Games

This year I decided to write more of an actual blog detailing my yearly choices, based on mostly obvious categories. No Northies though, I've only played one Nolan game this year, I think. Now, to the awards.

2011's 2010 Game of the Year - VVVVVV

I bought this game just before the third Humble Bundle, I think, and played through it in it's entirety during the two weeks I spent in Florida in August, now that may be testament to how good this game is, with me playing it whilst on holiday, or to how boring Florida is, but either way I thoroughly enjoyed my time this game. The intricate control scheme, the superb level design, the 8-bit visuals, and the incredible chip-tune soundtrack all add up to why this is the best game of 2010 I played this gone year.

Runners-up: S.T.A.L.K.E.R: CoP, Just Cause 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Best New Character - Zimos

Absolutely everything this guy says is hilarious. A combination of the auto-tuned voice box and the fact that he's always talking about fucking bitches definitely leads to some of the greatest lines of dialogue in any videogame.

Runners-up: Kinzie, Cave Johnson, Wheatley

Best Enemy Design - Dark Souls

Dark Souls gave us some of the most disturbing looking enemies of the year, and some of the coolest, and mostly, some of the most "Oh christ no not more" enemies of the year. The last one is probably down to the nature of the game, but the amount of times I was thinking "God no let me get to a bonfire please" was a hell of a lot. Most games you just think, oh look, more fodder, but nope, not with Dark Souls.

Runner-up: Binding of Isaac

Best PC only game - The Witcher 2

The technical feat CDProjekt achieved with this game is amazing, it utilizes the full potential of a high -end PC like no other game this year. It runs on a full range of PCs, and even brings the highest end PCs to their knees with it's UberSampling Tech.

Runners-up: Red Orchestra 2, Binding of Isaac

Best Gameplay - Dirt 3

This game had it's share of presentational issues, but the one area where no other game could touch it this year was it's gameplay. Turn off all driving aids, and pop the game in to cockpit mode and this is the most fun I had this year due to sheer gameplay alone. It captures what I would expect rallying to feel like whilst still making it fun and accessable for someone who isn't Finnish or Sebastien Loeb. Now hopefully for the sequel Codemasters will drop this Ken Block bullshit and get some Finns or Sebastien Loeb on the game and show us how they became the Rally sim Kings.

Runner-up - Being a helicopter pilot in Battlefield 3

Best Download-only Game - The Binding of Isaac

A game developed in mere months combining the simplicity of Zelda's style of Dungeon Crawling with Smash TV's quad-axial shooting mechanic and the perma-death of a rogue-like this game forges it's own genre. As simple as it is addictive the game keeps you playing after each death, if not to see to weird combinations of power-ups and how they evolve your Isaac into, well, your own Isaac.

Runner-up: Frozen Synapse, Magicka

Best Looking Game - The Witcher 2

Technically and aesthetically I believe this to be to the best looking game to come out this year. The sheer beauty of the scenery and architecture combined with the superb lighting effects and highly detailed textures and character models lead to what I would say is the best looking game of ALL TIME. Sorry Taylor, I still love you though.

Runners-up: Battlefield 3, Binding of Isaac, Dirt 3

Character I'd Most Like to Party With - Zimos

When he isn't in the middle of questionable sexual encounters and being kidnapped, he's finding new ways to pimp out his hos, of whom, we all know, are the fairest in the land. Now if these things don't sound like the components of the greatest night of your life, then I'm afraid we of a different cut. Or something.

Runners-up: Zoltan Chivay, Dandelion

Best Story - The Witcher 2

Now, this may come down to the way the story is actually told, and the fact that this game actually had characters I could care about, but this is one of the few times I have given a damn about the story in a game. It may not be as convoluted or crazy as Metal Gear Solid, but it actually had meaningful moral dilemnas that had an actual consequence unlike games like Mass Effect or Dragon Age. The actual decisions you have to make in this game also aren't as clear cut as they are in Mass Effect, they are generally as morally ambiguous as you can get, neither side being particularly right, whilst neither wrong enough for you to side against them.

Runner-up: No contender

Best Multiplayer - Battlefield 3

64 players, grand scale, vehciles, THE ATTACK HELICOPTER, tactical teamwork based gameplay. These are the things that work together to bring you the best multiplayer action of any game, not shitty corridor choke points and cheap gimmicks. This game rewards you for playing to your class' strengths: healing, resupplying, fixing vehicles etc; and these are things you can do regardless of how good you are at shooting dudes before dudes shoot you. The game has so many different ways to play and to help your team, that almost anyone should be able to well at it, as long as they play to one of these things. It also happens to be immensely fun to play with a group of guys who know what they are doing and are willing to converse, to some degree, on what they are doing, and will do. Basically: TEAM WORK IS BEST.

Runner-up: Red Orchestra 2

Most Disappointing Game - L.A. Noire

After succumbing to the hype this game seemed to generate right before its release, I thought hey man why not, an adventure game where I play as a 40s detective in gritty LA is exactly what I need. Then I played the game. My god this did not live up to any of the hype: the 40s LA they had recreated was barren, with nothing in it aside from the things the game wanted you go to next; the detective work was a matter of walking around 'til your controller vibrated and hitting X; the interrogation comprised of hoping you got the right answer as half the time the question/answer Cole gives is totally different to what you would have expected him to give and everythign is either right or wrong, which is totally not how I would have expected this to work; the gun play and driving mechanics are pretty innaccurate and their usage becomes repetetive very early on; and while the facial mo-cap is very well done, the textures of everything that aren't clues is absolutely atrocious. I certainly commend this game for the things that it attempted, but to be perfectly honest as a game, this is one of the worst I have ever played.

Runners-up: Dragonage 2, Crysis 2

Best Game This Year - Witcher 2

Objectively I feel this game is the best game to come out this year, the story, visuals, audio, characters, and gameplay, are all brilliantly executed and thusly, this is absolutely the game that deserves this title. It's a massive shame that not everyone has the chance to try this game out, but come 2012 it will be opened up for a heck of a lot of more people, and hopefully should garner all the exposure it deserves.

Runners-up: Portal 2, Skyrim, Battlefield 3

Game I Had The Most Fun With - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Now, when it comes to which game I enjoyed the most this year, regardless of whether it is deserved of any accolades, that game is easily Skyrim. The grand scope of everything in this game is amazing, the unbelievably detailed lore in this game is unprecedented - it has hundreds of fully readable books goddamnit, and varied play styles are but some of the reasons why I love this game so. I can easily get lost in this game without so much as thinking about fulfilling some of the quest objectives, and find stuff to do for hours on end, a lot of this due to the Radiant AI feature of the game, with NPCs constantly havaing things you can help them with, and the rest down to the sheer number of things you can do: mining for ore, hunting for pelts and meat, smithing armour and weapons from said ore and pelts, the only things this game is missing is the option for me to open up a shop and sell the goods I have made this way. But hey, MODS.

The order in which I enjoyed all the 2011 games I played, can be found here, if you'd like a look.

And with that, that's the end of my blog, if there are any other categories you'd like me to add, please let me know and I shall try to do so, if not, thank you for reading good sirs and madams, I hope it wasn't too much of a waste of your time.

Alex.