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What was your favorite game that year? 2011 edition. (56k)

Skyrim

I will forever be sad that I didn't play a Dark Souls game until DS3, which is my favorite RPG of all time. Man did I miss out in 2011.
 

phanphare

Banned
that's a tough one but probably Skyward Sword or Pushmo

although 3D Land blew my fucking mind when it came out but I've softened on that one since 3D World

Portal 2 is up there as well
 

Nazz

Neo Member
Another great year, but Dark Souls is the game that stands out for me.

Honorable mentions: Batman: Arkham City, The Witcher 2, Portal 2
 

Doomedfool

Member
Hrm, hard to pick a favorite.

Deus Ex: HR was probably my favorite from that year, but Witcher 2, Arkham City, Dark Souls, and Portal 2 are all close seconds.

Good year!
 

Jyrii

Banned
Bastion. It is one of my favorite games ever. Would be tight with Dark Souls, but I played it on PC the next year.
 
I spent the most time with Skyrim but I think I'd lean towards Portal 2 at this point. I mean, how can you not give it to Cave Johnson?

Those of you who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA, I've got some good news and some bad news. Bad news is we're postponing those tests indefinitely. Good news is we've got a much better test for you: fighting an army of mantis men. Pick up a rifle and follow the yellow line. You'll know when the test starts.
 
It looks like all I really, really care about from 2011 is Dark Souls and LittleBigPlanet 2.

That's partly because all I did was create mode and community in LittleBigPlanet for years, and Souls series was one of the only things that I'd slow down for.

From that list, I like Pixel Junk Shooter 2 a lot, Disgaea 4 was mandatory for me too. There must be more I was into. Oh, Final Fantasy IV Complete Edition is dope. I didn't play that until Vita, though. First PSP game I bought for it a long with Tactics Ogre. Limbo is awesome, but I played that years late as a PS3 owner. I actually also didn't play Rayman Origins until Vita too, damn... amazing game. I slept on the Uncharted series until the HD Collection on PS4, like an idiot. 3 is no 2, though. Still haven't played Skyrim. I bought it on PC, meticulously set up all the mods I wanted using all my Gopher-given, Fallout 3 & NV know how, and then just made sure they were working.... then never played. Major regret. Still haven't played the original Arkham, only Arkham Knight on PS4, which was god damn amazing.
 

Onyar

Member
Skyrim without any question, but pretty good year.
Portal 2 had that impressive storytelling and fun puzzles.
Limbo was awesome the hole game made me trust with indies and Dark souls very entertaining but with some fails like the camera but definelly one of the bests for that year.
On the other sideDragon Age 2 was a big disappointment for me, also swtor with that engine.
 
I didnt play it in 2011 but the answer is Dark Souls.

At the time it was probably Portal 2 or Mass Effect 2.

I played all of that after 2011. Man oh man.

Portal 2 I think I played in... 2015 maybe? I played multiplayer back in the day and had a lot of fun, but single-player was within the past few years. So well-written, so fun, so funny.
 

Artdayne

Member
This is a really tough one but I think Dark Souls just narrowly edges out The Witcher 2. Dark Souls was such an incredible game and still my favorite of the souls series, assuming you don't count Bloodborne. Everything from the level design, the atmosphere, the enemy design both visually and mechanically. It's just fantastic. Even if some of the later bits aren't as good.

This is where I'm at too. I absolutely love Witcher 2 and the Witcher series is my favorite series but Dark Souls is for me the best Souls/Bloodborne game, it's really quite special.
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
From the voting thread

Data West said:
1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution; I think this one has to win for me. The sequel to my favorite game of all time that's made for the fans by the fans. Not only do I love everything about this game, except maybe some voice actors, but I love HOW it was made. I love that Eidos actually took fan feedback. I love that they didn't flip their lid over the leak, rather they said 'Well, what do you guys think?'. I think Eidos Montreal is one of the future 'big names' in gaming. The only improvements I would like to see is better characters. I loved the story, gameplay, and the atmosphere was top class.
2. Yakuza 4; I'll always be bias when it comes to the Yakuza games. As it stands, they're tied with the GTA series as my favorite of all time, but I was willing to lower this one more if it was anything like 3. I loved 3, but it did feel a little old by then. Luckily, they changed it up with 4. They went with a proper localization and blew it out of the part. The 4 characters may have all played similar to a fully upgraded Kazuya in 3, but I come to the Yakuza games for story, character, and gameplay. Not just one. The different viewpoints of these characters made the game feel incredibly fresh despite the familiar digs. I think the Yakuza team is currently responsible for the best characters in gaming, and I find the combat downright addictive. I can't wait for Dead Souls and 5, and I really hope Kenzan and Black Panther 1 & 2 are eventually given a chance.
3. The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings; I'm someone who can't stand fantasy unless it's incredibly over the top a la He-Man or Warcraft. The whole notion of 'dark fantasy' is incredibly dull to me. But the Witcher series feels like the darkest of fantasy. The graphics are gorgeous, and the game felt like if Batman wasn't made to play itself. I loved all the little details of the world and Geralt's extra weapons/trophies/etc. I loved the different portrayal of magic, elves, wizards, and I thought the story was top notch from either side. I'd love to see CD Projekt Red try something different after this.
4. Saint's Row: The Third; It's the sequel to Saint's Row 2, which I unconditionally loved. While, in some ways, it's worse than 2, it's mostly better. There's a lack of customization from the previous series, but I'm willing to settle on the better gunplay and car controls. The music feels great, and it's one of the few legit funny games out there. The voice actors did a great job, and I feel like it's one of the few games with a customizable protag that feels 'right'.
6. Driver: San Francisco; I never thought that I would include a Driver game in my top ten anything. I always found the originals far too difficult to be fun, and Driv3r was just plain bad. Reflections ditched the GTA motif and went back to cars, but they added a few catches. They added one of the most fun abilities I've ever encountered in a game. The ability to shift from car to car turns Driver from a racing game to a 'must destroy with cars' game. I'm someone who doesn't like racing games, but I love racing movies. I feel like this is the first game to properly capture that feeling in a story mode. The main character is great, and Jones plays off him incredibly well. There's also a lot of hilarious side banter during specific cars and side missions. The soundtrack is also incredible, and the 60 fps really ties everything together.
7. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim; As I stated before, fantasy is not my thing. So the world that Skyrim exists in kind of detracts points for me, but that doesn't stop it from looking great. The voice acting has drastically improved, and the list of features is astonishing. However, I still find the combat to be bad, and it really takes away from the experience. Also, the amount of bugs that Bethesda is allowed to get away with is staggering.
8. WWE All Stars; I don't like fighting games, and I haven't really invested in wrestling on a serious level in a long time, but this game is just incredible. It feels like a game that we'll still play years from now in the same vein as NBA Jam. The roster selection is mostly good, but the solid point is just how great and versatile the gameplay is. It creates some mind blowing moments in multiplayer. The only thing holding this back is a lack of depth to the modes.
9. Shadows of the Damned; A fun little shooter with a great soundtrack and a decent sense of humor. I'm a bit of a Mikami fanboy, so I may have some bias here, but the gunplay felt great, and the voice acting was pretty amazing. Especially when this comes from someone who finds Steve Blum 'same-y'. The monsters and bosses were fun, and the humor was spotty but generally good. Don't know that I would want a sequel.
10. Dead Space 2; A really solid experience with great visuals, guns, and set pieces. The only reason it's only 10 is because of how dull I felt the non-set pieces were, and the fact that a lot of levels were hard to see. Replacing horror with frustration. I also feel like the story and characters in Dead Space aren't interesting at all, and that the game's just about solid gameplay and visuals. Which it has.

This year had a lot of sequels to games that came out recently, and none of those really exist in my list. I hope that this means others tire of the milking, and they start taking more time between games. I prefer the new IPs and returns to old ones to the constant sequels with new hat. 2011 wasn't a great year to me, I'd say it was one of my worst. The 10 I picked took about 5 minutes because they were my only real memorable experiences. 2012 is looking pretty amazing to me though, so I hope my expectations are met there.]

I figured Yakuza would be number 1. I think 2012 wound up even worse. And I definitely don't think SR3 is mostly better in retrospective. I think the game came out in November so I was still honeymooning.
 

MrOogieBoogie

BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
Holly Hell, I played a ton of games that year. My rankings:

1. Dark Souls
2. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
3. Portal 2
4. Batman: Arkham City
5. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
6. Resistance 3
7. Battlefield 3
8. LIMBO
9. Dead Space 2
10. Amnesia: The Dark Descent
11. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
12. Crysis 2
13. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
14. To the Moon
15. Killzone 3
 

RBIYF

Neo Member
A prime example of a sequel done right and the last time Valve made a game I cared about:
Portal2cover.jpg


Runner up for me that year would be To the Moon.
 

Battlechili

Banned
No mention of Solatorobo?
This game is still my favorite game ever and it came out in the West in 2011. I'd argue almost without question that if this game doesn't have the most depth in terms of worldbuilding of any currently existing game, then it certainly is at least high up there. Cyberconnect2's labor of love deserves more attention than it gets.
 

Showshank

Member
At the time it was Skyrim, but having recently played it I've got to say it hasn't aged very well. My number 2 that year was Binding of Isaac and having recently played Dark Souls, It'd have to be either of those.
 

NBtoaster

Member
In the 2011 goty thread, I voted for..

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2. Portal 2
3. Dark Souls
4. Crysis 2
5. Resistance 3
6. Terraria

In retrospect I would put Dark Souls at 1, Skyrim at 2 and Portal at 3. The rest are forgettable.
 

Sendero

Member
Impressive. That was a great year.

*Dark Souls (by long shot)
*The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
*Mass Effect 2
*Deus Ex: Human Revolution
*Portal 2
*TES:Skyrim
*Assassin's Creed 2: Brotherhood


Didn't play Dead Space 2 until far later, and it was OKish.
Crysis had already been released on PC, so do not count. And its 2nd part was a total disappointment.
 

psyfi

Banned
At the time it was Skyrim, but now it's definitely Dark Souls. Halo CE Anniversary was pretty great too, but mostly just because I love Halo CE.
 

Cracklox

Member
Great year. Dark Souls, Arkham City, Dead Space 2, Resistance 3, Bulletstorm, Deus Ex, Infamous 2 and Saints Row the 3rd were all great. Heck, I even liked Uncharted 3. I think I played a shitload of Fifa 12 that year too.There's Skyrim as well, but I have mixed feelings about my 70 or so hours with that.

All in all though, it might be my favorite year for gaming in recent memory
 
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