I thought I might champion the little games today. Why not? It’s Friday and I’m feeling pre-weekend charitable. After all, they have been keeping me company of late during my coffee breaks at work. That’s the nice thing about Flash games – click and play. It’s not as if I have to lug my Xbox all the way to work and set it up (under the watchful, raised eyebrows of my co-workers). Yes, the big games usually grab our attention (not surprisingly, given all the marketing that trumpets their imminent arrival). These might be little minnows in the gargantuan pond of Call of Duty, Halo, Mass Effect, etc. But they can nonetheless provide as much fun and adrenaline as the big-hitters. Flash games that can stretch my scheduled 10-minute break into half an hour are worth a mention, but those that result in my coffee going untouched and cold are the ones that really interest me. If they can distract me from my caffeine rush, then they must be worth my attention. So without any fancy trumpets, dramatic drum rolls (or even a lone party popper), here are my three favourite Flash games of the moment (in no particular order):

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Last week I sat down to survey the landscape of games due to arrive in 2010 and made my selections for the ones that I would step over women, children and grandmothers to play. These are the games worth quitting your day job, shutting out the real world and skipping bills and sustenance to spend just five more minutes enjoying. At least, that’s the fond hope we harbor.

After all, we all make these lists early in the year, and while some games match their hype, there are so many that fall woefully short.

So, for this piece I decided to temper my expectations and pick a game that I long to play this year, but I have a sneaking suspicion is just going to royally disappoint me.

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Dear friend of mine,

Twenty years ago when you and I lived in Russia as children, what few games we saw were always pirated. There was simply no store that could sell us a game. The vast majority of people had never even seen a computer, and those who had, mostly did so at work. I remember going to my father’s office to play Leisure Suit Larry, Digger and Prince of Persia. It was even better when he brought a computer home to work on some project. Back then it didn’t occur to me that the people who made these games possible were expecting to get paid for their efforts. I thought that games just naturally shipped with computers.

We didn’t know each other back then, but my first week in America, I walked into CompUSA and was blown away. There were shelves full of games. It was amazing! I also was unpleasantly surprised by the prices. It turned out I couldn’t afford a single one. So I continued playing pirated games, but for the first time it dawned on me that I was doing something wrong. It was 1995 and I was 13 at the time. Later, as I got more and more into gaming, it began to bother me that I was stealing from the very people who were doing so much for me.

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While 2010 is in full swing, I am still held back. I came to this conclusion while looking at my gaming shelf. Straight up, I am an impulsive buyer of games. Aimless games just sit there on my shelf with no purpose, but for the fact I thought I would like (or wanted) to play them at the time. In the end, this has done nothing but cost me tons of moolah.

While looking at each title I purchased last year, I tried to remember the mental state I was in and how I tried to justify each purchase. A game that jumped out at me was Halo ODST. Now, sure it’s a Halo game, so it must to have been good, right? I was wrong. I clearly fell victim to the hype (as usual) and bought the game. Have I touched it since? Absolutely not! Another title I bought this year, mostly out of sheer boredom, was Street Fighter 4. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great fighting game. However, did it justify $60? Not really. Which leads me to my next conclusion: value.

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Sometime early last year, I cobbled together a list of my most anticipated games of the year. And as we’re often prone to do, as the year wound on, and new and exciting enchantments were revealed, that list changed numerous times. E3 will do that to you.

So, despite the fact that I fully intend to provide you with my picks for the top handful of games that I’ve just got to play in 2010, please don’t hold me to it. Something is bound to give at some point. Either that, or a whole helping heaping of them could simply be jettisoned to 2011 – which is what we saw last Fall when seemingly every publisher used Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as a reason to turn turtle, as if this were an industry where gamers only pledge allegiance to one title. I’m sure a few FPS boogied out of that release window to avoid sales comparisons with the juggernaut but how does that excuse some of the third person action games? Do I detect the cloaked need for additional development time? Oh well, if the end product ends up justifying the means, then by all means, run and hide. I’ll just have to add you to next year’s list.

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Just as year 2009 was coming to an end, I beat my 142nd game. It was also my 101st game since 1999, when I began marking down the year when each game was beaten.

What a long, strange trip it’s been…

A lot has happened in these years. Highs and lows, relationships and breakups, books and movies, jobs and travels, houses and cars, colleges and military service. They all are important because they are what makes up my life and who I am, but I’m also glad my gaming hobby has been with me alongside these life events.

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A little over two years ago I graduated from college and moved out of the house into a “cozy and vintage” apartment downtown. I wanted to be closer to work and I needed my independence. As a result of my career in journalism and my generally frugal nature, I decided to be stingy when it came to expenditures while living on my own.

This meant I lived without Internet for the past two years. I figured since my job is online-based, and I’m on the Internet eight hours every day, I don’t need to be bothered with it at home. And looking back, it was actually a very liberating experience. It was nice not having the option of wasting hours in front of a computer screen accomplishing nothing. Watching useless (but hilarious) videos and making sure I’ve seen the latest Red Faction quibble. But of course, that lack of connectivity also had its fair share of drawbacks. I was literally in the dark on all the downloadable content and online gaming for the past couple of years. If I wanted to game online, say for a review I was working on, I needed to throw the title in my car and drive back into the suburbs to steal the family’s connection.

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As 2008 came to a close, I appeared as a guest on the Avault Podcast, and found myself posed with a difficult question to answer. “What was your favorite game of the year?” I say difficult, because I didn’t have a favorite. I quickly thought of which game had spent the most time in my 360’s DVD drive and blurted out Supreme Commander. Were there other games that were better? Sure, but my criteria for rating a game are a little different than most. For me, a game has to have staying power, and a Game of the Year must be one that lingers not only in the memory, but also on my playlist. Sadly, 2008 didn’t have such a champion for me, and 2009 looked like it might end the same…until very recently.

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Now that the 2000s are winding down and making way for the 2010s, a lot of sites are compiling their “best of” lists for the past 10 years. These lists promise to be filled with some awesome titles, since the last decade has been spectacular, gaming-wise.

However, I haven’t seen too many sites berating the games that many of us purposefully or accidentally had to suffer through during this last decade. ScrewAttack recently heralded Sonic the Hedgehog as the decade’s worst game, narrowly beating out Big Rigs for the PC. But that’s about as much jeering as I’ve seen. So, we’re going to change that and highlight some of our own “favorites.”

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A lot of things happened in the year 2009. I was able to travel to a place I always wanted to go: Japan. I started going back to school, which I guess is always a good thing. I also experienced many new, interesting and different games. Some of them were good, some of them bad, and some of them…great. Every person who plays video games remembers games they played in the past and how much they influenced their lives in some way. The best example I remember is from when I was a kid. A trivia question came up reading something like “What is the name of armor worn in medieval times that protected the hands?”. Because I played many fantasy games at a young age I knew the answer in a second: Gauntlets. Silly.

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As I write this, mere days removed from Christmas, I look ahead to the bounty of games that Santa packed in that sack while looking back upon the year that was. And this year provided especially fertile ground for my personal picking, as it was the year in which I augmented my Wii60 household with one more shiny bauble; the PS3 finally descended to a price point that I could manage without listing yet another kidney on eBay. With Sony’s new slim sweetness nestled in my home entertainment center, the Holy Trinity was complete, allowing me to genuflect before the God of War for granting me the opportunity to finally guide Drake towards his fortune while scoping out a Littlebigplanet of my own.

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As 2009 comes to a close, a rather quick close I must say. The term “Game of the Year” gets thrown around more than a baby that just shat its diaper in a room full of people wearing white gloves. With so many titles cross-platform and few exclusives, it’s become difficult to say there is a game of the year! In retrospect to simply award a “game of year” to a console version of a cross-platformed title, would be a disservice to that console experience. So after much deliberation with me myself and I, I am going to breakdown my “Game of the Year” by console and one title that is cross platformed.

Wii – Muramasa: The Demon Blade – Move over Mario Brothers your formula has been done time and time again. Muramasa is the step in the right direction for exclusive third party titles from the makers of Odin Sphere. I love a good platforming game, but a platforming title with RPG elements inspired by mythological Japan is a winner in my book. Aside from the quirky control scheme, this title is a fluid living painting waiting to be uncanvassed. You will venture through various landscapes and architectures to unveil two distinct storylines. Did I mention the plethora of blades you will come across? You owe it to yourself to play this game.

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Now I must hold my hand up straight away, be completely honest and tell you that I’m going to cheat here. Like many college students in an exam situation, I’m going to see the relatively straightforward title of “Game of the Year,” but interpret it in my own way so that I can answer it how I want to. So while many might see the title in terms of the best released game of 2009, I’m going to consider it to mean the best game I played in 2009. So don’t you all start writing in and telling me off in terms of the game’s release date. My take on the question also makes life easier for me; due to various work changes and large home improvement challenges, I didn’t get time to play as much as I would have liked in 2009. Admittedly, if I could I’d play games all day, but sadly I won’t be able to do that if I don’t pay the electricity bills. So if any game developers are reading this – come on guys, isn’t it about time you created a game that earns us a living while we play? I’m not sure how much longer my super-ego can persuade my id that time spent at work is not lost game time. Still, my id being as strong as it is, I did get some game time in this year. So my candidates for best game (I played) in 2009 are:

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I started off my Sunday morning with a shower, and a blog entry. Since I had recently dusted off my Avault blog with my game of the year entry, I figured I should try and keep it well polished. I wrote up the entry, and then left it alone for several hours, as is customary with all of my writing. When I came back and read what I had written, I hated it. Not because I thought it was poor, but because I really just don’t like blogging. The concept seems so egotistical. Who really cares what I think about crazy gaming subjects? I don’t even care what I think about crazy gaming subjects.

I’m not one to be all about myself, or my talents. If anything, I’m more self-defeating than egotistical (see above). But I’m not going to give up on my blog. I’m going to try and keep it free of cobwebs. I haven’t quite figured out how exactly, but I’ll think of something. I might throw a few ideas against the wall, see what sticks, see what doesn’t, and go from there.

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Well I have to say, even though I’m a video-game reviewer, many of the big titles passed me by this year. I have these darn “professors” who expect me to “read” so I can get “grades.” Totally cut into my play time, if you ask me. So when I think of games, I really put them into two categories: those I can play with people, and those just for me to jump in solo-style have some fun.

The multiplayer one for me is easy: Left 4 Dead 2. One of the things I love about gaming is the interaction, the camaraderie. Well, no, the trash-talking. But really, I see gaming as a social experience, and L4D2 gives me everything I need from a game. I can jump in and play through the campaigns on a survivor team or bust some heads as the infected. It’s fast-paced and simply tons of fun if you’ve got friends to tackle it with. I can pop it into my machine over and over and continue to have fresh, new experiences. I applaud any game that has the ability to do that. I don’t think this really needs more explanation. If you’ve played it, you know what I’m talking about.

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