It all comes down to this - the final
Portal 2 - The near perfect blend of first person puzzle gameplay with a tightly woven story, memorable characters, superb dialog and and expansion on the mythos and backstory of the world of Portal. Portal 2 did something most thought impossible, take the award winning formula of the first Portal and make it better in nearly every way.
Portal 2 was also noticeable for having an insanely fun and innovative co-op experience along with usual selection of challenge maps to go back and twist your brain after you finish the main game. For those who say that Portal 2 is the closest that games can come to perfection, they speak with little hyperbole. Portal 2 is an achievement, and original and engrossing title that stands out from the crowd and is accessible by all. If you missed it, you must play it. You will not regret it.
Dark Souls - "Prepare to die" said its famous tagline. They were not joking. There are very few times you actually spend being alive in Dark Souls, as you are constantly struggling for your own survival against enemies that can destroy you in one blow and environments that treat careless explores with brutal and frequent death. Left with little explanation or tutiorial: Dark Souls drops you in a harsh and dangerous world with very few safe havens and next to no one to offer you a helping hand.
This is where the beauty of Dark Souls begins to come in. You slowly begin to feel your way around the world. Death begins frequently and harshly but with every death, every misstep comes a new lesson learned. A new survival technique to add to the long list of how to survive in the world of Dark Souls.
Soon you're gathering materials to build more powerful weapons. You're making your way to and killing bosses. You may get involved in a few duels. You may even win a few. All this comes after hours of struggle. A fitting reward for surviving for a few hours. However all of this is short lived as soon, new enemies areas and bosses await your challenge. The cycle begins again. You will die all over again.
That is Dark Souls. A game about struggle, reward, and struggle all over again. The very facets that make it such an amazing game.
Rayman Origins - Coming out of nowhere and continually wowing me with its amazingly animated and fluid visuals: Rayman Origins was the platformer that I was hoping would come with generation of console. An ingenious and well designed platformer game combined with some of the most fluid 2D visuals seen this generation. Rayman was an amazing platforming experience, a true return to its roots and a game that went criminally under looked around release.
I cannot stress just how much me talking about the game and watching video/viewing screenshots does not do this game justice. It is beautiful, possibly the most beautiful playing and most beautiful looking game this year. If even a fraction of you loves platfomers or yearns for something a little different (think Earthworm Jim), run out and buy this game now!
Saint's Row: The Third - By all logic, I should loathe this game. It's a sexist, overblown violent adolescent fantasy that exist within a world where women exist to be ogled and sexually abused. Guns and weapons exist to cause maximum destruction and chaos to law enforcement and rival gangs. Civilians are nothing more than liability and the story is a throw away story that seems like it came from a few choice words: crazy vehicles, big guns, sexy women, toilet humor, dick jokes.
And I loved it.
Saint's Row the Third makes no apologies for being crass, but what it does so well is be extremely playable and fun. From flying jets to sniping enemies to launching drone missiles to delivering punches, Saint's Row the Third has incredibly intuitive controls that handle any task you throw at it remarkably well. Besides the sublime controls, the missions were incredibly fun and always filled with a wide range of variety. Going beyond the simple 'kill this person' or destroy this vehicle' missions seen in many similar titles, Saint's Row The Third has you sniping from helicopters, battling zombies, driving with tigers and getting into naked gun fights. Each mission was unique and memorable. There was never an instance where I was ever bored by a lack of variety.
Finally, the amount of customization was insane. Nearly everything in the game could to some extent, be customized. Your character, your vehicle, your gang members, your abilities even your gang logo could be customized.
Saint's Row The Third is a game about giving you control. Giving you the power, making you feel powerful. The Kanye West song "Power" has never been in a more appropriately used in a video game. You are the big bad villain that you have fought so many times before. You have the coolest weapons, the coolest cars and a gang of followers who will fight and die alongside you as you commit crime after notorious crime. This game is the ultimate ego trip.
Batman: Arkham City - If you would have told me that in the year 2011, one of the very best games of the year would be a superhero game that is a sequel to an also excellent superhero game from 2009, I would have laughed in your face. All the more reason playing is believing and witnessing what may be one of the best superhero games ever made, one of the best Batman games ever made and really, one of the best action/adventures ever made.
Everything about Arkham City is near perfection. That is high praise considering that its prequel Arkham Asylum was also a near perfect adventure with its smooth and responsive fighting and stealth mechanics. Tons of hidden items to find and baddies from Batman's most famous rogue gallery ready to go toe-to-toe with the Bats.
Arkham City took everything that worked with Asylum, gave Batman an open world with tons of side missions and hidden items to find, brought in nearly every major and minor villain in the Batman universe and on top of that, had rock solid voice acting and writing. Arkham City was a like the best of Batman: The Animated Series come to life with some moody visuals and dark storyline ripped from Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight film series.
It was everything that a superhero game, a Batman game should be and ended up something much more: a fine action/adventure title that gives plenty of incentive to play through a twisting story and plenty of bonus missions and objectives to have you stick around in Arkham City for a long time afterwards.
For a a majority of the fall, I was Batman. After playing this game, you can be too.
It's been a great year for games. The ones that I have listed were only a small selection of the other excellent titles that were released and I simply did not have the time of the funds to play. 2012 is already looking to be another great year so find your favorites, have fun and game on!
Note: There were games that I wanted to play but due to time and funds, I hope to pick up and play throughout this year. Those games were:
Driver: San Francisco
Dirt 3
Bastion
F1 2011
Bastion
Jurassic Park the Game
Back to the Future: The Game
The King of Fighters XIII
Mortal Kombat
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Kirby: Return to Dreamland
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