By Dillon O’Toole
Well, the end of the semester is almost here. It’s been a rather crazy couple of months, hasn’t it? Since classes are almost over, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about what to do in your newly acquired free time. As you probably could guess from the title of the article, it may have something to do with the video games released in 2010. With the country mostly still in lockdown, now’s a better time than any to catch up on all those great games you missed. Let’s go back in time ten years. Looking back at 2010, there were a lot of great games that came out. Some of these games I have played a ton, but others I haven’t ever touched before and I’m willing to bet that I am not the only one to have missed some quality games. I hope that you are inspired by this piece to pick up and try one of these games you may have missed, or to go back and enjoy one of your old favorites.
The Single Player Experience:
2010 saw the release of several great single player games. But first, let me clarify that some of these games in this section may have multiplayer. The primary focus of these games was the single player experience, however, and thus I am putting them in this section. The first game I will discuss is my personal favorite of this category: Fallout: New Vegas. Fallout is a series of games that take place in the wasteland of Earth after a nuclear war. Out of all of the 3D Fallout games, Fallout: New Vegas is arguably the best of the series. Fallout: New Vegas is an open world roleplaying game (RPG) and it takes place in, you’ll never guess it, the remains of Las Vegas. The one major downside to this game, and any other game published by Bethesda, is its lack of stability and its tendency to crash. In my own experience the console version is much more stable than the PC version, but if you know how to install mods the PC version will become equally or more stable than the console version.
The next game in this section would have to be Metro 2033, a game that follows the story of the Russian survivors of a 2013 nuclear war. This game is not an open world RPG like Fallout: New Vegas, but it is just as good. The game can be extremely difficult if you play on the higher difficulties as resource management is a major focus within the game, but the story remains compelling on any difficulty setting. I have not played these next games but I do know that they are great games that are worth playing. Other notable single player games from 2010 are Bioshock 2, Dead Rising 2, God of War III, Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption, and Super Mario Galaxy 2. (I guess 2010 was the year of the sequels.)
Multiplayer Games:
Maybe you’re not the type of person that likes to play games by yourself. If so, don’t worry as there were some great multiplayer games released in 2010 as well. Are you a fan of first person shooters (FPS)? If so, there’s two great games that I am going to discuss. The first is Halo: Reach. Halo: Reach is the fifth main game within the Halo franchise, and the last game to be made by original Halo developer Bungie. The story is a prequel to the original Halo game, but the main reason you probably want to play it is for the multiplayer. (The story is really good as well, though, and you can play through it with three other people.) Fortunately, the entire game was recently remastered and released as a part of the Master Chief Collection. That means you don’t have to worry about those pesky outdated graphics getting in the way of your experience playing the game. But maybe you aren’t a fan of those futuristic sci-fi FPS games (or you have a Playstation). Fear not, because Call of Duty was still good in 2010. The game released that year was the original Black Ops, and it is one of the more beloved games within the franchise. As it is ten years old, finding a match may be difficult (I couldn’t find a quick match but I also checked at 2:30 in the morning) but once you find a match it should be a fun time. Additionally, Treyarch, the developer of Black Ops, is releasing another Call of Duty game later this year, so it is always great to go back before playing the new game. If FPS games aren’t your thing, maybe you should take out that guitar controller and play Rock Band 3. The classic music game was released 10 years ago, but it is still regarded as one of the best games in the series. So if you want to rock out, Rock Band 3 is your game.
Strategy Games:
The final section of this article will be about two strategy games released in 2010. The first game in this section is Civilization V, widely considered one of the best Civilization games released. The other game is Paradox’s Victoria II, a grand strategy that allows you to control a country from 1836 to 1936. I don’t have much experience with either of these games, but the series and publisher for both Civilization V and Victoria II respectively are well regarded and should be great for those who are looking to revisit older strategy games.
2010 was a great year for video games. If you’re bored in quarantine, maybe re-visit some of the games released ten years ago. The combination of nostalgia and quality should result in a pretty good time.