Xbox 360 Fancast -- Game of the Year 2009 edition

Shattered Horizon should of been best national geographic views of 2009.

yay im happy Richard (and Kevin Kelly too!) vouched for 'Splosion Man and Halo Wars!

Great fancast guys. I enjoy every year listening and reading to each and every single Joystiqer's fav games of the year. And I hope Hinkle is permanent for 2010. Hes a funny guy, I don't share many game tastes of his, but his movie pop-culture references get me everytime.

Just gunna share some of my views on favs and GOTY stuff.

'Splosion Man came out a bit before Shadow Complex and was a bit in the shadows and I think thats why it didn't get much fanfare. A fun 4 player co-op platformer. Good value, as it comes with premium theme and gamerpics... credits are also classic.

Halo Wars. I just don't understand how it didn't get as much praise. Ensemble did something no one else has done before. Make a real-time strategy game work extremely well on a console. Simplified a bit? yes. But it does have a ton of multiplayer depth and surely doesn't sacrifice on the core gameplay (strategy!) or story.

Gamespot I believe gave GOTY Strategy to Sims 3 (HW wasnt even nominated), sad indeed. Plus no other console RTS has received so much post-launch support. I think we are at our fourth patch that includes fixes, balance issues, and ranking system overhaul. And not to mention any hour you hop online, there are 5000+ people on, unheard of for a console RTS thats 10 months old. Check out Red Alert 3 on 360. No patches, and about 40 people online at a time...


Uncharted 2 seems to win every GOTY award. I own it myself, thoroughly enjoyed it, but really don't think its all the rage. To get it outta the way... yes its probably one of the best looking console games ever. Aside from that, it doesn't appeal or draw someone in, addicting this game is not. I didn't really like the cover system it employed, not even close to being decent like Gears of War, not to mention running/strafing and gunning is goofy as hell at close range.

It almost felt like a chore finishing the story mode, yeah I liked the characters, but it felt like a michael bay movie where explosions and huge wrecks occur every second, and the main character emerges from the wreckage and is always OK!. Multiplayer seems ok, but generally its just a standard online experience... you play it here and there, but its not addicting. It doesn't feature the deeper online game play like L4D1 or 2, Halo Wars, MW2, etc. And Ive never seen more than 6-8K people playing online at a time. For a month old game that doesn't seem too good to me. Im guessing more folks enjoy other deeper online competitive games, so they dont stick around long.

I just feel its got the shine and glitz of a big game, but its shallow and hollow when you really dig into the gameplay. Overrated for me.

Whoops, I said the original FEAR released in 2007 in the podcast. My bad, folks -- it came out in 2005 on PC and 2006 on Xbox 360.

Good show guys keep up the good work.

Here's my top 5 from 2009

1. Batman Arkham Asylum (Overall i enjoyed it the most last year)
2. Assassins Creed 2 (Incredibly surprised on how good it is)
3. Uncharted 2 Among Thieves (You got to love Nolan North)
4. Borderlands (Best new IP for me)
5. Splosion Man (By far my favorite XBL arcade game)

Honorable mentions
Brutal Legends (By far the best soundtrack of last year, give it a rent)
Plants Vs Zombies (Incredibly addicting)
Infamous (Had a good time with it)

BTW most of these games i rented, thank you gamefly. I would of been dead broke if i bought all these games at retail price.

Lol, I though Alexander was going to cry about no one else liking Batman as much.

My Top 5

1. Batman AA
2. Assassin's Creed 2
3. MW2
4. Uncharted 2
5. Shadow Complex

I'm also surprised Batman wasn't higher on the list.

A 360 fancast? More like a fan-blast!