[Question] The Gamingforce Game of the Year 2010: Vote a Go Go

Heavy Rain - 40 points
In an industry currently dominated by generic FPS games and "casual" bullshit, Heavy Rain was a breath of fresh air. The story was compelling (although at one point, it started to feel like I was watching a Saw movie; I think you all know what I mean), and the gameplay was something I hadn't seen before. Besides all the QTEs, that is. The only gripe I could really make about it was the voice acting. Detective Shelby and Madison were alright, but Ethan and Agent Jayden sounded kinda like they were just reading the script in most of their parts.

ModNation Racers- 20 points
ModNation Racers is the perfect game for fans of Mario Kart who don't want to deal with having a Wii just to play it. I daresay it actually does the kart racing genre a bit better than Mario Kart itself. Maybe it's just me, but the controls seem much tighter in MNR, and it's quite easy to pull off near-endless drifts and look like a total badass flying through the tracks. The creation tools for characters, karts and tracks are a blast to play around with, especially for characters. Although it can be a bit frustrating trying to unlock that last part that you need to make your version of a famous character complete. And some of the things people were able to create are just fantastic. Sure there's a ton of shitty Marios and Clouds, but for every hundred or so of those, you'll find at least two or three really great ones. Cliche as he is, I actually found a pretty impressive Sephiroth and also a fairly decent Iron Man.

Halo: Reach - 20 points
I haven't been playing as much lately, but I played Halo: Reach almost nonstop for about a month and a half when it came out. They fixed damn near everything that made me hate playing Halo 3 online, most notably melee attacks only destroying your shield from the front and not outright killing you after a few shots from your weapon. I can't tell you how many times I'd unload on someone in H3 only for them to run up and smack me in the face and kill me. Also, the removal of dual-wielding is probably the best thing to happen to the series. It seemed like in H2 and 3, if you weren't dual-wielding, you were pretty much fucked unless you had rockets or were sniping. The new gametypes introduced were refreshing, even if everyone only wanted to play Slayer Pro anyway. I've got way too many other games to play right now, but I can definitely see myself coming back to Halo again one day.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm - 20 Points
WoW used to be pretty god damn boring. Endless fetch quests with terrible drop rates, (I know these damn pigs have tusks, I can see them on their character models.) too many "go here, kill this guy" quests, fucking escort quests with incompetent NPCs that wouldn't help you fight and would walk as slow as possible. Not to mention the crawling pace in which you leveled up. For someone like me who doesn't always have entire days to pour into the game, it took forever just to get to 40 so you could get a damn mount and not be so slow anymore. Cataclysm changed everything. Drop rates are greatly improved (except in Outlands, which is still god awful boring). NPCs in escort quests run sometimes and will fight with you (also, if you die, they'll be right where you left them instead of warping back to the start). There's bombing run missions where you fly on Wind Riders or take command of a giant mecha and lay waste to dozens of enemies. Best of all, it's so much easier to level and you feel like you've made progress, even if you only played for a couple of hours that day. Old zones have been either redesigned or destroyed by Deathwing's emergence. I can't tell you how happy I was to see Thousand Needles completely flooded. There's an interesting story in almost every quest chain, and it makes you feel like you're an actual part of something, as opposed to just another delivery boy or hired gun. It took them three expansions to do it, but WoW is finally fun.

EDIT: Since we are indeed counting expansions, I've changed this one from 20 points to Honorable Mention.

Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 1 was great, though a few things turned off a lot of people. Mainly scouring planets in the Mako and the somewhat loose combat mechanics. Also, elevators. Mass Effect 2 improved on the combat, gave you something to look at during loading times, and removed the Mako altogether, albeit replacing it with an equally tedious planet scanning mini game to collect resources which are vital if you want the best ending possible. I hate cliffhanger endings, but I'm all the more excited for ME3 because of it. At first I was a little disappointed that a lot of the RPG elements, such as skill point distribution was taken out, but in the long run, it actually made you focus more on the combat and the story and helped you not have to spend so much time in the pause menus. Finally, Jennifer Hale's Female Shepard is one of the most well-voiced characters I've ever heard. To me she's up there with the likes of Nathan Drake and the entire cast of Gears of War.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

By the way, late as fuck to the party, I know, but is anyone still playing Transformers or are you all too preoccupied with BLOPS? I just picked it up yesterday.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I also bought a shitload of games from the Steam sales, but I'll definitely hit you up sometime. Should be fun, I haven't played with you or anyone else for that matter since Gears 1. Except for that one time with Shenlon a while back on SSFIV.

Only problem is I haven't bought any of the map packs yet. Might have to wait until I get paid again on the 15th to get them.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.