2009 Gaming Overview

Gaming

Despite not having as much time in the past year to devote to gaming as I would have liked, I did manage to check out a few titles in 2009 that were pretty decent. Some of them I managed to post about before abandoning this blog entirely, and most of them I just managed to wrap up in the last few days of the decade.

Without further ado, here are some quick notes on what I played last year. (See previous posts about Mass Effect, F.E.A.R. 2, and Tomb Raider: Legend.)

  • The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition: Not having played the game when it originally came out in 1990, the re-release came at an opportune time and had a lot to offer, with completely redone audio and graphics. Highly recommended.
  • Borderlands: Fun (especially in co-op), but the PC version is plagued with more bugs than I care to mention. Death to GameSpy
  • Left 4 Dead 2: As cliché as it sounds, L4D2 improves on L4D1 in just about every way imaginable, and is really quite extraordinary. This game and Borderlands provided more than enough opportunity for co-op gaming.
  • F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn: This DLC for F.E.A.R. 2 had little to offer in the way of content and story, and was extremely short to boot.
  • LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga: A quick and fun romp through the six Star Wars films, nothing more. It definitely shows lack of polish compared to Traveler’s Tales’ more recent offerings in the franchise.
  • Mirror’s Edge: A last-minute addition thanks to the Steam holiday sale, the game was fun despite the combat being frustrating most of the time. The visual style is extremely crisp, a far cry from most other games.
  • Tomb Raider: Anniversary: Despite being stuck in one area for several months, I managed to push through in my last-minute gaming binge of 2009 and reach the end. It is good, and the visuals are great as one would expect from the series.

There are a few more games I was hoping to finish by the end of the year, including Red Faction, but it was not meant to be. This year looks like it will be awesome as well, with Mass Effect 2 showing up before the end of the month.