by Keith Worth

Created on: December 19, 2010   Last Updated: January 27, 2011

2012 may be the prophesied year of the apocalypse; but 2010 was the year of the gamer. The year witnessed the evolution, and revolution, of the video game industry. No matter what type of gamer you are: 2010 was the birth year of a game for you.

For the shooter advocates, this year we had four multiplayer titans dominating the shoot-em-up franchise. Realistic contemporary ywarfare games Call of Duty: Black Ops(bombarding across all current generation systems) and Battlefield Bad Company 2 Ultimate edition (taking aim on PC, PS3 and the 360) ) hit the stores hard with their gritty dynamics and explosive online popularity . Red Dead Redemption brings us a more Wild West feeling on the PS3 and 360. On the less plausible and more futuristic side of the gun, Halo: Reach shows us how the story began with the sci-fi shooting prequel for the 360. All four games are rated as Mature for their graphic content, namely the expected violence.

Role playing gamers in turn received the epic sci-fi experience of Mass Effect 2. Continuing to be affected by the player’s actions in the first game, Mass Effect 2 continues the epic and addictive story started in the first game and ups the ante. This gem is currently on the 360 and PC, soon to be released to the PS3 much to the glee of Sony fans. Fable 3 and Fallout: New Vegas may have been good rpgs and are worthy of mention, but their flaws (overly simplified system and tragically short story for the former, glitches galore and hardly distinguishable from Fallout 3 for the latter) keep them short of truly rivaling the second chapter of the Mass Effect series.

God of War 3 is a must have for action gamers – if you own a PS3 that is. Kratos continues to do what he does best: defy the Gods themselves and wreck havoc upon all those who impose him as he achieves impossible feat after feat.  Not a family game, the violence in the God of War is impressive and nudity is a recurring factor across all three games.

For something that is safe for everyone: try Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii. It’s Mario doing what Mario does best, and Yoshi is back to join the fun. These two ingredients alone should be enough to make this a winning formula, but Nintendo goes above and beyond with yet another Mario game that continues to balance the best aspects of the classic Mario games we loved in the best with innovative new features that are sure to create future Mario addicts.

Twenty-ten: the year gamers will be blaming for weeks of their lives so blissfully lost and many a paycheck devoted to the video game addiction. There was something for everyone this year, and maybe even a few games that were everything to someone. There were several great games released this year but the above should be considered some of the “short list” for the essential games of the year.

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