Giantbomb Community GOTY

Portal 2 is, in my opinion, the most complete end-to-end game. It has just additional elements to its formula (Propulsion/Repulsion Gel) to feel new without hampering on the original's laser-tight focus. But, it was the story of Wheatley that stole the show here. While the first game felt like a satire of the puzzle game genre, Portal 2 feels like a satire of player agency in interactive design. Ultimately, you are a lab rat that is being guided along, but Portal 2 offered its own commentary through your skill alone. It helps that the cooperative mode is worth attention and should be tackled by people with feeling in the heart.

Batman. Realized. This is the mature Zelda that everyone constantly clamors for. Everything about the presentation of this game from the mission design to the actual gameplay feels wonderful. Gliding high above Arkham City is one of the best parts of this game. My only negative is I almost want a return to the form of Arkham Asylum for a tighter, smaller sequel. Oh, and one more thing. My only desire for the next game is to be able to pilot the Batwing at some point. That would be rad.

Congratulations, Greg Kasavin and SuperGiant Games, you crafted a wholly beautiful game and world. And you managed to do it such an economy of words and interactions. Outside of that, you managed to give more justification for major video game publishers moving smaller budgeted, more experimental experiences. This generation of video game consoles has missed out on the quirky, light-hearted games that used to populate the arcade going experience. Thanks for scratching that itch.

I put in over 60 hours into this biome/crafting simulator. After several failed attempts to get into Minecraft, I can safely say that I enjoy the genre when it is wrapped around a layer of gameplay and equipment progression. This may be one of the favorite multiplayer games of the year.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution was played during a semi-turbulent period of my life. I was vacationing at the beach when Hurricane Irene decided to blow through my neck of the woods. Forced inside my beach house for several days, Deus Ex kept my spirits alive while our house was rocking from side-to-side. I have very few qualms with Deus Ex aside from a few trivial boss encounters. The fact that the game lets you approach its problems from multiple angles means that I will be able to replay this one for several years to come.

It seems like everyone is hesitant to rank L.A. Noire among the favorite games of 2011, if only because of the post-launch shuttering of Team Bondi's studio and the allegations that Brendan McNamara's shady business practices of overworking low-ranking employees. No, I remember L.A. Noire as the interactive realization of L.A. Confidential that I dreamed of for years. It felt like the natural evolution of the adventure game genre in many ways, by giving you another area to focus on; conversations. Sure, the interrogations didn't always work as intended, but you got the sense that Team Bondi just ran slightly out of time.

Never in a million years would I think to put a sports title in my annual top games list, but NBA 2K12 could be the greatest love letter to a sport that many thought would completely self-implode. Fortunately, if such a nightmare scenario played out, the fine folks at 2K would have the latent basketball fan's back. For once, creating an athlete and seeing him through the NBA drama to the finals is one of the most rewarding things to have play out in a video game. It helps that the audio commentary matches the level of sophistication happening on the court.

I plugged away at Gears of War for almost six days straight which is light years more attention than I give to Call of Duty or your average third person shooter. Gears 3 keeps up a brisk pace while offering the most character-building seen in the trilogy. Everything from the camera to the recoil feels tweaked to perfection specifically for the 360 controller. It also helps that Epic have created a ton of multiplayer content on top of the excellent competitive modes aimed directly at people that hate multiplayer. Beast and horde mode were thrilling enough to satisfy any shooting urges I had in the months following Gears' September release.

I was a relative latecomer to Frozen Synapse, but when I finally discovered it this Christmas, I found one of the most exhilarating games of Chess, a turn-based strategy fan could desire. Playing through the campaign I got the sense that Frozen Synapse was one part Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear's planning phase and two parts Deus Ex in terms of its brooding cyberpunk atmosphere. Whatever the ingredients may be, I will enjoy heading back from time-to-time if only to experience my soundtrack of the year.

As a student of Shinji Mikami's game design and a fan of Grasshopper Manufacture's No More Heroes franchise, I figured that there was no way I could miss out on Shadows of the Damned. The game turned out to be the equivalent of pure video game camp mixed in with solid third person shooter gameplay. After the curtain call of the credits, the final scenes leave me desperately waiting for a sequel that will likely never see the light of day. It was a crying shame that this game was not marketed for the delightful horror genre romp that it is. For shame, EA marketing department, for shame.

PC - Being a Battlefield 2 vet, this game was probably my most highly anticipated releases ever. Dice successfully has made another large scale Battlefield game that stays true to the franchise and would make pappa BF2 proud. Also Battlelog is pretty awesome. HOOAH!

PC - Taking the "Alien to Aliens" approach paid off her IMO. While I didn't like the setting as much as the original, I felt the story they told worked most of the time and the third person action is top in it's class. They managed to fit a few genuinely scary sections in thankfully as well... (unlike Aliens)

PC - I like games that get me to play their predecessor. Mass Effect 2 got me to play Mass Effect and this game got me to play the original Deus Ex. To me, this is the best game to have stealth action since MGS3. A lot of people hated on the simple enemy routines however I relished in them because it harkened back to the days of MGS1, 2 and 3. Scripted AI patterns make the stealth action puzzle so much fun for me. Crouch walking out of a room full of bad-guys while I have (basically) Stealth Camo turned on was very fun. I also found the story and writing to be pretty good. Also, Adam Jenssen's coat has flowers on it and that's pretty badass.

PC - A lot of people doubted this game could live up to the original. It's VALVE, people. Come on, son. They took a simple idea and created an incredibly funny and rich fiction. Some of the best characters to emerge this year come from this game. The way they integrate story progression into puzzle solving is brilliant.

360 - I couldn't play Demon's Souls. I saw what was there but the game was too difficult and I had to stop. I always felt that if a few key gameplay aspects had been different, I would have continued playing Demon's Souls and loved it. Luckily exactly that happened. Dark Souls is what I wanted from Demon's Souls. It's just as difficult but having things like... mid-level checkpoint where I can spawn from changes the entire experience for me. I don't think any other game this year delivers the sort of satisfaction of overcoming adversity Dark Souls does.

PC - First and foremost, this game looks fucking crazy. Graphically they pull out literally all the stops. There's texture work going on here that make me want to weep. Witcher 2 is a game that commits to it's gameworld unlike many others. The depth and attention to detail in the games locations are so impressive to me. When you enter the riverside town you truly feel you're there. Everything has a real wet damp feel to it, and feels lived in. Then there's the encroaching forest outside is literally the best I've seen in a game to date. Design wise- Witcher 2 is nearly flawless. The quests you pick up are never to the volume or SCOPE as something like Skyrim but they are always specific and interesting with characters who are interesting to listen to. The fact that the entire middle of the game can go two different ways and each branching path is completely different to each other. Each taking you into completely different locations with completely different sets of quests is mind-blowing to me. And the fact that both locations are each as lovingly crafted and packed with interesting quests is equally mind-blowing. I really love Witcher 2. The only reason it doesn't sit higher at the top of my list is the last act. Sadly it final stretches of the game don't feel as polished and the content you play doesnt feel as strong as anything before it. It's a single blemish but you spend a good deal of time in it. If only. That being said, I still love The Witcher 2

PC - This is somewhat childish of me. But this game is Batman as fuck. There has been a lot of debate out in the ether as to if this game is better than Arkham Asylum. Where do I side? I think Arkham City is overall a better game. It makes being Batman much more badass. It has a better storyline with a much better cast of characters. (Mr. Freeze, Penguin, Ra's Al Ghul, Two-Face vs. Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Bane, Scarecrow). I had a lot more fun moving around the open city vs. walking between segmented zones with load screens. Batclaw + Glide + Divebombing is extremely fun. I also felt the combat and predator situations where better crafted. I really like Batman and not many games make you feel as cool as Batman is. This game does.

PC - I should really play Saints Row 3? I was shocked. I was floored. From the moment I jumped out of the back of a plane only to dive back in (through the cockpit) then pop out the back again - this game had it's claws in me. SR3 vs. Skyrim is the literal argument over shorter games with incredibly high peaks vs. much longer games with much more consistent but not as high peaks. There sure as shit some sections of this game I didn't like but the things that stick out are moments like - jumping out of a helicopter and parachuting onto a penthouse while "Power" plays. Listening to my character and Pierce sign the Sublime song to it's completion. Fuckin' Zombies showing up and my character echoing and entire gaming community in the face of more zombies by saying "Fuck my life". The entire Deckers Die mission inside the Tron Matrix. Some of the best on-the-point wrestling references I've ever heard in video games. GANSTAS IN SPACE. These moments cast a giant shadow on any blemishes. This is literally the biggest shock of 2011. What interests me most is... can they really follow up on this?

PC - The sense of exploration and discovery that Skyrim brings to the table hits the exact parts of my brain. Plopping down into a random part of the map and seeing a dozen or so black points of interest all around me. Knowing that a bunch will probably have some kind of quest associated to it. Knowing that mostly all of it is optional. Stuff like that is why Skyrim sits at the top of my list. I mentioned the battle between SR3 and Skyrim. I mentioned how Saints Row 3 had some low points that where overcast by the highs. In Skyrim I don't really think there are necessarily any low points. I really never said to myself "This is boring" or "This is bad". I consistently found that everytime I went somewhere, or found something and was engaged in some form of content - the content was worth experiencing. Was it always completely memorable? Nah. But I always felt I gained something from experiencing it, be it a piece of world-building fiction. Or a piece of loot. Skyrim makes you feel like you're an adventurer. To me that is the most enjoyable feeling a game can give me and - as of yet - nothing beyond Skyrim has delivered it to this degree. And to this degree of volume. I've sunk 90 hours into it, I've seen most of the major dungeons. I've completed the main quest line and been to all the cities. I've finished or nearly finished all the major faction quests. However I still have no touched the civil war quest line. I'm sure there are some locations I haven't found as well. It's that kind of density and volume that make Skyrim the king. No other game delivers this volume and volume at such a consistent quality.

Easily #1. Great open-world. Quest lines were shorter, but the game was still the highlight of 2011 for me.

The defending system was horrible at first, but I have to say it's the best improvement in a long time.

Nathan and Sully. The narrative is the strongest point of the game, but online is great too.

Greg K, my favorite guy from the old days, came through in a big way.

Best fighter in a long time, maybe since Soul Calibur for me. I suck at it, but it's still badass.

Same addicting formula.

Love the old Playstation titles. Driver is finally back to its winning ways.

Michel Ancel gets boned again by crappy marketing and Ubisoft. What's new?

Jeff turned me on to it. Just really fun.

I'm kinda tired of it, but there's no denying the great online.

If someone were to ask me to make a list of five games to show off just why I enjoy gaming so much, Saints Row: The Third would be on that list. While many games make us feel like we're part of the world through story, characters or environments (or a combination of these things), Saints Row is flat out fun in so many ways.

Nearly 60 hours were put into this downloadable game from me, and I still haven't quite experienced everything I want to out of it yet. The gameplay is simple, but the game can be fairly difficult, though sometimes it's mainly because luck just wasn't on your side when it comes to the 100+ items you can find in the game to boost your stats (or just the opposite) Did I mention it's only $5? Buy it and, if you can, also pick up the soundtrack, it's really quite good.

I'm not a fighting game fan, the only fighting games I've ever really put any serious time into were the Smash Bros. series and a bit of Guilty Gear a few years back. So it came as a major shock that I enjoyed Mortal Kombat as much as I did. I originally picked it up as something to play around with for the month I had off between college and my summer job, but after that I still came back to MK, alone or with friends. The story in the Single Player is really good, the fighting felt great, it was just an all-around great game.

As a spiritual successor to my 2009 GOTY Demon's Souls, I had high expectations coming into Dark Souls, and came away more than satisfied. The game is still very difficult, and I enjoy the more open world this game has compared to the linearity of Demon's Souls.

There is so much stuff to do in this game! And I've gotten to the point where I want to experiment with different play styles, something I rarely do in Elder Scrolls games (normally a sword and shield guy, with a little bit of magic to help out in certain situations) This is a game that should be experienced by many people at some point, probably after a few more bugs are fixed.

In my opinion, this is the second best download only game that came out this year (third if you include the HD update to Beyond Good & Evil) What can I say that hasn't been said before? The narrator is a cool feature, the music is astounding and the gameplay is solid.

This includes Festival of Blood as well. Sucker Punch's inFamous came back with a thunderous roar during the summertime drought (though this summer was much better than the past few years in that regard) And in October, more inFamous action came about in a "what if" story with vampires through the downloadable game Festival of Blood, with the awesome new ability to actually fly by splitting into a bunch of bats.

My first Deus Ex game, and boy was it fun! Another game that makes me want to experiment in a few different ways.

After an 8 year absence from the Pokemon games, I decided to jump back into the franchise. After getting through the nostalgic feelings of my youth, I still had plenty of fun with this game.

Another big surprise for me this year. I never really cared all that much for the Gears series, I can't really remember all that much from Gears 2 and forgot about some of the characters entirely. But my best friend and I would always play through them anyway, they were at least competent co-op games, so it came time for us to go through Gears 3, and I actually found myself interested in the story and what happened to everyone. It wrapped up nicely.

I've played 100 hours of Skyrim. I've played 20 hours of Saints Row. I've nearly completed multiple quest lines in Skyrim. I've done maybe 6 missions in Saints Row. 3 hours of those 20 are story missions. Saints Row is THE greatest open-world crime sandbox game ever. It takes all of the stuff I wish GTA had and adds it. Little things like instantly jumping into a car and zoomng off, opposed to GTA's slow carjacking animation. Being able to instantly pull a parachute when falling in the air, as opposed to only getting one parachute at a time (or none in GTA4's case). Great 3rd person shooting, great variety of weapons, perks and upgrades, complete character customization that is super expanisve, fun shooting, amazing driving, not flying off bikes everytime you hit anything, that diving fall anytime you take a slightly high jump, controllable air planes, auto target helicopter missiles, car customization, 3 voice actors per sex, amazingly funny humor, did I mention not frustrating shooting? Saints Row The Third does everything right that I wish GTA had done. As much as I like the GTA series, there were always those little things that it needed. This game is so much goddamn fun it's hard not to put it on top!

LBP1 was amazing, and LBP2 is stellar. Stellar is amazing times 5. I fell in love with this game and still am. Most of it is credited to the super talented community who keep making awe inspiring levels. I am thankful for their detemination and hard work. I tried making my own level, but didn't have the patience to finish it! The story mode is something really fun too with some of the coolest characters of the year! LBP2 is just something super magical that I cannot simply explain in words. If you haven't played it since it's release, pop it in and play some of the high rated levels and I DARE you not to fall in love with this platformer all over again!

Yes, I play the PS3 version. Yes, it has framerate issues. Yes, had I an 360 I would have that version. No, I do not regret not having a 360. I've played over 100 hours of it and only had 3 lock-ups. Framerate isn't an issue if I re-set the game every two hours or so. Will I be playing this on and off during 2012? YES

Everyone has played this. Everyone knows how amazing it is. Superb writing and neat/intuitive puzzle solving. Well-made characters and a terrific story. It's only dimishing trait is that I only really can truly experience it once. Everytime after that is nowhere near the level of awe,

I played the shit out of Pokemon when I was a kid. I had Blue, Yellow, and Silver. Nearly a decade later I'm playing the new one, Black Version. When I made it to the elite 4, I had nearly 100 hours logged. WTF....how does 23 year old me play a Pokemon for as long as a Skyrim?!?!?

Many were dissapointed, I wasn't. It as less Metroid-vania than Asylum, but was just as good. It is one of those games like the first, where the initial playthrough is so awe inspiring that any subsequent playthrough will never feel the same. I loved the atmoshpere that the city created. The snow and darkness added a lot to the tone of this game. The story can be short if you rush it, but if you take your time and do side stuff here and there you can get a good 20 hours out of it. I got all of the Riddler stuff and it isn't worth it, way too much of it. But other than that this game is awesome. There is no feeling better than just hitting the R1 and grappling to the nearest building. AWESOME

Havent finished it yet, but I love it already. Great art style, characters, and writing. Can't wait to finish!

Nowhere near the level of Uncharted 2, but still fun. Has some mega frustrating points and dissapointing lack of character banter. Can't believe HD fucked up the shooting as it frustrated the hell out of me. Finished it with the terrible shooting, but want to play it again soon with the good shooting.

I love Okami the original. Never finsihed it, but want to soon. I pray for an HD remake someday. Didn't play much of Okamiden....but literally only one of the barely 11 games I played.

Loved everything EXCEPT the fact that almost NONE of the criminals you lock up are the actual crime committers. It as MEGA dissapointing to find that two whole desks of cases were all by one guy and you worked so fucking hard to lock up the wrong guy no matter which of the two you picked. Total fucking dumb. Kinda wish there was more side stuff also, but I bet it already cost them a billion dollars to pay the actors for what they did make. If all of that stuff I just mentioned was better than this would be higher. So for now this is my 10.

Everything about Saints Row 3 speaks to everything I like about games. It's loud, noisy, abbrasive, and it doesnt appologize for any of it. And that is what I like. The games starts crazy and ends, crazier if that was even a thing. While most games try to do toilet humor and dick jokes and they mostly fall on their face, (I'm staring daggers into you Duke Nukem), SR3 (Saints Row 3) does this surprisngly well And this si suplimented by good writing, good voice actiong and most imprtantly, a fun game. And that is what it boils down to, Saints Row: Thei Third is the most dfun, I had playing a game this year. Weither it was basejumping out of a Vitol Jet, doing DDTs to random pedestrians, singning along to Sublime in the car, or just wrecking havoc in Steelport, Saints Row: The Third created a smile that was near impossible to wipe away from my face.

This year was the year of fighting games for me. I picked up Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Marvel vs Capcom 3, Thrid Strike, and King of Fighters, none of them hooked me like Mortal Kombat did. Probably the game just offered more outside of the box, than just basic two gusy fight to the death. It presented a Story Mode that needs to be recongnized to show that fighting games can have a deep, fun story, and the transition from fight to cutscene to fight again, is still amazing. The fighting itself is easy for anyone to get into, and takes a bit to master. Learning the basic isn't enough to be good at this game. Learning what can hit into what, and how to keep combos going is what adds a layer of complexity that matches what you see in other fighting games, but easier to learn in this one. Toss in a 300 Level Challenge and some of the best character DLC to boast, and it's hard to argue that Mortal Kombat isn't a total package of a game.

“Games as art”, is a discuasion I never put too much stock in, but even after just completing the first few missions, it was easy to see that Bastion is a game worthy to be called art. From the look of the world, to the music, to the narrator explaining what was going on in the world and the Calamity did to it. Bastion is a game that goes above and beyond most downloadable games. But this games stands above its looks, it plays exceptionally well. From adding the ability to play with many weapon/tonic combos its possible for two people to play the game in virtually different ways. Every option is a viable one, and it's a choice that you dont see in many bigger budget games. Bastion stands as one of the few download-only games, that I would gladly pay a full 60 bucks for.

4. It's easy to just write-off Revelations as another Assassin's game, and for the most part, you'd be right. Revelations doesn't do much to change up the formula from what made Brotherhood great. If Brotherhood, broke the mold to Assassin's Creed games, Revelations adds some slight touches here and there to it. But what does seem like a great improvement is the Multiplayer. While still keeping the cat-and-mouse gameplay from the last game, Revelations adds more to make combat more fun. By upping the speed, now more defensive players can quickly identify their pursuers and get a quick stun on them, while it was in brotherhood, by makign the prompt pop up just a second adds an entire new level of stratdgy. From new abilities to new modes, this is the best version of the Assassin's Creed multiplayer yet, and while the single player does nothing new, it is still to run around the world and interact with the various characters. While it doesn't do anything to break the mold, Revelations, follows the formula and improves it.

Yo... Batman. I know it's not a proper way to say things, but yo, you're Batman. And being Batman is pretty cool. You fight crime, you sdtrike fear into your enemies, and you can take down a group of enemies, without even breaking a sweat. And the best thing about Arkham City is that is captures all of this in the game. You feel cool, when you pic apart a gang of about 10 guys as you systematically pick them apart with counters and smart use of your gadgets. The game captures everything good about Arkham Asylum and makes it bigger, and makes it better. By giving Batman a bigger world to run around in, it makes getting around it just as fun as you glide, zip, and swoop your way through the city. Everything in this game, just makes you feel like a complete hero... You. Are. Batman.

Shadows of the Damned is one of the most bizzarre games I have ever played. It manages to pair up relatively standard third person shooter mechanics with a totally insane world filled with nasty enemies, creepy crying baby heads that you feed fruit to open doors, and goats that you shoot in the face to create pockets of light in the hell you must traverse through. The soundtrack is one of the best I have ever heard in a videogame due to the way it perfectly backs up the specific situations you end up in throughout the game. The voice acting and translation were fantastic and hilarious throughout, and I found myself pretty genuinely creeped out whenever Garcias girlfriend showed up to be tortured in front of him. Your gun (aptly named "Johnson") floats around as a skull next to you in cutscenes, and has some excellently written dialogue with a pitch perfect voice acting performance. I can't wait to see what Suda 51 and company have coming next.

Playing this game with my friends provided the most pure fun of any game I played this year. The animation is both adorable and funny as hell. Perfect checkpointing eliminated frustration and kept me retrying sections until I got them down. I really hope people end up checking this game out despite its lack of marketing support and poorly chosen release window. (This game has a killer soundtrack as well.)

Another purely fun experience. Playing this game with all 4 players and going for all of the gold medals was a blast. It wasn't terribly funny, but that wasn't really the point. Really addicting game systems and awesome loot kept me sitting and playing this game for hours without moving.

From the best set of characters of the year, to the amazing voice acting by all involved (particularly Stephen Merchant as Wheatly) this game could have made an amazing CG movie without any game at all. As it happens, Portal 2 manages to create dozens of mind bending puzzles with genius new mechanics that add a whole new layer of depth to original games formula. The subtle story nuggets hidden throughout the world really bring players down the rabbit hole that is aperture science, and the humour manages to be hilarious throughout while maintaing that same level of subtlety itself.

As someone who actively disliked Gears 1 and 2, I had already written this game off before it came out. As it happened, this game ended up having a fantastic third act to its story that took out most of the bro-ey shit and terrible writing of the first two games. The four player co op campaign is colorful and varied, providing constantly changing combat scenarios with different enemy types throughout. Horde mode is one of the best co-op experiences of the year, and Beast mode is a fantastic experimental addition to the formula. Most important of all, the multiplayer seems to have finally found a near perfect balance, allowing for skilled players to shine with mid range rifles or shot guns, all depending on play style. Dedicated servers and dramatically varied maps provide for a technically sound and tactically engaging experience, that is easily my favorite competitive multiplayer mode of the year. Oh, and the graphics are still beautiful, but this time they are complimented by bright colors and well lit areas rather than grey and brown slop that made up most of the first two games.

I can't make good sentences to accurately paint a picture of this game, so here are the bullets: -Beautiful painterly art style -My favorite game soundtrack of they year (the only game soundtrack I have gone out of my way to purchase and listen to) -A unique world and powerful emotional story that does not feel heavy handed at all -Dynamic combat that constantly changes as you are given new weapons in almost every level -A satisfying new game plus that adds even more value to the already low price of $15 -A sauve sounding narration of all your actions that adjusts depending on how you play the game.

Catherine is a really weird game. The story manages to hit home for anyone who has been in a long term relationship, and the characters dialogue is usually interesting and believable. Paired with all this well done story telling and crazy japanese ghost fiction, is a very unique (and hard as hell) block climbing puzzle game, where your character must outrun horrific representations of his real life fears while climbing up a block tower in his underwear. The puzzles start throwing new mechanics at you, all while expecting you to climb at an insanely fast paced. Despite some major flaws in the camera controls (or lack thereof) and some occasional flubs in story telling, I love this game because I have never played anything like it, and probably never will again. Any game that can cause me to seriously reflect on my life to the degree this game did easily earns a spot on my list.

Another game that many people doubted up until its release, Deus Ex was following up one of the most beloved PC franchises of all time. What we ended up getting was an antithesis to the current on rails game design of today. Every single area had dozens of different choices and paths decide on, and except for some crappy bosses, the game allowed you to play whatever type of character you want. The world was convincing and frightening, and went with a grungy cyberpunk aesthetic that you don't see too often in the current slough of modern military shooters and generic sci-fi fantasy games released in recent years. From the excellent combat and stealth mechanics to the morally ambiguous story, Deus Ex: Human Revolution left me excited to see whatever eidos montreal has coming our way next.

I have purchased every Zelda game since A Link to the Past, and I have never finished a single one outside of OoT. I love the world, but the dungeon mechanics just never manage to keep me engaged for the duration of the adventures. From the heart warming art style, to the best soundtrack in any of the Zelda adventures, to the really satisfying and clever dungeon design, this game kept me excited and engaged throughout most of the adventure. The low position on the list comes as a result of the stubborn Nintendo designers who force experienced players to waste hours on a boring tutorial at the start of the game, and add literally dozens of extra hours with trivial collectathons and travel distances. It is a shame the best dungeons Zelda has ever seen ended up being paired with some of the worst world exploration in the series. All in all though, this game still puts a smile on face and never does enough wrong to stop me from really loving it as a whole.

Despite the awkward character animations, this game manages to suck you into its world more than almost any other. My time spent in the Thieves Guild provided some of the coolest story moments I have taken part in, and this is just one of the many sub-plots the game contains. I felt like a fantasy mobster running around and collecting tolls and sending threats to people all over Skyrim on behalf of the guild. By the end of the game, I will also get to feel like a crazy wizard, a dark brotherhood assassin, and a kick ass dragon slayer. This game might not be my favorite of the year, but the sheer scope and story variety within nabs Skyrim my final spot on my competitive 2011 list.