Didn’t it just fly by? Nope? Well, you were probably sat on your arse for most of it then. Mine flew by. Time does that when your busy apparently.
Too busy to play games unfortunately, at least as much as I’d like to. I did spend too much time watching TV though-it’s difficult not to.
I did try to watch decent TV though and obviously, even though I pay silly money for about 100 channels, I had to download the good stuff.
I got into Fringe in a big way- I watched the first 2 series’ in about a month to get myself up to date. Also, started watching series 4 of Dexter- brilliant. Like everyone else, I also watched The Walking Dead. Unlike everyone else, I wasn’t that impressed. By the end of episode 5 I would have liked the zombies (sorry, walkers) to tear all the humans apart for being so annoying.
Unexpected highlight on TV last year was probably Spartacus: Blood and Sand. I initially watched it for a laugh but ended up hooked and the last episode was completely mental. If you missed it then I’d recommend a download or box set. It is very rude and very violent, but at the same time, not very grown-up!
But I’m not supposed to be talking about TV- I’m supposed to talk about games.
I’d like to be original and declare an independent, quirky, undiscovered game as my highlight of the year. Unfortunately I can’t. I agree with a million other people that LIMBO was the best game of 2010. Not only was it gorgeous to look at, but the level design was sublime. Never before has a game made me want to put down my controller and just applaud. It was quite short, but it was perfect while it lasted. Again, if you haven’t got it, download it NOW!
Sticking with the theme of agreeing with everybody else, I thoroughly enjoyed Mass Effect 2. It obviously cost a lot of money to make but it was well worth it. Red Dead Redemption was good and I’m still enjoying Fallout-New Vegas, but they have the odd rough edge or dodgy texture here and there. Mass Effect 2 was sooooo slick it really feels like you’re in an average Sci-fi film and not a game at all. Can’t wait for part 3. I also managed to get laid this time- I didn’t notice the ship had an upstairs deck for the whole of the first game, so I completely missed out on the nookie!
As well as Limbo and a really good selection of DLC- notably Undead Red Redemption, 2010 was the best year ever for the Xbox 360 marketplace. I spent a lot of Microsoft points last year and they were money well spent.
I still played a fair bit of Peggle, with the release of Peggle Nights, but I’m trying to quit. I hope they don’t make another one. Really.
I’m replacing my Peggle addiction with Worms. Finally, last year Heaven 17 (is that right?) finally put a decent version on XBLA. Worth getting gold membership for. Obviously it’s much better with friends (I have 2). Shame there’s still no way to create your own backgrounds like in the original Amiga version, but seriously, if you haven’t got it already, then get it already.
What else? Oh yeah, Halloween. I hate Halloween- Bah Haribo to the whole thing. But my kids love it and they especially love trick or treating. I especially love staying indoors and playing games by Double Fine. So when Costume Quest came out we were all happy. Tim Schafer is one of the best designers around and Costume Quest is a really sweeeet game. Shame to have to read all the dialogue though, especially in that tiny font. Come on, if it’s not easy to read we WILL skip it. If you’ve got kids or a low mental age and you like RPG’s then I’d totally recommend it.
When you’ve got some Microsoft small change left, there was a lot to spend it on last year with the Microsoft Community games really having a decent showing. I’m probably going to do a proper round up in another post- there’s a lot of them to cover. A lot of people haven’t checked out the Community section at all and it’s a real shame. There’s a stack of decent content at pocket money prices. Oh, and there’s also a ton of shite in there as well, but that’s a marketplace for you. There’s not a great ratio of quality/shite in any game shop. At least on Xbox you can play free demo’s.
Until I write an article for you, check out the Independent Charles Show. It’s a review show on the Xbox and it’s brilliant. What’s brilliant about it is mainly the fact that it exists at all. It’s like a really geeky version of Wayne’s World reviewing Community games. It would be great to see more stuff like this appearing on the Xbox channels, anything that boosts awareness and popularity of community games can only be a good thing and I’m all for it.
Other highlights of last year? Well, in the kitchen I finally discovered how to do roast pork with perfect crackling. Trick is to carve it up with a Stanley knife. Put a clean blade in it first though. I also stopped using little green chilli’s and started using Scotch Bonnet Peppers instead. Much nicer taste but don’t touch your eyes (or anything else) for about 3 days after touching them. Or you could wear gloves I suppose.
Oh yeah, what about MY games? Well, last year, they were pretty good. I hope you enjoyed them. My favourite was Deathracers. We’re working on a sequel at the moment and it’s already looking really good.
Our biggest hit of last year was Destroy All Cars. The sequel will be out any day now and it’s much nicer than the first one. Hopefully it should kick this year off nicely.
Destroy More Cars will be followed by another sequel- Moto X Madness 2. This is also going to be a decent upgrade. The graphics are much better, there’s twice as many tracks and maybe 3 times as much madness. Oh, and Eva has 4 different costumes. Yeah, contain your excitement for a few weeks at least- it’s still pretty early in development.
For now though, check out a video of the first track in production.
OK, maybe there’s not 3 times more madness yet, but there might be 3 times more difficulty- This might end up being one of the later tracks!
Anyway, a belated Happy New Year to you. I’ll see you on the Worms battlefield. Or maybe in the pub.
