GotD Top 10 – 7. Burnout 3: Takedown

If Gran Turismo is car porn then Burnout is car snuff. Not just any old snuff though, big budgeted snuff directed by Michael Bay and powered by Mountain Dew. I’m not going to let the comparison die there though. If the original is Bad Boys 1, and the sequel is Bad Boys 2 then Burnout 3 is, surprisingly enough, the third Bad Boys film where Will Smith and Martin Lawrence harness the power of the Earth’s core into battle suits to take on mecha-dinosaurs and a super-powered Gary Busey. This is the stuff of nightmares for cars and the stuff of dreams for gamers.

GotD Top 10 – 8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

It’s the biggest and most popular FPS of the decade. The mission Infinity Ward showed at E3 2007 to debut the game was incredible but everyone still had their eye on Halo 3 that year. No disrespect to Halo 3, which is certainly a brilliant game, but for me CoD4 was another level. The mechanics were more than a match for Halo, both of which hone the console FPS to near-perfection but in the case of single player Call of Duty 4 delivers more bang per buck. From the start it’s clear this game is special with a level of drama and sense of the cinematic that only bubbled under the surface of the first three games.

GotD Top 10 – 9. Rock Band

Harmonix made a huge impact on gaming in the last ten years. The first two Guitar Hero games kicked off the newest trend to hit consoles. The concept and wonderfully silly peripherals have seen more people delve into their pockets then anyone would have imagined. After two successful Guitar Hero Games evolved the rhythm action beyond the Rezs and Gitaroo Mans of the world, Harmonix moved on to making a game with added drums and microphone.

GotD Top 10 – 10. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

You may be thinking this is an unlikely game to be on a Game of the Decade list and you’d be right, but don’t be thinking the rest of the list differs all that much from convention. Chaos Theory for me was a wonderful culmination for the series, honing the already tight controls and adding the extra sheen of some very impressive graphics (at the time). Double Agent, the only outing for the series this current gen, was rushed and not the swansong that Chaos Theory would have been for the old style of Cell game before next year’s Conviction.

Game of the Decade – Prologue

The new year is a time for merriment, hangovers and making plans for the coming year you can’t possibly keep. In the gaming industry though it’s a time for lists, lots and lots of lists. Game of the Year lists. Maybe some voting thrown in there and an overly-complicated Excel document tallying points and all sorts. Game of the Year is relatively easy though compared to Game of the Decade. It’s my first full decade of gaming so my first GotD needs to be done right!

That Level – Modern Warfare 2 Breaks New Ground

It’s here.The biggest game of the year has arrived and already it has doubled the world record first day sales set by Grand Theft Auto IV with an astounding 1.23 million copies finding their way into the public’s hands. If there was ever any argument against it being the biggest franchise in gaming today there is certainly no doubt now. This however isn’t a review, but instead my thoughts of the controversial level that is soon to find its ways into the pages of the British tabloids. As you can guess the following post will contain spoilers.

What’s Been In My Disk Drive

With no inspiration left following my last shot at blogging fame I thought to myself a quick post about what I’ve been playing recently is in order. It’s been a good few weeks for me and gaming despite the return of university putting a stop to just how much of time is spent with my trust black and white pals. The first few big releases of the final part of 2009 have arrived, Batman was first and has already been reviewed and the other two are Halo 3: ODST and Fifa 10.

Could there BE any more juice!?!

Halo 3: ODST is a great game sure but everyone knows deep down it was just a cheap vehicle for a Firefly reunion. Nathan Fillion takes centre stage as Captain Malcolm “Dutch” Reynolds doing the best Han Solo impression of the decade sending Whedon fanboys into a frenzy. Adam Baldwin and Alan Tudyk complete the trio with Baldwin phoning in his Jayne character who to anyone unaware of what Firefly is (most people then) just appears to be a royal twat. It remains a successful reunion, probably more so than the Seinfeld one currently happening in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Maybe video games are the perfect platform for bringing TV show casts back together. It’s handy then that I’ve come up with a few ideas as to what these could be.

Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360 Review)

Batman: Arkham Asylum kicks off the pre-winter releases with the weight of expectation bearing down on it like the Dark Knight himself. Promising since its announcement it’s pleasing to discover the game lives up to the hype surrounding it. Despite its minor niggles and loss of imagination in the final acts, the game is a resounding success and much more than the sum of its parts.

Telling a l33t Tale

Storytelling is a difficult aspect of any medium to master let alone accomplish to a passable standard. Video Games are a totally different beast to that of film or books which follow a strict path of A to B. A games story only flows as fast as its player wants it to and that makes pacing an issue.