Man Finished 48 Games In 2009 (And That Man Was Me)

I finished more video games in 2009 than in any other year of my life, according to a big list I’ve been keeping since 2006. Dare I write this in public: I played too much.

Below you will find my 2009 playing history in grisly detail. This is the fourth list I’ve made of this type, one each for the years from 2006 until now (all linked to at the bottom of this post). I list all of the video games that I played outside of trade shows, press demos and the office. In theory, these are the games I played for fun, or at least not solely for work.

As I’ve done in previous years, I’ve divided the list by platforms, listing every 2009 game I started playing and bolding any game, from 2009 or earlier, that I finished. By “finished” I mean I got to the end of the game’s single-player campaign. I know that’s not the best measurement for completion. For example, I’ve played a whole lot less of Modern Warfare 2 than those who have ranked up through the game’s multiplayer modes, but my measure of completion suits me, a primarily single-player gamer. (Yes, yes, I used to run a blog called Multiplayer. What of it?)

I believe that playing all these games improves my understanding of the video game medium. I try to finish games I really like, because I’d like to think that a great game is one that’s made to be wonderful from beginning to end, as is the case with a great movie or novel. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case, as some very good games get pretty bad in their latter halves. So, yes, I regret finishing some of these games and want some hours of my life back.

If you’re wondering how I made time for this. Credit gaming as being my main hobby and, more importantly, credit the patience of my wife. You’ll see I skipped most of the racing, sports and Japanese role-playing games of 2009. That helped, too.

One other note: I didn’t pay for every game on this list. Many were sent to me by publishers, others obtained by trading in games, all with the intent to play lots of games, try lots of things and be more knowledgeable about my reporting beat because of it.

Oh, and I will include some notes here and there on this list to explain some stuff.

Stephen Totilo 2009 Gaming Playlist

(Played 35, finished 5)

1. Art Style Aquia

2. Art Style Base 10

3. Art Style Box Life (Played this one a lot, as is the case with many others on this list. Just didn’t finish it.)

4. Art Style Digidrive

5. Art Style Pictobits

6. Art Style Precipice

7. Avalon Code

8. Away Shuffle Dungeon

9. Big Bang Mini

10. Bird and Bean

11. Crash-Course Domo

12. Dragon Quest Wars

13. Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter

14. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (First U.S. Fire Emblem I haven’t played through. Mistake?)

15. Fossil Fighters

16. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

17. Hard-Hat Domo

18. Henry Hatsworth In the Puzzling Adventure (The first game on this list that was too hard for me to complete!)

19. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

20. Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (Still playing it. Will finish in 2010)

21. Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again

22. Peggle: Dual Shot

23. Personal Trainer: Math (Yes, I’m counting this as a game)

24. Personal Trainer: Walking (This one, too)

25. Pro-Putt Domo

26. Puzzle Quest Galactrix

27. Rayman 2 (This is the DSi version, my first Rayman)

28. Rock-N-Roll Domo

29. Rhythm Heaven Gold

30. Scribblenauts

31. Star Wars: The Clone Wars

32. Style Savvy

33. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Decepticons

34. White-Water Domo

35. Zubo

iPhone

(Played 10, finished 1)

1. Canabalt

2. Earth Dragon (Fun little game by Spore Creature Editor creator Chaim Gingold, and my sole iPhone complete game)

3. Eliss

4. MinMe

5. Soosiz

6. Space Invaders Infinity Gene

7. Spider

8. Wolfentein RPG

9. Zenonia

10. Zombies & Me

(Played 16, finished 2)

Note: My PC gaming has been dominated by the quirky games people e-mail me links to or those which I judge for the Independent Games Festival. In 2010, I’ll add Dragon Age to this list.

1. Another Small Favor

2. Continuity

3. Dawn of War II

4. Don’t Shit Your Pants

5. Dyson (Eufloria)

6. Enviro-Bear 2000

7. Fading Hearts

8. Osmos

9. Plants Vs. Zombies

10. Red Remover

11. Time Fcuk

12. Windosill

13. Small Worlds

14. The Sims 3

15. Today I Die (Daniel Benmergui’s marvelous, free poetry game; hard to say what constitutes “finishing” it.)

16. Zuma’s Revenge

PSP

(Played 9, finished 1)

1. Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines

2. Dissidia Final Fantasy

3. Half-Minute Hero

4. Holy Invasion Of Privacy, Badman!

5. Loco Roco 2

6. NBA 10: The Inside

7. PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe

8. Resistance Retribution (Played about half of this. Good, long game. Can’t remember why I stopped)

9. Rock Band Unplugged

PS3

(Played 21, finished 10)

1. Assassin’s Creed II

2. Batman: Arkham Asylum

3. Demon’s Souls (Still playing this one. May not finish it before 2011)

4. F.E.A.R. 2

5. Fat Princess

6. Flower

7. Infamous

8. Katamari Forever

9. Killzone 2

10. Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues

11. Mini Ninjas

12. Need for Speed Shift

13. PixelJunk Shooter

14. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time

15. The Saboteur

16. Shatter

17. Sodium

18. Tom Clancy’s HAWX

19. Uncharted 2

20. Valkyria Chronicles (Started this ’08 game in 2009, played about a third, then stopped, hence its inclusion. Didn’t like its pacing and clunky menus.)

21. Watchmen: The End is Nigh

Xbox 360

(Played 44, finished 17)

1. 50 Cent Blood on the Sand (No guilt from me about this guilty pleasure)

2. Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (Marvelous ’08 game I didn’t appreciate until ’09)

3. The Beatles: Rock Band

4. Bionic Commando

5. Borderlands

6. Brutal Legend

7. Cold War Commander

8. Defense Grid

9. DJ Hero

10. Dragon Age: Origins

11. Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard

12. Fallout 3 (Another ’08 game played mostly in ’09)

13. Far Cry 2 (And another ’08 game played mostly in ’09)

14. Fight Night Round 4

15. Flock

16. Forza Motorpost 3

17. The Godfather II

18. Golden Axe: Beast Rider

19. Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad Of Gay Tony (I’m counting this as a game, which I know is controversial. New lead character + 12 hours of campaign = game?)

20. Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned (See previous entry)

21. Halo Wars

22. Halo 3 ODST

23. James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game

24. The Last Remnant

25. Left 4 Dead 2

26. The Maw

27. Modern Warfare 2

28. Overlord II

29. Peggle

30. Pixel Man

31. Prototype