The 20 Best Games of 2010

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We've already taken our trip through the lows of 2010. Let's celebrate the highs.

Although sometimes it seems like the past year in videogames will be mostly remembered for the high-profile flops and games that didn't live up to the years of hype, there were also some pretty impressive games released in 2010, too. The year brought with it some long-in-the-making, big-budget extravaganzas that — in an ironic twist — were actually worth all the money poured into them. Gamers also enjoyed some surprising breakout indie hits.

Here are Wired.com's selections of the 20 best games of 2010, as chosen by Chris Kohler, Gus Mastrapa, Daniel Feit, Jason Schreier and John Mix Meyer.

20. Fallout: New Vegas (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC)

With Fallout 3, Bethesda planted its flag in the wasteland sands, reviving the venerable PC franchise for a new generation. Fallout: New Vegas brings the game back to its roots. Obsidian, a studio founded by folks who created the original games, took the West Coast homecoming seriously, delivering plot, characters and places that are harrowing, creepy, quirky and sometimes altogether odd. Fallout: New Vegas may be buggier than a Radroach nest, but wading through the pests is totally worth it. —Gus Mastrapa

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N64 Kid, Wii Vomit, and Other Cringeworthy Christmas Video

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Merry Christmas! Did you get everything you want? These kids did. Or didn't.

My parents still have some moderately embarrassing childhood videos of me and my brother, which they just played this morning. But it wasn't even 15 minutes of footage. Kids today have to live in fear of their every waking moment being captured for posterity and uploaded to YouTube in crystal-clear digital form. Even if their humiliation doesn't become a viral Twitter sensation, Mom and Dad can replay it for the visiting relatives every year at Christmas just by busting out their his and hers iPhones. No film projector setup required.

Then again, isn't there something heartwarming about having year-round access to videos of excitable children opening gaming systems on Christmas morning? By "heartwarming" I mean "hilarious." I'd like to think I'm laughing with these kids. I'd like to think that, but actually I'm laughing at them. I did all kinds of crazy stuff, but I never made out with a game system, and if my parents tell you I did, you can't prove it because there's no evidence.

This morning, may I invite you to get into the Christmas spirit with this hand-picked selection of Christmas-morning escapades, from empty box pranks to unpredictable bodily reactions?

Above: The Christmas video that started it all, the Nintendo 64 Kid. I doubt any introduction is necessary.

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Viacom Sells Harmonix to Investment Firm Columbus Nova

Time for Harmonix to celebrate - maybe by hiring a band?
Image courtesy Harmonix

After four years under the auspices of Viacom, Harmonix is independent again.

Viacom has sold the Rock Band creator to an investment firm called Columbus Nova, it said Thursday. The New York-based Columbus Nova manages over $10 billion in assets worldwide, using what it calls “a value-oriented, long-term view to investing.” Harmonix will now be owned by Harmonix-SBE Holdings LLC, an affiliate company.

“We’re excited for Harmonix to return to its roots as a privately held and independent studio,” said Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos in an emailed statement. “We are extremely grateful for Viacom’s support, and proud of the work that we’ve done in partnership with our colleagues at MTV Games over the past four years to launch Rock Band and Dance Central. We’re excited to continue work on those franchises and to continue to innovate and entertain in the coming years.”

Harmonix, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was founded by Rigopulos and Eran Egozy in 1995. The company hit it big with Guitar Hero, which was published by Red Octane in 2005. Harmonix was acquired by Viacom in 2006, leaving Guitar Hero behind and working with MTV to create the significantly more ambitious Rock Band.

Some say that MTV’s exit from console games could indicate bad news for the so-called plastic-instrument business. Just a few weeks ago, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello equated buying Harmonix to “catching a falling knife.”

“As for what it means for (gamers),” said Harmonix developer John Drake on the game’s official forums, “the (downloadable add-on tracks) schedule marches on for Rock Band, we will continue our support of previously released titles and we’re hard at work on some unannounced projects that we think you’re going to be pumped about.”

Chris Kohler contributed to this report.

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Activision Adds EA to $400 Million Infinity Ward Lawsuit

Activision is aiming its crosshairs squarely in the direction of EA.
Image courtesy Activision

Activision fired a shot at its biggest rival this week, accusing fellow publisher Electronic Arts of “hijack[ing] Activision assets for personal greed and corporate gain.”

In a Los Angeles court filing Tuesday, Activision asked for permission to amend its lawsuit against game developers Jason West and Vincent Zampella to include game publisher Electronic Arts. Activision alleges that the two Call of Duty creators conspired with EA to sabotage the franchise’s success and break their contracts while employed at Infinity Ward, an Activision subsidiary.

Activision is seeking $400 million from the three defendant parties.

Kotaku has the full text of the 39-page document, which claims that the Medal of Honor publisher “set out to destabilize, disrupt and to attempt to destroy Infinity Ward.”

“The negotiations between Electronic Arts and West and Zampella were structured with the design and the expectation that West and Zampella would “spin out” from Activision and would take significant numbers of key Infinity Ward employees with them to set up their own independent company,” the lawsuit reads. “Electronic Arts would finance the illicitly-created start-up in exchange for an ownership interest or exclusive distribution rights to the content created by their new company, which would produce video games for Electronic Arts instead of Activision.”

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Indie Sensation Minecraft Enters Beta, Costs More Money

Image courtesy The Minecraft Museum

The biggest indie game of 2010 entered the long-awaited beta version on Monday, but heaven doesn’t come cheap.

Minecraft will now cost 15 euros, or around $20, an increase from its previous 10 euro price point. Purchase of the beta will include all content updates up until the game’s full release, as well as bug fixes afterwards, creator Markus “Notch” Persson said on his blog. Anyone who purchased the game before Monday will receive all future updates for free.

Minecraft, a virtual sandbox that exploded in popularity this year thanks in part to some free-to-play weekends and some big media coverage, first launched in 2009. Since then, it’s gone on to sell over 850,000 copies, an especially impressive feat considering the game was developed by one guy.

According to Persson, the update will feature a working server-side inventory along with a few other changes. Perhaps most importantly, you can now throw eggs.

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Dragon Quest VI Remake Sliming U.S. in February

The DS remake of Japanese roleplaying game Dragon Quest VI will hit the United States on February 14, Nintendo said Monday.

Despite critical and commercial success in Japan, this installment of the popular RPG series has yet to make an appearance in the States. Shortly after Dragon Quest VI’s original Super Famicom release in 1995, publisher Enix decided to hold off on North American localizations, closing down its U.S. subsidiary. Now, sixteen years later, we will finally have an American version of every game in the Dragon Quest series.

This remake, given the full title Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie, features several changes, most significant of which is a complete graphical makeover. Also included in the package are some name changes and a brand new mini-game called Slime Curling.

Dragon Quest VI completes the trifecta of remade Super Famicom Dragon Quest games. Dragon Quest IV and Dragon Quest V remakes respectively hit the United States in 2008 and 2009, also for the DS.

With Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together hitting the PSP February 15 and DS game Radiant Historia launching on the 22nd, it seems like February 2011 is the month of the handheld JRPG.

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The 10 Most Disappointing Games of 2010

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2010 was the year we made contact with a lot of half-assed videogames. While there was much for gamers to celebrate over the past 12 months — and we here at Game|Life will be getting to that later — gamemakers also delivered an inordinate number of flops.

The following list isn't of the worst games of the year (such a list would be made up of Wii shovelware and movie games), but of the most disappointing titles, the ones that had great promise but fell way short.

Several of the following games appeared on Wired.com's list of most anticipated games of 2010, so we were extra bummed to find that they were lackluster. Some possessed redeeming qualities, but all failed due to massive flaws.

Here are the 10 biggest turkeys of '10.

10. Dark Void

A great, quirky high concept — World War II flying ace finds himself in an alternate dimension and finds a jetpack — and a decent E3 demo made this one of our most anticipated games of 2009. Then it didn't come out until January 2010, which should have been our first clue that this Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 action game was a non-starter. Dark Void was a clunky, ugly mess with few redeeming qualities, an embarrassing stain on Capcom's record. —Chris Kohler

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Gears of War 3 Beta Slated for April, Bulletstorm Buyers Get In

Epic Games will give early access to the Gears of War 3 beta to anyone who buys Bulletstorm for Xbox 360, the publisher said Friday.

The “Epic Edition” of Bulletstorm will be available alongside retail copies on February 22. The $60 game will come bundled with 25,000 free in-game experience points and some bonus gear. It will also be released on PlayStation 3 and PC, which will contain their own bonus content that Epic will reveal in early 2011.

The Gears of War 3 beta will launch at some point next spring, “potentially in April,” an Epic Games spokesperson told Wired.com. The beta will feature its own dedicated servers, a first for the franchise.

In stark contrast to the serious, survival-based Gears of War franchise, Bulletstorm is an over-the-top shooter with what Epic president Michael Capps calls “a very irreverent story.” As protagonist Grayson Hunt, players will be able to kill enemies in all sorts of creative ways, accumulating points Tony Hawk-style based on the innovativeness of each kill.

“If you turn the corner, there’s a bad guy there and you just shoot him directly, you feel bad,” Capps said in a phone interview with Wired.com. “The way to succeed best in this game is to do all of the crazy, over-the-top moves.”

Over-the-top moves like, say, shooting somebody into an exploding cactus.

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Portal 2, Mindjack Trailers For Your Amusement

Hey look, it’s a selection of newish video trailers for Portal 2 (above) and Mindjack (below).

Valve’s Portal 2 is currently slated for April 20. Meanwhile, Square Enix’s Mindjack is scheduled to be released on January 18. But given these companies’ penchants for delaying their games, I would not exactly go betting my lunch money on either of those dates if you know what I mean.

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Square Enix Profit Plummets, Deus Ex Delayed

Square Enix will delay Deus Ex: Human Revolution into the company’s next fiscal year, the publisher said Thursday.

The announcement came bundled in a financial forecast (.pdf) that projected a staggering 91% decrease in the company’s net profit for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. Square Enix cut its profit forecast from 12 billion yen to just 1 billion yen (about $12 million). Part of the decrease is due to Square Enix’s decision to delay Deus Ex: Human Revolution for “further polish,” the company said.

Square Enix also partially blamed Final Fantasy XIV’s disappointing reception for the projected losses. Earlier this month, it said it would delay the PlayStation 3 release of the game.

Although Deus Ex never had a concrete release date, the hybrid first-person shooter/role-playing game was originally slated for the first three months of 2011.

Expectations are pretty high for Human Revolution, which will be released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. As far as I’m concerned, Eidos Montreal can take all the time it needs to make sure Human Revolution lives up to the hype — between Dragon Age 2, Radiant Historia, and a plethora of other upcoming releases, early 2011 is packed with enough excitement already. I can wait until summer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

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