Just using the categories the GB crew used, and perhaps adding a few. My top "ten" list can be viewed here though I have a hard time actually coming up with ten games to populate it with. This year has been mostly really disappointing for me, especially considering how amazed I've been at the quality of games coming out every year from 2007-2010. I guess there's gotta be a slow year now and again.

Anyway, on to my awards:

• 2011's 2010 Game of the Year: Super Meat Boy

I loved Meat Boy immediately when I got it in October last year, and I've been chipping away at it constantly for about a year and ended up with an S-rank. I could've had it sooner, but it's a game best enjoyed in small bursts. I rarely found it frustrating; rather, I found it exhilarating and therapeutic. Guess that's what happens when I grew up with Super Mario Bros. and Mega Man, huh?

• Best Mission/Level: Bastion's final level

Bastion's story didn't really resonate with me all that much until the end. I won't spoil it, but it gives you some choices and shows you some character depth that the rest of the game doesn't really do, and you feel it in the gameplay. I like that in a game, and I'm sad that more of Bastion wasn't that meaningful to me.

• Best New Character: Cave Johnson from Portal 2

Portal 2 doesn't have many characters, but they're all wildly memorable. However, the greatest example for me is Cave Johnson, the egotistical entrepreneur and founder of Aperture Science. His offhand remarks and observations contained in all the recordings you discover are absolutely hilarious. He adds so much flavor to the experience, and it just wouldn't have been the same without him.

• Best Music: Rayman: Origins

In a year of great music, Rayman: Origins stands out for straddling the line between delightful and manically insane. You'll hear blends of mariachi bands, Disneyland-style tunes, gibberish singing, and much more in such an odd but seemingly perfect mixture of sounds.

• Best Debut: Pushmo

Nintendo needs more quality downloadable titles, and Pushmo is a fantastic start to that. I really hope they continue and make more great games and facilitate third parties really exploring the capabilities of the 3DS.

• Best Surprise: Rayman: Origins

I haven't ever liked a Rayman game. I've played the original and Rayman 2, but I never really liked the super weird world Michel Ancel had created and I wasn't impressed with the platforming. How delighted I was when I first played Rayman: Origins and found it to be a gorgeous, slick platforming experience that's easily one of my favorite games of 2011.

• Best Sky Game: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

I take stock with the definition of this category. Honestly, I would define it as the one that best deserves the sky in their name. Skyward Sword is a flawed game, but civilization is ENTIRELY IN THE SKY and you fly all over on your crazy red bird...so you're in the sky a lot. Skyrim's a much better game, but Skyward Sword is a much more sky-oriented game. So there.

• Best Competitive Multiplayer: Gears of War 3

I'm not an online shooter guy, so it takes something really special to keep me coming back. I'm pretty good at third-person shooters (and awful at first-person) because I haven't encountered the experiences I hear people talking about where it's so hard to get into it. The suite of features, the great number of unlockable features and perfect controls have made me love to play Gears 3 competitively. And that's something.

• Best Use of Nolan North: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

I am extremely fascinated by the process used in the making of all the Uncharted games, and I love the effort all the actors and directors put into all the motion capture, voice work and everything else in Uncharted 3. Nolan North is a very talented guy, and his work in Uncharted 3 is among the best in the industry. Kudos to this guy, and to Naughty Dog for the impressive work they've done and strides they've made.

• Best Looking Game: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

It's not just about the technical side of things, where many PC games will outdo it in sheer texture detail. It's not just in art style, which it has in spades. It's in how all the various elements of the game's look (animation, character faces, details, textures, frame rate, art style) come together to form a cohesive amazing-looking game. I believe this is the best-looking game to date on any platform, and a huge step up from the already-impressive Uncharted 2.

• Worst Trend: "New Copy" DLC/Activation Codes

Batman: Arkham City was just one example of the increasingly egregious use of in-box activation codes for game content or online access that is becoming so prevalent. Stripping content out of the game and penalizing gamers for trying to save money is downright repugnant. I understand the reasons for it from a money-making perspective, but the games they're found in are never the games that are struggling to sell new copies. To solve these issues, publishers need to work more with Sony and Microsoft to get downloadable versions cheaper or have better sales, like Steam does. Oh, and the stuff EA does with its sports franchises where it has a code for online access or they charge you for it AND they drop their servers after a year or two is the most despicable, awful business I've ever seen in the industry. Bad form.

• Best Use of 3: Gears of War 3

It's simply the best shooter on the market and it closes out the Gears of War story in a meaningful way while still leaving room for more story. Sweet.

• Best Download-Only Game: Bastion

It was a really weak year for Xbox Live Arcade, but Bastion is great regardless of the year. I'm not as in love with it as Giant Bomb seems to be, but it's a high-quality action adventure game with some interesting mechanics and execution. Nothing on the level of Meat Boy or Shadow Complex this year, but oh well.

• Best Co-Op: Gears of War 3

No surprises here. Just more, more, more in every possible aspect and pulled off in such a great way.

• Best Story: Portal 2

The game is the story, and it's a much more fleshed out and interesting story than the original. I like where the characters go, I like the restraint Valve shows in not getting self-referential or going overboard, and the ending is AMAZING.

• Most Disappointing Game: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

I should've seen it coming, since I basically hated Twilight Princess, but Skyward Sword seemed like it was constantly daring me to like it. From aggravating side characters to unskippable, slowly-scrolling dialogue to scads of elements stuck in the past to random, pointless new features that actually diminish from the experience (like crafting) to infuriatingly pedantic and down-talking hints and tutorials (all forced upon you) to multiple, frequent cases of going overboard with motion controls that lead to me not liking Skyward Sword basically at all. And I'm a humongous Zelda fan, so...strike two, Nintendo. I'm not expecting anything again. Even after those amazing, amazing Mario Galaxy games that show me you guys still understand something. Maybe not Zelda anymore.

• Best Remake or HD Update: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

Ocarina of Time is the only completely perfect game in existence. The only proper way to properly show reverence for it in a remake would be to leave it alone other than touching up aged elements like visuals and controls, or drastically remaking it in such a way that it's only loosely based on the original and ends up being its own creature (like Metroid: Zero Mission). Nintendo opted for the first option, which was the right decision in this case. Ocarina of Time 3D, apart from a couple of very minor nags (Navi telling you to take a break from playing...WHAT?!?) is a flawless update to that masterpiece and keeps it relevant for the new age of players who can't see past the dated visuals of the N64 game, or don't have a good way to play it. It's a game I go back to year after year and I still enjoy just as much as I used to, so it deserves every new audience it can get.

• Dumbest Motion-Control Moment: Flapping wings, throwing objects, and wildly inconsistent gestures in Skyward Sword

I already mentioned it, but Skyward Sword did some neat things with motion controls this year. The combat was mostly interesting if inconsistent throughout (doing horizontal slashes is way harder than it needs to be), but the thing that showed me that the developers simply don't know what's good and what's bad about motion controls is how many things were relegated to motion that should've been buttons or analog control. Things like falling from the sky and trying to land on a specific spot, or waving the remote up and down to flap your bird's wings, to throwing objects like bombs or pots with gestures instead of with a button (which led to a lot of really frustrating moments and even some deaths at times) and not utilizing the IR sensor for pointing, which works much, much better than the MotionPlus.

That's all for this year. Remember it's all based on my experiences. I'm going to limit my usage of GiantBomb this next year to stay more on task so...yeah.