Random Shots: The Year That Was 2010

• Last year I was inspired by Blue Kae give some thought to the games I was looking forward to in the coming year. This year I'm going to revisit those expectations and see how they matched up with reality. Tomorrow is my Top Five games of the year. Then Monday I look into the year ahead and think about where my gaming will go from here.


• World of Warcraft: Cataclysm - I listed Cataclysm and the one MMO I was looking forward to this year, and I was almost right. However, I also expected it to be a "just enough" expansion. And although the high level content seems a little thin, I didn't expect to enjoy the low level content so much. Definitely a win for Blizzard.


• Diablo III - Torchlight made me look forward to more Diablo-style gaming last year. But I was right: D3 did not come out this year. At least 2011 looks a lot more promising.


• Mass Effect 2 - I hadn't used my 360 for a while before ME2 came out. After ME2, I went on an Xbox bender. Thank you, ME2, for teaching me to love (consoles) again. Can. Not. Wait. For Mass Effect 3.


• Red Dead Redemption - At the beginning of the year, I said I was looking forward to a new western game because of how much I enjoy Gun. Heh. Heh heh heh. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Yeah, I think RDR will be my western of choice from now on.


• Other MMOs. Any of them. - I named six MMOs that I was not looking forward on 2010 for various reasons. Some I just didn't care for, some I knew for a fact wouldn't come out no matter how much I begged, pleaded, bribed, wished on stars, bargained with demons, etc. Of the six, only two did come out: Allods Onlines and Star Trek Online. In both cases, I tried and rejected them. So I was right, 2011 was not a year for new MMOs. What I didn't expect was that EQ2 would add and X and become a game that I was actually interested in. Crazy.


• Starcraft 2 - I made it almost all the way through 2010 without buying SC2, but I folded in the end. Blizzard put it on sale and I caved. So far, not a bad game. But it's still an RTS, just a really Blizzardy one.


• How was 2010 for you?