Your Fave games of 2011

[VegaLA]

Just over a month and the year comes to a close. This past month or two has seen some big titles released so all in all which were your best five games of the whole year?

I've just started on Saints Row the Third and MW3 but have put some quality time into Dead Island and enjoyed it immensely but really disapointed no-one on my friends list got it as the 4 player Co-op would have been fun. I'm the only person on the board who did not get Skyrim but am getting a kick out of your stories, I just wish I had the time to invest in it.

I'll have my list down in a week or so, but for those of you that have their mind set on five fave titles of 2011 lets hear about them.

[madhair60]

Portal 2 is up there, even though I basically despise the entire midsection.  The beginning and end are so brilliant that they make up for it.

[Zetetic]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I think that overall I couldn't call it a great work or anything, but I found it very enjoyable and thought that it still maintained some thoughtfulness. Not taking a firm position, as well as not a great deal of meaningful branching, did rob it a little of effect and depth. I can respect the former 'problem' at least, as it at least exchange it for sense that the issues were not trivially solvable.

Fallout: New Vegas (actually Oct 2010, but let's count from when it when it wasn't so buggy, and DLC etc.). Lovely game, and in terms of narrative and sense of meaningful choice in the world, not only blows FO3 away but really shows up some problems with Skyrim for me. Not so pretty, not so mechanically adventurous perhaps but a fun and entertaining game where you could really feel you were someone else, somewhere else due to the dedication of the Obsidian staff of fleshing out the consequences of quest endings and the like.

Men of War: Assault Squad. Fuck off Starcraft, any micro-management in an RTS shouldn't be a matter of muscle memory. (It should be to do with deciding which hat looks better.)

[Egyptian Feast]

I don't have quite enough for a top 5 yet, but until I've had a go on Skyrim and Portal 2 (not to mention Saints Row The Third and Dead Island...shit, I really need to catch up), my top 4 will be:

1. Batman - Arkham City
2. Dead Space 2
3. L.A. Noire
4. Bulletstorm

[Consignia]

Not this year, but it only came out locally this year before I picked it up, so Persona 3 Portable. Really one of the best JRPGS I've played for sometime. I also really enjoyed Catherine and Valkyria Chronicles 3 on import. Mario 3D Land is also a really strong contender in my mind. I've not played any the big Christmas rush games yet, but I'm not too sure any that are likely to top my faves. I think I'll only play 1 or 2 before the year is out anyway.

[pk1yen]

Not this year, but it only came out locally this year before I picked it up, so Persona 3 Portable. Really one of the best JRPGS I've played for sometime. I also really enjoyed Catherine and Valkyria Chronicles 3 on import. Mario 3D Land is also a really strong contender in my mind. I've not played any the big Christmas rush games yet, but I'm not too sure any that are likely to top my faves. I think I'll only play 1 or 2 before the year is out anyway.

You should check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Idolmaster_2

I think you might like it. Dunno why.

[Spiteface]

For me it's these:

Batman: Arkham City - everything that was good about Arkham Asylum and then some.

Dead Island - It's Zombies, so I'm in.  I liked the idea of the setting of the game on a holiday destination like that. Makes a nice change from the darkness and browns and greys that usually go with First-person games and some Zombie games.

Mortal Kombat - by this of kourse, I mean the rebooted version. Not the 1993 classic. Might be my favourite MK ever.

Sonic Generations - Hands down, the most FUN I've had playing a Sonic game since Sonic 3 & Knuckles.  The 3D stuff is everything a modern Sonic game should be, and the 2D stuff is awesome old-school platforming, with tons of fanservice.

[madhair60]

You should check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Idolmaster_2

I think you might like it. Dunno why.

I'm pretty sure Consignia is The Idolmaster Guy. :p

[mikeyg27]

My problem is that I have to game on a budget, meaning I'm usually at least 18 months behind console trends. The only two games I've bought at full release price this year were Portal 2 (which I absolutely adored, and had my favourite gaming moment of the year) and MW3, which I haven't played yet but I'm pretty sure I can guess exactly what it's like.

Actually, having a shitty PC has pretty much forced me to become far more appreciative of smaller indie stuff. I only got into Minecraft this year (and technically, it was released a few days ago) and that's the game I've played the most. SpaceChem also rocked my world for a bit, and I really need to get back to it. Terraria might be my game of the year - it's incredibly compulsive. In fact, I might go start it up now... I've also yet to properly devote myself to The Binding of Isaac.

[madhair60]

Oh, yes!  The Binding of Isaac came out of nowhere and blew me away.  It's just so wonderful.

[wasp_f15ting]

Skyrim is by far my favorite game..

But.. here are some games that really made me fall back in love with gaming.

Rage - Utterly gorgeous, by far the most detailed game I have ever had a chance to play. I hope all of you pick this up when it is cheap to have a go - If the next fallout was modeled on this engine we'd be in for a real treat!

Bastion - DLC game. The story is lovely the music is luscious and the animation is great too.

[wasp_f15ting]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I think that overall I couldn't call it a great work or anything, but I found it very enjoyable and thought that it still maintained some thoughtfulness. Not taking a firm position, as well as not a great deal of meaningful branching, did rob it a little of effect and depth. I can respect the former 'problem' at least, as it at least exchange it for sense that the issues were not trivially solvable.

Did DE-HR have a good story line too? I know that it is going to be a pretty heavy under-taking so I haven't touched it. If the story is good i'll definitely play this..

[Penfold]

LittleBigPlanet 2 - So many more possibilities than the first, although I really haven't explored them, the single player was great. Oh memy I need friends.

Portal 2 - I was late to the Portal, I didn't finish Portal: Still Alive until this year but I got caught up in the Portal 2 hype and loved it.

Bulletstorm - An FPS I enjoyed because it was dumb and fun

Bastion - It was great

Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon - Less then the 50odd levels of EDF 2017 and Gears active reloading but it included classes and it seemed harder, I still have a lot to do with this. Jetpacks!

Gears Of War 3 - Not only the first Gears Of War game I finished but the start of me actually bothering to finish games since...well I completed The Ballad Of Gay Tony but nothing else is jumping out right now. Also thanks to Big Jack and CaB for starting my interest in online gaming, I love Horde, but I have been too busy with the next one to play it

Battlefield 3 - BANG i'm dead. Once in a while I kill others but I finally sort of see the appeal of online gaming, kind of. Still not using my headset but then I haven't really played many games with people on my friends list. Anyway, I unlocked mines and now I put them everywhere. Watchout!

Jetpack Joyride - Replaced Bejeweled Blitz as my goto onthetoilet iOS game.

L.A. Noire - TELL ME WHY I LIKED IT OR I WILL BREAK YOUR JAW IN THE 40s. Like Red Dead Redemption I liked a sandbox game set in a different period so I'd spend ages finding the hidden cars and driving from side of the map to the other. Also there was a story.

I also enjoyed NHL 12 - my first NHL game in a while and it is NHL. MLB 11: The Show - my first baseball game and because balls are fun and Burnout Crash - I love the soundtrack and I want to play it more but don't. Pinball FX 2 - It's a gift that keeps on giving. Dirt 3 - I'm no fan of driving on roads, although the Gymkhana sections were just fucking annoying.

I also have Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Resistance 3 to properly start and finish.

[wheatgod]

Its been a great year, Deus Ex: HR gets my nod, though I am yet to start Arkham City and Assassin's Creed: Revelations.

[Little Hoover]

I've still got to play Deus Ex, Uncharted 3 and Assassins Creed Revelations, and that won't be until I've finished Skyrim, so I won't be able to judge until well into next year, but so far

Portal 2: probably wins on the basis of the ending alone being one of the most ridiculous, audacious but utterly brilliant moments in gaming. Most of the game had quite a few lulls, but that doesn't stop most of it being.

Arkham City: Free Roaming Batman done brilliantly, and Catwoman was a lot of fun to control as well.

LA Noire: Flawed but I did get very intrigued by the story.

Mass Effect 2: I'd not played the first game so I felt slightly lost by some of it, but I enjoyed shooters with light RPG elements on the whole. Even if some would prefer something more hardcore.

Dragon Age 2: Mass Effect 2  bit with a Dungeons and Dragons Skin. Repetitive, but unlike Mass Effect 2 there's more fun in the dialogue options and building relationships with your party. The characters just have a lot more charm and wit to them.

[Borboski]

Dark Souls is *such* a good game.  Disappointing, almost, to see all those games in the list above that are generally the same old stuff. 

That said... they FIFA 12 this year and they've done a great job on that.  I played Madden a lot, as usual.

NBA 2k12 is also very good.

Very little takes my fancy - I've ordered Disgaea 3 for £10 which might be a little different.

[Dark Sky]

Portal 2 is an obvious one, a perfect game despite its flaws.  Which doesn't make sense, I know.  I do remember someone else on a forum saying, "Portal 2 is the best game Valve has made, yet it's not as good as Portal 1".  I think that sums it up quite nicely.

Bastion is definitely up there...I had such a huge emotional reaction to that game, so beautiful and addictive.

Rage is probably the buggiest and most flawed game I've ever played.  Yet I adored it...it had such clichéd ambitions to try to be an open world RPG death-racing game, and it didn't really pull it off.  But the FPS sections are incredibly good.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution isn't perfect either, but wow.  What an impressive thing.  Steam claims I spent 33 hours on it, which is the longest time I've ever spent on a game, yet it didn't feel like it at all.  It was always completely engaging and a joy to have experienced.

Games from this year which should have been better include Duke Nukem Forever, which got the tone, style and humour spot on, yet failed to be a fun game in any way, shape or form.  And Alice 2: Madness Returns, which I would defend to the hilt if it were an eight hour game rather than a sixteen hour one.  The repetition killed it stone dead, yet the two or three levels which nailed the surrealistic dark gothic fantasy art-style spot on made it worth playing.  I've given up on LA Noire...again, so repetitive and boring.  Beautiful character design and stunning facial animations...plus great acting!  But it's just an interactive cutscene, not a game.  Such a shame.

I'm currently playing Skyrim but haven't done enough to have formed an opinion about it yet.

[bitesize]

think all my faves have been mentioned already, Portal 2, Arkham City, Bastion.

of stuff that hasn't already been talked about, i really loved de Blob 2, pretty old-fashioned platforming but with great character, wonderful cutscenes and an amazing interactive music system that i never get tired of.

can i include the Ico HD remaster? obviously not really a new game but i'd never played it before so it was new to me. deserves all the plaudits it's attracted over the years, a thoroughly brilliant game.

honourable mentions go to From Dust, PixelJunk Shooter 2, Dead Space 2, LA Noire, Stacking, and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, which were all pretty decent.

[Ignatius_S]

Mainly been playing some older titles, including a second play through of Fallout 3, but here's the first three:

Favourite Favourite – L.A. Noire
A crime game set in 1940s America was very likely not going to disappoint me, and this certainly didn't. Although individual elements provided an uneven experience, an incredibly compelling one is provided overall.  Genuinely innovative in some respects, I couldn't help but think of possibilities with the technologies employed – rather than detract from my enjoyment with this game, this it excitement about how gaming might develop.

Favourite Online Game - Star Wars The Old Republic
Okay, it's not out yet but will be soon and I'm confident that the final release will provide an even better than the beta testing experience. When Bioware said it was producing a MMO that had a compelling single-player storyline and experience, it wasn't kidding – and I'm sure this will lead a fair few, who haven't been interested in playing MMOs with others, are going to have their minds changed.

Favourite Indie Game - Zombie Atom Smasher
An absolute, err, smasher. In this one, the playing field for each round is an overhead view of a city populated with yellow dots representing humans, soon to be joined by pink ones for zombies – the goal to ferry a set amount of humans by helicopter and to help, there are an assortment mercenary forces (ranging from howitzers to snipers to mines) to slow the zombies down. If you're good and fast, you can even wipe out all the zombies, but take too long and night approaches, bringing with it a horde of fresh zombies.

As the amount of humans infected rises, it gets tougher and tougher. Not only do zombies enter the city from more angles, but theyre accompanied by giant zombies and certain areas of the city can set off gas explosions (which are great for killing zombies and humans alike). Luckily, you can also start rescuing scientist who help research better weapons, although this doesn't quite even the score.

One thing I loved about this game is when I first  started playing, I was determined to rescue as many humans as possible... the more I played, the more I started coldly calculating how many yellow dots I could afford to kill to try stem the outbreak.

It's a wonderfully simple but engaging game and I've lost counts how many times I've replayed a level, just to see if I could do a little better. Even elements such as not being able to choose which mercenary forces are open to you (instead they're selected randomly) don't lessen the experience – especially when you twig that you're not meant to win, just try to lose as slowly as you can.

Available for Mac, Windows and Linux, there are many mods available – very handy if you fancy winning for a change.

Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL0WH8ry30E

[Pete23]

And Alice 2: Madness Returns, which I would defend to the hilt if it were an eight hour game rather than a sixteen hour one.

Agree with this 100%; it was so good to play at the beginning and became a bit of a chore by the end. My game of the year would be Arkham City, followed by Dead Space 2 (disappointed that there were no bosses, but otherwise a worthy sequel), Gears of War 3 (started out badly but got better, and Horde mode never gets dull), Shadow of the Damned (a brave attempt to do something new that didn't quite work but was a lot of fun), Bulletstorm (just for "Waggleton P. Tallylicker") and with the Bioshock 2 DLC Minerva's Den bringing up the rear. I loved playing Deus Ex at the time, but thinking back it was almost as repetitive as Alice, although this is probably because I played it stealthy so there was no real benefit from any weapon upgrades.

[Junglist]

Dark Souls

Unrelenting, brutal, beyond difficult, but there's just something about it that keeps you hooked. Every death isn't the fault of the game, its your own stupid, arrogant fault. Think you can just storm in on a few low level enemies and flail away? Yeah, don't think so. You need to constantly be 'in' the game, concentration at the max, one slip and you're dead. It balances frustration with triumph like very few games do, and for that, it is a complete and utter classic.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

It pays to explore, it really does. Sure, you could belt through the main plot of this in no time, but that wouldn't be the point. Not that I'd dislike you any for choosing that option, but everything about this is, well, 'complete'. The gunplay, the plot, the hubs, the missions. Choice is everything, and in this, it is truly yours. Wonderful.

Honestly, bar the new Football Manager, they're really the only games I've played this year.

[The Boston Crab]

*This is truly the Golden Age of Gaming.*

[VegaLA]

I think I can set my top 5 now that i've had time with the latest releases.

My Game of 2011 is:

Dead Island

I'm not too familiar with PRG games, Dead Rising was a soft intro for me, but the Zombie genre pulled me in and I was completly engrossed with this title. I completed it just last month but i'm hanging onto it in the hope I can get another 3 peeps from my Friends list to join me on a second run.

Gears of War 3

Didn't flow with the Campaign like the last outting, was waiting for my partner in crime Sinbad to advance in the campaign but the Horde sessions with Neil and Big Jack are still addictive. Again, another game I hope to play online with 3 Whores.

Crysis 2

Surprise early Summer release that had my full game focus as it is off season, and I really enjoyed it as a single campaign. The industry would do well to learn from that timed release as from September onwards things got way too crowded!

Saints Row the Third

The trailers sold this to me. And I found it a lot more easy to play then the second installment which I sadly never completed. Anothetr game I hope to play with some online Whores.

The fifth place could have quite easily been awarded to Dead Rising:Off the record or Halo 10TH, but I got MW3 for my Birthday and paced myself through the too short campaign of just one or two stages each session, but it was enjoyable, I just think if from September onwards the games releases had not been too clustered i'd have had time for the two titles mentioned above and one of them would have made my top 5.

[The Boston Crab]

SKYWARD SWORD

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Portal 2 is the only new release I've played this year (not including New Vegas DLC) so I guess that wins by default.

[Subtle Mocking]

That said... they FIFA 12 this year and they've done a great job on that.  I played Madden a lot, as usual.

NBA 2k12 is also very good.

Good to see I'm not the only one who obsesses over sports games. NBA and FIFA were indeed excellent this year, especially after I didn't think that they could improve upon NBA 2K11.

As long as I'm talking sports games, MLB 11: The Show is one I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on.

[Pseudopath]

ICO HD...but only 'cos I hadn't played it before. It's astonishing.

[Big Jack McBastard]

Skyrim obviously, Unrelenting Force on it's own in a game would have been cool enough to have made the list.

Portal 2 was memorable and fun even if it has lead to Stephen Merchant 'voicing' all over the place.

Terraria 2D Minecraft essentially[nb]I think,.. I've not played Mincraft[/nb] for the sense of wanting to explore and create. After you've started out and gotten a little house going with a person or two selling you stuff, survived a few nights of zombies, perhaps even had an orc army attack and you pulled through, at that point you think you might have a pretty decent handle on this place. Yeah, that way things go really weird and monsters start killing you and that way are those massive pits with the grey orbs the the bottom but still, can't be that much more... and then sating your curiosity and finding a map viewer, seeing the (gigantic) world and the pathetic little speck that is your base urges you to think up more grand schemes in this rich but hostile world.

Bit of a weird one, not accurate temporally but Boggle old-ass ('96 I believe) Hasbro title I picked up on a whim and got hooked on, simple enough, fiendishly difficult and has taught me a great many words due to the number of times I've gone: "Fuck off, that is not a word, you're taking the piss Mr Boggle" and looked them up..

Also managed to resurrect my insanely wealthy/'kind of' incestuous household in The Sims³ and its expansions, so that's kept me entertained. You take out one family bond with an editor and things go off the rails quick... from there it's a hop skip and a jump to create a baby based on the genetics of two sisters, get one of them pregnant with said baby, have her give birth, advance her spawn's age to 'Teen' in two days to dodge some glitching and have her dating her grandfather before the next day is out... Not to mention that the grandfather is a retired gangster, recently resurrected from the dead by his genius offspring.

It's like one of those bad drama soaps like Sunset Beach crossed with The Osbornes, a family of esteemed artists and authors who have finally given up work and decided to create a family band. Everyone is screwing the wrong person, they're always getting pissed, playing their music too loud late at night, annoying the neighbours, fist fights with the paparazzi, schmoozing with vampires, accidentally setting each others houses on fire, far flung foreign trips where they get cursed by mummies and the like and they all drive Jags when the teleporter is broken.

Wasn't too taken with Human Revolution, provided you weren't a psycho you could have any ending you wanted on a plate.. you could do a complete about-face at the last minute if you so choose, so all the way through you favour and work with one side then right at the end, turn on them and have your ending statements/wrap up be so ambiguous as to fit every eventuality, including fucking them all off and blowing shit up. You probably did act as he describes in the coda at some point, no matter which coda you get or route you appeared to be on... The endings were the gaming equivalent of a 'reading' in Crossing Over with John Edwards.

I'll be getting Dead Island come crimbo Vega and my hours in January will be so erratic and backwards as to almost match yours, then it's just a matter of coaxing me away from Assassins Creed or Battlefield or MW3 or Arkham or The Row (which I actually might see you on too)

[DuncanC]

Deus Ex 3, definitely. Really, really enjoyed it - first new game in a hell of a long time I've played till late into the night (almost every other game seems to naturally stop being fun pretty quickly), started again from the beginning straight away after completing it, been impressed by the stuff I missed the first time. A really inspiring success, I hope there's more to come in that vein.

[Dark Sky]

Deus Ex 3, definitely. Really, really enjoyed it - first new game in a hell of a long time I've played till late into the night (almost every other game seems to naturally stop being fun pretty quickly), started again from the beginning straight away after completing it, been impressed by the stuff I missed the first time. A really inspiring success, I hope there's more to come in that vein.

From what I can gather EM are probably going to be continuing the Deus Ex franchise.  More excitingly (for me, anyway) is that they're making Thief 4.  The quality of DE3 fills me with a lot of hope for it.