The top ten games of 2011

Posted by on December 13, 2011 in Features

2011 turned out really well. And in some entirely unexpected places! Bodycount had some of the year’s best straight-up no-nonsense gunplay, but in terms of the overall package, Fear 3 was a real stand-out. For multiplayer gunplay, three other threes deserve mention: Battlefield 3, Killzone 3, and Modern Warfare 3 all shine online. Payday: The Heist deserves recognition for its shrewd variation on the Left 4 Dead theme. Virtua Tennis 4 comfortably fit classic Virtua Tennis into a turn-based boardgame campaign. Distant Worlds with its two expansions is a fantastic strategy game in a year with too few strategy games. The Sims: Medieval breathed as much new life into the Sims series as Sims 2 and Sims 3. Little Big Planet 2 managed to be more than just a kit for user-generated content and instead shipped with a great platformer in the box. In a year with some great platformers, deBlob 2 was one of the best. Ascension: Chronicles of the Godslayer and Tiny Wings on the iPhone deserve special mention.

But let’s talk top ten. Toy Soldiers: Cold War, Dungeon Defenders, Driver: San Francisco, Renegade Ops, and Skyrim very nearly made the list. If this had been a top 15, I would have just counted us down to number ten!

After the jump, on to the top ten of 2011

10) Shogun 2

Creative Assembly is back and in fine form with this glorious return to their ancient Japanese roots. Remember Creative Assembly? You will now. From the review:

Imagine you woke up one morning and the village idiot had built a cathedral. At which point someone vaguely recalls the village idiot was once a famous architect and it all kind of makes sense.

 

9) Need for Speed: Shift 2

More serious that Driver, but with more heart, muscle, and sex appeal than Forza 4. It takes quite a game to make me think of a race track in these terms:

Take a beautiful woman. A classically beautiful woman, not some latter day slattern. Convince her to stretch out on a big fluffy bed. Nothing raunchy. Something tasteful enough to paint on the nose of a bomber. Now send her home. Carefully analyze the topography of the bed where she has just lain. Calculate a track over that topography. Now you have the Glendale Raceway.

The sometimes embarrassingly affectionate game diary starts here.

 

8) Rift

Finally someone broke out of the stagnant model on which MMO worlds are built. From the review:

…if a kingdom can’t change, at least it can be dynamic. This is the thinking behind Rift’s rifts. These are holes that open in random places, like the gates in Oblivion, spitting out monsters. But these monsters don’t stay put. They have places to be, roads to travel, other monsters to meet up with, cities to conquer.

When I consider which MMO I’m finally going to jump back into, this is the one that comes to mind.

 

7) Dead Island

Think zombies are played out? You haven’t seen these zombies yet!

Dead Island, one of the best zombie games yet made, understands that a zombie isn’t just a bag of hit points. A zombie is a threat. In modern zombie lore, a single zombie is scary because its bite will infect you. A dozen zombies are even scarier. A shopping mall or island of zombies scarier still…But Dead Island, which spends a lot of its graphics resources on a gorgeous, detailed, and remarkably open world and therefore can’t afford dozens of zombies at a time, makes each zombie more important. You might say it restores to the poor creatures a sense of respect. These guys won’t infect you — surprise, you’re immune! — but they’re on more equal footing with you than the trash mob zombies you’ve been killing in other games.

For further elaboration, I would normally refer you to this review, but I asked to have my name removed after the editor insisted on adding text that didn’t match my experience or reflect my opinion.

 

6) Witcher 2

The Godfather of computer RPGs? From the review:

…the fundamental fact about The Witcher 2 is that it’s good enough to take itself seriously. Its earnestness would be ridiculous in a lesser game. There’s a fundamental maturity about The Witcher 2, with its earthy vulgarity, old-school hardcore RPG gameplay, rich graphics that don’t have to be flashy, complex challenging combat, and superlative low-fantasy writing that relies on people instead of all-powerful doo-dads.

 

5) Anno 2070

I. Can’t. Stop. Playing. This. From the review:

Any city builder needs to first do two things to be good: constantly give you something to do, and constantly give you something to admire. I can think of no other city builder that does both of these crucial things as well as Anno 2070.

As if that’s not enough, how about a persistent base with crafted upgrades and a ridiculously meaty meta-game? If you’re not careful, this could be the last game you’ll ever want.

 

4) Saints Row 3

Volition has always done a great job at open-world mayhem. And now they’ve done fantastic storytelling, unforgettable missions, effective writing, and vivid characters. From the review:

Saints Row 3…is immaculately paced because it loves you. Most games can be insensitive clods with occasional rough patches. You get stuck for a while, or it’s slow to start, or you cruise through some filler, or certain design choices are clunky, or the characters are flat and you don’t care about them, or you know exactly what’s going to happen next and therefore when it happens you don’t care. None of this happens in Saints Row 3, which is a textbook example of how to keep me into a game from beginning to open-ended end. I don’t have to slog through a few early missions with a derringer and a puttering ATV. I don’t hit a crazy difficulty level spike half way through. I don’t fight a stupid boss battle at the end. Well, okay, maybe I do because Saints Row 3 knows exactly how to set it up. You’re in good hands. Here is a game that starts you out doing the sorts of things you wouldn’t normally do until the end of other games. And yet, it never stops delivering surprises, twists, and “I gotta get me one of those!” moments. Which is followed by one of those being immediately given to you. Saints Row 3 doesn’t go to 11, because it’s there from the beginning.

Listen to the podcast with lead designer Scott Phillips here.

 

3) Batman: Arkham City

Can you name another open-world game in which a gun, a sword, or a car isn’t your chief means of interacting with the world? I can’t. Even then, can you name another open-world game this good? I can’t. From the review:

Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight and Rocksteay’s Arkham City are both more than just good entertainment that happen to be based on comic books. They’re inspired and inspiring creative endeavors at the absolute top of their form, taking what should have been baggage — A blind squeaking cave bird/rodent as the power animal? A bad guy who dresses up as a clown? A rich dude with a butler fighting crime by night? The sort of car some guy would drive to compensate for a small penis? — and adroitly adapting it to cinematic or gameplay argot. Is there something special about Batman? Or are Nolan and Rocksteady just geniuses who happen to have the rights to a comic book dude?

 

2) Space Pirates and Zombies

The Toys for Bob game that Toys for Bob would make if they were still making Toys for Bob games: a sci-fi zombie soup-to-nuts apocalypse from a couple of guys who understand zombie mythology, space combat, open-world RPGs, and the sort of design trickery that other developers are afraid to try. From the review:

As you pick your way across the galaxy, taking on different missions or just making a beeline through warpgates to some distant point, you can mix it up. Try different weapons. Try different loadouts. Try different ships. Just because you have a huge pokey cruiser loaded with heavy weapons, you’ll still need to fly one of the tiny mining ships on some missions. There are no dead-ends here. What’s more, this isn’t a game in which you save and reload. You might have to grind some mining to recover from a crushing defeat. I can’t deny that I’ve alt-tabbed out of the game while my ships automatically mine ore in a friendly asteroid belt for a while. I don’t need to be there for that. Privileges of management, and all that. Even when you’re losing, Space Pirates and Zombies has a wonderful sense of momentum, advancement, progression, and variety.

Listen to the podcast with creators Andrew Hume and Richard Clifford here.

 

1) Bastion


Bastion’s narrator will comment on what you’re doing as you’re doing it. When this happens, and when it seems like it came from a choice I made, I feel like the narrator is paying attention to me. He’s not a canned voice playing out a script, like Cave Johnson in Portal 2. Instead, he’s talking directly to me, and we have a relationship, like GlaDOS. But unlike the carefully scripted Portal games, where GlaDOS speaks right on cue and the same way every time, Bastion’s narrator notices things that won’t necessarily happen all the time. He says something about the specific pair of weapons I chose at the armory, or about how I’m out of health potions and vulnerable to a specific monster, or how I’m taking so much time clearing out stabweed. The narrator is not just a recorded voice. He’s here, with me, watching me, commenting on what I’m doing, talking to me in a way that reaches beyond some guy in a sound booth reading lines. It’s one of the most startlingly human innovations since LA Noire’s facial expressions.

The above was something I wrote in a list of 15 things videogames can learn from Bastion, which is also 15 things I liked about the game. But if I had to sum up in a single point why Bastion is my favorite game of 2011, it would be as follows: This is what it was like to be a kid and to play your first Zelda game. Supergiant’s ability to recapture that feeling was profoundly moving.

Listen to the podcast with writer Greg Kasavin here.

Disclaimer: I haven’t yet tried Minecraft, Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Rayman: Origins, all games I had hoped to spend time with before settling on my list. I reserve the right to update this disclaimer if I discover that I’ve made a terrible mistake.

The ten most disappointing games of 2011
The ten most overrated games of 2011

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  • Anonymous

    The economy of storytelling in Bastion is nothing short of amazing. Nothing goes to waste: the limited cast of characters; every weapon, level, and challenge room describing some aspect of the fiction; even the soundtrack is framed as Rucks listening to old tunes from home.

    More games need to learn from Bastion’s example and stop pumping their fiction full of frivolous Important Proper Nouns.

  • Evrett

    “Finally someone broke out of the stagnant model on which MMO worlds are built.”

    Umm rift is a lot of good things but hardly anything resembling change from the status quo..

  • Anonymous

    Evrett, I feel the way the world is built is a huge change from the status quo, with the equivalent of raid instances breaking into the world and actually moving around it. Have you played much Rift? It felt like a very different kind of place to me. It made it really hard to enjoy LOTRO and SWTOR. :( So in that regard, as well as the way it freely encourages respecs, I feel it did change from the status quo.

  • Alexb

    “Can you name another open-world game in which a gun, a sword, or a car isn’t your chief means of interacting with the world?”

    The Infamous games and the Assassin’s Creed series come to mine. I’m not even sure that Batman qualifies as an “open world”, because unlike most open world games, there is no sense that the city or environment is a living, breathing, functioning place. Arkham City, as a place, made no sense to me. It is this weird collection of buildings that wouldn’t have any natural relationship to one another in an actual city. It is so littered and cluttered with mechanical traps and puzzles that it was hard for me to actually believe how the Riddle could possibly put it all together. For me, a mark of a good open world game is that the world has some internal logic, and I don’t think Batman had that.

  • Superslug

    I really tried to like bastion and whenever I play it I feel charmed but I never want to play for more than half an hour. Maybe PC was the wrong place to play it. At some point I might pipe it out to the TV and play on controller.

  • Kevin Cogliano

    If Dead Island had kept or built on the promise of the first act, I would have called it one of the best of the year as well. And perhaps co-op was a different experience (I wouldn’t know, as I’m a cranky single-player-only kind of nerd). 

    But I have rarely seen a game blow a strong first third as thoroughly as Dead Island. Everything past the first act was a steady downhill side towards awfulness. First, we lose the clever opening setting for a utterly generic third-world city location whilst simultaneously cranking the difficulty from tense-but-manageable to controller-bustingly frustrating. And then, just to twist the knife a bit, what’s your reward for this level? Sewers. Not just sewers, but the most egregiously long sewer sequence since Vampire: Bloodlines. Then we’re treated to a jungle that’s unfortunately mostly empty and a dull lab location, before transitioning to an even duller prison location before capping the game with literally the worst boss battle I’ve seen in maybe a decade.If we’re judging games based on the opening, then sure, Dead Island is awesome. But there’s a whole rest of the game after the opening that could be used as a textbook example of diminishing returns

  • Telefrog

    I had completely forgotten how much you liked SPaZ, Tom. Nice to see it ranked so high!

  • Anonymous

    C’mon, sleeve blades are just swords.  But good point with Infamous.  I think you got me there, although I’d argue that his “spells” are really just guns.

    Point taken on Arkham City as a place, but I did feel that it had plenty of *internal* logic, if not real-world logic.  In a way, Arkham City, as a place and a game, is like a Metroidvania/Dark Souls, disguised as a traditional open world.  

  • lordkosc

    Excellent list, other than perhaps switching the positions of Anno and SPAZ, but thats personal preference.

    I will have to try RIFT and Witcher 2 is already on my wishlist.

  • Barac Wiley

    Heck, you don’t need to argue that the hidden blades in Assassin’s Creed are swords. Both major series protagonists to date spend plenty of time with a full on traditional sword in hand.

  • Anonymous

    Awesome on choosing SPAZ as #2 on your list!! Woohoo!

    Also, OT, how do you like this Discus thing on your blog rather than the WordPress comment system? Been thinking of trying it. 

  • Superslug

    Is killing things the main way you interact with the world in Assassins creed? I would argue that climbing is a more important mechanic than stabbing. Until brotherhood getting into a fight was something I avoided at all costs because it was the most boring part of the game.

    Does minecraft count as an open world? There is very minimal gameplay and I am not sure that the levels you gain mean anything at all but it is a world where the key verb is create rather than destroy. It is probably different enough to be an outlier though.

  • Anonymous

    Kevin, I loved the resort/Moresby/jungle shifts for how different they all felt and played. But I agree that it resulted in some very weird pacing. From laid back, to gah-crazyhard, to nearly devoid of gameplay. Maybe I’m just wearing Dead Island blinders, but it felt like the idea was that zombies are worse in populated areas (e.g. Walking Dead’s don’t go to Atlanta concept).

    And I know this might be hard to believe, but I actually like the Moresby sewers. They have enough detail and variety that they don’t just feel like long empty tunnels. I’ve don’e a bazillion videogame sewers in my day, and Moresby’s sewers are among the best. But again, that might just be my Dead Island blinders. Out of curiosity, can you name a better sewer level in videogame?

  • Anonymous

    Brian, Disqus is miles and away better than WordPress’ default system.

  • Kevin Cogliano

    Re: Good sewer level: Hmmmmmmm. This is a bit of a trick question because most sewer levels are pretty bad, in my opinion, so not coming up with a better one is more of a comment on sewer levels generally than Dead Island specifically.

    Actually, now that I think of it, I sorta dug the sewer level in Singularity. But talk about damning with faint praise.

  • Anonymous

    Ha ha, I forced you to say something good about Singularity! But, yeah, the bar for sewer level design is pretty low.

  • Nikolaj

    Every time I see one these lists, I’m at a loss to even recall which game I’ve played this year (that were also released this year). Of the ones you’ve listed, I’ve only played Witcher 2, SPAZ and Shogun 2, and while I thought they were all ok, none of them really grabbed me. I’m kind of sad in the case of Witcher 2, since I really wanted to like it, and while I do kind of like it, I still haven’t finished it. After a couple of hours, I just start getting bored with it, and eventually quit for a month or two, after which I try picking it up again.

    Anyway, I did manage to recall at least some of the games I played and liked this year, and I guess I’d put Portal 2, Frozen Synapse and Fate of the World on my own list, were I to make one. Gemini Rue was pretty good, too.

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, the best part of an Assassin’s Creed game is climbing up to the top of a tower, followed by a Swan Dive back down. All the rest is filler.

  • C Miller

    I’d throw out the sewers from Arkham Asylum personally.  Mainly because it made you feel more vulnerable than at almost any other point in the game.  Plus Dead Islands sewers didn’t have the zipline.

  • Anonymous

    Do individual Pinball FX 2 tables qualify? If so, I’d expect a few to show up, or at least get a mention.

  • C Miller

    Tom I find I often disagree with your opinions.  You give far more credit to military manshoots than I ever would for one.  That said don’t change.  I appreciate your well though reviews, even if I think you’re wrong.  Besides I love a little fanboy rage, and no reviewer gets it better than you.  The frothing you inspired over Uncharted 3 made me chuckle.  The fury from the Skyrim fans over a GOOD review (c’mon a 7 makes you mad, really?) certainly was entertaining.  Keep pushing because thinking gamers appreciate your honesty.  Hopefully one day reviews like yours won’t be shocking.

    That said you hit how I feel pretty well.  Sure I’d dump NFS, Rift and Dead Island.  I’d add in Minecraft, Zelda, and Pride of Nations (the crisis stuff is brilliant).  That said  Bastion deserves every ounce of praise you’ve given.Now how did that song go again…..hmmm, hmmm, hmmmAh that’s it”I dig my hole you build a wallll…….’

  • Anonymous

    Hey, you picked two games I haven’t played! Time to go look into Fate of the World and Gemeni Rue. Can you say a bit about what made them so good?

    As for Witcher 2, it can be a demanding game. It’s very plot heavy, but I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t finish it. It’s one of those games you can’t really appreciate without getting the payoff. And also, it’s one of those games you really need to power through all at once so you can keep up with the plot threads. It’s really not a play-for-a-while-and-then-come-back-three-months-later sort of thing. Unless you’re willing to read through those bard notes.

    Which, come to think of it, are pretty good, so maybe you can come back after three months…

  • Gerard Snitselaar

    Tom you are wrong about the 20 vs 1. I imagine there are plenty who would have counted themselves on your side. Happy holidays.

  • Anonymous

    Heh, I actually thought about mentioning this, but my pick would be Paranormal, and that came out ages ago for the PS3. But, yeah, Pinball FX2 is a gift that keeps on giving. Those guys at Zen deserve some sort of award every year!

  • Anonymous

    I don’t know about the sewers themselves, but certainly the treat waiting underneath them. That was one of my favorite parts of Arkham Asylum.

  • Nikolaj

    Regarding FotW, I played it a lot when it first came out, and even though it was somewhat buggy back then, I really liked it. I was primarily interested in it because of the theme and environmental focus, and although it’s difficult, I enjoyed trying to figure out how save the world. Unfortunately, that requires quite a bit of trial and error, and I don’t think it’s for everyone. I suspect that there are only a few viable strategies to win (depending on the scenario, I haven’t played them all), but I liked seeing how the world reacted to my actions. It has a lot of choices that affect the world quite seriously: do you ban drilling for shale gas which risks contaminating the water table, or deal with a global shortage of gas? Do you pump aerosols into the stratosphere, gaining a global cooling effect in the short term, but potentially resulting in erratic weather conditions? There’s always a lot of stuff that you feel you should be doing, but a very limited amount of money to it with, so you’ll have to prioritize. In most of the games I’ve played, I’ve had to essentially perform triage between the different regions of the world, usually resulting in disaster for India (there’s just too many people, and not enough food).  I picked up the Tipping Point expansion a while ago, but haven’t had much time to play it. I’ll probably put some time into it during the cristmas holidays.

    Gemini Rue was just a good old-fashioned point and click adventure game, with pretty good story and setting, which reminded me of a cross between Blade Runner and Beneath a Steel Sky. I got it in some indie bundle and was pleasantly surprised. It’s pretty short and can be played in an evening or two, so it doesn’t require a lot of commitment, and it still felt quite satisfying reaching the end.

    One of these days I’m going to have to finish Witcher 2. I’ve been reading the books, and although they’re not great, they’re pretty good as far as fantasy goes. Anyway, I think my main problem with the game is probably the combat. It seems to alternate between being a bit on the easy side, and being way too difficult. It’s quite possible that I’m just not very good at it. I’m not a big fan of the levels either. I really liked the Vizima part of the first one, and I’m a bit disappointed about not having seen any cities in the game so far, except the fishing village in chapter one. It’s mainly forest and plain, and not that interesting, in my opinion. Still, there’s a lot about it I do like, but it just doesn’t capture my attention like I hoped it would, which is too bad, since I like RPG’s, and the Witcher games are making a very commendable effort at not falling into the usual fantasy cliches. I guess I’ll try picking that up again, too, during the christmas holidays.

  • Omega Chervil

    I’m a fan of the Riften sewers in Skyrim.  They’re pretty classy, by sewer standards, too!

  • McG

    I’ve been looking for a good Imperialism 1&2 replacement for quite a while. How does Pride of Nations compare?

  • Nikolaj

    Not very well, in my opinion. I love the Imperialism games, and I really do like PoN, despite of its problems. But they play very differently: Imperialism is very streamlined and somewhat abstracted, whereas PoN is based on a game engine that was designed for wargames, plays very slowly compared to Imperialism, is quite a bit more complex, and puts more importance on historical accuracy. So apart from the similar theme, the games are totally different. I like both, but a lot of people probably won’t.

    I think there’s a demo of PoN, though, so I’d advice you to check that out before buying.

  • C Miller

    What Nicolaj said basically.  PoN is a VERY niche title.  a single grand campaign will probably run you over 100 hours to completely finish.  It has it’s problems (much less so now than at launch) and has limited appeal, but if you like those big fiddly 4X games give the demo a shot.

    For an Imperialism replacement, Europa Universalis maybe.  It is quite different, but hits some of the same points. 

    Give the 3 Moves Ahead podcast a spin, they’re great for finding these kind of games.  Here’s their discussion on Imperialism
    http://flashofsteel.com/index.php/2010/04/20/three-moves-ahead-episode-61-classic-game-analysis-imperialism/

  • Anonymous

    Egad, yeah, I have to agree with Mr. Miller and Nikolaj. Pride of Nations does some cool stuff, but it’s no replacement for Imperialism. In fact, I’m not sure why anyone would ever even want a replacement for Imperialism! What’s the matter with you? I expect more discriminating taste from the guy who directed Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle!

  • Anonymous

    Ah, right, I remember reading about Fate of the World. Hmm, I’m skeptical but intrigued.

    However, you’ve sold me on Gemini Rue. I’ll have to give that a shoot. Did you try that Straight To the Moon thing? That’s another short game I’ve been meaning to make time for.

  • Anonymous

    I loved Space Pirates and Zombies as well, but found the game to be too hollow between the high points in the narrative. Somehow I think they could have compressed the game and still retained mostly everything that made it great. 

    Ultimately I think the high level requirements towards the end got to me a bit. At a certain point it didn’t really matter how well I worked my fleet and technologies — I was so severely underpowered in every encounter it didn’t really matter. That’s when grinding for me went from being optional to mandatory, which put me off a bit.

    Anyway, fantastic game overall. Loved the whole fleet aspect of the game, putting my ships together, figuring out the different synergies and experimenting with builds. I really hope MinMax follow up with what they said on the podcast about new crazy ship designs and stuff to collect and toy with.

  • http://www.facebook.com/puelocesar Paulo Cesar

    No Zelda love?

  • Anonymous

    Indeed. I’d much rather share a toilet seat with Tom. :)

  • Anonymous

    I’ve come to expect that the picture at the top of these articles is irrelevant but I’m a little surprised neither Marvel vs Capcom 3 or the Sims Medieval were on this list considering they were at the top of the half year chart.

    Is this because they’ve changed in some way since then or have you simply reevaluated them?

  • http://www.facebook.com/logicub Graeme Nash

    The sewers in inFamous were great, I’ve heard some people say that they were some of the best bits in the game.
    That said, I’m with you, Dead Island is one of my favourite games of the year despite some of the flaws in it…

  • Rat

    I don’t know how any self-respecting reviewer can leave Skyrim out of the top ten… 

  • Saltiness

    Because Skyrim is a polished turd?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Matthew-Cullen/505418294 Matthew Cullen

    After several hundred hours in skyrim, It’s pretty much one of the best games I have ever played. And i’m 27. So that has some weight to it. 

    For me personally, its better than that entire list combined. Literally without added drama. 

    Mind you, I would call the witcher 2 one of the best games of the year. And bastion was incredible and by far the best indie game of the year.

    Deus ex, as well. Incredible.

    Skyrim might not have the detailed and involving central storyline of the witcher 2, it might not even have the soul of bastion. But what it does do is hand you a world. A world that continues to evolve every day as well (modding).  

    Not many games hand you a true world. And the sub-threads and sheer amount of memorable moments in that game, outshine anything I have seen in a single product in my 27 years of life. 

    If that’s not some serious praise. Nothing is.

  • Tony M

    Your interview with Greg Kasavin would be in my “Top 10 Podcasts of 2011″ list.

  • Nikolaj

    I hadn’t even heard of Straight to the Moon, but checking the developer homepage, it does look somewhat interesting, although the page only presents the story but doesn’t seem to have any information about how the game is actually played. Is it a point and click thing?

    If you do try it, you should consider writing something about it (if you didn’t already plan on doing that :)). I’d be interested in hearing more.

  • Pavel

    Same for me. I finished the game, but I had to force myself quite a bit…and only could play 30 minutes at a time. I played on PC, but on TV with x360 controller, so it’s not that.  The game just did not click with me at all. Although art and soundtrack are pretty, yes.

  • Pavel

    I liked sewers in DI too. I read a lot of hate on them on the net, so it really surprised me how fun and detailed and atmospheric they were. And not *that* long. And city was my favourite act, precisely for its hardcore zombie atmosphere of postapocalyptia. Those sounds in the distance, wailing and screaming…

    Dead Island ROCKED.

  • Pavel

    I don’t know how any self-respecting commenter can leave a comment dictating what others should like…

  • Samuel Bass

    Don’t agree with you 100%, Mr. Chick – not a big racing game guy, and Dark Souls is high up there for me, probably just after Arkham City and before Bastion and Deus Ex: HR  – but an interesting set of games, all deserving of kudos. Especially nice to see Supergiant recognized again; they’re a great bunch of guys who took a huge risk, left the safety of corporate game development, worked their asses off to make the best damn game they could exactly as they wanted it to be…and it paid off.

    Which reminds me, I need to get back to my Bastion New Game + playthrough.

  • http://twitter.com/gibletsMoon Angling Anglefish

    So SpaceChem doesn’t even make your list of games that you had hoped to spend time with? Bah! It definitely has a “not for everyone” flavour to it but it’s an absolutely unique little gem of a game, and it deserves your attention, or at least, your vague gesture in the direction of thinking about possibly paying it some. I have spoken! 

  • http://twitter.com/kunikos Matt Kerr

    Skyrim didn’t even make the list? Fail.

  • delirium

    I’ve never played Rift, but I still don’t believe that the image posted of that game is not WoW.

  • McG

    Personally I enjoy Imperialism more than Civilization (controlling everything at a capital is much more fun than fussing with dozens of cities).

    BUT, there were significant flaws with it. The sequel seemed to be an inverse version; it improved upon all the flaws of the original while screwing up all the good!

    The original was colorful, had lots of charm, and I preferred the “fixed” technology that anyone could just outright buy with cash when it became available.

    BUT…amphibious invasions were ridiculously overpowered, the computer cheated so massively (even on normal) that surprise amphibious assaults on its capital was the only way of winning (sink his entire merchant marine? his cheating still lets him maintain that massive military), AI dogpiles were too frequent and permanent, and the only military unit worth building was horse artillery.

    The sequel introduced the great new world mechanic to ease early dogpiling, the computer could now be crippled by destroying its shipping, and resource networks were simplified.

    BUT…the colors were muddy, the jingoistic charm was gone, traditional tech research meant more inactivity, horse artillery was still the only unit worth buying, and late game forts were now impossible to assault unless you were at least a whole tech level ahead in artillery (forts were also absurdly underpriced for the benefits they gave).

    I keep bouncing between the two as the flaws of one make me quit and go to the other. Maybe I just need to bone up on strategy but a lot of mechanics aren’t apparent and there is VERY little material to be found on the internet.

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