Game of the Year from ManusDei!

The Good, The Better, and The Unfortunate. 

Welcome to ManusDei's Game of the Year article. First of all, I would like to wish everyone a safe New Years and a fantastic 2011. Also, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, whatever it may have been. What follows is my personal snapshot of this year in gaming. But enough with pleasantries. You do not read our articles to find warm and cozy wishes or to feel better about yourself. No. You read them because you want to know our honest, somewhat broken, and always entertaining views of what is going on in the gaming world. If you do not fall into that category, pretend that you do. Then it will still be right. Thanks & Gig'em.

The Good (Runner Up to Game of the Year): Halo Reach

To be brutally honest, I'm a huge fan of Halo Reach. It is a near-perfect blend of the Halo and Call of Duty games. When I was playing the beta, I knew this was one game I would have to own. And thus I found myself at my first midnight release (all you intense gamers are probably crying because I have only been to one, and all you casual gamers are crying because I went to any at all....). Mind you, I am a very biased player of most games these days. I prefer online modes where you are pitted against other real-life players instead of trudging through campaign content (I'm probably signing my death warrant). I cannot tell you the last campaign I played for more than a few levels and maybe even completed. Unless you count *spoiler alert* WoW *end spoiler alert*. But back to the task at hand. Essentially what I'm saying is, all I have played is multiplayer matchmaking. But do not be fooled by my lack of breadth into the many wonders of Halo Reach. I have been told many first-hand accounts of the excellence and badassery that is the campaign, firefight, and co-op modes. And, dare I say, those accounts may have factored into my decision. But I believe the real pride and joy of Bungie's release is matchmaking.

I have played various matchmaking game types from previous Halo games, and my favorites still stand in Reach: Team Slayer, Team Swat, Arena Doubles (once Team Doubles), and Rumble Pit. Of these, my favorite depends on the day and how I am playing. Doubles tends to be my favorite, because even if my teammate sucks I can usually worry about the other team on my own. Slayer... depends on the rest of my team (teehee, Team Slayer relies on team, teehee). Suppressing fire, holding power weapons, lots of stuff you just cannot do on your own, no matter how hard you try. Swat is a very volatile game type. You can get 30 kills in one game, go plus 25 K/D, and then get DOMINATED in your next game. With headshots being a one hit kill, internet connectivity plays a bit of a role. But it really just depends on who is feeling it in that game. And finally we have Rumble Pit. The real way to get better at all Halo games. Some of you are probably whining about kill-stealing and always getting shot from everywhere. But guess what? That's how you get better! If you can kill someone one-on-one, have half or no shields, stay alive long enough to see who is shooting at you now, and manage to kill them, you have done something worthwhile. You learn how to survive, when to run, and what battles to fight. Sometimes you will get very frustrated. Deal with it. It happens to all of us. Get better.

So... Lunch later?

Before I go into why Reach did not get my number one spot, I want to talk about a few more features I enjoy about it. One is the new aiming system, which adjusts the size of your reticule based on how often you are firing. If you take a few moments between shots (depending on the gun), you will have an accurate shot. Fire too quickly, and you will find yourself missing what you swear to be headshots. This is a very Call of Duty-esque feature that adds an extra level of skill to the franchise. Timing between shots has become very important. Also, the new grenade mechanics are quite good. Frags are spinning when they are thrown, and bounce much more realistically than in previous games. Except for the odd lack of bounce that occurs depending on where exactly you throw it, but that is only on rare occasions. And stickies. Well. Stickies are God's gift to gaming. Wonderful, those little suckers. The new loadout system is another piece that reminds me of Call of Duty, but adds a whole new level of play to the Halo franchise. Usually, it is excellent, but I do have to say one thing... screw you dude who is using armor lock. I stuck you twice. Curse your children. Another new feature I praise heavily is the responsiveness to player opinion. This comes in two forms: voting for game types and levels, and regular updates based on voting and feedback from players. Bungie adds specific game types if they are chosen enough in the voting rounds, and throws in various other updates as needed. This is a fantastic adjustment to what used to be a more rigid take-what-you-bought system.

But every rose has its thorn(s). The biggest thorn for me is the change in player skill rating. Sure, you can play arena where you get a rating and eventually get placed in a “bracket” to play similar players. After that season is over, you can get rated again. And while this is a good way to overcome the obstacle in Halo 3 of having too much experience and not being able to increase your rating, or having your skill change (for better or worse) but your rating stay the same, I think this takes away from the skill-rated play which I loved about Halo 3. Sure, there was no way I would ever be rated a 50. But seeing someone with that rating always inspired a bit of awe in me. That person (or whoever they bought their account from) put some serious time into that game and was really good. That piece is missing from Reach. You have the experience rankings, game-by-game ratings, season ratings, and online stats. But that awe-inspiring piece that resulted from seeing a 50-rated player just is not there. Other than that, there is little I do not like about Reach. And any problems I do have will probably be ironed out by Bungie as the game evolves.

All-in-all, Halo Reach is one of the best games on the market. With all the new features, and the regular updates from Bungie, what is already a great game will continue to grow. Halo Reach is my runner up.

The Better (Game of the Year): World of Warcraft – Cataclysm

Now I am really asking for it. Wah. He picked an expansion for his game of the year. Wah. He is just a WoW-nerd. Wah. MMO's are not legitimate games. Wah. All I hear is “Wah,” not the stuff in between. So quit wasting your breath. I have been playing World of Warcraft since vanilla (that means I played it before any expansions). I was not a serious player by any stretch of the imagination. Well, at the time anyway. My pride and joy was my level 27 Dwarf paladin, from back in the day when pallies were absolutely ridiculous to play. It was not until the third expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, that I became a bit of a WoW-junkie. Within a few months, I took a squishy level 1 priest to level cap and was living the life of a healer. It helped that I was the luckiest SOB to ever walk the face of Azeroth, because I was consistently rolling the highest rolls for new gear. What I am trying to say is, I was pretty big into WoW pre-Cataclysm. And Cat boasted many changes and updates that intrigued me. Could Blizzard deliver a substantial increase in gameplay? Could they make WoW more casual and more serious? Could Blizzard outdo themselves and remake their franchise?

Absolutely.

When it comes to Cat, I do not even know where to start. And before I say anything more, I want to warn you that I will probably miss a few things. Deal with it. There is too much awesome to put into one article.

The new talent trees are fantastic. I can make a half-decent tree without having to go look online because I actually understand what each talent does. The entire ability system has been redone. There are no longer levels of skills to buy, they just scale with your character level. And new skills are announced to you when you level, as well as being listed in your spellbook. Many class mechanics have been adjusted. I am personally familiar with changes to priests, and it appears we may actually be competitive healers again. Instead of just face-rolling the keyboard, groups must actually decide what enemies to crowd control, who to burn down first, and who to avoid even in basic instances. While some may complain that WoW has become harder, I would challenge them to say that WoW has just become more involved. Know what you are doing, and carry out your role.

It actually is pretty easy being green. When you are a badass

Instancing is not the only way to gear early on. Gaining reputation with the various factions can almost completely gear an entry-level 85. And by completely gear, I mean get you to the item-level requirement for heroic instances. Oh. My. God. Heroics hurt. But I can save that chat for later. Actually... never. You can find that out on your own. Forget what I said before. Heroics are loads of fun! Bring your friends!

The map changes and new leveling zones are well done. The first shock I had was riding the zeppelin from Northrend to Orgrimmar to start leveling from 80 to 85. When I got to Orgrimmar, I did not even know where I was. Having been redesigned for flight, many areas in the old world of Azeroth have changed. It takes a little getting used to. But damn flying there is nice. The new leveling zones are some of the best new features in WoW. All of the zones change based on where you are in the quest lines. And questing in those zones is very streamlined. Quests generally come in groups, and lead you on to new quest locations. Only once or twice in the entire leveling process did I have to wonder where to go to next. The zones themselves are very unique and help leveling seem less ridiculous. But there is only so much you can do to help assuage the experience requirements for higher levels. Blizzard... you devil you. But the process did not feel that bad. Hopefully leveling is relatively pain-free for any other characters I feel like capping...

Well...that kind of sucks.

Having not had the chance to raid any of the new dungeons in Cataclysm, I cannot personally vouch for how good any of the raids may be. However, simply comparing the number of raids should be enough. In their previous expansion, Blizzard released one dungeon at a time: Naxxramas, Vault of Archavon, Ulduar, Trial of the Champion, and Icecrown Citadel. At release, Cataclysm included Blackwing Descent, Bastion of Twilight, Throne of the Four Winds, and Baradin Hold. Baradin Hold is supposed to be similar to the Vault of Archavon, a PvP raid that players can go through when they have control over the surrounding area. But the other three raids are described to be entry-level raids like Naxxramas was in the previous expansion. This could mean that wings may be added to each raid, and those wings will be more difficult but we will not see any more dungeons. Or we may get both new wings and new dungeons. For the time being, there are four raids currently available to players, which is double the number the previous expansion shipped with. Hopefully this is a sign that raid content in Cataclysm will be grand in both depth and breadth.

As I said before, I could not hope to cover everything I would like to in one article about Cataclysm. But let it suffice to say that Blizzard has reforged WoW, making it something that new and old players alike can enjoy. Happy raiding!

The Unfortunate (Gaming Disappointment of the Year): Microsoft Kinect

As a forewarning, I do not own and therefore do not have extensive experience with Kinect. However, gathering information from reviews has proved one thing: Kinect has a lot of room to grow.

I have three potential reasons why Microsoft released Kinect when it did. One – Kinect was actually complete and this was the product they intended to be on shelves. Two – the holiday season was coming up, and Microsoft needed a big, new product to release to compete with Nintendo and Sony. Or three – with the Wii and PS3's technologies evolving beyond the standard controller, Microsoft needed to get something out there to gain a foothold and sate their waiting fans. Of these three reasons, two and three do not require an exemplary product at release. Just a product to release. And that is why Kinect is a disappointment. It has potential, but is far from a complete product.

I like where Microsoft took Kinect. With both voice and movement controls, there is a lot of opportunities for a multitude of new games on the market. But it feels like a partially finished product, rushed to meet a growing demand. I am very excited for software updates and potential hardware upgrades which could easily take Microsoft soaring over its two big competitors. But right now, there is only a mediocre foothold.

Better luck next year.

Happy New Year! BTHO 2011!