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Hunter5024

I'm cheating this year, GOTY is going to be a little late so I can play more games.

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GOTY 2011

We are 6 full months into 2012, and this list is only getting less and less relevant as time goes on! In the year of 2011, I was broke as hell. So broke I couldn't even afford gamefly, let alone actual games. So I've spent much of the first half of 2012 catching up on last years releases now that I have a job. There's still some games that I haven't played that I would like to, but it's time to finally bite the bullet. Here's a list of the games I would've liked to get to but couldn't and below that a list of the finalists in order (!)

Didn't play- Sonic: Generations; wanted to get to this, but c'mon. C'mon. This wasn't making the list. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together; As it's a remake I don't feel too bad about not waiting. Radiant Historia; I'm about 5 hours into this game and totally not digging the combat, I will finish it sometime but it's put me off too much so far to consider waiting.

List items

  • It's very rare when a game comes along, and makes me fall in love with every element of the experience. The soundtrack instantly found a place on my mp3 device; the 2d art is gorgeous, colorful, and imaginative; the narrative is unique, well planned, unintrusive, and yet it invites to to participate; the combat is one of those rare action games which lets me feel like I'm actually using my skill to overcome challenges rather than cheap obstacles; the customization feels meaningful, and invites experimentation gladly. Not only are each of the individual elements so appealing, but they complement each other in such a way that makes the whole experience coalesce into a beautiful whole. This game doesn't try to be a movie like Uncharted, and it doesn't try to be a world simulator like Skyrim, it's a game that delights in being a game. It plays to the mediums strengths, and it's games like these that get me excited for the games to come.

  • Listen. I think the original Portal is totally overrated. Blasphemy! Right? I mean I still love it, but come on everybody. Glados ain't Jesus. Anyways it's important to put into perspective that it is only a 3 hour experience, and that allows its mechanics to do interesting things before wearing out their welcome, and allows for a more manageable narrative. It only succeeded because its scope was so small. This is why it's so intriguing that Portal 2 managed to be such a stellar game. The way they handled the story was basically by breaking it up into 3 or so Portal sized acts, and this allowed them to retain the charm of the original. The humor was vastly improved over the first, it relies less on a funny voice and more on the writing and delivery. The gameplay was so much greater in scope that it allowed for puzzles on an entirely new level of thought, and while the mechanics don't always support this scope, it makes for some great mind bending gameplay. In every way this game surpassed the original for me, and for that it firmly earns its place on this list.

  • The story in this games campaign is great, if only because of the subject matter it is wiling to tackle. Honestly I wasn't entirely sold on the idea of the infidelity story working in a game, but I found myself buying into it completely as I made my way through the game. I even defend the twist made later on which so many other people complained about. If you didn't think there was something weird going on, you are blind. If only the block puzzles had gone a bit further, and been a bit further than this game would be higher on this list. Though if only for the novelty of such unusual gameplay, I still found it a delight.

  • Pokemon Pearl nearly tanked this series for me. While Soul Silver brought it back, I was not convinced that modern Pokemon had it in itself to make me care about it, and I was ready to write this game off before I even played it. However this game brought in some genuinely cool new pokemon, some interesting abilities and moves, the occasional cool gym leader, a commitment to story that Pokemon hasn't exhibited previously, and an ideology of finally streamlining some of the mechanics that make raising pokemon such a hassle. This is more than I ever expected they would do in a new Pokemon game, and I loved every minute of it.

  • InFamous is one of my favorite games, and I was very skeptical going into this one based on the initial trailers. It seemed like they were getting too far away from what made the first game great, and in some ways they did, yet InFamous 2 still made me fall in love with it all over again. The power are even better in this entry, and they give you way more interesting scenarios with which to use them. There's a lot more variation in this entry than the previous one, and there are more characters to get involved with. What really ended up selling me was the ending (yet again). They weren't afraid to go all out, and regardless of which ending you got it leaves you with some closure for this series.

  • I've never been a big gears fan. I've played through every entry once and more or less enjoyed my time with them, however it says a lot about my franchise awareness that I didn't even buy this game until about 4 months after it's release. And yet I couldn't put it down. Many of the games this year were played in fits and starts, but this one sunk it's claws in me until I got to the finish line. The gameplay is as good as ever, but it didn't even need to evolve in the first place, there are some excellent scenarios and setpieces to make up for the lack of innovation. The story is even great! A gears game could not have delivered a better narrative, and almost no other shooters manage to tell a story that is so funny, intense, and emotional. This game made me look back with a fonder eye on the rest of the series, it gave me complete closure, and I don't know what else I could've asked for in the conclusion of this trilogy.

  • I feel I fall into a weird place with the Zelda series. When I was a kid, like many other people Ocarina of Time was my favorite game. I loved and played through a ton of different entries in the franchise, and yet for every entry after Majora's mask I just couldn't bring myself to work through the whole game. It felt like just going through the well worn motions. It says a lot that this was the first Zelda game I've beaten in nearly a decade. It finally sold me on the combat, the environments were gorgeous, the puzzles were interesting, and many of the characters earned a smile or two from me. The best entry in one of the most hallowed franchises of all time for two generations.

  • This was my one little ray of hope in the boring release schedule of 2011, and in a lot of ways I felt like it let me down. Mostly because I truly, honestly feel I could have written a better story. That being said, even a half assed Uncharted is still an Uncharted game. The amazing setpieces are still second to none, and top a lot of the ones in Uncharted 2, I still enjoyed the combat more than any other shooter out there, I love the desert setting and only wish they had done more with it, and I think the melee was a great (if unpolished) evolution for the series. This would've been a bad movie, but it was a hell of a game.

  • This is a game in a genre I do not like, from a company I almost never enjoy, in a series I have never played. Were it not for the quick look and the insistence of the Bomb Squad about its crazy good fun I likely would have passed, and I am so glad I didn't because if not I would have missed out on some of the wildest, funniest, craziest nonsense of the year. This game is fucking stupid, and that's why I love it.

  • In a year where there were almost no releases I cared about I found myself going outside of my comfort zone a little bit to compensate. Usually this ended poorly, however Child of Eden was a very special treat. I don't care that it was so short, simple, and repetitive. The pulse of the music, the colors, the psychedelic visuals, and the rocking of my controller made me fall in love with this game right from the start, and I was sad to see it end.