Game Informer Issue 202

Full cover:

Features:

• Letter From the Editor: For Great Justice (Andy McNamara wonders whether the best developers are really being rewarded for their hard work)
• Feedback (Reader Letters, Responses and Artwork)
• The Road Ahead (Gaming personnel give their opinions on the trends heading into 2010)
• The Strange Tale of the Odd Gentleman (A look at how two college students crafted The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom)
• Impulse (A look at downloadable titles The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, Puzzle Quest II and Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West)
• Top Ten: iPhone Games
• Primetime Showstoppers (A look at the games and trailers from this year’s Spike VGAs)
• Gamer (Spotlight on Mark Taylor, who held the number one spot on 18 different mixes in DJ Hero)
• Afterwords: Assassin’s Creed II (Questions answered by various developers from Ubisoft)
• Interview: Bobby Kotick (Interview with the CEO of Activision Blizzard)
• Classic GI (A look at the influence that the Baldur’s Gate series had on Dragon’s Age)

Top 50 Games of 2009: (GI’s picks for the top 50 games to be released in the past year)

• Skate 2 (PS3, 360)
• Retro Game Challenge (DS)
• The House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii)
• Flower (PS3)
• Street Fighter IV (PS3, 360)
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (PC)
• Killzone 2 (PS3)
• Empire: Total War (PC)
• Halo Wars (360)
• Madworld (Wii)
• Resident Evil 5 (PS3, 360)
• Guitar Hero: Metallica (PS3, 360, Wii)
• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (PSP, DS)
• Plants vs. Zombies (PC)
• Punch-Out!! (Wii)
• UFC Undisputed 2009 (PS3, 360)
• Infamous (PS3)
• The Sims 3 (PC)
• Red Faction: Guerrilla (PS3, 360, PC)
• Fight Night Round 4 (PS3, 360)
• Battlefield 1943 (PS3, 360)
• Little King’s Story (Wii)
• The Beatles: Rock Band (PS3, 360, Wii)
• Madden NFL 10 (PS3, 360)
• Shadow Complex (360)
• Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (DS)
• Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3, 360, PC)
• Dirt 2 (PS3, 360)
• Trine (PS3, PC)
• Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS)
• NHL 10 (PS3, 360)
• Scribblenauts (DS)
• Halo 3: ODST (360)
• Demon’s Souls (PS3)
• A Boy and His Blob (Wii)
• Brutal Legend (PS3, 360)
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
• Borderlands (PS3, 360)
• DJ Hero (PS3, 360, Wii)
• FIFA 10 (PS3, 360)
• Tropico 3 (PC)
• Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (PS3)
• Forza Motorsport 3 (360)
• Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City (360)
• Dragon Age: Origins (PS3, 360, PC)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3, 360, PC)
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
• Assassin’s Creed II (PS3, 360)
• Left 4 Dead 2 (360, PC)
• King’s Bounty: Armored Princess (PC)

Cover Story: Halo: Reach (360)(In the next installment of Bungie’s flagship franchise, the developer goes all the way back to just before the events of the original game to chronicle the last few days of the planet Reach and the brave Spartans who fought against the overwhelming might of the Covenant army)

Understanding The Irrational (Article that looks at the extensive history behind Irrational Games, responsible for games such as BioShock, System Shock 2 and Freedom Force)

Splinter Cell: Conviction (360)(Having left behind his life as part of the U.S. government’s secretive Third Echelon, Sam Fisher is being pulled back in order to uncover the truth behind the death of his daughter while dodging forces from all sides that want him, dead or alive)

Previews:

• Crackdown 2 (360)
• Spec Ops: The Line (PS3, 360, PC)
• BioShock 2 (PS3, 360, PC)
• Heavy Rain (PS3)
• R.U.S.E. (PS3, 360, PC)
• Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS)
• Resonance of Fate (PS3, 360)
• Napoleon: Total War (PC)
• Aliens vs. Predator (PS3, 360, PC)
• Rooms: The Main Building (Wii, DS)
• Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, 360)

Multiplatform Reviews:

• Bayonetta (PS3, 360)
• Darksiders (PS3, 360)
• Army of Two: The 40th Day (PS3, 360)
• Dark Void (PS3, 360, PC)
• Avatar (PS3, 360)

Wii Review:

• Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars

The Score (Short, one paragraph reviews):

• Bookworm (DS)
• Rogue Warrior (PS3, 360)
• Gyromancer (360, PC)
• Jurassic: The Hunted (PS3, 360, Wii)