# 6 – 10 These Didn’t Quite Make The Cut

Forza Motorsport 3. If you like cars and games there’s no need to look elsewhere. This is the best of the best, the top of the tops. A plethora of cars and tracks, combined with a much better single player experience than its predecessor(s) makes this car simulator a fantastic racing experience. Looks and runs great. The best Racing Sim to date.

NHL10 & FIFA10. Here’s a twofer. Say what you want about these annual sports games, but both these 2010 versions were absolutely fantastic. The feel of the game, the pace, the dedication. They both have it all. I couldn’t possibly choose between these, these are the two best sports simulators on consoles. It’ll be very interesting to see how the 2011 versions will pan out.

Uncharted 2. The only PlayStation 3 game on my list. And I’m not even sure that it deserves a spot. Granted, I haven’t completed it yet, so I’m assuming that it’ll be a lot better than what I’ve come across so far. However, Uncharted (1) was a really good game for me. It came to me as a green savior in my bleek brown-darkish-grey “next gen” gaming world. Uncharted 2 Among Thieves still delivers with a lot of green, but that’s no longer enough! Green lush forests aside, it is a solid game – this time also with an online component I’ve yet to try.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Simply put: The Single Player is fast-paced, action-packed, a lot of fun, but utterly short. It is in the multiplayer compartment Modern Warfare 2 shines. However, it doesn’t shine as bright as the first Modern Warfare did. The perks are better this time, the kill streaks rewards are cool – but the maps aren’t as good as they were the first time around.

Football Manager 2010. I am a sports junkie, and football in particular. I’ve spent an extremer amount of hours in this game – it is hugely addictive. The only PC game in my list, could just’ve easily been in the top 5, but the competition was too tough.

#5 – The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

From Xbox Live Arcade. The first installment of the games involving Guybrush Threepwood has been remade to utter perfection. The content hasn’t changed – the presentation has. The jokes are still funny, the gameplay still works and insult fighting has never looked prettier. This game is Complete. I eagerly await the remake of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. Come on LucasArts, make it be! –Wikipedia.

#4 – Borderlands

Trine bought this game and we’ve played it an insane amount, both of us doing every achievement and every quest. Although the ending is very underwhelming, everything else is pure fun. I haven’t tried playing it solo, but as a local co-op game this is as good as it gets. Extremely satisfying – extremely fun. –Wikipedia.

#3 – Batman: Arkham’s Asylum

The surprise of the year. The combat in this game is so great it would’ve made top 5 on its own. Combine fantastic combat with great level design and the gadgets of Bruce Wayne’s hefty budget and  you have a winning recipe for a great game. Still playing it, and probably will for a long time. –Wikipedia.

#2 – Dragon Age: Origins

Everything I expected – and more. Developed by BioWare, creators of SW:KOTOR and Mass Effect, I was anticipating this for a long time, and boy did they deliver. The story is great, the world is huuuge (both in lore, content and size) and the diversity of game classes/races/story choices keeps me coming back long into 2010.  I’m unable to put this game away. –Wikipedia.

#1 – Assassin’s Creed 2

Ezio Auditore is my new hero. He has it all. And so does this game, it is a massive game. The fighting is great (although not as good as Batman), the story is good, the world is created with an astonishing amount of detail, the climbing is awesome, the side stories are very well executed — I could go on forever. I absolutely love this game. I spent ten hours straight completing it and gathering everyone of the 100 feathers spread across Italy. I couldn’t simply give this game enough praise, it is perhaps even one of the best games of the decade. Well done, Ubisoft, this is gaming perfected. Buy this game, now. –Wikipedia.

This actually turned out to be a lot harder than I expected. And there are sadly a couple of games I haven’t played. Brütal Legend being a significant one. All MMOs being others.

## Honorable Mentions ##

DJ Hero. Street Fighter IV. Left 4 Dead 2. The Beatles: Rock Band. Fight Night: Round 4. Resident Evil 5. Halo 3: ODST.

All great games I’ve spent a considerable amount of time with, however, for different reasons they quite didn’t reach the top. Even so; Resident Evil 5 is a beautiful game I’d recommend to anyone able to play it in local co-op.

There you have it, my list. And phew, this was really hard to create. If you feel I’m dead wrong, or if you agree, please do leave a comment!  Let 2010 begin!

Comic Relief!

I downloaded the Mirror’s Edge demo the other day, and wow. Just wow. It was insanely good fun. Easily one of the best game’s this year – saying a lot considering this is the fall of GoW2, Fallout 3, Fable 2, Dead Space and others. Extremely satisfying with a game that encourages you to stay away from shooting. Encouraging you to run. Parkour style. In a beautifully crafted city. I can’t wait for the game to launch. You are Faith, a chick with a running spirit – my good friend Bjørn asks which Faith you prefer – “The Official Western Asian One” or “The Fan Made Asian One”. I stand by my initial comment. The face of the fan made one, the body of the official.

Står vi én for alle, og alle for én.

Also, want to buy C knowledge!

Silent Hill: Homecoming
More Survival Horror! I never really played the previous Silent Hill games, but after all the FPS madness of the later years I’ve grown to love more story oriented games. They’ve made the camera player controlled this time around and hopefully it’ll play great.

Fable 2
After loving the original Fable I really have no choice but to buy this game. It’s more of the same, including co-op, a trusted dog companion and a much greater Character Morphing aspect. I’ve big hopes for this one.

Fallout 3
Post-Apocalyptic Role-Playing Action. The infamous PARPA genre. Bethesda did great things with Oblivion, hopefully they will expand on that. Add the Fallout universe and you got one hell of a recipe.

Mirror’s Edge
What I loved most about Assassin’s Creed was the opportunity to roam. Run around doing crazy stuff parkour style. Mirror’s Edge is all about parkour, free running and an beautiful city. I have Faith!

Gears of War 2
The sequel to one of the best Third-person Shooters ever made. This bomb of male testosterone will definitely keep the neighbours awake most of november, as the game is released the 7th. Gearing up to kick Locust Ass!

Honorable Mentions: Football Manager 2009(PC), World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King(PC – once a junkie, always a junkie), Prince of Persia(360), Left 4 Dead(360), Saint’s Row 2(360)

Oh yeah, and if Sony releases a Little Big Planet PS3 bundle in Europe I’m (finally) getting one. The game looks truly awesome.

Oh well, never mind that. Last Friday was an exciting one at thomasaj.com. We introduced The Friday Corner with Star Ranter Eirik “Xerox” Jensen. Each Friday he will post his interesting, user friendly, charming, witty and cozy rants about being a northerner living in Oslo. Unedited. Uncensored. It will be brutal. So, every Friday there will be a break from the usual whiny mcbitch rants of yours truly. Eirik owns the Fridays at Thomasaj.com. You have been warned. (if you have comments about The Friday Corner – but you do not dare to oppose the mighty “Xerox” – send me an email at thomas at thomasaj dot com)

Oh yeah, on the administrative side – I’ve added an RSS feed to the site. So whenever I (or Eirik) post something it will now automagically pop up in your RSS reader.

Last Friday we celebrated the first edition of TFC with some heavy duty gaming. You can see a big ass picture of Mr. Xerox in gaming mode here! (No, there’s no ass in the picture) We played some Army of Two and ate cupcakes made by SchiZo. It was pretty awesome, and we should do it again soon. Also on a gaming note – I’ve been playing the Call of Duty 4 campaign again. On the hardest difficulty this time around. It’s so fucking impossible I want to jam forks up the arse of every Infinity Ward employee. And their moms. Seriously, if I lose it and go bloody bananas on my bloody tv, 360, wall, window or girlfriend – I’m sending the receipt to them. Bloody wankers. >: (

Also, who would you rather fuck? Matt Damon or Ben Affleck? I’d say Matt Damon. Why? Well, if you squint (and are drunk to boot) Matt Damon might look a tad bit like me! So it would be like fucking myself. And who wouldn’t want to fuck themselves? Idiots. That’s who!

And just as a closing note. If you’re gonna go jogging in the middle of the road. In the middle of the night. YOU WEAR A REFLECTIVE VEST OR SOME KIND OF REFLECTING MATERIAL! I’ll drive over you next time, you retarded joggerman you..

Thomas out.
(Any swearing is me wanting to be Yahtzee. And it’s late. I shouldn’t be up.)

Also, my birthday is coming up soon – can’t believe I’m thirteen already. Time flies so fast.

That’s all.
Regards, Thomas ‘Speedblogger’ Johansen.