GOTY 2010: Dave’s Top 5 Picks

If you had asked me in 2009 if 2010 could possibly be any better, I might have laughed. 2009 was a landmark year featuring some of the best games of the decade. 2010 came along as an underdog, and boxed its way right into contention with a slew of amazing titles, some obscure but excellent and others completely obvious but equally excellent. To even whittle my game of the year choices to five seems insulting, and so in a way this list isn't necessarily my five favorite games of the year, but five that I believe deserve the recognition as games of their year.

Great Characters in Gaming: The Next Generation

After nearly a year long hiatus, Great Characters in Gaming is back with a version befitting our current generation of consoles (which are for some reason still dubbed next-gen). This list follows the familiar format, but every character here is from a game released within the last two years, with one exception who made his debut back in 2007. Characters featured in games these days need to bring more to the table than those of previous generations. In the 80s, we were content with some pixels and a jump button. The 90s saw a shift to a more character-driven gaming experience, but still lacked voice acting and quality dialog to speak. It wasn't until the last decade (2000-2010) that we started seeing real effort put into character development, and the last five years in particular have seen a boom of believable players to star in the best of games. Top notch voice acting combined with detailed writing has yielded us some memorable people, and below are just a few that I personally have found particularly wonderful.

Review: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

When I played Enslaved at E3 earlier this year, I knew it would be a good game. I knew I would be interested in playing it, and I had the impression that it would be one of this year's best adventure titles, even if the combat felt somewhat wonky to me at that time. What the brief bit I played at E3 did not convey to me was that I would be playing through one of the most captivating stories I would ever come across within the bounds of digital entertainment. The tale of Trip and her Monkey, a story loosely based on a 500 year-old Chinese novel, is captivating and extremely well-written, and despite a few technical hiccups throughout the journey, Enslaved is easily one of the best games I've played all year.

Save $10+ Off Dead Rising 2 and Pre-Orders for Enslaved, Medal of Honor Until Midnight

Dead Rising 2 just launched this week and if you were on the fence about it (why would you be?) you can already find it in GoGamer's 48 Hour Madness sale for $51.90. You can also pre-order Medal of Honor which is coming out soon and pick it up with free shipping and a $51.90 deep discount as well. Enslaved is down to some $49.90 for PS3 and Xbox 360 Monkey business (see what I did there?).

If you're looking for the PC versions of the game, the price dips down for Medal of Honor to $49.90 and only $37.90 for Dead Rising 2 on the PC. Sale ends midnight tonight, so jump on it if you had your eyes on these upcoming games.

E3 ’10: Hands on with Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

There's been little mention of Enslaved this year, aside from many people likening its visuals to Uncharted and many others scoffing at the developer's choice of name for the game's protagonist. The game is being developed by Ninja Theory, the team most famous for Heavenly Sword, and it's looking right now as though Namco Bandai will be publishing it for release this October. The demo I played through imparted echoes of many of my most beloved games, Uncharted 2, Beyond Good and Evil, and even a little Zelda, and so personally October is looking like a good month.