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..