Some side quests introduce us to party members' family members in the hardest fight of the game. Fun!

So with the recent releases of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Batman: Arkham City, I thought it’d be appropriate to have a discussion on side quests–specifically, what separates the good from the bad? I think we can all agree that when side quests are done well, they unquestionably contribute to a vastly better game experience. In fact, side quests often turn out to be more memorable than main quests for me personally. But why is that?

Well, frankly side quests can sometimes be so boring and tedious that they become memorable for bogging the experience down so much. As much as I like to feel like I’m in a living world full of real characters with their own problems, I can’t say that I’m a fan of them duping me into helping them when it turns out that they’re just too lazy to get off their butts and collect their own flowers/misplaced amulets/rabid space-monkeys (okay, that last one might be cool). I don’t know what sort of bizarro-world these people are living in where they think it’s cool for a total stranger to dish out his personal problems to the first moderately armed person he comes across, but it’s definitely not okay when the relationship ceases to develop right around the prostitute end of the spectrum. I get that all of you weaklings have problems and that you’d have me kill your grandmother for her fine china just as long as I stop asking questions at the jingle of a few coins, but I don’t know you and I have problems of my own. Simple fetch quests or kill quests aren’t necessarily bad things (all game design boils down to those factors at the most basic level), but if my relationship with the quest-giver ends after I’ve completed said menial task and taken my reward, then the quest should be cut from the game. It’s padding that adds nothing to development of an interesting setting, character development, plot development, or mechanical development.

However, I want to make myself clear and say that side quests don’t have to be epic eight hour subplots to be considered good. Some of the best side quests are singular offshoots that are entirely self-contained. A great example of this kind of quest would be “A Brush with Death” in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. What sets this quest apart from typical fetch/kill quests is that it transports you to a unique and engaging setting that’s entirely separate from the rest of the game-world; it’s hard not to get drawn in (ha) to a quest that sucks you into a magical painting and the secret world within that painting. Upon entering this world, the setting looks physically different from the rest of Oblivion‘s world. It’s interesting because it’s novel, much like “The Game” in Fable III, a quest that shrinks you down and makes you the hero of a pen-and-paper RPG, complete with towering, hooded nerds bickering around the game-table in typical D&D fashion. Side quests are a great place to bring in crazy ideas or settings that just don’t fit into the core narrative. And generally, “crazy” is better and more memorable than “trivial.”

But a game-world can only have so many offshoot quests before the threads start coming apart and feel like an incoherent jumble of unrelated ideas. This is where character-building subplots come in. If we take Mass Effect 2‘s loyalty missions as an example, we see multi-quest arcs that don’t really deviate from the core experience in terms of gameplay, but are entirely separate from the main narrative. They’re not necessary to complete the game, but because they focus extensively on the same characters for a chain of missions, they add a greater understanding of the universe and its individual occupants. A similar, more extreme example of this story within a bigger story approach would be guild arcs in the Elder Scrolls games. Some of these side stories could make up entire games on their own, but in the grand scheme of the game-world, they don’t even have to be acknowledged. There’s no arguing that they’re side quests, but they’re so fleshed out with developed characters and plots that experiencing them can radically alter the character you’ve built in your mind by game’s end.

Another kind of satisfying side quest doesn’t have to rely on character development to maintain your interest (although they often have some for good measure). What I’m talking about here are side quests that develop minor game mechanics and features that aren’t a central focus in the main narrative. These are often the most rewarding kinds of side quests because they feel so different from the core action and provide such a welcome change of pace that the game as a whole still feels fresh when the credits roll. Ezio’s parkour abilities in Assassin’s Creed II are generally just a mode of transportation in the main story, but if you choose to pursue optional Assassin Tombs, you’re introduced to precision platforming that feels more like Prince of Persia than the stab-fest of the core narrative. Similarly, The Riddler puzzles in Batman: Arkham Asylum require no stealth takedowns or carefully timed brawling, but the puzzles are developed enough that they’re fun in their own right.

I’d say that nine times out of ten, if a side quest falls under one of these three categories, it’ll probably be good. And what really steps a quest up and makes it more than just good is a sense of player progression. The loyalty missions in ME2 grant invaluable party-member loyalty that can drastically alter the main story’s finale (obviously the best kind of progression), the guild quests in Elder Scrolls games usually reward powerful weapons or armor that can’t be obtained any other way, as do the Assassins Tombs in ACII. Whatever way you cut it, gamers want that sweet, sweet loot like Tobias Funke wants a strapping young man to blast his glutes (shame on you if you don’t understand that reference). The draw of making your character more powerful is enough to make menial tasks like collecting randomly strewn orbs in Crackdown addicting, so there’s obviously a lot of power in this element that can make for truly memorable quests if utilized properly.

And I’d say those are the keys to a good side quest. If you can think of anything else, I’d love to hear it. I’d also be interested in hearing about your favorite side quests and what makes them stand out to you. And if we could somehow all band together and convince developers to stop padding their games with useless time-wasting quests, that’d be great too, but I have my doubts about that happening any time soon. Now I must return to Arkham City‘s fantastic “Cold Call Killer” side quest.

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Pretty memorable first level, right?

So, as I was researching this list, I was filled with a desperate urge to replay (or play) every one of these games. That’s what a great opening level will do for you. No sitting through boring tutorials, no unnecessary exposition; just cut right to the heart of the game and never look back. Now due to the nature of this list, open-world games are severely lacking here (but not completely absent!). And whether it’s because game design has gotten better over the years or because “you just had to be there” to fully appreciate a game’s innovations, this list is largely populated by modern titles (sorry, Super Mario 64). Now I’ll acknowledge the irony of this mundane intro and let you get to that list!

BioShock – You know, sometimes I get sick of putting BioShock on every “best of” list I do, but it’s just that good. From the second that plane dives toward its fiery demise to the moment you wade out of the sea and into a mysterious lighthouse, that opening captivates me without so much as a “Would you kindly?” And then, to look up and see Andrew Ryan’s bronze hands holding Rapture’s iconic welcome message of “No gods or kings, only man”…Man, the first three minutes of that game create a more intriguing world than most games can manage in eight hours. Follow that up with the breath-taking reveal of the city under the sea, the horrifying first encounter with a splicer, desperately waiting for the door to unlock as Andrew Ryan’s recording condemns CIA and KGB scum such as yourself while a mob of splicers is bashing the windows in…sweet baby Jesus! Every part of that game’s opening level is perfect. The atmosphere of decay and chaos pulls you under as you learn the complicated systems of the world, and with the larger-than-life Mr. Ryan preaching his utopia around every corner, you have no hope of breaking the immersion and surfacing for air until the very end. Can Irrational possibly top their last effort when BioShock Infinite comes out?

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Back when Treyarch was too amateur for anybody to notice that Call of Duty was an annual franchise, Infinity Ward was in the driver’s seat for a solid but stagnating series. Then they decided to take things to the modern setting. I don’t know if they could have made a better introduction than “Crew Expendable” (we’ll forget about the “F.N.G.” tutorial here), a high-octane SAS raid on the stormy seas that ends with a missing nuke and a sunken ship. What makes this level more memorable than the intense shoot-outs and heart-pounding set-pieces is the way it frames a disturbingly believable story of war in the age of terrorism. After the wetwork of this secret op is done, the game puts you in the shoes of a rather unfortunate Middle Eastern leader who’s executed on national television. These narrative innovations were far more profound than any persistent multiplayer leveling and they’re what Modern Warfare should be remembered for.

Deus Ex – I haven’t played more than 15 minutes of this myself (I know, I’m a terrible person), but in that brief time, I managed to see what everybody else raves about whenever they talk about this game and this level in particular. Setting things at the Statue of Liberty does a pretty good job of conveying the conspiratorial themes that make Deus Ex‘s narrative so memorable, but it’s the revolutionary freedom with which you’re allowed to complete your objective that earns it a spot on this list. Some people say it was extraordinary for the time, but I say that it still allows more freedom of approach than most games today. This game is the granddaddy of Shooter/Stealth/RPG hybrids and every developer could do themselves a service by looking at Deus Ex‘s opening level and striving to match its fundamental emphasis on player choice.

Dragon Age: Origins – Rather than dilly-dallying around with some amnesia non-sense like so many other RPGs, BioWare’s fantasy epic begins by giving you a very firm sense of your place in the world. You’re a noble dwarf in the subterranean city of Orzammar and you’re in line for the throne whenever your ailing father passes into the stone. Your two younger brothers are eager for power and frame you for a heinous crime that sees you sentenced to an inevitable death in the darkspawn-ridden Deep Roads. Seeing your only opportunity for escape, you join up with the fabled Grey Wardens and leave your home, your family, your reputation, and everything that you’ve ever known to save the world from some hardcore dragons. Oh, and this is just one of six unique “Origin Stories” in the game. No game feature has ever had some an impact on personal characterization for me. If people actually scratched their heads when they didn’t understand something, then BioWare’s decision to drop Origin Stories in Dragon Age II would probably have triggered an epidemic of deep head wounds and consequently, brain infections. That sounds like a sure-fire way to start up some sort of apocalypse, BioWare. What the hell were you thinking?

Fallout 3 – How is it that one of the most memorable parts of a game with one of the greatest open-worlds of all time is the beginning, where you’re confined to a cold and steely vault occupied by regular people with regular needs? Could it be that literally playing through your birth, toying around with lettered blocks as a toddler, and attending pathetic birthday parties as a young boy all contribute to forging an emotional attachment to your little vault? Could it be that the real sense of community makes leaving the scary and humbling experience it should be? Or maybe killing wasteland bandits just makes you yearn for the innocent days of beating a tunnel snake’s head in ’til the blood dries up. Either way, that first blurry glimpse of the world above wouldn’t be nearly as powerful if Fallout 3‘s opening vault weren’t such a well-developed community unto itself.

God of War III – The God of War series isn’t for everyone, but you just can’t argue with the epicness of its opening levels. The first game had the classic hydra battle. The second had the Colossus of Rhodes. And the third, well, that made a titan’s back into a level. Let me repeat: as the titan Gaia scales Mount Olypmus, you run around on her very earthly body slaying all sorts of baddies. Never before or since have I seen such an impressive use of scale in videogames.

The German dubbing makes it even more epic.

GoldenEye 007 – Is there anybody who owned this N64 classic that didn’t replay “The Dam” 50 times? I haven’t touched the campaign in over ten years and I could probably still give a respectable speed run. I still remember being in awe of enemies’ body animations when I shot individual limbs with that sniper rifle stowed away up in the watch tower. And when we consider that GoldenEye is generally considered to be the first console FPS worthy of the genre’s rich legacy, it makes that first experience all the more meaningful. And then there’s that whole part at the end of the level where you jump off a dam! What a way to end an all-time classic level.

Half-Life 2 – Maybe if I’d played the original Half-Life that intro would be taking this spot on the list, but I guess I just have a more personal attachment to Gordon’s G-Man infused train ride into City 17. As the player, you don’t do much more than walk through security checkpoints until you meet up with your rebellious group of pals and head to their secret hideout, but the faceless, baton-wielding soldiers of the Combine and their cackling radio chatter do wonders to characterize City 17′s oppressive atmosphere. Barney does a mighty fine impression of the oppressors to boot. All of these foreboding vibes make the eventual escape from City 17 all the more intense.

Mass Effect 2 – The first Mass Effect certainly deserves an honorable mention for Eden Prime, an action-packed level that manages to show you the ropes of gameplay while skillfully introducing the game’s primary villain and Shepard’s motivations all while maintaining a healthy degree of mystery. But Mass Effect 2 has got to go down as one of the very best openings ever. Feeling full of confidence after saving the galaxy in the first game, Shepard and his companions are attacked out of the black by an unidentified vessel that cuts through the Normandy like a knife through warm butter. The ship that you called your home in the first game is a flaming wreck as you race to the bridge to save your trusty pilot. Your utter helplessness really sets in as you cross a section where the ceiling has been ripped away, leaving only the unforgiving embrace of outer-space. When you finally do manage to save Joker, rather than making the narrow escape typical of this kind of scene, you’re blasted into space with the rest of the Normandy’s floating shards. The galaxy’s only hope is dead, and we don’t even know who killed him. Too bad Harbinger didn’t account for Cerberus’ zombification program.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty – Regardless of what you think of MGS2, it’s hard to argue with its opening being the best in the series. Stunning graphics (for the time) set against Harry Gregson-Williams’ masterful score mix with a dramatically rainy night on the George Washington Bridge to blow you away before you’ve even taken control. Once the obligatory Kojima cut-scenes end and you’re on the USS Discovery (as Snake!), you’re treated to some of the finest tactical espionage action to ever grace a video game. Then you get to fight Ocelot, whose right arm has been replaced with that of your twin brother Liquid Snake, resulting in Liquid’s personality dominating Ocelot and using his body as a host. Before you can even stop to ask what the hell is going on, the tanker sinks, you fake your death, and Snake Plissken is born. Metal Gear Solid doesn’t get much better than this tanker level.

Medal of Honor: Frontline – With the decline the franchise has seen this generation, it’s hard to believe that Medal of Honor once led the pack when it came to Military Shooters. But if you’ve ever started up Frontline and found yourself trapped in what may as well have been a floating meat locker on its way to the beaches of Normandy, then you’ll remember the bar this series set. Surrounded by gray skies, vomiting soldiers, and whizzing MG42 rounds, Frontline‘s opening level manages to evoke a fraction of the futility soldiers must have felt that fateful day. As soon as the gate crashes open you stumble past walking corpses and fall into the cold sea, bullets piercing the surface with no remorse. As you claw your way from tank-stopper to tank-stopper and watch medics gunned down in the line of duty, air planes screaming over dual lines of erupting sand, and brave men running directly into it all, you get a sense of just how terrifying battle is. What Saving Private Ryan was for war films is what Frontline was for war video games.

Resident Evil 4 – While Gears of War has set the standard for Third-Person Shooters today, we mustn’t forget that Epic’s ultra-violent Shooter wouldn’t be what it is without borrowing from RE4‘s revolutionary over-the-shoulder shooting mechanics. Booting up Capcom’s gorgeous Survival-Horror masterpiece for the first time, you could pop zombies’ heads off with precision never before seen. But this game’s zombies aren’t really zombies; infected by the uroboros virus, RE4‘s enemies are regular villagers tending to their labors when you arrive at their humble Eastern European village. However, they quickly turn less than friendly and give you an opportunity to shoot weapons out of their hands or serve up a fist full of dynamite from the local church tower. But you won’t feel quite so tough the first time you hear a chainsaw revving and realize that, “Holy crap, that dude is going to cut my friggin’ head off with a chainsaw if I don’t dive out of this window and kick some zombies’ heads off!”

Shadow of the Colossus – In a game where every fight is a boss fight, the first one better make an impression. Luckily, the first colossus of Team Ico’s masterpiece lives up to the title’s billing by being just about the largest thing gamers had ever fought up to that point. Seeing it lumbering about in the distance never fails to evoke a majestic admiration for the creature you’re about to kill. And what a kill it is! Scaling a colossus for the first time and delivering that fatal blow was unlike anything gamers had ever done up to that point. Likewise for the superb animations of Wander and his loyal steed. The best part is that all of this superlative gameplay is supplemented by a minimalist story that gives you just enough motivation to keep going forward without fully understanding the consequences of your actions. The first colossus of Shadow of the Colossus stuns and awes from a gameplay perspective, a narrative perspective, and a visual perspective. It is the introduction to one of gaming’s few artistic gems.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – By my own admission, The Force Unleashed is not a very good game. But it does have a few shining moments, and one of those is the opening level, which puts you in the space-boots of none other than Darth Vader. What better way to give you a taste of the power to come than by letting you play as one of the most feared force-wielders of all time? Never has Kashyykk seen such wanton destruction.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – The introduction to Drake’s second adventure is probably the best example of a video game capturing the feel of a good Adventure film’s best butterfly-inducing set-pieces. A battered and bloody Drake climbs a train that’s teetering off the edge of a snowy cliff before flashing back to the start of the wild adventure that got him there. Seriously, just go play it!

And that’s my 15 greatest opening levels of all time. If I had to pick favorites they’d probably be MGS2, Resident Evil 4, GoldenEye, and BioShock in no particular order. I’d love to hear everybody else’s favorites, but I think I’m going to go throw myself into some of these games for the next week. You should too.

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Harbinger’s voice is so deep. Do you guys think BioWare hired Brad Shoemaker to voice him? If you need some time to think about it, you could buy Mass Effect 2‘s final DLC offering, “Arrival,” tomorrow for a cool $7 and think it over as Shepard kicks some Reaper ass (without his loyal party members accompanying him, unfortunately).

Also, with both YouTube windows opened right next to each other, I almost embedded the following video instead. I think it’s appropriate to a degree, and I’m beginning to wonder why a remix hasn’t been made with Harbinger spittin’ rhymes.

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Thanks to a recent patch for the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2, we now know enough about the critically praised game’s final installment of post-release content to speculate wildly. What I mean by that, of course, is that we only know the name, “Arrival,” and that it’ll offer three trophies. Joystiq notes that “One of the Trophies, ‘Covert Action,’ refers to a Dr. Amanda Kenson, who was previously mentioned in a recent Cerberus Network update:

Historians and astronomers alike are abuzz tonight over a new paper published by Dr. Amanda Kenson of the University of Arcturus … ‘Only a small fraction of the mass effect relays date back 50,000 years,’ she writes, ‘The majority are far older, indicating they were created by a species predating even the Protheans.’ … What civilization could have spanned the galaxy for not thousands, but millions of years? If this were the case, we should have found mountains of evidence of their passing. Where is this species now?’”

Soo, we can pretty much just assume this deals with the Reapers and their inevitable arrival to Earth?

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According to Kotaku, there are people with enough time on their hands to boot up Mass Effect 2 and not play it, but read brief reports on out-of-game happenings within the Mass Effect universe through the Cerberus Network’s daily updates. Considering I didn’t even know this thing existed, I am clearly not one of those people.

Evidently, the writers at BioWare aren’t either. Beginning January 24th, all daily updates for the Cerberus Daily News will cease, with the exception of three weeks in 2011. And if you’ve read this far you’re either way too invested in this particular feature of ME2 or you have enough faith in me to believe that my headline will make sense by the end of this article.

And your faith has been rewarded! Amid the hoopla (yeah, hoopla) of a universe without any news outlets, one brave reporter managed to get the truth out through the Cerberus Daily News’ dying network: “A week of posts will precede a downloadable content release, and two more weeks will lead up to the release of Mass Effect 3.” Let’s cross our fingers and hope it’s as entertaining as “Lair of the Shadow Broker.”

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Not really sure what's going on with that trophy...

It’s that time of year again; that wonderful time when we place an arbitrary crown on a single video game for rising above all the rest and demonstrating what video games should be. But before we recap the year that was 2010, I’d first like to continue an InsaneBear tradition and re-evaluate 2009′s Game of the Year…Alright, and with that re-evaluation process completed, I’ve decided to amend the scores of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Borderlands from Good to Great and Great to Good, respectively. That said, Dragon Age: Origins retains the honors of GotY. It certainly has some interface problems and the combat is a little clunky, but the world and cast of characters are sublimely rich and the Origin stories are a thing of beauty. Few games have allowed me to embrace real role-playing so readily, and for that, Dragon Age: Origins lives on in my mind. Let’s just hope the sequel is as good.

With that out of the way, we can move on to the lineup of 2010 contenders. Once again, I’m ashamed to have no insights on the many great PS3 and Wii titles that came out this year, but I am what we would call a poor college kid. Feel free to dig into those deep pockets of yours and make a donation. And yes, if I had any faith that any of you would actually make a donation I’d totally go through the effort of putting a fancy link on “donation” that would allow direct deposits into my the InsaneBear bank account. Hmm, I wonder if I can write this site off as a business expense? I really just want to say that I’m writing things off…

Alan Wake – This game makes a pretty bold move in casting a washed-up writer as the protagonist, but those elbow patches on Mr. Wake’s jacket grew into my heart and convinced me that Remedy has created one of the most interesting new characters of the year in Alan Wake. The supporting cast is equally strong, and the story is a unique one for video games. The cinematic presentation really allows for the game’s interesting light mechanics to shine (get it?) and the atmosphere is startlingly alive.

BioShock 2 – This game takes all the mechanical aspects an all-time classic in BioShock and makes them better. More weapons, more plasmids, and more enemies combine with smoother combat for some truly intense and unique FPS action, and it’s all brought to life by phenomenal art direction, graphics, and sound design. Against all odds, Rapture manages to maintain its mysterious allure and keeps players coming back to explore more of the seafloor city’s ecology. Plus, 2K Marin provides a fun multiplayer offering full of unique BioShock twists.

Costume Quest – Double Fine’s first stab at the downloadable market rode its adorable visual design and Halloween theme all the way from my hard-drive to my heart and I can’t wait to see what the studio brings to the table next. A quirky story infused with plenty of laughs is the main draw, but the turn-based combat is a blast too. I’m still in awe of the snazzy costume design; I mean, that french-fry arachnid thing is a thing of terrifying beauty.

Fable III – Lionhead’s third entry in the Fable series maintains the charming audio and visual direction of the franchise while amping up its signature humor to side-splitting magnitudes. The combat is super smooth and the story is probably the most interesting Lionhead has produced so far. Oh, and co-op is fully functional this time around.

Halo: Reach – The Halo formula has defined FPS gaming for the better part of a decade and is still just as addictive today as it was in 2001. What makes Reach so exceptional is that it dares to build on that formula in a meaningful way with the concept of armor abilities, which really allow you to approach combat however you choose. Beautiful visuals and sound complement an infinitely replayable collection of game-modes that accommodate loners, competitive types, co-operative buddies, level-builders, and machinama-makers. Each mode is further enhanced by dozens of customizable modifiers which are contained within amazingly simple and intuitive menus. From a gameplay and value perspective, Bungie’s final Halo effort is the pinnacle of a series that many consider to be the greatest FPS franchise of all time.

Mass Effect 2 – Without a doubt the most polished game BioWare has ever put out, Mass Effect 2 is a game that transcends genre. While the choice-driven dialogue trees scream of WRPGs, the shooting is so astonishingly smooth and intense that it can compete with any Third-Person Shooter on the market. The cast of wonderfully voiced characters occupy a distinct universe which is inspired by the classic aesthetic of sci-fi giants like Blade Runner, and the narrative is good enough to go toe to toe with most sci-fi greats. But what’s most impressive is to see the grand scope of the franchise when your choices from Mass Effect 1 show up in this greatly improved sequel. If Mass Effect 3 can rope it all together, then Commander Shephard’s space-faring trilogy will go down as one of the greatest in the history of video games.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – 2010 could go down as the best year ever for the Racing genre, what with titles like Gran Turismo 5, Split/Second, Blur, and more. But in my mind, this Hot Pursuit reboot is the best of them all (keeping in mind that I haven’t actually played any of the others…I just like cop-chases). Whether you’re racing the computer, talking trash online, or desperately trying to top your friend’s best time, drifting through a corner at high speeds in a $2,000,000 Bugatti is immensely satisfying.

Perfect Dark – An HD face-lift and online capabilities for one of the best games of all time? It’s hard to imagine Perfect Dark for Xbox Live Arcade being anything but good. Sure enough, the core gameplay is just as fun now as it was in standard definition ten years ago. The ridiculous number of weapons, all with secondary functions, the superb enemy animations, the programmable multiplayer bots, the insane amount of stat-tracking, the plethora of different game-types, all of that makes for one of the deepest and most fully realized FPSs of all time. Add in an unforgettable soundtrack and a really good story, and you have to wonder why more developers aren’t copying Perfect Dark. Oh, and did I forget to mention the local split-screen options? Thank the gaming gods for allowing this remake to be made.

Red Dead Redemption – What can I say? Rockstar’s take on the wild west successfully creates the single most organic game-world I’ve ever experienced. When you’re purposefully ignoring fast-travel just so you can take in the awesome beauty of the world around you, you know the developers are doing something right. Add in a cast of supremely written characters, a classic Western tale, an innovative and daring ending, great graphics and sound, as well as a robust multiplayer feature, and you’ve got the ingredients for one hell of a game.

Splinter Cell: Conviction – Sam Fisher’s latest tale of espionage boldly goes where no stealth game has gone before and rewards players for being aggressive “predators” instead of the ghosts of the past. The innovative “Mark and Execute” system keeps the pace charging ahead on all cylinders and consistently has you feeling like a bad ass. The dedicated co-op campaign is a welcome addition too.

Honorable Mentions – Games that I should have played but didn’t…

Civilization V – It’s supposed to be the most accessible Civ game yet but it doesn’t sacrifice any depth to achieve that. I’m almost afraid to play it for fear of becoming addicted.

Donkey Kong Country Returns – Classic Platforming at its finest and a great aesthetic to go with it. And I hear that the challenge certainly gives you your money’s worth.

God of War III – There’s never been a game with such visual scale as this grandiose beauty. The seamless zooms from the back of a Titan to the mountain he is climbing and back again are astonishing. Kratos’ third bloody adventure is undoubtedly one of the best looking games of all time.

Heavy Rain – Quantic Dream’s daring interactive thriller is unquestionably the most unique AAA title of 2010 and is worth playing simply to experience something different. Everybody who’s played it seems to say that it’s got some of the most memorable moments of the year.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn – Is it possible for something to be so cute that it locks you into a permanent smile? Probably not, but Kirby’s fabric-fueled adventure can’t be accused of not trying. This title definitely has the most appealing art style of any game I’ve seen this year.

Limbo – Looking back, I’m sort of surprised I didn’t get this game. I’m thinking I’ll probably correct that situation over the next few days, because countless critics have cited this as the most emotionally engaging and thought-provoking game of 2010. But forgetting all of that artsy stuff and looking at it from a practical standpoint, those puzzles are supposed to be devilishly satisfying.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker – Dude, it’s MGS. Does anything more need to be said?

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty – I’ve never been one to go nuts over RTSs, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that Blizzard’s sequel to one of the all-time greats looks really fun.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 – This follow up to Mario’s Wii Debut essentially takes everything that made that game a GotY contender (in 2007!) and makes it better. Miyamoto-san knows how to do one thing above all else and that’s how to make fun video games. SMG2 is supposed to be the pinnacle of 3D Platformers.

Vanquish – This futuristic Third-Person Shooter from the creator of Resident Evil has been winning a lot of “Best Game Nobody Played” awards for its ultra-intense shooting and jet-sliding mechanic that always has you on the offensive. There might not be much more to it than shooting, but that shooting is supposed to be some of the best this year.

And now for the awards…

Best Biceps – I really wanted to pick Clay Matthews III here, because, well, the man looks like he could murder you with his bare hands. But Madden NFL 11 doesn’t quite do my favorite Green Bay Packer justice, so I decided to give it to a fictional character who does murder people with his bare hands, Kratos.

Look at those things bulge!

Mass Effect 2‘s Grunt and the really big bandit who smokes cigars in Fable III were also in the running.

Game of the Year Runner-Up – Mass Effect 2.

2010 Game of the Year – Halo: Reach. In a three-way race between Reach, Mass Effect 2, and Red Dead Redemption, Bungie’s final effort on the series that made them a house-hold name emerges as the all-around best game. RDR‘s game-world is more technically astounding, and ME2‘s story and characters are far more memorable, but Reach has the least flaws while managing to still be innovative. It doesn’t hurt that this game is more fundamentally fun and has more value than anything else that came out this year.

And that’s that for 2010, a relatively disappointing year for video games. But the future looks mighty bright in 2011. I’m looking forward to evaluating the ridiculous number of great looking games at the end of the year. Until then, let’s focus on more important things, like Most Serenading Voice of 2010.

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I have to say that I haven’t had a passing interest in any of the Mass Effect 2 DLC so far, but this one looks pretty entertaining. Expect to see “Lair of the Shadow Broker” on September 7th for 800 Microsoft Points ($10).

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If you take a long enough break from melting darkness incarnate with your flashlight in Alan Wake and look at its DLC menu, you might notice that the game’s second, and more importantly, unannounced post-release pack, titled “The Writer,” is being advertised. The content looks to put the hard-boiled writer through some grueling trials of some sort, although the 800 Microsoft Points your wallet has to cough up is quite the trial in itself. It’s unclear when “The Writer” will be releasing, but Alan Wake‘s first post-release adventure, “The Signal,” should be coming out in a little over two months.

And in other news, BioWare has been quoted as saying that future Mass Effect 2 DLC will bridge the story gap between the second and as of yet unreleased third installments in the series. Few details were given on the nature of the DLC, but BioWare did say that Kasumi, of the “Kasumi’s Stolen Memory” DLC pack, will be the last party member added through downloadable content. All future questing leading up to Mass Effect 3 will take place with the chums we’ve already made.

As for word on Mass Effect 3 itself, lead producer Casey Hudson said, “it probably won’t be for quite a few months that we talk about Mass Effect 3.” But if it’s any consolation, Hudson did confirm that ME2‘s terrible planet-mining mini-game will be returning in the trilogy’s conclusion. “When you look at the feedback, there are things that people liked about it, and functionally it serves a purpose…I don’t think there’s a problem with any of those. I think it’s the way people relied on it, and the way we relied on it maybe too much in parts of the story. And also just when you think about the speed of it.” Just what I was hoping for.

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Can’t get enough space-faring and alien-sexing in Mass Effect 2? Well, BioWare’s next piece of DLC, titled “Overlord,” won’t help you out in either department. But if you’ve been hoping to stay on one planet that’s overrun with crazed robots so you can shut down a lethal enemy AI, then you’re in luck. And you’ll even get to hover your butt around in the Hammerhead in between indoor sections. No pricing’s been announced yet, but the pack will be hitting the Xbox Live Marketplace sometime next month. Personally, I think BioWare should stop screwing around with these throw-away missions and just release an episodic, character-driven expansion.

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Let's hope that video game blending is less catastrophic.

So I’ve purchased three full-fledged video games this year and despite the fact that they all hail from very different genres, Mass Effect 2, BioShock 2, and Splinter Cell: Conviction have more in common than one would think. How is it that the RPG, FPS, and Stealth-Action genres, as mutually exclusive as could be just a few years ago, are producing such similar content in 2010? Well, it’s an interesting trend that I intend to examine in this here article. The implications of genre blending are seriously important in regards to what we’ll be playing next year or even ten years from now, so it’s a topic worth talking about.

First I want to elaborate on the similarities between the aforementioned games I’ve played this year. I certainly don’t want to imply that these three games are inter-changeable, but there’s no denying common game-mechanics and gimmicks. As big as dialogue trees and player choice are to the core of Mass Effect 2, the cover-based shooting and biotic powers are arguably just as central to the experience. Not-so-coincidentally, shooting and plasmid powers happen to be the main course of the story-driven BioShock 2. And while Sam Fisher doesn’t boast any super-natural abilities in Splinter Cell: Conviction, he does forgo stealth in the name of bad ass shooting (well, it can be bad ass sometimes). So clearly, despite whatever connotations these genres may have had in the past, shooting stuff and taking on super-human abilities (biotic/plasmid powers, Mark and Execute feature in Conviction) seem to be a similarity.

Of course guns and violence have always been a part of pretty much any video game genre, but these games demonstrate a very deliberate effort to streamline the shooting mechanics and make combat flow as effortlessly as possible. They also share cover mechanics (with the exception of BioShock 2, because cover seems to be about the only difference between an FPS and TPS today), experience/leveling systems, and narratives that take themselves very seriously. It’s also worth noting that both BioShock 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction feature multiplayer modes despite a sentiment among fans that such a component is unnecessary.

The fact is, simplistic shooters with competitive multiplayer and blockbuster stories sell well, and games like Psychonauts don’t. So naturally, as video games become more and more expensive to make, shooters are going to have more and more influence. On the one hand, this is bad because it dilutes the market into one giant Shooting genre. It’d be like if every movie Hollywood put out from now on starred Bruce Willis. Now I love me some Bruce, but can you even fathom the man in something like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Yeah.

Bruce Willis: Professional Bad Ass.

But there’s a silver lining to this as well. The various genres that adopt classic shooting mechanics adapt them to their own roots and make them more interesting. Few straight shooters feature the depth of combat available in Mass Effect 2‘s slick combination of real-time shooting and biotic powers. The super powers just add another layer of complexity to every combat scenario. And the cover mechanics popularized by Gears of War have helped transform the shooting genre from run-and-gun to something a little more tactical. Frankly, the more complex a given situation in a game becomes, the more interesting it is in my mind (assuming that it is streamlined and responsive enough to foster intuitive decision-making).

We can also thank genre blending for the addictive qualities that have been popping up in shooters as of late. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare truly revolutionized the shooting scene when it took the idea of RPG elements in a shooter, which games like Deus Ex had done years before, and trimmed the the concept down to a primal reward system. Modern Warfare is far from an RPG, but its persistent leveling system and the tangible rewards that come with it harness one of the core aspects of a good RPG. Since then, it seems like every game is trying to introduce some sort of RPG-like leveling system that rewards continued or creative play in both single and multiplayer modes.

Taking a step back from the few games we’ve looked at here and pondering the entire gaming landscape, it’s easy to see that this is an industry-wide trend. True, there are plenty of non-shooters out there (just look at the Wii), but it’s this concept of simplistic and accessible gameplay that’s taking the industry by storm. Publishers want games that anybody can jump into, and they want the addictive qualities (stats and leveling, a good story, multiplayer aspect) that keep the disc in a player’s system. DLC is also an extension of this mindset. The entire MMO genre is the epitome of this perspective.

Beware of the future.

We need look no further than Holiday 2010 to see some glowing examples of this commercial mindset. Microsoft’s Project Natal and Sony’s PlayStation Move are trying to appeal to the main stream masses with their (supposedly) intuitive motion control schemes. Halo: Reach is branching out from the tried and true Halo formula to offer some RPG-like class structure. Fable III is dismissing experience all together in favor of more visual and visceral representations of power. The next Assassin’s Creed is set to introduce multiplayer assassinating. And gaming executives can’t get over the fact that Farmville has more daily users than World of Warcraft. Games are becoming products that intend to bait the player with accessible and and visceral play while hooking them with addictive rewards, narratives, and social interactions.

Now when I put it that way, this all sounds pretty great, right? I mean, I used the word “visceral.” Hell, I’ll even throw “emergent” in there. And accessible games are great just as long as they don’t sacrifice depth. But that’s exactly what games like Splinter Cell: Conviction are doing. What used to be an intense tactical-stealth experience now forces the player into boring firefights. And the experience rewards in that game have little bearing on gameplay, so they may as well not be there. And I’ve been saying for years how much I hate the “modern realistic” look in games. It’s not that the art direction itself is poor, just that the market is over-saturated with it. I also think we can all agree that BioShock 2 would have benefited had the multiplayer been scrapped in favor of more single-player attention.

It is my personal opinion that genre blending could turn out to be a very dangerous practice in the long-term future of video games. It is true that genre blending has produced some of my all-time favorite games, and I think it would be foolish to shun the practice, but it would also be terribly unwise to go forth without any thoughts of the consequences. The next ten years could very well kill off artistic masterpieces like Shadow of the Colossus (The Last Guardian should be a good indicator of things to come) and transform the gaming landscape into portable MMOs where achievements for walking ten steps backwards fuel harmfully addictive “gaming.” I suppose genre blending is more of a symptom of the greater problem, commercialization, but whatevs.

We may have to rely on the Indie scene for unique games before too long.

The future of video games is literally being decided as we speak. One could argue that we’ve already seen the systematic elimination of stealth and horror games and RPGs could be up next. The key is for RPG developers to find a way to make their craft commercially viable in a market that lusts after everything that critics of our industry cite when debating the artistic worth of video games. Perhaps genre blending, despite the terrifying potential of its pitfalls, is actually the key to helping this medium ascend to the realm of high art. Maybe the next few years will see a golden ratio of engaging story, visceral gameplay, and immersive worlds that could have never been created within the confines of the rigid genres of the past. Or maybe we’ve already seen that and publishers thought there wasn’t enough multiplayer…

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