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Based on personal outlook, feedback of the game in general. Any game released in the U.S. from January 1, 2009 to this blog’s publishing date including main consoles and their downloadables (DsiWare, XBLA, Wiiware, PSN store downloads), computer games, and handheld games. Ports do not count. 20 great games were narrowed down to the top ten, with the platform I played it on in parentheses:

Honorable Mention: Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) – Probably out of the top ten due to playing it so late in the year and feeling a little stingy with Valve for releasing a sequel a mere year after the original L4D came busting out. It’s a great game I liked playing, but like I said, it was for a short time and didn’t find it that terribly addicting. Sawry.

10.) Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360) – Strange to find my most heavily anticipated game for 2008 at number 10. Hype fueled my love for the fifth installment of Resident Evil as well as a fascination with the environment and a passion for Resident Evil 4, which survives as one of my all-time favorite games.
9.) Torchlight (PC) – Ok, so no new Diablo, but instead gamers were delighted by a little game called Torchlight which revived enough of the former game to make players sticky with nostalgia. Plus, it’s not $60 like a lot of lame games ask you for.

8.) Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time (PS3) – The final chapter of the Ratchet & Clank Future trilogy went off with a bang of fun dialogue, awesome story, and fantabulous weapons. HELL. YES. Take a break from that photo-realism BS and load up on some Lombax.

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

7.) Miami Shark (Flash) – A gem that has flown under the radar for most, unfortunately. I’m not heavily into Flash games you play online, but Miami Shark is an exception and a game I had recommended openly to everyone I knew, and as expected, they totally loved it too. With pick up and play controls and simple objectives (eating dolphins, biting into jumbo jets and dragging them down into the water), it’s hard to find fault here. Play it for free on Newgrounds.

6.) Machinarium (PC) – PC gaming is dead. Indie games are silly and unimpressive. Then came Machinarium, a beautiful independent game worthy of anyone’s short attention span. The highly-stylized indie puzzle-adventure game features some of the best hand-drawn animations I’ve seen in a game. One of the most memorable independent ventures to date.

5.) Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS) – I doubted it in the early stages of development, but playing the first GTA game on the DS was a total surprise. Knobby controls and lack of hookers aside, you cannot beat the drug-dealing side missions and the surprising breadth that came packaged inside Chinatown Wars. It was the first good game I played in 2009 and I’m hoping there will be another one like it and soon!

Plants vs. Zombies

4.) Plants vs. Zombies (PC) – That’s right; the highest-ranking zombie-themed game on my list is PopCap’s PvZ, the tower defense puzzler that I’ve played nearly every day since I downloaded it. While it may not have a story like I demand from most games and its replay value may be limited for those who demand a challenge every time they load a game, it’s hard to argue against the fun genius behind fighting off zombies with peashooting plants.

3.) Demon’s Souls (PS3) – The Atlus game that put the hard into hardcore soul-collecting while ass-kicking. While I consider myself the cutesy RPG player who loves Pokemon more than their lunch, Demon’s Souls is a step above ordinary while wearing the wicked brow of frustration that comes in the saddlebags of a good game.

2.) Dragon Age: Origins (PC) – The RPG that allows me to be openly gay toward others and play with cute dragons A constant positive word-of-mouth gave the game stable but not outrageous hype that fueled a run-around with it and later powered it to the number two spot for 2009. I’ll be bringing this one into the limelight of 2010 as it wastes my life away.

1.) Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3) – It’s hard to give the second installment of Uncharted a reason to not say it’s one of the best games of the year and not the best one for me personally. In my review of the game, I ended up giving it an all-time high for me of a 9.8 score and in the writing part– the most important part of the review– it was difficult to not embellish on the details of it I liked. Yeah sure it leaned heavily on its predecessor, but it feels so unusual to relate a game so closely to a movie and with so few blemishes to its disposition. Hats off to Uncharted 2, my personal game of the year.

Without a doubt, 2007 was a year where things got heavy in the video game industry. One game that is still thriving nearly two years later is Infinity Ward’s masterpiece Call of Duty 4, which snuck under the radar to become one of the greatest first-person shooters ever, overtaking the overhyped Halo 3 in the game of the year race for shooter games. It was the first game in the Call of Duty franchise to change the Nazi-fighting scenario, switching over to modernized weapons and badass guns. Visually, the game still looks good today as it did at launch with some fantastic particle physics and close-to-heart realism.

However, now that we’re in 2009 and in several months 2010, the first Modern Warfare game is becoming outdated and the industry is looking around for the next great first-person shooter. With many great-looking titles coming out the second half of this year and early next year, it’s easy to start picking early favorites in this race.

• MAG (Playstation 3) - Despite having such a simple name, MAG was one of the most talked about games upon its announcement and at E3. It packs the ability to engage 256 players at once with interactive maps that allow players to change the flow of battle in unprecedented customization. New features to look for in this game include voiceless battle direction, so there is no headset required to give instruction to teammates and instead, players are given a visual aid to destroy or infiltrate a specific object or area. The bad news about this game is its PS3 exclusivity, and being the least dispersed console on the market, that could cause some problems for it– upon release, I personally doubt anyone could find a map with 255 other people playing on it at once. Industry experts give the PS3 a couple of years until its numbers start fleshing out, and by then we’ll probably see a MAG 2. Maybe next time, guys…

• Modern Warfare 2 (PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3) - The one we’re all waiting for, the second Modern Warfare continues the storyline CoD4 started in its singleplayer story mode while attempting to keep the tradition of a great shooter going strong. However, Infinity Ward is playing favorites from its E3 2009 announcement that two Xbox 360-exclusive maps will reach Modern Warfare 2 gamers following its release… a bit premature, don’t you think? We’ve hardly had a decent preview of the game, especially considering those awfully vague teasers screened millions of times by excited gamers. It’s likely to be a bestseller like its older brother, but at this point I haven’t personally seen much to be thrilled about.

• Crysis 2 (PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3) - Out of all shooters released this gen, Crysis was one of the best looking ones hands-down, requiring the most powerful computers to run full-resolution. This created a lot of love-hate concerning the game, being PC-exclusive and being so graphically amazing the fanboys got jealous. A teaser of Crysis 2 was unveiled at E3 2009 and now that it is reaching out to consoles, we could see some serious competition in the FPS genre. However, if Crysis 2 is going to make a splash, it will need to improve its singleplayer story mode and stray away from the Crytek crash and burn syndrome Far Cry 2 suffered.

• Halo: Reach (Xbox 360) - The series that made Xbox and Xbox 360 best-selling consoles is returning to the 360 in the form of a hushed prequel, slated for release in fall 2010. While Halo 3 wasn’t the best the series had to offer and competed for the crown with CoD4, loyal Spartans will have much to look forward to in Bungie’s latest effort in the Halo universe. A deep mythology coupled with a legacy of some of the best FPS mechanics experienced, we can all hope for a lot despite the cloud cover shrouding the game in mystery. With Halo: ODST coming out with Reach’s beta this fall, we’ll be able to get further early impressions of just how awesome this one will turn out.

Yup, Rectrix is finally on summer break from film school! Unfortunately, it only lasts three weeks and I have homework due the first week of class but hey, sleeping in and not stressing over a film for the first time since January is NICE. Had a nice last week of class apart from the all-nighters spent completing final projects. My class went to visit the feature film developing lab/post-production suite over at Cineworks Digital Studios here in Miami and I must say it is OSSUM. Certainly a huge eye-opener for anyone still using film and especially those who sit in the dark theaters watching the latest feature. I was lucky enough to see the colorist working on the dailies for a new episode of Burn Notice on the Da Vinci machine which costs $700k brand new. The whole place was chilly though since they have to keep it a steady 72 degrees to not affect the machines and film sooo I’d have to wear a sweater to work there

The machine used to develop 16 and 35mm film, fed into vats of chemicals in a dark room on the other side of the wall.

But anyways, enough about that! Got some new reviews and previews coming very soon to the site so check those out once they surface.

Also, lots of exciting events coming up with SFX-360, as always We’ve got a Gears of War 2 community night over Xbox Live along with a LAN event at ITT in Davie, Florida. AND, let’s not forget our monthly LAN at Flippers Cinema on July 4 in Hollywood, Florida. We’re pretty much everywhere

Been uber-busy this week thanks to production days, which are in their waning moments thankfully, and am now finishing final projects. I haven’t had a heck of a lot of time lately to post much, but I felt the need to toss this one out there. I need a break from the grind anyways

Nintendo’s latest course of action has offended the gamer within that loves a good challenge and gets a high off of beating tough stages, finger-tangling songs and impossible bosses. Miyamoto has confirmed that a new “optional” setting, to be featured in the upcoming Super Mario Brothers Wii will allow players to coast through difficult sections they are experiencing trouble passing. What. The. Hell.

I’ll admit, some games have their parts that are so unfairly difficult that I dread reaching that stage of the game because I know it will aggravate me to tears. Playing Virgin Interactive’s Aladdin on the Genesis, the first game I ever beat, there was that one part right smack in the middle of the game where you have to escape the Cave of Wonders by out-running/dodging these giant rocks while avoiding the spitting lava. This level was hard, much harder than the very last stage including the boss battle with Jafar, which at the time confused me because I felt the hardest part should be deep into the game as though you are traveling through the circles of hell. However, maybe there is a bit of a silver lining to the news in getting past those annoying game glitches that make progression impossible. There was a part in God of War I was ripping hair out over– I swear it was a glitch, because every time I tried to make this backwards-jump Kratos would fall and die no matter how I angled myself. A level glitch in Assassin’s Creed also dealt similar blows to gamers I’ve spoken with, sticking Altair in precarious danger with little defense thanks to some bad coding. But those aren’t real excuses, are they?

The news comes doubly-annoying to me because it’s being introduced in the Wii version of Super Mario. Before submitting to the DS version, I hadn’t played Mario in eons, and I must say, it is one annoying game. I still don’t see why everyone loves Mario so much. Perhaps it is because I fail at approximating how far I have to jump. I didn’t realize until I was mostly done with the game that I could skid and even throw fireballs after a Power-up… yeah, I felt pretty stupid But generally, Mario is not a terribly challenging game. Most of the time you will have the same enemies with the occasional boss and the obstacles do not change on you. Mario was designed to be forgiving and fun, which clearly has been proven throughout years of undying popularity. Sorry to those who have bad hand-eye coordination, but if you cannot get through Mario without computer help then you should just give up.

Worst of all, this plague will spread onto on other titles after debuting on Super Mario Bros Wii. What is the point of playing a game if you don’t even bothering playing it? This makes unlimited health/ammo cheat codes look like a valiant effort on the behalf of lazy gamers everywhere.

One of my most anticipated games for this year’s E3 festivities is Alan Wake, Max Payne creator Sam Lake’s latest development. For the longest time, it dangled dangerously close to the edge of being completely canceled and I feared it may not show its face at this year’s conference. Luckily for me and the legion of gamers behind me were treated to new stuff about the game, including these tasty screens!