Game of the Year 2012

While it was a great year for movies in 2012 it seemed to be a fairly lackluster year for games. I am also finding myself with gradually less time to play the big releases when they came out. It seemed to be a year when small games could shine though. In a year when I played just 12 new games the bottom of my top 10 may not exude quality but the top games were all ones I have greatly enjoyed.

10. Worms Revolution - PC

9. Catherine - XBOX360

Games of 2011

I feel like I missed out, the biggest two games Skyrim and Skyward Sword I have yet to play. In fact I only played 9 games that came out in 2011.

5. Dirt 3 - Xbox 360
Dirt 3 removed the few bad parts of Dirt 2 and introduced some great tracks and racing. The return of split screen gaming was fantastic and the multiplayer added a lot of value. Its just a shame they had to shoe horn in gymkhana nonsense.

4. F1 2011 - Xbox 360

Wii Frustrations

The Nintendo Wii in March became just the second system ever to die on me. The first death was entirely my fault as I tried to escape GCSE revision to play PS2 games. Having had the power lead confiscated I decided to plug the power lead from my printer into it. It fitted, what could possibly go wrong? Well it fried the PS2 and surprisingly I still passed my science GCSE despite forgetting about amps, volts and wattage.

Games I'm looking forward to the 1st half of 2011

De Blob 2 - Wii - 25 February
The first de blob game was brilliant. It had a very unique style, the graphical style was great for wii and the sound design was fitting as well. I played through the first game with a rental copy, this time barring any huge issues in the reviews I will buy it on day 1.

Kirby's Epic Yarn - Wii - 25 February

Vanquish - Xbox 360 review

Some demos do a great job of selling their game. The demo for vanquish showed a tricky and busy shooter with very strong controls and some interesting mechanics. I was sold and was excited to get it after christmas. I managed to pick it up in the post-christmas sales for £13.

Games of 2010

2010 was a good year for video games. So good that I haven't had a chance to play them all. Fallout New Vegas and Red Dead Redemption were both games that I was looking forward to but I have yet to get to them. Their times will come but they miss out on this best of list.

5. Super Meat Boy - Xbox Live

Games to look forward to in the second half of 2010

So earlier in the year I made a list of the games I was looking forward to in the first six months of 2010. That list was populated by a lot of games that should have seen release last year but were scared by Call of Duty. In comparison the second half of 2010 is looking slightly empty but I am still catching up on the last six months so I don't mind.

F1 2010 - Xbox 360 - 24th September

A late comer

A couple of weeks ago I announced the games that I am looking forward to over the next six months, well Nintendo being the cheeky people they are have announced that a game I thought was coming out near Christmas 2010 is actually coming out this May and so makes this list...

Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Wii - 28th May 2010 (wouldn't be released on a Sunday like in US so picked the next Friday)

Games I am looking forward to in 1st half of 2010

This is a list of the games that have already been announced that I am excited about in the next five months. The fact is that it appears that most of the good games coming out this year are coming in this period due to the Modern Warfare 2 effect experienced at the end of last year.

In relative chronological order then:

Mass Effect 2 - Xbox 360 - 29th January 2010

Batman: Arkham Asylum Review

This is a game that leading up to its release I could not have been less excited about playing. this is partly because before August I was not paying any attention to 360 games due to not owning the console myself but partly because super hero movies tend to be daft. The one exception I have played to this rule being Spiderman 2 which was fun for web-swinging aimlessly around New York city.

Then the game came out though and I got to watch more footage of the game, the way it controlled and the cut scenes and I changed my mind.