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EightBitShik

Has it really been 10 years already? Jesus.

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My Top Ten Games I played in 2011

My top ten games I played in 2011

It was a great year for games and plenty came out and blew people away. If you look at Giantbomb's top 10 it is hard to argue that fact. I am not in the business though and I am a consumer like most of you and I have limits on what I can and can not play through out the year due to money or other aspects that are out of my control. It would be nice if I could say "Yeah, I did buy all those games or play them" but that is not reality. What is reality is sometimes in life you play a game from 3 years ago for the first time despite all it's hype. That being said, my list is a bit different. It is my top ten games I played in 2011 regardless of when the game was released. My list is not in order they are just my ten favorite games I played this year. Some of the games I chose may not be as good as some of the other games I did play but what added weight to them was how long I played them. For an example Bastion was my favorite downloadable game but I enjoyed Full House poker less but because of the replay value I played so much more of it and then weighs heavy in my heart. I will also add a few category's that I felt needed to be mentioned.

Skyrim

Skyrim
Skyrim

When it comes to most RPG's I have never really been a fan of the western style. I always found them to be boring a bit overwhelming. As much as people loved Fallout and Oblivion I just couldn't do it. I don't like a game that gives you so much freedom. I don't know what I am supposed to do and I always get the response (Whatever you want). Yeah I understand that, but honestly when I find myself dying every 5 seconds and running around for hours not accomplishing anything I feel I am doing it wrong. I rented Skyrim expecting the same thing. I was shocked to find how much they changed this style of game that really made it easier for me to figure out and enjoy. I took it back that same night thinking I'd probably not pick it up again but I did enjoy my time. It wasn't until my roommate bought it that I put it back in my system and started playing again that I realized wow this is probably one of the best games I have played in a long time. It's a fantastic game and I understand why it's number one on some many other peoples lists.

Bastion

Bastion
Bastion

I was excited about this game when I saw a video for it and with the help of Giantbomb I was able to know more about it before it came out then most any other game I have ever been waiting. I loved the art and the music and it was great to play. I was very impressed with the game so much that it was one of the few games that I told my friends they had to buy. The only thing I did not like was when they were doing the inside coverage on it that guy kept clipping his nails...I think that will stick with me every time I think of this game. The voice that narrated the story was brilliant. I am a big fan of games like Bioshock where you progress a big portion of the game through audio. It's great for pacing.

Saints Row 3

Saints Row the Third
Saints Row the Third

This is another game that as soon as it was announced I was excited about getting. I was a super huge fan of the second game and I was shocked to hear that so many people did not like it. Though the story was a big disappointment and the lack of my favorite character from the second game I enjoyed the dialogue and pure craziness of the game. When you first crash through that plane shooting the pilot I knew that this was a game I would enjoy. It's one of the few games that gave me a chuckle and pure enjoyment.

Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat

Growing up I enjoyed the Mortal Kombat games. Now that I am older I am not sure if it was the game play or was it because I was a kid and the pure violence of the game was great but I had such fond memories of it. When they released this version of the game after having such shitty sequels over the years as an adult I was shocked to find not only did it look good but it played amazing. The story mode was the best I have ever seen in a fighting game and it was a nice of them to include MK1,2,3 stories to bring it all together. I thought the online play was great and I had great time playing against players over the world even though it was a bit broken with the connection issues. I bought the season pass and was excited about each new character that was going to come out though I did lose interest in the game by the time the first was released. The game was good enough that I am excited about any future MK's games and I haven't been able to say that in a long time.

Batman Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham City

Good luck have Batman, that is something that I started every Starcraft match with because I am a duder at heart. Batman AC is also a duder at heart. Why? Because the game is just great, it knew what was good about the last game and expanded on that. Great story, great voice acting, amazing fighting and plenty to do in the game to keep you going for quite sometime. I loved the graphics in this game as well. It's nice to see a license like this under the control of a team who knows how to make a game and it shows they care. Spiderman is my favorite super hero of all time and I wish they could make a game on this level.

Uncharted 2

Uncharted 2
Uncharted 2

I rented Uncharted 1 many years ago and after playing 30 minutes of the game I sent it back. I was not impressed and I was bored out of my mind. It wasn't until a few years later my roommate started playing through it that he told "You have to give it a real chance". After he finished the game I put it in and loved it. I couldn't believe that I didn't give it a chance before and luckily after I finished it we had a copy of Uncharted 2 laying around and I put it in. Uncharted 2 has to be in my top 5 of all time. I enjoyed every moment of that game. It was beautiful and super fun. It gave me that Indiana Jones epic feel that I needed and Nolan North's typical hero is exactly what I want when I am punching people in the face and trying to find treasures all over the world. The level designs were great and the visuals were memorizing. We bought U3 on day one but it just wasn't giving me that same feeling so sadly I haven't played it through but I feel that if I just finished it I might enjoy as much but U2 is a very hard game to follow.

Full House Poker

Full House Poker
Full House Poker

As a person who has never played poker in real life it is shocking for me to include this game on my list. However, Full House Poker was probably one of the games that I played the most this year. I loved that you could play Poker with a bunch of strangers and have the table full unlike other poker games out there. I think what made that possible is most people loved going into the game with their Xbox live Avatar. I played against a guy who looked like Scorpion who was sitting next to Master Chief and little moments like that made me enjoy the game. What else set it apart from the list was the season play that it had. That mode has now been canceled which is sad because it was fun to play a match for 22 minutes and try to get the best score you could in that time frame and be ranked amongst all who were in the tournament. You would think that going big would get you first but it rewarded you for playing smart by giving you points for folding on hands that you knew you just couldn't win unless you could bluff better then anyone. My highlight moment of the year was taking first place out of 5,000 people in one tournament.

Grandia

Grandia
Grandia

It took me over ten years but I finally got to play one of the games that I was interested in growing up but was not able to get my hands on. I worked in a video game store for three years and not once did a copy of come into my store to be traded in which would of meant I could of bought the game at reasonable price. The fact that it is on the PS3 for so cheap made me jump in joy. I put it on my roommate PSP and spent many hours enjoying the combat and the story. My only complaint about the game was the voice acting but once you get through that it's just fun to play and how I wish modern RPG's were. I miss those days and it was nice that in the year 2011 I was able to recapture those moments with such a fantastic game like this.

Arc the Lad 2

Arc the Lad 2
Arc the Lad 2

My favorite style of game is a turn based strategy game and I felt that I have played them all but I knew there were two games out there that I would enjoy and hadn't played yet and that was Arc the Lad 2 and 3. I enjoyed the first and played it the same year it came out in America but at the time I had to sell my copy to make rent and I regretted that choice back then. Luckily though like Grandia I was able to pick it up on PSN and a very cheap price and was able to pick it up. The game is fun, the story is great and I love all the side quests that you can do such as take jobs and hunt down monsters. The little animations your characters do when they attack are awesome and I am very excited to play Arc the Lad 3 in 2012 and may show up on my list next year. If you want an idea of what this game is like I have posted a video in my last blog showing one of the boss fights in the game.

Persona 3

Persona 3
Persona 3

My last choice for my top 10 games of the year is another RPG that I am late to the party. That being said even though I am late to the party the game doesn't suffer because of it. The graphics are great, the characters are great but the combat alone is super fun and unique. If I read it on paper on what you are supposed to do in this game I would say "Pass". I never thought I would enjoy a game where you spend most of your time trying to build a social link with characters through the game, studying or hanging out in a park with a little girl. It's not one of those typical RPG's where you spend hours in dungeon building up your character so you can be uber powerful because many times has this game proved me wrong by saying "You just spent an hour in this place leveling BAM! mother fucker your dead". I would be turned off on most games by that alone but they do such a great job with this game in every other aspect that I grit my teeth and try again.

There you have it my top ten. Below is random categories just to throw in there.

Game I hated but ended up liking in the end: Bulletstorm

I really hated this game, but for some reason by the end of the game I looked back and said wow I really enjoyed the last 80% of the game. I liked the combat and doing all the different kind of moves. I hate to admit it but I hope to play a Bullestorm 2.

Game I played the most: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

I thought I was done with the game but when it was released I played a bit of it but it wasn't until 6 months later that I started playing it again. I still think the game is great but I do realize how much time it sucks up. I played for about 3 months straight after my girlfriend and I broke up non stop. I hit my 100,000 kills in pvp with one of my characters after quitting at 67k with another and that is when I knew I needed to step back and play other games that would allow me to get up and leave at any time I wanted.

Worst game I played: X-men Destiny

There are so many things wrong with this game that I think I will create a blog or a review about it later just because of how annoyed I was with it. I am glad we got it free or I would be very angry.

Worst purchase: Zombie Apocalypse

I loved to play games with my girlfriend because of her reactions to them and how amazing she was despite never playing games before she met me. This was a purchase we made because it had co op. The problem is no matter how bad I think the game is because of the years of gaming I have under my belt I was forced to play this to the end each time she wanted to play even though I was bored out of my fucking mind by level 5. After we broke up I realized I was only 1 achievement shy from S-Ranking and I decided to push through it. Worst choice I could have made since you had to complete 7 days which required you to spend almost an hour in each day shooting zombies over and over again in a tiny ass square.

Biggest disappointment: Marvel Vs Capcom 3

I was so excited about this game, I spent so many hours playing the second one that the idea of a new one with new characters and better graphics had me sold. When it came out I spent the day playing it and I realized I was not smiling, I wasn't happy at all, they took what I loved and tried to give it to me but it just didn't feel the same and the online play was broken. I just do not understand why Capcom has had so many issues with their online play when most of their games are much better because of online play. I think they need to out source their internet set up or something because every game I can think of suffer because of bad online. Lost Planet 2, SSF4, Dead Rising 2 and MvC3 all suffer from poor connection problems.

My favorite Giantbomber of the year!

Vinny
Vinny

This was the year of Vinny. This mother fucker was everywhere. With the cut of the Whiskey Media happy hour I think he really stepped up and said "Hey! This is your content". From fixing his Joust machine, taking us on adventures with old PC games, loading up his old save files and being a fucking HEAD and the funniest guy in the top Ten he really made this year worth being a member. I hope there is more Vinny in 2012.

There you have it folks see you in 2012 (Giant Bomb Duder for life) EBS. I rep the GBD in all my games. Peace.

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