Otherwise respectable list gives confusing highest honor
Above: Alan seems to share my doubt in this screen
Now we gave Alan Wake an 8, which personally I mostly stand by. It certainly wasn%26rsquo;t a perfect game, as for every neat trick it did with gaming narrative, it took about two steps back with aderivative story, awkward dialogue supported by crummy lip-sync, and conspicuous product placement. On top of that you had to buy the real ending as DLC, and don%26rsquo;t even get me started on the Thermoses! I understand Time writer Evan Narcisse writing that Alan Wake%26rsquo;s %26ldquo;biggest triumph lies in turning metaphor into game play,%26rdquo; and that the game%26rsquo;s %26ldquo;meta-awareness and Hitchcockian suspense%26rdquo; are praiseworthy, but out of this year%26rsquo;s crop of games, Alan Wake%26rsquo;s top spot seems a bit off to me. Here%26rsquo;s the full list:
1. Alan Wake 2. Angry Birds 3. Red Dead Redemption 4. Halo: Reach 5. Super Mario Galaxy 2 6. Limbo 7. Super Meat Boy 8. Super Street Fighter IV 9. Starcraft II 10. Mass Effect 2
Above: Of course this is better than Red Dead
Asidefrom casual iPhone game Angry Birds taking the number two slot (I mean yeesh, that didn%26rsquo;t even come out this year!), it%26rsquo;s actually apretty good list. You%26rsquo;ve got to applaud Time for including smaller, amazing titles like Super Meat Boy and Limbo while ignoring familiar blockbusters like Black Ops and Assassin%26rsquo;s Creed: Brotherhood. The authorsreally disappointed readers expecting a safe inventory that perhaps included Kinectimals, Just Dance, and Eyepet on the list instead.
Am I alone here? This strike you as a deserving award for an underrated and forgotten gem, or do you perhapssee it as a grouppicking the most ambitious game instead of the best? Let us know down below.
Dec 15, 2010
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Henry Gilbert is a former GamesRadar+ Editor, having spent seven years at the site helping to navigate our readers through the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation. Henry is now following another passion of his besides video games, working as the producer and podcast cohost of the popular Talking Simpsons and What a Cartoon podcasts.
