Best of 2011

With this year being crammed full of big multiplayer games, I went back to my roots and decided that single-player rules, multiplayer drools!

Apparently I played a fair amount of RPGs this year and I couldn't even include Golden Sun and the Tales of the Abyss 3DS version.

My list started at 16, with the following being cut:

Dirt 3 - So, so fun and Gymkhana was a neat old-Tony Hawk style mode

Dark Souls - Atmospheric, frustrating and very satisfying

LA Noire - Gritty adventure game, yay! Shame the story couldn't keep me hooked long enough to finish it

Witcher 2 - This game looks AMAZING and the depth of the world, characters and the massively different story arc due to a choice in chapter 2 was excellent. The first game I was gutted to actually cut from my list, and that was only because I didn't play a lot of it

Professor Layton & The Last Spectre - After I almost broke down into tears in The Lost Future, Layton 4 was never going to really hit me as hard as that did. Still, it's a solid game and introduces some good characters. Plus the mystery made some sense at least (not like you Layton 2, magic hallucinating gas indeed...)

FIFA 12 - Yeah. I cut FIFA. I'M SORRY. Honestly though, it's much, much improved over 11 and while the tactical defending is just an annoyance against the AI it's excellent against real opponents. Better lobbies, working (for the most part - at least compared to the crapshoot last year) clubs, awesome XP levelling ideas and a very, very clever Head to Head seasons mode make FIFA really great this year. However, it was out of this and my number 9 and 10 and I just couldn't drop my RPGS.

List items

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  1. Bastion

  Bastion had everything. Really. I'd say it was the single most complete "experience" I had with a game this year, and to think I wasn't going to bother because from the GB coverage I'd somehow got it into my head that it wasn't an action-combat game. (I have no idea what game I thought it actually was).

  The 'game' parts were solid. Varied weapons with upgrades that were nearly all useful, challenge rooms with modifiers to keep you going, snappy controls and some interesting fights. But they even managed to improve that with the story. It was so meticulously well-told, the narrator being such an amazing method of guiding you through the emotions of whatever was happening.

  *And even with all that*, Darren Korb made a soundtrack so varied and suitable it fit together with everything perfectly.

  I talk about Ghost Trick having the most "Oh shiiiiit!" moments in a game, but Bastion had the best. That final scene, you know the one I'm talking about. Once I realised what was happening, you just had to stop and stare. And then it breaks into the credits, combining the two main character themes into one beautiful melody.

  Bastion has so many layers of quality, but I liked it so much because they fit together perfectly. And my comment from my Deus Ex bit stands true, this year spoilt me for fantastic soundtracks, Bastion's tipped it into my number 1.

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  2. Portal 2

  I don't really think I need to say much more that hasn't already been said. Amazing voice work, another genuinely funny game and they managed to craft a great story sequel to Portal which barely had a story in the first place without it being all samey and hokey. And the ending, of course the ending.

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  3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

  Oh God that trailer. THAT TRAILER. Go Youtube that extended trailer and put it on repeat. No seriously, go do it.

  If I had to pick the single thing I have the biggest nerd boner for, it's a good soundtrack. That trailer hyped me to to heaven and I kept telling myself that despite how the game would turn out, it wouldn't be as good as the aesthetics of that trailer but it would probably be pretty cool to play anyway. Well it *was* pretty damn cool to play anyway. They nailed the scope, choice and atmosphere of the original so very well. Good cyberpunk is hard to come by and I beat the final boss by hacking. Hacking!

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  4. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

  The first game I played this year! Amazing soundtrack, cast of characters and really slick animations. Exactly the kind of strengths you would expect from the guy that created Ace Attorney, with some very clever puzzles added in too. So very memorable, and definitely had the highest number of "Oh shiiiiit!" moments in any game I played this year. The best plot twists aren't the ones you don't see coming, they're the ones where you guess what's about to happen about 5 seconds before it does. There's an amazing one in Ghost Trick.

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  5. Batman: Arkham City

  Punch, punch, counter, batarang, counter, combo, punch, punch, ground takedown, slow-mo kick to the face, grappling hook, extend cape, FLY AWAY AS THE GODDAMN BATMAN

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  6. Shadows of the Damned

  "My name...is Garcia FUCKING Hotspur, hunter of demons. My wrath is your Hell!"

  Twisted, over the top and genuinely funny, whilst being a Suda51 game that was actually playable! The monotonous parts (Some goat heads, 'taste my big boner', zombie girlfriend chasing you) were luckily outweighed by the good (Story time, Johnson, a freakin' paper-mache 2D side scrolling shooter level...twice). Very different, very fun.

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  7. Pokémon Black/White

  As much as I can enjoy the endgame of Pokémon, with number crunching, EVs and IVs, breeding for natures and a lot of the competitive battling, it was incredibly refreshing to go into a game knowing nothing about the new guys. It recaptured some of my 13 year old wonder by going around and catching stuff that just looked really, really cool. Making you only encounter new monsters until you beat the game was genius and having their most progressive story yet (for a freakin' Pokémon game anyway) made it a very fun RPG.

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  8. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

  It's Zelda! I love Zelda!

  Cons: The Sword angles can get a bit finicky & it does have a slow start (though not nearly to the extent of what people will have you believe - Twilight Princess felt like it took FOREVER to get going).

  Pros: Sword play is very engaging, the dungeons are fantastic (the water temple is beautiful), the boss fights are fun and it's all very Zelda.

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  9. Xenoblade Chronicles

  Eurrooopppe, fuuuckkk yeeeaahhh!

  Although now that it's getting a US release, at least more people will see how great this RPG is. Competent(!) story, a checkpointing system when you die (you just warp back to the last checkpoint :O!), a bajillion side quests, active and thoughtful combat and the most AMAZINGLY BRITISH voice acting. Looks gorgeous running on Dolphin too.

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  10. Radiant Historia

  Neat SRPG-like combat system, good character design and an interesting story with how far I got. The two-timeline mechanic was fantastic, letting you jump to the alternate history to learn a new skill, change events earlier in the main timeline, which then alter events with your new skill, which can then change the alternate timeline, which then..