Second Runoff Round 2009, Game of the Year

[S.Peelman]

This year has an easy winner for me. At this point, things were getting better, and 2009 is a pretty good year. From the poll I played Uncharted 2 and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The 2D Mario game was fun but the 'New' series never hooked me enough, and I never beat it. Uncharted 2 was amazing though. The original game was already fun enough, but this was the refined version. It probably cemented my return to consoles as the platform of choice for me. The story was amazing, likeable characters, the setpieces grand and the action thrilling.

Besides those I also played Zelda Spirit Tracks, Guitar Hero 5 from the 'other' list. And Wii Fit Plus and Angry Birds but... yeah. Spirit Tracks was a pleasant surprise, I liked the game a lot and thought it was a great Zelda game, much better than predecessor Phantom Hourglass, and I even preferred it to The Wind Waker. However it was still a fairly low key game. My Guitar Hero addiction continued, and I got Guitar Hero 5 immediately. I didn't like the setlist as much as the previous two games however and I would more often return to those.

Besides those games, my Guitar Hero streak also continued with Guitar Hero Metallica. It became one of my favourite entries, because the songs were so suitable to this kind of gameplay. Lastly I also played The Sims 3, Anno 1404, Cities XL and Empire Total War. Cities XL I hoped would be a new SimCity after a game-which-shant-be-named killed that series, but Cities XL was shallow. The Sims 3 was again more of the same and I wouldn't get into it. Anno 1404 however was a return to form for this series. Just the right amount of depth and content, and you can build great cities in this game. It became one of my favourites in the series and I played it a lot. Likewise, Empire Total War was a great follow-up to its predecessors. Of course, as a Dutchman I loved playing as my own country.

At the end of the day this year is highlighted by three great games for me, which all took their place among my favourites; Anno 1404, Empire Total War and Uncharted 2. Of these Uncharted 2 reigns supreme.