XG24/7′s Game of the Year 2011 – What we thought
Fun fact before we get started: there's all this hoohah about Mayans killing us all with rock calendars or something
Welcome one and all to this scary dark place we call 2012. Here at XG we aren't too keen of the GOTY posts that clog up the Internet before the end of the year. So we've left it until we all settled into 2012 before telling you what we reckon about 2011 as a year of gaming releases. Fun fact before we get started: there's all this hoohah about Mayans killing us all with rock calendars or something in December so this may be the last GOTY post you ever read from us! Cheery thought - let's Crack on.
Dom Darnell - Staff Writer
Dom's not been with us a long time so when we sent the annual email out saying we want a paragraph on our Game of the Year he took it literally - forgive him, he'll learn - here's what Dom thought of 2011.
My game of the year may not seem like an obvious choice, but I am going for Shadows of the Damned. It wasn't perfect, it had its fair share of flaws, but damn it was fun.
The gameplay was reminiscent of Resident Evil 4, which was Shinji Mikami's input. A very fun difficulty curve which allowed you to easily get to grips with the game while still providing a challenge.
The story, well there is only one way to put it, the story was hilarious. Penned by Suda 51, it had a very "punk rock" feel underlined mostly with dick jokes.
At the end of the day it was a massive laugh, a nice break from the games that try to be too serious with themselves nowadays.
An interesting choice there from the young blood.
Richard Newton - Senior Staff Writer
We now move on to one of our veteran writers. Rich has been with us a while and is possibly the person I whole-heartedly blame for "a paragraph" no longer meaning a paragraph. Get the kettle on, you'll be here a while.
So it's that time of the year, game sites will be telling you what they think is the Game of The Year 2011! Unfortunately for me, there has been some amazing AAA titles I haven't been able to get my hands on this year. I missed out on Uncharted 3, Batman: Arkham City and Skyrim for example. So instead of saying which game I subjectively think is best, I want to talk about one of my favourite games of 2011.
This game had a lot of expectation and anticipation. I knew Battlfield 3 was going to be the best multiplayer experience I would get all year. I knew Portal 2 wouldn't disappoint. But I didn't know if Deus Ex: Human Revolution would. I wanted it to, with all my heart. And it did.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a Deus Ex game, and I think that's one of the biggest compliments you could give it. Square Enix and Eidos Montreal have managed to take an beloved IP, slightly tainted and limping thanks to a sub-par sequel, mend its wounds and breathe new life into it. I played Deus Ex the way I wanted to, be it stealth, frontal assault or hacking my way into a mega-complex. I was never forced, nor punished, for taking a particular course of action, something other games like to stamp out pretty early on.
The game was gorgeous to look at. A renaissance feel mashed with the cyber-punk theme's present in the original game; slums felt dirty whilst the pristine labs and high class apartments had a busy feel to them - these were places where people worked and lived (even if in the future everything seems to be coloured gold).
But what really makes Deus Ex: Human Revolution earn my Game of The Year pat on the back is the story. Prequels can often take the easy route of story-telling, not needing to tie any lose ends created in an original. However, Human Revolution almost seems to enjoy teasing you with important names, companies, technologies present in the original Deus Ex game, creating a firm and believable rope for the loose ends to dangle from. It spring boards you into the Deus Ex Universe, with passion - you can tell the developers had a lot of love and respect for the first game.
So long as there's people like that in the industry, picking our Game of The Years will continue to be one of the hardest things we do. And that's a good thing.
That was a heartwarming love letter to those who remember the IP they're using as their spring-board. Lovely.
Sean Cleaver - Sports/Racing Editor
We now move onto another veteran of our family - Sean. Sean started off with us as a contributor and became a staff writer. Now he's our Sports Correspondent. You'll be hearing a lot more from him this year as the sports title's build hype for themselves and he gets happy. TOUCHDOWN!!
2011 has been a funny year for sports. Football became exposed as an old boys club with broadcasting scandals, racism epidemics and cry baby players. Spain continue their world domination at both club and country level. England mistook the Rugby World Cup for Weekend at Bernie’s, American Sports decided to take their battles of the fields and courts and into the legal arena, to the point where we almost didn’t have any NFL or NBA seasons, and another German dominated F1.
Video game wise, we’ve had no such problems in open play as we’ve had a good, constant release of games and had it been an option, I may well have gone with NBA Jam for the iPhone for my game of the year. But alas it was last year and I throw myself into the gauntlet of yearly franchises.
Honestly I thought PES hasn’t come on a lot, and in my opinion it hasn’t since PES 5/6. FIFA did well to change the style of its game engine but ultimately lacks staying power. Both Madden 12 and NBA2K12 are strong outings as well. NBA especially seems to be a big force in sports games amongst fans. But, my game of the year has to go to the most improved and most accurate game I can think of and that is F1 2011.
Now I’ve been accused of having favouritism towards this game. But let me give you this. Much improved graphics, fun to drive, captivating season mode, awesome multiplayer racing, accurate realism in both tracks, cars and David Croft (trust me, I’ve met him). Finally the advent of KERS and DRS has really made this game rise above its predecessors. As said in an interview earlier in the year, it’s like Mr Ecclestone has games in mind when these driving aids were coined. There hasn’t been anything like this that can change a race so definitively and tactically in video games since Mario Kart. I’m sure we’ve all hung the rear wing open to the last possible minute on a practice lap, only to see the car spin wildly away with no one to blame but ourselves.
But this game is the top for me of every game franchise that has seen improvement this year. FIFA’s career mode is better and the impact engine isn’t too far away. Madden is missing only a few tweaks to make it awesome and Arcade games like Backbreaker have come on leaps and bounds. The less said about the rugby games the better unfortunately. But as for F1 2011- next time I want more of the same please.
Now I'm wondering why F1 is using a different number system to the other boys in the sports game playground. FIFA, NBA and Madden title themselves after the year we'll step into, but F1 go for the year it was released in. Odd. Anyways, that was Sean's look at the last year's sports games and I think he did a great job at making me want to boot up F1 2011 and Backbreaker again.
Alex Johnson - News Editor
There's only two more members of staff left to go: myself, Alex, and the world's best Battlefield 3 jet pilot, Sam. I'll go next as Sam's probably somewhere counting traffic and playing 'shooting people from his jet'.
I came into writing this thinking I'd narrowed it down to either the genius of Portal 2, the bloodbath of Dead Island or the sheer brilliance of Skyrim. Portal 2's dark humour, brilliantly brain mashing puzzles and wonderful characters had me sold from the first time I got my grubby mitts on a preview build. The way Dead Island took the fun of Dead Rising's melee combat and dropped it into a first person beat 'em up that took no prisoners had me hooked. And the way Skyrim grabbed my life with such ferocity I forgot that lectures were a thing I had to go to for a whole week made it deserve short-listing like no other.
I had a long internal battle to decide which of these contenders would be my GOTY of 2011 would be, then I decided that it would have to be Portal 2. Few games this year have had me bleary-eyed looking up from my monitor to see that 7 hours had passed since I booted it up and out of those few games only Portal 2 made me say this exact phrase to a friend: "fuck off that's how to do it, how did you even realise that? You're a fucking Witch".
The co-op side to Portal 2 is why I decided it would be my GOTY of 2011. The way it gently eases you into with levels that don't tax your brain or make you question your ability as a gamer makes it all the more bitter when you and your robot buddy end up standing next to each other shaking your heads at your own foolishness as you feel the Valve level designers breathing down your neck and mocking you in soft tones because you spent so long thinking about all the paints and the excellent physics engine you forgot you had a damn Portal gun. And that feeling is why Portal 2 was my GOTY of 2011. Was. I say was as whilst writing this I thought of a much better contender for GOTY. A multi-player only game that I've clocked up countless hours on. A game that forces you to try new tactics and new techniques as a player in your server pulls off the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen and starts tearing your team apart. A game that I take more enjoyment from than any other. A team-based game that actually means it's team based as if you all pull a lone-wolf you'll lose so hard you'll be howling to the moon for hours. Team Fortress 2 went free to play in 2011 and as such I wanted to call it my Game of the Year for 2011. Yes, a game launched in 2007 was to be my Game of the Year because going Free to Play warrants its place in the 2011 launch pile to me. But everyone shouted at me until I agreed it didn't actually count.
Skyrim wins my GOTY for 2011 hands down (I'm not messing around anymore, it actually does). There are so many reasons it won my GOTY and I'm sure there are countless I haven't yet found. I killed my first dragon and said it was my Game of the Year. I Fus Roh Dah'd a bandit off a cliff at night and looked up to see the Northern Lights and said it was my Game of the Year. I saw a dragon fighting a Giant and said it was my Game of the Year. But most importantly, I've been playing and replaying Oblivion since it launched and the first time I played Skyrim I felt at home, Bethesda absolutely nailed it, that feeling alone is worth my Game of the Year.
Sam Clay - Editor in Chief
And as we come to the end of our awards ceremony I leave you in the sweaty yet reliable hands of our EIC, Sam, to have the final word.
It's another one of those year's where EVERYTHING comes out, and I literally mean everything. Remember at the start of the year all the games you were excited for? Portal 2, Homefront and Gears of War 3, just to name a few. Homefront being the biggest shock for me, as that game was awesome...Well atleast online, less about the Singeplayer the better (those damn North Koreans!)
I did however mention Portal 2, a game which, without a doubt is the best game of the year. I say this with complete certainty that Valve Software know how to make a video game close to being 'perfect'. Thanks to the sounds of Steven Merchant as Wheatley, this game was literally the first ever video game 'comedy', well atleast the best one I know of.
However, and that's a big however for those of you who care. It's not my 'favourite game of the year', which in many ways would imply not my 'Game of the Year'. Notice how I called Portal 2 the 'best game of the year'...Sneaky that.
Yep, Battlefield 3 gets my vote. Not only does it wipe the face of Call of Duty. It actually is the only game where I feel I'm needed as a war hero. Fair enough the Singleplayer is awful, but that's not Battlefield, Battlefield has never had a Singleplayer experience, it's only had one become of you 'nancy boy console players' wanting one. Yep, I said that. I'm also one of those nancy boys. A lot more butch tho.
The thing that makes me laugh is that I've played enough Call of Duty now to know that it will never change. It will take itself to a burial ground for a few years and then come back looking a bit/lot better and everyone will be in love again. Not me however, Battlefield is now my home. As a Call of Duty Elite Founder (Yeah, pfhh), you'd find it entertaining to know I have 6 hours of double XP sitting on my account...That will never get used. And even tho I constantly get these 'Elite Emails' telling me to 'COME BACK, PLEASE COME BACK', I doubt I will.
AND also, what a awful service, when you get Battlelog for free and that's so much more useful. Waste of money 101.
Editor's note: Like to say a big thanks to the team of 2011, it has been a strange one. The website has continued to flourish with our content now getting even more acknowledgement worldwide. The fact that we've managed to guest on numerous BBC Radio spots is truly amazing. I'm incredibly proud of my guys for keeping with it and representing the website in Germany for Gamescom as well as at frequent industry events. We're slowly maturing, hopefully one day we'll all grow up and be fighting with the big boys. But untill next time, take care.
