1. Batman: Arkham City(PC) ; The combat in this game is second to none, the open world is big enough to service the numerous side missions and riddles/trophies, while not being too overwhelming. The story, while nothing amazing, allows all the great characters from design to voice acting, to shine. Everything in this game is fun and awesome and is easily game of the year for me.
2. Portal 2(PC) ; It seems everything in this game is polished to the nth degree. From the writing, the puzzle design, the level design. It is every bit a valve game as one should expect. Although short, it is easily my favourite game of the year, but only lost to Batman because I was severely disappointed in the lack of difficulty in the single player.
3. The Witcher 2(PC) ; This is the best looking game of the year. With that alone, it almost has the merit being on this list as a tech demo. Fortunately, it also has a great story, be it the writing, or the choices filled with grey area which really makes it hard for me to go to a [modern] Bioware game. Also, I personally liked the combat, didn’t find it that hard at all (hard difficulty first playthrough) and totally didn’t understand the complaints.
4. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations(PC) ; The AC series is my favourite franchise this generation. While those complain on forums about the annualization of these games, I’m lining up to buy them. In my opinion, the sum of its parts has always been much greater than the individual parts for this franchise. Bombs, Tower Defense, First-Person Puzzle Platforming; are any of these necessary and good additions? That’s up to opinion, but they certainly weren’t offensive enough to sully the experience. Especially when they are mostly optional. This was the least improved of all the AC sequels, but everything unique about it I still love so much, and welcome AC3 with open arms. (Also the way Ezio kills guys in this game is fantastic)
5. Deus Ex: Human Revolution(PC) ; This was a last minute write-in. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but a lot of this game, upon recounting it, seems really bad; just small individual things. The bosses, how you choose your ending, the shooting, the yellow, the voice acting. But I couldn’t stop playing it; it’s inexplicable really. I guess the core design philosophy is good enough to really hold it together and having played Deus Ex 1 for the first time months before the leak, whilst playing it, I couldn’t stop thinking of how awesome this would be in a 2011 world, and all the good (and bad) that comes with it. It delivered on that pretty well I think.
6. Orcs Must Die(PC) ; This game is seemingly dwarved by all the games around it on the list but I can’t ignore it with all the time I spent playing it this year, and all the fun I had while doing it. This is a must have. If only it had co-op...
7. Bastion(PC) ; This is a smart game. Playing through this, the attention to detail in every facet of game design is superb. Ignoring the story, narration and music, this game is still on this list. I just love the way it plays and feels. Enabling any and all of the gods? (the difficulty scaler.) also made it a fairly big challenge and I was really recommend it to anyone who hasn’t played it before and enjoys difficult games. Also, the story, narration and music are great. I didn’t ignore it. Without having even bought the soundtrack, I still catch myself humming the tunes.
8. Uncharted 3(PS3) ; This almost qualified for one of my most disappointing games this year. Thinking it over however, I realized how well made this game is, and noticed how high my expectations for Naughty Dog are. There are many things they could have done better. Mainly, the villain. But hearing about Cutter’s and Chloe’s actors having other obligations (and therefore, not being in the game in the end) and The Last of Us taking a chunk of the Uncharted team, I have to give credit to a game, that is still a lot of fun, and totally worth playing.
9. Saints Row 3(PC) ; I didn’t like this game nearly as much as most people did. Up until deckers.die, I really didn’t see what was so great. It was stupid as all hell, and I at least, didn’t see that was a good thing: mainly because it was utterly forgettable. It was as if the writers for Family Guy wrote a bunch of random wacky stuff for a video game. (Tiger in a convertible xDDDD) Now, that is a portion of the comedy in this game, (in my opinion the majority) but the other parts? Mannnnnn, mannnnnnnnnnn, MANNNNNNNNNNNNNN. So good. There are enough set-pieces in this game that are damn clever, and restrained enough, that made me forgive and forget the bad parts. Also, none of the gameplay is bad enough to detract from the game.
10. L.A. Noire (PS3) ; Within the last month or so, for the first time, I watched L.A. Confidential and started watching Mad Men. It wasn’t until this point that I started thinking seriously about what I thought about L.A. Noire. Beating it in the first couple days, I echoed the same complaints that many did who weren’t marvelling the technology. I didn’t even hate the ending, but there were many parts of this game that were just, in the words of my ~6 month ago self, bad. I don’t even know if this deserves to be on this list, even if it is at the bottom. But having watched the two aforementioned shows, it made me think how much I liked the execution of the style and feel of this game. I honestly didn’t even like the facial tech in this game. Weird, huh?
x. Renegade Ops ; Pure fun dual joystick shooter with small scope.
x. Infamous 2 ; Play the evil ending.
x. Trine 2 ; Visually stunning game, nerf wizard.
x. Spacechem ; Best puzzle game this year.
x. Trackmania 2 ; Jeff’s server, dubstep; nuff said.
x. Sequence ; That'll do Feep, that'll do.
2010. Super Meat Boy(PC) ; This is the game I’ve played the most of this year. Now admittedly, most of this time is spent getting the fucking amazingly difficult PC achievements (completing all the levels in a “world” without dying) whilst listening to podcasts but man, everything about this game, in my opinion, is perfect.
Notable Games I did Not Play:
-Any Portable Game (Ghost Trick, Corpse Party, 3DS Games...)
-Any 360 Game (Gears 3, Forza,...)
-Any Wii Game (Zelda, Xenoblade,...)
-Any Other PS3 Exclusive
-Dark Souls
-Dead Space 2
-Rayman Origins
-The Old Republic
-Catherine
-Shadows of the Damned
Notable Games I did play that I simply just didn't like:
Skyrim