Straight-up Ridiculous

This has to be transcribed. In the next 19 weeks, there are 17 games I'm interested in. In January it was obvious 2010 was going host the best first-quarter in video game history. Now almost two months later, it's apparent Jan-March is only the beginning. Before July, this year will have seen big releases such as:

Bayonetta, Mass Effect 2, BioShock 2, Heavy Rain, Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Forgotten Dreams, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Dead 2 Rights: Retribution, Red Dead Redemption, Super Street Fighter IV, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Alan Wake, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Alpha Protocol, Sin and Punishment 2, Metroid M, and Super Mario Galaxy 2.

And the games keep coming. After July this year will see, Starcraft II, Halo: Reach, Dead Rising 2, Max Payne 3, L.A. Noire, Shin Megami Tensei 3 Portable, Gran Turismo 5, Lost Planet 2, Deus Ex 3, Crysis 2, a new Ico game, a new Castlevania, and likely Fable 3 and Fallout: New Vegas.

While this sheer quantity of quality is unmatched, there's more: this is all pre-Tokyo Game Show, pre-GDC, and pre-E3 announcements. That is straight-up ridiculous.

Even if you anticipate absolutely nothing coming out of E3 this year and a dry holiday release schedule, 2010 is going to be the greatest year in video game history, surpassing 2007 and even 1998's untouchable trinity of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Half-Life, and Metal Gear Solid. There will very likely never be another year like this.

Lost Odyssey

Only a few games can come close to matching Lost Odyssey's storytelling and music, and as I sit here and write this, I'm convinced no game does both quite as well. Nobuo Uematsu composes probably his best original score to date. Hironobu Sakaguchi and Co. tell a story that's epic, original, and memorable -- and they do so in a way you haven't quite experienced in a video game.

It's a shame most everyone I know (who enjoy video games) don't enjoy JRPGs, because it's the genre that is usually the most complete: storytelling, music, character development, voice acting, gameplay -- every element is present and put into one experience, and that makes for a truly complete video game.