Alan Wake is Time Magazine's game of the year. No, really

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