Like most of us, I had a pretty busy gaming year in 2011. Mostly at the end of it, but many games were great all throughout. Here are the ones I wanted to recognize for excellence, infamy, and even downright holding back the industry. Let's get started.

First up, I want to acknowlege a game that had a lot to prove. It came in with a legacy as diverse as a YinYang symbol and lived up to it's name:

Next, I'd like to honor one crazy piece of software. A game that made me laugh, cry with shame, and generally made me as joyous as it made me uncomfortable:

From there, I need to show a little humility in my, and many others, choices. So here we go:

For this next one, I'd like to add a little personal background. I LOVE the Dead Rising games. But regardless of that, this one deserves a dubious mention:

And as long as we're pointing the finger at a certain "Activision of Japan" developer/publisher, let's get this one out of the way:

Now, before I start kissing any games ass, Here's a double up for collective awesomeness, and deep seeded loathing all in one:

I've never liked an MMO before. WoW, City of Heroes, all good games but not my cup of tea. So to my surprise, they finally made one I enjoy this year (barely):

Now, if I may, I want to acknowledge a game that literally came back from the brink and restored a near dead franchise to it's former glory:

And finally, my most loved, most played, and most adored game of 2011 by a mile. A game I have almost no criticisms for. None other than:

I'd also like to take a second to point out of couple of great games that didn't get much love in the bloated 2011 GotY scene from many of the other publications. First of all, Dead Island. Now I know the zombie thing has been beaten to death like a... well like a zombie in an island breakout. But Dead Islands unique melee system was more fun than it had any right to be. And shame on Techland for not even making it a bullet point on the box. If it weren't for GB's QuickLook, I would not even have known about it and would likely have skipped Dead Island altogether.

And lastly, I want to mention InFamous 2. The game isn't really deserving of any awards I can think up, or really any at all given how packed the PS3's exclusive catalog has been this year. But it was still fun and exciting and it had one of the better endings I've seen in games. At least the "Light Side" Cole ending. I couldn't make it very far into "Dark Side" Cole's story because the choices were so stupid. But I still loved it and it's my most enjoyable PS3 game this year. Maybe not the best, but the most fun I've had with the Dual Shock controller since ReZ packed in a trance vibrator.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed making it.