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Zeg

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Zegs 2011 Game of the Year List (Or the 13 games I played this year, in order of my preference)

Hey. This is it. The whole thing. Bear in mind that I own no console, though I would include games that I played via the couch at a friends.

So, a general impression of my year of games? I guess it was a half and half. Half good, half meh. Half surprises, half known quantities. But my tastes in games are probably considered quite weird to start with so my general disinterest in what might be considered the 'big' games of the year, especially those on consoles that I would have only experienced partially, might not be so surprising.

Scroll to the bottom and read up if you want to see my scorn turn to happiness, or read from the top if you don't like suspense.

If you would like to hear my scorn there's also www.happysalad.net for the Saladcast. Searchable clips by game! Whiskey powered! Come on guys! We want listeners! (Desperate advertising over).

List items

  • Eheheh. The moment I saw a 'Puzzle Game of the Year' list that completely lacked mention of this, I knew where it had to be on this list. That's not to say it doesn't deserve it however. Is it amazingly graphically beautiful... no. Though it is fine looking in its simplicity. Is it a huge game... no. Well, sort of. It's certainly focused, but it's not lacking for content in that focus or reason to come back. So what is it really? SpaceChem is simply a puzzle game, but the important thing is it's not a hand holder, or a hunt for the one solution. It's an open ended puzzle. It gives you a perfectly crafted toolbox, guides you to gradually learn techniques and then says nothing more than 'start with this, end with this' and lets you make that happen. And it feels awesome to make it happen, to feel smart when you overcome what might have seemed a daunting task initially, and then smarter when you go back with some new little trick you learnt and improve your method. The bell curve of scores pulled from everyone else who has completed the level is the perfect little incentive to improve. Is it for everyone, well no. It's no fast paced twitch game. You certainly can just sit there with a blank canvas on screen for an hour, working it out in your mind. It may be a little too much like work for anyone in Programming. But it sure is rewarding if you get into it.

  • I shall refrain from declaring my presence in a vacuum (the broken turrets were a better moment anyway) and say that actually, I think Portal 2 might be lucky to be this high up this list. As I progressed further through the game, I started to feel more and more that each individual puzzle element that was introduced was just not getting enough playtime. In fact, overall I'd say the puzzles were too telegraphed, too much just tutorially teaching you the mechanic only to move on immediately, just too one solution binary success or failure. But those mechanics were indeed fun and everything else surrounding the actual 'game' part made Portal 2 just better overall. The story and continuing discovery of Aperture Science, the music stings, and the graphics squeezing the (probable) last out of the Source engine. It all came together to make a solid game. Just wish it could have been longer... or advanced chambers, what happened to those? And unfortunately, 'Valve time' delayed the 'summer' free DLC and the level editor altogether too much for a game that people were effectively done with in 8ish hours. Thanks for the memories (if not the memes)... I'm sure it will be replayed again in the years to come, just as the original was.

  • So, I already liked Minecraft. I already liked spending time just exploring and collecting resources and crafting stuff. But Terraria showed Minecraft a thing or two about content. Yes it's 2D, that inherently makes it simpler to make, as well as easier to add more to. But do that they indeed did. What might have initially appear to be a 2D Minecraft clone was revealed to be much more of a game than a creative toolbox, focused more on combat and fancy loot. And since release, patches have only added even more stuff, more reasons to start fresh and sink the hours in enjoying the feeling of progression as you work your way up the crafting tree and take on bigger and tougher enemies and bosses. The pixel art is good, if a little derivative initially, and the music is surprisingly enjoyable for something that will be looping non-stop for hours. Here's hoping for yet more content patches... and maybe for Minecraft to borrow a few ideas back from it too.

  • It's Battlefield, there's hardly more to say than that. Yes there's balance issues, team balance issues (come on guys, how hard is it to make it automatically swap the top two squads on each team at the end of the round?), and a few bugs. But its still Battlefield. Big battles, different roles that can all be fun, vehicles, all that. Also it looks pretty damn good and the sound is amazing. I still think 2142 might just beat it to being the best Battlefield game for me (the mechanics of 2142 just felt a little more sturdy... and the unlockable weapons were really different, not just another rifle... also future aesthetic was fun), but server populations can only live for so long and Battlefield 3 will do quite nicely indeed.

  • Woo, a good Sonic game. Actually, I liked a lot of what might be called 'modern' Sonic games anyway, and Sonic Colours last year felt like it had finally refined the boosty mechanics from Sonic Unleashed and the DS games almost as far as it could. So despite initial reservations about the selection of levels, it wasn't all that surprising that it turned out great. The modern Sonic levels are definitely my preference, but the old style levels are fine too. The music remixes are great too (except maybe Planet Wisp), and the story is thankfully almost non-existent. Now Sega has a chance to make some money if only they make level packs... real levels, not pinball... and charge sane prices for them, like they did with the game. Just remake every Sonic level ever, it's fine! You can keep the cash flowing for so long! And when that's done, just more decent stuff like Colours and the Rush games, thanks.

  • The highest console game to make the list, though some higher were released on console. I shared purchasing this with a friend simply because we had seen video of it and it looked insane. And it turned out to be so. I'm no fighting game guy, my friend is slightly moreso. But it doesn't matter. Even if you have no real idea what you are doing, crazy stuff happens non-stop. Just like Smash Brothers, it can make you laugh so hard in the middle of the game that its hard to keep playing. I'm sure there's something of a skilled fighting game in there too, if only because of the presence of the 'Capcom waggle', but I think it's clearly better for me if we never try and learn to play and just keep it as a entertaining button mashing spectacle.

  • Yep, 7th. I can't explain why so many people seem to love so much a game that is just a fantasy game built over Fallout 3. I think I might even prefer VATS based diceroll gun shooting to the wave-your-sword-vaguely-at-them melee or magic spraying. And Skyrim is not a 'role playing game' even. Every choice, when you get one, is either 'Yes I will do whatever you say' or 'No, I don't want to see that content'. The skill system is not based on skill. Click button, smith armour, skill goes up. There's no gameplay to it. What Skyrim has going for it is a nice world, though I don't think it's as amazing looking as some seem to, and a large amount of content. You may still be killing bandits over and over, but at least the areas are a little more varied than the Fallout 3 'more damn sewers'.

  • A late entry to the list, and it does well to hold its place despite being such a small game. It's mearly a lovely looking bullethell-ish shoot 'em up, but mightily well crafted. The pixel art is awesome, the soundtrack is great, even the menus are nicely set up to allow the local Co-Op to work really well. Just needs some more levels really.

  • I had a hard time placing this. It could have gone lower, but triple A bulk kept it up a bit. It's just Deus Ex again. Everyone asked for it and they got it. But for every improvement there's just a little bit too much streamlining cancelling it out, and for a game that was touted to be about 'choice', there didn't seem to be all that much. I can't imagine any way other than stealth. The combat options just seemed too weak and limited. Of course, they threw in the horrible bosses too, which broke things even more by having no stealth option to get through them. At least the hacking minigame was alright.

  • Myself and a friend bought into this in one of the numerous Steam sales. And though we didn't play all that much, not yet even finishing the campaign, we had some ludicrous fun. Which is to say, we killed each other and ourselves accidentally repeatedly. The magic combo system is just fun to mess with, even if eventually you find all the basic combos and settle on the one that you're going to use. But those few hours of fun and experimenting were worth the few pounds to buy into it.

  • Damnit, Pokemon. You got me again. The promise of an all new set of Pokemon and to be able to catch them all with only a tiny bit of trading was all it took. And animated sprites I guess. This has to be it though. Either Pokemon is done, or we finally get a 'real', 3D, on a console Pokemon game. WiiU or nothing. If I would care enough to have a WiiU to start with.

  • Yes, it came out this year. So everyone gets to consider it for their Game of the Year lists. But here it is at 12th. Why? Because as fun as it is to create things, the 'game' part of Minecraft is still lacking, as is the 'new user experience' part. It may seem a facetious criticism, since apparently everyone in the world has already played it, but there's no tutorial or even decent hints in the game to show you how to progress. You get the (really sparse) 'achievement' tree thing to hint you along, but with that 3x3 crafting grid some recipes are surely too much to guess at. If you came into Minecraft early, as I did, of course you knew that the wiki was vital, because there was absolutely no clues back in the beginning. And yet despite being 'complex', there's still really not much to Minecraft as a game. Terraria is maybe the most damning counterpoint to Minecraft, even with the advantages 2D simplicity brings. I enjoyed Minecraft the most this year when messing around with mods, like Buildcraft and Equivalent Exchange. So I hope development continues and just... more can be added to the game.

  • Really only an honourable mention, since it was a friends Christmas present and as such not much time put in. It's cool and all, the extended toolset that lets people make almost new game styles inside it is nice, but its just more LBP.
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