4. Dishonored
A few months ago, a friend told me about a new project from Arkane Studios and Bethesda. That was the first time I heard of Dishonored. Now, its probably going to be one of my favourite games of all time. I love games that require patience and skill. Even in this modern day where gaming is at an all time high standard, there are few games that require precision and skill on a consistent basis. The last game I played that blew me away in terms of pure gameplay was Bioshock. Don't get me wrong, the story was incredible, probably some of the best writing in any medium over the last 10 years, but it was the way the game played; the level design, the enemies, the AI, everything was brilliant. Playing Dishonoured was like rediscovering Bioshock after a temporary amnesia, except it felt, dare I say it, better. The scope of the game is huge. There are dozens of ways to complete each mission and when you find all them, there's about a dozen more. The mission on display at the expo was called "Kaldwin's Bridge". It was simple really, well in theory at least. I needed to infiltrate a fortress to kidnap Anton Sokolov, a renowned chemist who could help the citizens of Dunwall, the city that is the games main location. The options at your disposal are quite staggering. You can either go in all guns blazing or take a more silent approach. I decided the latter, sneaking my way in, hiding bodies and covering my tracks. Then I set off an alarm and had to change my style. This is when the powers came into the fold and there are some cool ones. Stopping time was my favourite. I powered up and picked them off one by one until a mass of bodies lay before my feet. It felt amazing. If you're wondering why it's not at number 1, I did have some issues. The graphics are nice but not amazing. The frame rate seemed a little inconsistent and I found it hard to control the camera. I did get used to it though so it wasn't really an problem I suppose. All in all, it's an amazing game.