[HEADING=1]15[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Shadows of the Damned[/HEADING] An odd mixture of over-the-top erection jokes and 4th wall breaks, a go-to-hell love story, an utterly amazing Akira Yamaoka (of Silent Hill fame) soundtrack, and more subdued RE4-style third person shooting all combine to make SotD. From the moment you start it up, you know you?re in for something unique. From the hillbilly monster merchant who pukes up his goods, to the horse that shits pure darkness, you?ll see some freaky shit. Garcia ?Fucking? Hotspur?s adventure is not to be missed by anyone whose laughed at a penis joke, in good taste or bad.
[HEADING=1]14[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3[/HEADING] If you left Call of Duty with MW2, this isn?t the game that?ll bring you back. If you stayed with the series, this definitely isn?t going to be the one to turn you away. The set-pieces are more outrageous, the frame-rate is still a solid 60 FPS, and the new co-op Survival mode is a wonderful, if generic, addition. Some of the strides forward Treyarch had made, such as Gun Game are missing, but Infinity Ward?s own steps forward make up for it. The return of Spec Ops is appreciated, and the more customizable Survival is great, as someone that didn?t find the zombie modes ?tiered? unlock structure very fun.
[HEADING=1]13[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Driver: San Francisco[/HEADING] How do you revive a series that critically died trying to copy GTA? Simple. You stop trying to copy others and do something so utterly insane that it changes the entire way you play an open-world game. As the comatose Tanner, you are able to ?Shift? into basically any NPC vehicle on the map to complete you objectives as you see fit. Have to win a race? You can do it the old-fashioned way, with a fast car and some skill. Or you can shift into oncoming traffic and ram your opponents out of the race. Or you can shift into a bus and block off the road. The amount of variety the game manages to pull from this one concept is incredible. The sheer variety on display in this title gives me hope, and a pre-order, for whatever Driver does next. The fact that the game manages to even HAVE a cohesive narrative with this mechanic is a miracle. Plot-holes abound with this ability, but the story of Tanner is full of thrilling moments you don?t want to miss.
[HEADING=1]12[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Portal 2[/HEADING]I managed to beat the entire Co-Op campaign of Portal 2 without one word of voice chat. That should tell you a lot about the intuitive level design on display here. Valve?s quite frankly scary amount of play-testing bears it fruits once again with Portal 2. While no longer a revolution like the original Portal, it comes with its own new tricks and many more jokes. The humor is as sharp as before, with JK Simmons being the standout in my mind. The one-solution puzzle nature of the game is the only downside, as I will probably never play it again.
[HEADING=1]11[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]LA Noire[/HEADING] A perfect storm of writing, technology, and Rockstar?s deep pockets came together to form a big-budget adventure game. Talking to witnesses, finding clues, and interrogating suspects are the high points of the game. But nearly everything else is just plain crap in comparison to these high points. Driving is pretty enjoyable thanks to a nice soundtrack and gorgeous settings, but the shooting, brawling, tailing, and chasing all leave a lot to be desired. The developers seemed to KNOW this, as they can be skipped if you fail too many times. A lot of action feels forced, especially towards the end, with fights starting for no reason. And even earlier on, suspects are still prone to flee even when you have no solid case against them yet. But these sections of gameplay make up the minority of the game, with most of it spent in the highly enjoyable detective segments. Also, a lot of the women look the same.
[HEADING=1]10[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Assassin?s Creed: Revelations[/HEADING]As a massive fan of the first Assassin?s Creed, I was very excited to see Altair again. There are not many these segments, but they stand-out as some of the highlights of the game. Learning more about Desmond was nice, too, as I never disliked his character, although the first-person platforming sequences used to expand his backstory were too easy for my liking. Easy is a word that permeates the Assassin?s Creed experience. It?s never a challenging ride, but it?s always a fun one. The new toys, such as bombs, that Ezio can play with ensure that the game is easier than ever. For anyone following the story of the series, this has another can?t-miss ending and resolves some of the questions asked by Brotherhood.
[HEADING=1]9[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Batman: Arkham City[/HEADING]Bigger is not always better, as Arkham City proves quite handily. The new open-world focus diminishes the stealth gameplay, as sneaking around open streets is?difficult. This puts the excellent brawling into focus, and makes the existing stealth sections all the sweeter. But the fact remains that the new open world setting removes the brilliant pacing and structure that Arkham Asylum had. The characters come in and out like the game is a revolving door, giving little spotlight time to any but the Joker. This is still a fantastic game, but just not as good as Asylum.
[HEADING=1]8[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Gears of War 3[/HEADING]While I feel that this delivered the worst campaign in the series due to a few missteps such as a terrible boss-fight against a Lambent Berserker, the story stands out as the best yet, with an actual ending and real answers. The gameplay mechanics are the best third-person shooting I?ve ever experienced, with minor tweaks such as the addition of recoil and gun-rebalancing making the fine shooting from before even more polished. Horde 2.0 is a spectacular reboot of the original Horde from Gears 2, with the ability to save money earned with kills for a variety of bonuses. These bonuses range from respawning mid-wave, map fortifications, weapons, and even a high-cost/high-reward mech-suit. The matchmaking has been vastly improved from Gears 2, no longer taking forever to find a match and with a fantastic suite of maps to play on. The basic rifles have received a buff, keeping the online from being basically shotguns-only. Gears 3 isn?t my favorite Gears, but it?s still a great shooter. Also, you can play almost a whole act as Cole Train.
[HEADING=1]7[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Uncharted 3[/HEADING]Uncharted 3 should be a better game than Uncharted 2. And in many ways, it is, but there is a niggling feeling at the back of my mind that prevents it from overtaking its predecessor. The plot centers around Drake and Sully?s past, but ends up leaving the two leading ladies behind in the process. This is a shame, because Elena and Chloe were some of the best female characters to come along in a while, particularly Elena. The online in Uncharted 2 was severely overlooked, and I?d hate to see it happen again. The wave-based survival is more than competent, and the co-op adventure mode is a fun, fanfiction-esque, more focused series of linear levels. The online play is a lot of fun due to the one unique aspect Uncharted has on its contemporaries, the vertical mobility of the characters. All-in-all, Uncharted 3 delivers an exceptional package with some solid replay value.
[HEADING=1]6[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Dead Space 2[/HEADING] The addition of horrible multiplayer didn?t manage to hamper the otherwise fantastic experience on offer here. Dead Space 2 is a tense survival horror game that made me run back to the last room to gather up my courage on more than one occasion. The precision-based shooting keeps you holding the hordes of necromorphs at bay with an arsenal of guns that just happen to shoot in linear patterns. It may not psychological scare you, but the tension is high, and the atmosphere thick. When you see the Stalkers turn their heads around a corner, you will know fear. The new variety in settings helps alleviate some of the tedium from the original, and the new talking Issac means that you can follow him on his trip to insanity.
[HEADING=1]5[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Killzone 3[/HEADING] Killzone 3?s biggest flaw, in my mind, is the lack of online co-op. Otherwise, it delivers a mostly fantastic campaign, with the exception a few trial-and-error on rails segments and some questionable checkpoints. It tells a thrilling politically-focused narrative with an utterly magnificent performance by Malcolm McDowell at the center. The graphics are stunning, making me question how consoles can pull this shit off with their aged hardware. The snow effects are particularly outstanding, topping even Uncharted 2 in that regard. The gameplay has a real heft to it, with impact felt for nearly every action and all guns brutally lethal. The multiplayer sounds like a mess on the surface, with invisible snipers, armed aerial drones, proximity mines, portable sentries, and other crazy shit. But all of the classes manage to balance out. Magically.
[HEADING=1]4[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]inFamous 2[/HEADING] After playing this game back in June, this had my Game of the Year all wrapped up in a bow with the possible exception of Skyrim?s arrival months later. So, how did it get to number 4, you ask? In all honesty, it?s really a tie for number 3. inFamous 2 is everything I wanted from the sequel, and more. A more diverse array of abilities? Check. Closure from the plot? Check. Moral choices with some sort of impact? Almost check. While a few missions have branching good/evil paths, it?s still good/evil. The real pull here is between Ice/Fire powers. Having played both ways, I can say that playing it twice is well worth it due to the gameplay differences in each moral path. The user-generated content system that Sucker Punch added is actually quite diverse, letting players make missions with a large variety of objective types, text-only plotlines, and even the ability to force the player into certain limited power-sets. While it wasn?t enough to keep me playing much longer after 100 percent completion, my 30 hours with the game were some of the best I?ve had all year. Combined with Killzone and Uncharted, this was a fantastic year to be a PS3 owner. Except for the whole PSN hack thing.
[HEADING=1]3[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Pokemon White[/HEADING] I have played this for almost 200 hours now. On a handheld. And I?m not even trying to ?catch ?em all.? Pokemon is a deceptive little title, able to be as deep or as simple as you want it to be. You can beat the main game with anything if you grind a little bit, and there?s always the goal of filling the Pokedex. The actual story of White is probably the best the series has had yet, if still nothing special, with the same 8 badge progression we?ve come to expect. The HMs (Hidden Machines) still provide a ?Metroid? element to the overworld exploration, but you no longer need them as much for main progression. The ?Meta-game? is what has kept me playing, tweaking my Pokemon?s IVs, EVs, and Nature (all the hidden mechanics the game uses to make each Pokemon different) to get the best stats I can get out of a Pokemon and take it online or to the survival-esque Battle Subway. Yes. I am fucking min/max?ing in Pokemon. And having a blast.
[HEADING=1]2[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim[/HEADING] ?BUT?BUT?BUT?Onyx! You have Oblivion in your USERNAME, and clearly love Skyrim? How can this not be your Game of the Year?? It was a close race, I?m not going to lie. And the two competing titles aren?t terribly similar, either. In the end, I had to give it to the game I felt was more polished. While Skyrim is the least buggy of Bethesda?s library, it still has a fair share of issues that drag it down. From scripting errors, to glitched quests, to backwards dragons, to disappearing inventory items, and even missing followers, it still had a number of issues. The swordplay, sorcery, and stealth are serviceable. Silently slicing throats is satisfying, the spells are full of visual effects now and feel different, and the melee combat has a heft it lacked before. The thrill of exploration is fantastic, with every dungeon now having a story and purpose. The faction questlines are deeper than Oblivion, if very short. Moral choices are still few and far between, but I personally like it that way. Skyrim is a fantastic game that offers oodles of gameplay for your money. Having played it for 200 hours over four characters in the past month myself, I can say that the replay value is high. As long as you get your jollies from new gameplay styles, rather than narrative shifts.
[HEADING=1]1[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Deus Ex: Human Revolution[/HEADING]
I have not played much of the original Deus Ex, and never even touched Invisible War, and I don?t really plan to. But Human Revolution managed to strike a chord with me in nearly every way. The boss fights aren?t great, that?s for sure, forcing even stealth-focused characters into open combat. They break the flow of an otherwise fantastic game, but the three fights are short and a very minor part of the overall experience. Deus Ex isn?t quite the longest game out there if you run straight through, but I managed to squeeze a meaty 40 hours out of every playthrough. It really does let you play however you want, offering a variety of routes to each objective, and making them all equally viable by rewarding you EXP for every action, even avoiding enemies entirely via ?Explorer? bonuses. The addition of non-lethal weaponry to your arsenal provides an interesting twist on standard tactics, as unconscious enemies can be awakened by their allies, but non-lethal play nets extra EXP. The ending falls a little flat, and some of voice work is lacking, but the polish shows in other forms. In all of my time with Deus Ex, I never encountered a single glitch of any kind other than some minor clipping that I had to manually trigger. The soundtrack by the relatively unknown Michael McCann deserves some praise, too, as it often sets the mood perfectly.
I have not played much of the original Deus Ex, and never even touched Invisible War, and I don?t really plan to. But Human Revolution managed to strike a chord with me in nearly every way. The boss fights aren?t great, that?s for sure, forcing even stealth-focused characters into open combat. They break the flow of an otherwise fantastic game, but the three fights are short and a very minor part of the overall experience. Deus Ex isn?t quite the longest game out there if you run straight through, but I managed to squeeze a meaty 40 hours out of every playthrough. It really does let you play however you want, offering a variety of routes to each objective, and making them all equally viable by rewarding you EXP for every action, even avoiding enemies entirely via ?Explorer? bonuses. The addition of non-lethal weaponry to your arsenal provides an interesting twist on standard tactics, as unconscious enemies can be awakened by their allies, but non-lethal play nets extra EXP. The ending falls a little flat, and some of voice work is lacking, but the polish shows in other forms. In all of my time with Deus Ex, I never encountered a single glitch of any kind other than some minor clipping that I had to manually trigger. The soundtrack by the relatively unknown Michael McCann deserves some praise, too, as it often sets the mood perfectly.
And there you have it. My Top 15 games of 2011. It was a fantastic year for gaming, and I had a wonderful with nearly every game this year.
The following games might actually have made this list, but had still not been beaten them at the time of writing: Rayman Origins, Sonic Generations, Skyward Sword, Dark Souls, Bastion, RAGE
Honorable mentions: Saint?s Row: The Third, Dead Island, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, Bulletstorm, F3AR, Magic 2012, Kirby: Return to Dream Land
Games on this list I still own, in case you give a shit: Modern Warfare 3, Gears of War 3, Skyrim, Pokemon White, Deus Ex: Human Revolution
