As we near the end of December the time to reflect over games we’ve played over the year has arrived. I’ve compiled my list of the best games I’ve played this year along with lots of text explaining why the heck you should care about them. Enjoy!

6. Grand Theft Auto 4
I agonized over including this. GTA4 is fun, but it fails to do anything interesting with the GTA format. I’ve been a fan since the first (top-down view) game, so I was heartbroken to find that GTA4 is essentially The Same Game With Better Graphics^TM. The few tweaks in there are great. Specifically, the wanted system now displays the police patrol radius on your mini-map telling you how far you need to drive to lose your wanted rating. Brilliant! I just wish Rockstar North did more of this sort of thing, i.e.: iterating on the core mechanics of GTA.

(read on…)

When I said I’d post part 2 “soon”, I really meant, “I’ll totally forget about posting it for four months and then post it soon”. Without further delay then, dynamic tessellation (part 2) and a tech demo called BezzyDemo.

(read on…)