The Year's Best Top Ten Game List Countdown of DOOM

Everybody is doing it...

A Year in Review. This Year's Ten Best. A "Must Play" list.

I must admit, I deeply enjoy lists and countdowns to "Best this", and "Worst that". Lists are very satisfying, especially when you can look at one and exclaim "done this!", or "got that!".

Someone once said that lists are fun because you get to cross out stuff from them. I find myself in agreement with that statement, although it all depends on how much stuff is on the list vis-a-vis what you did, or can, cross out. Like a jar of pickles that you empty out over a certain period : you can't really eat all the pickles in one sitting, and you can't let it sit there for a whole year. So you better not pick up a jar that's too big, or you won't be able to finish it before it goes to waste; and you can't get a jar that's too small because you'll quickly end up with nothing in it, and no snack.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you better choose jar of pickles carefully...euh I mean your list carefully. What's a good list for you? What is palatable to you, and won't get stuck in your gullet? I personally like dill...

Let's face it. Sometimes lists make things a bit murky and depress the hell out of you. Ahhh man, look at this...I still haven't finished my backlog of games, and I still haven't accomplished my life-long goal of being an astronaut. Like a New Year's resolution, you have to pick your battles carefully.

But it's still fun to make. So why not make one? Perhaps a list of games I would like to finish this year? But how to build one?

All the "Game of the Years lists" are probably out now. I haven't checked a lot of them. I know which games I liked, and which I consider this year's best. I don't really need someone else to tell me the what and the who of the year 2009. And I especially don't need help choosing which games I should play in 2010, since I'll probably be playing whatever the hell I want. And since upcoming games always "look good" from afar, once they hit those store shelves they may very well be the worst of the year.

Although, since this is a new decennium, the majority of the blogs and gaming industry websites are doing "Best of the Decade" lists, as well as this Year's Best Awards. Sure, it's important to illustrate how the last decade was pivotal in the establishement of the gaming industry as it currently is (our first ever episode of the Multi-Joueur Radio Show talked about the end of the 90s, the turn of the 21st century, and how games have become a powerful cultural phenomenon), but it feels like they want to create an era, and tag it with an sticker. Oh look! 2000-2009 were the Game Years, the Next-Gen Years, the Bush Years, etc. And if I look at all the stuff from the past decade I have not played/finished, I'm probably going to be crawling under my bed, weeping for two lustrums.

So whether you make a list based on the top games of 2009, the top upcoming games of 2010, or the best of the decade, remember one thing : a pickle indigestion is never fun.

Booger T and the MDs