Games played over the last year, good, bad or otherwise. List and discuss!

My list:

Sacred: Underworld

Fun for awhile, but like the original gets rather repetitive. Still, the Dwarf character became one of my all time favorite action RPG characters. I mean getting to use a flame thrower and grenade launcher in a fantasy RPG? How cool is that?

Bookworm Adventures 2

Word game with RPG elements = personal gaming heaven. All too short, unfortunately.

Crysis
Crysis: Warhead

Worth playing for the incredible environments, but so-so gameplay wise.

Insecticide, Part 1

Part of a series that never got completed. Worth playing for the unique scenario, but middling gameplay. Action elements are awkward, adventure elements are too basic to amount to much.

Plants vs. Zombies

Never thought I'd enjoy something this close to a tower defense game, but I loved it. The humor goes a long way towards making it work.

Fallout 2

Like the first game somewhat clunky, but one of the most improved sequels I've ever played. A shame Fallout 3 wasn't developed in the same era; it would been really interesting to see what the next iteration or two of Fallout would have looked liked with gradual development based on the earlier games.

Lord of the Rings Online

Newsflash: The world has ended, I'm playing an MMORPG! Admittedly I'm playing it in spite of rather than because of it being an MMORPG. Likely the best chance I'll get to explore a virtual Middle-earth, so I suppose I should be content, but I can't help but dream of  what a Bethesda version of Middle-earth would be like instead. (Sigh.)

Cthulhu Saves The World

Not quite as entertaining as billed. A funny premise, but the actual gameplay is only OK.

Puzzle Kingdoms
Puzzle Quest

Never thought I'd enjoy match-3 gameplay, but it turns out all they had to do was add RPG elements. Makes me wonder what other disagreeable things would be improved in the same way. Maybe exercise, for starters:

http://xkcd.com/189/

Bioshock

One of the most overrated games I've ever played. Unique environments and interesting characters and storyline, but tedious and extremely frustrating gameplay. I ended up activating god mode just to see how it ended, something I don't recall ever doing before.

Limbo

I enjoyed the first part where you were menaced by various creatures, working out ways to outwit them, but found the second half where you faced off against the environment alone a lot less intriguing. Plus, it's dark and depressing. I knew that going in, of course, I just didn't realize how much. After watching the poor kid get eviscerated for the nth time, I actually had to put the game down for awhile.

Night Sky

Neat little physics puzzler getting a ball through a dreamworld full of obstacles. Appealingly atmospheric.

A.R.E.S

A short but rather good "Abuse style" 2d platformer. Not worth full price (due to its length) but as I got it in a bundle, I don't really mind.

Aquaria

One of the best indie games that I have ever played. Combines metroidvania style exploration with movement controlls that reminded me a lot of Ecco the dolphin. And it was lengthy, clocking in at around 15h for me.

Atom zombie smasher

A seemingly simple little indie title, with surprising depth to its gameplay. The world is starting to get overrun by zombies, and you are supposed to stop them. Each region offers up a map, where zombies will start to swarm in against poor unprotected civilians, and it is your goal to stop them with whatever means you are given.

Bastion

An isometric action game with an interesting gimmick. There is an ever present narrator in this game, who tells the story and comments on what is going on. A really good game.

The binding of Isaac

This was a surprisingly dark game. Just looking at screenshots does not give you an idea about exactly how dark this game actually is. The theme is child abuse. Gameplay itself feels like a mix between a rogue like and Zelda 1, and apart from some strange slowdown, the game was fun to play.

Cthulhu saves the world

A cheap little downloadable title that promised to poke fun at JRPGs & the Cthulhu mythos. While I feel like it both managed to poke fun at a lot of JRPG mechanics and effectively sidestep most of the frustrating elements of JRPGs, it also felt like it was trying a bit too hard to be funny. Not a bad game, in particular not for its price, but it could not quite deliver on what it promised.

Darwinia

Darwinia was not at all what I expected. I thought it would be a strategy/management style game, but in reality it is a syndicate style action/tactics game. It was quite fun though.

Defense grid

Surprise hit of the year? I usually don't like tower defense games, I find them to be too repetitive, but this one was different. Well, in reality it was just very well made, and thus it managed to lessen the impact of the flaws that are inherent to the genre. The levels had a nice pace to them, the challenge was just about right for a beginner on the story mode difficulty, but the game also offers harder difficulty modes and it felt like all the pieces just managed to fit together quite well. Also, the DLC "You monster" gave the game an interesting twist, both as far as story goes and how it forced you to adapt your strategies.

Dungeons of dredmore

DoD is an indie rogue like that never takes itself very seriously. While it might lack the depth of many other rogue likes, it actually manages to be very accessible, something that few rogue likes ever really manage to be. The gameplay was fun and for a game with randomly generated levels, it felt surprisingly well paced. There was also a lot of variety in the different skill trees. This game will probably stay on my computer for a long time to come, due to its inherent replay value and (usually) short games (YASD is common in this game (yet another stupid death)

Eschalon: Book 1

An indie CRPG with a rather old school vibe to it. This game had a very well made character creation/leveling system, with lots of options to choose from. The story was not amazing, but the gameplay was fun, at least as a mage.

Jamestown

This was another surprise for the year. I've always been a big fan of vertically scrolling shooters, and usually of the bullet hell sub-genre, but this game is a strong contender for "best vertical scrolling shooter ever", going toe to toe with games like Touhou or Ikaruga .

Limbo

A rather artistic 2d platformer with a nice sense of pacing and clever puzzles. It was a bit on the easy side, and also rather short, but enjoyable while it lasted. I feel like this game was a bit too short to justify its price tag at full price, but worth it when its on sale.

Nyx Quest

Yet another puzzle platformer. Nyx Quest was a relatively easy game, and also rather short. Much like Limbo, it feels like a game that is worth buying when it is on sale, but not at full price, due to its length. Also, while this game was good, it was not great.

Orcs must die

Orcs must die was a bit of a disappointment. The game was not at all bad, but reviews and people have made it sound like it would be an incredibly fun game. It was fun, but it got rather repetitive near the end. Trap balance did not seem to be great either.

Scoregasm

A short top down shooter along the line of geometry wars. Fun, but nothing special.

Super meat boy

Another disappointment, but not a bad game. Reviewers loved this game, and gave it amazingly high review scores. And yes, the controls were tight, the sense of achievement was great when you finally managed to beat one of the later levels, but I never felt like it was this mighty 9/10 game. It could have used some more variety .

VVVVVV

Somehow this game managed to both feel incredibly unfair and incredibly forgiving. It does have a lot in common with Super meat boy, in that it is a game that expects you to die repeatedly before you get past an obstacle, and that it does not really punish you for doing so. But VVVVVV just felt better paced & balanced, and the music was incredibly catchy.

Might & Magic 4-5 (world of xeen)

When I first heard about this supposedly huge game I was a bit intimidated. Two games from a genre that is known for its huge and time consuming games? And from a time where games like this did not hold your hand? I was surprised by how accessible this game actually was, it never felt unfair nor did it require any grind. There was a lot of things to do in this game, and the dungeons were, for the most part, very well crafted. It was a bit shorter than expected though.

Conflict(/Descent) Freespace

Conflict freespace is one of those games that often is hailed as one of the kings of its genre, and I can see why. Good and varied missions, a nice feel to all the ships and a fun enemy AI. 

Wing commander 1-2

Unlike Freespace, Wing commander had a really strong and adaptable story. Gameplay might not have been quite as good as in freespace, but I felt that the first two WCs still held up really well to this day-

Xenoblade

The first full scale JRPG that I've played in a while, Xenoblade both managed to show me why JRPGs can be worth playing, and also why I don't play more of them. The story and setting was really good, the artistic style more than made up for any hardware shortcommings that the Wii might have had and the game also sounded really nice. But there were just too many battles, and they started to feel repetitive after a while, and it really should have been a bit shorter (it was nowhere near the promised length though)

Metroid other M

I'm a big fan of the Metroid series. I own almost all the games ( don't own the pinball or the deathmatch FPS DS game), and I have played through them multiple times. Other M left me with slightly mixed feelings. Gameplay was top notch, the puzzles were fun, the bosses were amazing, the common enemies were satisfying to kill. But the story was not very good, and it reduced Samus from a very strong character to a whiny one. 

Final Fantasy tactics advance

Shallow is probably the right way to describe this game. FFTA offered very shallow tactical battles, and an interesting level mechanics. I really can't see why this game got so popular, as I hardly had to pay any attention in order to finish most battles. Some status effects were frustrating though.

Fantasy wars

In the same basic genre as FFTA, fantasy wars was far from shallow. In fact, Fantasy wars stands as an incredibly good, challenging and well balanced TBT with SRPG elements. Think Panzer General, but in a fantasy setting.

Elven legacy +Ranger expansion

The sequel to Fantasy wars. Elven legacy was more of the same, but slightly more accessible. Ranger was too easy.

Victoria 2

I'm a bit of a Paradox fanboy, I love their grand scale strategy game, and Victoria: An empire under the sun was my favourite. Victoria 2 manages to improve on a lot of what Victoria 1 had to offer, and while I feel that Victoria 1 was more fun when it came to playing the smaller nations, Victoria 2 made the game a lot better when it comes to playing larger nations, as it allows for more (non-forced) automization. 

MechCommander 1-2

MechCommander 1 was a tough game, one that I did not manage to finish. MechCommander 2 on the other hand was far far too easy. Both games falls under the category of RTT, and they did what they set out to do relatively well, with MC1 being the better of the two.

MechWarrior 4+expansions

My first mech sims, MW4 was really good, offering a fun campaign with a lot of fun mech action. Mercenaries (the second expansion (which was standalone and is free these days)) improved a lot on this, and gave the player a lot more freedom in what mechs & weapons to bring. 

Advent Rising

An alright game with a good story. It is a shame that the planed sequels were never made, because I want to know what will happen next

Skyrim

Highlight of the year. Skyrim managed to fix a lot of what Oblivion broke, and while its setting is not quite as interesting as that of Morrowind, it did offer better gameplay. 
Deus Ex Human revolution

Another surprise this year. Deus Ex HR actually managed to be better (in my opinion) than the original game, something that I never expected. Good story, good gameplay and better stealth mechanics than the previous game (the second game never happened).

Hearts of Iron 3

HoI 3 expands a lot on what HoI2 had to bring, and also brings back some elements from HoI1. A good game, but it is a real system hog. 

Tachyon: The fringe

Another space sim. Not quite as good as Freespace, but almost. It offers more freedom though.

Borderlands

Combine Diablo & a shooter, and this is what you get. Mindless fun, plain and simple. Does get quite repetitive after a while though.

IL-2 Sturmovik

My first serious flight sim since the late 90's, and one that is considered to be one of the absolutely best on the market. I'm horrible at this game, just horrible, but it is fun.

Magicka

Magicka is hilarious. Not so much because the games humor (which is fun), but because of the allround chaos that an inexperienced player can create. Very fun on your own, and just stupidly fun with friends (we spent more time laughing at each others stupid mistakes than actually playing the game!)

Drakensang: River of time

Wins the prize for most frustrating game of last year, simply because it was incredibly frustrating to find a place that was willing to ship it here. It would seem like the publisher had imposed (illegal?) export restrictions for this game, because most online stores flat out refused to ship it to Sweden. The game itself was really really good though, fixing most of the issues the the first game had, and just improving on almost everything. One of the best games of last year.

(And to anyone who thought that it was stupid to impose export restrictions, and not bother releasing the game here anyway, the publisher did actually release the games expansion over here. Hm, yea how did they expect the expansion to sell a single copy, if people can't get their hands on the core game? Stupid...)

Arcanum

I finally finished this game. Great setting, alright gameplay, but still well worth playing through. 

Eternity's child

Never got all that far in this game. But between the nearly broken controlls, poorly tested levels and uninteresting enemies I don't think I will ever install this game ever game. A real stinker, one to avoid. Screenshots looks nice though. 

Just a question before I start my list... does it have to be games we actually finished.. or  just played a good bit of...? 

Originally Posted By Traveller

Just a question before I start my list... does it have to be games we actually finished.. or  just played a good bit of...? 

That's up to you, I'd say. If you played enough of a game to form a concrete opinion, feel free to include it.

ya i plan to do both finished and unfiinshed but with a good sense of it.

Divine Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga

After a fairly slow start, this became a lot of fun. The final chapter (originally sold as a separate expansion) is an excellent "city adventure".

Gothic 3 Enhanced Edition

Never gave this one a chance, despite loving the first two games in the series. With the latest community patch, and running in a fairly powerful modern rig, I had excellent performance and no glitches. The elements I so enjoyed in G1 and G2: NOTR are still here, the freedom the explore and the various rewards for doing so. I didn't like the dessert area as much as the rest of the game, but still, now that its bugs have been ironed out, this is a great game.

Cthulhu Saves the World

Great fun. The combat system has subtleties that only those playing the high difficulty settings will come to appreciate, at normal it's way too easy to just spam normal attacks without paying attention to effects and conditions.

LIMBO

Well, don't have anything to add beyond to what Fnord said. I occassionaly decide to try a zero-death run, which usually ends at that fraking Hotel sign .

Jamestown

An excellent difficulty curve that can accomodate anyone, from total newbies to danmaku gods. Amazing soundtrack, too. Just listen to tracks 9 and 10. I will beat a mission on Judgement difficulty some day, I swear I will.

Orcs Must Die

The campaign at normal (Warmage) difficulty is excellent fun. The next (Nightmare) difficulty gives you zero time to set up defenses, you have to do so on the fly while under constant attack, which after Act 1 simply stoped being fun for me. Still, there is lots of content and leaderboards that are fun to compete on with friends (never personally care about my ranking as related to total strangers).

BIT.TRIP RUNNER

Simple mechanics and frustratingly difficult, and yet there is something that makes me want to beat the damn thing. Still stuck on The Gauntlet (Stage 3-9).

Revenge of the Titans

The developer refuses this is a tower defense game, and maybe they have a point. It starts very easy, can become very challenging later on. I'm on my second attempt to finish the campaign.