2009: The Video Game Year in Review

In 2009 the cup of gaming ranneth dry. 2009 was the year gamers and their consoles got back from Honolulu and started arguing over who was going to take out the trash. 2009 was the year this generation's shortcomings could no longer be hidden by promises of the future. Games weren't transcendent by virtue of being new. The mythologies companies developed around their consoles, the innovations developers hyped in all their press kits - they were all laid bare, dissected and found wanting.

It's easy enough to assume that 2010 will be a quick fix, with it's stellar line up of games to come and save the day. But will the arrival of Bioshock 2, God of War 3, and all the rest bring back the glory achieved in 2007? I doubt it. Most will characterize 2009 as a bad aftertaste, best washed away by the main courses coming in 2010. But this past year wasn't a stop gap, it was a harbinger of the stagnation on gaming's horizon.

If the previous year is any indicator, we can look forward to a slew of competent, but largely unchanged sequels. Games that will be altered to iron out their quirks, their foreheads botoxed and smiles capped in order to appeal to generic tastes. Like Hollywood, game companies have all converged onto a middle path toward profitability. The expectations that games be new, ground-breaking and experimental were tied to 2007, the year this current generation of consoles reached adulthood.

The games of 2009, like suburban communities comprised of middle managers, treaded that middle path of conformity. It started with Skate 2, a sequel which made a few nice tweaks but then ruined the subtle beauty of the first game with aspirations of bigger and better. Then came the forgotten blockbuster Killzone 2, a game as remarkable for the length of it's hype as it was for the brevity of it's shelf life. Even Batman: Arkham Asylum, a polished and technically sound new IP, felt too familiar and cushy to demand any serious attention.

The problem in 2009 wasn't that the games were bad, but that all their game play felt so familiar. It was a sign that, having found their groove, developers were now ready to shovel us the same dessert over and over, never mind that each additional taste is a little less delicious than the last.

Microsoft and Sony's plans for motion control only served to make the outlook blacker. Their deep investment in these technologies, both likely to have sizable launches, signaled that the current consoles weren't going anywhere for another two or three years. And far from heralding more innovation, these motion control platforms will ultimately kick start the kind of family friendly shovel-ware the Wii has been capitalizing on since 2006.

2009 was the start of a mid life crisis for this generation of consoles. There are sure to be a few more masterpieces in the coming years. But, even the best titles of 2009 hint at developers and publishers gone soft, ready to exhale and rest on their laurels for the remainder of these consoles' life span. This isn't the end of anything, but rather the beginning of a sadly predictable repackaging of the same open worlds, cinematic presentations and control schemes perfected two years earlier. Good riddance to 2009 and god help us in 2010.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Or here's hoping you only see service on the multiplayer front.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is two separate games. The single player game is a relic that's missing a light gun and a quarter slot. The other game is a best in class FPS multiplayer game. Only one of these games is worth playing.

The single player game is a spectacle filled ride that plays best when you don't think about it too much. Like a movie trailer, the single player campaign is comprised of some controversial moments and nice visuals. Just don't try to string it all together into a coherent whole. It's like trying to compose Rush Limbaugh soundbites into an essay - it doesn't work.

Modern Warfare 2 has some aspirations towards telling a story, although what that story is I'll never know. There's the usual hodge podge of scene setting satellite photos, tactical mumbo jumbo and hostile foreigners. In practice though, the protagonist is effectively the barrel of your character's gun. Nothing in this game is humanized, it's all cannon fodder. Which is why, despite what you may have heard from the usual cadre of media pansies, shooting civilians in an airport ends up being somewhere between boring and fun. If Modern Warfare 2 has any theme it's simply that the Russians are back. The biggest problem is that there are no females in this game, which caused me to wonder what exactly I was fighting for, if not a hot girl.

The gameplay in the campaign mode is just as shallow. On harder difficulties the bullets are more numerous, but the enemies no more wily. The overwhelming number of enemies coming at the player at any one time make this almost strictly a run and gun affair. About thirty minutes into the game, I realized that the game's pacing, explosions, and endless streams of enemies are akin to a magician's stage patter; it's misdirection that keeps the illusion real. Perhaps the greatest indictment, I can level on the single player gameplay, is that the multiplayer feels a fair bit slower and even meditative by comparison.

The multiplayer stands in sharp relief to the single player portion of the game. It's only in this part of the game that the great control scheme, carefully balanced weapons and thoughtfully designed maps are fully realized. The improvisational strategies, brief but fierce fire fights and unexpected outcomes that define the modern FPS experience can all be found in Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer.

The rewards offered to players who stick with the game, including new equipment and perks like running faster, serve to personalize the player's experience in a way the story mode cannot. The game allows the player to define his style of play and evolve it as he gains experience. It's all very well executed and at least as much fun as playing with toy guns amongst pillow forts. To be fair, Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer is just a refinement of the original's, but if you think of Modern Warfare 2 as an iterative sports game, which is what the multiplayer most closely resembles, it's a resounding success.

It's easy to love the multiplayer portion of Modern Warfare 2 well into the wee hours of the morning. But I had a harder time loving the whole package. The single player campaign almost seems like a marketing ploy to drum up some media attention. Given the massive changes in single player FPS's represented by games like Far Cry 2 and STALKER, there's really no reason anyone should waste their time with Modern Warfare 2's story mode. Bravo Infinity Ward for keeping the headshots relevant, but shame on you for repeatedly shoveling the same old single player experience on us.

Rating: 60% - It's only half the game it advertises itself as, but that half is so good it would be unfair not to weight it a little more heavily.