Excessive

I mentioned previously that in the new year I would attempt to write more often - every day if possible, and I've been thinking about what I should write about, or how I could go about doing just that. I decided to kick it off by talking about my favourite things of the last year: games, movies, television, music; All of the things that had a serious impact on my life, and I'll write a bit about why I chose them, what they meant to me, and so on.

I figure I'll break it up into several parts as to not make this a novel, because no one wants to sit down and read a webpage for too long.

Today I'm going to be starting with my top three favourite games of 2009. Let me first clarify by saying that the games I've selected don't necessarily had to have come out in 2009, only that they were played the most, enjoyed the most, and so on, in 2009.

Number 3.
Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360)

To be honest, I went into Resident Evil 5 with quite a bit of scepticism, I was worried that it wouldn't come close to living up to my expectations set by the amazing Resident Evil 4 for the Gamecube, which I played through numerous times. I had downloaded the demo, and was not impressed with the controls, or feel of gameplay, and I had followed the game through the press and podcasts, and people had mixed opinions on whether or not the game was good. The game was actually bought for me by Ben for my birthday, because we had talked about getting it to play through, since the entire game was built around the idea of playing it with a friend, basically it was a single player game built around the mechanic of it being a co-op game.

Ben and I spent the majority of the summer playing through the game. We started by beating it on the normal difficulty, followed by the hard difficulty, only to unlock the most difficult setting and playing through it on that. In fact, we played Resident Evil 5 so much, that I am only missing one achievement from the game, and to get that, I'd just have to play the last chapter one more time.

It has to be the best co-op experience available, and being able to purchase upgrades to guns, earn and spend money and see actual improvements in gameplay are really what elevated this co-op game above the rest (like say, Army of Two). It really took over my life for awhile, and I'm glad that it did. I don't think the game would be as stand-out if there was no co-op… if the game was a straight up single player experience it would probably fall a bit flat.

Number 2.
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)

Trying to think back through the year, I think that Batman: Arkham Asylum might have been the only single player game I played all the way through, from start to finish. It was not hard to do that with this game, it sucked me right in from the start, and again, I didn't really know what to expect from the game. I knew it would be cool, but I didn't realize that it would be one of the coolest games of the generation.

The game was dark, mature, smart and very immersive. The story was fun to follow, the characters were interesting, and I always wanted to keep playing a bit more. The fighting system was fun and addictive, and so was the platforming and running around on the island. Being able to grapple up places, jump up and glide around really made being in the world fun, and the collectables spread throughout the world added yet another reason to continue playing.

I'm excited to hear that they are currently working on a sequel to the game that takes place in Gotham city, so I can only expect bigger and greater things.

Number 1.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC/Mac)

Yes, the game is five years old now, but it was still the game I got the most out of this year, for good and bad of course. If we think of WoW as a 'career' for a second, I went from being a no one, unemployed loser, to getting a job, going up the ranks and becoming one of the most important people in the company, to quitting, to being on welfare, to getting a good, secure job, and … well, I'll stop there. There have been many highs and lows, I've made many friends, lost touch with friends, and some very unique experiences that I've been convinced couldn't exist without WoW.

I did quit World of Warcraft for about three months this year, but for the rest of the time, I pretty much played every day, even if it was just for an hour, and that makes it a pretty significant part of my life, for good or bad. It's a culture I enjoy being a part of, and I think I have positive experiences not available to people that don't participate. I like feeling like I belong to something larger than myself.

In the future, I'm going to write an entire piece on my career in World of Warcraft, my experiences, what I've done and been a part of, and try to explain what it means to me, but that'll have to wait, because I think that would take a bit of time and planning.

World of Warcraft has been the most important game of the year for me, and it will most likely continue to be so.

So that wraps up my three favourite games of 2009, if you're reading this and have a blog of your own, I'd love to read about your three favourite games of the year, or if you don't have a blog, leave a comment with the info.

Next in the series will be my favourite albums of 2009, with write ups and information.

Until then, have a good new year.

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