On Monday, we posted positions ten to six of our Top 10 Games of 2009. Seeing that it’s Wednesday, we might as well release the next part of this list.

Ruminating on some of the comments my editor made at the bottom of the last part, I was half-considering renaming the list 'News Hit’s Top 10 Murder, Rape and Terrorist Simulators of 2009' and filling it with Japanese dating (i.e. fondling) sims, tawdry Newgrounds Flash games and Nickelback references just to annoy editor-man, but that would probably result in the site attracting undesired attention or simply an undesirable and sticky demographic. That, and I don’t want to put anybody through the pain of Nickelback.

So instead here’s the (somewhat normal) second part of News Hit’s Top 10 Games of 2009.

Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii
Developer: Harmonix
Publisher: MTV Games

2009 saw the release of seven Guitar Hero (or Hero-like) games, two Rock Band games and the foundation of a new rhythm franchise, DJ Hero. So yeah, you could say that this cash cow is starting to pus up on us. Thankfully, The Beatles: Rock Band managed to be a shining crazy diamond amongst the souless Hero games that flooded the shelves (and yes, that was a Pink Floyd reference – deal with it).

Harmonix could have simply just added Beatles songs to the familiar Rock Band engine and left it at that, but thankfully they did more than that - they turned this in to an interactive biography of The Beatles. From the story mode, which follows the band from its days at The Cavern to their final rooftop performance and everything in between, to the recreations of the four members, to the psychotropic ‘dreamscapes’ that accompany their studio days - the game is dripping with reverence. It’s not something you could imagine Guitar Hero pulling off. It also helps that their songs are instantly recognisable and fun to play, even if they miss out on some obvious ones like ‘Let It Be’ and ‘Help’!

Sure, if you have a passionate dislike for the band, then you’re not going to enjoy this game one bit, but as a mild Beatles fan it was an absolute joy to play through their catalogue.

Platform: Xbox 360
Developer: Rockstar North
Publisher: Rockstar Games
News Hit review of GTAIV: Episodes from Liberty City

Grand Theft Auto IV was one of 2008’s better releases, even if its story was a bit...unfocused. Let me put it this way – it felt like 15 hours of content crammed into 30 hours. The first of two downloadable episodes for GTA IV, The Lost and Damned condenses this quality of storytelling in to a neat ten hours.

The gameplay in this is, for better or worse, almost identical to GTA IV. Personally, I consider this a good thing, although the tweaks in vehicle handling and mid-mission checkpoints were a valuable addition to the game. However, it is the story that makes The Lost and Damned so great. Admittedly the story is a familiar one - all the tropes of biker movies and GTA games are on display – but despite this it was still utterly compelling thanks to the great writing, well-drawn characters and top-notch voice acting we’ve come to expect from the Grand Theft Auto series.

Let me put it this way: The Lost and Damned in itself has enough content and tells a great enough story to justify a full retail game, and that’s the highest compliment you can pay to a piece of downloadable content.

Platform: Nintendo DS
Developer/Publisher: Nintendo

I lamented two positions ago about the death spiral the music rhythm genre is currently going through as publishers (read: Activision) dilute the genre (read: the Guitar Hero brand) with endless re-releases of ostensibly the same thing (read: Band Hero), devoid of any originality and filled with cynicism and Linkin Park (read: *shudder*)…

…Which is why Rhythm Heaven is such a refreshing game. Here is a game that took two simple motions – tap and swipe – set them to music and integrated them into a compilation of rhythm-based minigames bursting with imagination. One minute you’re assembling widgets to a do-re-mi melody, the next you’re scratching the records as a DJ in training, the next you’re playing ping-pong… IN OUTER SPACE!!

Rhythm Heaven doesn’t rely on plastic instruments or The Biggest Chart-Busting Bands of Today and Icy Cold Cans of Coke to entertain. No, it simply relies on a solid mechanic and a whole lot of charm. From the bright colours and colourful animations that accompany each of the minigames, to the poppy and often genuinely catchy songs, to the wild and wacky things the game makes you do, I couldn’t help but be enamoured by this game.

Unlike the major music rhythm games, which are riddled in profiteering and cynicism, Rhythm Heaven comes off as completely sincere, as if it were made to plaster a silly grin all over my face, and in that regard it was an absolute success. It’s silly, it’s often unforgivingly difficult and it’s blatantly J-Pop, but Rhythm Heaven is one of the most memorable and most fun games I’ve played this year.

Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft

The first Assassin’s Creed was a game which had the potential to be something special. It ticked all the boxes – a unique (for gaming) setting, a cool concept, great graphics and, thanks to its free-running system, a wonderful sense of freedom. However, the game was let down by the fact that you basically did the same five things over and over again. Compared to Assassin’s Creed II, the first game feels like a tech demo, a dry run, utterly redundant compared to its newer sibling.

Assassin’s Creed II improves on almost every aspect that made the original Assassin’s Creed such an eventual bummer. There are great advances in the story (the most revolutionary one being that… there is one now), characters (there actually are some, as opposed to the ciphers that populated the first one) and the mission variety. Even the pre-release hype was tempered down so that our collective expectations weren’t at an absurdly high level, at which even the second coming of Jesus would have left people sorely disappointed (hello, Modern Warfare 2).

Most vitally, though, Assassin’s Creed 2 presents a world that’s worth exploring and worth slowing down to appreciate. There’s always something meaningful to do in the world, whether it is completing side missions, improving your character’s villa or partaking in the excellent Prince of Persia-like platforming areas or spatial puzzles hidden around the cities. Hell, even just wandering around is a joy thanks to the incredibly smooth free running and the spectacular Renaissance Italy setting.

All of these changes and additions have had the effect of realising the true potential of the Assassin’s Creed series. By learning from their mistakes with the first title Ubisoft have gone out and made one of the best games of the year, a game that’s completely immersive and entertaining for its entire fifteen hour duration.

(Dis)Honourable mention: 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
Developer: Swordfish Studios
Publisher: THQ

Let me get this out of the way: there are a lot of horrible, horrible things going on in this game. Here’s a small selection of them:

• The story pretty much consists of Fiddy Cent running around the Middle East shooting people on his quest for a diamond encrusted skull.
• Every character is deplorable in one way or another.
• Curtis Jackson does a godawful 50 Cent impersonation.
• Each and every single boss is a helicopter.
• It’s a highly derivative game- everything is borrowed from somewhere.

It’s a game that should, intellectually speaking, be ignored and shunned. Yet, I found this game to be strangely endearing.

It helps that it’s actually pretty fun to play. It handles pretty much like Gears of War (except with testosterone fuelled rappers taking the place of the testosterone fuelled space marines) shootin’ things up somewhere in the Middle East - instead of Somewhere in Outer Space™. It also helps that the game includes an arcade-style scoring mechanic that rewards killstreaks.

But what really sold this game for me is how stupidly over the top it is. It’s an unashamed brofest with very little substance and no purpose other than for Fiddy to remind to himself of how gangsta he can be. It is at once completely earnest and completely ironic. There was always a sense that the developers were intent on taking the piss out of 50 Cent, and somehow Fiddy was completely unaware of it.

Allow me to describe one moment that sums up the game. In one of the driving missions, Fiddy’s driving down the highway in pursuit of... somebody. Suddenly, your partner yells, “Yo Fiddy! Jump over that big-ass ramp!” You turn the corner, and in the middle of the road there’s a ‘big-ass ramp’. When you inevitably jump it, the camera changes to a more cinematic angle and slows down as the big-ass ramp explodes from underneath itself for no reason whatsoever!

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is a dumb, dumb, incredibly dumb video game - but gosh darn it, I like it.

Well that’s the second part of this list done for. Feel free to post your 5,000 word diatribe on why I am blatantly wrong about everything – or, if you’d like, some kinder words – in the comments below.

And come back on Friday as News Hit’s long-awaited 2009 Game of the Year is revealed.