2012
1. Peter Jackson's King Kong - The Official Game of the Movie - Gamers Edition
An interesting enough game. Answers the question of "What if Trespasser was a linear console port, right down to the spastic enemies?", which nobody really asked, but you've got to admire them for trying, especially being that this is a movie tie-in. **/*****
This game is buggy. Its title is also long. If Kong won't lift an obstacle such as a pillar, what I found to work is to hit Alt+Enter (game won't actually switch to windowed) quickly whilst mashing the mouse button. I faced crashes in two Kong levels, and in the level where you get back on the plane, the end script wouldn't trigger. To get around these issues I had to download a complete savegame so I could skip to other maps; thankfully all but one of the issues were at the very end of a level, and they're only like 5 minutes long anyway, so not much progress is skipped. I've mirrored that save here, just put it in the game's directory.
2. E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy
Combine every piece of cyberpunk fiction known to man. Haphazardly slap on every RPG mechanic known to man. Top off with incredibly impressive, atmospheric but empty levels and a dash of bugs. **/*****
Click for a flowchart of E.Y.E.'s endgame.
3. The Darkness 2
This game got more and more tiresome. **/*****
4. Alan Wake (including Extra missions)
Too much of a focus on (not that great) combat, but interesting premise and beautiful, atmospheric locations. I liked how most of the levels always had a sense of place by giving the player the ability to see previous or coming locations off in the distance; this decreased the feeling of navigating along a linear line from a to b. ****/*****
5. Syndicate
Apparently, a tribute game to better games I like, such as DX3 and Mirror's Edge. ***/*****
6. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS3)
Great action setpieces and cut-scenes much like its prequel, but to me it felt just as action oriented, which is a shame. Part of the frustration, though, is due to my inability to play action games with a controller. Drinking game: chug a beer whenever Drake jumps and grabs for something, which goes on to collapse. ***/*****
7. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
One of my favorite games of this decade. *****/*****