Games that I have played in 2010

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Well, it's the last day of the year, as well as that of the decade. I'll just go about with a post listing various games that I have played in 2010. Please note this is not going to be an exact detailed review but just a list and maybe a brief thumbs up or a thumbs down. So in no particular order, here's the list:

1) Hitman : Blood Money - 9/10. This one was really good. Best Hitman game till date. A very interesting plot and also the realism and the different ways you can accomplish your goal makes it look more like a movie. So you can play again and again with new methods to kill the target. However the only thing i didn't like about the game is that, as 47 you need to kill a quite a few innocent people in the last mission. This, you never were compelled to do in the previous hitman games.

2)Grand Theft Auto 4 -8.5/10. Ok let's admit this. Vice City was much bigger than Liberty City and San Andreas is larger than Vice and Liberty put together. But when we are exploring Liberty in GTA4, how can it be better than the last 2 installments right ? WRONG !!! Rockstar has outdone itself again. Size of the city does not matter when you have superbly superior graphics, insane moves, a better and longer storyline and everything else, for example having a handheld mobile phone to take missions from rather than scouting the city for a public booth. Also multiple missions can be accepted together since some missions run for days unlike previous installments. And the Graphics is simply awesome. But one thing I noticed was the AI in the game was not that very good and sometimes you could easily defeat an enemy or evade the cops because of their foolishness. The AI could have been better. And there were fewer vehicles than previous installments. Other than that, a really good game. (But Tommy Vercetti of Vice City remains my favorite GTA playable character)

3)Aliens Vs Predator- 6.5/10 This one is the latest installment. Personally I liked only the first two Alien movies and the original Predator movie starring Arnold. I didn't play the original 1999 AvP game and the 2 AvP movies sucked. Ok the first one was still tolerable. So I wasn't really eager to play this one but a friend told me it had a Doom 3 feel in it. I had simply just loved Doom 3 so I picked up this one on his recommendation. And it was not that bad as I expected. But nowhere as close to Doom 3. Doom 3 is one of those games which had scared the living daylights out of me and I'll never forget the Doom 3 experience. It just didn't happen with AvP. It's just a one time play for me. Ok maybe two but not more. Storyline was quite poor and unimpressive though the good gameplay compensates for it. I thoroughly enjoyed controlling the Predator. The Alien and the marine part was not that enjoyable. And there was some unrealism. As a marine you could easily just knock back an Alien with a melee weapon which I found absurd. The multiplayer system was good though. Overall not a great game. But still it manages to be ok. And aah yes..It's a bit high on the blood and gore department.

4)The Saboteur-5.5/10 Yet another of those GTA clones. This one is set in 1940s Paris. Which has been taken over by the Nazis. You need to do stupid jobs like blowing their hideouts or racing in antique cars. This game has great graphics, but I found it very boring. Nothing exclusive or special about this one. And some missions are too hard. But what I loved about the game to rate it 5.5 was the graphics and the overall look. It had a somewhat classy look and a unique setting. But then that was the only good thing in the game. And yes, the AI was horribly disgusting. Avoid this one. Go for any GTA game instead.

5) Desperados 2- 6.5/10 This is a sequel to the Highly acclaimed strategy game Desperados which was set in the typical wild west cowboy country and released way back in 2001, yet boasted of Great graphics and superb gameplay. Now it even includes a Third person view. I remember I had played Desperados when I was 13 and had fallen in love with the game. Desperados 2 released in 2006 but i played it just recently. The game is good, but the story is very poor, and there is not much to do in a mission. I feel the first one was much better and addictive. If you don’t like Cowboys, avoid this one.

6) Ninja Blade-4/10 I installed this one only because I Love Ninjas. And it still disappointed. Frustrating controls, add to that you cannot save in between levels[which take anywhere between 2-3 hours to complete], with 4-5 bosses you need to keep fighting. Story is the same old viral infection type a.l.a Resident evil though playing experience is nowhere as close to RE. series. I only completed the game to actually scrutinize the game top to bottom or I had decided to delete the game midway without completing it . If there is any reason that I rated it 4, it's because of it's cool cinematography (It relies on quick time events which i appreciated) and because I like Ninjas in general. That's it. Just one word. AVOID.

7) Civilization V- 3/10. I cant believe how people find this game to be so good[it got a 9.2 rating on Gamefaqs]. Its horribly lame. Doesn’t even come close to the Age of Empires series which is another favorite series of mine. Its even worse off than Age of Mythology[which was released way back in 2002]. You just choose a hero[Gandhi for India], build a civilization, form pacts, and just sit around trying to figure out inane ways of keeping your population happy. That’s it. Just forget this game.

8)Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction-9.5/10 . Another game that I enjoyed playing. I have enjoyed playing all the Splinter Cell games and this one is no exception. This guy Sam Fisher is fantastic. He never does grow old. He's still as good as he was in the first installment( though he's grown quite grumpy in this game) Earlier I used to like Solid Snake from Metal Gear series more than Sam but with each Splinter Cell game, I'm liking Sam more. While the earlier installments relied more on stealth, this one has an equal dosage of direct action and stealth. I loved the storyline as well. It was like being in some James Bond Spy action movie. Sam's codename used by Third Echelon is "panther," and that's fitting. In past Splinter Cell games, enemies were meant to be avoided; in Conviction, Sam is a hunter. He isn't avoiding enemies, he's stalking them. The AI in this game is extremely strong( which obviously make the missions difficult sometimes) Two things about the game I didn't like. The first one was that it ended pretty soon. It had a very short length in comparison to previous installments. The second one was a continuity issue which I'm surprised nobody complained of. In Double agent, Sam had an option of either shooting Lambert or shooting Washington, a villain. So he may decide not to kill Lambert if he wants to. But Conviction doesn't take this part into account. The game assumes that you shot Lambert dead in the previous installment. ( I had not done that so I hated this part). But other than these two things, a really brilliant game. I'll play it again very soon.

9) Assassins Creed 2 - 8/10. Quite good. Lots of improvement over its predecessor. I enjoyed this game, it's highly addictive and it can indeed give you hours and hours of fun. And it has Leonardo Da Vinci.

10) Caesar IV -7.5/10- This game is one of the most addictive games I've ever played. I was just hooked on to my PC and couldn't stop playing. City building games have always fascinated me and I am also a Rome series fan. Caesar IV is about setting up the interconnected chains that civilization relies upon. You have to handle every detail, including housing, sanitation and health care, food production and distribution, security, religion, and more. Having plenty of workers means nothing if you can't keep them fed, nor does having lots of buildings if you don't have enough engineers to maintain them. The sheer variety of structures that you can build is impressive, and one of the satisfying moments in the game is when you do construct a self-sufficient city that produces such a large variety of goods. Unlike previous installments, now you can even view your city from different angles in 3D. The lighting and weather effects were fabulous. Cheers to Tilted mill Entertainment for giving us a fabulous classic game. Get this one.

11) Batman: Arkham Asylum- 10/10 . Last but not the least, probably one of the best games I have ever played. Batman Arkham Asylum. Well I think I have posted a full on review of this game a few months back so I will not write anthing new here. Just check out the review. All I have to say is that the game developers deserve a standing ovation for this gem.

That's all I played last year. I had started with Red Faction: Guerrilla but didn't get the time to complete it. But will do it soon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR..

My favorite Video Game Heroes......

Movies have given us heroes like Rambo and Bond, comics have given us heroes like Batman and Superman, so why should video games be left behind. A particular playable character in a game has often been repeated in sequels of the series and with time has become a cult classic and a brand by itself spawning several other merchandise. These video game heroes are no less a legend and are generally modified and refined with each sequel in a series. I have quite a few favorite heroes myself. I'm going to name the ones that are my absolute favourites. I think I'll cut it short to top 5.

5. Solid Snake

Game series : Metal Gear series

First appearance : Metal Gear (1987)

Last appearance : Metal Gear Solid 4-Guns of the Patriots (2008)

So are you fond of mercenaries ? If you are, there's no way you can hate Solid Snake. He is an outright action hero but somewhere somehow deep within himself he has a very soft part as well. He has been in the battlefield half of his life and is a hardened veteran. He takes orders from his superior Campbell in most of the games. The metal gear games are generally infiltration games where you need to infiltrate a very large enemy base . His attitude and personality actually keep changing throughout the series. While the first games show him to be cold-hearted , from Metal Gear Solid, a more humane side to him is clearly visible. He even flirts with Mei Ling , his technical assistant and shows extreme compassion for other NPCs like Meryl and Octacon. He is the typical rugged hansome tough guy a girl could fall for. He is a loner as well and in Metal Gear solid , it is revealed that he is the result of the Genome project, where the genes of the greatest mercenary of his time, Big Boss were used to create supersoldiers. Solid Snake and his arch-nemesis cum twin brother Liquid Snake were the first ones. He grows old as the series progresses, his thoughts grow philosophical and he aids Raiden the playable cgharacter of MGS2 in his mission. In later installments, an old Solid snake returns as a protagonist and though his skills are not as they were earlier, his willpower is still the same, he still cracks humoros jokes etc. At the end of his life, Snake finds peace and says he will live long enough to see what happens to the world he helped shape. He is basically the "Rambo" of the video game world.

4. Sam Fisher

Game series : Tom Clancy's Splinter cell series

First appearance : Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell ( 2002)

Last appearance : Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction (2010)

Sam Fisher is the one who beat Solid Snake in this competition by a narrow margin. They're both close competitors and I had a tough time deciding which one should have a better ranking. Both of them are exceptionally cool and somewhat similar. Ultimately Sam Fisher won because he has some extra cool moves , he's a bit more stylish . However, in case of a hypothetical combat between the two, I think Snake would win. Sam Fisher is a person with a moral fibre. He has a daughter, and is therefore a family person and on the other hand an NSA secret agent sent on dangerous missions around the world. He is perfectly able to balance his personal life and professional life and I loved the way he was calm when he lost contact with his daughter while on a mission in the first game. In the third one (Chaos Theory), when you are sent t0 rescue an operative in your first mission, you see him tortured and electrocuted to death while dangling from a pole. If you try to cut loose the corpse, you boss tells you to stop wasting time and carry on with the mission. The way Sam answers back saying " Just because he's dead doesn't mean I have to leave him hanging in there like a meat loaf" was fantastic. This guy is amazing. In the same game, Sam needs to destroy a crash site where a plane belonging to allies crashed sometime back. When Sam tries to get all the unconscious pilots to safety, before blowing up the site, his commanding officer again discourages him saying " You don't exist Fisher. This won't earn you any medals". To this he calmly says " Medals don't help me sleep at night" referring to his moral conscience . I love this attitude of Sam Fisher. He's extremely acrobatic as well, able to perform split jumps between two walls, he's an expert in stealth. He changes in look in Double Agent and sports a bald style. He works for a terrorist organization and for the NSA as well, being a double agent. Basically, I consider him to be the "James Bond" of the video game world.

3. Max Payne

Game series : May Payne series

First appearance : Max Payne (2001)

Last appearance : Max Payne 2 :The fall of Max Payne (2003)

The character of Max Payne has appeared in just two games so far but that didn't stop me from becoming a die-hard fan of this character. And that's because of the immense X-factor of the character. He does all the matrix inspired action(adrenaline moments), takes revenge on all those who wronged him and even takes out time to romance (and make love to) Mona Sax in between all this. He is one of those badass no-nonsense cops. In the 1st game, a group of junkies high on a drug called Valkyre kill his wife and infant son. He becomes the typical drunk, serious , revengeful , less talkative cop whose only aim is to kill the ones responsible for his family's death. Max Payne looks smart and there's something dignifying about his personality. His romance with Mona Sax, another non playable protagonist (she's briefly playable for some time in Max Payne 2) is also extremely eye-catching. In the first game, you can see the sparks between them. in the 2nd game, well, they even make love. You also can't help feeling sympathy for him. In most part of the two games, his actions make him fall under the wrong side of the law even though he is right. He is framed, his colleagues betray him, he gets shouted at by his superior. He is a tough character, being able to keep all the pain inside him to himself. His wife and son's murder keep haunting him throughout the game. The character of Max Payne is extremely

nicely created, defined and developed during the game. We are given just the right amount back ground information about Max .Everything we learn in the initial part of the game is crucial information that gives us a deeper insight to what will become Max' s dark life. It is the pain and the revenge from his murdered wife and child that fuels his fire and keeps him going where

others might have turned back. He gets drugged, beaten, arrested, left for dead. But there's no stopping our hero. He finds solace momentarily in Mona Sax but even she dies in the 2nd game. Due to the tough cop image of Max, he can be called the John McClane (a role made famous by Bruce Willis in the Die Hard series) of the video game world.

2. Lara Croft

Game series : Tomb Raider series.

First appearance :Tomb Raider (1996)

Last appearance : Tomb Raider Underworld (2008)

Lara Croft has got to be the fantasy of every male gamer. Perhaps people may question me why I ranked her second even before the likes of the ones above. Hell, comeon , I'm a guy. And I couldn't resist falling for Lara Croft. No one has been able to make action and adventure so spicy and sexy. And situations she's been in.......her sexiness is not the only factor in ranking her this high. The other heroes I mentioned don't have to fight supernatural forces. But Lara Croft has been doing so throughout the Tomb Raider series. She is an archaeologist and her adventures deal with many ancient myths, ancient artifacts that have long been forgotten. She travels to mythical underworlds where old evil creatures roam and she dares to set foot where the bravest of men wouldn't. I would say she is a lot tougher than many of her male counterparts. Apart from being an expert archaeologist, she is a fantastic shooter, brilliant acrobat, and has immense knowledge about ancient scripts, objects, creatures etc. She is a brave woman . She was forced into a certain personality since she lost both her parents at an early age. She's not a very easy going person though. She always looks like she's mad at everybody. She doesn't talk to any person not concerned with her job. However you know what ? The game developers have seriously allowed the gamers a treat for their eyes. Lara's sexiness has been increasing with each passing game. It's not very uncommon that people have concentrated more on Lara's body rather than what happens in the game world. Basically, she has taken adventure games to a new height altogether. And she can kick ass as well. And her opponents are rarely human. Easily, she is one of the most famous gaming heroes. Lara Croft was played by someone who could only make the character all the more sexier( Angelina

Jolie) in the movie franchisee.

1. Agent 47

Game series :Hitman series

First appearance :Hitman Codename 47 (2000)

Last appearance : Hitman Blood Money(2006)

Agent 47 tops my list of top 5 video game heroes. I am totally spellbound by this character. However he is more of an anti-hero than a total hero. 47 is a mystery. His character, origin and personality will be very difficult to explain if you are not familiar with the Hitman games. He was artificially created by combining the DNA of five men, each of whom were geniuses in their respective fields, most of them expert in combat and weaponry skills and one , a scientist. Therefore, 47 is the most perfectly evolved man in the world now. Engineered from conception to be the perfect killer, 47's strength, speed, and intellect are above the human norm.

His name comes from the last two digits of a bar code on the back of his head – (640509040147). He works for an agency as an assassin or hitman and performs various kills for the agency for a living. He speaks very little, has no friends or accomplices. He does not even exist for the whole world. He is like a phantom for the whole world, something like an urban legend.. Some believe in the feared killer called 47, some don't. He performs his hits very very carefully and no one ever even has a glimpse of him. He leaves the scene after performing the hit as quietly as he entered. He is a master of disguise and takes on a variety of disguises in all the games so that people don't suspect him. In the second game, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, he seems to have softened down as he considers a priest in a church in Sicily to be a friend and cares for him. That was the time he had momentarily left his life of Sin. But circumstances force him to work for the agency again and kill. He realizes that he cannot blend into the society as a normal man and therefore resumes his earlier life. This portrays him as a man who actually feels remorse for his deeds but knows that killing is the only thing he can do because he has been specifically created for that. We can almost feel sympathy for him as a character who wants to run away from what he does but can't do that. And added to that, he has not a single friend and no one except the agency even knows he exists. His only ally may be called a woman named Diana Burnwood, the person through whom he contacts the agency and Agent Smith, another agency man who often keeps popping up in 47's missions. 47 has NEVER smiled till date and is always serious like something is always bugging him from inside. Maybe it is his guilt of living the way he is. The fibre-wire and silent silverballers are his favorite weapons. While on a mission, he is generally shown to be without a conscience and can kill( though you as the player have the option to just knock out ) anyone in his mission, even if he or she is not the main target. He is one tough guy and his superhuman strength, speed and superhuman intellect makes him the best assassin in the word. An assassin the world doesn't even know exists.