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Monthenor

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Best Cole of 2011

2011 was a banner year for Coles.

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  • A new city and a new voice actor couldn't dampen my enthusiasm for inFamous' pro/antagonist, Cole MacGrath. As is usual in morality games, I went full-blown angelic, but inFamous 2 was the first time I've felt tempted to see what lay in the other cutscenes.

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    Cole's glee at the strange events surrounding him in New Marais, his believable grief at the Trish situation, and the human foibles that allow him to be swayed by good or evil...these all add up to a single person that I can believe could be a hero or a villain. The best character moment is probably the late story mission Easy Going, but any interaction with the newly-palatable Zeke brought a smile to my face. Despite his powers Cole MacGrath was the most human Cole of 2011, a gray area between the super-bro Cole Train and super-prig Cole Phelps.

  • Coal is the foundation of industry in Minecraft. It is the most efficient fuel source for furnaces, able to smelt up to 8 items per unit, and also an ingredient in the ubiquitous lifesaving torches. The discovery of coal is the first major step along the path from mud hovels to mighty castles.

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    Recently charcoal has eased players through the first few nights of scrabbling into a cliff face for protection, but a good vein of coal is still the most common method of boosting players into the Iron Age.

  • The "Cole Train"'s rampant egotism and celebrity backstory receive a surprising amount of attention in Gears of War 3. More than any boss battle or even Ice T, my favorite sequence of the entire game revolves around Cole's return to his hometown, culminating in a bizarrely affecting setpiece inside his ruined thrashball stadium. This final event lasts for all of ten seconds if played perfectly, but created an emotional weight unmatched by any of the series' other attempts to tug at heartstrings.

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    Cole is then immediately back in his super-bro army persona and the game never brings it up again. I don't know whose idea that little vignette was, but it was amazing.

  • The protagonist of the long-delayed L.A. Noire, Cole Phelps is the glue holding the entire caper together. As in any good noir, his white knight attitude on the job is in ever-growing contrast to his slowly disintegrating private life. His connection to the overarching criminal enterprise is slow-rolled across the entire game's length and culminates in a stereotypical but satisfying battle beneath the mean streets of Los Angeles.