Support NeoGAF

[Endo Punk]

1. Valkyria Chronicles: I adore the water colour visuals it's definitely my favourite looking game of the gen. With gameplay it feels very satisfying to play, slow but meaningful. The story kept me gripped and the characters were great.

2. Demon's Souls: Love that foreboding atmosphere! I bought the game on impulse and after a day I instantly fell in love with it. The game gets survival and horror better than most games in the actual genre this gen.

3. Yakuza 4: Just pure gaming entertainment. This is brawler action done right in 3D and the sandbox elements are my favourite this gen. I always go back to it and it's my first platinum.

 

[Mister0079]

Dark Souls: Just played this recently on PC and it's without a doubt one of the best games I've ever played this generation, all generations, every generation. The things it does great are the very core of videogames, which is level design and game mechanics which are the most important despite what every idiot wants to sell you these days. FROM Software was previously completely unknown to me as a PC gamer but now I'm looking forward to their next game. They get videogames, it's a videogame, not a goddamn movie and it's not trying to be one, and I don't give a shit whether you want to label it art or not.

Deus Ex Human Revolution: Felt like Deus Ex, brought back the feelings I had for gaming when I first started playing videogames. I did find some of the office levels to be a bit repetitive but this game completely blew me away when the industry was still stuck in a rut of linear cinematic piece of shit games. This game had a great combination of everything, art design, mechanics, soundtrack, etc. Most parts of the game are still stuck in my head, similar to what I remember from Deus Ex and other games of the past era.

I can't decide on 3 since there are still many videogames I liked this generation and putting one of them here would be doing a disservice to my other choices. Dishonored and XCOM are yet to come.

 

[hao chi]

1/2: Bayonetta and Uncharted 2: I still haven't determined exactly which one is my favorite yet, and not sure I ever will. Regardless, they're easily my two favorite games this gen.

3: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - This game just completely hooked me and didn't let go until I unlocked every ending, and even then it was on my mind constantly for a few more weeks. It has easily the best plot and ending I've seen in a game. I'm getting a 3DS primarily so I can play Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward.

Though honestly, #3 is a pretty tough choice. I was also considering: Portal 2, inFamous 2, Demon's Souls, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Bioshock, and Metroid Prime 3.

 

[KSai]

Dead or Alive 5. I'm done with my other games now.

 

[tamaster92]

Skyrim
Minecraft
Uncharted 2

Spoiler

I like modding games

Edit: fallout 3 above all those actually. I love that game with my whole heart.

 

[Shin Kojima]

Monster Hunter Tri
Dark Souls
Demon's Souls

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

Fallout: New Vegas
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Bioshock

 

[drugstore_cowboy]

Pac-Man CE DX
Geometry Wars 2
Forza 4

 

[G0DLIKE]

In no order of greatness:

Super Mario Galaxy 2- arguably Nintendo's finest game
[Super] Street Fighter IV [Arcade] - I put more hours into SFIV online that all other online games combined.
Demon's Souls - trumps the sequel and is probably the single most affecting game I've ever played.

Came to post these.

 

[Lingitiz]

Hard to narrow it down to three, but here's what I sprung to mind. There's still alot of games for me to play (Dark Souls in particular), and there's some big contenders coming out this year (Halo 4, Dishonored).

The Witcher 2 - Absolutely incredible from top to bottom. Great characters with moral ambiguity, a compelling story, interesting quest lines (drunk troll), and challenging but fun combat. Not to mention its one of the best looking games ever made, both technically and artistically. The radical differences that happen due to your choices is mindblowing. Huge props to CD Projekt Red to have the balls to build so much content and story that alot of players will never see. TW2 in my opinion, is a complete realization of the modern day RPG.

Deus Ex HR: Like TW2, Human Revolution got me with its beautiful depiction of setting and story. Its a great feeling to have so many options available in the missions, and it definitely created a sense of freedom in how you tackle situations. The combination of a great steampunk setting, soundtrack, and open ended gameplay really resonated with me. It might not be the best game that I played, but it really was one of the most memorable.

Uncharted 2: UC2 is a game that I wasn't expecting to love. Its basically a straight forward game full of epic set pieces and linear shooting areas. Somehow, UC2 managed to blend all the elements of an action game so perfectly that it changed my opinion on these types of games. The characters are well acted and written, and the story pacing is sublime. Its one of the few games I've wanted to beat in one sitting. The train sequence is a gaming moment that I wish I could experience for the first time again.

 

[Ryu bogard]

Demon souls
Super Street Fighter 4
999

 

[denshuu]

Sleeping Dogs
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Bayonetta

All the most impressive games this gen for me have been games that took the oldschool brawler formula and made then fun again.

Monster Hunter Tri
Dark Souls
Demon's Souls

It's crazy to me how everyone who thinks Dark Souls is one of the best games of the year doesn't also think the same thing about Demon's Souls and Monster Hunter. All three of those games are damn near identical to me from a gameplay perspective.

 

[babuchy]

Demon's Souls
Dark Souls
Skyrim

 

[Fabrik]

In no particular order and only home consoles:

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Super Mario Galaxy
Portal 2

 

[Himself]

Is there a tally going?

1. Bayonetta
2. Demons Souls
3. Vanquish/Mario Galaxy 2/Ico Collection/Sin & Punishment/Deathsmiles

 

[SpartanForce]

Shogun 2
Witcher 2
Deus ex: HR

 

[Berto]

Amnesia: The Dark Descent - It was so scary and atmospheric that literally made me physically unconfortable, my heart rate raised every time i tryed to play.

Portal 2 - Elevated what made the original a masterpiece. It's probably the funniest game I played in recent years.

The Witcher 2 - Picking up from what made the previous game fantastic: a good, well written story with charismatic characters and a grey, moral ambiguous setting.

 

[saltine161]

1. Super Smash Bros Brawl- logged so many hours, to my favorite and most hyped game of all time

2. Super Mario Galaxy 2- just a great change of pace from the rest of the generation, almost perfection

3. Assassin Creed 2 (will probably change to 3 as soon as that comes out)- one of the few games I actually beat completely 100% without wanting to stop

 

[watershed]

Portables Only:
1. The World Ends With You
Most original jrpg to come out in a long, long time. Love the depth in its game systems, the amount of control it gives players, the style, and the characters.
2. Ghost Trick
Lovable characters, compelling story, and great animations. The game is just smooth like butter.
3. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. Take everything great about the Layton series, polish it up a bit, and pair it with the best story in the series.

 

[DCharlie]

1. Chromehounds
2. and 3. who cares? CHROOOMEHOUNDSSSSSSSS.

 

[sketchsanchez]

I wont say these are in any particular order but these 3 have stuck with me the most this gen and i look back upon them fondly:
Mass Effect-this game rocked my shit so hard i remember starting it right back up again as soon as the credits rolled, and then did it for a third and forth time. I loved the shit out of this game.

Portal-hard to choose between this and the sequel as theyre both great games, but since i feel the second dragged a bit I'll choose this one. In a lot of ways it's almost the perfect game; perfect length, easy to learn, rewarding to master, and its hilarious.

Arkham Asylum-As a huge batman fan this game was a second coming. There's literally nothing I don't like about it. And as a Metroid fan, i appreciated its progression through the island.

 

[Spirit Icana]

Atelier Totori

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

 

[Spierek]

The World Ends With You
Portal
And I'm leaving third place blank, because I'm torn between several other titles, such as 999, Little Busters!, Vanquish, Deus Ex: HR, and Borderlands 2.