The Fifth Annual Coint and Plick Poll for Best Video Games of 2011 - Part Four: THE TOP TWENTY

The Fifth Annual Coint and Plick Poll for Best Video Games of 2011 - Part One: 74-109
The Fifth Annual Coint and Plick Poll for Best Video Games of 2011 - Part Two: 51-73
The Fifth Annual Coint and Plick Poll for Best Video Games of 2011 - Part Three: 21 - 50

I'm going to throw in the biggest disappointments in with the top 20 as we count down.

Will M’s Biggest Disappointment
Skyrim
This game is slightly more fun than playing nothing at all. I don't care if you make a game the size of California if there's no interesting way to traverse it. I can only longbow so many dudes with moose antlers before I start asking, what's the point? MY BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT IS ALWAYS THE OPEN-WORLD GAME OF THE YEAR AND I CAN'T HELP IT.

i wasnt disappointed in skyrim but it wasnt that great a game

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#20: L.A. Noire – 360 / PS3 – 53 pts – 6 votes - 1 top game vote
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Jeff: I got really tired of playing this game near the end. It was sort of repetitive: go to crime scene, look for stuff, ask questions, interrogate. The side missions were not compelling. Too many Mad Men actors. Wait, I sound like I didn't like this game. I really did like parts of it, I swear.

methanietanner: Basically, a point and click adventure game with the most unstable and unlikable lead for a AAA game in a while. A sterile and oddly lifeless overworld combined with an increasingly tedious story made this one that I never finished, but still, it was pretty awesome when I first found the Intolerance set, anachronisms be damned.

Will M: There are a few (okay, a LOT) of problems with this game, but I love a lot of the things they tried to do. The space was amazing (if not a little underused), the plot was fun (even if it was linear to the point of near-pointlessness) and the facial stuff was really cool (if not, at times, facile). The whole Team Bondi rigmarole is unfortunate but I hope Rockstar does something with the IP in the future.

Salsa Shark: For me, L.A. Noire took Rockstar's biggest asset (ability to create sprawling yet detailed open worlds) and made it enjoyable on a much wider scale (I've never been interested in the GTA games). Yes, some of the interrogations had nonsensical truths/doubts/lies or evidence. Yes, it was completely ridiculous the way Cole Phelps would sometimes fly off the handle when accusing a witness of lying. And yes, the process of gathering evidence was way too strictly controlled, lacking the red herrings and dead leads that any normal investigation would come across. But this game was was always going to be a bit of an experiment (an experiment in new technology, an experiment in a largely untouched style of gaming on a big scale, an experiment in recreating a city as it once actually existed rather than creating one loosely based off a contemporary urban conglomerate), so I'm willing to be a bit more forgiving towards its shortcomings. And the game isn't without its strengths. The characters are generally well-developed. Dialogue is well-delivered. The face-scanning technology made the human graphics look far more believable than any other game. The city, its landmarks and its neighbourhoods are fun to explore. Gun fights and shooting scenes can be dumbed down for people like me who want to spend time solving crimes and getting on with the story instead of dying over and over. But my favourite part of L.A. Noire was Los Angeles itself and the era and atmosphere its storyline captured. On the surface it's the Los Angeles of the American Dream; underneath it's a world of crime, drugs, Hollywood sleaze, and corporate profiteering that foreshadow the state of the country 60 years later and the ruin of whatever 'dream' may have existed.

LA Noire was a huge disappointment for me, but I agree with Salsa about it being a very cool experiment with some strong positives. But it's a terrible video game.

There's a lot of complaints about the illusion of choice in Mass Effect 3, but for me LA Noire is the real sinner. It's a choose your own adventure story with only one possible outcome. But the storytelling of that one story was very strong.

i have LA Noire sitting at home waiting for me to play it. probably the biggest release of the year that i just haven't gotten to yet - and i was really excited for it too! but then i read the reviews... and the comments...

i played it for an hour. that was about enough. reminded me more of heavy rain than anything else

press X to climb the wet muddy hill.

oops, you slipped. try again.

I got no satisfaction out of the interrogations because I never knew if I was throwing the right dude in jail. And I don't think I ever found out??? It was unclear.

per the skyrim critique, bethesda's gameplay componenents have always been shit but 95% of my fondest memories are always drawn from the transversing - first encountering vivec in morrowind, progressing up those steps to the throat of the world in skyrim, doing..um...nice grass in oblivion. really, when i pick up those games to replay it's never for reason that i want to replay a particular quest or experience a specific moment: i just want to walk across the land, wonder what's behind the trees, over the hill, and continue forth w/ the same sequence ad infinitum

watching a sunrise across grass hills in morrowind and having a netch slowly float into my frame of view is likely one of my greatest gaming memory's. bethesda's games have always been about these solitary moments you can actually go so far as to considering exclusively your own.

im done.

you weren't alone, kelpolaris. i too was at the beautiful netch-laden sunrise, 2 feet to your left. i said "hello there traveler" but you continued to stare blankly forwards, as if you were only a computer of sorts, or an avatar controlled by a distant person relaxing between work and sleep.

la noire looks sooooo unappealing to me

but i hate dialogue stuff and cut scenes in video games more than anything so a whole game of them was just

if it helps you to feel ok about that, its the worst game in the world

i love that shit! gotta crack that bastard open.

almost kinda intolerable waiting for this to hit top 5. i'm loving the picks so far and desperately want a new game, despite not having finished the last 3 i've bought

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#19: Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together – PSP – 55 pts – 3 votes - 2 top game votes - Top Exclusive PSP Game
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lamp: in the late 90s tactics ogre was the ambitious but flawed second album to final fantasy tactics 'commercial and critical darling' third album masterpiece. in this analogy ogre battle is the first album with a limited pressing that indie snobs claim is far superior to anything that came after. in the year 2011 its just another srpg rerelease. and while the years make cashgrabs of us all theres still a lot to praise about yasumi matsuno's underloved middle child and the psp remake does an excellent job of streamliningthe job system and the decluttering the battle screen. the game has a tremendous amount of depth and requires real mental skill to master.

Will M: I think this game left me practically bedridden in my last winter semester. I barely moved -- it was just me, and this game, and sometimes food. It's maybe better than Final Fantasy Tactics. It's probably my favourite game, in my favourite genre, on one of my favourite systems. I don't like giving top honours to a remake but I'd be lying if I didn't #1 this game.

wow i know that i am out of the loop wrt psp stuff but i have never actually even heard of that

these gifs have all been totally amazing btw ZS!

xp lol, i had a similar reaction

pocket system games always sound so cool and I'm like sigh I will never play you.

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#18: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective – DS – 55 pts – 4 votes - 1 top game vote
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Ian F: Just when Ace Attorney had started to lose its charm as a result of the same old gameplay and increasingly annoying puzzles, its creator goes and makes a game that solves the problem. Even if you didn't know their common maker, you'd realise as soon as you hit your first 'that event, -x- years ago...'. It has all the same unique humour and charm, a new art style to match, an even more breathtakingly convoluted plot, and a clever new puzzling mechanic operated through satisfying little swishes of the stylus.

Salsa Shark: Loved the art, the colour palette, and the oddball humour. The trial-and-error nature of the puzzles might be dull for some players but I thought the devs made a decent effort at adding new elements to them to keep it interesting. I also found that I actually cared about the characters and how their stories would unfold and come together. It's an interesting concept with a well-conceived story and well-written dialogue.
Also a super handy game if you want to practice vocab and reading in another language because it's so easy to switch to/from English on the start menu.

jamescobo: The DS has had a bunch of great point-and-click adventure games, but Ghost Trick is the first one which actually deserves to be mentioned alongside LucasArts' and Sierra's early/mid-90s output. Is it as great as Maniac Mansion or King's Quest 6? Well, I mean, uh, no, but at the very least it's good enough to be worthy of the comparison, which is more than I can say for (say) 999 or any of the Phoenix Wright games. It's gorgeous, it's clever, it's a great use of the stylus as an input scheme - I don't know what to say. GOTY.

abbott's #1?

DJP’s Biggest Disappointment
Street Fighter IV Volt (iOS)
If I could give this negative 100 points, I would. What MORON thought it would be a great idea to implement a fighting game on a platform with a touchscreen-based control scheme???????? A big part of correctly pulling off SF moves involves the tactile response from the controller, ensuring that you are doing the right thing at the right time. Take that out and you take out the heart of Street Fighter; how do you reliably chain together combos if you can't actually tell what position your controller is in? Just fucking stupid, plus the touchscreen control takes up half the screen real estate; sometimes covering vital action. I would like to find the genius who pushed this through and punch them in the nuts until they die.

Maybe Street Fighter was meant to be played with the iCade?

it's just kind of a neat "hey wow you can do combos on this iphone!" gimmickry type thing, and pretty far from the DS/PSP-style ports

Feeling a little embarrassed abt my writeups, Lamp does an awesome album metaphor and I say "I LAID IN BED A LOT"

nah, that kind of thing is the best thing about ilx polls

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#17: Dungeon Raid – iOS – 56 pts – 4 votes - 0.5 top game votes
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polyphonic: The iOS game I played the most this year, easily. Perhaps inspired by Puzzle Quest, but I prefer this game.

Euler: iOS gaming was where it was at for me in 2011, mostly for practical reasons: I'm on the road a bunch & don't get much console time even when I'm at home, max 1 hour a day & for long stretches none. But my iPod & iPad are with me always. Also I AM A CHEAPASS & don't buy new console games e.g. in 2011 I spent most of my console time playing Assassin's Creed & Tales of Vesperia & the Saboteur & Dragon Age: Origins why because they were cheap! & looked & played great.

& really I'd be happier polling games on a rolling 3 year timeframe b/c who can keep up in a calendar year? & who can afford it? because in 2012 I'll be playing DA 2, Mass Effect 1+2, Arkham Asylum, & El Shaddai, because I got them cheap late last year & that'll get me through another calendar year

but Dungeon Raid! o blissful drag & match & level level level o you turn my compulsive need for progress into something that lets me touch & drag & yes this sounds ridiculous but it was the best & still is, c'mon finish charging blasted iPod so that I can finish this present match

i spent a lot of time playing Dungeon Raid this year. Roguelike Puzzle Quest, pretty much.

Crap, I forgot to vote for Dungeon Raid.

two-way tie for #15:

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#15: Terraria – PC – 57 pts – 4 votes - 1 top game vote
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fennel cartwright: Terraria was the most fun of any game I played in 2011. While so-called open world games push you further and further into their artistic paradigms, giving you the illusion of choice while restraining you to what they want you to think (SR3: "You ran over a virtual hooker! LOL!" LA Noire: "This virtual hooker got beat up! Try really hard to think deeply about it"), Terraria has the most creative gameplay experience of any game I've ever played. I did not run out of stuff to do, ever, and I probably won't. And despite all this, it maintains a fundamental gameness which I find Minecraft lacks.

Will M: It may be a Minecraft knockoff but I had a lot of fun with this game (especially after my computer stopped letting Minecraft work, for some reason).

i have that and have never played it, i probably should

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#15: Radiant Historia – DS – 57 pts – 4 votes - 1 top game vote - Top Exclusive DS Game
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Ian F: A colourful RPG on the DS with no random encounters and a battle system which is turn-based but has some great new combo mechanics? It's about time travel? Yes, I did vote Chrono Trigger DS my favourite game of 2009, why? Radiant Historia differs in using time travel not in an era-to-era sense, but in a Doctor Who wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey sense, requiring you to dash backwards and forwards across its different narrative threads to resolve their problems in a very satisfying way. The game perhaps takes itself just slightly too seriously, but its battle mechanics are a major strength, requiring planning and invention but not in too heavy-handed a manner, and I did really want to see the story through to the end.

lamp: with radiant historia i think of that old vaudeville joke that the simpsons ripped off where homer tries to by the monkeys paw: it has an innovative and reasonably challenging battle system! thats good! but it still requires some tedious grinding! thats bad! it tries to tell an ambitious, complicated story about the cost of war! thats good! it does so with dialogue shorn of any nuance or ambiguity! thats bad! &c &c &c.

jamescobo: God bless any game that actually gets the Chrono Trigger time-travel your-actions-affect-future-
generations trope right, and despite its flaws Radiant Historia gets it RIGHT. It's rare now, so steal it if you have to (steal everything forever [never stop stealing{but seriously, play this game unless you're completely allergic to JRPGs}]).

Terraria is so much fun, but you can run out of things to do.

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#14: Jetpack Joyride – iOS – 57 pts – 6 votes
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tomofthenest: sat with my daughter taking turns on her ipod at the weekend for hours completing all the challenges. very addictive and well balanced game.

Nhex: A perfectly executed, achievement-addiction iPhone game. It had to get my vote over Temple Run.

CraigG: These running games - I have no idea what the genre is referred to - are just so hypnotic to me. Other than Drop7, this is what my iPhone gets used for, game wise. If I weren't too cheap to pay £2 for Canabalt, that might get played more, but I do like the relative depth of Jetpack Joyride - plus it's free. I'm still not sure whether it's a *good thing* when I scorch the poor little scientist dudes with my jetpack, or if I'm supposed to avoid them, while still trying to stay afloat though...

the genre comes from canabalt iirc

Heh, I do admittedly kind of love that the scientists are used both as avoidance and attack goals in the game. Poor little burnt dudes.

Dungeon Raid, eh? I'll look into it.

Radiant Historia, another DS game to buydownload onto my flash cart in the last several years... looks awesome though, seriously....

ZS are you creating all these GIFs? nice work!

can I just say these animated images are A+ more more more!!!

ok, i finally died after an epic realm of the mad god 40/40 run (almost made my first level 20 character before dying in the pits of hell at level 19.666/20

now i can get back to the srs business of continuing the results!

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#13: Super Mario 3D Land – 3DS – 63 pts – 4 votes – Top Exclusive 3DS Game
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CraigG: This is everything a Mario game on a modern handheld system should be - while I'd love a truly 2D mario game to capture the feeling I had for Mario Bros and Mario Bros 3 back when I was a kid, this comes pretty close to capturing how I felt about Mario 64 when I first played it. I've only played it 3 times, but I've already done every level, and got every star for the first 5 worlds because once I pick it up I play it for at least 1 full world.

jamescobo: For the first time, a 3D Mario which actually emphasizes running and jumping as opposed to 3D itself (despite ironically being the best 3D showcase that the 3DS has yet to yield), and SUPRIRISE: it's great. It's still not as satisfying as the lowliest of the 2D Marios (World? The Lost Levels? idk) but anyone who would deny that this game completely owns can go fuck themselves with great vigor.

Ian F: Being a mixture of New Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Galaxy meant that it never quite claimed its own unique identity, but it was still a fine Mario game with a couple of great new ideas (replaying the same levels in hard mode, shorter and harder levels) which I'd suggest came from Super Meat Boy if that didn't sound so ridiculous.

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#12: Bastion – XBLA / PC – 65 pts – 7 votes - Top Downloadable PSN/XBLA Game
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Ian F: I loved the atmosphere, loved the constant introduction of new weaponry, loved the fact that the narrative and gameplay co-existed perfectly without ever getting in each others' way. Most of all, though, I loved the music. The perfect fit of the old western/futuristic combination to the narrative! The bit with Zia's song that made me write inappropriately long gushing praise for a Jukebox review to have another avenue to talk about how fantastically well realised and beautiful the whole thing is! (pre-edited version: I've been playing this video game called Bastion, in which you play a survivor of some mysterious calamity who is trying to piece together what happened and rebuild his world, accompanied only by an ever-present narrator. Mechanically it's a fairly fast paced action game, but what it's really about is discovering and rebuilding its magical but precarious world. The best bit so far is the sequence where you drop through a hole to a new location and soon faintly hear a strange humming voice. Then, as you make your way across the landscape, you begin to hear that (female, smoky) voice singing a haunting song about building walls, and how someday those walls are going to fall. It sounds steeped in history and loss and, while you progress and try in vain to concentrate on killing monsters and not on the overwhelming melancholy, the song becomes louder and sharper until, eventually, you find a woman, lost in this wilderness, who has been singing it from the start. It really brings home the desolation of the game and is a beautiful moment.)

fennel cartwright: Bastion was really not much, but when it was something, it was polished. It was almost too stripped-down for its own good - the gameplay could have been a little more adventurous - but I have no significant complaints. Plus, it was beautiful, and the music ruled.

Nhex: Points for style, basically. Or maybe just that narrator.

Didn't vote for it but I liked bastion ok although my pretty much constant inner monologue was "why won't this narrator plz just STFU"

same. i kept on asking my previous gf if she would like a glass of water in that voice, trying to imitate it, and i probably did that way too much tbh

possibly contributing to the downfall of our relationblablabla

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#11: Bulletstorm – 360 / PS3 / PC – 70 pts – 4 vote - 2 top game votes
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Embracing shame: BULLETSTORM is stupid as hell and also awesome
jjjusten: I know I have gotten semi-cartoony wrt my love for this game but it is
straight up the best shooter or shooter derivative I have ever played.
It's batshit insane in a way that normally is relegated to the weirdo
failed game gulag of shadows of the damned or no more heroes, but with
endless amounts of polish and precision. There is quite literally
never a dull moment in the entire single player campaign, and although
i am sure the servers have dried up quite a bit over time, the
multiplayer was also genius coop mayhem. Despite all the sprawling
fantasy epics and clever puzzlers and so on, this was a lock for my
GOTY from the first 15 minutes I played it. Oh and also don't get
fooled by the demo, i think they went for mass appeal and pulled it
from the least compelling part of the game.

Will M: This was the year of decent immature games. More of this type of UI in shooters would not be unwelcome.

fennel cartwright: underrated, super-polished, attractive, and fun. It's what Duke Nukem Forever should have been.

no bulletstorm?

i had to double-post that to correct the ranking on the gif, but hopefully a mod will fix it soon.
d'oh-dy-d'oh d'oh

3. Salsa Shark’s Biggest Disappointment:
999: 9 hours 9 people 9 doors (DS)
I have few good things to say about this game despite the rather confusing near-universal hype it's received. Here are the few good things:
- The visuals, while limited, did help set the atmosphere, along with some of the soundtrack choices.
- The puzzles were done well and their difficulty was nearly spot-on. This was the most enjoyable aspect of the game.
- The dialogue between the characters during the puzzle scenes was relatively interesting.

Most of my dislike for 999 stemmed from how useless and poorly-written most of the 'story' sections were. The writing is awful. The blocks and blocks of text, written (or translated?) in a dull, amateurish way, often repeat what other characters have said or done and are overly, unnecessarily descriptive. These sections take up a huge chunk of 'play' time without adding anything at all to the progression of the story. It's a shame because the concept behind the game is actually intriguing, but the only time you can start piecing together how the story might unfold is through character dialogue, especially during the puzzle scenes. It boggles my mind as to why the useless 'story' sections weren't heavily edited down in favour of a more dialogue-led approach. And for what it's worth, the character dialogue is slightly better written than the blocks of story, though there are a couple of characters who are a bit too unbelievable and the swearing is a bit too awkward and OTT. Which brings me to my next qualm: your character is a bit of a dick and his 'love interest' is uninteresting, which makes it difficult to really care about what happens to either of them. And then, to make matters worse, there are six (!) possible endings to 999; getting the 'true' ending requires two separate playthroughs through two specific paths which are nearly impossible to discover without a walkthrough. My first and second playthroughs both had dud endings; the thought of having to sit through the game two more times was just too much for me. The happy ending for me is that I sold the game on eBay and nearly broke even.

i've been drinking all afternoon and it's beginning to show, sorry. the 3. by Salsa Shark means nothing, i was just numbering them to see how many total disappoints we had so i could evenly disperse them throughout the top 20 (yes, i typed them out using a keyboard rather than just scanning the screen and counting in my head, i don't know wtf is wrong with me sometimes) (and yes, i realized that i didn't end up evenly dispersing them throughout the top 20 because i just totally forgot for the last 7 results or so, whoops), and Salsa Shark happened to be the third one down.

$50 to anyone who can read that paragraph without barfing

The best ending of 999 is very satisfying and you should look it up on youtube if you didn't get it. There are enough hints to its path that it's not so bad. The first ending you're required to get is more obscure, but if you do the "best" path first the game flashes the door numbers of its path on the screen.

Yay BULLETSTORM!

Oh geez guys sorry for that blurb, I didn't realise how long it actually was :S

I think the endings I got were sub, knife, and axe. Then I gave up, sold the game, and watched the real ending on YT and yeah it was alright, but I'm def glad I didn't bother playing through again (twice!) for it.

I was kind of hoping that BULLETSTORM would actually crack the top ten, but having it in the top 20 is pretty awesome. Sl0ck1 were you the other goty voter?

Btw thanks to my months of being obnoxious, my iPhone now autocorrects BULLETSTORM to all caps, so I am not actually trying to be this consistently irritating. But I am lazy. Also, BULLETSTORM!

If I'd participated I'd have top voted Mario 3D Land. "a 3D Mario which actually emphasizes running and jumping as opposed to 3D itself" is perfectly true and why it's ultimately the greatest 3D Mario even if individual levels won't reach the heights of some delirious Galaxy moments. I think it's one of the best Mario games, period, because it retains those huge architectural masterpiece levels of Galaxy while being about platforming at all times. The first 8 worlds, Mario as a toy, are about the fun of platforming, while the latter 8 are about the devilish challenge of platforming and honing your skills.

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#10: Dark Souls – 360 / PS3 – 74 pts – 4 votes - 1 top game vote
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DARK SOULS: if you need me i'll be in an induced coma so octover comes tomorrow

Roberto Spiralli: you will notice that, in blatant contravention of the guidelines, i gave dark souls 40 points. given that i have decided it is my favourite game of all time, as explained at length on the dark souls thread, i could not in good conscience give it anything less than slightly more than the maximum. IF YOU CHOOSE TO NOT ALLOW THIS EXTRAORDINARY STRATAGEM then lower the score to 30 and i will gladly forfeit the 10 remaining points from my total score. i will be able to sleep at night knowing i did the right thing. will you? (Z S: the score was lowered to 30. forks and i sleep soundly knowing that you were glad to forfeit the 10 remaining points from your total score. all hail the noble voting rules)

tomofthenest: with shame, I loved this until it kicked my ass one too many times and I realised I just couldn't be bothered fighting 10 minutes through the same foes before dying within 5 seconds of the boss fight yet a fucking gain. I'm happy with dying lots, but please just let me save before the boss for crying out loud. Thankful I only rented tbh.

polyphonic: The combat in this game is so satisfying. When you kill some undead bastard you really feel like you earned it.

bamcquern Biggest Disappointment
Hammerfight (PC)
Finishing was like eating a whole can of Planter's cheese balls. The commercial indies were so forgettable this year. The only game I fell in love with was a shitty little dodge-'em game.

Huh, I was totally expecting this higher. I haven't played it yet, it doesn't seem my kind of thing, but people were really going nuts for it.

I didn't play it till after I voted, but I would have threw some points its way.

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#9: Minecraft – PC / Mac – 83 pts – 7 votes - 1 top game vote
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tomofthenest: spent far too long on minecraft. better not talk about it as i'm in remission. put off a bit by the crazies on line with their globe planets and 16-bit CPUs.

Will M: Fuck Skyrim. This is my kind of open world.

Diamond Dave: haven't played this one for ages but it probably stole a good 100+ hours from my life this year

note that 3 of the votes, including the top game vote, and 33 of the points come from the 2010 poll. the other 4 votes and 50 points come from this year's poll. in the results spreadsheet, the two are intentionally added together, so i'm just posted them in the order that forks had.

woah, w/ dark souls out of the way this a total toss-up as to what'll get #1. arkham city? is slowly stutting around as catwoman as enjoyable to me as it is you guys? goty for that reason alone? can i get a holla?

It's between that and skyrim. I'm guessing skyrim edges out arkham.

I would have voted for Minecraft (maybe even as top game) but I didn't start playing it until after the poll.

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#8: Binding of Isaac – Mac / PC – 84 pts – 6 votes - 1 top game vote - Top Exclusive PC / Mac Game
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fennel cartwright: Binding of Isaac is polished and fun. It's not quite as mentally stimulating as Terraria, but it creates an absurdly compelling metagame out of figuring out all the items, powerups, and mechanics.

Diamond Dave: 13 hours of playtime before i finally finished my first playthrough

Nhex: A badly programmed roguelike oozing with personality, taking good bits from Zelda and Shiren the Wanderer, the brief time I had with this was memorable.

should i get that game

There's an in-browser demo.

jamescobo’s Biggest Disappointment
Sword & Sorcery (iOS)
Looks cool as shit but I have yet to have two consecutive seconds of fun with it.

otm :(

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#7: Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – Wii – 90 pts – 6 votes - 1 top game votes
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Ian F: Coming out as it did in December, I haven't finished this yet, although I've already spent longer on it than almost anything else on this list (28.5 hours so far). So it could move a place either way. I can already say with some certainty that it's a fine reinvigoration after the epic but stale Twilight Princess, that it only takes a very short period of adjustment from HD graphics to realise that it is really, really gorgeous, and that it has the best alternate world mechanic of any Zelda yet. Piloting a ship across a desert ocean was such a massive WOW moment. Also, the directional sword fighting mechanic makes fighting so much more fun than it was in previous games, and if you tried to do it with buttons alone would be a fiddly pain in the arse, so yes, it does make a fine belated case for motion controls. Also, I love the game's commitment to having you do something fun at all possible times, cutting things up into tiny bite sized pieces without dumbing down excessively, and am happy to lose a few side quests and a joined-up map to get it.

Remy Bean: I’m not even done with this. I just love everything about it; the difficulty curve, the puzzles, the wiimote interactivity, the collecting, the fetch quests, the mini games, the art style, the absolutely amazing level design. Perhaps the Wii is on its way out, and this is the grand finale –– and I hope it shows up as a launch title for whatever comes next. I haven’t had this much fun with an adventure game in years. My Serious Gamer friends tease me – because I significantly prefer cartoony games over realistic ones, whimsy before intensity –– and this game was pitched perfectly to my tastes. This feels like a spiritual successor to Link To the Past; a game that is light-hearted and frustrating and weird in equal measure

Salsa Shark: This one's been a bit of a slow burner. I like the way it makes pretty good use of the Wii's limited graphics capabilities and I love the weirdness of the desert area with the robots, but so far the game has failed to really grab me in the way I expected it would after reading all its gushing reviews. Based on previous Zelda games I just have that much faith that it'll pull through and impress me in the end. Whether or not the way the game unfolds can make up for the terrible control system has yet to be determined. This game is proof that just because you can map controls to a Wiimote doesn't mean you should.

CraigG: It falls short of my expectations that this might finally be the 3D Zelda game to match Ocarina of Time, they finally brought the mechanics into this century. Being able to run and climb and actually make your way around the environment without inexplicably being unable to get up a waist-high wall, etc, was long-needed. I've not completed it, but put in a fair amount of time so far. I haven't hit any of the bugs or annoying return-to-an-old-temple bits that seem to have infuriated others yet either, but so far it's good. I hadn't expected another Zelda to come on the Wii, so for it to be of this high quality was a bonus. I got the sweet gold Wii Remote Plus too, as I'm a soft target!

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#6: Deus Ex: Human Revolution – 360 / PS3 / PC – 100 pts – 7 votes - 0.33 top game votes
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oppet: The sequel to my favourite game ever, so had a lot to live up to. Which it mainly did, although I wouldn't have minded if they'd improved on the terrible voice acting and dubious racial stereotypes.

Jordan: Its flaws are wide-open to criticism, but it was still one of my most memorable gaming experiences of the year. It may not be the ultimate in open-world decision-making, but I always had the sense that the game was letting me figure things out at my own pace (which seems all too rare these days).

Diamond Dave: who knew i'd enjoy hiding behind a box and waiting so much?

abanana’s Biggest Disappointment
Limbo (PS3)
The video game equivalent of a movie that uses noir lighting just because it's cheap, this used silhouettes because art is expensive. The physics-based (why?) block-pushing puzzles (again?) did not help.

that's it for today. Top 5 will be either tomorrow or tuesday. probably tomorrow.

shit, I didn't use the correct system on the gif for deus ex!

awwww fuck it.

huh. were there much fewer blurbs this year than usual?

oppet: The sequel to my favourite game ever, so had a lot to live up to.

So just checking, is this some "Star Trek V never happened" happening here?

I don't know why HR wasn't working with me. I've played Deus Ex 2x and consider it to be a fucking triumph for the medium. HR I went into with an immediate distaste for the overindulgent color-pallete as well as absolutely hating the fact that conversations always played out in some sort of separate game engine. And then the actual gameplay: Am I alone in thinking it was uncommonly hard? Seems like all the NPC's are unbelievably hyper-aware of whether I'm peaking out of the corners of things, and the fact that you were some superengineered megacyborg and yet required a candy bar each and every time you knocked someone out a bizarre game facet.

NPC's kill you seconds on sight and the hacking minigame assumed too much that the player was a william gibson fan and found natural joy making icons light up. it was just as bad as that tiring pipe-hacking minigame from bioshock. (funny enough, the only hacking minigame I've continually enjoyed is ME2's generic match-up: mostly b/c I feel like I've *earned* the right to hack into this and wasn't left to the devices of some randomized bs)

I'm a huge Splinter Cell/MGS fan and find both games far easier in terms of stealth... i eventually returned HR w/out having finished it b/c i was so frustrated with the idea that a bunch of generic 80s-mohawk streetpunks of the future were actively keeping their eyes centered on the corners of boxes so they could shoot whatever it is without first processing whether it was a threat or not. could've been mom, ffs, here to bring you your lunch.

best hacking game is still the droid takeover thing in Paradroid.

Based on previous Zelda games I just have that much faith that it'll pull through and impress me in the end. Whether or not the way the game unfolds can make up for the terrible control system has yet to be determined. This game is proof that just because you can map controls to a Wiimote doesn't mean you should.

Also, having to battle 'the Imprisoned' not once not twice but THRICE!! was DUMB. Battles 2 and 3 are WAY too close together and it's a pretty ridiculous and unbelievable boss to begin with >:(

BUT I've really liked the designs and gameplay of the various desert/mountain/forest areas, the dungeons (esp the desert ship) and the dungeon bosses (esp the sword robot). I also like the silly side quests <3 <3 side quests

Stoked.

Battles 2 and 3 are WAY too close together

otm. this pissed me off enough that i haven't really played the game since /:

i stalled during the tadtones bit, but i loved everything until that part. is it worth it to power through to the next part?

The last dungeon was easily my favourite in the game. Don't remember anything particularly annoying between tadtones and there.

later zeldas seem v keen on the repetition; i've seen at least one review arguing that the dungeon-repetition in the first ds title was A Good Thing, which strikes me as awfully strange

remy if you loved it all up until the tadtones then yeah, do it. the other song gathering bits are good.

this pissed me off enough that i haven't really played the game since /:

― diamonddave85, Monday, April 16, 2012 8:17 PM (2 hours ago)

later zeldas seem v keen on the repetition; i've seen at least one review arguing that the dungeon-repetition in the first ds title was A Good Thing, which strikes me as awfully strange

― thomp, Monday, 16 April 2012 19:38 (2 hours ago) Permalink

I never finished Phantom Hourglass for that reason. The Ocean King levels were fucking infuriating, and that you were being timed in the midst of all of them unbelievable. Plus, there came a point where it offers you a save-point/teleportation-device - but considering you gained that during your first haphahazard run-through of the temple's levels, you only have about a minute left on the clock. As such, it necessitates that you do the entire stage over again to gain a couple extra minutes - long story short, miyamoto had no qualms with fucking with you.

otherwise, i loved that game and the ship sailing bits were almost heavenly

There's always been a (welcome?) element of repetition in the Zeldas though - one of their defining characteristics for me was the notes I was taking re "must remember to come back to this spot when I have arrow / bombs / hookshot"

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#5: Glitch – in browser – 104 pts – 7 votes - 2.25 top game votes- top in browser exclusive game
play it here
glitch: a wacky new mmorpg played in browser
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tomofthenest: totally addictive land of doing nothing at all except holding left or right. I'm not sure how it even functions at entertainment but yeah I'll give it some points anyway..

DJP: This game was super fun until it went live, at which point all of the whimsy and goofiness just seemed... pointless.

Remy Bean: I wanted to love Glitch. I was an alpha tester. A beta tester. I participated on the forums, offered a number of suggestions to the game, a half-dozen of which were actually, deeply, incorporated. I played and played. Different play styles. Filled out dutiful bug reports. But I was chastised by a reactive staff-member for interacting in the global chat, trying to deflect the damage done by a racist troll. The damned thing is, I really made a difference, defused a potentially injurious situation, and then got slapped for it, because they didn’t want to go after the actual troll. Then, I got in trouble for making fun of the Amish. No joke; I got called out for suggesting farcical gameplay adaptions for the Amish. Some dude (boyfriend of a dev, IIRC), called it ‘religious intolerance’ and all of a sudden the game, and community, turned on a dime. It became cuddly-mountain, San-Fran based moral one-upmanship, inclusivity-as-a-competitive-sport. Apart from a shift in the general feeling of the tester’ community, I felt like the gameplay direction itself changed. What had once been a fairly open discussion with regard to the goal and purpose of the game (and a lot of its draw) suddenly became about a discussion imposing limitations and proper play pragmatics, limiting the game to a number of Actual Functions. I have no idea whether the game is closer to what Tiny Speck wants/wanted it to be, but it is a lot farther from what I enjoyed. It was fun having an influence, an impact, a clue about the direction of the game – to feel like the meta-gaming aspects were encouraged and acknowledged, that I didn’t have to play “right” or “wrong” but rather that the world was a sandbox (unconstrained) –– and not a “sandbox” (with hard limits and proper, highly codified and politicized ethical/moral dimensions). Based on the early beta work, this would have been my game of the year. Based on its current incarnation, it’ll sulk at the bottom of the list. And I won’t be going back to playing it in any meaningful way, unless something big changes in the overall design.

Nhex: I didn't predict that the first MMO I would really play in near ten years would be some kind of cutesy casual collection junk done in Flash featuring giant headed unisex monster children, but there you have it. Like others here I funded the game during beta because of the promise it showed. Though it was one of the best games I played this year (in a great year) and I still love the writing and humor, after a long enough time, it falls prey to the same problems all over MMOs have - basically, what to do when you've exhausted the game's activity list, or when what's left devolves to endless chores. Still, before the reaching that point, it's a joy to see what the developers have cooked up. And as a living game, they still have time to add new stuff all the time, and I've got a year left on this sub anyway...

planning on finishing out tonight, so hope that's cool!

In retrospect it's hard to believe I spent so much time mining rocks in caves.

Luckily Skyrim came along and offered a more graphically impressive mining experience.

xp yes so cool

so many MMOs, and other kinds of games, have somehow stumbled onto this truth: human being subconsciously crave mining rocks in caves

but only if you can do it at a rate of about 1 cubic meter per second.

agent hibachi’s Biggest Disappointment
Battlefield 3
hey, the holidays are over, time to finally boot this up, i have a couple of hours to kill. (installing) one hours later: please insert disc 2 for hd content. sure, the graphics looked great in the promo stuff. (installing) two hours later: yes! title screen. no! title update. (installing) one hour later: yes! title..jesus fuck. 1.5 gig "multiplayer" update that it says i should install anyway because of single-player bugs. (three weeks later) finally! a few hours to try this. it's fully patched. it's gonna be awesome. (zips through first few levels) oops, that rooftop sniper just got me three times in a row. i dislike this loading screen already, it's costing me at least thirty seconds of my actual life every time i die in the game. oops, got me a fourth time. oops, HARD CRASH, xbox completely locked up. fuck this. modern warfare, you win.

You have to patch shit on your Xbox?? what's the point of an xbox then

if you're going to install shit for hours on a frickin game console you could be downloading shareware from AOL in 1998 and probably have more fun.

i've got a sweet shareware Doom floppy if anyone wants it

You have to patch shit on your Xbox?? what's the point of an xbox then

what? i think maybe u don't have a clear grasp of what an xbox is?

like, i've never heard someone tout the virtues of an xbox by saying that you never have to patch a game

remember when the xbox 360 cost $5000?

It's a game console! Games come on discs or carts and you play them! I knew you could "install" Xbox games but I assumed it was mostly pretend or optional. Sounds like it's violating the game console social contract to me.

i think you can opt out of any patch, but in most cases (ie when the patch doesn't break the game) I don't know why you would want to. patches squash bugs!

oppet: The sequel to my favourite game ever, so had a lot to live up to.

So just checking, is this some "Star Trek V never happened" happening here?

― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 16 April 2012 05:14 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha, I had genuinely forgotten about the actual sequel. In my defence, my ballot blurbs were done in a total rush.

Glitch really had me sucked in for about a fortnight but then I forgot about it. Seemed like it was getting too fiddly and less fun, I think.

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#4: Tiny Wings – iOS – 105 pts – 6 votes - 1 top game vote - top iOS exclusive game
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Jeff: A perfect little game. I perfectly maddening little game. I think I spent the most consecutive hours playing this, at least 6 or 7 hours straight one day.

Sondrangerbot: more frustrating than fun, more evil than entertaining but still addictive.

silby: TINY WINGS, Andreas Illiger, iOS, totally my GOTY
Tiny Wings is yet another iOS game where your one interaction is
touching the screen. You touch the screen to "make yourself heavy" as
the instructions say; your bird stops its feeble flapping and gliding
and drops to the ground. The physics simulations required to do this
chewed battery like crazy on my 1G iPod touch. A couple of the
objectives aren't fun to get.

But everything else about this game, the art, the sounds, the music, the
physics, the way it makes my brain feel every time I hit a perfect
slide, or miss one, or anticipate nightfall with mounting dread, is so
fucking on point it's crazy. Doing well makes you feel unstoppable,
doing poorly makes you feel like you are dragging your belly down the
hill just like that miserably cheerful bird. Tiny Wings is intense and
engrossing. It plays on the "die and retry" shtick employed by Canabalt,
Super Meat Boy, vvvvv etc. by not even bothering to let you die...at
least not officially. But when you're chasing that 175,000 point
objective, you can know halfway through the first island that you are
doomed. You can see yourself two minutes later, flopping down on the
upward slope of some shitty hill on island 6, tucking your wings in to
sleep, and you wonder why you didn't restart right away when you lost
your fever five islands ago. And then you retry anyway.

Tiny Wings is a one-button game but a full-body experience. You feel gravity
weighing on your tiny bird body, you feel the timing of your descent and
the exhilaration of your cloud touches in your very gonads. Tiny Wings
is like playing on a swing, pumping your arms back and forth, shifting
your weight around at the right moments to try to make the swing finally
flip over the top of the swingset, twirling you around like a roller
coaster.

There may be better games than Tiny Wings that came out in 2011, but I
didn't play them. No seriously I didn't, I did not play many new video
games at all this year. Maybe it was only Tiny Wings. But Tiny Wings was
all I needed.

tiny wings is that good??

maybe i should try it, but if it's anything like angry birds you can forget it

i played so much tiny wings im getting a lil sick just thinking abt it

a v beautiful and frustrating game

Definitely understanding what silby is feeling as regards the console social contract, but the sad truth is that this is how it's been since the first Xbox allowed installation and patching - consoles dropped the previously stringent quality standards in favour of PC's "ship it now, patch it later".

i also played way too much tiny wings. *barf&&&--__..

It's a game console! Games come on discs or carts and you play them! I knew you could "install" Xbox games but I assumed it was mostly pretend or optional. Sounds like it's violating the game console social contract to me.

― raw feel vegan (silby)

you don't have to install the game to apply a patch to it. patches are generally welcome fixes to glitches and don't take long to download. you don't have to check for them either, it automatically does that and tells you when you boot up the game that there's a patch available and asks you if you'd like to install it. seems beyond obtuse to have a problem with this. i suppose this is ilx tho.

tiny wings is nothing like angry birds. very beautiful and tranquilizing

i should definitely buy this "guide for tiny wings - tips and tricks" app i see in the itunes store for the same price as the game, right?

Tiny Wings is on my top 5 list of "games I won't play because I will get sucked in and I actually enjoy the sun on my face and the sound of children's laughter".

The other four games are all Drop 7.

uh oh

yay tiny wings!

jim I was mostly just reacting to whoever was lamenting how many hours it took to get Battlefield 3 working on their console. It just struck me as sad and weird that a console game required multiple hours of downloading and patching just to play single player. I don't play 360 or PS3 regularly (haven't owned either) so I was just surprised to read all that and then notice they were playing a console version.

oh the battlefield patch was fucking huuuuuuuuuge, which is unusual. i don't have it but yeah, takes a bunch of time because you don't get amazing download speeds. but it fixed a bunch of exploits so i guess people are happy.

that person was doing it wrong

silby's confusion is reasonable - i just bought a ps3 a couple months ago and was so confused as to why people kept advocating for getting the model's with larger HD's. i was like - do you guys really download that many fucking demos?

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#3: Batman: Arkham City – 360 / PS3 – 197 pts – 12 votes - 1.25 top game votes
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EZ Snappin: A pleasure to play, and a sequel that should have left the original in the dust. However, I don't think it did. Arkham Asylum was tight and focused, whereas this is sprawling and padded. Too long (though the combat is a joy), with a lesser story though a better ending. Did like the Grundy boss battle better than any in the original.

DJP: There is nothing as glorious as leaping off of a building, soaring through the air using your cape as wings, only to fire off a grappling hook and swing onto a nearby gargoyle/ledge, then leaping off and doing it again, and again, and again. Even if they'd screwed up the story (they didn't) or had made the game viciously ugly (they didn't) and didn't have massive replayability in the various side missions and Riddler trophies and challenges (they do), the simple fact that they got swinging through a dangerous city so wonderfully correct would pardon lots of sins. That they did this and then went on to make every other facet of the game awesome is just staggering.

Nhex: There was an inevitable deflation, as much like Portal, the first one set a high bar on top being a total surprise. But let's get down to it, it was absolutely worth the wait, improved pretty much every gameplay aspect from the first game, delved further into the Batman universe, nailing that legendary feeling of being Batman. Zipping across the city to prevent Zsasz from killing a prisoner, delivering people from the Saw-esque Riddler death traps, taking time out to rescue political prisoners form being raped on the street, uncovering the political conspiracy behind Arkham City, all in a single night, of course. That near-perfect fight system is pretty hard to ruin, too. Bring on the next one.

bnw: One of the nice things about Arkham City and its predecessor, is that while it emphasizes stealth- it doesn't just limit that to "avoid guards and cameras" i.e. "move when you're supposed to, dummy". batman's stealth involves more planning and minding your surroundings.

Jeff: Enjoyed all aspects of this game. I found the fighting, both the straight up and stealth extremely satisfying. It is so blissful to string together a couple of dozen hits, batarangs, freezing, grapple, etc. Equally as satisfying to take down an entire room without a single person seeing you. Huge open world is just fun to zoom around. Catwoman parts were not as satisfying, but a nice add on to have.

Jordan: SO MUCH FUN. And then it's over.

Salsa Shark: I don't know what to say about this that other people haven't already said, so here are some scattered thoughts (very much tl;dr style):

+ Everything about this game felt so much more wider and expansive than Arkham Asylum, from the setting to the weapon and fighting repertoire to the characters who come and go throughout the story.
+ Playing as Catwoman was fun and refreshing; I'm not sure everyone was a fan of this but I thought she was a good addition to the game.
+ The side quests involving various villains were mostly fun and provided a break from the main storyline, although the punishing number of Riddler trophies and riddles is a bit overwhelming (the Riddler sidequest is the only one I haven't finished simply because I've maxed out the number of riddles and trophies I can get without using a walkthrough).
+ The villains/boss fights included as part of the storyline were also mostly fun, and a couple were unexpected. I especially loved the subway city, both in design and in the way its villain contributed to the storyline. I was initially a bit disappointed that the Joker had such a huge role again (it goes along with my general tiredness towards the Joker in contemporary Batman canon), but I got over this by the end of the game when the Joker's story began to unfold.
+ The controls were generally responsive enough that any of Batman or Catwoman's failures were entirely my own (unfortunately there were a lot of failures because I am a button-masher, not a strategic fighter).

The downsides... mostly I found myself thinking too much about the likelihood of an 'Arkham City' ever being set up -- would Gothamites not protest at losing their heritage and civic buildings to degenerates? It seems like an unlikely setup to begin with, and even more unlikely that something like Protocol 10 could be allowed to occur. Also, Hugo Strange felt a bit... non-essential.

oh crap. did that pos uncharted 3 place yet?

wow

so... Portal 2 and...?

oh right. portal 2. not uncharted 3. skyrim, obv

oh yeah, duh

jjusten’s RANT OF SOUL CRUSHING DISAPPOINTMENT
You know this was one of those years where the haterade wasn't really flowing wrt games, its been a bonus year in pretty much every category and I know that there are things I haven't even touched yet that are awesome. For a while I wasn't even going to submit a biggest disappointment, or tweak it so it was either broken ass skyrim or my own shame at my inability to not bother playing the effortless and bland Fable III all the way through, but then I looked through the nom thread one more time and realized oh shit what am I thinking?

LA NOIRE came out this year.

Lets just get this out of the way first HEY DUMMIES ITS NOT A GODDAMN GAME. Just because you can jam the disc into your gamebox doesnt make it necessarily so, and this is a throwback prime offender like i havent seen since the deathly awful cdrom era of the late 90s. I am not sure what kind of ball-lapping coke baggie gift pack they sent out to reviewers for this utter piece of unfun, but it must have been pretty amazing considering the metacritic score. Basically its GTA4 with all the levity, lightheartedness, and good times removed, but this time you dont even have to actually play a game in order to get bored out of your fucking skull. Protagonist is dull, driving is wait hold on a second WHY AM I DRIVING AT ALL THERE IS NEVER ANYTHING TO DO and the free roam aspect is WAIT WHY CAN I FREE ROAM WHAT THE FUCK. This is a game for the people out there that think that the gta series would be greatly improved as a travelogue, sorta a rick steeves of the 1950s. So ok fine you say what about the amazing crime scene investigation where you meander around a scene until some random
object of great import presents itself because shit that never happened in like a million point and click adventure games before, but this time instead of glowing halos they use this amazing new-fangled vibration technology, or do they i cant remember because the shit was so fucking dull it made no impression whatsoever. Oh and did we mention that through next gen facial wank wank avatar magic dot camera face technology we have created the most terrifying facial animation on the planet? Imagine if you will that we take ACTUAL ACTORS and cover their face with REAL RUBBER MASKS OF THEIR FACES and then have them emote with the amazing magical power of OVERACTING and then we dump that into our super-pixelator machine and let you ask them SEVERAL QUESTIONS! In a row! And if you somehow miss the fact that they are eye-twitching and wiggling their face around like a meth-binger at a broken traffic light, don't worry, you get to do it OVER and OVER until you get it right. ITS LIKE YOU ARE ACTUALLY THERE except it isnt because the clues are about as subtle as a hammer to the fucking face, and honestly there was one lady that i interviewed where i swore her head was going to whip right off her neck because of her furtive glancing. But wait, I am being unfair, because i forgot
to mention the totally pointless side missions which seem to entirely involve climbing buildings or shooting teenagers in the face for joyriding a car and cracking wise. And yeah, I know, its all about the story or some such bullshit but man cmon i got 400 movies on my netflix instant queue and none of them make me patiently drive a car around or meander around a railroad yard until i find a wadded up tissue of great importance, so no thanks. IT SUCKS. ITS AN INTERACTIVE MOVIE. GET OVER IT.

phew cuz uncharted 3 was my DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR

Nathan Drake is a creepy creep

hahaha that LA Noire rant

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#2: Portal – 360 / PS3 / PC / Mac – 316 pts – 16 votes - 5.83 top game votes
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Portal 2
DJP: This is an astonishing game. I never played the original Portal and I never once felt like I had missed out on something as a result. GladOS and Wheatley make for entertaining enemies/allies and the variety of puzzles is wonderful. My only regret is not having a reliable multiplayer partner.

Diamond Dave: fun, hilarious, and challenging. also this one gets votes simply for naming a character CAVE JOHNSON

jjjusten: The best game-length tutorial of 2012! I know I'm coming off a bit
cynical here, and I did enjoy the hell out of the game, but if you
take away the script it really does fall a bit flat. Fortunately,
it's the best script for any video game this year, so in the end its
still a win. Certainly not as entrancing as the original wrt the big
reveals, but its more portal so I'll take it.

Ledge: The flipside of Skyrim, in many ways. What it loses in scope
and longevity it gains in coherence, a pleasing compactness, and
gameplay to die for. And no stupid AI.

Nhex: I can't believe I almost forgot about this game, since it came out early in the year, when it was accurately coined Game of the Year. But yeah, what more is there to say? Not as short or quite as well-packaged as the original, but still a lovely time. Valve still has their storytelling down, and the puzzles were generally much better this time around too. The co-op campaign was even better in that department.

jamescobo: "Stare at the art."

agent hibachi: you jump in one thing and out the other. things fall apart; ok computers wreck shop.

Ian F: Portal is a puzzle game with semi-defined solutions where making leaps of logic to work out your plan, and actually carrying out that plan, are equally important parts of its challenge. I can trace my great love for those types of games right back to Lemmings, and Portal 2 executes the model every bit as perfectly as the original did. You get efficiently trained in some principles. You get presented with an impossible looking puzzle. You get a buzz when you think of a new idea of how to use the elements at your disposal to solve it. You get a delayed, but more intense, buzz when (maybe, several attempts later) you actually manage to carry out the plan. Many of the puzzles were really top notch for this - I'm thinking of dropping blue goo on the turrets, or most of all the co-op level where you have to both fling yourself across the level from opposite ends and collide with each other. Total giddy glee when playing that one. The other elements of Portal 2 outside of those core mechanics were never going to be as perfect as the original and couldn't possibly be without the element of surprise, but as a high production piece of entertainment Portal 2 was still as funny and unpredictable as it was polished.

EZ Snappin: My keyboard & mouse skills are almost nonexistent (especially for anything with an fps control scheme and viewpoint), so I reached a point in the first Portal where I know what I needed to do but could not execute the maneuver fast enough to proceed. Playing Portal 2 on PS3 meant I had no such problems, and I was able to thoroughly enjoy the story and puzzles to completion. Having finished it, I can say I would have been crushed not to experience the ending.

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#1: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – 360 / PS3 / PC / Mac – 384 pts – 19 votes - 7.25 top game votes - most votes, most points, most top game votes, GOTY
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Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

EZ Snappin: The most hours I have spent with a videogame in perhaps forever and I'm not close to finishing it. The play is the thing, and there is enough variety to it that I haven't gotten bored (though this may be because between every couple of quest lines I go walkabout and try to fill up more of my map). A grand achievement.

tomofthenest: easily the best game I've played this year or many other years. Just need to find time to have a life as well.

polyphonic: Out on the plains, on the road to Rorikstead, I consecutively killed a blood dragon, a mammoth, the giant who owned the mammoth, and an elk who had bad timing. I converted their souls into gems, which I use to enchant my weapons. I use the dragon's scales to make armor, and I use the giant's disgusting toe to make a Fortify Health potion.

jjjusten: I've hated both of the modern gen elder scrolls games, and probably
never would have bought this had it not been for fallout tipping the
scales for 100+ hour rpging. Somehow they managed to get it all right
this time, removing the pontless meandering while still giving tons of
reasons to explore the world (which is pretty much the best looking
hobbity nonsense ever), making the levelling system make sense while
still allowing you nutjob grinders to do your thing, and against all
odds managing to make first person hand to hand combat actually work.
In some ways it's even easier to keep coming back to than the modern
fallouts, despite the fact that i am more of a fallout guy by nature -
theres something much more worldly and compelling about the
environment that makes me wander up mountain passes just to see where
they go.

DJP: The world is huge. The fights are massively fun. Your character adapts to your playstyle; the more you do something, the better you become at it. The bugs are entertaining. I am sworn to carry this games burdens, but then I took an arrow in the knee.

methanietanner: A big, beautiful, boring, broken, brilliant sandbox. Loved it, then hated it, then just accepted it. Grinding away 4ever.

Zora / Surfing at Work: I've got nothing to say about this game except RELEASE THE FUCKING CREATION KIT ALREADY. Ahem.

Diamond Dave: huge, immersive, it's really amazing to see how far RPGs have come

Ledge: Far from a perfect game but still a GOTY and so worthy of 30 points.
Am fairly astonished that any magazine could give it a perfect score
though, the problems with this game are quite major, quite apart from
the bugs (which never affected my games too much).

Firstly The NPCs seem expressly designed to show that AI has advanced
absolutely nowhere in the last 20 years. There's Lydia's ridiculous
door blocking; the absurd interaction detection ("come to talk to an
old woman? Do your good deed for the day?" "Actually no I was running
past you at full speed without even looking in your direction"); and
of couse the endless repeated dialogue. "I am sworn to carry your
burdens" will never get old but the inability of the NPCs to learn or
change their behaviour at all is startling. "Oh so you're interested
in alchemy?" "YES I'VE BEEN IN YOUR SHOP 100 TIMES ALREADY." "A
healing spell? Are you a priest?" "NO I'M THE FUCKING ARCHMAGE, YOU
WERE THERE AT THE TIME".

The other problem is the linear gameplay. Although it's a sandbox game
the script is very much on rails, there is no sense of properly
interacting with the world, of being an agent of change. You are very
much just a cog in the machine, grinding towards its inevitable
predetermined end. Even the different branches in the conversation
trees all end up looping back to the same point. Hugely unfair to pick
on Skyrim for this, it's a very common thing, GTA and RDR are the
same. I haven't played other more conventional RPGs - well not since
nethack etc - so I don't know how they stack up but it would be good
to find a game where there are real story choices, where what you do
really makes a difference.

These quibbles aren't insignificant but Skyrim manages to overcome
them through sheer brute force, really, just the scope of the whole
thing. The size of the map, the variety of gameplay approaches, the
richness of the world, the number of challenges and stories. I'm
nearly 100 hours in and I think I'll still be playing for a long time
to come.

Woof: I don't really have anything to add to its giant thread: I like
walking around in a big fantasy world, talking to myself about the
weather, faffing around with crafting and hitting things with my two
magic swords.

bnw: filled in so many of Oblivion's weaknesses. not perfect but is so much closer then any game around this genre has ever gotten. just imagine if they improve the combat system next.

oppet: I couldn't get into Oblivion at all so wasn't expecting this to be the 2012 game which resulted in the most "oh shit I have been playing for 6 hours straight" moments. I'm several gameplay hours (well, days) into it and I've still only done about three main storyline quests. Normally I'd be frustrated knowing that I'll never get close to 100% completing a game but with Skyrim I could happily just retire back in Whiterun today with the lovely Ysolda for company, and not give a damn.

CraigG: This is getting a nod, even though I'm "only" about level 16. Which doesn't seem like a lot compared to all the ILGers pumping 90 hours into it. While it's not the greatest game I've ever played - which some may call blasphemy - it's the only Fantasy RPG that has ever held my attention longer than an hour, as I'm more Fallout than Fable/Morrowind/etc. Don't think I need to say much more about this game, as it's all been said before.

Sondrangerbot: this game is completely unhealthy. i'm at 68 hours and still feel like i have barely scratched the surface. makes me wish i lived with my parents.

I didn't even get the appeal of the first game. Everything, everything, everything about it was generic - the characters, the baddies, the environment, the dialogue. I mean I don't even understand how people just didn't just stop playing it for a bit and go "where are there so many people on this island? shouldn't there be a bathroom here or there? some tents?"

xxpost uncharted

lol great job on the belethor .gif - i don't think there was shopkeeper i visited more.

"if i had a sister, i'd sell her in a second!"
"if i had a sister, i'd sell her in a second!"
"if i had a sister, i'd sell her in a second!"
"if i had a sister, i'd sell her in a second!"
"if i had a sister, i'd sell her in a second!"
"if i had a sister, i'd sell her in a second!"
"if i had a sister, i'd sell her in a second!"
"if i had a sister, i'd sell her in a second!"
"if i had a sister, i'd sell her in a second!"

can we post ballots now? mine:

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Binding of Isaac
Arkham City
Saints Row the Third
Terraria
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Glitch
Bastion
Tiny Wings
Temple Run

I love that Portal gif! well done.

My Ballot:

Portal 2 - 30
Elder Scrolls - Skyrim - 30
Batman: Arkham City - 20
DC Universe Online - 10
Pro Evolution SOccer 2012 - 10

Mine:

30 pts for Tiny Wings

Arkham City - 30
Tiny Wings - 20
W.E.L.D.E.R. - 10
Mass Effect 2: The Arrival - 8
Temple Run - 6
Ticket To Ride - 6
Anomaly: Warzone Earth - 5
Groove Coaster - 5
L.A. Noire - 5
Where's My Water - 5

Pts: 20 Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

Pts: 15 Minecraft

Pts: 10 Terraria
Pts: 10 L.A. Noire
Pts: 10 Saints Row the Third
Pts: 10 Catherine
Pts: 10 Fight Night Champion

Pts: 5 Frozen Synapse
Pts: 5 Brink
Pts: 5 Bulletstorm

bnw: filled in so many of Oblivion's weaknesses. not perfect but is so much closer then any game around this genre has ever gotten. just imagine if they improve the combat system next.

this just blew my mind

whatever it'll be, it'll be an improvement - just an outdated one

lol skyrim

good work ZS, thank you!
GREAT gifs, particularly like the portal2 one

not much of a gamer but felt validated by portal 2 and skyrim placing (cuz they are the only two I put any time into)

heres my ballot btw:

01 tactics ogre: let us cling together - psp - 30
02 dragon quest vi: realms of revelation - ds - 20
03 radiant historia - ds - 15
04 the legend of heroes: trails in the sky - psp - 10
05 civilization v (updates + dlc) - pc - 5
06 witcher 2: assassin of kings - pc - 5
07 batman: arkham city - ps3 - 5
08 catherine - ps3 - 5
09 marvel vs capcom 3 - ps3 - 5

^^^ gets it

altho i couldn't get into legend of TiTS

oh god that skyrim gif is making me siiiiiick

i barfed twice while making it

Seeing as we are naming and shaming ourselves by posting our ballots:

1. Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D - 3DS - 20pts
2. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars - 3DS - 20pts
3. Super Mario 3D Land - 3DS - 15pts
4. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - PC - 9pts
5. Machinarium - PC - 8pts
6. Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - Wii - 8pts
7. ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection HD - PS3 - 5pts
8. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP - iOS - 5pts
9. Mario Kart 7 - 3DS - 5pts
10. Jetpack Joyride - iOS - 5pts

lol ballot:

portal: 30 pts
skyrim: 30 pts

(i promise to play more games this year)

thx zs & forks, awesome work! loved the gifs.

great job. but see this is why i didn't vote. the only game on that whole list that I've played is battlefield 3, and I wouldn't even rate that highly.

You guys have tempted me into Skyrim though.

oh and Saints Row the third, again wouldn't have rated it.

thanks forks and zs, great job. gifs were outstanding. results pretty abysmal tho. surprised solitaire didn't make the top 5.

I don't remember my ballot anymore but I'm pretty sure I voted Dungeon Raid #1

hoping in 2012 to finally catch up with gaming 2009

^^ should read "console gaming 2009" fwiw

great job forks and ZS.

1) Resident Evil 4 HD (25 pts)
2) Portal 2 (25 pts)
3) Deus Ex: Human Revolution (25 pts)
4) Batman: Arkham City (15 pts)
5) Wonderputt (browser) (5 pts)
6) Dead Space 2 (5 pts)

Biggest disappointment: From Dust

Portal 2 (ps3): 30
Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword (wii): 20
Arkham City (xbox 360): 15
Bastion (pc): 15
Superbrothers Sword & Sorcery (ipad): 10
Aquaria (ipad): 10

Like I said above I would probably have put Minecraft top if I'd played it before the poll ended.

30 points: Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
16 points: Stacking .
15 points: Tiny Wings
14 points: Glitch.
10 points: Grand Prix Story
10 points: Elephant Quest
5 points: : LA Noire

Arkham City 20
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 20
Marvel vs Capcom 3 20
Portal 2 20
Bejeweled Blitz 10
Glitch 5
Monsters Ate My Condo 5

my Glitch vote would have gone to Ticket To Ride, Dice Soccer or Yaniv had I played any of them before I voted

that portal gif is brilliant! i kinda forgot that game existed. voted for skyrim, battlefield 3, tiny wings

Yaniv absolutely going on my 2012 ballot.

BALLOT

ASSAF

good job, forks and ZS! I look forward to whining about next year's poll!

here's my ballot:

Binding of Isaac - Mac - 20pts
Bug Princess iOS - 15pts
Jamestown - Mac - 15pts

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Xbox360 - 10pts

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Mac via Cider - 10pts

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - 10pts
Portal 2 - Mac - 10pts
Minecraft - Mac - 10pts

but if i'd gotten it before i voted, DARK SOULS would be my #1 by far

voted for: dark souls, skyrim, dead space 2, frozen synapse
forgot to vote for: outland
would have voted for if i had got round to playing it on time: dungeon defenders (PSN), portal 2
didn't vote for: pes 2012 (great game but online totally broken), fifa 12 (game is not the best but at least the online works), madden 12 (one 15y pass forward, one strip sack fumble returned for TD backwards)

Radiant Historia 26
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective 21
Outland (PS3) 14
Escape from Puppy Death Factory 9
Marvel vs Capcom 3 (PS3) 7
Binding of Isaac 7
Where Is My Heart? 6
Tales From Space: About A Blob 5
Wonderputt 5

is Radiant Historia that good? kinda tempted to import before prices go crazy again.

If I had played the Ascension iOS card game before this past weekend I would have thrown it some points. Great fun.

15 Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3)
14 Dark Souls (PS3)
13 MotorStorm: Apocalypse (PS3)
12 El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron (PS3)
11 Dungeon Raid (iOS)
9 Rayman Origins (PS3)
8 Last Rocket (iOS)
7 Forget Me Not (iOS)
6 Radballs (iOS)
5 ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection HD (PS3)

Biggest Disappointment: L.A. Noire

requisites for contributing to next year's polling? did everyone w/ a write-up actually *play* all the games tallied here? i'd like to do at least one write-up... i'm opinionated enough about some stuff that i could write for pretty proper lengths and not concern myself w/ things like me3's intolerable ending. i am an a+ student.

I, for one, didn't play any of the games I wrote about

I only played the games everyone else wrote about.

i wrote the games that everyone else played

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VH2SVes0E8

*applause*

oh.

I don't really understand what you meant there, kel

1. Portal 2, 18pts
2. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, 17pts
3. Bastion, 15pts
4. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, 10pts
5. Radiant Historia, 9pts
6. Child of Eden, 8pts
7. Super Mario 3D Land, 7pts
8. Pullblox, 6pts
9= LA Noire, 5pts
9= StreetPass Quest, 5pts

Thanks to everyone who had a part in running this (even whoever it was who spelt my name wrong every time). I really enjoyed it.

is Radiant Historia that good? kinda tempted to import before prices go crazy again.

lamp's comments on RH are accurate:

with radiant historia i think of that old vaudeville joke that the simpsons ripped off where homer tries to by the monkeys paw: it has an innovative and reasonably challenging battle system! thats good! but it still requires some tedious grinding! thats bad! it tries to tell an ambitious, complicated story about the cost of war! thats good! it does so with dialogue shorn of any nuance or ambiguity! thats bad! &c &c &c.

I still liked it a ton.

(i promise to play more games this year)

this might be a lie btw