All the big games of 2011 have been and gone and there is now nothing worth looking forward to until Catherine in February and what do we have to show for it? Not a lot sadly.
This year has seen a shitload of AAA Titles, most of them carrying the Number 3 in their title and a tiny smattering of new IPs and the majority of them extremely disappointing!
I have had a hard time deciding on 3 games I love this year, not because there are too few to choose from but because there were just so many, all of which were somewhat ho-hum.
For this list of my Top 3 for 2011, I have naturally ignored all the absolute turkeys which includes:
Fight Night Champion: Worst of the Franchise by far with a terrible new story mode!
Dragon Age II: A videogame abortion. Hated every minute of it!
Assassin's Creed: Revelations: Why are these still being made?
Fable III: As expected for a Peter Molyneux game, pointless and endlessly dull.
L.A. Noire: A game that looks lovely at times but is just so unbelievably dull!
Duke Nukem Forever: A game totally out of it's time.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon: Almost as bad as the movie!
Dungeon Siege III: Worst dungeon crawler I have ever played!
So as you can see there was a lot of games that I really could have done without playing but them there's the breaks!
There were loads of other games which were ok but didn't set the world on fire such as Resistance 3, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 & Battlefield 3 and those that were close to excellent but just had too many issues to be up there like Dark Souls and Batman: Arkham City.
So that leaves just my top 3, which are:
3: Skyrim
I liked Morrowind, a lot! Oblivion though was pretty awful and so I was worried when I read about Skyrim but then...DRAGONS! Who doesn't want to fight dragons!?
As it turned out, I had more trouble fighting a pack of wolves than I did the dragons! Sad but true.
Graphically this game is a joy to behold. Every forest, city and mountain is teeming with life but sadly not a lot else.
As with all the Elder Scrolls Bethesda made a big point of how you can climb a mountain and look far off into the distance, choose a location walk there! Amazing yes but sadly walking 10 miles from a mountain to a ruin means an hour of absolute boredom. If you're lucky you'll meet a few NPCs but chances are they'll just give you some pointless mission to recover a necklace or a tusk...boring.
Luckily the magic and smithing systems add to an otherwise overly familiar game and propel it from absolute mediocrity to a game that, when you look past it's many flaws, is a wonderful creation and cannot be given anything but the utmost respect.
2: Dead Island
This one was a real difficult decision as my experience with Dead Island was awful. Having it on the PS3 I was subjected to some of the worst glitches I have ever beheld. Saves corrupt after 30 hours of playing, all my equipment turned into 2x4 planks, multiple missions were impossible to finish due to NPC's freezing in midair and terrible popup!
Everything about this experience could have made me hate this game but I couldn't. The setting, an idyllic Mediterranean holiday resort is the last place one would expect to find a Zombie Outbreak but as it turns out it as nothing short of genius.
The sense of horror, stumbling across scenes of carnage in rooms used by innocent holiday goers was much more effective than any military installation and the use of weapons was a brilliant mix of Dead Rising & Condemned.
My only gameplay issues were the inclusion of the giant zombies which always seem a bit of a realism killer and certain areas on the map which you have to pass through that contain fast respawn points for zombies meaning death was a very common thing at times.
But all of these problems cannot change the fact that this is a truly brilliant game. It captured the panic and horror of a zombie outbreak far better than I could ever have hoped possible.
1: Saint's Row The Third
Now I feel I should point out that I hated Saint's Row 1 as it felt like a terrible GTA clone. Saint's Row 2 was good as it set itself apart as more of a parody of the torrent of GTA style games on the market so I did go into Saint's Row The 3rd with a sense of expectation which was only mildly marred by a lot of generally average scores and opinions.
Within an hour of starting, I had stolen a vault by helicopter, jumping from a plane, had a gunfight in freefall and then fell through a passing plane to return to freefall only to save the lady and land safely.
It played like a videogame version of Crank and had my adrenaline pumping throughout.
From here the missions varied through general "drive here and kill" to "Steal this" types to more unusual missions involving zombies, Tron-style worlds and Gameshows with killer rabbits.
The game has a very subtle story which shows itself enough to guide the main story from start to finish and even offers multiple paths at times and there are enough side missions to keep even the most ardent of gamers happy for hours and hours.
I do feel I need to explain that I am somewhat of a fickle bugger when it comes to games like this. I am not a big fan of the GTA series as I find them dark and unnecessarily depressing nor am I a massive lover of games that offer nothing more than driving around and shooting but there is just something about this one that grabbed me by the Huge Purple Dildo and wouldn't let go.
I think it is the mix of mission types, the excellent selection of vehicles and the fantastic sense of humour that kept me coming back for more.
I never for a second though this would be my game of the year and I know barely a handful of others would agree with me but I don't care.
So there you you have it, my Top 3 games of 2011. It has been a rather poor year for games which for some is a real pain in the ass but it just allowed me more time to build up my Retro collection and so when the current generation is next stalling, I can fall back on my old 8 and 64 bit friends =o)
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