PixlBit

2010 is Fable III for me. I loved the series but this was a bit more actiony than I wanted in a RPG. I wanted more of Fable II, but I liked it well enough. I still remember chucking my sixth wife into a hot spring to get the Henry VIII achievement. Good times. 

I thought that part of the point of Chrono Crossing was to highlight your favorite games over the years...  regardless if they are the best game.  Which is part of the reason why I haven't bothered looking at the list of games that released in a year and am doing it all by memory, for the most part.  That is why I picked Bulletstorm.

This thought also feeds into my favorite game from 2010.  I knew this one immediately and still recall the moment that I saw the collector's edition of this game with the soundtrack on vinyl.  I was going to wait on picking up Bioshock 2 until I read a few reviews, but I saw the collector's edition and had to have it.  I also remember staying up until 330 in the morning finishing up the final 5 hours of the game because I could not put it down.

I know that there are "better" games that were released in 2010, but for me, nothing beats Bioshock 2.

Also, now that I have beaten Saints Row IV, I might have to change my choice for 2013.

2 is my favorite Bioshock to this day. I liked the story better than 1 or Infinite, and I thought the action built on the first game in the right ways to make it faster and more efficient because of the dual wielding, without being so over the top as Infinite. And the Minerva's Den dlc alone is just the cherry on top that probably has some of the best story telling that the series has seen yet.

I haven't played Minervas Den yet, but always wanted to.  I am hoping the Collection will help me finally cross that off my list of games I want to beat.

i was listening to some podcast with Steve Gaynor, who directed Minerva's Den and is responsible for Gone Home...  He said that he designed Pauper's Drop and that is one of my all-time favorite levels in any game.

It's however you want to define it. For sure I have and will continue to pick games that I can say aren't the "best" games that year in terms of execution or quality, but something about it resonates with me. For these early Chrono Crossings I've had to look up what came out, but as we get to 2010 and beyond it becomes easier for me to remember off the top of my head what my favorite game was. I already knew what my 2010 pick was, but I went ahead and looked at the releases to remind myself what a great year.

Don't worry about Patrick. He's on a super pacifist kick lately and looks down on mindless fun these days. Bulletstorm rules.

I just looked through a list of 2010 games just to see what games I had forgotten about...  holy crap, 2010 was an amazing year.

The photography discussion was very familiar to me. I miss the film days too. 

You had me at Chrono...

Hey NWP crew, I heard about you guys months ago through the Comics Conspiracy podcast but never went out of my way to check you guys out. That was until Julian guest starred on it and mentioned Chrono Crossing. With Chrono Cross being my favorite game I just had to check out the NWPCAST. To my delight, not even 5 minutes in, I was greeted with the main song that defined my journey into RPGs. The memories came flooding back and I knew I had to add you guys to my weekly podcast list. 

I had to jump in on this segment so I'm picking Castlevania: LoS for my Chrono Crossing 2010 pick. There were some strong contenders but I absolutely loved this one. It was a nice change from the more button masher games like God or War. Combat was great and required strategy. Also the main voice actor was amazing (we need more Scottish voice actors). Too bad 2 was a let down but that doesn't diminish my fond memories of part 1. 

Great job guys, glad I found you. I'll be spreading the word. 

You just made my day, and I am quite humbled. I hope you enjoy our show, and never hesitate to give us feedback and suggestions. We're trying to make the show more interactive and fun for our listeners. 

Stage Select Picks:

Tough way to start off a segment but here goes. 

1. Chrono Cross (my first RPG so maybe nostalgic but I feel it still holds up. Music and battle system are still my favorites of any RPG)

2. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (still the best Zelda and no other Zelda is even close IMO. I'd say Okami is the next best thing.)

3. Shadow of the Colossus (the only thing wrong was there weren't more Colossi... and there could have been more wild life... to kill.)

4. Super Metroid (I still get goosebumps when the Super Metroid sacrifices itself and Samus slowly rises to give Mother Brain immediate whiplash with the Hyper Beam.)

5. Gunstar Heroes (this could change on a given day but right now it's this. I really wish there could be a spiritual successor or good Downloadable sequel. I know there was the GBA one but it didn't come close to matching the original.)

Chrono Crossing 2010

It's between Fallout New Vegas and Red Dead Redemption. New Vegas is my favorite Fallout game by far. The story Obsidian created was way more flexible than any Bethesda game has been, and the combat was improved across-the-board in small ways, not to mention the game's difficulty and leveling were properly balanced compared to Fallout 3. Moment-to-moment, Red Dead is more frustrating than Fallout is. It's a pain to move John Marston around, especially indoors, and even worse to try and get him to climb up onto anything to get the high ground during a firefight. But the atmosphere of the game is unmatched, the story and voice acting are of the highest quality, and simply being in the game's novel setting with such superb production value is magical. It's a tough choice but I'll go with Read Dead Redemption based almost entirely on story and atmosphere.

Stage Select top 5 of all time

A lot of the games I've thought historically were the best are games I don't actually want to play anymore (Ocarina of Time, for example) so trying to go for pure nostalgia or historical importance didn't work for me. I had to do the premise of being forced to play only 5 games forever, and I picked the ones I'd love and be likely to play. I don't want to get stuck with five games I simply enjoy reminiscing about.

5. Spelunky

4. Metal Gear Solid V - The Phantom Pain

3. Halo 3

2. Skyrim (on PC with mods)

1. Mass Effect 1