Holiday Gift Ideas: 2010 Video Games of the Year

Spike recently held its annual Video Game Awards presenting the top games of the year, as well as premier trailers for some of the hottest upcoming games including Uncharted 3 for Playstation 3.  While the Guy and Yasar show respects Spike's choices, we've decided to give our picks for games of the year that can also double as great stocking stuffers.

Since there are so many games we enjoyed this year we decided to each pick our own and then collectively decide on a third.  Our picks were open to all platforms, console, PC, and mobile. Our system for choosing the games was simply:

1) Whichever games we had the most fun playing
2) An intense match of rock, paper, scissors to decide the final game on our list.

Last, we vowed to drink copious amounts of beer together while deciding on our picks. We feel we've met all of our criteria, particularly that last part. Here are our picks for the 2010 games of the year:

Guy: Red Dead Redemption. Red Dead Redemption won Spike's game of the year award and I'm going to have to agree.  As if Grand Theft Auto meets the Wild Wild West wasn't enough, the Undead Nightmare expansion pack could be a game all on its own. In fact, it is as you can now buy it separately at a retailer near you. Where else will you find a game that lets you play poker, round up cattle, fight cowboys, kill zombies, and ride horses?  Definitely my game of the year. The Undead Nightmare game is currently being sold separately in places like Target for $30.00, while the standard Red Dead Redemption can be found used at Gamestop for as low as $35.00.

Yasar: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Improving on some of the issues present in the first two games, Brotherhood also adds hours of additional gameplay greatness with its new multiplayer mode. Join members of the Brotherhood in taking on the Templars. You can also create your own league of assassins by building a personalized guild, training your fellow assassins who will help you during missions. The multiplayer is where the true fun lies though and will keep you occupied for hours. The game retails right now for $59.99, but is available online at Gamestop for $49.99.

Yasar &Guy: Shockingly, surprisingly, our third and final pick is Angry Birds. Yes, that's right, the best selling Android, iPad and iPhone game app from Rovio. While neither of us has been swept up in Angry Bird Mania, from the little that we have played and the massive amounts of time we have spent watching friends and loved ones go absolutely gaga over this game, it is undeniable that it has taken the casual mobile gaming market by storm.

Pricing for Angry Birds is as follows:

Angry Birds Lite is a free test-drive version of the game, Angry Birds for the iPhone will cost you just $0.99, the HD version for the iPad costs $4.99, while the Android version of the app is currently free with in-game ads installed. A non-in-app ad version will be released later.

For more of our favorite games of the year be sure to follow us on Twitter @SavingsGCapes and @YasarSavings. Let us know what you think about our picks and what game you feel is the best of the year.