Game of the Year 2011

[CatmanStu]

Although it came as little surprise to anyone who hasn't been living under a rock for the last year I can't bring myself to take issue with the winner as it is THEIR choice and, as such, their right to give it to whichever game they choose. What I take issue with is the completely ridiculous notion that Batman: AC, Portal 2, and Witcher 2 were not even deemed worthy of nomination.

All three of these games were a) Technically excelent (meaning they did everything they set out to do, not that they were faultless); b) Improvements over the originals (not necessarily better games but everything the originals were with more on top).

By my humble reckoning these achievements equal anything that Skyrim managed without the additional, and quite valid criticism of game breaking bugs and mediocre storytelling (meaning the way it was PRESENTED not the way it was written).

 

[Warachia]

Before I opened the article, I just knew you were going to keep praising Skyrim as the best game ever made, despite its numerous flaws (among them not one but two bad ports and the bugs in all three versions.) Either I'm psychic or every single game critic ever thinks that Plan 9 from Outer Space couldn't possibly be a better movie.

Thank you, I knew they were going to pick Skyrim as well, despite it being a half finished mess that I cannot finish due to a story bug, and speaking of story, it's nowhere near as immersive (the story, not the world) as other games like Bastion make it really undeserving of being game of the year.

 

[Ignatz_Zwakh]

As I was reading off Dark Souls, I literally said "And the winner is....SKYRIIIIIMMM!" before clicking to the next page. To quote Mannoroth "SOOOO PREDICTABLE..."

 

[putowtin]

Also glad to see InFamous 2 get some love.

agreed! inFamous 2 is my game of 2011, just talking about it the other day (in a game of the year thread) made me drop skyrim and start my 12th play through with Good Cole!

 

[The Random One]

Finally a list that remember Deus Ex Human Resources existed. Too bad they had to bump off Portal 2 to make room for it.

 

[almostgold]

That was fuckin' predictable. I was really hoping you guys would surprise me on this one.

Surprise you... with a list of Best Games of the Year? Like, if they had a picked a terrible game they all gave horrible scores to? I can definitely see how that would make the article better!


Anyway, the Hype Backlash for Skyrim seemed to take several weeks longer than for most things. I've always found that to be a good barometer of quality. Good enough that self conscious people craving desperately to be different feel he need the criticize, but great enough that it still takes them a while to pull themselves out of its trance. Congrats Bethesda

 

[Andy Shandy]

Skyrim wasn't my personal game of the year, but I can see why you guys chose it.

Personally, my choice would be either Portal 2, Deus Ex:Human Revolution or Batman: Arkham City, and to fill up a "Personal Top 5" I would add Sonic Generations and Dead Rising 2: Off The Record. Sonic, because I nostalgia-gasmed every second of playing it, and Off The Record because I just love Dead Rising. My honorable mentions would include Skyrim, Saints Row 3, Rayman: Origins and Driver: San Francisco.

And for this year (providing it lives up to expectations...) Mass Effect 3 for Game Of The Year!

 

[dsawyers9]

I'm just happy that World of Warcraft Cataclysm wasn't on this list or Rift.

Neither MMORPG game played out to be a really gut buster of a series and I did like Rift, but didn't love it.

As for Cataclysm, it was a horrible game from day you hit max level and had to play end game grind for gear that wasn't even that good looking and OP classes were back to being OP with 1 shot macros (LOL when will these devs learn they suck at building classes; I'm looking at you GC...GG)


I am happy to see Dead Island up there as a honorable mention. Even though I never played it, from what I watched from Youtube.com and other websites, this is a great Zombie game and I would like to play it one day.



BTW, was angry birds released 2010 or 2011? or was it 2009, cant remember.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Clegane]

Before I opened the article, I just knew you were going to keep praising Skyrim as the best game ever made, despite its numerous flaws (among them not one but two bad ports and the bugs in all three versions.) Either I'm psychic or every single game critic ever thinks that Plan 9 from Outer Space couldn't possibly be a better movie.

Name me a game without flaws and I'll take this as legitimate critiscm, until then GTFO.

OT -My game of 2011 has to be either Total War: Shogun 2 or Skyrim. It's a close run thing and two games are hard to compare considering the genre differences, I've poured a lot more time into Shogun 2 but can't but feel that when I manage to put the same effort into Skyrim, the latter will win out.

I can at least name games with far fewer flaws: for instance, the complete works of Valve. (Speaking of which, Portal 2 wasn't brought up at all.)

 

[Hal10k]

Clegane]

Before I opened the article, I just knew you were going to keep praising Skyrim as the best game ever made, despite its numerous flaws (among them not one but two bad ports and the bugs in all three versions.) Either I'm psychic or every single game critic ever thinks that Plan 9 from Outer Space couldn't possibly be a better movie.

Name me a game without flaws and I'll take this as legitimate critiscm, until then GTFO.

OT -My game of 2011 has to be either Total War: Shogun 2 or Skyrim. It's a close run thing and two games are hard to compare considering the genre differences, I've poured a lot more time into Shogun 2 but can't but feel that when I manage to put the same effort into Skyrim, the latter will win out.

I can at least name games with far fewer flaws: for instance, the complete works of Valve. (Speaking of which, Portal 2 wasn't brought up at all.)

The quality of a game can't be boiled down into a mathematical representation of the number of flaws it possesses. For one thing, a "flaw" is something you personally find distasteful, not something that can be objectively determined. This applies to quality of writing, how enjoyable the mechanics of the game are, whether the whole shebang is visually interesting, etc. Somewhere out there in some godforsaken corner of the Earth, there is somebody who absolutely freaking loves the lag he's getting on his PS3. For him, the lag isn't a flaw, because he has different opinions. Very, very weird opinions.

More importantly, how many flaws a game possesses for you isn't the ultimate determinate of quality either. What matters is to what degree a game's merits compare against its flaws. The people who enjoy Skyrim aren't ignoring personal flaws like the PS3 lag, they just think the game is good enough that the good aspects outweigh the technical difficulties.

 

[Lancer873]

Kinda disappoint that Frozen Synapse got the mention, Bastion got the nomination, but SpaceChem was nowhere on the list. It's the best puzzle game I've played in years. I understand that there's only so many slots you guys can open up for indie games... but really, SpaceChem was a shining example of an under-appreciated subgenre (automation). It was one of those games that was a huge pleasant surprise for me from the HIBs, like Jamestown, and I'm highly considering buying the SpaceChem expansion once I beat it. The whole genre disparity in preference is depressing for an action-platformer and puzzle game fan... Speaking of action-platformer: why no Rayman Origins or LittleBigPlanet 2?

 

[Omnific One]

Before I opened the article, I just knew you were going to keep praising Skyrim as the best game ever made, despite its numerous flaws (among them not one but two bad ports and the bugs in all three versions.) Either I'm psychic or every single game critic ever thinks that Plan 9 from Outer Space couldn't possibly be a better movie.

Because Azura forbid that a game has flaws! What's your favourite game, by the way, so we can poke a million and one holes in that? OK, fine. You hate it. Well done, your opinion is obviously better than everyone else's. Have a bloody sticker.

Guess what? Skryim is so praised by everyone there's no way future historians will see it the same way as the gaming press and critics these days. Just like Duke Nukem Forever was panned mostly due to 12 years of excessive media-generated hype and didn't hold up, Skyrim won't hold up in future generations due to the excessive fan- and critic-generated hype right now.

That is one of the worst comparisons I think I've ever heard. One is pre-release hype, one is post-release hype. Those are so incredibly different.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Before I opened the article, I just knew you were going to keep praising Skyrim as the best game ever made, despite its numerous flaws (among them not one but two bad ports and the bugs in all three versions.) Either I'm psychic or every single game critic ever thinks that Plan 9 from Outer Space couldn't possibly be a better movie.

Because Azura forbid that a game has flaws! What's your favourite game, by the way, so we can poke a million and one holes in that? OK, fine. You hate it. Well done, your opinion is obviously better than everyone else's. Have a bloody sticker.

Guess what? Skryim is so praised by everyone there's no way future historians will see it the same way as the gaming press and critics these days. Just like Duke Nukem Forever was panned mostly due to 12 years of excessive media-generated hype and didn't hold up, Skyrim won't hold up in future generations due to the excessive fan- and critic-generated hype right now.

That is one of the worst comparisons I think I've ever heard. One is pre-release hype, one is post-release hype. Those are so incredibly different.

To people who haven't played it yet, it's still hype and it's still unlikely to live up to it.

 

[MurderousToaster]

Oh god, awards. I hate awards threads. The only thing you ever find in award threads is rage about how game X didn't deserve to win and that game Y is so much better. People just descend into some sort of angry, retarded rage whenever awards are mentioned.

 

[Genixma]

Well that was highly unpredictable.

 

[Omnific One]

Before I opened the article, I just knew you were going to keep praising Skyrim as the best game ever made, despite its numerous flaws (among them not one but two bad ports and the bugs in all three versions.) Either I'm psychic or every single game critic ever thinks that Plan 9 from Outer Space couldn't possibly be a better movie.

Because Azura forbid that a game has flaws! What's your favourite game, by the way, so we can poke a million and one holes in that? OK, fine. You hate it. Well done, your opinion is obviously better than everyone else's. Have a bloody sticker.

Guess what? Skryim is so praised by everyone there's no way future historians will see it the same way as the gaming press and critics these days. Just like Duke Nukem Forever was panned mostly due to 12 years of excessive media-generated hype and didn't hold up, Skyrim won't hold up in future generations due to the excessive fan- and critic-generated hype right now.

That is one of the worst comparisons I think I've ever heard. One is pre-release hype, one is post-release hype. Those are so incredibly different.

To people who haven't played it yet, it's still hype and it's still unlikely to live up to it.

Perhaps, but one set of hype is actually based on about 10 million customers and glowing reviews across the board, while the other was based on marketing.

 

[jFr[e]ak93]

No surprise. Why was Portal 2 not a nominee? Seriously.

 

[Moeez]

I'd be ok with Skyrim taking the award if it was a fun game. Sadly, the sub-par combat (First Person Melee has come a long way with Condemned, Dark Messiah, and Zeno Clash), tedious menus and UI, dull characters, abundance of fetch quests, and useless mechanics like horses (Bethesda clearly hasn't played Red Dead Redemption) and shop vendors with limited money really bring it down for me.

I put 20 hours into it, never going back. It doesn't have a single quest to rival Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood. For a game that encourages freedom in an RPG, there's barely any choice compared to the likes of Deus Ex Human Revolution. It really was the most mediocre of the RPGs released in 2011. Can't believe people excuse all of that because it's a big game. Quality over quantity, any day for me.