Best of the Year 2009 Videogames Part 1

Well since it is January and it's been a whole year since I did any regular posting I thought I might enlighten all of you as to my favorites of the last year.

Video Games

2009 was the year of the Action/Adventure game, seeing an unprecedented glut of high quality releases all focusing around this hard to pin down genre that nonetheless endears as a mainstay of the industry and a favorite of this particular gamer and while there were some other major releases none of them really held a candle to the Action/Adventure titles that dominated the stage. Anyway here's my obligatory list of titles that made the grade this year...

Infamous
In June gamers were treated to a one-two punch of Sandbox Superhero games, one where you play as a misanthropic mutant in a blood filled rampage through New York, the other where you play as an Electrical Superman who can choose the role of Hero or Villain while he searches for the secret behind the events that empowered him and that have been laying waste to his city. Infamous developed by Suckerpunch and exclusively for the Playstation 3 is the second of those. You play as Cole McGrath, a man who gains electrical super powers, destroys a large portion of Empire City, his home and must now contend with a bevy of superpowered foes in a quest to learn about the disaster and himself. Two things about InFamous really stood out to me, for one it's a 3rd Person Shooter rather than a Brawler and it's the only super hero game I've played that really makes you FEEL like a HERO. This is something that oddly defines the game in a way you might not expect as I noticed something about reviews of InFamous, those who took the Villain Path did not enjoy it much and gave it a low score. Those who took the path of the Hero seemed to get a whole lot more enjoyment out of the game since when playing the hero path you get to see your actions inspire the population of Empire City, they put up posters of you, rally against the supervillains taking over neighborhoods, clean up the streets and cheer you as you go by. You feel like a hero who has made a difference in the world, this city is BETTER and it's because of you and the choices you've made. I have yet to go through the villain path myself, but a friend assures me that it's not really worth it, being a Hero is where it's at and InFamous is good at conveying that idea.