Steam Weekly Top 10 - 12/20/09

Starting today, each Sunday, I will do a weekly recap of the most popular games on Steam. Note the (-) next to every game, that is where it's last week spot will go, since this is the first week that I am doing this, there is nothing to put there.

10. Dragon Age: Origins(-)

Rounding out the top ten is Dragon Age: Origins, as you may have read, I am a huge fan of this game. I completed the game about a week or so ago and I would highly recommend the game to anyone who likes Fantasy RPG games. I should have a full on postmortem on the game coming fairly soon.

9. Global Agenda(-)

I always enjoy when a game that has yet to be released breaks it way into the top 10. I haven't seen much about Global Agenda, but it seems interesting. It is another post-apocalyptic game, after the third world war, society is on the verge of destruction, and is controlled by a very oppressive government. The game offers co-op and multi-player, but also has a single player campaign. I will continue to monitor the game and keep everyone posted on the upcoming developments on the game.

8. Borderlands(-)

Borderlands continues to stay in the top ten, it's been doing very well, and with the recent release of their DLC, The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, the game is just getting more buyers. As I have stated before, I will most likely be getting this game in the coming weeks. The game looks very good, it may be the first successful FPS/Action-RPG/Dungeon Crawler. I am interested to see the continuing DLC and community support this game gets.

7. The Last Remnant(-)

It's rare to see a Square Enix RPG in the top ten of a PC list, but The Last Remnant has done it. Like Global Agenda I don't know a lot about this game. It looks interesting though, my guess is if you typically like Square Enix games, this will be a good game for you. I will read more on it in the coming days and have some opinions for it.

6. Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition(-)

The original version of The Force Unleashed did very well. Though, I heard that the PC version was very buggy. I assume, this newer version includes a large amount of bug fixes, as well as, the DLC that was not available for PC. I never ended up picking up The Force Unleashed, but I was always interested enough to keep an eye on it. I may end up picking up this Ultimate Sith Edition, provided, the bugs were fixed. I can only imagine that the PC/Console versions of the game is nothing like the iPhone version.

5. Team Fortress 2(-)

If you ask me, Team Fortress 2 was one of the best games that have been released in the last 5 years. You have to love a team based FPS, that has a complete sense of humor about itself. Valve has given the game another major update with the Solider and Demoman patch. They added three new weapons for each class, and a complete story line to go with the update. On top of that, the game is on sale for 10 dollars. Valve keeps the game fresh and updated for free, I highly recommend picking this game up.

4. Counter-Strike: Source(-)

Honestly, I am not sure how this game stays in the top ten. Don't get me wrong, it's a good game, and one of the most popular games of all time. I just figured by now, that the majority of people who were going to get the game, have gotten it already. At least, enough people for the game not to show up in the top ten still. I am very interested to know who is still buying Counter-Strike: Source, and where they were 4 years ago. Needless to say, if you don't have this game, it's worth picking up.I will admit, I am bad at it, but it's still fun to play from time to time.

3. Torchlight(-)

This game may be the sleeper hit of the year. I did a quick review of the demo a couple weeks back, if you haven't read it, I recommend it. I recently purchased the game, and it's everything that I expected. Very fun, very addicting, and on sale for $10.00. The game was just updated with 60+ new achievements on Steam, and Steam Cloud support. If you do not know what Steam Cloud is, it allows saved game data, and settings to be held online, so you can play across multiple computers without having to transfer save files. It's great for me, since I will be playing on both my desktop and my netbook. If you haven't gotten the game yet, I highly recommend picking it up today while it is on sale.

2. Left 4 Dead 2(-)

I played Left 4 Dead, I enjoyed it, but didn't end up playing nearly enough to warrant getting L4D2. If I played L4D a lot, I would absolutely get L4D2. The game looks great, the addition of melee weapons is a nice touch. There isn't much more here that needs to be said, other than it's the 3rd appearance by a Valve game on the top ten, which shouldn't surprise anyone since Valve runs Steam.

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2(-)

This juggernaut continues to dominate PC and console gaming purchases. I don't foresee it stopping any time soon either. I am yet to get the game, mainly because I am bad at it, but Kyle has it and loves the shit out of it. For all of your dickheads who were boycotting it, good work, I can tell it is working. With that said, I still enjoy the fact that half of the Steam "Boycott MW2" was playing Modern Warfare 2 the day it was released, this is why gaming boycotts don't do shit.

New Dragon Age: Origins DLC

Bioware has announced the first new DLC for Dragon Age: Orgins. It consists of a return to a battle from early in the game at Ostagar. Let's just say that the battle didn't go so well, and I am surprised there are survivors for you to return to and save. The best part about it, it's only $5! I assume it only adds 2-3 hours of game play, but $5 is pretty good for any DLC. Hopefully it isn't too short though. I will most likely be picking it up. I still have to finish the main story line, but then I will pick up the Return to Ostagar DLC and let you know how it is.

Dragon Age: Origins

Over the last week, I have been playing Dragon Age: Origins, from Bioware. After the success of Mass Effect, Bioware returned to where they started and released a fantasy RPG. BioWare co-CEO Ray Muzyka described Dragon Age: Origins as a "spiritual successor" to the Baldur's Gate series. The game has been released to rave reviews, and I don't plan on saying anything different.

The game consists of 3 classes, Mage, Rogue and Warrior. Each of the three classes have 4 specializations, which must be unlocked while playing the game. I began as a mage. I enjoyed the opening story line for the mages, from the start of the game, you feel that your choices have a large effect on the world. The entire story feels epic, in many games when you are saving the world, but it doesn't feel like you actually are. In Dragon Age, every choice you make has major effects on the world, also, it effects how the rest of your party feels about you.

The game play is excellent, you are allowed 4 people in your party, yourself and 3 others that you have met along your journey. You can control one at a time while the actions of the other party members are controlled by pre-designed tactics. You can also pause the game mid-fight and queue up one action for each member of your party. This allows for some great ability chaining. You can also change the tactics so that the other members of your party do specific actions under specific conditions, very powerful.

The battles are challenging. They are not hard to the point where you want to give up, but they are hard where you want to continue playing until you win. The boss fights are excellent, all have very unique dynamics that makes the challenging and fun at the same time. I have faced a few bosses already and I have had to come up with specific strategies and utilize specific party members to win each.

As I noted before, the story feels epic. Like most Bioware games, they put a ton of time into perfecting the story, there are piles upon piles of lore, if you wish to see it. If you enjoy listening to dialog, this is a good game for you. From each quest, to just shooting the shit with your party, there is a large amount of dialog, all done with superb voice acting. You can even ask merchants for gossip, and rarely is anything repeated. It gives you a sense that Bioware put a lot of time into the world, and it's story, on top of the game play.

One of the interesting things added to the game is reputation with party member. All of your major actions either please or upset someone else in your party. If you are in good enough standing with them, they can teach your their specialization, or in some cases, you can begin a romance with them. There are also gifts that will allow you to increase your reputation with them. It ads a realistic feel to the game. As opposed to having a group of blind followers, these people have real personalities, and have no issue leaving you if you don't fit in with their own goals and feelings.

If you ask me, the golden standard of Fantasy RPGs is Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, from Bethesda. It is impossible to create a game of this nature without the comparisons. Dragon Age: Origins stands up to Oblivion. I loved Oblivion, and go back and play it as a new class every few months, but I can also see this happening with Dragon Age. There are some things in Dragon Age that make me enjoy it more than Oblivion. The extra party members that you control and the tactics are great additions. Also, the unlocking of specializations is a great touch that wants me to run around the world and discover them, and the boss fights are much more involved. On the other hand, Oblivion has elements that I like, that Dragon Age is lacking. The first and foremost is an open world. In Dragon Age, you can do whatever quests you wish, but you can't travel from one location to another on foot. When you choose your location, it goes to a loading screen where it shows your journey on a map. I enjoyed walking through the world looking for random dungeons to explore. The other thing that I feel is missing is epic side quests, at least, I have not gotten any yet. Oblivion had some amazing side quests, the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood were both amazingly fun.

One thing that I am looking forward to is the toolset. I dabbled a little bit with the Fallout 3 toolset, and it was very fun, but I never got around to making any mods. With Dragon Age, you are able to create everything from campaigns, to quests, to cinematics. Some amazing modding should come out for PC. I can't wait to play with it myself. On top of that, Bioware has said that they have a full 2 years worth of DLC planned for it. I am pleased that this game will continue to grow over the next two years, and I will be able to continue to play new content.

Dragon Age is an amazing game, there is no doubt about that. If you enjoyed Oblivion, you should enjoy this game, just keep in mind they are not the exact same beast. I would absolutely recommend anyone who enjoys RPGs to pick this game up.