8bit Contributor Chris Murray

2010 has been a pretty erratic year for gaming. The mobile and downloadable market has shown that you don’t have to create an triple-A title to be great, or to capture the hearts and wallets of people who don’t even consider themselves gamers. Whoda thunk that with new Mario, StarCraft, and Call of Duty titles, so much of our game time would be spent on Angry Birds? Along with all that’s occurring in screen-based gaming, board games seem to be enjoying a renaissance. At MPOW’s National Gaming Day event, the number of people looking wanting to play non-video games was exponentially larger than those looking to jam out on Rock Band. In the wake of all this change, the one thing we must never lose sight of is the ability for a game to surprise, and the titles chosen by 8BitLibrary writers are no exception.

The following are selections for our fave-rave games of the year. These aren’t meant to be consensus picks, nor should this be mistaken for a definitive list. I just asked people to submit their choices, along with their justifications. Beg to differ? Have something else to add? You know what to do.

8BL Quick Picks:

• Fallout: New Vegas (Erin Mischak)
• Just Dance (Laverne Mann)
• Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Justin Hoenke)
• Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX (Toby Greenwalt)
• Red Dead Redemption (Chris Murray)
• Rock Band 3 (JP Porcaro)

See the full reviews after the jump.

(more…)