The Fourth Annual Coint and Plick Video Games Poll - Part Five: #1 - 20

The thing about it that reminded me of DP was how bizarre and counterintuitive the gameplay felt to me. No crazy sandwiches or Twin Peaks references that I can recall. Although it does have that Japanese in translation thing.

really interested to see what beats out DKC for Wii game of the year

Galaxy 2. you were hating on it on the other thread but its the best 3D platformer ever made.

the closest game I own to a 3D platformer is Infamous so w/e, the genre just doesn't work for me.

also in retrospect I wish I had voted for DQ9

also also who is the other correct individual who had 9 Innings at #1?

btw i finally played APB this week, a game i awarded 20 points, and boy... if anyone's confused about why it flopped, i can clear it up for you: it's amazingly bad

Poly, if you wanna do the disappointments, i'll aim to post the top 10 between friday and monday. Thanks again for driving this beast home.

Maybe after you're done. I need to get some work done today.

diggit

I really wonder if 9 innings cleared the right for the portraits they used. I have a feeling they just GIS'd players and stole the images. Which makes it even more awesome.

they might have a deal with the mlb players association but not mlb itself.. but yeah some of the images are wtf.

also also who is the other correct individual who had 9 Innings at #1?

just checked my ballot

*raises hand*

IIRC they had some weird arrangement with the MLBPA where they only got the rights to the 2009 season data. of course I ended up assembling a frankenteam in short order anyway so accuracy isn't too important. pretty sure the roster update went live a couple of weeks ago though.

xpost

http://media.kotaku.com.au/wp//2011/02/fistbump.png

http://www.ibreak4bacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/fist-bump.jpg

pretty sure the roster update went live a couple of weeks ago though.

this season's roster is up? maybe it's time to return to the game... how do I update it?

I don't want to update the bizarro 2011 stats, where my Brian Roberts (platinum, albeit) is by far the best player on my team

It should update automatically, mine did anyway and a bunch of my players got less good sadly :( but I did pretty early on get me an Aroldis Chapman card!

one of the big things is that they really seemed to even out player speeds. i had like 5 dudes with A speed but they all dropped to B, C, and one of my Cs went to E.

btw I'm going to exercise my editorial discretion and make the blog entry for 9 Innings gigantic

lol

lol baseball

iphone baseball is life - everything else is just details
co-ed naked 9 innings baseball 2011

Is there a way to get around the android region restrictions on 9 innings (and other stuff I guess)? Can't dl it from the marketplace, and getting it off some random google result seems a bit foolish.

How about some disappointments?

Do it!

i'm always up for some disappointment! :)

There was a surprising degree of diversity in what people considered "disappointing"... here's the gamut:

EZ Snappin
Physical Infirmity - My "biggest disappointment" was that I tore my biceps tendon so haven't been able to do any motion controlled gaming since the Spring - no Wii, no trying out Move or Kinect. Honestly, I played so few games this year that I didn't get a bummer. I ended up frustrated by FIFA11 after 50 or so hours, but it wasn't broken or shit or anything.

Princess TamTam
Civ 5

abanana
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth - Before its release the new gameplay mechanic (WALKING) sounded neat but this was the weakest entry in the series. Also: sexism and gaystereotypes.

Ledge
Angry Birds - Despite the effort I put in (and enjoyment I surely got at the time), I have really no interest in going back no matter what additional content they provide.

Will M
Red Dead Redemption - Sure, the good parts are good, but in usual Rockstar style the bad parts are the fucking worst. There's a reason that westerns don't have 15-minute chase-cam horse-riding sequences. Especially since it looks nice for about 5 minutes and then it's alllllllll the saaaaaaaaame. The exposition is brutally boring/bad. The ending is robbed of any gravity due to the epilogue bit (hey, u can keep going lol). Ugh. Bugged me so much. I am officially over these dudes' games, GTA IV and now this.

jamescobo
Super Mario All-Stars - Seriously, Nintendo? You can't even see fit to include Super Mario World or even, like, the levels based on those scannable Mario 3 cards on the disc? Fuck, you can't even include more than TWELVE MINUTES OF MUSIC on the soundtrack CD? FUCKING NINTENDO IS FUCKING US AGAIN FUCK. *buys on day one anyway*

cozen
Vanquish - wish it had more unlockables, even just silly stuff like big head mode cheats, stupid suits or fuck-off-big guns. because the core /game/ aspect was so strong it wasn't that big a deal mind

Nhex
iPhone/iPod touch gaming - I'm finding myself really fascinated with the growing market and possibilities as much as anyone, but time and time again, I'll play games feverishly recommended by others in the iPhone thread and come off bitterly disappointed, as just about every game is basically a slightly tweaked (but not significally so) version of a game I played on the DS or Kongregate or Newgrounds years ago. I think people are just amazed at the ability to play on your phone? Worst offender - Game Dev Story. Drop7 gets a pass, though, that one was really good.

Polyphonic
Rock Band 3 - Maybe a guitar controller with eight million buttons wasn't the greatest idea of all time? Also the song list is awful. I think the era of the music game is over.

ilxor
Monster Hunter Tri - The concept was great, but in the end I shelled out $40 or so for a game that I couldn't get into because of clunky controls. Currently in line to be thrown up on eBay first chance I get... sorry, Monster Hunter Tri.

Zora / Surfing at Work
Civilization 5.

Mitch Krpata
Limbo - In a sense, I'm disappointed with myself for not seeing what everybody else saw in this game. Others saw a brain-busting platformer swaddled in the clothes of a tragedy; I saw a pretentious, anachronistic platformer with delusions of grandeur.

ZS
Mass Effect 2 - The big selling point for this is supposed to be the characters and the great story, apparently. But the further I got into the game, the more I found myself beginning to sympathize with Roger Ebert's tripe about video games and art (I eventually stopped playing before I get too close to the edge, but fuck you for that, bioware, party foul). I am confident that someday soon a giant game company will release a game with dialogue that is elevated above the 9th best action film of 1996, but Mass Effect 2 isn't it. (IMO.) And when the wider non-gamer public is told from a variety of sources that Mass Effect 2 is supposed to be some great achievement in videogame storytelling, it does a great disservice to games in general. It comes across like an excellent 6th grade play. Unfortunately, aside from the story, all that's left is a really easy action game and a whole bunch of planet probing. The graphics and sound are great, I'll give it that.

Autumn Almanac
Gran Turismo 5 - The designers refused to follow any known UI convention and the game itself were boring. Even the 3D is underwhelming.

Alan N
Online Play in Dragon Quest 9 - Again, one of my peculiar old man hangups, but as a rule of thumb, I have never gotten much out of multiplayer. unless there are people physically in a room with me, anyway. I was pretty disappointed when I found out that it was a major component of dq9. it's likely the reason I haven't gotten around to playing yet, despite having dutifully bought the game already. (or used a voucher on it, anyway.) I love the series but I play dq games like I read a book: usually before bed or during my commute in 30min intervals. it's a soothing, hermetic activity for me and online gaming is the opposite of that experience.

Euler
none, or the usual "that I didn't play enough 2010 games"

Salsa Shark
Epic Mickey

JimD
The PS3 - Only got round to buying one this year, and haven't enjoyed anything I've played on it. The exclusives all feel distinctly last-gen, and the machine itself is just...I dunno, too Japanese? When games aren't, any more. So there's a mismatch of form and function. Plus the update mechanisim is plain ridiculous. Oh i dunno, it's just shit.

A Passing Spacecadet
One Chance (Flash) - Am I a sourpuss if my gaming disappointment is something I didn't even spend any money or more than 40 minutes on? I just wanted this to be so amazing after reading glowing reviews. ILG was the one gaming-aware online community I'm on that didn't go nuts over the genius of this thing. A profound artistic statement subverting gamers' expectations, or a Choose Your Own Adventure book with about 3 choices and a handful of inscrutable and identically bleak endings? So much potential, but it just didn't hang together for me.

Bamcquern
1. Increased use of libraries or plug-ins I've got to download and games that look like they'll run on my computer but actually run just as slow as Duke Nukem Forever would (the 2d runs as slow as 3d complaint)
2. Games and game websites (like Jacob Buczynski's) previously available on the internet 1 or 2 years ago have disappeared without anyone archiving them.

A pair of intense disappointments apiece for the two NOIR MOVIE GAMES:

jjjusten
Alan Wake - Oh good, an unlikeable self-involved college professor simulator! I should have known that this was going to be awful when in the first hour of gameplay I got to experience one of the laziest moments of game design ever: yer walking around on an island, nothing weird has happened yet so you are just poking around and you decide to see what happens if you walk into the shallow water clearly accessible by the side of the dock. Now, this is obviously a spot the designer doesn't want you getting too far into, because they haven't bothered with any sort of swimming/wading mechanic because hey why would you if you set your game ON AN ISLAND. So they do the obvious rational thing, and decide that if you walk into the water YOU EXPLODE. It gets worse from there.
This is one of the lamest "spooky" games ever to splat onto the console market, no scares, nothing interesting, ENDLESS wandering through dark forests while the same 6 scary dudes attack you, puzzles designed for children or the mentally infirm. When one of the most derided budgets titles of the year (Deadly Premonition) manages to outshine you in every way YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG. Oh yeah, the story? It's dumb as hell. The protagonist? He's a boring self-involved dick! The whole game is built on a ultra-lame flashlight mechanic that is functionally the same as lock on machine gun spray, but for added fun you get to do that for a while and then you get to shoot the baddie with a regular gun. Of course there are also remarkable innovations like the grenade launcher flare gun and the regular grenade flashbang grenade. Oh wait, did I mention the timed running and jumping third person platforming sections? oh yeah, they suck a whole lot too. As an added bonus you get a couple of product placement moments that are so blunt that you can't help but hear the designers laughing at you in the background while they line their pockets with corporate Kroners or whatever they use where this game is from. If that wasn't enough, you get a cliffhanger ending
which fills you with the one true moment of yawning horror in the game, the terrible realization that they are undoubtedly going to make a sequel to this unmitigated piece of shit.

Jordan
Alan Wake - Reviews/reactions were so disappointing I ended up not playing it at all after eagerly anticipating.

Zappi
Heavy Rain - 10 hour B movie with terrible script, subpar voice acting and occasional button presses. strip away the cgi and you’re left with this http://www.kongregate.com/games/kthorjensen/press-x-to-jason

GM
Heavy Rain. Heavy Rain sucks you in with an intriguing approach to controls and narrative and then mercilessly mocks your interest with some of the worst storytelling since Kevin Smith's last movie. Turn on Cinemax After Dark, pop any random Saw on the Picture in Picture, and mindlessly fiddle with a DualShock 3 for an analogous experience.

And the winner and undisputed most disappointing game of the year is
http://www.thefinalfantasyxiii.com/finalfantasyxiii.png

Mordy
Final Fantasy XIII. Terribly boring game. I was all psyched to get back into Final Fantasy (the last ones I had played were 7 + 8). Instead I got this 'on the rails' cliche fantasy world whose tutorial took about 30 hours too long to finish. Meh.

if
Final Fantasy XIII - in one way it was actually above expectations in that the combat was really, really fun and addictive, but basically almost everything else about it totally sucked, so it still has to take it.

Lamp
break-ups are hard. but break-ups are rarely interesting to those on the outside of them, the slow deterioration of a relationship rarely manages to achieve the kind of external significance that demands a readers or a viewers attention. particularly the sort of amicable, tectonic break-ups that involve a slow and steady drifting away, of an alienation of affection that eventually swallows any passion, the sort of break-up that happens more out of mutual disregard than anything else. so in that spirit my most disappointing game of 2010 was Final Fantasy XIII which, six months after purchase, was discovered still in its original shrinkwrap in a box of old wii games while i was moving out of my old apartment. previously i would've at least made the effort - limned my frustrated nostalgia and worked-up arguments over the merits of this or that mechanical system. but this was the year i didn't even care enough to try. i gave the game to my 17 yo cousin instead.

i have the top ten ready to go and they're supersized. Everybody ready or should I wait till tomorrow day?

make it happen forks!

Really liked the disappointments, though, sadly, mine hasn't changed significantly for the better. Felt so bad about it I sold the Wii.

maybe a few tonight, more tomorrow?

Tell you what, let me get 10 and 9 out and we'll do the rest when there's a crowd.

#10: Just Cause 2 – 360/PS3 – 75 pts – 6 vote - 1.5 top game votes
Official Game Site

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/videogames/detail-page/B0013RATNM-1-lg.jpg

Funny Ha Ha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kjs-SC70Wg

http://shouldntbegaming.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/just-cause-2-1.jpg

EZ Snappin: I always need a go-to game for 20 minutes of mayhem. That I can also play for hours of exploratory bliss without hurting a fly is just a bonus. 120+ hours and I still haven't finished the story. I'm still playing the crap out of this game. Passed 100 hours this weekend, and I've collected all the skulls, black boxes and drug drops, 100% of all the towns done (still a few things to find in a couple of the cities) and am slowly wiping out the airfields, harbors and military bases. I think I have a couple of oil rigs left to finish off as well.
Gave up on the story though - kept failing at killing the bosses on top of the towers and decided since the story sucked anyways I'd just do all the other stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qJwnJb1LTQ

Antexit: OK this game's pretty sick

http://gamercrave.frsucrave.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/justcause2.jpg

Jjjusten: Stupid as hell, but engaging while it lasts. Big dumb logos on your shit is apparently the red exploding barrel of the banana dictator set. Vehicle controls range from kinda shitty on cars to nearly unusable on anything that flies. Save often to avoid endless re-exploding drudgery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHlJ7DCdkzw

Zero Punctuation Review

http://cdn.gamerant.com/wp-content/uploads/just-cause-2-trailer.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPRtn9knixk

Forksclovetofu: A big, dumb B-movie of unimaginably epic proportions. JC2 is best explained as “all the dicking around in GTA, improved”. I loved it.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2009/06/justcause7header580.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjhTeKVAFYY

Ste: I should be complaining that it's fairly repetitive but somehow I keep finding things to do picking up hidden stuff or randomly destroying government property. My favorite right now is taking out the antenna stations. Twanging the supporting cables with my chopper.
The dialogue is hilarious. There's a mission where you have to pick up some prostitute and the woman who is telling you about the mission constantly bad mouths the 'filthy whore'... sooo many missions.

http://www.haxornoob.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Plenty-of-explosions.jpg

Mordy: Was there a more joyful game in 2010 than this one? You're a vaguely foreign CIA-type operative in a Banana Republic. But that's just an excuse to create the most engaging mechanics in any video game this year. You zip around with a parachute and a grappling hook, travel around in dozens of vehicles and traverse snow capped mountains and sandy beaches. But what made this my favorite game of 2010? When I discovered how peaceful I could feel if I turned jj's second album on, fly over a tall icy peak, and slowly parachute down as the music played. Or just hopped on a motorcycle and drove for hours around the gorgeous island. No other game has ever alternated as quickly between wild chaos and tranquil balm quite like Just Cause 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o0XOFrFOVI

GameTrailers

Polyphonic: A great playground for mayhem and terror. Jump out of that moving tuktuk and grapple onto the helicopter; kill the pilot and take the reins; destroy the water tower, and parachute into the jungle.

http://scottisalwaysright.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Just-Cause-2-Desert.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56zKXfsksn8

Postcards from Panau

http://scrawlfx.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/just-cause-2-ps3-exclusive-features.jpg

The Unserious Game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzZEAvvSzt0

http://www.aeropause.com/wordpress/archives/images/2010/04/Just_Cause_2_1-550x309.jpg

Matt D: Plain, dumb fun.

5 voters only managed 45 points between them? C'mon guys, this was game of the year!

I played FF13 since I voted. It is very deserving of being called the biggest disappointment.

#9: Picross 3D – DS – 84 pts (includes 2009 votes) – 5 votes - 2 top game votes - Top DS game (all tallies include 2009 votes)
Official Game Site

http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/164844-picross.jpg

Gay Gamer Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSffqFtGjiQ

JimD: Picross in 3D stops being a pen and paper logic puzzle and turns into a hammer and chisel logic puzzle! Chipping away at a big block until you're left with a little 3D sculpture is just hugely satisfying. And the chewiness of the puzzles is just right too, they're consistently challenging, sometimes infuriating, lots of fun. Even the time limits are perfectly judged (man, the number of times I've lost a star by being 5 seconds too slow...). So somehow this has ended up being my game of the year.

http://dsmedia.ign.com/ds/image/article/108/1084286/picross-3d-20100416025014158.jpg

Forksclovetofu: As killer as apps get; easy to pick up and play and immediately engaging. Holds up phenomenally well; I’ve played it for two years running now!

Gamasutra Critics Roundup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV9WTzK1uqE

http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/picross_explained.jpg

abanana: My most played game of the year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGgTGwotbKM

Risque Picross

http://www.sitsam.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Hamu-chan-Picross.jpg

Nhex: I actually don't like this nearly as much as the previous one - it's not even in the same league IMO - and yet I'd find myself going back to this in little free moments, so it must be pretty good despite my natural distaste for it. (So much orange.)

Boing Boing Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogmG7NoM7SI

Euler: only played it a little bit due to getting it only pretty recently & due to Pic Pic obsession when I want a puzzle game, but it's fab & will be a regular puzzling mainstay in the near future.

http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb/GamesRadar/us/Daily/2010/05-May/18/Sexy%20ads/Picross%203D--article_image.jpg

man how in the shit did I forget about RDR when I was picking out the remaining big exclusives before? that's obviously going to take this.

psyched to see Game Dev Story place so high though!

man Just Cause 2 looks fun; think I'm sorta getting the "dick around in open world" thing cos of the Saboteur so maybe I'll try this.

walked by the Pantheon in Paris last night & saw a little yellow light at the base of its dome & lizard-mindedly thought "ah so that's how you climb up this thing!". not sure I like the implications of conflating RL with violent open world gaming!

I voted for picross last year, but this year I actually wiped my save file and played the whole thing over again from the beginning, which is something I've rarely done in ANY game before, let alone a puzzle game. Can't recommend it highly enough.

JS2 was my GTA filler for last year, and this year

JC2 duh

Just ordered Just Cause 2. Only £12!

they haven't bothered with any sort of swimming/wading mechanic because hey why would you if you set your game ON AN ISLAND. So they do the obvious rational thing, and decide that if you walk into the water YOU EXPLODE.

lol thats bad shit

#8: Angry Birds – iPhone/Android/PS3/PSP/PC – 93 pts – 7 votes
Official Game Site

http://www.rovio.com/img/angrybirds_big.jpg

Play Free Online

jon /via/ chi 2.0: For an ubiquitous app game, Angry Birds is incredibly designed and thoughtful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC5lFMu2Qak

Dayo: Do not not not understand the appeal of angry birds

http://images.macworld.com/appguide/images/354/139/923/ss1.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMltvlqEM54

HI DERE: Angry Birds is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too addictive

http://www.rovio.com/uploads/images/Gallery/angrybirds/AngryBirds_ScreenShot_Ingame_11.png

Everyone is essentially either sad, angry or afraid

Autumn Almanac : Angry Birds is the sort of game you play out of compulsion, not necessarily for enjoyment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2matH4B9bTo

Forksclovetofu: I’ve referred to Angry Birds as “the game non-gamers like” which i guess is sorta... gamist? Bottom line is that it’s a poor man’s Boom Blox with noxious sound design. I’ve not been able to play more than ten levels cause it bores the hell outta me.

http://craziestgadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Angry-Birds-Costume-4-500x343.jpg

Ledge: I played this a hell of a lot so i must have got some kind of enjoyment out of it... the birds are fun characters and it was a challenge to beat all the levels but ultimately i ended up frustrated, feeling like luck played too large a component in whether or not you got the pixel perfect placement necessary for gold starring a level.

Wired in-depth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dErAZL1Hr8

http://www.droiddog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/angry-birds-darwin.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgsyCHdIiPg

JimD: I can't explain why I haven't got bored of this, because in a sense I was bored as soon as I started playing. It really doesn't feel very different to any number of flash games that have gone before, but perhaps it's one of those situations where the game is just a perfect fit for the format. Angry Birds is exactly the kind of non-game you want for a 15 minute train journey and that's where most of my gaming happens these days. The constant drip feed of new levels is a plus too.

http://boredfactory.com/storage/post-images/angry-birds-cake.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1289690113528

Polyphonic: I bought Angry Birds for some reason and regretted it immediately. So joyless.

HRUMPH HRUMPH COGNITIVE BREAKDOWN OF USER EXPERIENCE HRUMPH HRUMPH

http://www.service-1.org/uploads/201105/13/imgs/angry-birds-hats-8_360x417.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enDx1fXOScQ

Likability Index

http://weblogs.hitwise.com/robin-goad/Angry%20Birds%20searches.png

ilxor: I'd be kidding myself to deny it: this game has its moments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BqfjGDsHUs

Zappi: Angry Birds is boring as hell, wtf people

http://cdn.babble.com/family-kitchen/files/2011/04/angry-birds-pizza22.jpg

Green Pork Rinds. Seriously.

congrats jjj on making Alan Wake sound amazing

you EXPLODE if you step in the water! awesome

he nailed it with "Oh good, an unlikeable self-involved college professor simulator"

angry birds was the first game i bought for iphone. played it a lot but then i got stuck at some stupid level and i can't imagine ever playing it again tbh

#7: Mass Effect 2 – 360 – 107 pts – 8 votes - 1.5 top game votes - Top 360 Exclusive
Official Game Site

http://gamernode.com/upload/manager///News%20Images/Industry/mass_effect_2_dlc1261167860.png

Mordy: People have complaints about the ludic gameplay elements of Mass Effect 2 and they're pretty fair. It is kinda silly with only superficial RPG elements. They also have complaints about the story and those are pretty fair too. You spend 95% of the game recruiting characters and doing their loyalty quests and only 5% actually forwarding the plot. But has any other series of games ever rewarded player participation quite as much as the Mass Effect series? The decisions I actually deliberated over in Mass Effect 1 were constantly mentioned and came to bear upon Mass Effect 2. Part of what makes ME2 great is the resonances of ME1 still echoing in the gameworld and the part of what makes it great is the promise of ME3 and the assurance that the things I am doing now matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2O-0-fQOOs

Gametrailers

http://www.gamingmoments.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Mass-Effect-2.jpg

Will M: I loved the first game precisely for the reasons everyone hated it and this game over-fixes the problems and removes a lot of what made the first game magic. But it's still gorgeous space opera-y shit and the story, while junk compared to virtually all non-gamery things, is better than a lot of space opera stuff. George Lucas couldn't compete with this even if he'd made his movies 30 years later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PjTuSQNLI4

Zero Punctuation Review

http://www.bangclickreload.com/images/posts/2010/september/masseffect2-dlc.jpg

Meta Metacritic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFC6GBD5ltw

Cozen: datmass.jpg

http://d2vcblkey4a3r8.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/mass-effect-2-dlc-1024x576.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFajRU4xAVI

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/masseffect2_overlord.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QznjOF9e7sY

BrainyGamer

Darramouss : Mass Effect 2 is way better aside from the horrible end mission. I was seriously pissed off when I finished it and realized that was the whole game. Scanning planets is boring as hell, but still beats that bastard buggy from the first one.

http://www.gamingsurvival.com/dev/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Mass-Effect-2-3.jpg

Matt D: If the first ME is liking playing a nineties sci-fi flick (with a decidedly 80s score), ME2 is like playing a high-budget contemporary blockbuster. I also played the last few ME2 DLC packs. Overlord is pretty good. Shadow Broker is great. Arrival is SHIT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL5u2xi6mNQ

JimD: Three hours into this I was ready to put it on my disappointments-of-the-year list. So much of what was great about the original game got thrown out for the sequel that it's barely an RPG at all any more. But it's still a great universe and still has great characters and they got away with dumbing down the gameplay by clevering up the dialogue. Still don't think it's as good as the first (and ore mining can fuck right off) but that doesn't stop it being great in its own completely different way.

http://thefinalcastle.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/bc1df_194762-shep.jpg

GM: Yes, Mass Effect 2 is a greater achievement than Pac-Man CEDX; it balances the stat-addicted compulsion of an RPG with eminently competent third-person action, all while crafting an intricately layered story that transcends its inherently goofy sci-fi underpinnings. And yet I still play Pac-Man CEDX almost every day and haven't touched Mass Effect 2 since I blew up that kinda lame giant Terminator looking thing at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_6WYJ99R2c

Gaming with Karma Systems

http://www.ripten.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/MassEffect2Cheese-600x375.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhBPUE0i7oY

http://www.openthefridge.net/storage/post-images/Mass%20Effect%202%20-%20Arrival%20-%20Heavy%20Mech.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1301450520739

#6: Pac Man Championship Edition DS – 360/PS3 – 112 pts – 8 votes - 1.5 top game votes - Top PSN game
Official Game Site

Eurogamer

Cozen: If you own a current gen system and you are not currently playing this game, then you are a n00b.

http://xboxlivemedia.ign.com/xboxlive/image/article/112/1127340/pac-man-championship-edition-dx-20101012064438254_640w.jpg

Gametrailers

Polyponic: It is the perfect Pac Man game, basically. Easily the best re-imagining of a classic arcade game ever and arguably more fun than the original. The revamped gameplay is like eating all of the pixie stix on God's green earth at once.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0qngXmMPX8

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TYpE7TOumVM/TXd-q9Cs-NI/AAAAAAAADiE/cC48o4CI8lQ/s1600/Pacman%2Bchampionship%2Bedition%2BDX-4.bmp

The Pac Man Dossier

Antexit: I'm a little uncomfortable with how much the giant five-second serotonin burst that comes with nailing a line of 100 ghosts feels like an orgasm. It makes me not want to play too much.

http://resource.mmgn.com/Games/Xbox/PAC-MAN-Championship-Edition-D-3DN-1.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21F2x7R9ArM

http://www.consolemonster.com/media/0000001934/screenshots/0000001934-L-0da265e.jpg

Unpredictable Johnny Rodz: Basically "Pac-Man: The Benny Hill Years".

Pac Google

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC70qYhKPi4

http://www.gamezone.com/images/screenshots/PacManDX_1.jpg

Will M: Not as mindbendingly fun and fresh as the first one but still a hell of a lot of fun. Plug in your arcade stick for maximum greatness.

World's Biggest Pac Man

Forksclovetofu: Compulsively replayable and intense to the point of tears. Somebody explain to me why they don’t put a mini version of this to play during the loading screens of every other game ever made for the rest of eternity.

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs37/i/2008/265/a/d/PAC_MAN_by_LabrenzInk.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXffgP9oYTY

http://i.imgur.com/4qkrT.jpg

sometimes it's like, i don't even know you dawg

I'm forks.