back to article The year's best... PC games

2010: it's a wrap So, 2010 been and almost gone and I haven't even had a go at WoW Cataclysm yet. Back in the day, distracted from my NES, I imagined 2010 would have been more like the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey all world peace, dolphins and Roy Scheider. It turned out more like George Orwell's 1984 with the turnaround …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    If every word I say will make you laugh I'd talk forever...

    I hope the glaring omission is that one game coming out in 2011 that everyone's been looking forward to for ages.

    1. Sir Runcible Spoon

      Sir

      Get soooommmmmme. BANG!

    2. A. Lewis

      Diablo3?

      :)

      (Yes, I'm an optimist to think it might come out in 2011!)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        BALLS

        BBBBALLLS BALLS BBBALLS BBAALLS

        BBBBBBBBBBALLLLLS O

        BBBALLS

        BALLS OF STEEL

      2. C Yates

        D3 to be out at the end of 2011 apparently...

        The Chinese general manager of Blizzard apparently lost his job over the leak too...

        http://www.geekosystem.com/blizzard-leak-titan/

  2. Thecowking
    Troll

    Glaring omission?

    Well I'm level 85 already.

    It's my GOTY, but I was ready to hate it when I heard the Worgen voices. "Get gabbin' or get goin'" ? Really?

    It made me realise how happy I am to be Horde.

    (The weekend will be levelling a Gobin Warlock... or getting geared for Heroics on my pala. Oh the agony of indecision!)

    Troll, because dey is Horde mon!

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Happy

      RE: Glaring omission?

      "Well I'm level 85 already......" Grrrrr! I made the mistake of getting six chars up to level 80 whilst waiting for Cataclysm, and now I'm stuck slowly levelling all six plus a Worgen 'cos I can't make my mind up which one is more fun for smacking Horde with. If only I had the time needed to have a level 85 already, but then I have a smidgin of a social life. :P

      MMPORPG OTY = WoW Cataclysm (apart from the Archeology profession)

      FPS OTY = Black Ops, simply a ball for late night shoot-outs in the office.

      Strategy OTY? None - the genre seems to have gone a bit stale, TBH.

      1. Thecowking
        Thumb Up

        It's simple when you know how

        I had 9 80s going into cata.

        I booked Tues-Thurs off work.

        I geeked out and did what I always do which is level to cap on my main and then back to work today. Priorities are key here, I've 7 80s languishing in the doldroms while my Paladin gloriously hits things with the wildhammer. I've a level 81 warrior I'm levelling just for mining too.

        But yes, organise your gaming and holiday time and you can have anything in the world... of warcraft.

        1. Kevin 6

          The exp is pretty easy

          Except in the dungeons those are hard. Kinda like old school Vanilla scholomance or stratholm hard(before they made them easier)

          Only thing is I doubt I will level up all my 80's to 85 the quest are kinda tedious IMO(I have 12 80s, 7 alliance, and 5 horde). Then there are the quest that don't work at all which halt progression in a partcular zone seeing the questing is very linear...

          But ya my druids almost 84 and I've not put very much time into it.

          1. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD

            I guess I'd better get with the program...

            TBH, SC2 and MW2 have been keeping me from levelling my 80's up.

            I can see why Bliz have not released diablo 3 yet. I expect they won't do it till they think Cata is safely a fair distance aways.

  3. Jason Togneri
    Grenade

    The glaring omission...

    ...can only be a game we've been waiting for, like, Forever.

    Gotta get me some of that hardcore pen-on-whiteboard action.

  4. stucs201

    CIV V

    Its a Civ game. 'Nuff said.

    1. Stewart Cunningham
      Badgers

      meh

      Bit disappointed by this one so far. Maybe needs more playing but seems too slow and simple compared to iv (console influence?).

      Plus you get penalised for building railroads on every tile! disgraceful! (although civ 1 was the best for this, i liked to railroad the ocean :) ). ocd much? yes please.

      1. CD001

        Slightly different focus

        I'd not say Civ V was worse than Civ IV - it's just focused very slightly differently.

        Some things have been simplified such as espionage (ok, removed in this case), diplomacy and the United Nations BUT a lot of careful thought has gone into the balance and combat.

        Railroads costing a couple of coins a tile is fine since they give you a bonus to production (as well as the movement bonuses) if you're connecting a city to the capital; this can stretch out your coal reserves if you're unlucky enough to have only a limited (or non-existent) supply by reducing your reliance on factories. This is just one nice balancing aspect.

        The combat system is MASSIVELY improved - it's hard to overstate the tactical change that combat has undergone. No longer do you merely stack 50 Modern Armour units on a square and blitz the world - now you can only have one unit per tile but you can have ranged units for over other units ... this makes artillery (with their 3 tile range) immensely valuable - ditto on battleships.

        You're also far less likely to suffer "weird" deaths in Civ V - even a badly damage Destroyer is not going to be further damaged by some barbarian archers on an island somewhere (at least I've never seen it).

        ... ummm ... yeah, I've clocked up almost 300 hours on Civ V since it was released a couple of months back *whistles* :)

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Oh Lucy...

    You lured me in with your siren song of impeccable taste in your previous games articles. But then you went and picked B:BC2 over MW2. It seems you say potayto and I say potahto!

    1. Lionel Baden
      WTF?

      What !!!

      MW2 sucks so badly compared to the imersion of BC2.

      Yes i have both games and mw2 is complete arcade game with rather basic graphics and gameplay, Although MW2 has the best single player i have ever played.

      BC2 has 100X better online play

      MW2 has major issues with

      LAG, Balancing teams, small servers.

      Im not gonna start listing why i think BC2 is better otherwise i will be here all day.

      CANT wait for the vietnam pack to come out !!!!! GIGIGITY

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Well...

        "Im not gonna start listing why i think BC2 is better otherwise i will be here all day."

        I think you just did. :)

        It seems we must agree to disagree sir. To each their own!

      2. Shakje

        Well...

        I prefer the arcadey game mechanics of MW2, but online was just so painful, with being unable to join your mates on servers, randomly dropping from a group, buying the DLC and then them giving it away free. MW2 with dedi servers + no nuke + BO game modes. Lovely.

  6. stuartrc

    Mass effect 2

    Most disappointing game of the year by far

    1. Greg D
      WTF?

      Mass Effect 2 - disappointing how?

      I dont know what sort of video games you like, but you clearly dont know what you are talking about.

      ME2 sits quite firmly at the top of my all time favourite single player games ever and I would question anyone who said otherwise. As I just have.

  7. markd74

    Bad Company

    Nice to see some BFBC2 love after it's glaring omission from the console list, waiting with baited breath for the Nam dlc on the 21st to finally be able to fly Hueys around with Ride of the Valkyries blasting out.

  8. TheresaJayne
    Pint

    What about the most addictive game this year

    Strange how they don't mention the most addictive games out there like

    Eve Online (www.eveonline.com)

    and the most addictive multi platform game that i have ever seen (it has even stopped me playing Cataclysm as i am too engrossed in creating my station and getting resources in

    Minecraft (www.minecraft.net)

    1. Lionel Baden

      MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEE

      omg i hate this game with such a passion !!!!

      I resisited for soooo long.

      now im all like

      I FOUND DIAMOND !!!!!!!

      Look at my house .....

      here piggy piggy :D

      BACON !!!!!!

      **I wonder if i could build a roller coaster on that mountin

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    What?

    Did you even play these games, or just paste from other websites? Bloodbowl was as buggy as an anthill, and incomprehensibly confusing, even to those of us who played the damn board game in their youth. Even Penny Arcade couldn't love it, and they are amazingly biased in favour of anything that smells of board game...

    1. Ihre Papiere Bitte!!
      Go

      No no no no no no no!

      I love BBLE. Even with the incredibly annoying repetitions on Jim & Bob's commentating, for sheer gameplay alone, I find myself getting up a half hour early Monday to Friday to get a couple of downs in before work. Don't find it buggy at all tbh, and I've played it to death.

      And PA? Tycho said "I want to recommend the game universally" and "Cyanide have made a videogame of Blood Bowl, and a pretty good one at that" (http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/7/1/) - he did say it could do with patching, but most of the issues were sorted for Legendary Edition (he was talking about the original there - LE includes patches and a buncha new teams)

      GO! GO! GO! GO!

      TOUCH! TOUCH! TOUCH! DOWN! DOWN! DOWN!

  10. moonface

    Best games

    There are no best games, it's all personal opinion.

    Napoleon Total War, I found awful and I didn't get much past the Tutorial. My Total War fix was satisfied this year with the MTW2 The Third Age mod. Fingers crossed for Shogun 2.

    Blood Bowl Legendary Edition is brilliant, until you are unlucky enough to get a bad match over MM that just sucks out all the joy and life of the game.

    My personal favourite this year has to be Mount&Blade: Warband. Those 200 player siege servers are the business. There is no greater pleasure on Earth, than throwing a javelin into the chest of a Swardian.

  11. RyokuMas
    FAIL

    Quit-aclysm

    Bring back the days of Vanilla WoW, when you could actually find groups for lower level dungeons and it wasn't all about boosting, rushed levelling, gear scores, achievements and raiding...

    (WoW free for 2 months and loving it)

    1. Thecowking
      Thumb Down

      Really?

      Because you had to have your 104.2% avoidance cap on your tank, stack FR for MC and BWL and getting anyone to go near BRD or LBRS for your Ony attunement on an alt was nigh on impossible. Raiding was UBRS, Strat and Scholo if you weren't hardcore, but it was still a bloody important part of the game. Pre-nerf Scholo required some good gear and better luck.

      Lower level dungeoning stopped about the same time as most people got their first 60, not to mention that these days the RDF basically means you can level only in instances (and use tabards for rep in them now too).

      Vanilla gets a lot of nostaligia but really, my god, things are much better now.

  12. peter 5 Silver badge
    Coat

    Q: "Who doesn't have a soft spot for GW"?

    A: Anybody who watched Warhammer destroy the British role-play gaming industry. And I speak as someone owning White dwarf in double-digits (i.e. back when it was good).

    Mine's the one without polyhedral dice in the pocket - I went diceless.

  13. G4Z

    erm..

    Civ 5...?

    Got to agree on BF:BC2 though, I am still completely addicted to it.

  14. Shakje

    "How can you pick a pre-release game as a top game of the year"

    I remember when PCG invited controversy by naming the Quake beta GOTY. Fun days.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    one glaring omission

    civ v?

    again.

  16. SammyP
    Grenade

    Yes It's War? Like Really?

    pffft "Yes, it's War" my butt! ;-) I'll stick with my Operation Reality military simulator http://operationreality.org thank you very much! Reghardware reviewers you should really widen your scope when it comes to true PC Gaming in 2010+.

  17. Joe K
    WTF?

    Huh?

    I was derailed from reading this junk by

    "I for one can't wait till online kills those consoles."

    Just what the fuck is wrong with you?

    1. ferretgirl

      ONLIVE

      it should say ONLIVE >.<

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Agreed

      I dont WANT to play some 14 year old arsehole whom has discovered the only point on the map where he can pick people off. THATS what spoils it for me, I prefer to play against my silicone opponents.

      Frankly, the PC game scene is shite, a decent gfx card costs more than a 2nd hand ps3 or 360.

      I just wish i could use a mouse and keyboard on my consoles and i dont care whether that confines me to single player mode.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Troll

      Agreed

      Console gamers are a bunch of tossers.

      1. The Fuzzy Wotnot
        Pint

        Yeah!

        Imagine spending a few hundred quid on a toy and simply wanting to play a few games for a laugh! Arseholes!

        They should be spending thousands on lots of unique bits of kit, then hours tuning it all up just to play the latest game for the next 3 months, by which time the kit will be too old for the latest games and having to start all over again! Of course let's not forget the privilege of making up one of those silly little tag-banners proudly displaying their souped-up Wanker-fest box's specs so they can brag about it to other sad bastids on the gamer forums!

        Yep, console gamers are pretty stupid bunch, imagine trying to get to play games the easy way without a lot of fuss or expense!!

  18. DS 1
    Happy

    Company of Heroes is still peak

    Still playing. Added all three over my time, and add eastern front (from eastern front.org) for a slice or Russians. A pinnacle of RTS PC gaming, and superior to the later and poorer DOW II (of which THQ keep churning more out for, and missing the boat completely)

    THQ should re-wrap this up in a single game and put it back on the market, and get back to developing it (they have in a way, as they are pushing COHO - the onlive version for free).

    Not a big fan of games in 2010 - most seem poor and are console twists. Best racing game remains (IMHO) Race On.

  19. Baskitcaise

    Will there be cake?

    N/T

    1. stucs201
      Coat

      re: will there be cake

      The cake is a lie!

      (mines the one with the weighted companion cube in the pocket)

  20. E 2

    Bah

    In 16 or 18 odd years of first person shooter gaming the best piece of work I've seen is L4D (and L4D2). Superior game play does not need DX10/DX11/DX420, it just needs a good adaptive game model. My $0.02.

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Happy

      RE: Bah

      "In 16 or 18 odd years of first person shooter gaming the best piece of work I've seen is L4D....." One of the perks of my job is the ability to squirrel away old servers on the office LAN for use as out-of-hours games servers and storage for old games. Alledgedly. We have some interesting antiques which still get fired up every now and again when we're bored of the latest'n'greatest PC offerings, and the ones that we don't seem capable of wiping off the servers are Quake, Quake2, and Counter Strike CZ. Yesterday, whilst checking for this post, I realised we still even had a few people playing Carmaggedon on a regular basis!

  21. Flybert

    Discover some different genre .. geeeze ..

    Rise of Flight - Iron Cross

  22. corrodedmonkee
    Megaphone

    Hmm.

    I think it's a bit rich considering MW2 a 2010 Game of the Year contender... since it was actually releases in 2009.

    11/10/09 ring any bells?!

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