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What is your Game of the Year 2011? (and biggest disappointment 2011)
Topic Started: Jan 4 2012, 01:43 AM (152 Views)
Einar T.
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Protocol Droid
Just curious, whats your game of the year for 2011. Put up your Game(s) Of The Year however you please, favorite game on which system, maybe a top 3, or just a favorite title. Also while we are at it, biggest gaming disappointment.

When it first came out In February, Marvel Vs Capcom 3 was my favorite title. I played the hell out of it. Nearly completing the entire gallery. But more recently, Batman Arkham City has to be my GOTY, maybe favorite game of all time. (Sorry Sonic CD!) Got it on release day and I STILL PLAY IT. I mean a lot. Only got 10% of the game left and I have to have poured nearly 60 hours into this sucker!

My biggest disappointment, Rage. DO NOT BUY! This game is garbage! I got so excited for this game and then... It was a steaming pile of poo. I really can't explain how bad this game is. The only good thing about it was the graphics. Everything else was a train wreck. Even in the bargain bin avoid the game.
Edited by Einar T., Jan 4 2012, 01:44 AM.
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Super Bermuda
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RhinoBot
Well, I didn't get to play as many 2011 games this year as I may have liked, so I missed out on games like Arkham City and Skyrim. From the things I have heard about AC and how much I liked the first game, it probably would have been a contender for my GOTY. Well, time to move on to the games I did play.

GOTY
Super Mario 3D Land

This is the best handheld Mario game by far. That may not be saying much since there aren't very many. SML, SML2, and NSMB are the only other three if I recall correctly. I don't count the Advance games as they are ports of console games. But 3D Land is an awesome game and actually makes really good use of the 3D capabilities of the 3DS. The recent Galaxy games and 3D Land are the most fun games I have ever played.

Honorable Mentions
Mario Kart 7
This will probably be a game I play for a very long time. It's got a lot of replay value for me.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
The controls took a while for me to get used to, but once I got the hang of it I think I preferred them to more traditional controls. For the most part anyway. Sword fighting is a lot of fun and is a huge improvement for the series. Items like the beetle were fun to use and used WMP well. Other items like the slingshot may have been better if it was strictly IR controls like in Twilight Princess. For some reason, WMP makes aiming feel slower. And there's a lot of backtracking in this game. I know that's kind of normal for Zelda games, but it felt like a lot more in this one. Making me go back through the first temple for a bottle of water just feels like they're trying to stretch the game out a little longer.

Biggest Disappointments
Catherine
I was looking forward to this game. They were saying it was the first HD game from the Persona guys. I thought the presentation of Persona 3 and 4 was amazing so I wanted to see what they could do with current gen consoles. I thought the game looked great and can't wait to see how Persona 5 turns out. These guys know how to make a game look good. Problem was, I think I may have enjoyed the game more if they took out the actual game. I'm talking about the block puzzle thing. I loved the parts where you're in the real world hanging out in the bar and interacting with people. The whole block tower thing just wasn't very fun to me. It was just some chore I had to get through to advance the story.

Ar Tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel
I have kind of a bad history with this series. The first two games were for PS2. I started playing the first game on my PS3, but after a little while I found I couldn't save my game anymore so I had to restart on the PS2. I disappointing setback, but I enjoyed the game nonetheless. The second game I heard would play just fine on the PS3, so I did just that. I get to the end of the game and save. I come back a little later and find my save file is gone. Gone forever like it never existed. Nonetheless, I enjoyed what I did play.

Qoga was the first game in the series where I didn't have any problems with saves or anything like that. The problem was they completely changed the battle system, and the Cosmosphere was dragged out for much to long and was incredibly boring. I couldn't beat this game. I'm done with Ar Tonelico.

Shadows of the Damned
OK I actually liked this game. I love Suda 51, I just don't think this was his best effort. Maybe my hopes were too high? I just wasn't blown away like I was with Killer 7 and No More Heroes. I like the game, but just slightly disappointed.
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Brewmaster Dragon
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I'm a bit in my cups at the moment.
I haven't played a lot of games that came out this year...in fact I can only think of two.

Best: Portal 2

This is what a sequel should be. It felt so much more grand than the first game. It really felt like an adventure. The writing was really great as well and I was glad to get more background on Aperture and GLaDOS.

Honorable Mention: Pokémon Black & White

I initially wasn't terribly excited for this, but as it got closer to release Shadow's hype for it kind of rubbed off on me I guess. I pre-ordered it, got it at launch and ended up loving it. It made Diamond and Pearl looked half-baked by comparison. This is easily one of my favorite generations of Pokémon next to 1st and 3rd.

Worst: Nothing I can think of.
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Project: Shadow
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Egg Robo
Pokemon Black, Magicka, Terraria, Portal 2, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, Mario Kart 7, and Sonic Generations. Those are the main games of 2011 that I've played. It's almost impossible to choose one that I'd nominate as game of the year. For the worst, well, it wasn't released in 2011 but that's when I got it, Sim City 4 Deluxe. Horrible interface (I accidentally deleted the pre-made cities from my hard drive twice) and glitchy graphics. I dunno if it's my PC or the Steam version or what but I wish I had spent the money on the classic SNES game on virtual console.

As Dragon said, I was really excited about Pokemon Black. I got back into Pokemon with Platinum after not playing one since Silver. Platinum was great in because it was so familiar to me, seeing so many of the Pokemon that I knew from before, and yet it was almost too familiar. That's why I loved Black, because it was so fresh and different from what I remembered of Blue and Silver and had some really great design choices.

The next three came from Steam, Magicka reminded me of Four Swords Adventures with its multi-colored heroes teaming up for adventures and pleasantly surprised me with how fun combining the elements for different attacks could be. After completing the story I'd occasionally return to it to try out some DLC whenever it went on sale. Then Terraria came along, I really need to compare my time spent on the game because I may have spent more time with it last year than Pokemon Black. I don't even know what to say about the game or what I find so appealing about it that I can play it for hours on end. I guess it's a combination of great open exploration, a cool crafting system, and lots of possibilities for being creative. It's just really fun, especially with more than one person, and it keeps getting updated with more and more content for free. I believe it won an award for 2011 Indie Game of the Year which it richly deserves. Then there was Portal 2, though I can't really think of anything to add beyond what Dragon said.

I had been looking forward to Kirby's Return to Dreamland for a long time and it was pretty much everything I was hoping it would be. It introduced four great abilities and was another great multiplayer game like New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I played through pretty much the entire game with my brother and sister, which was a first.

Thinking back, I'm pretty sure Skyward Sword is the only Zelda game I've bought close to release and I'm certainly glad I did. I wasn't crazy about the story and the controls took some getting used to, but it's one of the most enjoyable games I've played. I thought it was amazing that even usually boring tasks like revisiting areas to search for an item you need in order to get another item was fun to me. Basically if my attitude playing the game could be reflected upon Link, then he would be smiling through his whole adventure, from start to finish.

Onto Mario Kart 7, possibly my favorite of the series aside from the character selection. It left me missing a few of the characters from Mario Kart Wii's huge selection and wondering why in the world we needed some of the characters included in a kart racing game. See below for that one. I really like the kart customization and how easy it is to join friends online in races. The new courses are some of the best yet, like Music Park, and I love how being able to go underwater and glide changes the way you race in the old courses. It took me a while to realize I could drive right through the swimming pool on Daisy Cruiser. I'll definitely be playing this one a lot, especially whenever I notice people online (like I've joined several of Bermuda's races).

Spoiler: click to toggle


Finally, Sonic Generations was my last game of the year. I originally planned on getting the 3DS version, and after playing the Steam one I would still like to. I was worried my PC couldn't handle it, but the system requirements are a bit exaggerated. It can occasionally get a little choppy and I have to play at a reduced resolution, but it's definitely playable. I look forward to when I can play it with a more capable PC, hopefully I can make a few upgrades with this year's tax return. I love it. I enjoyed Sonic Colors. It felt like they were finally getting back on the right track. Now it's like they've got it and hope to God they don't lose it again. It's the most fun I've had with a Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2. I find myself replaying stages over and over, not just to get achievements, red rings, and S ranks, but because it's actually FUN! Chemical Plant is probably my favorite. I'd almost say this is my game of the year, but I might just still be too hyped up on it. Right now I don't really have a better answer, though. It's either this, Pokemon Black, Terraria, or Skyward Sword. I can never make up my mind about anything. XD
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Hyper Metal Sonic
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Koopa the Quick!
In all honesty, most of the 2011 games that I played don't come to mind immediately. So I'm going to take some time to think about this thoroughly. however, I have some comments for some of your guys' picks already.

First off, Shadow, I agree entirely with the character selection in MK7. They would have been fine choices as additions and not replacements of other established MK players. I would have liked all the Wii characters and then some(would it have been hard to just recycle them? I mean that's kind of lazy but I'd accept it over nothing!). Wii definitely had the best cast list, although I like the new courses in MK7 better. And for some reason I don't like Koopa Cape as much in MK7 as I did in Wii, though I still enjoy it!

Bermuda:

I got SotD for Christmas and really enjoyed it! Although I'm a huge fan of the grindhouse genre which this really seems to be one giant homage to so I may be quite biased. Though I do agree greatly that its not nearly as good as say No More Heroes or Resident Evil 4 (I can't comment on K7 since I've never played it) but I still found enjoyment in it. I might even platinum it which I don't do very often!
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Super Bermuda
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RhinoBot
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Jan 4 2012, 08:11 PM
Bermuda:

I got SotD for Christmas and really enjoyed it! Although I'm a huge fan of the grindhouse genre which this really seems to be one giant homage to so I may be quite biased. Though I do agree greatly that its not nearly as good as say No More Heroes or Resident Evil 4 (I can't comment on K7 since I've never played it) but I still found enjoyment in it. I might even platinum it which I don't do very often!
Yeah, like I said, I did enjoy the game. I was hesitating to even put it on my disappointment list. I think it all may be because of my unfair high expectations. It actually was a very good game. I wanted to be able to go back and replay missions and completely upgrade my weapons, but the game didn't allow that. Now that i think about it, that may have been my only complaint.
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Einar T.
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Protocol Droid
Another game on my list of disappointments, Uncharted 3, WHAT A PIECE OF GARBAGE! Worst in the series and just all around bad game. Bad gun play, poor pacing, bad story telling, everything I think I might put this above Rage in terms of badness, cause at least that game looked really good... (and had John Goodman)
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Hyper Metal Sonic
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Super Bermuda
Jan 4 2012, 11:40 PM
Hyper Metal Sonic
Jan 4 2012, 08:11 PM
Bermuda:

I got SotD for Christmas and really enjoyed it! Although I'm a huge fan of the grindhouse genre which this really seems to be one giant homage to so I may be quite biased. Though I do agree greatly that its not nearly as good as say No More Heroes or Resident Evil 4 (I can't comment on K7 since I've never played it) but I still found enjoyment in it. I might even platinum it which I don't do very often!
Yeah, like I said, I did enjoy the game. I was hesitating to even put it on my disappointment list. I think it all may be because of my unfair high expectations. It actually was a very good game. I wanted to be able to go back and replay missions and completely upgrade my weapons, but the game didn't allow that. Now that i think about it, that may have been my only complaint.
Oh no, I understand completely. Despite the game being 8 hours long(for me at least) it felt short. . .it felt like it ended a lot sooner, though perhaps thats what they were going for? It was very much like a film and perhaps they wanted it to have the same pace. But I digress. I definitely agree on not being able to go back to previous stages as something that's very annoying. If I wish to platinum the title I'll basically have to farm the white gems in certain levels to buy the red gems.

And you really feel that way Einar? To be quite honest I found the first game to simply be "alright". I felt the first game had poor gunplay as well and the only thing that kept me going was the story has me intrigued, but it wasn't anything amazing either. Over all the game was fun and I only borrowed it so I don't regret it, but I don't really care if I ever play 2 or 3(although I wouldn't mind to either, at least 2).

And yes, John Goodman is fantastic!
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CHAOSGAMMA
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Leon
Thanks for all that you guys shared here! It's great to hear all about which games are well worth playing and which ones aren't, especially from you.

For me, not a whole lot that I played last year really stands out, but I've gotta agree with Bermuda that Super Mario 3D Land is some of the most fun I've had in a game... and it just keeps going! Lucky for me I still have well over half of the levels left to play through as the other character, 'cause I'm looking forward to it! I've been Street passing a lot of people with the game too. So there's the time runs too! It's really cool that you trade best times with other players when you StreetPass them... I don't think I've met any real challenges yet though. And it makes me kind of sad that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is still eagerly waiting near the top of my playing queue, I really enjoyed the little that I played of it so I'm still really looking forward to it (that probably sounds crazy since I've had the game so long, lol, but it's true!).

Another game that I want to chime in on is Sonic Generations. Like Project: Shadow mentioned, I too have really enjoyed just playing the stages again and again because they're just that good! At first I was really disappointed that Red Star Rings were in the game, but now that the game has grown on me more I don't mind so much. Now I don't have too many of them to go back for to complete (oh and by the way since I mentioned those, they aren't in the 3DS version of the game! But in it some of the missions are pretty difficult!).

I don't really have a biggest disappointment for the year... I think for the most part I enjoyed everything I played. More of what I have is a big list of the great games to go play!
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