Best & Worst of 2011
This list is a little different, in that I've put the best and worst (or at least most disappointing) games of the year in one place.
List items
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This is a love-or-hate game, and I can see why some may hate it. It's slow, some of the chase mechanics are clunky, shooting is too easy, some interrogation questions seem too subjective, and Phelps' "Doubt" can be way too harsh.
However, I loved it. I've been trying to figure out how to put my thoughts into text and keep it coherent, but all I can think is: it's something different and unique, and it's a lot of fun.
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Thinking with portals + gels = excellent first-person puzzle game. The writing is once again top-notch as well.
Also, Cave Johnson. Nuff said.
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Oh my GOD, so much FUN! Graphical improvements over SR2, not to mention the PC controls are leaps and bounds better than the previous installment. The only thing I miss is Septic Avenger - hey Volition, add it with DLC!
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Credit where credit is due - Reflections took a franchise that everyone thought was a generation past its prime, and gave it a new lease on life. You would think that any open-world game that didn't let you out of the car would be like bringing a knife to a gunfight, but with the story providing a reasonable excuse for the "shifting" mechanic it just works, and works very well. This was one of the few pleasant surprises of the year.
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On the surface, this game deserved the low sales it racked up: an FPS with bulky space marine characters with dudebro attitudes and vocabularies.
However, the skillshot system works very well, and the characters (while muscle-bound, vulgar, and sport Wolverine-like facial hair) have surprising depth. The game encourages you to kill enemies in creative ways - and what's even better is that you WANT to kill them in all the various ways.
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I'm not normally a top-down shooter enthusiast, but something about this game drew me in, and for several weeks this is all I played. Maybe it's the ridiculous main character's voice acting, maybe it was the achievements during the winter sale...
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Beautiful art design, with some so-so gameplay mechanics.
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The story in Crysis 2 is much improved over the first Crysis. The alien enemies in Crysis 2 are a step in the right direction as well. Of course, graphics look GREAT in Crysis 2 and they don't even require Deep Blue.
Unfortunately, everything else in Crysis 2 is a step back from Crysis - smaller level design, more corridors (although wider than most games), and limited arsenal. I'm uneasy on the suit management as well.
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After the thrill that was RF: Guerrilla, it's sad that Volition followed up an open-world free-form destruction game with a confined construction-destruction game. The single thing that made this game was that the magnet gun was sooo badass - I haven't had so much fun with one single gun in a game since the gravity gun in HL2.
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I really want to like this game - the premise is interesting, the movement and skills are different, the customization is extensive and cool - but there's just something lacking that makes the fun hit a wall very early. The gunplay is just not satisfying. The bots suck, which can of course be remedied by playing online - but there's not a lot of people playing, so getting a game going can take awhile.
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