Couldn't find my post, maybe I forgot to make one.
Dark Souls - Still the absolute best in gameplay. Even now my only real complaints come from playing it too much, and the long wait for DLC.
Skyrim is mixed. I started a new game recently and was blown away all over again. Those first 10-20 hours are pretty damn good. My issues with the game don't come up until you're a long ways in and the combat loses its luster and you're bogged down with fetch quests.
Portal 2 should probably stay near the top. Short and sweet. Praise worthy and all that.
Uncharted 3, huge fan so that colors my view. I still think it was one of the best.
Batman AC - Didn't realize just how much they crammed into this game. It should've been top 5.
The Witcher 2 turned out better than expected. Hard to place it over the others, but it should be in there.
But Skyward Sword still makes no sense to me as a Zelda fan. For me, it washed out everything I liked about the series, and tacked on waggle in its place. But some people dig that.
Thing I'm mostly surprised about is how high Deus Ex: Human Revolution ranked. I got the game for half off on Black Friday, and even then got completely frustrated with the experience that I decided to trade it in without finishing it. (got partway through China before calling it quits)
wouldn't say arkham is overrated. It really does the batman universe some justice. Its one of the few Superhero games done right both in atmosphere and in gameplay.
I would have to add Football Manager 11, Dark Souls, Unity of Command and probably needed to squeeze in Driver San Francisco to my list. Somehow... hehehe
I would have to add Dark Souls as #2 (since I played it this year), but apart from that I stand behind my list. Now, the GOTY 2012 list could be troublesome, especially if the curse of the bad endings hit The Walking Dead as well...
1. Ghost Trick
2. Xenoblade
3. Super Mario 3D Land
4. Dark Souls
5. Skyward Sword
6. Sonic Generations
7. Pokemon Black and White
8. Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3
9. Mario Kart 7
10. Rayman Origins
I was never quite satisfied with my ordering of the top 5 in particular, deep down I think Xenoblade and Dark Souls are the games I enjoyed the most but in both cases they were let down by their rather ho-hum final thirds which presented a few issues in both titles.
So with that indecision in full swing I just threw Ghost Trick a bone as the top dog.
Now I replayed GT earlier this year, it's still a great title but the core gameplay isn't exactly much to write home about, it's a cool concept but the games strength relies more on the sum of its parts, at this point i'm thinking despite overstaying its welcome towards the finish i'd move Xenoblade up to the top.
Super Mario 3D Land is still great fun though i'm thinking that I could push Dark Souls in front of it with the DLC backing it up. Skyward Sword seems about right, i've actually warmed up to it more since its release but not enough for it to go any higher.
Now if there were a game i'd drop out the list it's the one I was always a bit dubious with and that's MK7, definitely a solid entry into the series but it lacked the staying power i'd have liked, i'd push Rayman up a rank and slot Shadows of the Damned in at Number 10 which I was just a bit too late to the party with in order to reach the list in time.
I'd planned to have played Portal 2 at this point but...well I haven't, I always felt satisfied enough with the few hours spent with the first game personally.
For me it's a toss up between Batman: Arkham City, Gears of War 3, and Saint's Row: The Third. Loved the shit out of all three of those. Still can't decide on which was the best.
Still Skyrim for me. That game has many flaws, but it's also absolutely amazing in many ways. My #2 is split between Portal 2 and Skyward Sword, with Uncharted 3 at #3 (or #4, I guess).
I still agree with my top 3 of Arkham, NBA 2K12, and Portal 2. Everything else kind of jumbles together after that, but most of my Top 10 are games I still enjoy
You are crazy man… 3D Land's level design is waaaaay more interesting than the bored-to-death-so-generic NSMB. It kept wow-ing me with how creative they were and how interesting it uses 3D.
Bastion's OST has only grown on me since beating it, but the game itself has fallen. I'd probably drop it down to 9th and move everything else up. TitS:FC would also get a boost. 999 I had a brainfart and thought it was a 2011 release, but I forgot it didn't come out in January of that year when I played it. Dungeons of Dredmor gets its spot for stupid humor and fuckawesome OST.
No, I just found it kind of interesting that for everybody else these were 2011 games but for me they were 2012. I think the only 2012 games I've played this year are Max Payne 3 and Assassins Creed 3.
1. Xenoblade Chronicles
2. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
3. Radiant Historia
4. Rayman Origins
5. Dark Souls
6. Sonic Generations
7. Catherine
8. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
9. Battlefield 3
10. The Witcher 2
I think I'd swap Radiant Historia and Rayman Origins though. I had no idea I'd still be playing Rayman this far into 2012...
I didn't vote last year because my enthusiasm for non-handheld/fighting games were at an all time low. If I did make a list it would include stuff like Bastion, Deus Ex, Saints Row 3, Mortal Kombat, Batman, Jamestown and....that's about it. Anything more would be stretching it.
I still need to play Portal 2 and Radiant Historia and I've heard so many good things about them that they could make the list also.
2011 was an absolute banner year for sequels, and what a year for games in general.
I'll start with Portal 2. Some people didn't like the less-personal, less-isolated storytelling approach in P2, but I thought it was refreshing. The writing of Portal 2 was absolutely amazing, and the first time you play through it, it's an amazing ride, even if some of the puzzles weren't quite as good as last time (despite there being many more variables).
The already-great singleplayer had greatness layered on top of it to form the robust Co-Op mode, which proved something people had been saying since Portal's release: Two-player Portal would be a perfect blend of teamwork and good gameplay. The characters of Atlas and P-Body were neat takes on the silent protagonist, and their personality changes and evolution as you played as them made them seem human, while Glados was quick to mock them at every turn and trash-talk humanity as a whole.
It wasn't my game of the year, but it was easily in the top three, and it's probably my favorite Valve game overall to date.
Portal 2 was a great 2 game, one that took all that was good about the first game and melded and refined it to make something wonderful.
In this area, I think LittleBigPlanet 2 also needs to be commended.
LittleBigPlanet was a great idea for its time. It married community spirit with a great suite of tools to make a wonderful platform for budding creators, and the community levels near the end of LBP's life were absolutely astounding. So when LittleBigPlanet 2 came out with a much better story mode, a suite of tools that made the first game look like MSPaint compared to Photoshop, and multiple ways of making connecting with the community even easier, it shone like a diamond.
That isn't to say it was without issues; for some, the floaty physics turned people away (despite the fact that MM took strides to offset this with the gravity contols), others the relatively short story mode.
However, even though LBP2 isn't my game of the year, I feel compelled to give it its dues. The addition of more powerups changed so many things about the game and created thousands of more opportunities to create platformer levels. The new sackbot, controllinator, and camera options took it from a game where you made platformers to a game where you created games.
Some of the levels out for LBP2 now are mindblowing in their complexity and level of detail, and the game is still something you can pick up and play now and find a whole new world to explore. Amazing game, great execution, and almost an Assassin's Creed 1 -> Assassin's Creed 2 jump in quality.
Next up was a personal GOTY contender and a game that expanded and added so much content and fanservice that fans of the IP couldn't help but go batty (i'm so sorry) for. Batman: Arkham City wasn't a game I played in 2011, but I'm retroactively awarding it runner-up game of the year because DAMN.
Batman Arkham Asylum was a good game with some big flaws and some great ideas. The bosses were lackluster, the island was sort of a samey location overall, and the interiors of buildings were some of the most annoying things to navigate ever. Despite all this, it was a game that took superhero games to the forefront of gaming and really showed off what a licensed game could do, while showing fans of Batman that they hadn't forgotten what Batman was all about.
So the beautiful open-world of stripped-down, ravaged Gotham, the variety in locales, each based off the villain residing there, and the absolutely batshit insane (someone stop me) amount of content packed into such a tightly polished package felt like a gift to fans of the first game and Batman fans in general.
The combat? The combat was tightened up. It added dozens of new animations, new combos, tons of new gadgets and moves, new stealth moves and options, and it shone, taking what was old and making it new without ditching the system of the first game.
The enemies? With a plethora of enemy designs, each based off the classic Batman villain they worked for, the enemies may have gotten old eventually, but only after fighting dozens upon dozens of each. In addition, the different archetypes helped a lot in breaking up the eventual monotony and forced you to pick and orchestrate fights carefully.
The bosses were much improved from the first game, as they tried to make them fun to fight instead of just tough, and it was a change that made the bosses memorable for their ingenuity, not just their stupidity.
Mr. Freeze's boss fight was one that summed up not only what made the character cool (stop with the puns for the love of god stop) but was actually fun to play.
The story? Some may say it had a less cohesive feel, and I'd be inclined to agree. However, it pulled very few punches, tossed in a lot of classic Batman characters, and wasn't afraid to change the way we saw them and thrust us into a new continuity. The side missions that each brought more and more fanservice as you progressed through them were a neat way to handle story at your pace while rewarding you for exploring the city.
The addition of a second playable character, Catwoman, helped immensely with pacing, tossing you a mission led by the feline femme fatale in between every few Batman missions. The fact that she was locked behind a paywall if you bought used was an unnecessary but understandable evil, and honestly the game wouldn't have degraded in quality much without her. That's not to say Catwoman isn't a great part of the game, but more a testament to how good the game is overall.
Catwoman brought new moves, style, and animations, and she was an overall fun character to play with a storyline that felt like it would fit right into comics.
That's all well and good, and the story mode of Batman: Arkham City is a masterpiece that everyone should play, but what about Challenge Mode from the first game?
In B:AA, Challenge Mode was a fun diversion that didn't have much longevity because it featured one character (two if you had it on PS3 [if not, joke's on you! ha ha stop STOP]) in very few maps, the standouts being the Predator mode challenges, where you had to be stealthy and take down a few enemies, earning medals for creative methods.
In B:AC, Challenge Mode was stuffed full of content. Dozens of maps for both Predator mode and the score-challenge beat-em-up mode, four playable characters (DLC, sadly, but I feel like I have to give the nod to the DLC characters, who are absolutely amazing and not just new skins) and the addition of Campaigns, where you have ti fight through multiple maps in a row to get a high score.
Batman: Arkham City was a great game, with a beautiful art style, a dark and twisting story, and enough nods to classic Batman to make any fan smile (i resisted a stupid joker joke here). My runner-up game of the year, and easily my game of the year were it not for Uncharted 3.
Uncharted 3 was, for some, the black sheep of 2011. It had a number of glaring flaws, a story that stopped halfway through for a few filler sections and picked back up afterwards, and an ending that felt kind of lackluster.
Yet it was an amazing game, my favorite of the trilogy, and my GOTY 2011. How? Because Naughty Dog knocked it out of the park again. The characters and writing were top-notch as they were in the last two games, and the new characters were just as interesting and fit into the story nicely.
The story is what I'll talk about first, as it's a huge part of any Uncharted game. It had flaws. It cut out. It made a few key details irrelevant and revealed truths some fans wish it hadn't
Nathan Drake's name not being Drake, for one.
.
But in spite of the fact that midway through the game, Naughty Dog thought dropping you on a
pirate ship
with healthy amounts of
bullshit and suspended disbelief necessary to enjoy these sections
and pick you up at the end of it, fitting you back into the story you left a couple hours ago, I really enjoyed U3's story. It helped tell the story and the past of Nathan Drake, it helped expand on his relationship with Sully, and it chose an interesting approach to the ongoing tale of Nate and Elena.
It had its plotholes and it had places where you had to figure out what was going on on your own, but it worked and it didn't go all
magical mumbo jumbo zombies
at the end.
Gameplay-wise, you almost need to set aside two sections for any comprehensive look at the gameplay of Uncharted 3: pre- and post-patch, a patch that after much community outcry, fixed the shooting mechanics, which were wonky as hell (and as an added bonus, added in per-object motion blur that was somehow missing from the shipped build).
For brevity, I'll focus on post-patch.
The gunplay in Uncharted 3 was pretty good, with the new mechanics serving to polish what was already there.
The melee combat was much revamped and took a lot of cues from Arkham Asylum, a choice that helped to make the melee a lot more stylish and fun to watch (fish kill, anyone?). There was one bit of melee combat that was repeatedly forced on you
fighting that giant guy
and it got old after the second time, but it wasn't a dealbreaker.
Moving on to the setpieces and locales... just wow. That's not enough to say, but I wanted to get it out of the way.
Uncharted 2 had some amazing locations, and even more amazing things that were going on in them. The train section was absolutely insane at the time, and still ranks in my top 3 gaming locations of all time. The amount of things going on in that scene was mindblowing, especially on 5-year-old (?) hardware.
But Uncharted 3 topped them, at least in my eyes, with the
shipyards and big ship scenes
. The amount of effects, gameplay changes, and insane setpieces in those sections were mindblowing, and the result was astounding on a first playthrough.
The
Yemen and Chateau
sections were great as well, with the first being really good for on-rails sections and beautiful architecture, with the second being about an interesting location with a lot of secrets and puzzles to solve, with a payoff at the end that is still mindblowing now.
There's too much that I liked about Uncharted 3's singleplayer to cover any further here, so I'll add a quick bit about multiplayer in UC3 before I head off (why am i writing this giant-ass post even).
The multiplayer in UC2 was one of the most fun MP experiences I ever had, despite the overall balance changes, flavor-of-the-month guns, and maps that were nowhere near as cool as their singleplayer counterparts.
UC3 seeked to change all of that, and I think in a lot of ways it succeeded. Moving from an arena-style pick-up-guns-on-the-fly shooter to an almost class-based approach, the feel of the game changed greatly (although there are hardcore modes that are closer to UC2's gameplay), and in my opinion, for the better. No longer was it a race to camp the best weapon on the map, which served to fix a lot of issues that I had with UC2's multiplayer.
The maps of UC3 felt a lot larger than UC2's maps, which helped to nail the feel of vast exploration that the singleplayer provided, and the addition of dynamic map changes helped reinforce that feeling.
The amount of gamemodes in UC3 put UC2 to shame, and the Cinema mode made for easy Youtube uploads of great kills or deaths. Truly, UC3's MP was a great addition to the game, even if it did (probably) take a lot of developer resources from polishing up the singleplayer.
The co-op modes in UC3 were great and an absolute blast, with teamwork really mattering and replayability being far higher than it was in UC2. No complaints.
Overall (damn I ran out of steam the further I got in this post), Uncharted 3 took what was already my new-favorite franchise and threw a killer third entry into the franchise out into the ring, and I was stunned. A rollercoaster ride of emotions and excitement, and I rode it through with a smile on my face the entire time.
I've had a lot of time to consider the other games on my list, and games too numerous to count that I didn't talk about in this post, but Uncharted 3 will still and forever be my GOTY 2011.
I thought about making a thread like this over the Summer when I had completed a few more of 2011's games, but never got around to it, heh. I'm glad this came up though, as I'm not happy with my picks today.
1. Portal 2
2. Serious Sam 3: BFE
3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
4. Alice: Madness Returns
5. Rage
6. Gemini Rue
7. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
8. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
9. Radiant Historia
10. Batman: Arkham City
A few things. I said I wasn't too keen on 2011, which I find bizarre now, but I understand why - I straight up played the wrong stuff lol. I still stand by Portal 2, although its co-op campaign was the best thing about it, not the main campaign. I'd be slightly tempted to give Sam 3 the top spot, but it really does get off to a weak start. I'm also not too impressed with its multiplayer. Game doesn't seem to scale with more people added, or at least I didn't notice it with a couple of friends thrown in. It makes the game significantly easier, and that's a huge issue. Sam 3's really a 'hard difficulty (or higher) and solo or you're doing it wrong' kinda game. That sort of mass craziness should be awesome with friends, but instead the extra firepower ends up breaking the game. So P2's still my top dawg.
Deus Ex made my top three, but it's a 3 / 5 game in retrospect. Ouch. I mentioned this in another thread recently, but while I had a really great time wandering around the cities, loved the art style, and even mostly dug the story (somehow), the AI was awful and the basic mechanics were kinda ehh too. Trying to give the game a second go through woke me up, thankfully. So I'd knock that off my list completely. Gemini Rue, Radiant Historia, and Batman would be gone as well. I'd say they're better games than Deus Ex, but there were better games than those three too, so. If I could revote, I'd go for:
1. Portal 2
2. Serious Sam 3: BFE
3. Catherine
4. Yakuza 4
5. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
6. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
7. Deathsmiles IIX
8. Hard Corps: Uprising
9. Alice: Madness Returns
10. Rage
Much more even with West vs. Japan stuff. I remember buying Hard Corps around the time the 2011 voting results came out and thinking it should've made my list. Catherine I had actually tried back when it came out and disliked it. Stupid, but I came around eventually. Yakuza 4 was excellent, missed out. Ditto Deathsmiles IIX, which I had played last year, but only a little of. Couldn't vote for something I hadn't put much time into. Didn't get around to both story routes in Witcher 2 until this year, unfortunately. Would've ranked it higher. Ghost Trick I underrated. Should've been higher. Alice and Rage would still make the list, but only just barely. Enjoyed both, but pacing hurts the former and complete lack of challenge dogged the latter. I can at least say I didn't vote for Skyrim, though. Proud of that one!
I got my top ten for this year already done and am looking forward to voting. I feel much more strongly about my list this time, even though last year had better games.
This thread has taught me a lot of GAFers are completely enamored of the word "overhyped" and love to use it without explaining themselves.
Having played a few of the games on the list, I'm not too surprised at where they ended up. I'm sad DE:HR isn't higher though taking fourth is no small feat and I think Skyrim's rushed last act and fetch-heavy sidequests should place it lower than its second place position, but neither is hair-tearingly wrong. I can't imagine the same being said for 2012's showing--I can't even think of a game I played this year that I'd like to see crowned as best. Maybe it's karmic backlash for the awe inspiring catalog we got last year.
I've soured on Skyrim a bit. I'd put it at number 3 now, and put Dark Souls at number 1.
I played Rage, inFamous 2 and Alice: Madness Returns in 2012. Didn't finish Rage because it got boring in the later half so I don't think it's worthy. Didn't finish inFamous 2 because other things came up, but it's a really enjoyable game. I'd put inFamous 2 at number 6, Terraria at 7 and Alice at 8.
This year has been much worse. Halo 4 is basically the only title worthy of voting. Borderlands 2 was too repetitive to finish and Dishonored is boring. Hopefully Far Cry 3 gives some competiton.
Uncharted 3 should be placed much much lower. I'd even say that it should be pushed out of the list completely. It's boring and the only saving grace is (surprisingly) the decent online mode. Gears of War 3 is a much more polished title in all areas, including online, and should have beaten it.
I feel kind of good about it. Because of its ridiculous and undeserved GOTY win I would be tempted to exclude Portal 2 if I got the chance to redo the list. Dead Island was probably placed too high. The worth of Terraria is debatable. I stand by L.A. Noire which was a unique and unforgettable experience to me. The reading faces mechanic was fine if you didn't consciously try to break it. Batman: Arkham City takes the place of Skyrim and Skyrim moves down a couple of steps, but not out of the list. Crysis 2, which I did not include, possibly belongs somewhere near the end of the list. Top three untouched, still seem like the right games in the right places to me.
I only managed to rank 2 games, I wanted to make a full list but didn't have the time.
I'd probably leave it as is with Skyrim #1 and Uncharted 3 #2.
There were too many unfinished games that I was unsure how to place even though I enjoyed them like Deus Ex, Infamous 2 and others I didn't enjoy like Skyward Sword. I just bought Dark Souls this year. Killzone 3 would have definitely ranked in the top 10, I found it really fun and easy to finish. Portal 2 I beat as well as LBP2 and they would have ranked.
