Happyginger’s Top Ten Video Games of the Decade:

Well its finally here; The end of a decade. The end of an era. The beginning of a new. As New Years creeps up on us, we begin to look forward, but we also need to look back on the old.  This blog is intendted to spotlight my personal favorite games  of the decade. This is a definitely and opinionated blog, and is in no particular order. It may, or may not surprise you. I hope you enjoy.

1.      Alan Wake- When I first got this game I was excited to figure out the mysteries of its story. All I had heard was that it made no sense. I didn’t look up any spoilers prior to, and I didn’t watch any gameplay. And when I was finished, I went out and started talking about the ending with others out there. Alan Wake is a symphony of darkness, and composition of mystery. To the grand soundtrack that litters the game, to the fully fleshed out characters, this game was definitely one of the best I have read…I mean played all year. I hope it was for you too.

2.      Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess- When I first moved to Durham 4 years ago, I didn’t take much of my memories with me. But one of the ones that I did take was my GameCube.  Along with a few games that were over played, I brought along a new one: Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It was the first time I had ever heard of the series, and I wasn’t getting Game informer then, so I had no idea that the game had been given one of the highest offers game informer can give: The “Perfect 10” rating. I played the game and decided It was pretty good, but when I was 10, nothing really made sense. When I got my Wii, I rebought it for the Wii, and did everything I could, and got every heart, every bug, everything. That is why it is on this list.

3.      Super Mario Sunshine-Now before you all got on me and say this game doesn’t belong here, remember: This is my list, and it is my opinion. What I really enjoyed with this game, was the amount of variety, and the open-endedness of it. I spent countless hours exploring the different areas, and discovering their secrets. One the best I discovered was on the coral cove level, and I made a treacherous climb up to a secret area where I found a bird you could spray with your water and get a shine. But that wasn’t my favorite part of the game. The F.L.U.U.D (Is that how it is spelled?) made getting from place to place has tons of variables.

4.      Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare-From the opening credits in the car, to the AC-130, to the sniper to level to the last shot, Call of Duty 4 is a Non-Stop Thrill ride through Chernobyl, the Middle East, and Russia. The graphics were extremely good for the time, and can still hold their own against some of the biggest players of today, including Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. The series also became famous for its addictive multiplayer. Varied game types and expertly crafted maps wrap the package all together into a “Perfect 10” experience.

5.      Halo-You know it pretty easy to miss a truly amazing game when making these lists. For me, that game I missed was Halo. The game that influenced me to play video games.  The daddy of All Xbox Shooters. Based on the Ring world, only known as Halo, Master Chief, a super-soldier created by the marine core to fight the “Covenant,” an alien threat that threatens to wipe out the entire human race. The premise of Halo is the set up for an epic Sci-Fi trilogy, which at times maybe didn’t really make any sense, but people don’t always play games for story, but for the amazing gameplay that influenced and entire decade of games. 

6.      Battlefield- In the past seven years or so, Battlefield has gone through much iteration. That is why I only list it as Battlefield. From the year 1942, to the year 2142, to Vietnam, to Modern Combat, Battlefield has hit fronts at all wars you can think of, including ones that haven’t happened yet. It introduced the idea of Conquest Gameplay, putting three capture points on a map, and having two opposing teams fight over them. And recently with Bad Company 2, DICE introduced a stellar campaign that rivals the best of actual action movies.

7.      Portal- When the orange box came out in 2007, a little game called portal came out between TF2, and Half-life 2: Episode 2. That came just so happened to be one of the best platformer/puzzler I have ever played. It was fun, and with witty writing that really kept the story line going, helped the game onto this list. But the best part about it is the gameplay. Based around shooting two portals, to get from point a to point B, and having real time physics, make this game on this list.

8.      Half-Life 2- Where do I even start? This is definitely one of my favorite games of all time, considering I have a character from it as my profile picture. It has an amazing story that you can sink hours into. The character seem fully fleshed out, in personality, the way they dress,  the weapons they use; Even their voices sound worried that something bad may happen. Another fun part about this game is the weapons, which are just plain fun to shoot, like the gravity gun. Overall, this game gets on my list, and I hope it is on yours too.

9.      Bioshock- “A man chooses, a slave obeys…” The final words of Andrew Ryan left you with a feeling of dread. 2007’s “Bioshock” came to the world with an Electric Story, keeping you wondering what was going to happen next, following the orders of a man who only refers to himself as “Atlas.” As you get closer and closer to your goal, you wonder about this place, Rapture. How did my plane just so happen to crash here? Who is atlas? Who am I? It is only revealed to you in full when you in full after you killed Andrew Ryan, after the only sane person in that city is dead.        

10.   Red Dead Redemption- Rockstar Games are known for Grand Theft Auto. That said, when Red Dead Redemption was released earlier this year, it was praised for an amazing story, and fluid combat. What I really liked about the game was the Character, John Marston. An old outlaw, trading in his bad life for a good is a story we have seen before, but Rockstar dose with a twist. John is stuck in the past, constantly reminding people that he did it for the good, Stealing from the rich, giving to the poor, was what he said he did. But we know it was not true. We all know that he isn’t coming out of this version of hell, and in the last clip, we see our worst nightmares come true.

-HG

P.S. A while back some of you guys sent in answers for a blog project. If anyone wants in on that, just let me know, I’m still working on it.