10. Guitar Hero:

This was the biggest thing at the time it came out. Now where is it?

The idea of a video game hinging completely on a peripheral was nothing new. Dance Dance Revolution had made a huge name for itself as one specific music-based genre, and while it had imitators of its own, nothing compared to the amount of imitation that Guitar Hero would spawn from the simple concept of playing music on fake musical instruments. Five buttons and a strum toggle were all the buttons found on the first Guitar Hero controller, making it incredibly simple and accessible. But while Dance Dance Revolution still has its niche carved out, Guitar Hero carved out an entire chunk of the video game market, allowing Rock Band to sneak in with it, and then imploded the genre entirely within a few short years. It’s hard to think that just a few years ago Guitar Hero was one of the biggest franchises on the market but is now entirely absent from any future lineups.

9. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare:

Suddenly the military became cool again.

Perks and XP and online name-calling. These things all existed prior to Modern Warfare, but not all at the same time in a well-known entity the way Call of Duty 4 made them common-place in just about every multiplayer mode in a First-Person Shooter released these days. Beyond simply the multiplayer framework, the narrative framework- gritty “realism” painted with browns and grays and hoorahs- has permeated further than I’d prefer to acknowledge. These days every new FPS that has a war-type setting is required to call itself “the answer to Call of Duty,” a claim that rarely has any sort of merit. When other games are going out of their way to exist purely as a reason to attempt to outdo you, then it sort of places you on a list like this.

8. Super Mario 64:

Well well, a giant bomb lives atop this mountain. How quaint.

People take Mario for granted. They really do and it’s a shame. While a new Mario game pops up like clockwork every new console cycle, sometimes more than once if we’re lucky, it was Super Mario 64 that changed things the most. Before Super Mario 64, the architecture wasn’t in place to see how a 3D platformer was built. The ideas were there, but it took Mario to place the bar high up and say, “Alright, clear this.” Even Mario games themselves are subject to the old question, “So, is it better than Super Mario 64?” Open areas to explore and secrets to find were fleshed out here for everyone to ogle over and demand more, something that Rare would do over and over and over again, each time making a variation of Super Mario 64. Simply, Mario just showed that he knew how to transition into 3D better than any previous franchise, something that his chief rival, Sonic, is still struggling to get right.

7. Final Fantasy VII:

How often did you hear Latin chanting in games before this?

A lot of RPGs have made us laugh and made us cry, but few have started something in motion that can never be undone: Oversappy melodrama. Final Fantasy VII burst onto the PS1 with graphics that amazed and a story that overwhelmed gamers everywhere, but in its earnest attempt at creating a connection to the player, something happened that allowed the genre to slowly spiral out of control into a never-ending battle against goofy dialogue, uncanny graphics, and an over-abundance of drama played up for the sake of drama. Don’t get me wrong, Final Fantasy VII is a good game in its own right. Unfortunately it is also the grandfather for every game or even character in a game that can be summed up with dark eye shadow and the phrase “Whyyyyyyyyy?! “

6. God of War:

Such a tragedy, literally.

Hacking and slashing are now commonplace in video games, but the Hack n’ Slash genre is essentially just the descendant of another mostly retired genre called the Beat ‘em Up. The concepts are the same with typically one guy running through a gauntlet of the same enemies over and over, literally just fist-fodder, until a boss is conquered and you are declared a Bad Dude. The main difference is blood, and God of War decided to set the tone for exactly how relentless a manly 3D Hack n’ Slash needed to be, partly through an upgradeable attack combo system and partly through the bane of many gamers’ existence: Quick Time Events. All too often reviewers utter the statement “Like God of War but…” when reviewing new games, something that solidifies my thoughts on God of War setting a standard that all games of its ilk are judged upon.

5. Grand Theft Auto III:

A cathartic release for so many gamers, but an unsatisfying release in the long run.

One aspect that most childhoods consist of is the ability to play with toys in any environment and do whatever you want with them. Total freedom. Video games have been trying to replicate this concept for ages, but no game succeeded in pushing us closer to that goal in one hearty jump than Grand Theft Auto III. It effectively created the sandbox style of gameplay, i.e. a world completely open for you to screw around in. You see a car you’d like? Take it and have fun. Want to jump your car off bridges? Go for it. Want to go on crazy killing sprees? Ye-yeah, okay, you can do that as well. The only regret is that the medium of the sandbox game began with a title hinged entirely on theft, drugs, and murder. And even though we’ve come a long way since GTAIII’s release, the most popular titles in the sandbox genre tend to be GTA games and games similar to GTA.

4. Street Fighter II:

The introduction to the realization that no matter how hard you try, you'll never be as good as everyone else.

Video games are serious business. At this point in time you can go out and train every week to hone your skills for a chance to compete head-to-head against other skilled opponents in all sorts of fighting games. But before Street Fighter II, there really wasn’t a game suited for competition of that nature. It didn’t invent the fighter, but it did tap into the core of what a fighter needs- balanced mechanics- and go nuts with the concept. Suddenly every character, used correctly, could prove victorious. Strategy was involved and mastery of controls was needed. The limitations of the buttons and joystick could no longer be blamed for a missed punch or a failed special move, leaving only yourself at fault for a painful defeat at the hands of someone better than you. I don’t even want to try listing the clones that Street Fighter II spawned, but I don’t mind giving props where props is due.

3. Halo: Combat Evolved:

Wonder why all sapce armor looks like this now...?

I just don’t like the Halo games, despite how hard I’ve tried. I don’t believe that they’re awful games, but I could never get into them. Regardless of my personal feelings though, Halo: Combat Evolved really did take the FPS genre and standardized a handful of mechanics that are still routine today such as the two-gun carry limit, regenerating health, and online multiplayer for an FPS on a console. More than anything, that’s what Halo demonstrated: That a First-Person Shooter could not only work on a console but work well. Unfortunately, it also meant we’d have to suffer through wave after wave of space marine games where the main characters are faceless one-man-armies who are too gruff to even care about the things going on around them. Even so, Halo is the reason the Xbox is alive today. Without it, we wouldn’t be mentioning Microsoft among the gaming companies these days because they wouldn’t even have a gaming division anymore. Man, talk about huge industry-shifting changes.

2. World of Warcraft:

If you had the choice, would you decide to live in the real world?

Gaming addition has become worse and worse, but it’s not because people are any weaker. Rather, it’s because games are just getting better and better to the point that a handful of players begin to prefer their lives as a Night Elf over that of a delivery guy. World of Warcraft wasn’t the first MMORPG to find success by far, but the level of success it has reached is unfathomable. It dominates its genre and refuses to share. Entire development companies go under just attempting to create a game to share the Internet with WoW. What World of Warcraft has done is create a model for a self-perpetuating game, one than never ends due to constant additions to the world. Instead of having to create a new installment of the series every few years, Blizzard is able to just release another expansion pack to WoW, snagging more and more users every year. It’s unreal what WoW has accomplished, but it’s certain that few other games have changed everything we knew about the medium like World of Warcraft.

1. Super Mario Bros.:

Hail to the king.

Except for maybe the granddaddy of all game-changers. The video game industry was in a freefall during the early 1980’s thanks to an over saturated marketplace full of poorly-made titles. The whole “home console experiment” thing that Atari had got going was winding down and it seemed that video games were doomed to become a fad that had already died out. But then came the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Bros. Everything changed at that point as players experienced precise controls, clever level design, hidden paths and secrets, power-ups, collectibles, iconic music, and a princess that was forever in another castle until she just had another quest for you to conquer. As soon as Mario demonstrated what a video game was meant to play like, developers rushed to replicate the formula with such notable conventions as the aforementioned power-up system, a coin-like item that when collected to a certain number rewards with more lives, and the simple “platformers go right” rule that wouldn’t be broken until Super Mario Bros 3 changed the rules yet again. No game deserves more respect for changing everything like the squat little plumber in red, and that’s why he tops my list.

So there you have it, Ten Games That Changed Everything. Did I leave off any games you feel should be on here? Leave a comment and let me know since I’m sure I didn’t cover every single game out there worth mentioning. Let your voice be heard and if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll succeed in changing my mind as well.

Want more video game Top Ten Lists? Then check these out:

-Top 5 Franchises That Should Get a LEGO Spinoff

-5 Aspects of Pokemon That Make No Sense

-Five Games I’d Like To See On The 3DS Without 3D

Boy did it ever take me a while to figure this one out.

My experience with the First-Person Shooter (and to some extent the 3rd Person Shooter as well) dates back to GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64. I played the single-player mode for hours and hours, loving the fun of running through levels with invincibility, every gun, and infinite ammo, mowing down enemies just for the heck of it. But I was never what you’d call “good” at the game. When playing against friends in multiplayer matches I’d typically show up in last place, but it was never about the multiplayer experience for me.

Flash forward to the recent years and I’ve played a handful of shooters including both Modern Warfare titles, Halo 1 & 2, Gears of War, Portal, and Bioshock, dwelling last week exclusively on Modern Warfare 2 in order to soak up as much of it as possible before my Xbox Live Gold Account expired (may it rest in peace). Having done so, a new understanding began to emerge. I was finally able to grasp much of the enjoyment, or at least addiction, that surrounds the title and like-titles.

A lot of this desire to get better at the FPS genre stems from two things. The first is my preference to platformers as a genre, of which the FPS may just be the total opposite. I’m good at platforming in games, but awful with a gun in my virtual hands, so I wanted to balance myself out.

I suppose it can't always be about shooting this guy in the bathroom stall.

The second and larger desire is a need to fit in with my extended family. Multiple members of my wife’s family and family friends play Call of Duty on a basis more regular than the tides swelling and receding. It’s painful to find myself the odd-man-out in a conversation about video games, blindly stumbling around the outsides of the group as they talk clear strategies and CoD jargon while I ask if anyone else has 242 stars in Super Mario Galaxy 2.

To begin, I needed to go through the single-player campaign, of which I was already fairly familiar with thanks to rampant spoilers and the fact that I’m playing it a year after it’s fashionable to do so. Playing through just the story left me a little confused, not just because the story itself was so all over the place and…well bad, but because the game itself wasn’t overly difficult. Then again, I was playing it on the default difficulty, so after one solid playthrough I ramped things up to Veteran despite the game advising me not to and spent a few days ripping through the game once more at high speeds.

What I’m still not sure of is whether Modern Warfare 2’s Veteran difficult stacks up accurately to other highest difficulty levels in different First-Person Shooters. For all I know, MW2 is considered easy, and while I won’t say it was a walk through the park, it wasn’t a walk through the minefield either. It had some moderate challenge, but nothing overly complicated. Rather, it felt that I was getting killed by seemingly nothing more than by actual enemies when playing on Veteran.

Also, I don't recall the point of the game where I walked through fire.

Regardless, the lesson I learned was that the story wasn’t important to a FPS game of this style (I’m aware that Bioshock and Portal both have awesome central stories). The war-type FPS seems to use the campaign mode more as a means of training you up to learn the basics before tossing you into the online multiplayer matches. That’s where the real game tends to be as the enjoyment you’ll skim from the experience is much richer in playing with other people, either via co-op modes or just head-to-head in ridiculous multiplayer matches.

Before deciding to get myself killed over and over again by players 70-levels my superior, I managed to hop online with just my good friend Kyle Martinak and try out the Special Ops missions, essentially sections of the campaign mode repurposed as challenge-based objectives such as survive five waves of enemies or run to the target market before time runs out. Trying to play these missions solo just wasn’t much fun, mostly because they were clearly designed to be played with more than one person. However, when co-oping the missions, the enjoyment grew quite a lot. I found that failure wasn’t as frustrating when there was another player attached and that every time we failed we’d do slightly better the next time, as if two players learning simultaneously will double the speed at which a challenge can be figured out.

After some time spent with Special Ops, it was finally time to man up and play against other players in the ultra-competitive format online via Xbox Live. This was where I would have to discover everything there is to like about the FPS genre, and initially it isn’t easy to find that enjoyment. The reason behind this is the way the ranking system works. Modern Warfare revolutionized the online FPS experience, giving players points for every action they perform, leveling them up at a steady progression that unlocks new weapons and perks and such. The big downside is that you start as the biggest scrub possible with the lamest weapons and perks, whereas the other players have leveled up to a point where they have access to pretty much every gun, plus they know the best places of a map to hide, attack from, or throw grenades at. It sucks to be the new guy.

Don't have the Hearbeat Senor and/or the Cold-blooded Perk? Sucks to be you.

The addiction sets in right around the time you unlock your first thing, and it happens quickly. You discover that you can unlock accessories for your guns, such as scopes or silencers, just by killing enough people with said gun. Completing challenges such as shooting 30 guys while crouched will reward you with a ton of experience points which will lead you to the next level which may just unlock newer guns and better perks, ultimately leading to you saying after every round, “Hmm, well I’m just about to unlock a new perk, so I need to play one more match.” This repeats indefinitely as the steady trickle of unlocking and rewarding never, ever ends.

The other half of the addiction kicks in as a result of the social aspect that partners with playing against other humans around the globe. As humans, we constantly want to impress others with our abilities, so when you play a match and get destroyed, you seek to never repeat that instance. You’ll play more and more matches in hopes of learning the layout, figuring out a better combination of guns and perks, or simply just waiting for the perfect streak of luck to provide you with a set of amazing kills.

Oorah? Yes, Oorah.

After all that, I hardly got my feet wet with the game, but I understood it at last. I could see why the genre is so popular at this very moment, especially after Modern Warfare reinvented the leveling progression. Is it my favorite genre now? No, but I don’t downright hate it anymore. Now I Get Your Genre. I Get First-Person Shooters.

But what about you? Do you get the FPS genre? Or are you still blissfully unaware? Leave a comment and discuss. And suggest what genre you’d like to have me try and get next. I’m always eager to learn and try new game-related challenges. C’mon, help me out man, I’m just one or two articles away from unlocking my next perk.

Want more articles on game discussion? Try these out:

-Let’s Think Deep: The Mind of a Fanboy

-Bad Games That Should Have Been Great: Fable II

-How To Game Correctly

Is it just me or does this guy keep reminding you of Kane and Lynch?

There is nothing new or original from Medal of Honor. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with it, but everything it brings to the table has already been brought to the table by someone else, mainly Modern Warfare. The controls are even 1-to-1 between the two games. It does everything just as competently as previous entries in the quickly crowding “wars that are currently happening or could happen very soon” market, but there’s nothing new to speak of. I could just copy/paste paragraphs from reviews of Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and you’d have a review of Medal of Honor, though that’s not surprising since the two teams that make up the developers for Medal of Honor previously worked on Modern Warfare and Battlefield: Bad Company.

So if there isn’t anything worth talking about, what should I really say? The game looks good, sounds good, plays good, and is, for lack of a more original word, good. I just don’t care. The multiplayer mode, the aspect that anyone will really care about (and you’ll have to since the single player campaign is under six hours long and amazingly easy), is also exactly like a bunch of other multiplayer modes, meaning you might as well stick with the game you currently have and still play all the time.

I feel like I've seen this somewhere before...

I’m only half way through this review and I’m out of things to say, so let’s talk about the whole Taliban controversy nonsense thing, huh? While the Taliban are still in the game as obviously evil bad guys (stupid bad guys that will do everything short of painting a target on their heads to allow you the simplest kills possible), they are no longer playable in the multiplayer mode. They WERE initially in the multiplayer as one of the two playable sides, but because so many people spoke up about it, they’ve been removed. Or rather, they’ve been renamed “The Opposing Forces,” which is about as half-assed of a fix as you can get. They might as well have just replaced the Taliban with Spartans for how little they seemed to care on the basic level. EA should have stuck to its guns and just kept the Taliban named “The Taliban” in multiplayer. Who cares? We all know who they’re supposed to be at this point, so it doesn’t make a difference. It’s like if EA had programmed a character who runs around in overalls and a red hat shouting “Let’s a-go” but decided that calling him “Overalls Man” was enough of a change and anyone who called him Mario was wrong. That’s what this feels like.

Gee, I wonder who could live in that house? I bet it's Russians.

Anyway, Medal of Honor isn’t going to offend you any more than all the other games where the entire point can be boiled down to “Justifiable Genocide.” It’s not even going to be a title you’ll remember a few years down the road. It’s just there. It’s a really well-made sandwich that you’ll eat, enjoy, and then pass before moving on to another sandwich that tastes roughly the same and performs the same function of giving you a hunger fix. Even I love sandwiches, but I get tired of eating the same sandwich for every meal. That’s what Medal of Honor is. It is a delicious sandwich made by employees from Subway and Quiznos but not actually sold at either Subway or Quiznos. And now I want a sandwich, so please excuse me.

Want more reviews? Check these out:

-A Miserable Pile  Secrets: A Review of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

-Just Stay Dead: A Review of Dead Rising 2

-How To Reach The Masses: A Review of Halo: Reach

Because, hey, sometimes great games are just short.

The other day I gave a little rundown of the three main options for game rentals. I suppose I should have included “Borrow from friends,” but that’s a given. Today, however, I’m giving you a list of games that work better as rentals. Ready? Here we go!

God of War III:

This is the last time Kratos stops to breath before going too fast to even think about the absurdity of his adventure.

I wrote a review a few months ago that went off on the game, mentioning how I beat it in one sitting in under ten hours. To me, this is the epitome of a rental title because, really, you can beat this one in the rental time and never need to play it again. The reason is because the story is all used up after one time around the block. Unless you’re a diehard God of War fan, you’ll find little reason to play this ever again, so a rental is all you need.

Ghostbusters the Video Game:

As if a third movie wouldn't be worth a rental in the first place?

While you could find a lot to like about this one, and for $10 or less I’d certainly recommend a purchase, you will get all you need out of this game in a standard rental period. The campaign mode is just short enough to be manageable, and the online component has a charm that only lasts for about a week unless you get addicted. If the addiction happens, consider buying it when you see it for cheap, otherwise you’re good for the five days.

Any Mario Party/WarioWare Title:

Hooray! You're stagnating as a franchise!

The Wii is a fun system, no contest. The Wii is also full of games that, for lack of a better term, are a one-time novelty at best. Let’s say you have a group of friends coming over for a night and you all want to play some fun game together, but your collective gameplay experience is relatively low. This would be a good time to explore the option of a minigame-heavy title such as any Mario Party or WarioWare title, such as WarioWare Smooth Moves. You’ll get about as much enjoyment from the titles in a rental period as you will over the course of a lifetime. Take your pick which sounds better.

Arkham Asylum:

Of all the cool images I could have used, I went with a handshake shot. Yup, I'm such an awesome editor.

I love me some Batman, and if I had to own any Batman game it would definitely be Arkham Asylum, but we can be honest here: There’s not a pressing need to own the game. A sequel is currently planned, so if it comes down to it and you can’t find a copy for under $20, the $9 rental choice isn’t a bad one. I managed to get all 1000 Achievement Points for Arkham Asylum in under two weeks, so although it’s amazing, you’ll run out of things to do pretty quick.

Modern Warfare 1 & 2 (Single Player Only):

"What? We don't have time for your namby-pamby story! Snowmobiles! WOO!"

Stop. Before you jump down my throat, take a look at the words in parenthesis there. If you want a multiplayer game, yes, BUY the Modern Warfare games. You’ll justify your purchase very quickly, discovering that you’ll be playing for months and months. BUT, if you want a deep single-player campaign, you’re going to come up short here. If your friends have been bugging you to play through the campaign, a rental should suffice. If they’ve been bugging you to play the game with them, you’ll have to buy it, bro.

Any Dragonball Z Game:

"Kakarot, I think your aim's off." "Yeah, it's because these controls keep changing."

I also love me some DBZ. And I own some seriously great DBZ games, my favorite being Budokai 3 for the PS2. But they didn’t stop with Budokai 3. For some reason they kept making new games for the new systems, and as a result, there’s not a lot to care about. A new title comes out about once a year, meaning you really aren’t getting much meat to these titles. If you have to, and I mean have a physical NEED to play every DBZ game, you will get everything of value from a single week’s playtime. The fighting system just doesn’t have as much depth as a title like Street Fighter, so you’re not going to gain much from honing those skills. The next year’s edition is just going to change things up again.

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe:

Might as well say it's a pushing-match if there aren't Fatalities.

The same sort of holds true here. If you’re into Mortal Kombat, this game will be a bit of a disappointment since real Fatalities are MIA to accommodate DC’s wishes that you don’t see their beloved characters eviscerated, as much as we’d like to rip Superman’s face off and eat it. The fighting mechanics aren’t that bad, but once more, they’re not as well balanced as other fighting games that specialize as fighting games. This game specializes as a placeholder until a new Mortal Kombat or DC game comes out. You’ll find the most enjoyment in a single week, if even that.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed:

Killing Storm Troopers can and will get old, I assure you.

Kyle tells me that The Force Unleashed wasn’t the worst game he’s played. He also mentioned that yes, it was a disappointment to him, as most Star Wars fans have claimed. But it wasn’t without value, meaning it warrants a play. Just not a play at full price. The story will take you under a week to complete at a slow pace, but unless you want to replay it more than once, you won’t need to own it.

Punch-Out!! Wii:

Stop dancing. Your game's too hard to accept you dancing in my face!

I rented this title last year and thought it was really excellent. I also realized that I got all I could out of the game in my rental title because if I played any more I’d hurt myself and everyone else around me. The reason is because the game is insanely difficult, albeit fan-freaking-tastic. I just don’t have the patience to hone my skills past the breaking point. I nearly destroyed a Wiimote due to the stress the game put me through, so the only people that would find the need to own Punch-Out!! on the Wii are gamers far above my skill and patience level.

Prince of Persia (2008):

Shown: Rental Material.

As a friend of mine (Dennis) put it via Facebook: “I also found that Prince of Persia (2008 game) was short, but pretty fun. But pretty short.” Well, that sounds like as much of a recommendation for a rental title as you’re gonna get. I even remember playing the “good” Prince of Persia game on the GameCube, the one Gus wrote about, and while it was good, it was super short. Apparently the newer Prince of Persia games adhere to the same pitfalls (ha!) that pledged the first 3D affairs: Short single-player adventures. Done, Rental Title, branded.

There are ten games that more or less work better as rental titles. But I promised a few that DON’T work as a rental title. Want to know which ones?

Final Fantasy XIII:

What? Like you had a life to live, really?

You can’t finish the tutorial levels of this game in under twenty hours on your first playthrough, most likely, so you’re not beating this game in five days, no matter how dedicated you think you are. Maybe if you literally have nothing to do for the next 120 hours, but most mortal humans need sleep, so buy this, or any Final Fantasy/Dragonquest/JRPG games if you have the desire to play them.

Mass Effect 1 & 2:

Mordin is enough to make me want to own Mass Effect 2.

You aren’t playing Mass Effect 2 unless you’ve played Mass Effect 1, and you aren’t getting anything less than twenty hours of gameplay from either, so slow down Tex and savor the experience. I’ve been meaning to go into how much there is in these two games, but suffice it to say, you’ll prefer owning these ones.

Super Smash Bros Brawl:

It's pretty much like this. You can't really deny it.

This game is best as a multiplayer experience, but wait just a second when you think you’ll just rent it for a party. While there are nearly 40 characters and dozens of levels, you don’t start with all those unlocked. And there is no way to unlock them all quickly. You have to work at this one, so unless you’ve rented it previously, you’ll have some work cut out to get it up to maximum multiplayability. Just own this and do yourself a favor.

Little Big Planet:

This game has too much content to consider it a light snack, so make it a feast.

Don’t think I’ve forgotten the little wonder on the PS3. I know enough to know that Little Big Planet is a game you don’t just play, enjoy, and then move on with your life. If you like it enough to play it, you’ll want to own it since you’ll get into creating your own content and improving your skills. If you really think you’ll like a game that makes level-creation relatively simple and rewarding, there’s no reason to rent this one first.

And that’s my little bit about rental titles. Now I’ll just sit back and wait for the hate to file in… “What’re you talking about? God of War III is a MUST BUY…” Yup, just sit back and wait.

Like Army of Two but a whole heck of a lot better and not at all like Army of Two.

Can anything come along and uproot Modern Warfare from its place as the dominant FPS? For a while it didn’t appear so, but just as Halo was ousted by Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare has been outshone by Battlefield: Bad Company 2. How is that possible? Read on and I’ll tell you.

A Paradigm Shift Once Again

What Modern Warfare managed to do a few years ago was decide how online play would shift for what gamers really wanted. It’s had a good run, but now the play-style is shifting once again and Bad Company 2 is better suited for current trends. Namely, you won’t constantly be spawning into instant death and kills aren’t exactly simple.

The main aspect that people are finding most appealing about Bad Company 2 regards the amount of skill and strategy actually needed when playing online. You simply can’t run around with two shotguns and a riot shield mowing down everyone because you shot first. I watched my close friend Other Chris play a few multiplayer matches and really did see the importance of playing your role correctly. A sniper is failing if they’re attempting to defend a base from the inside with a pistol but doing his job when he’s staked on a rock picking off any advancing enemies. Similarly, an assault soldier is supposed to be hunkered in the base with his rifle aimed at the door, not running around shooting everything.

You try that and you'll get a tank shell in your face.

One big draw for me is the amount of destruction you really can inflict upon the environments. Nowhere is safe. Any building you hole up in can be leveled with enough explosives. Walls can be taken out with a tank round, leaving you completely unprotected. I found it fascinating to witness Other Chris run to his favorite rock, aim, realize a tree is in his way, and shoot the tree in half to give himself a proper view. That just seems cool. You can run up to a fence and knife it to create a hole to shoot through. You’ve just got to play this one smart.

In terms of a single-player experience, there’s nothing to expect other than the usual FPS single-player campaign. There are a few hilarious jabs at Modern Warfare’s expense, but not much else to really make it stand out. The characters are relatively forgettable but the main aspect of the campaign is that it isn’t trying to take itself serious, something that’s very welcoming. However, it has an extremely generous aim-assist that the multiplayer doesn’t have, so playing the campaign isn’t going to prepare you to play online like you’d assume.

No building is safe. Ever.

It is sort of sad that no matter what, Bad Company 2 will be compared to Modern Warfare 2 and as a result some people won’t play one or the other and that shouldn’t be the case. Both games are perfectly good titles, each with their individual strengths and weaknesses. At the moment though, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has a fresher and much fairer take on the online front, such as really rewarding skill. You’ll get a lot more points for sniping someone across the map than just a few feet away, for example. Essentially, if you loved Modern Warfare you’ll really love Bad Company 2.

I still place this above most other games. Can anything change my mind?

I love video games. I play them frequently (and sometimes write about them, as you may have noticed). I always get excited with every new Mario and Zelda game, or anything that seems to interest me beyond a simple, “Oh, that looks like a fun game to rent.” But when I get down to it I always inevitably say to myself, “Yeah, this is good, but it’s no Mario Bros 3/Ocarina of Time/Final Fantasy 6.” Why is that? I know I’m not the only one to think this way. We’ve got to a point where we’re demanding games replicate our favorites from the past, but when they can’t we throw a fit. Can we ever make a new “Perfect Game?” Let’s Think Deep.

The Problem With Perfection

A good recent game to use as a jumping point here is New Super Mario Bros Wii, a game that borrows heavily from the classic Mario games, specifically Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World. It seems almost like a “greatest hits” from the 2-D Mario platformers. I loved it. I wrote about this on more than one occasion. I stand by my statements. But I didn’t like it as much as Mario Bros 3. Why? Because it wasn’t Mario Bros 3. That’s not a very fair thing to say, but it just didn’t wow me like Mario Bros 3 did when I was a wee child. Perhaps the nostalgic aspect got in the way and forced me to find a qualifier somewhere, so that when I said, “This game is amazing!” it didn’t somehow, in some way, obliterate the memories of my childhood past. I simply can’t allow myself to like a Mario game more than 3, purely because I remember childhood as something wonderful and the world today as something bleak. How can something from a place that’s bleak outshine something from a world that was wonderful?

Can I ever separate this moment from my mind when playing new Zelda titles?

The same problem presented itself when I played through Twilight Princess. I thought Twilight Princess was one of the best Zelda games, let alone best games, I’d ever played. I’d rank it somewhere within my top 15 games of all time. But I couldn’t bring myself to like it more than Ocarina of Time. “Oh wow, this is so cool! Uh, but, Ocarina was better.” Was it really? It’s impossible to tell since at the time of its release, Ocarina of Time was the absolute peak of adventure-style video gaming. It was, to me (and many others), the perfect game. If you’ve never played it before and try playing it now, you might not really agree with that statement. In fact, you may think I’m crazy for ever liking the game in the first place. It just holds so much of my childhood in it that it becomes hard to separate it from what it is and how I remember it.

Retro Is In

There has been a big push from major developers as of late to search back through their “classic” games and find some gold to resell, either in a remake of the classic or in a straight port to one of the online networks. Nintendo hit on a great concept with the Virtual Console, an online marketplace devoted almost entirely to selling us out treasured memories back for a reasonable price. Both the Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network have gotten into this, even offering games from more recent past. One of my best friends is playing Final Fantasy VII for the first time now that he’s downloaded it from the Playstation Network. He’s so devoted to playing it that he’s selling me his other new purchase, Fable II, for $15. Is he liking it? Well, he’s found numerous gripes, of which I can agree with, but he’s still playing it for some reason. It just isn’t as amazing for him as it was for me.

You can download this right now on the Virtual Console for $10. Why haven't you?

Why is that? Final Fantasy VII is regarded as one of the greats, so how can anyone dislike it now? It all has to do with timing. I played it first when I was still relatively new to RPG’s. It was also the first game I played on my Playstation. I fell in love with the characters and really cared about what would happen in the story. The only commitments I had while playing it were to school (which was unimportant to me), and nothing else. I didn’t need sleep so long as I had a mission to do and a Sephiroth to defeat. I was able to look past all the flaws and see nothing but a fantastic game. When I try and play it now I can’t even get myself past the first disc, let alone finish the game.

So back to New Super Mario Bros Wii: People have a gripe with it for failing to be as good as its predecessors. I don’t think that’s quite fair. I especially hate hearing that it’s just a rehash of previous games since it’s a new freaking game with new levels and new power-ups and all that jazz. It’s a new game, just with references back to other games in the franchise. It knows where it’s coming from, but it’s willing to at least try to do something new within the established old. Why? Because fans love this sort of thing. That game has sold millions of copies –MILLIONS- and I have a feeling it wasn’t because people were just settling for whatever they could get their hands on. No, fans snatched it up by the mustache-loads because it was a good game that reminded them of something they loved from their past.

Is this the best selection of bosses you'll ever find? Hard to tell.

Capcom has been perfecting this for a while now, what with their final definitive release of Street Fighter II, a game that pretty much everyone who wanted to buy it already had. Still, it was a big success. They did the same thing with Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. They also tried bringing Bionic Commando into the new age with a big-budget new entry in the series, which ultimately flopped. However, their HD remake of said game was a huge success. A while ago they released a new Mega Man game with 8-bit graphics and an 8-bit soundtrack. And people downloaded it like…well I’ll tell you what that analogy is when you’re older, kids. It did so well that Mega Man 10 has just been announced and will follow suit with the same style and everything. Retro is in. But why?

You Can’t Change The Past

As I said, people can’t let go of their childhoods. A lot of really good games have come out in the past year (Arkham Asylum, Uncharted 2, Mario & Luigi 3, just to name a few), yet none of those will be on any “Best Games Ever” lists. The most recent “new” game to start appearing on those lists is Resident Evil 4, a game that Capcom ported from the GameCube to the PS2 and then the Wii since it had done so well. Final Fantasy XIII comes out in mere days, but will fans place it above all the others? Very doubtful. They’ll find something to gripe about, purely because it isn’t the game they first played and it isn’t the game they first loved. I want to say that Super Smash Bros Brawl is better than Melee, because it is, but I can’t force myself to say it. Something about admitting that the game I spent so much time and energy loving is now inferior is just something I can’t do.

I would gladly be forced to play this game for the rest of my life and only this game. I loved it that much.

And there may lie the problem of creating the perfect game. Companies will never be able to top their most successful games. Mario Bros 3 will still be Mario’s best side-scrolling adventure whereas Mario 64 will be the best 3D platformer period. Ocarina of Time trumps just about every adventure game out there. Final Fantasy 6 or 7 will always be favored over the new titles coming out. Even games that are similar to games in other series will always seem inferior. Shadow of the Colossus was and is one of the best game experiences I’ve ever had. Oops, someone at one point called it the “Zelda Killer.” Silly them, now no Zelda fan will ever love it more than their favorite Zelda title. I went out of my way to hate the game even before it was released on the grounds that it was blaspheming my beloved series. First Person Shooters keep getting touted as “Halo Killers” and so far there have been few to even come close to the mighty throne, with only Modern Warfare being the apparent rightful heir. It seems a surefire way to prevent your game from ever being considered one of the greats is to proudly proclaim that it already is. No one will allow that.

So can we create the perfect game? No, no such game exists. Even the mighty Ocarina of Time has major flaws. No matter what someone makes, someone else will always find a reason to dislike it. It seems to me that the best way to make something near a “perfect game” is to make something unlike anything that’s come before it. Sure, borrow attributes if you need to, but don’t do it so much that people are forced to compare it straight-paralleled to another game. If you can make something without any constraints then it might just excel to new heights. The task of doing that, though, is nigh impossible. You have better luck just staying with what works. Why is it you think Nintendo is so reluctant to create new IP’s in favor of new Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon games? Because people will buy the new games in the franchise no matter what, even if they don’t think it’ll be better than the games they remember. But they’ll always hope.

What do you consider the perfect game? I think Super Mario Bros 3 is as close as one can come to perfection. Ocarina of Time is clearly a favorite of mine as well, but I understand when someone isn’t interested there. But what are your favorites? Do you have a game that you’re certain is perfect? Do you feel that Mega Man 2 got it right and all the games afterward just couldn’t live up to it? Do you think that Modern Warfare 2 perfected the multiplayer standard in a game? Do you believe that World of Warcraft is the end-all for MMORPG’s from now until forever? I bet you know what comes next: Leave a comment. I can’t find out any insight if you don’t give me some. The button’s right there, so use it to enlighten me further. I implore you.

Yeah, I'd be tired of these quotes, too.

Gaming has begun moving past the point of a niche culture and broken into the mainstream. We all know this, so I’m not really covering new ground here. We’ve got a huge library of games to pluck endless references from, but something I’ve noticed is the same references come back again and again. These are some quotes that I hear people make probably a little more than they should. So here they were, the Top 10 Video Game Quotes That Need To Die.

10. “Boom headshot!”

You know what a headshot looks like, you expert snipers, you.

Anyone familiar with either First Person or Third Person Shooters are well acquainted with this little quote. Used after shooting another player in the head, this remark is typically uttered just in case someone didn’t realize their character died due to a missing head (though the missing brain could explain a lot). It may be a stretch to see this outside of the games, luckily not used during extremely serious and unfunny real-world events, but it’s getting more commonplace especially on college campuses. Yup, that’ll be a trend here.

9. “Finish him!”

Don't forget to say it with a deep, menacing voice.

Mortal Kombat introduced the gaming world to an abundance of over-the-top violence with fatality moves. Once a fighter is beaten up enough the announcer comes on and utters “Finish him!” This prompts you to, you guessed it, finish him. It’s a classic quote, but Mortal Kombat is moving past its prime to a place where it just needs to move on. I much prefer the Killer Instincts quote, “C-C-C-Combo Breaker!”

8. “Do a barrel roll!”

Thank you, Peppy. That was actually good advice.

Despite my affinity toward this Star Fox 64 classic, it has gotten heavily overdone. If any video pops up on YouTube with a roll of any sort (no one seems to understand what a “Barrel Roll” is), rest assured this comment pops up. It’s a shame since Star Fox 64 is practically a cheesy Sci-Fi action thriller with the amount of awesomely bad quotes to be pulled, such as “I can’t let you do that, Fox,” or “Something’s wrong with the G-Diffuser!” Yet only Peppy’s infamous line gets repeated in excess. What a waste.

7. “So I herd you liek Mudkipz.”

I prefer this version.

This little quote comes from the bowels of the Internet from a random story involving a Mudkip which you’ve either heard at this point or haven’t. For those of you not in the know, “So I herd you like Mudkipz” is an insult that roughly means, “You’re an idiot.” It was fun for the first year since it replaced one of the other quotes on the list for a while (Number 2), but now it’s lost its cleverness.

6. “All your base are belong to us.”

Of all the images I could have selected for this one, I sure went with the most boring, didn't I?

This is the original great Internet meme from long, long ago. Coming from Zero Wing, this piece of supremely poorly translated dialogue became fashionable since it was humorous to see where it could go, much like “Kilroy Wuz Here” from the past. So “All your base are belong to us” was photoshopped onto any and everything. Unsurprisingly, it had nowhere left to go, but it wouldn’t die. It’s far past its heyday, but if we’re not careful it could come right back. Better nip this one in the bud before it’s too late.

5. “Now you’re thinking with portals.”

These are portals. You, apparently, should be thinking with them.

Valve’s Portal is a Game You Should Have Played. However, it is sadly responsible for an explosion of references, specifically to the fact that the game requires you to “Think With Portals.” Suddenly every web comic around decided it was a good idea to do a comic where something goes in one portal and comes out the other, most of which were stupidly simple photoshops. Penny Arcade had a wonderful joke with a slide, but everyone else went ahead and did their free week of non-thinking for a webcomic, having their joke written for them. It was on all sorts of T-shirts and mouse pads, all because people were blown away with a simple yet brilliant concept. I’m glad I don’t get told nearly enough that all my problems boil down to me “Not thinking with portals.”

4. “Hey! Look! Listen!”

That you, Navi. That was actually good advice.

I loved Ocarina of Time. Everyone else loved Ocarina of Time as well. I never understood why, but regardless of the game’s love, people hated Navi the blue fairy, Link’s assistant and guide to the game. She was the curser to let you know what you were locked on to, and at times she’d say “Hey!” or “Look!” or “Listen!” I never found this annoying, but some people still can’t stand this. I’ll see web comics fishing for jokes with this tired one, placing Link in a straightjacket, gone mad from hearing Navi speak again and again. Leave it along already; it’s just not funny. It’s more annoying to have people draw attention to it.

3. “The Cake is a Lie”

I hate it when I'm lied to, especially if it's not a lie.

Another quote from Portal, and while it was the quote everyone seemed to glob on to like it was Shakespeare, the statement itself was a lie. You find this scribbled next to a deceased character in the game, telling you that the delicious cake GLaDOS is promising you is a lie. Suddenly this was the answer to every question ever. Princess kidnapped? Didn’t matter, the cake is a lie. Nuclear annihilation imminent? Who cares, the cake is a lie. You suck at a video game? Obviously you’re not thinking with portals since, you know, the cake is a lie. But like I said, at the end of the game you find out that the cake was real. “The cake is a lie” is a lie. Funny how that works.

2. “Take that, (Expletive Deleted)”

You probably just said this, didn't you?

Here’s one of the key reasons I rarely enjoy playing games online with people: I’m playing and either do something good or something bad, and either way someone whose maturity level is far too low decides to kill me, immediately following it up with a “Take that, (Expletive Deleted)!” Rest assured it probably has an F in there somewhere, and rest assured even more, it makes no sense on all sorts of fundamental levels. There are all sorts of variations on this quote, most of which could be lumped into “Anything Said On Xbox Live,” but we need this quote and quotes like this to pass on before it does more damage and makes the industry’s fans look like a bunch of idiots. Come on game players, we’re better than this. If you don’t say things like this online, give yourself a pat on the back. If you do say this, (Expletive Deleted).

1. “Thank you Mario, but our Princess is in another castle.”

You're darn right she better be. I didn't pay full price for a game with only one world.

The original twist in a game, after plowing through the first four levels of Super Mario Bros and beating what you think is Bowser, you discover a Toad in the next room that says, “Thank you Mario, but our Princess is in another castle!” This happens six more times, each time making you loathe Toads greater and greater. Eventually you do save Princess Peach and for your efforts you get a kiss. Now that we’re all 25 years older, the joke of the princess being in another castle doesn’t stop, nor does the joke that all Mario gets is a kiss or at times a cake if he’s really lucky (assuming the cake isn’t a lie). We’re past sexualizing Mario for a joke. It’s not funny anymore. When Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, makes the joke, you know it’s gotten stale. Give us something new to play with already.

And that’s all the quoting I can deal with. Am I striking a cord here with anyone or am I just ticking you off like some of my previous Top 10s? Did I miss something that needed to be on the list? Or maybe you disagree with some of my choices? Comment, comment, comment. Because we can never stop hearing about these quotes.

Master Chief, eat your heart out.

Okay, is anyone really wondering if the sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is any good? I almost feel worthless here trying to talk about Modern Warfare 2 as anything I say is basically irrelevant (a stark contrast to how things usually work with me). But the bottom line is that Modern Warfare 2 is a good game for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 and makes a good holiday gift. So what more should I cover?

First off, should kids be playing this: No they should not. Kids, you have years and years ahead of you to enjoy life and not worry about wars and being told you’re a newb by someone that’s obviously better than you. The game contains adult themes and only people over 18 are immature enough to grasp such themes. Plus, no one wants to hear you on Xbox Live and your poor playing is making strangers dislike you. Unless you’re totally a cool guy and you know how to play well.

The Best Game FPS of The Season

Well, for starters I can give some pointers at how best to enjoy the game. For those of you playing MW2 for the story, you’re in luck, though I highly suggest you play through the first Modern Warfare before tackling the sequel. MW2 picks up five years after the events of the first game and it really shows. You’ll have a hard time following all the finer details if you aren’t already caught up to speed, plus you’ll miss out on the drama the story intends to create.

Still, Some Caution

I’d like to talk about the mild controversy surrounding the game for a second and then I promise I’ll get right back into the review. There is a point where you play as a group of terrorists and it can get extremely uncomfortable, to the point where you may not wish to play this part of the single player campaign again. However, this isn’t a bad thing.

This means Infinity Ward (the game’s developer), is doing a good job on a story level of creating aspects of the plot that hit on a gut-level and cause discomfort. That’s a good thing as any competent writer will tell you that the best thing you can do is force the audience to become uncomfortable with an aspect of the story because it feels too real or hits too hard (such as killing off a well-loved character and keeping them dead). Still, don’t let impressionable young gamers play this one. I’ll talk about that more later, but here’s the first warning.

Graphics Are At Their Best

Good, back to the review. You’ll notice that MW2 is graphically amazing. I get bored talking about graphics and I’m sure you get bored hearing about them but just take a look at some of the screenshots I have posted around here. Wait, let me get one for you.

Savor it for a moment.

See the amount of detail going into this game? Levels are extremely detailed to the point that you don’t just think, “Oh, this is the snow level,” but rather you get a sense that this is a snippet of the world this game takes place in. Every part of this game is working to establish environment and make the world feel more real and for the most part it works. You’ll have numerous times where the graphics will stun you.

Gameplay Also Superb

So let’s move past the graphics and into gameplay. Yeah, boring to talk about gameplay, too, as it either works or it doesn’t and the only time it’s fun to discuss a game’s controls is when they don’t work. Well they work great here. Hardcore fans of FPS’s may find the semi-auto aiming to simplify the game, but with the amount of enemies in any given level it’s hard to believe anything over 5% of players could ever hold their own. It works as a necessity and it works well.

Sadly, the single player campaign is short. I’m talking maybe 8 hours short, and that is only if you haven’t mastered the art of the FPS (I could probably get a lot more playtime out of the single player campaign than most of you, if that says anything about my abilities). The gold of the game doesn’t come from the campaign though; you’ll be sticking around for months because of the multiplayer.

Multiplayer For The Win

Protip: Getting in between a spray of bullets and a suckapunk is always a bad idea.

Dang, I probably should have simply told you MW fans that the multiplayer portion of MW2 is just as good, if not better, than the first game. That could have saved you a lot of time, right? Well you have nothing to fear other than a lack of interest for the first game since MW2 knows how to make multiplayer experiences work on an expert level. There isn’t a complete revolution of design here but I wouldn’t want a complete revolution of design any more than y’all probably want since it goes against the old adage of “If it ain’t broke, don’t mess with Modern Warfare’s multiplayer.” Ah the number of times my dad told me that as a kid.

Reading this review is just taking precious time away from playing Modern Warfare 2 and you know it.

Parents, just be aware of what your kids are playing and explain the difference between fantasy and real life so that they don’t do something they’ll regret later on, like calling someone at school a newb without realizing that person can see them and beat them up.