Top gaming moments of 2010, pt 2

Winterbottom:

- I can't stress this enough: a well executed idea coupled with a brilliant art direction can blow a $20M project out of the water. Figuring out the solutions to each challenge in this game made me feel like a smart cookie (or pie). I should try to find the soundtrack for this, actually.

Monkey Island 2: Special Edition:

- It seldom happens that one has to recall events from 15 or so years before and apply the details to a current problem. Remembering how to find all those map pieces after more than a decade was a trip down memory lane: I could still picture myself popping the "Video game CD-ROM" into that 486 and spending entire afternoons aimlessly clicking away in my quest to get rid of Largo LaGrande. Hey, LucasArts, can we now have a remake of Grim Fandango!?

Monday Night Combat:

- I played the demo so many hours at PAX East that I was honestly gamed-out by the time it was released. More a sweet memory of a great event rather than a game itself.

- Meeting a random group of people, each one picking a different class and going on  to play the *perfect* match. I'm not big on shooters or multiplayer, but it was too gratifying to find that a completely random bunch could work so well together so many times. Might have to contact Jane McGonigal about this =P

Dead Rising 2:

- Everything that made the first game great was intact, and everything that made it lousy was fixed. DR is one of the few games I've played for weeks years after its initial release, and DR2 is sure to follow in its footsteps. This is exactly what a sandbox game needs to feel like: a game I can pop in for an hour and not worry about anything but finding the most idiotic way to kill a zombie. Which brings me to...

- Clobbering a zombie to (permanent) death with a "personal massager". If there's a leaderboard for the number of kills with a particular weapon, chances are I'm in the top 5 for this.

AC Brootherhood:

- OH MOTHER OF GOD, THIS IS SO F*CKING GORGEOUS. EVERY LANDMARK HAS BEEN PERFECTLY RECREATED AND THE CLOTHING AND THE VOICE ACTING AND TURNING THE ITALIAN VOICEOVERS ON AND SANTA MARIA IN ARACOELI AND... sheesh. Sorry. Stendhal Syndrome.

- The perfect kill: stalking your target for a good, long time. Finding their movement patterns while slowly eliminating guards and hiding their bodies. Closing in from a rooftop, holding your breath, and deciding to let them roam around a little more. You're Ezio Auditore. They're already dead and there's nothing they can do about it. Perhaps you'll drop a body at their feet to give them a good scare? Perhaps you'll poison a guard from a distance and revel as you hid in a bale of hay a split second before being spotted. Finally, you close in from a rooftop, hit X at the right moment, and plunge your blade into their neck. It was perfect, and holding your breath for those last five seconds was proof of it.

- A different multiplayer experience. As I said, I'm not big on shooters. Too much OMGOMGOMG MOVE MOVE MOVE, WTF! ACK, THEY'RE ON MY SIX, SHIIIIT! for me to enjoy. But multiplayer in this was so different, so tense yet relaxed, and such a game of cat and mouse that I had no trouble at all reaching lv. 50 within a few days. Understanding the opponent's game tactics, their combination of abilities, and couteracting them with your own arsenal was all part of the game. Trying to mimic the crowd in order to mislead your pursuers, while at the same time stalking your own prey has given me a good reason to hold my breath for several seconds at a time. And few moments will beat killing my target from inside a bale of hay, and then successfully escaping not one, but three pursuers after a chase that lasted at least two full minutes. Sigh, if only I could repeat it.