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My next installment in a Let's play series! Hope you enjoy.

Now that the honeymoon phase is over and the dust has finally settled many will advocate that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the better game with its Michael-Bay-esque storyline and constant injection of action, but this is simply untrue. What is true is that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was more highly anticipated than its predecessor as many believed Black Ops was merely a stop-gap title to bide time before Modern Warfare 3′s release. In any case, Black Ops was something special in the genre of first-person shooters, especially after Modern Warfare 2 and World at War. Its emphasis on story and character development is what drove this near-perfect blend of action, drama, and tension.

Black Ops takes place at the height of the Cold War (indeed the title “black ops” refers to the secret missions conducted during that era with many operational dossiers “blacked-out” with heavy ink). In the game’s opening our protagonist is strapped to a chair and tortured by two silhouetted G-men for the location of a hidden numbers station. As such the majority of the main campaign is told through flashbacks of SAD/SOG operative Alex Mason between the years 1961 and 1968. This game is very much a period piece, an aspect which is under-appreciated by modern audiences especially after the release of games like Red Dead Redemption and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. One minute you’re meeting John F. Kennedy face to face at the Pentagon, the next minute you’re in Vietnam riding along the riverbanks to Creedance Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son”.

This game oozes nostalgia from every pore, from its soundtrack to its locales. If its single-player campaign is exceptional then its online multiplayer is what ultimately raised the bar for first-person shooters (with the addition of split-screen multiplayer, new maps, and a refurbished progression system). The voice-acting is some of the most compelling in years with stellar performances from Sam Worthington, Ed Harris, and Gary Oldman. Indeed Black Ops is one of those games that under-promised and over-delivered.

After six weeks of release Activision reported the game earned $1 billion in sales and it’s no secret why. If you’re one of those naysayers that merely dismissed Black Ops without actually playing it you’re doing yourself a great disservice. Do yourself a favor and pick up this title as soon as possible.

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From Dust seems like the most unlikely title to come from a studio whose recent library is made of blockbuster franchises. With series like Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, and Rayman in its arsenal Ubisoft shows no signs of slowing down. But when the company released its downloadable title From Dust the game made a big splash by separating itself from other action-oriented titles the studio usually scribes to.

In From Dust, players manipulate a series of islands in order to save a nomadic tribe from environmental disaster. With a spherical cursor, the user controls certain types of matter–namely soil, lava, and water–in real time. Lava cools to form solid rock, vegetation propagates in soil and spreads naturally once a village is built, and moving water quickly erodes terrain. Fans of Populous, Black & White, and Flower will immediately feel right at home with its omniscient style of gameplay as players manipulate the given terrain with almost mercurial precision.

Aesthetically this game looks gorgeous. The water and lava effects are fluid and smooth. It should also come as no surprise that the inspiration for the game came from when creative designer Eric Chahi visited an active volcano in Vanuatu nearly a decade ago. His subsequent passion in vocanology led to the development of the game. Once again From Dust is one of those games that’s extremely difficult to classify. One might call it an environmental simulator as players never directly control or communicate with the inhabitants themselves. Indeed the game will give you a new-found respect for nature without bashing you over the head with heavy-handed environmentalism.

Although the game’s release was marred with pervasive bugs and glitches, the long-since patched interface here is solid with a learning curve which any player, regardless of gaming experience, can pick up and learn. While the main campaign is short it’s no less breathtaking in its breadth, immersion, and feel. There’s a moment of transcendence when you complete a mission and realize the archipelago you started with has completely terraformed as a result of your actions and influence. But before you think this game is a meandering walk through the park, player beware. You will fail a lot as you dodge tsunamis, extinguish wildfires, and divert lava flows with breakneck speed.

As of December 2011, From Dust has sold over 500,000 copies leaving its mark on video game culture as one of the best downloadable titles of 2011.

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As some of you may know, I'm a big gaming fan. I have been since I was a kid. LIke a lot of people, there were a lot of games I played that I never beat. Some of them are games I did beat eventually. Some of them haunt me to this day.

1.      Zombies Ate My Neighbors(SNES/Genesis) – This is low on the list because it’s a strange beast. It’s one that I played sparingly as a kid, but really got into as an adult (so obviously, it didn’t bother me as much as a kid). I played the Genesis version a few times in my after-school day care group. I don’t remember anyone making it very far. Then again, I kind of wonder how anyone even played this game with the three-button controller. I bought the SNES version years later and discovered just how hard this game is. Not to mention it’s LOOONG – 48 levelswith no continues. And if you use a password, you start out with the bare minimum of items. Then again, this is an arcade-type game, and how many arcade games have you actually beaten. Even though I’ll probably never see the ending,this is still a journey I recommend.

2.      The Gex games/The Crash Bandicoot games (Playstation) – These are low on the list because they have the same basic story – played these games, loved them, but for some reason lost interest before I beat them. I really only have myself toblame, but I’d feel remiss if I said I didn’t regret not beating them. Though there is a funny story about Crash Bandicoot 2. I got that game for Christmas when I was a kid… even though I didn’t yet have amemory card. Yeah, just imagine how annoying that was.

3.      Resident Evil 2– Claire’s Scenario (Playstation) – This one’s very low on the list because as a kid, I actually beat Leon’s story. However, I was never motivated to beat Claire’s story. Being a very young boy (but still playing a tremendously violent game like this), I thought playing as Claire was “too girly.” (I only played the first Resident Evil once – In hindsight, I wonder how much trouble that mentality would have gotten me into.) Not to mention I was too impatient to play through the game a second time. Last year, I obtained a Nintendo 64. I picked RE2 up for two reasons: I figured it would be a good addition to mycollection. And I figured it was time to finally beat Claire’s scenario. Admittedly, I played Leon’s first just because I was more familiar with that. And I also got annoyed as hell because of the tank controls. I constantly wondered how I used those as kid – aside from the fact that I probably playedon easy. A friend told me the N64 lets you switch between tank and normal. After I did that, this game became SIGNIFICANTLY easier. Suffice to say, I beat Claire’s scenario – the other reason this one’s on the list. And I feel better for it – namely because the story isn’t actually complete until you do both. (Also, if MBA is reading this, see? I did it!)

4.      Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Dreamcast)/Mortal Kombat (SNES) – Again, I’m lumping these games together because I have pretty similar stories about them. Like a lot of kids from my generation, I was really into Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II. I don’t know if I’m alone in this one, but I never beat this game. (I did however beat Street Fighter II.) I could always get up to Gorro and I couldn’t beat him. I had to envy my brother who could in fact beat Gorro. Years later, when the Dreamcast came out, I was obsessed with Marvel vs. Capcom 2. I probably played it more than any other game on the system. Despite that. I never beat the final boss. I really don’t know if it had anything to with my team. (I can’t remembermy exact choices, but Cyclops, Spider-man, Ryu and Tronne Bonne were among my usual suspects.) While I skipped Marvel vs. Capcom 3, I did buy Mortal Kombat last year. And yes… I finally beat Gorro. In fact, I’ve beaten arcade mode multiple times (as Scorpion, Striker and Sheng Tsung).

Oh Binary Domain, why do you piss away your potential?

Why do you do this to me game?

There are few games that have benefited society with real-world results that don’t fall under the term “educational”. Sure, I have a better understanding of the world having hunted down Carmen Sandiego more times than I can count, and I truly have a newfound respect for the frontier pioneers that crossed America having died of dysentery on the Oregon Trail. Sure there are tales of indirect applications brought about by video games, like purposely releasing plagues in World of Warcraft to test the spread of epidemics or analyzing the virtual economies of games like Entropia to better predict stock markets, but no game has the potential to solve the world’s most pressing problems more than ‘Foldit’.

‘Foldit’ was initially designed by David Baker, a protein research scientist at the University of Washington. The objective of the game is to fold the structure of selected proteins to the best of the player’s ability using the tools available to them. The highest scoring solutions are then analyzed by researchers, who determine whether or not there’s a native structural configuration (or native state) that can be applied to the relevant “real world” proteins. Scientists can then use such solutions by targeting and eradicating diseases, and thus creating biological innovations.

Putting aside the direct benefits of eradicating diseases, “Foldit” is significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, it utilizes the processing power of its networked users, utilizing a combination of distributed computing and crowd-sourcing rather than a single supercomputer (similar to SETI@home). More importantly though is this idea of “gamification”, making an otherwise mundane task appealing in order to get a large group of people to complete it.

“Foldit” made headlines in mid-2011 when players deciphered the crystal structure of the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (M-PMV) retroviral protease, an AIDS-causing monkey virus. While the puzzle was available to play for a period of three weeks, players produced an accurate 3D model of the enzyme in just ten days, a problem which had stumped scientists for 15 years.

Since its inception “Foldit” has attracted more than 46,000 registered users and that number is only going up, since the program is free to download. Initially I had reservations putting this game on the list but upon closer inspection if “Foldit” has the potential to treat cancers, eradicate AIDS, or to find a cure for the common cold, the question then becomes why shouldn’t this game be on this list.

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