Zombie’s Best of 2009

I love Christmas, especially now I’ve got kids – it gives me a chance to relieve the magic from my own childhood that feeling of going to bed one night and waking up the next to lots of presents, sweets and chocolates. It was the only day of the year where we were permitted to eat a Marathon bar (now known as Snickers) at seven in the morning.

It’s also a time for looking back as another year draws to a close (they seem to do this with alarming regularity). For gamers 2009 it’s fair to say 2009 has been a very good year. I wouldn’t put it up there with 2007 (Bioshock, COD4, Halo3) but it’s seen plenty of great games and personally I’ve struggled to keep up with all at times.

On a personal note 2009 was a time when I finally took the plunge and subscribed to World of Warcraft. This meant for most of 2009 the XBOX et al didn’t get a look in as I dived into WoW headfirst. I can now the see the appeal of MMOs, I also found going back to PC gaming (or Mac) to be very agreeable. I came very close to buying a new gaming PC but then decided it would be too expensive, but I was very tempted.

So here are my 7 gaming highlights of 2009, in descending order of greatness.

No. 7 – The Beatles: Rock Band (2009)

If you were in the Cavern Club: Liverpool on Tuesday 21 February 1961 you would have seen the first ever performance at the famous venue. If like me you weren’t even born then this is the next best thing.

If you’re a Beatles fan then this is a total no brainier. If you have any taste in music whatsoever you’ll enjoy playing along to at least half of the songs.

The rock band formula is intact but in this game you get to play through the Beatles career from the early days of the Cavern club to the final rooftop gig atop the Abbey Road studios [tear wells in eye].

It all looks amazing thanks to the stylised graphical style used throughout. The opening sequence is jaw dropping. The best opening titles to a game I’ve seen in a long time.

It’s a shame you can’t pull the song into the existing Rock Band Catalogue but hardly surprising when you consider this songs aren’t even available on iTunes. You could also bemoan the fact that there are only 40 songs on the disk.

The game introduces the famous Beatles four part harmonies and there’s lots of interesting memorabilia for fans to unlock. I loved the outtakes in the Abbey Road recording sessions when you hear the Fab Four chatting.

If you’re got to do Guitar Hero / Rock Band one band editions then this is the way to do it – a new benchmark in music videogames.

No. 6 – Resident Evil 5

I love the Resident Evil franchise – it originates from Japan, features the undead and a plot so confussing it makes Heroes seem plausable

No surprises then that Resident Evil 5 makes best of 2009 list. In the press RE5 was criticised for being too similar to RE4. The co-op elements were also negatively received, mainly for the lack of intelligence displayed by your AI partner, Sheva. Personally, I never had a problem with her, she was good back up and didn’t get herself into trouble. She might have wasted the odd healing spray; not really a hangable offence.

I found this game lots of fun to play – the combat was good, the visuals looked amazing and some exciting set pieces.

The game also looked fantastic despite the lack of V-sync resulted in some slight screen tear. Very much a sequel to RE4 rather than a new dawn for the Resident Evil series but if Resident Evil changed too much it would loose its niche and its charm. It may ponderous at times but it makes for a more challenging game.

Resident Evil 5, I salute you!