1. Dark Souls - A perfect mix of RPG character building, Japanese action game combat, and Metroidvania-style level design. Convinced me more than Demon's Souls that this was a game worth dumping dozens of frustrating hours into.
2. Jamestown - Does more to revolutionize its genre than most other games last year. As wacky as the setting might seem (English colonials in the New World battling an alliance between the Spanish and a Lovecraftian horde of tentacled creatures), it's a perfect fit. It also might be the smartest reflection on the inherently speculative nature of video games as a medium. The fact that it's also a stellar shoot-em-up is just icing on the cake. In a year filled with sequel after sequel, this was the freshest, smartest, and most profound experience of the year.
3. Batman: Arkham City - Completely unexpected, especially from a sequel. It's as though the creative leads have read Michel Foucault and Frederic Jameson. It's a wonderful twist on the formula of Arkham Asylum, but with a much smarter, much more pointed critique of the current proliferation of the "prison-industrial complex" in our own world. Wayne, an anti-prison activist in the outside world, becomes Batman, a non-lethal "activist" in another sense, when he enters the city/prison. Alongside the first Assassin's Creed, Arkham City shows that games are surprisingly well equipped to handle ideology critique.
4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Not as fresh or exciting as Morrowind, but certainly the "fuller" game.
5. Fight Night Champion - A supremely underrated game, but a tough sell. The story mode alone would put this among my top games of the year.
6. Portal 2 - Valve does it again. And with cross-platform play, to boot. I wish the singleplayer campaign were more of a challenge and had scalable difficulty, but still an incredibly creative and entertaining game.
7. Catherine - A game that shouldn't be as good as it is. I've always appreciated, but never enjoyed the Persona games. This is the game that made me understand what makes those games so appealing.
8. Outland - If not for the laggy multiplayer, this would have easily been a top pick. As is, it's a fresh take on an old formula.
9. Pixeljunk Sidescroller - I've always been a sucker for Pixeljunk's visual and audio style, but I've never really clicked with their game design. Then Sidescroller hooked me.
10. Crysis 2 - Straight-up FPS fun with a few twists.
x. Muchi Muchi Pork/Pink Sweets - It's an arcade port and a double pack, so it'd be cheating to toss this into my list. Otherwise it'd be in my top three.
x. Child of Eden - Levels can drag and this really should have been a downloadable release, but man, this game is beautiful and a great return to form.
2010. Gran Turismo 5 - Polyphony Digital has done more to beef up and support this game post-release than any other game I can think of outside of MMOs. I dumped dozens upon dozens of hours in it in 2010, and dumped dozens more in 2011.
