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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

I came to my senses very recently (try about twenty minutes ago) that I am totally hooked on PopCap Games’ Plants vs. Zombies. As a way of “giving back” to the vast community of gamers out there and vindicate my addiction, I’d like to take a moment and walk ya’ll through the crazy awesome Survival mode of mini-games. Consider this a brief survival guide/safari zone tour of how-to’s.

How To Survive in Survival Mode

• Plant a sunflower on every row – Sacrifice in war is never easy, but it must be done to secure victory! Before you start planting too many peashooters, it’s a good idea to plunk a sunflower down in every row on your lawn. I always put mine in the second to last row in-between two peashooter types that are there to protect it AND the house at once. Only time you should opt out of using sunflowers for every row is for the night and fog levels– the cheaper mushrooms are a bigger help as you’re negotiating more for sunlight than normal.
• Upgrade your Sunflowers – Especially if you’re playing in the night or fog levels, you will need as much sunflower power as you can get. Turning your ordinary sunflowers into double-headed sunflowers yield twice as much sunlight as their lesser form, giving you a lot more legroom in purchasing more plants in your battle against the zombies; they won’t stand a chance after you upgrade.
• Buy the Melon thrower – For those rooftop levels, nothing bites harder than having a melon chucked at your head… especially if you’re a zombie. In the first few rounds you probably can’t afford to plant them right away, so use the corn kernel and cabbage tossers to hold down the fort while you build up enough sun power.

There's a zombie on your lawn... (btw, this poor player is being hopelessly flanked. Don't leave your pool rows unattended!)

• Plant spikeweed at the front lines – As soon as you have your sunflowers and a few peashooters in place, these puppies should be next. Plant one in the first lawn patch of every row to weaken your enemies before they get too close for comfort to your plant buddies. When you save up enough coins and jewels, buy the bigger spikeweed that delivers twice the damage– it is well worth the upgrade.
• Use fire power – Don’t doubt the flaming trunk plant type you can unlock at one point in the game. I went many games without it and after giving it a chance, I use it as soon as I have my peashooters and spikeweeds in place. As the hordes get bigger and nastier, you will need a heck of a lot of something to wipe out all the intruders while losing as few plants as possible. With only one of these guys per row, even the biggest hordes are easy to take down. It also makes things a heck of a lot easier to manage in those difficult pool levels– put one on a lily pad with a repeater on the end and you’re set!
• Plant at least one double-headed peashooter – They’re more efficient at dealing out the harshness to those pesky miner zombies than any other method while keeping your butt covered from all other advancing types. Stick one in the middle to avoid getting it eaten too early on to be of much use. Plant one instead of a regular peashooter… they only cost 25 more points anyway.
• Be ready for the gargantuan zombies! – Once the game shows you the big ugly troll zombie waiting for you on the other side of the fence, you’ll know to start beefing up ASAP. By this point, you should already have your best plants out there– preferably several repeaters behind the fire trunk plants. When you see the big ugly guy rear his head, throw a Squash at him (two of these will knock him out!) and let your plants finish him for you. To guard yourself against the other zombies behind/with him, put out a few Wallnuts to shield your crops so you can buy some time while taking down the huge zombie. (Side note: Big Ugly Zombie shows signs of wear before he dies– look for band-aids on his left arm and head.)

Zombies on your lawn? We don’t want zombies on our lawn. (Word to the wise: Stay away from the Plants vs. Zombies music video)

One awesome part about video games is a gamer can do whatever she wants to do, especially when it comes to things that are implausible or illegal in boring real life. Most of us real people that play real games are sadly aware of the painful fact that all the hot rides are inaccessible to us, and the people who do have the access to such marvelous machinery are too snobby to be bothered with building it or letting us paupers touch it Therefore I present Gaming’s Hottest Rides Part Uno of I Don’t Really Know How Many.

Part One: The Comet – Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

This car has steal me written all over it.

Living in the sultry, southern Manhattan otherwise known as Miami, it is highly appropriate for me to kick things off by discussing a ride based on a game inspired by the city itself. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the best Grand Theft Auto game ever made (I think the third was good, too, while San Andreas is a bit too ghettoy for me) and came pre-packaged with awesome 80s music, ethnic gang wars, and awesomely stylish cars parked by the fancy-shmancy golf course. One of my favorites of the bunch: the Comet.

Being a girl gamer, I cannot deny the importance of colors. If it doesn’t come in a vast array of rainbow colors, I am turned off– for example, iPods became slightly more interesting to me when they started making them different colors besides white. Bottom line, color is important. Comets enforced this theory, being featured in green, silver, light blue, red, and yellow.

Despite looking like a douchey Porsche, Comets are fun to drive after hot-wiring ones frequently left unsupervised in front of the Leaf Links Golf Course. The little two-door roadsters make a great candidate for those romps up and down the strip connecting downtown Vice City to its dock area. However, being as small as they are Comets are easy to flip over… which can be a bad thing during a multi-star cop chase or a good thing if you’re into car stunt achievements. All you need is a hooker to put the icing on the cake— sadly you can only pick up one thanks to the cozy two-seater conditions.

Pick up a few cab fares to make a purchase of the Hyman Condo in downtown Vice City and stow away 6 Comets in the roomy garage space downstairs. They’re cute, quick, and collectible; they’re Comets!