Game Informer Issue 214

Full cover:

Features:

• Letter From the Editor: Why I Love the Top 50 (Andy McNamara discusses his appreciation for GI’s annual list of the top 50 games that came out that year)
• Feedback (Reader Letters, Responses and Artwork)
• Widening The Scope (Article that looks at racial diversity in video games)
• Impulse (A look at downloadable titles Journey, Swarm, Section 8: Prejudice and Zeit2)
• Gamer (Spotlight on Jesse, a 21-year-old gamer who was, at the time, the number one on the all-time kills leaderboard for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood on the PS3)
• Gillermo del Toro Dives Into Game Development (Legendary film director announces his jump into games with Insane trilogy)
• Massive (An overview on the newest expansion for World of Warcraft, Cataclysm and a look at the type of gamers who should care about DC Universe Online)
• Afterwords: Epic Mickey (Questions answered by the head of the development studio Junction Point, Warren Sector)

Top 50 Games of 2010: (GI’s picks for the top 50 games that were released in 2010)

• Mass Effect 2 (360)
• Bayonetta (PS3, 360)
• Darksiders (PS3, 360, PC)
• BioShock 2 (PS3, 360, PC)
• Heavy Rain (PS3)
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PS3, 360, PC)
• MLB 10: The Show (PS3)
• Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, 360)
• God of War III (PS3)
• Cave Story (Wii, DS)
• Just Cause 2 (PS3, 360, PC)
• Splinter Cell: Conviction (360, PC)
• Picross 3D (DS)
• Red Dead Redemption (PS3, 360)
• Alan Wake (360)
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
• Blur (PS3, 360)
• Joe Danger (PS3)
• Transformers: War For Cybertron (PS3, 360, PC)
• Singularity (PS3, 360, PC)
• Limbo (360)
• StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (PC)
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (PS3, 360)
• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (PS3, 360, PC)
• Mafia II (PS3, 360, PC)
• Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP)
• NHL 11 (PS3, 360)
• Amnesia: The Dark Descent (PC)
• Civilization V (PC)
• Dead Rising 2 (PS3, 360, PC)
• Halo: Reach (360)
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PS3, 360)
• NBA 2K11 (PS3, 360)
• Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Wii)
• DJ Hero 2 (PS3, 360, Wii)
• Fallout: New Vegas (PS3, 360, PC)
• Super Meat Boy (360, PC)
• Fable III (360)
• Rock Band 3 (PS3, 360, Wii)
• Pinball FX 2 (360)
• Dance Central (360)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (PS3, 360, PC)
• Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (PS3, 360, PC)
• God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PSP)
• Need For Speed Hot Pursuit (PS3, 360, PC)
• Pac-Man Championship Edition DS (PS3, 360)
• Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
• Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)
• Ilomilo (360)
• World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (PC)

Cover Story: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3, 360, PC)(For the follow up to the immensely popular Oblivion, Bethesda heads north into the snowy homeland of the Nords and tasks players with defending the realm from the threats that have not been seen by mortal eyes in hundreds of years: dragons)

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (PS3)(After taking protagonist through the jungles of South America and the showy mountaintops of Nepal, series protagonist Nathan Drake now journeys into the scorching wastes of the Arabian peninsula)

Mortal Kombat (PS3, 360)(After having to tame itself while tangling with superheroes in Mortal Kombat vs. Dc Universe, the series is able to return to its blood-soaked origins to craft a true MK game for the current generation)

Silent Hill: Downpour (PS3, 360)(As a series that has fallen from grace over its past few games, Silent Hill is in dire need to a savior to bring it back to the quality and popularity of its first few games, a call that Czech-based developer Vatra Games hopes to answer)

Previews:

• Fight Night Champion (PS3, 360)
• Prototype 2 (PS3, 360, PC)
• WWE All-Stars (PS3, 360, PC)
• Mario Sports Mix (Wii)
• LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (PS3, 360, PC)
• MotorStorm Apocalypse (PS3)
• Shift 2: Unleashed (PS3, 360, PC)
• Dungeon Siege III (PS3, 360, PC)
• Binary Domain (PS3, 360)
• Radiant Historia (DS)
• Jurassic Park (PC, Mac, Console TBA)

Multiplatform Review:

• Dead Space 2 (PS3, 360, PC)

PlayStation 3 Reviews:

• LittleBigPlanet 2
• Gran Turismo 5

XBOX 360 Review:

• Dead Rising 2: Case West

Wii Review:

• Lost In Shadow

Nintendo DS Reviews:

• Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
• Kingdom Hearts RE:coded

The Score (Short, one paragraph reviews):

• Hard Crops: Uprising (PS3, 360)
• Plants vs. Zombies (DS)
• Kung-Fu Live (PS3)
• Splatterhouse (PS3, 360)
• Mass Effect 2 (PS3)
• Faery: Legends of Avalon (360)
• Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet (PS3, 360, Wii)
• You Don’t Know Jack (PS3, 360, Wii)
• Echochrome II (PS3)