is some of the most fun I’ve had outside of “Modern Warfare 2” this year, incorporating the ability to scale buildings and build up cash to buy new upgrades. Throw in co-op missions and a survival mode similar to horde mode from “Gears of War 2,” and you end up with the best parts of all the best action games of the past few years.
Best Racing Game
A good racing game is pretty simple in concept: Put the player behind the wheel of a fast car and let them loose. In reality, it is quite nuanced.  The number of cars, tracks, level of difficulty, amount of customization, online multiplayer and leaderboards are all very important in today’s racing games, and each of these titles does them well.
Nominees
“Dirt 2”   360, PS3, PC
“Forza Motorsport 3”   360
“Need for Speed: Shift”   360, PS3, PSP, PC
“Gran Turismo”    PSP
And the winner is … “Forza Motorsport 3!”
I will have to admit, in terms of just style, “Dirt 2” and “Need for Speed: Shift” take the cake. But once a player gets past all the flash and buzz of those games, they just don’t compare content-wise to “Forza.” The third iteration of the “Forza” series is massive, unable to actually fit on a single DVD, and the massive list of cars and real world tracks are just the start. “Forza” has an extensive online community from previous games that has carried over to this title, in large part because of the array of features available to them.
One such feature is the car customization tool. Once a player’s work of art is complete, they can turn around and sell it at a robust online auction house. Hours can be spent in this “racing” game without ever even putting foot to the gas. Oh, and the driving is spot-on, with highly detailed car models and destruction physics. It should be interesting to see how next year’s “Gran Turismo” stacks up to this beast of a game.

Game of the Year

There were a lot of really good games this year, so what does it take to make that next step from good to great and from great to the best? Polish, value, replayability and most importantly, fun. These games do all of those in spades and provide something extra — a memorable gaming experience.
Nominees
“Batman: Arkham Asylum”   360, PS3
“Dragon Age: Origins”   360, PS3, PC
“Modern Warfare 2”   360, PS3, PC
“Uncharted 2: Among Thieves”   PS3
And the best game of the year is… “Modern Warfare 2!”
This was a toss-up between “Uncharted 2” and “Modern Warfare 2,” but in the end, the year’s best shooter beats it out by a hair. “Modern Warfare 2”’s multiplayer offerings are just the best in gaming right now, giving it the edge. The addition of customizable kill-streaks online drastically changes how the game is played. The single-player campaign again is short but hits with an adrenaline rush that few other forms of entertainment can provide. However, the number one reason “Modern Warfare 2” deserves the title of Game of the Year is Spec Ops. The co-operative gives casual players a lot to have fun with, while challenging hardcore players with some very difficult and unique scenarios. This game breathes new life into the stagnant first-person shooter genre and delivers the most fun of the year.

Garrett Estrada can be reached at arts-entertainment@nevadasagebrush.com.

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