#4: Vanquish
Vanquish is a game that lets you do all the stuff you wish you could do in other shooters, a statement that places this on the list for reasons similar to my number 2 pick. It's like
Resident Evil mastermind Shinji Mikami saw
Gears of War and immediately retreated to his bunker to devise a way to top that sluggish-but-fun American madness.
And top it he did, along with his team at Platinum Games. They, like many creative giants in recent years, know that Russia is back to being the enemy du jour. As such they've decided the only way to eradicate the red threat is to pop chain-smoking hero Sam Gideon into an Augmented Reaction Suit and hand the controls over to YOU, brave player.
In that suit you can flip, slide-strafe around giant robots like a rock star, pirouette out of said slide and bullet-time blast their remaining iron limbs to Hell. Then you can leap up, and drill kick down through their very rusted innards. Or you can simply run up and punch a robot in the face, retreating behind cover for just long enough to replenish your suit's energy. This is the anti-
Gears, in that the player is encouraged not to "stop and pop," but to boldly run and gun and take risks like these moments are your last. I love me some
Call of Duty and all those other fantastic firefights, but
Vanquish delivered thrills like no other this year.
http://www.otakuusamagazine.com/Games/News1/Top_5_Japanese_Games_of_2010_4010.aspx