My very own "Top 5 of 2011" list.

Ok, so first of, I only played, to any large degree, 6 games released this year, this year. I played a lot of other games, but those were part of my backlog. And I have an even bigger backlog now. There's no Batman on this list. There's no Iron Brigade, a game that seems tailor-made for me (Double Fine and walking tanks? I'm THERE!). There's no Little Big Planet, which I played a bit of with Boomblasta, and I am a super-big fan of LBP.

There's also no Rayman: Origins, no Sonic Generations, no Portal 2, no Saints Row, no Skyrim and so on. At the beginning of the year, I had some sort of time, but absolutely no money. At the end of the year, I had a job, and thus money, and of course no time at all. I did finally get an Xbox. Yay!

There's no Shadows of the Damned, despite my joking declaration of it being Game of the Year as soon as Garcia Fucking Hotspur says "Not according to the Internet". Because that might be the best damn gaming moment of the year.

With all of that said, here's the as-of-current Top 5 list of the year. Of the 6 games I played a fair amount of. Sorry Killzone 3.

List items

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  1. Bastion

  Bought this for myself on Christmas Eve. Finished it a few days after. Immediately wanted to jump into New Game Plus. The action in Bastion is great, there's not a single moment of frustration related to controls or anything, just a wish you'd have brought another weapon along. Where the game really shines though is the atmosphere. The narrating voice and the music, and some amazing characters made this game really stand out for me, and the ending, the way I played it, was amazing.

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  2. Gears of War 3

  Ok, I actually LIKE the fiction of Sera and the characters, Everyone arguing the characters are all one-dimensional isn't paying enough attention (yeah, Cole is like that because he has to be, otherwise everyone will have a mental breakdown). So seeing Gears 3 really deal with the story, and do it incredibly well, was pretty great. I also like how Epic somehow managed to make the controls feel incredibly tight and fluid, in a way that the previous 2, great, games never did. Blowing your first Locust away in Gears 3 was pure joy, because it felt so silky smooth. And then you vault cover, kick a grub in the chest and chainsaw him in half. Joy!

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  3. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

  It's an awful lot like Uncharted 2. By which I mean, crazy stuff (yes, they totally simulated the ocean on a console), great characters, amazing setpieces and a fun story. Somehow, the shooting felt off (I should return to this with that new patch), and there were a few puzzles I really hated, and moments when the game just felt cheap (what the hell do you mean I don't have that gun I picked up 5 second ago? WHY!?), but Naughty Dog still know how to make a great game. If Gears 3 hadn't blown me away with the first few minutes, this would probably have taken the number 2 spot.

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  4. Rage

  This spot was the contest of "the game I didn't want to end, at least not that poorly" and the gane that just never seemed to end and just dragged on and on. In the end, I had to give it to the game with the bad ending.

  A lot of people claim Rage is archaic design etc. I'm not really seeing it. Sure, a map would have been nice, and a good final mission would have been better, but whatever. There's 2 reasons Rage is on this list. It's the most fun I've had shooting things in first preson in a modern game in ages, and there's a bunch of other things about it that are sort of neat as well. Race a bit, pick up cards and play, spend all your money on bullets and enjoy the really, really high production values of characters (although the animation sync is screwed the hell up on the PS3). But mostly, because I got what I wanted from Id: a game where shooting things feels genuinely good and fun, and that's precisely what Rage delivers.

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  5. Alice: Madness Returns

  This game just never ends. Ever. Value for money, one could say. Or filler, perhaps. But on to the positive things about this game: combat feels just as good as it should in an action game of this caliber, switching from using the peppergrinder on foes to then slicing them up with a vorpal blade/kitchen knife and then smashing something's face in with a hobby horse. It also has some nice sort of old-school platforming that isn't handheld the way most games now seem to do it (although the camera is sometimes screwy). There are some fun mini-games (and others that sort of aren't). And, the reason you actually play this: the story is incredibly interesting and the design of the stages really brings this out. There are so many great little details in the design of this game, and it's just a pretty great experience overall. Except you actually want it to stop, and it seems it never does.

  And that's the list, good sirs and ladies!