Game of the Year 2009 – Tom Senior

My time has come. The glowing sceptre of opinion has been passed to me, and I am commanded by it’s imperious light to list my top three games of 2009 right here in this very post. Like Tom, I played Arkham Asylum on 360 so haven’t included it for contention here. If I had, it might just sneak in at number three. Likewise, I adore Empire: Total War, and I can’t stop the feeling that it should really be in here somewhere but ultimately, when it comes to the crunch, these are the games that I have had the most fun with in 2009. Honourable mentions aside for Empire: Total War, Dawn of War 2, Trine, Mirror’s Edge, Prototype, Red Faction: Guerrilla, Torchlight and Braid.

Saints Row 2

Just about creeping into 2009 with a January release date on PC, Saints Row 2 is a surprise entry in my top 3. On the outset it’s just a big, dumb GTA clone but really – actually no, wait. That’s exactly what it is, but to say so totally undersells the sense of joy and committment to fun instilled in every virtual brick of the game world. It takes something that I always loved about the earlier GTA games, a sense of the absurd, and distills it into it’s purest form. In the end it’s a game that feels more open world than GTA in many ways. There is no serious narrative confining you, nobody is trying to make a statement about America, there’s no undue concern for things like character arcs and storylines and, most importantly, within minutes of the game starting, there’s nothing stopping you from stealing an airliner and parachuting onto your objectives from several thousand feet.

Saints Row gives you the whole city right away, and while it’s not a visual patch on GTA it’s absolutely packed full of things to do. Pushed for time in one mission, I once jumped onto the bonnet of a speedboat my friend was driving instead of getting in, with the intention of surfing to the objective with guns drawn, ready for the army of enemies that awaited us. The boat started moving and a minigame was triggered that saw me doing handstands on the bonnet at breakneck speed. There are so many ridiculous minigames present in this game that it won’t tell you what half of them are, you’ll have to discover them for yourself. Then there are the side missions, most of which are easily as fun as the main storyline objectives. Spraying shit over mansions at the command of a French anti-capitalist, beating up hundreds of thugs in bare knuckle boxing rings, trashing cars in Demolition Derbies.

Also, co-op. It’s a very little advertised fact that this game has superb co-op support which will let you play through the entire game with a friend. The only thing your friend can’t do is buy property and alter your Gang’s look. There are even missions which behave differently with a friend present, giving your partner other objectives to complete. The insanity of Saints Row 2 is only magnified with others present, making an already bonkers game completely, beautifully insane.

Left 4 Dead 2

Oh Internet. Sometimes I think I love you most when you’re angry. And boy were you angry when Valve announced Left 4 Dead 2 a mere 12 months after the release of the first game. I’ll admit, it was a completely unexpected move from a company that is famous for taking a lot of time to develop it’s games. You were confused, angry. Valve had promised to support the first game and you were expecting more than the extra campaign and support for user made maps. Then Valve started to release details of the new survivors, the new special infected, the five new campaigns, the new melee weapons. Slowly it became apparent that Left 4 Dead 2 was going to be more than just an add-on pack. We weren’t disappointed. What we got was a full and proper sequel.

This is the most fun I’ve had playing co-op outside of Saints Row 2. I don’t care about Versus mode, to be honest I don’t even really care about the excellent Scavenger mode. For me, it’s all about the Campaign. It’s about getting together with friends in the same room and creating a story. The plot to this story inevitably goes something like this: Once upon a time in the American Deep South there were Zombies, and then we killed them, and it was awesome. But within this overarcing narrative there are the smaller dramas that occur from moment to moment. Feats of incredible heroism in the face of a rampaging Tank, frantic moments of improvisation in the face of a startled Witch, watching a friend shoot a Charger dead mid-charge and seeing his massive corpse ragdoll into the side of a building. Then there’s the completely breathless finale to The Parish campaign which sees you fighting your way across a huge bridge in the middle of a bombing run. It’s utterly relentless, noisy and overwhelming, but beating it gives you one of the greatest ‘high five’ moments in gaming.

That’s before considering Hard Rain, which has become one of my favourite levels in anything. Genuinely terrifying and challenging, it’s the closest the Left 4 Dead franchise has come to becoming a living horror movie. I wrote more extensively on it here, but for now let’s just say that it’s really quite brilliant, and a large chunk of the reason for this being my second favourite game of the year.

Dragon Age: Origins

What more is there to be written about Dragon Age that hasn’t been said already in Craig’s review or other Gaming Daily top 3 lists? A lot. Too much. I have put 70 odd hours into this game, and I can and will probably put in another 70, maybe more. It’s a game that has captured my imagination and made me a part of it’s world. It’s funny, violent and truly epic and it’s my Game of The Year 2009.

It’s been a rocky road from the day Dragon Age was announced. First there was the excitement that BioWare were going back to their roots and doing a proper fantasy epic RPG like they used to make in the olden days. But then came that lacklustre E3 showing this summer and worry began to creep in. Then there were those trailers. Godawful noisy sex and violence affairs that, it turns out, had very little to do with the game itself. Now, in the aftermath of the first full playthrough I have come to two conclusions. Firstly: the game is magnificent. Secondly: BioWare need a new marketing department.

There is a lot of blood and a little bit of sex if you choose your words carefully, but the real appeal of Dragon Age – and I know how cheesy this sounds, but it’s true – the real heart of Dragon Age lies in the friendships you build with your companions. Gone are the good/evil meters of previous BioWare games. Now your fellows will judge you on your actions, each one reacting individually to your every decision. These decisions aren’t simple, either. Dragon Age brings some much needed ambiguity into your gaming choices. The thing that really stung me on completing the game is that I made some decisions that I truly regret, but I absolutely refuse to reload and do them again. That was the path my human noble chose, she made bad choices, alienated good friends and went a bit power mad.

And this demonstrates how much I ended up caring about this world and the characters in it: I’m resovled to create a new character and take another path entirely. I will play this 70 hour game all over again to undo the mistakes my human noble made, and I’ll enjoy it. It’s games like this that make me proud to be a PC Gamer.