[Game] of the year [2011 Edition]

[Murphy]

Skyrim.

I'm sure Dark Souls could be a contender, but I haven't bought it yet.

Shogun 2 I'll have to try at some point, if they don't come out with Rome 2 until I get around to it, lol. I would certainly appreciate it.
Until Total War: Ancient Greece comes out one day I think Rome is going to be my favorite Total War era.

Gears of War 3 was excellent as well. Not GotY material, imo, but excellent.

like it or not - it's TWI's game to a greater degree than it's "yours"

Great. Until they turn it into a slow, methodical game or quite frankly a fun game in general, that I can enjoy by just hopping online and playing it with strangers they can keep it!

(it's effing 2011! Shouldn't the spellcheck recognize "online" by now?)

That's what made RO:Mod and to a lesser but still large degree RO:Ost great for me.

I never had that much of a problem with bugs and thankfully my PC is good enough to run the game well so I'm not overly bothered by the bad optimization either. So I'm not one of those who are locked out of the brilliant game underneath by technical issues... I was mostly disappointed with a lot of the design decisions, big and small, that make RO2 what it is.

And now when I think about the game and think of some good times I had, shooting people in the Grain Elevator or whatever, what immediately comes to mind is the insultingly ridiculous narrator in the campaign and how embarrassing that whole thing was... it's kind of a turn of for me whenever I get the subtle urge to play it again.
I know the campaign wasn't the main focus, but there is no excuse for this. If you don't care at all, make it a series of bot-matches. Don't pretend it's something else with flashy propaganda pictures and fancy animated briefings, but most importantly: don't hire that cheesy goofball to do your narration!
I know I shouldn't care. Pretend the singleplayer button doesn't exist. But the game insulted me and now I like it less for it. If the MP could make up for it I would stop caring, but so far it can't. I'm sure I'll try it again at some point. And I'll certainly play the mods.
But for now RO2 remains a huge disappointment.

 

[Krobar]

Everyone knows Duty Calls was made the 2011 GOTY back in February.

With more interest in the Fallout series than Elder Scrolls and BF3's removal of half the classes, including my favourite and the only one I was good at, spec-ops. With a CoD game never deserving GOTY and me only playing Minecraft and Portal 2, along with the games that I already stated, I voted for Minecraft with Portal 2 a close second.

But we all know Indie PC games cant be GOTY because

*snaps straight up and stairs endlessly*

Call Of Duty is. The best game. Ever. Made.

This brain washed response is trademarked and has its rights reserved by Activision and Infinity Ward.

 

[DraKon2k]

Am I the only one who can't stand those pseudo-sarcastic completely redundant posts about CoD? CoD is CoD and everybody knows it, no need to bring up the same crap over and over again.

 

[Omar The Insurgent]

Heroes of Stalingrad

 

[Tomcat_ha]

RO2 runs too poorly on my laptop to make me really try playing it. Even though ro2 has playable fps the game hasnt excited me enough. The maps are kinda boring and too many automatics.
However the games i played the most this past year would be dwarfs and men of war assault squad.

 

[Murphy]

Am I the only one who can't stand those pseudo-sarcastic completely redundant posts about CoD? CoD is CoD and everybody knows it, no need to bring up the same crap over and over again.

You're not the only one. Except I wouldn't use the word "pseudo-sarcastic" to describe them.

 

[Nenjin]

I'm still trying to make up my mind. Having not played a lot on the list like BF3, DS or Witcher 2, I feel like I haven't really seen enough of the top contenders to make a real judgment.

But I just got Arkham City and up until now, I'd have thought Skyrim should rightfully crush all comers. Now, I'm not so sure. This game is superb for many of the reasons Skyrim is and almost equally as addictive. Have to get through more of it to really decide but I think it deserves to be right up there with Skyrim.

 

[Mr. Explosion]

Most recent game = most popular game, marketing wins again?

Last year I would've had trouble naming 3 great games, it's certainly a step up from that. Also a bit disappointing that my favourite mod projects (RO and NS) turned out worse when turning commercial.

 

[Murphy]

I don't know about marketing, man. I was very skeptical with Elder Scrolls V after the Oblivion crisis p) and the videos did more to convince me I was right than they did really hype me up for the game, tbh. Stats gone, perk-trees, menus are lists again, traditional RPG conversation trees again like in Oblivion (not keyword encyclopedias like in Morrowind), and and and.

I mostly bought it because even a bad Elder Scrolls such as Oblivion is still a game that's easily worth the price of admission, and even IF Skyrim had have been turned into a pure, somewhat linear action game it still would have been an action game in an awesome world!

What convinced me that Skyrim was every bit as great as one could have hoped for was more or less just the game itself.

And our dearly beloved cynicism aside for just a moment, 2011 was a great year for gaming (and Trine 2 has yet to come out!).

 

[fiftyone]

But I just got Arkham City and up until now, I'd have thought Skyrim should rightfully crush all comers. Now, I'm not so sure. This game is superb for many of the reasons Skyrim is and almost equally as addictive. Have to get through more of it to really decide but I think it deserves to be right up there with Skyrim.

Don't do that to me, it's gonna cost some.
I've been trying not to hit the "buy now" button...

Oh well.

EDIT: Fixed.

 

[theta123]

The elder scrolls skyrim . No doubt. A brilliant game from a brilliant game studios, worth every euro i payed for it

Admitted, bethesda has its typical errors and bugs. But all of there faults have seen MAJOR improvement in Skyrim.

Skyrim itself is magnificent, big, always intresting, always something to do, Great main quest, tonnes of sidequests, 300 goddam dungeons to rob.
Skyrim also fixed many bad things from oblivion. Oblivion was nice but it had some faults.

BF3 is not bad, and worth the cash.

modern whorefare3 is NOT however. This is just another MILK THE COW. It really is MW2 with just some new weapons(with some removed), new maps and thats it. Only survival mode is intresting

 

[Krobar]

BF3 is not bad, and worth the cash.

BF3 only has half the classes of BF2 among halves of other things from BF2. Therefor I would say it's not worth the $60, maybe $30, if that.

 

[Josef Nader]

And Skyrim by a landslide.

None of these other games can hold a candle. Sure, individual components (graphics, story, gameplay) might be better, but as a collective whole no one else pulls it all together quite as well as Skyrim. In scope, quality, and ambition, it's miles ahead of everything else.

 

[Grabbed_by_the_Spetsnaz]

Arkam city was my vote finally a brawler I really like (except, perhaps KuF: the crusade). Everything was so awesome about that game, big open maps, no uninchartable areas, awesome caracters, smooth fluid fighting! Oh man I just loved that game.

Other games: meh

BF3: cut half the content, destroyed mod support, ramming out overpriced DLC, ugh.

Mw3: need I say more...

Shogun 2: got tons of praise and then dissapired off the face of the earth.

Minecraft: loving it but being realistic, indies never get GOTY

The rest: Just a sameless copypasta sequels that more hype and praise that it should

 

[Krobar]

Skyrim

Only thing Skyrim did for me was let me know what the Fo4 engine is going to be like. I have nothing against The Elder Scrolls series, just that I spent too many years playing medieval fantasy games because there's been so many. Though The Elder Scrolls having first person puts them ahead I can get a similar experience playing Age of Chivalry, which is free.

 

[Nenjin]

Having played all TES and FO games....Skyrim is good, but I think it gets forgiven all its short comings because it looks so good.

Quests? The same as Oblivion.

Gear? Looks better. But ultimately its the exact same as Oblivion.

Magic? Looks better. Half as interesting.

Dragons? Perhaps the one new, standout feature of the game.

I'm trying to remain fair to Skyrim, but after 30 hours a lot of cracks in the game are showing. Just like every TES and FO game, you hit that wall of not caring anymore with tons of the game left to play, because the original games are never ever balanced for a long playthrough.

It's like Bethesda is winning the GOTY competition because they finally managed to create beautiful graphics for their open world. More power to them and it does make your first 15 hours magical. It's just that after that, Skyrim starts to feel like every other Beth game in creation. Which makes me question, honestly, how much it deserves GOTY.

To put it another way, people I know that were never interested in Oblivion or Fallout are now curious about Skyrim. That has everything to do with the vistas and the visuals....and almost nothing to do with the game play.

 

[Cyper]

Same here. The only game of those listed in the poll that I have played (and still play) is Minecraft.

 

[Josef Nader]

Having played all TES and FO games....Skyrim is good, but I think it gets forgiven all its short comings because it looks so good.

Quests? The same as Oblivion.

Gear? Looks better. But ultimately its the exact same as Oblivion.

Magic? Looks better. Half as interesting.

Dragons? Perhaps the one new, standout feature of the game.

I'm trying to remain fair to Skyrim, but after 30 hours a lot of cracks in the game are showing. Just like every TES and FO game, you hit that wall of not caring anymore with tons of the game left to play, because the original games are never ever balanced for a long playthrough.

It's like Bethesda is winning the GOTY competition because they finally managed to create beautiful graphics for their open world. More power to them and it does make your first 15 hours magical. It's just that after that, Skyrim starts to feel like every other Beth game in creation. Which makes me question, honestly, how much it deserves GOTY.

To put it another way, people I know that were never interested in Oblivion or Fallout are now curious about Skyrim. That has everything to do with the vistas and the visuals....and almost nothing to do with the game play.

I strongly disagree. While the very -core- gameplay has stayed the same, a lot of the annoying **** from the other TES games has been cut out, a lot of stuff has been streamlined (for the better), and the depth of the world they've created takes us back to the good ol' Morrowind days. The leveling system is probably my favorite new feature. The perks and leveling just work, and it makes the game much more natural and intuitive than anything before it. I feel like I'm actually playing the character I want to play as opposed to "well, can't do that because it doesn't fit in with these other skills that I want..."

That's just one of the mountains of gameplay improvements that really make Skyrim stand out from the others for me. Combat is smooth and intuitive, the magic is flashy and rewarding (I particularly like how raising zombies doesn't just summon them out of the ether anymore, you actually have to raise a corpse), and the stealth is both viable and rewarding for the first time in Elder Scrolls history.

Frankly, Skyrim blows the others out of the water. Even Morrowind (and I bloody loved Morrowind).

If you don't like Bethesda games, this one isn't going to change your mind, but if you do this one is miles ahead of everything else they've put out.

 

[theta123]

BF3 only has half the classes of BF2 among halves of other things from BF2. Therefor I would say it's not worth the $60, maybe $30, if that.

never said i ment 60$ i will buy BF3 but not now

 

[Murphy]

Gear? Looks better. But ultimately its the exact same as Oblivion.

Aside from the high-end armors it looks a lot more like everything belongs there. Oblivion had a wild mix of things from different cultures and eras. E.g. form-fitting dresses that weren't laced. If the game is set in medieval times, with non-elastic materials, that's not possible. But if it is possible, and the game takes place in some sort of renaissance time, then it doesn't make sense that we don't even get crossbows yet!
That's just the gear now. We also have one castle-city with a vampire count, a Mediterranean looking city from classical antiquity, a Barbarian city from the Dark Ages, and pirate ships in the harbor of the Imperial city from the renaissance era. What is it now?
Pick one, for god's sake.

Skyrim is set in a nordic fantasy world (heavily inspired by the Lord of the Rings movies, I'd say) and everything looks like it belongs there.

As I said, aside from high-end armor like the Glass equipment (looks like something from UT3, and again, they were too afraid to make an actual glass armor from vulcanic glass but went with the metal armor with glass decorations...). And even that just looks fantasy-weird, not wrong-era-weird.

=> much better.

It's like Bethesda is winning the GOTY competition because they finally managed to create beautiful graphics for their open world.

Let's not forget that Morrowind got a lot of praise for its incredible graphics when it came out, and so did Oblivion!