As 2010 draws to a close, I reflect on the five games which came out this year of which I very much enjoyed during the course of this year. Obviously I’m not actually MADE of money so I couldn’t buy every game that came out this year but these are the top 7 which I purchased.

7. Green Day: Rock Band

How many other games out there actually have one of my favourite bands in the title? Not many I can assure you. But Rock Band’s release of GD:RB was a masterstroke. Unlike the Guitar Hero series which have lots of songs by bands “inspired” by Green Day, all the content and songs were from them including entire albums of Dookie and American Idiot. Perfect for any fan, just a shame they left off classics like “Waiting” and “Redundant”.

6. Just Cause 2

Ok ok so I took the piss out of this game in my first ever review, it’s still quite a good game. It’s very large and time consuming to get from A to B, and the fat american guy you work with is annoying as hell, but how many other games derive a source of accomplishment and almost currency from destroying things? The soldiers and their ability to constantly respawn and unerring accuracy aside, this game did encompass a lot of fun and madness and is pretty much all you need to make a decent sandbox title. I loved Just Cause 1, and this isn’t a bad sequel if somewhat a bit lacking in the storyline department.

5. Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

With the diabolical delivery of Rock Band 3, I’m moving to select GH:WoR as #5 in my list. This game had a brilliant setlist in it, truly in the spirit of rock with classic songs mixed with modern metal. The gameplay was good and the new RPG-esque Domination mode was a fine addition to the Guitar Hero experience which can positively augment your score. Great fun alone or with friends, the GH series is going from strength to strengh despite a few ropey titles in the last few years.

4. Vanquish

Vanquish was SEGA’s fast and frenetic shooter putting you in the mecha-suit of Sam Gideon as he repels the Soviet forces in a war torn future. Vanquish was intuitive and addictive albeit slightly short in terms of longevity of story and certainly in places was really really difficult. Bullets flying over your head, homing missile evasion in slow motion and rocket propelled dash attacks, Vanquish is a fantastic addition to any game collection only suffering from lack of multiplayer, like Gears of War.

3. 2010 FIFA World Cup™

Coming off the back of FIFA 10 a few months earlier, the World Cup edition of FIFA was simply much better than FIFA 10 in every way. The player movements and tactics were so much smoother than FIFA 10 and didn’t suffer from the lagging AI or the stupid refereeing decisions which plagued the previous FIFA title. The other advantage was the ability to choose any country in the world and lead them through qualification and eventually to the World Cup itself. This lends itself to hours of fun trying to get Somalia to the World Cup final knocking out teams like Brazil and Germany for fun. Best FIFA out there, even better than FIFA 11.

2. Dante’s Inferno

Anyone who had the insight to make a hack & slash game based off a 12th Century Italian poem needs a pat on the back but premise aside, Dante’s Inferno was a fantastic game which graphically was largely unrivalled this year in terms of attractive backdrops and engrossing storyline. Most people didn’t get on onboard with this game but personally I thoroughly enjoyed playing through this epic from start to finish. You get such good empathy with the character as you traverse the circles of Hell to get your beloved back and I still recommend this game to anyone who fancies a game which you can pick up and put down at will.

1. Red Dead Redemption

I am sure this is probably the game of the year for most people but it has to said, never has a game captivated me for such a long time. For abotu two months this year in the evenings, I actually became John Marston and despite never having a love of cowboy films, became one with the wild west and loved every minute. The single player storyline is one of the best I’ve ever played and the connection with the character is one of the best delivered in a game I’ve ever played. The multiplayer was also fantastic and had me glued online with many hours of concentration in solo and co-op missions. The DLC packs for the game are fantastic too, notably the Undead Nightmare pack, which probably has the best DLC storyline I’ve ever played and comes with the frighteningly addictive mulitplayer mode of Zombie waves a la CoD:World at War. RDR was one of the biggest games this year, and it’s not hard to see why, plus it’s my game of the year.