The Shelf rings in the new year by waxing nostalgic about 2010′s best and worst games and movies, and talk about what we’re looking forward to in 2011. Will and Zack are joined by Emily and our old friend Lucas for this best/worst of ought ten show. The episode also has the distinction of being the only podcast you’ll ever hear successfully segue between Gaspar Noé’s brutal Enter the Void and Pixar’s heartwarming Toy Story 3. To read more of our favourites be sure to check out our recently published “Best of 2010″ lists.

What were your favourites of 2010? What are you looking forward to in 2011? Comment and let us know.

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Listen:

Programme:

• 0:00 — “Super Inuit (Live)” by Holy Fuck
• 1:50 — Games of 2010: Snakes & Lattes and obscure board games, Halo: Reach, Darksiders, Red Dead Redemption, Fragile Dreams
• 8:55 — Split/Second, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Metroid: The Other M
• 16:00 — Bayonetta, Fallout: New Vegas
• 19:10— Indie Games: Minecraft, Angry Birds, VVVVVV, Super Meat Boy, Limbo, Amnesia: The Dark Descent
• 27:20 — Films of 2010: Enter the Void, Toy Story 3, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
• 37:46 — The Social Network, Black Swan, Rubber, Jackass 3-D, TRON: Legacy, True Grit
• 51:15 — HBO’s Game of Thrones, Thor, Green Lantern, Captain America
• 1:01:50 — Hayao Miyazaki’s Ni no Kuni, Catherine, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD
• 1:06:20 — Nintendo’s 3DS, Mortal Kombat, Portal 2
• 1:13:00 — Outro
• 1:14:10 — “The Parachute Ending” by Birdy Nam Nam

It was a year where you could easily hear Super Meat Boy and Halo: Reach mentioned in the same breath. There were great games to be found on every platform, from the indiest of indie to the most conglomerated of corporate titles. However, like most years only a few of these games will have the distinction of being remembered in the years to come. Here are a few. - Will Perkins

At E3, Nintendo strutted in a way that disgusted some and enthralled others. No longer were they pushing gimmicky white apertures but instead brought out their big guns so quickly and aggressively it made you want to pull out a cigarette after it was all said and done. Some argued that it was a cheap way to rally their fan base, I argue that I really don’t give a shit. Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Goldeneye, NBA Jam and Donkey Kong Country Returns may not revolutionize anything, but they are severely well executed remakes, sequels and retrospects. DK, NBA Jam and Goldeneye were crafted by folks who clearly cherish the material they are dealing with. Identifying what about those titles made them so everlasting, but just leaving it at that would not have made them stellar, no, they went above the pale by bringing these gems to the contemporary, adding elements that represent the modern state of gaming be it through direct mechanics or just painful attention to creative detail.

Not all of the best was found on the Wii, but it was a nice change of pace that a lot of it was. For the more conventional ‘next-gen’ entries, we seemed to have a year built upon left fielders. While the original Red Dead Revolver was a hidden gem, few were prepared for the magnitude of the follow-up, Red Dead Redemption, a massive western game, nay, experience, that would have players pinned to a time that’s always found trouble finding its destiny in the gaming world. The year was certainly back loaded, many triumphant entries seemed to flop out of some neglected closet, Enlsaved and Vanquish are two stellar, gorgeous, if not unassuming action games and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, while only kind of a Castlevania game, is still an attractive adventure. Downloadables shouldn’t be neglected either, with Clandun, Scott Pilgrim, Super Meat Boy, Chime, Cave Story, After Burner Climax, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX and Costume Quest letting you game nice without bothering to put on pants.

The catch-up played by Sony and Microsoft with Kinect and Move may have more competent tech to rival the Wii, but the majority of releases seem like nothing we weren’t getting done before. Sports games, dance games and fitness games have played maypole with Nintendo in both good and bad variations. But leave it to the best to at least give us some reason to hope, or at the very least, drunk dare the hell out of our closest friends. I mentioned that there is no shortage of dance games, but Dance Central is the dance game realized, no longer vaguely asking you to move in certain directions, but entirely challenging you to contort gestures you hope no one is watching you perform. Only people are totally, totally watching you. Oh, and the variety of songs is good too, so. - Zack Kotzer

Bioshock 2

Some gamers soured on 2K Marin’s sequel to the 2007 masterpiece, deeming it “too familiar” to the first. But there really isn’t any setting in video games like Rapture, and the second dive below the Atlantic has everything that made the first so impressive and then some. The combat is deeper, hacking is no longer a pain in the butt. The environments are even creepier than in the first (Little Sister Orphanage, I’m looking at you). The kill-or-spare choices are increasingly complex and morally muddled, although the “Saviour” achievement erases the entire idea behind it. And this game’s “oh shit” moment is arguably more emotionally devastating than the first’s. Top it off with the utterly fantastic DLC episode Minerva’s Den and you have one of the best single-player experiences this year. - Jonathan Ore

Fallout: New Vegas

I loved Fallout 3, but like many I thought it was missing something. Bethesda’s crack at the seminal post-apocalyptic role-playing game reinvented the series as a quasi-shooter with RPG tendencies – ‘Oblivion with guns’ they called it. For whatever reason, Fallout 3 lacked the character and humour that made the original Black Isle Fallout games so memorable, which was why old schoolers like myself were so pleased when it was announced that Obsidian Entertainment – a studio made up of many key Black Isle designers – would be handed the reigns to the spin-off: Fallout: New Vegas.

Back was the twisted sense of humour and tangible sense of horror that the post-nuclear wasteland evoked. Characters were more memorable, combat more intense and consequential, choices more stark and morally grey. Fallout: New Vegas for all of its graphical shortcomings and oft-reported bugs was everything Fallout 3 should have been and wasn’t. Never has the hellish, brutal and irradiated wasteland of the post-apocalypse been so inviting. - Will Perkins

Super Street Fighter IV

Last I checked, my total playtime for SSFIV was over 135 hours. I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what I can do in this game. SSFIV has one of the biggest rosters in the Street Fighter series, and a large active player base. Finding opponents of all skill levels online is a breeze, so whether you want to have fun throwing fireballs or work on your painfully difficult 1-frame link combos, you’ll find the right kind of competition. That’s to say nothing of the gorgeous visual design and unforgettable characters. Super SFIV’s new characters run the SF Canon gamut, and Juri and Hakan are both welcome newcomers. It’s the pinnacle of the fighting game genre from the people who defined it. - Jonathan Ore

Minecraft

No 2010 list of games would be complete without mentioning this game. Originally made by one guy in a week, Minecraft turned into one of the biggest gaming success stories of the decade. The rudimentary graphics betray a stunning complexity that the game makes possible. Minecraft is essentially one giant sandbox, a digital Lego set that allows the player to build pretty much anything they can imagine. Scale model of the USS Enterprise? Sure! Custom sky castle? Why not? Gargantuan underground fortress? Of course! Working arithmetic logic unit…? Uh, holy shit… yeah, that too! A quick search of YouTube with the term ‘Minecraft’ will reveal some of the insane creations players have constructed in-game

I was completely sucked in by Minecraft, playing every chance I got for about a month straight. Simple in concept and rendering, but absolutely enthralling to anyone with a creative bone in their body. - Will Perkins

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sadly, Bethesda’s Gamebryo engine is beginning to show its age; by modern standards New Vegas is not a good looking game. But graphics are never what made the series worth playing, Fallout games have always been about providing the player with a unique and deeply engaging experience. As luck would have it, the folks creating New Vegas know all about that.

Fallout: New Vegas is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment, best known for developing the NeverWinter Nights series and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. Obsidian was formed shortly after Interplay’s Black Isle Studios (the developers of the first two Fallout games) shut down. Many of the key players from Black Isle ended up at Obsidian, so hopefully Fallout: New Vegas can recapture some of the heavily-irradiated magic that made the first two games in the franchise so great.

Fallout: New Vegas will hit the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 this October.

Click here to view the embedded video.

New Vegas is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment, best known for developing the NeverWinter Nights series and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. Obsidian was formed shortly after Interplay’s Black Isle Studios (the developers of Fallout and Fallout 2) shut down. Many of the key players from Black Isle ended up at Obsidian, so hopefully Fallout: New Vegas can recapture some of the heavily-irradiated magic that made the first two games in the franchise so great.

Via Kotaku

Although still early in development, Alpha Protocol is starting to look a little bit like a real-world version of Mass Effect, with more of a focus on the role-playing aspects.  It’s refreshing to see an RPG that doesn’t involve swords and magic or sci-fi weaponry.  Obsidian Entertainment are the developer responsible for Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2, Neverwinter Nights 2 and the upcoming Fallout: New Vegas.  Prior to the formation of Obsidian, most of the main staff worked at Interplay’s now defunct Black Isle Studios, working on games like Fallout and Fallout 2.  Given Obsidian’s pedigree, I think Alpha Protocol is a game to watch.

Alpha Protocol is due out October 2009.

Alpha Protocol Official Site

Bethesda Softworks has just announced that a new Fallout game is on the way for 2010.  Fallout: New Vegas will be developed by Obsidian Entertainment, best known for the NeverWinter Nights series and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2.  According to Bethesda’s Todd Howard Fallout: New Vegas will not be a sequel to Fallout 3, but will instead merely be set in the Fallout universe.

It sounds to me like this could more likely be some kind of sequel to the story of Fallout and Fallout 2.  This is amazing news for fans of the original Fallout games, Obsidian Entertainment formed after the dissolution of Interplay’s Black Isle Studios, the developers of Fallout and Fallout 2. Many of the same designers who worked on those games—Feargus Urquhart, Chris Jones and Chris Avellone to name a few—ultimately went on to form Obsidian.  I am really excited to see these guys back in the radiated, mutant-filled Fallout sandbox.

via Kotaku

Also, if you own a Blackberry and enjoy Fallout then you might like this custom Pip-Boy 3000 skin posted by Gizmodo.

Thanks to brax for the link.