Favorite Games of 2011
Another year, another compilation of my favorite games ordered into a Top Ten list. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Super Mario 3D Land will be included after I spend a little more time with them.
List items
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Where I’ve heard plenty of people claim that they enjoyed the original Portal more for offering a refreshingly original and amusing adventure, I can’t do that. In nearly every aspect (not originality, obviously) Portal 2 manages to outdo its predecessor. The puzzles are more involved, the jokes are funnier, and the new characters (all two of them) are among the best new personalities we’ve seen this entire year. So much love and I never got to play the cooperative mode.
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Although Ghost Trick is original, amusing, and capable of telling a surprisingly interesting story, its inclusion is bittersweet because it apparently bombed commercially.
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Maybe my expectations were tempered by the realization that, as much as I enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins (and the expansion, Awakening), I never quite considered it as great as the vast majority of BioWare’s followers. It’s an enjoyable game, to be sure, but combat with a warrior or rogue is dreadfully boring, and the entire Orzammar/Deep Roads section is incredibly tedious to the point that thinking of going through that again dissuades any interest in replaying Origins.
I enjoyed Origins for its story and characters, and I enjoyed Dragon Age 2 not only for its characters, but because it told a story unlike what we typically seen in gaming. Hawke’s journey isn’t rising from crisis to attain glory, but the more realistic rising from crisis to attain glory only to lose it through equal means unavoidable circumstances beyond our control and our own stupid decisions. I understand, reading many of the comments on BioWare’s forums, that this isn’t the kind of story many gamers want to be involved with.
Speaking outside the fiction, Dragon Age 2 has problems. There’s no denying that, and your enjoyment largely depends on your ability to look past them. No doubt the Dragon Age team at BioWare has heard the criticism and will be making the effort to craft Dragon Age 3 into something a little less . . . polarizing.
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I enjoy a good crime drama, so the possibility of playing through one as lead detective – finding clues and tricking the criminal into incriminating himself – was a very appealing concept. Unfortunately, the reality didn’t quite match. Tracking down evidences boiled down to wandering around the area until the controller rumbled, and the hyped conversation feature just didn’t do anything for me (I never managed to get the hang of it). The story pulled me along, as did the momentary sensation of putting the crime together and understanding exactly what, and why, it happened. At least, I was pulled along until I finished homicide and transferred into arson, at which point I turned the game off and never returned, like so many other players have apparently done.
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