Zeke’s Games of the Year:

As part of the aniRAGE Year In Review, this will list my picks for Games of the Year. I have seperated them into 5 categories:

• Major Releases, or games that came out this year that were sold at full retail price, and were full fledged games.
• Downloadable Games, games that you downloaded off of X Box Live or Playstation Network, typically at a low price. In this category I also disqualified re-release games, and concentrated on purely original games.
• Free Games, usually in the form of flash-games in a web browser.
• Mobile Games, games found (typically) exclusively on phones and other mobile devices.
• Downloadable Content, add-ons purchased to the game to expand it’s playability and unlock new features.

Major Releases: Red Dead Redemption.

This game came out with a LOT of fanfare, and a ton of hype. It was by a well-known and respected studio. It promised a lot, and in my opinion delivered on it to a T. Some people aren’t huge fans of open-world games like this, but even those that I talked to that played it found it very fun and entertaining. It’s musical score, it’s dialogue and characters, it’s story, and it’s game play were all superb. There were very few games that were released this year that met, and exceeded, the hype to their release. In that category, Red Dead Redemption shines.

Downloadable Games: Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game.

I don’t think I have had that much fun with a 10 dollar game in a long, long time. Usually I’ll grab one of these off the PSN, play through it once, and then forget about it. But I played through this game so many times, and dragged so many people in on it with me. It has a high replay value, and it’s multiplayer is great. The only gripe about the game is it’s lack of online multiplayer, but in the end, it’s much more fun to play in-person anyway.

Free Games: Robot Unicorn Attack.

How do you take Unicorns, Rainbows, Fairies, and the British band “Erause” and make it cool? Throw in robots, of course. This game is so simple, and so utterly outlandish that it’s addicting. It’s one of the few games that I’ll actually keep the sound on for, because strangely the song fits the game so well. In fact, when I play muted I find that my scores go down drastically. If you haven’t played this game yet, you’ve done yourself a massive disservice. Go do it. Now. It’s free.

Mobile Games: Angry Birds.

This one is almost a no-brainer. You have birds, who are angered, and pigs, who steal their eggs. And thus the birds fling themselves at high speeds towards the pigs. HOLY CRAP is it addicting. The fact that you have different stars that you can achieve, which ups it’s replay value, and the creators are constantly pushing out new levels and content, it’s just amazing. The game is available on just about any mobile device you pick up (if it runs Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android platform). If you haven’t had a chance to play this game, well hold on tight, because PC and Console versions are in the works.

Downloadable Content: Borderlands – The Secret Armory of General Knoxx.

There have been many games that are rooted in comedy, but rarely in these the storylines are hackneyed and secondary. Few games series come to mind that make it’s humor a central aspect of the story, while still keeping it fresh and compelling. Sam and Max comes to mind. This game took the core of the Borderlands games, which is to run around and blow the crap out of ANYTHING that isn’t you, and kicked it up a notch. New guns (I guess eleventy billion wasn’t enough), new missions, new characters, and a big boost on the level cap made this add on a must-have for all players of the game. I haven’t had a chance to full take in the newest DLC, but honestly Borderlands has had the best DLC content of any game I have played. And this one just took it to a new level of awesome. If you have Borderlands, make sure to get this game. And if you don’t have Borderlands, go out and get it. And then get this DLC. You won’t regret it.