We’ve come to the end of the first year of Wukung’s Reviews with an amazing 43 popular games considered and rated. To wrap it all up, here is Wukung’s choices for the most interesting games so you know how to spend your Christmas bonus.

Drumroll please!

Best of the Year

Red Dead Redemption

Two games really stood out for me, Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption. As I have to pick one then it has to be Red Dead Redemption. Gorgeous visuals, hours of fun, great gameplay, excellent multilayer, Red Dead Redemption has it all. [More...]

Posted by Wukung on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Once again we bring you the best in browser games for the season, to help you while away the hours until the roast is ready for carving. Some of these are games in their own right, others are special Christmas editions of well-known games.

Merry Christmas from MMORPG-Info!

Each of the thumbnails links directly to the game.

Thin Ice	Christmas Zombies
Infectonator Christmas Edition	Learn to Fly
Winterbells	Civiballs: Xmas Levels
Polar pwnd 2	Colour My Fate
Gingerbread Circus 2	Factory Balls Christmas Edition

All of them are at least briefly amusing – well, I thought so, anyway. If you believe I’ve missed a great (free) Winter or Christmas-themed browser game, feel free to let me know in the comments.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Make sure to play Echo Bazaar today so that you don’t miss the arrival of Mr Sacks. Mr Sacks delights in gifts freely given and has, he says, lists of who has been good.

Mushroom wine is said to be a favorite of his but perhaps it would be unwise to limit yourself to a single gift. You can see what others are giving Mr Sacks by watching #please_mr_sacks on Twitter.

Today is the day! Go, quickly now, to Fallen London to receive his visit.

However, be sure to heed this warning from the Facebook event listing:

With so many new areas of Fallen London lately opened to the public to cries of joy and outrage alike, Echo Bazaar would like to offer all its loyal customers and denizens of Fallen London a chance to partake in our very finest seasonal content. Receive a visit from Mr Sacks! We strongly advise against climbing into his sack. Doing so is a terrible idea and will do you considerable damage.

The event will last from Friday, December 24 until Thursday, January 6, 2011. Now it is time to find out: Have you been naughty? Or nice?

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

How does someone with nothing end up with everything?

Barclays have launched a free online game called 56 Sage Street and they’re running a special Christmas competition to entice players to join in.

[More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

It’s the last games round-up of the year! So many games and so little time – how do you choose the best? In 2010, Wukung reviewed the following games:

Now for one last batch of reviews from Wukung! His final post of the year will be on New Year’s Eve, covering the best games of 2010 so don’t miss it! [More...]

Posted by Wukung on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

The fiercest threat to the world of Elder Scrolls returns! The fifth chapter to the epic series from Bethesda debuts at the Spike Video Game Awards in 2010!

You should have acted.
They’re already here.
The Elder Scrolls told of their return.
Their defeat was merely delay
Til the time after Oblivion opened.
When the sons of Skyrim would spill their own blood
But no-one wanted to believe.
Believe they even existed.
And when the truth finally dawns,
it dawns in fire.
But…
there is one they fear.
In their tongue, he’s Novak’leen Dragonborn!

[More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

The Angry Video Game Nerd Christmas Special 2010 turned up in my inbox today and I spent the next twelve minutes laughing. The clever rhyming makes this Christmas story a classic.

How many of the games listed have you played?

Note: it’s not quite safe for work/parents, there’s some strong language.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Occasionally I spot a bit of interesting conversation, a snap comment by Mr Wines followed by a cheeky retort from Sinning Jenny. These conversations make for interesting interludes – for me, they are part of the attraction of Echo Bazaar – but when Honeyed Laudanum came out, I found it hard to follow the encouragement and outrage of the various masters. What I really wanted was to see their conversation outside of the context of Twitter, separate from my other interactions.

I realized that the easy way to follow the conversation would be to make a list which consisted only of the official Twitter accounts associated with Echo Bazaar. That way, I could simply click on a link and watch the conversation on a simple page. I looked around and although I found many lists of players and one or two of the Masters, I couldn’t find a list that included all of the official Twitter accounts associated with Echo Bazaar that didn’t also include the players (making the list difficult to follow).

So I made a Twitter list:

@Tay/residents-of-fallen-london

If you click on the link above (finish reading this sentence first!), you’ll see that it becomes much easier to follow the banter between the fine ladies and gentlemen of Fallen London. In fact, I found it surprising to realise how many conversations I had missed, even though I already follow all of the Echo Bazaar twitter accounts.

Here are the members, the long-term residents of Echo Bazaar, which I included in my illustrious list:

• _The_Duchess
• BenjaminVillein
• Doctor_Schlomo
• Huffam_esq
• Madame_Shoshana
• Mr_Apples
• Mr_Cups
• Mr_Eaten
• Mr_Fires
• Mr_Hearts
• Mr_Iron
• Mr_Mirrors
• Mr_Names
• Mr_Pages
• Mr_Sacks
• Mr_Spices
• Mr_Veils
• Mr_Wines
• Mrs_Plenty
• Overgoat
• Sinning_Jenny

I’m sure I don’t have everyone though. That’s where you all come in: tell me who I forgot! And if you find this list useful, please feel free to follow it or drop me a line and let me know.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

December has arrived in a rush and I can count the shopping days to Christmas using hands and feet alone. These game reviews by Wukung can help you to ensure that you aren’t taken in by the hype: use his points system and brief description to choose the best games you’ll enjoy most for gifts. Last year, Wukung’s recommendations made my Christmas shopping a breeze and I asked him if he’d be willing to share them with MMORPG-Info. Since then he’s rated a crazy number of new games for us, including Darksiders, Bayonetta, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Mass Effect 2, Dante’s Inferno, BioShock 2, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, Heavy Rain, Yakuza 3, Bad Company 2, Half Minute Hero, BlazBlue, Red Steel 2, Disgaea 2, FFXIII, Just Cause 2, Splinter Cell Conviction, Nier, Super Street Fighter IV and Iron Man 2, Alan Wake, Red Dead Redemption, No More Heroes 2, God of War 3, Transformers, Demon’s Souls, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Crackdown 2, Monkey Island 2, Limbo, Castlevania and Alpha Protocol, Metroid: Other M, Halo: Reach, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Dead Rising 2, Case 0!

But he’s not done yet: here’s another set of reviews, hot off the keyboard!

Vanquish (Xbox 360 (tested), PS3)

I would describe it as a fast paced third person shooter but Vanquish redefines fast paced. While it has solid cover and shooting mechanics Vanquish’s‘s gameplay focuses on its more novel elements, jet sliding and bullet time. Vanquish is visually stunning. Unfortunately, a few frustrating boss battles grind the game to a halt; while not game breaking, it is annoying. If you are after a pure shooter experience, this might not be the game for you. As its own unique game, however, Vanquish is excellent.
9/10

Fallout: New Vegas (Xbox 360 (tested), PS3, PC)

New Vegas feels and plays very much like Fallout 3. The sprawling post-apocalyptic RPG action returns with a mind boggling wealth of content. New Vegas makes various tweaks to the gameplay but none that feel really significant, with many of Fallout 3′s serious gameplay flaws returning. For those who haven’t played Fallout 3, it’s hard to see any reason to choose New Vegas over it, especially with the “Game of the Year” edition being such great value. If, however, you are after some more Fallout 3 then New Vegas is for you.
8/10 [More...]

Posted by Wukung on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

It’s difficult to be tempted by a shooter MMO after the APB fiasco but free-to-play CrimeCraft appears to be doing well: I’ve just received an email from Vogster Entertainment to announce the trailer for the upcoming expansion.

Crimecraft is described as a Persistent World Next-gen Shooter (PWNS) which combines the best aspects of a shooter and an MMORPG. It takes place in Sunrise City, “a gang-infested, violent metropolis barely surviving after the collapse of the entire world economy.”

The new expansion, Bleedout, is being distributed in weekly updates, offering new challenges for the gangs and “gun-blazing content.”

The official trailer was released today:

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.