Top 50 Games - 42 & 43. Assassin's Creed 2 / Assassin's Creed

The Assassin's Creed series is a funny case for me. The more I think about the games, the less I like them. I could certainly do without the sci-fi conspiracy babble, but I don't think it ruins the experience. The first Assassin's Creed was a strange beast. The early coverage did a lot to hype me up; "Finally, a medieval game that isn't high fantasy!" I thought. And while it isn't swords and sorcery, AC certainly has its share of fantasy. I also thought that Assassin's Creed was going to be nearly perfect, and it turns out that it was riddled with flaws and repetitive design. Needless to say, I was disappointed. I never bought the game, but I borrowed it from my friend for a week, and (here's the important part) played it while eating my way through a stack of Hershey's Chocolate with Almonds. Somehow, despite the game's tedium and ridiculous artificiality (excused with the 'Animus' context), I found myself having a really good time. I got sucked up in the wild conspiracy theory story (hint: Templars), got used to the unusual marionette control scheme, admired the details in the costumes of the guards and their holy cities. The folks at Ubisoft listened to everyone's complaints and addressed them head on for the sequel. What's funny is that by alleviating the frustrating quirks of the first game, Assassin's Creed 2 ended up abandoning many of the series' signatures and was more like Grand Theft Auto: Renaissance Italy. That was fine by me though. While Assassin's Creed has its own minimalist charm, AC2 feels like a fully featured game able to compete with the big dogs. The plots of both are stupidly compelling, and by the end of the second game things truly get laughable, but what really matter are the game worlds. Damascus, Acre, Jerusalem, Florence, Tuscany, Venice... These, ironically grounded in real life, are some of the most fascinating spaces I've ever occupied in a video game, and such beautiful virtual tourism is the true legacy of the franchise.

Top 50 Games - 44. Call of Duty 2

Now I'm no WW2 buff, but I'll be damned if this game doesn't feel authentic. It's experiences like these that prove why video games are such a superior medium; it's much cooler to storm the beaches of Normandy yourself than to watch Tom Hanks do it. When one of your comrades tumbles down off the same cliff you're scaling as MGs sing their battle tunes and artillery whistles its distinctly sharp note, you're convinced of the power that new Xbox 360 holds. One of the most amazing early showcases of HD gaming, Call of Duty 2, with its refined controls, silky animations, acoustic bombast, and jaw-dropping smoke effects, actually managed to reinvigorate World War II games. Well, maybe that's not true, because almost all subsequent Nazi shooting galleries felt utterly unnecessary. That's not so much a reminder of how yawningly prevalent those games are as it is a testament to Call of Duty 2's immersive power.

Top 50 Games - 45. The Curse of Monkey Island

Remember the days of point-and-click adventure games? I think I've heard something about these kinds of PC games making a bit of a comeback, this time employing episodic formats. However, I'm content to simply recall The Curse of Monkey Island and get swept up in the warm comforts of nostalgia. Here are this game's merits, in convenient list form:
1. It's hysterically funny.
2. The characters are impossible not to love. Guybrush Threepwood (brilliant name by the way), LeChuck, Murray, etc. etc.
3. The hand-drawn/painted visuals are a real aesthetic treat, with whimsical spinning clouds, vibrant seaports, ominous swamps, and highly decorated interiors.
4. The puzzles are well-crafted and quirky, requiring just the right amount of contemplation and a careful examination of your inventory.
I don't have a fifth bullet point to satisfy our obsession with multiples of the number, but it matters not. When those four areas of praise are bound so tightly together as in The Curse of Monkey Island, the result is one of the most flat-out charming games ever made.

Top 50 Games - 46. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

In preparing for Uncharted 2, which was garnering a great deal of praise, I decided to buy and play through the first Uncharted. It turns out I kind of hated it. Or at least it was a chore to play through, so naturally I was a bit skeptical of its 2-years removed sequel. I shouldn't have been. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is a real showcase for that unmistakable kind of big-budget next-gen super-polished holiday video game. Its graphics are mind-blowing in their attention to detail, their cinematic scope and framing, their representations of varied locales painted in stunning colors. The gunplay is much improved, if subtly, from the first one and the game in general is now a joy to play rather than an exercise in boredom. But there are a lot of games labeled "cinematic", with good graphics and smooth controls. What makes this one special? Well, it's got it where it counts, and where its competition so often neglects to include something: its heart. Sure Nathan Drake is a bit of a tool and his voice actor Nolan North is horrifyingly prolific, but the characters, cliched as they are, really are lovable and entertaining. Elena is a phenomenal character, and the best representation of a female in the medium since Alyx Vance. The tension between her and femme fatale Chloe is well executed, as is the charming lechery of cigar-chomping, mustachioed Sully. One of my biggest gripes with the first Uncharted was the feeling of derivation and creative water-treading that it radiated. And while I certainly wouldn't call Uncharted 2 innovative, it carries with it a sense of identity, and contains many moments (cough train level) that couldn't easily exist in lesser games. A popcorn game with ridiculous production values and even a heart. Sounds good to me.

Top 50 Games - 47. Final Fantasy IV

I replayed Final Fantasy IV recently. Not such a great idea. As with many things in life, especially old JRPGs, sometimes it's best to leave experiences to one's memory, where nostalgia ferments. And so I'll regard FFIV favorably, from the perspective of a younger me, one who found nuggets of storytelling brilliance in places where now I'd only see 16-bit pantomimes. Regardless of which lens I'm equipped with, the facts remain: FFIV showcases Uematsu's budding compositional genius, it's chock full of adorable characters meeting their untimely ends, and it was one of the first console video games to really truly take its story seriously. When Rosa visits Cecil in his room, when the twins turn themselves to stone to save the rest of your party, when Kain returns to his senses and begins fighting by your side again. Its luster may have faded over time, but for assuring me of my love for RPGs and for establishing the video game story as something that shouldn't be scoffed at, Final Fantasy IV's relevance hasn't diminished in the slightest.