It’s that time again! Well sure we may already be half way through 2010 but that can’t stop me from listing what I thought were the ten best games of 2009. Hell this could almost be a retro gaming article by now. One advantage of my tardiness is you can now find most of these titles at about half their original price marking some essential well priced gaming.

The main reason I took so long in creating this list is that I wanted to try and play every hot title from 2009. I managed to get through quite a load but since 2010 has already produced enough to rival last year it’s hard keeping up. I’m only one man! But for what it’s worth, here is: -

Jordan’s Top 10 Games of 2009

#10 Shadow Complex

Shadow Complex was a revolution in downloadable gaming providing one of the lengthiest and well produced games to be only available through XBOX Live Arcade. Not only was it a high quality polished affair but it also played damn well, inspired by a ‘Metroidvania’ style of side scrolling shooting. A wide range of guns and collectibles Read more [+]

This review was originally written and published in Animavericks magazine. Check them out for all the latest anime and games content.

Developer - 2K Marin / Digital Extremes / Irrational Games
Publisher - 2K Games
Available On - XBOX 360 / Playstation 3 / PC
Reviewed On - XBOX 360

Bioshock received overwhelming attention when it was released in 2007 claiming the top of many Game Of The Year lists. Rightfully so, it was an immersive adventure that used a compelling story and unique environment to suck players in. So it’s no surprise to see a sequel to such a successful game, but can it possibly live up to the hype of the original?
Set in a fictional 1968, 8 years after the fall of the underwater city Rapture, this time a familiar world is viewed through new eyes as the player assumes the role of an iconic enemy known as the Big Daddy. This opens up a whole new variety of weapons and powers available for fighting through all new areas of Rapture as the player learns more of the characters, history, and future of the captivating Bioshock universe.

Graphics – 9.0

Bioshock 2 has a few technical enhancements that give it a bit more shine over the original but Read more [+]

Developer – Airtight Games
Publisher – CAPCOM
Available on – Xbox 360, PS3,PC
Reviewed on – Xbox 360

Dark Void is a refreshing new IP developed by near unheard of Airtight Games and published by CAPCOM. The game takes place during the dawn of the second world war. It follows the story of a cargo pilot William Augustus Grey, who crashes into the Bermuda triangle and winds up in an inescapeable dementional in-between called ‘the Void’ in which a highly technologically advanced species of other-dimensional aliens called ‘Watchers’ rule. Will joins a resistance of people trapped in the void, including Nikola Tesla (father of commercial electricity), and accompanied by a love interest from his past (Eva), he must fight for his survival and search for a way out of ‘the Void’.

The game introduces a number of interesting game mechanics, including a jet-pack, and a strange verticle fighting mechanic, in which you cover behind ledges as you climb up and down cliffs or buildings. The game begins without a jet-pack on a jungle island where your plane has crashed, for the first forty minutes or so you fight against Watcher guards as you are led to a village of surviving humans. During this part the game plays very much like a poor-man’s Uncharted, this is not hurt by the fact that Will is voiced by Nolan North. Once you reach the village you meet with Nikola Tesla and he asks you to help him collect some parts for an invention of his he is working on, he gives you a proto-type jet-pack he has been working on to help you obtain the parts, this is where the game gets interesting.

Read more [+]

Developer – Rockstar Games
Publisher – Take-Two Interactive
Available on – Xbox 360

If you were like me and thought that Grand Theft Auto IV was the biggest disappointment of 2008 (if not your life), then it may be useful that you can obtain both expansion packs on a disk, thus allowing you to play them without the accursed original disk to GTAIV that you traded in at your earliest convenience. The two Xbox 360 (timed) exclusive DLC packs add approximately eight hours each to your game-play and both follow new characters instead of Niko from the original title. The Lost and the Damned (tLatD) follows Johnny Klebitz, a prominent member of one of Liberty Cities Motorcycle gangs, The Lost MC. The Ballad of Gay Tony follows the story of Luis Lopez, right hand man to the owner of both Liberty Cities most popular gay and straight nightclubs. Read more [+]

Developer – Vigil Games
Publisher – THQ
Available on – Xbox 360, PS3
Reviewed on – Xbox 360

Darksiders is the product of every 90s gamers fantasy, being thrown quite literally into the apocalypse. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been remade for the current generation and overall it’s a good experience. Darksiders follows the story of “War”, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, whose coming signifies the end of days and the breaking of the seven seals, who is called to bring judgment on the three armies of Heaven, Hell and Earth. The game begins with War arriving on earth to discover that the seventh seal has not been broken, but either the armies of Heaven, or the Hordes of Hell have begun the war early. Given that his brethren have not to been called he is defeated by a Demon, “Straga”. The overseers of balance, “The Council”, blame War for leading into the apocalypse early, and he ends up having to find out who are involved and punish them to clear his name, and so begins our journey. Read more [+]

Developer - Gearbox Software
Publisher - 2K Games
Available On - XBOX 360, Playstation 3, PC
Reviewed On - PC & XBOX 360

First person shooters have been a stagnating genre lately with many developers happy to simply iterate on past successful franchises. Thankfully Gearbox and 2K Games are trying something new with several years of development and a whole graphical redesign bringing us the self-described “Role Playing Shooter” known as Borderlands. Taking cel shading to whole new levels on the Unreal 3 engine, Borderlands is an exciting and entertaining universe that reaches beyond unique presentation and actually tackles a new hybrid of gaming genres.

A mash of role playing game elements within an FPS make the label of “FPSRPG”  quite fitting for Borderlands, but Read more [+]

The Nintendo DS has repetitively become a location for less and less enjoyable gaming experiences since it was launched, so much so that to some it has become an area only inhabited by Pokemon continuations or rehashes (depending on which side of the fence you live on). There have been a few titles over the past few years that have spiked interest in me, only to become a disappointment, like Drawn to Life and FFIII and IV, even my beloved Pokemon finally became a let-down to me. This isn’t to say that the DS hasn’t been able to provide me with some small level of satisfaction, namely in Line Rider Unbound and Professor Layton and the Curious Village, and it was with these in mind that I picked up Scribblenauts, by 5th Cell, ignoring their previous disappointment in another of my blind attempt to justify having a DS at all.

Read more [+]