Your Top 50 Games: 2011 Discussion Thread

[Michael-5]

16. Gears of War 2

     Now the below clip, although from Gears 1, it shows exactly the reason why I love Gears of War. That plus the original Mad World add, and to be this has the most depth in the story compared to any sci-fi alien shooter.

    The reason why Gears of War 2 tops Gears of War 1 for me, despite a poorer story, is that the game is better made. Multiplayer isn't a last minute edition, it's integrated right into the game, and since the introduction of a wave based Hoarde mode, we have seen almost every shooter franchise incorporate this feature in same way or another (Halo - Firefight, Call of Duty - Survival, even Uncharted 3 has a mode like this I think). Gears of War 2 was fun as hell online, and remains one of my favorite online multiplayer games of all time.

However it's not just a difficult, balanced, and fun as hell online that make me like this game so much. Although the plot of Gears of War 2 falls short of 1, it's still very interesting. Very few games show a sense of desperation like Gears of War 2, after all what games objective is to destroy the last human stronghold to flood the enemies stronghold? Only major drawback was the Boss of the Game, but still this remains one of my favorite co-op and multiplayer games to date.

"With billions dead, humans denied their enemies control, by destroying their own civilization"
"Now the long struggle against overwhelming odds approaches a final desparate stand."

Favorite Level: Cutting arteries in the giant worms gut only to nearly drown in blood.
Favorite Versus Level: Subway Remake and River
Favorite Hoarde Map: Nowhere

15. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

     This is my favorite GTA game to date. It took what GTA 3, and gave it a better atmosphere, planes and helicopters, and better story missions. Everyone here has played GTA before, so I don't really have to explain why I like it so much. However I will tell you why I like it more then any other GTA. GTA IV does not have a tank, and the overall map is much less interesting (not a fan of skyscrapers, I like the open roads of Vice City). GTA San Andreas has some of the most boring story missions, and the world map is just too big to have fun. I like to drive around in a fast car or tank wrecking havok, but the cities are too car apart in this GTA. As for GTA 3, it's just not as well made as GTA Vice City.

     Vicy City was the first proper full out GTA game, and since then Rockstar has had trouble making a GTA with as believable of an atmosphere and characters as this. As cool as Niko Belic is, Itallians are funnier to play as and I think Rockstar did a better, more racist job, of making characters in Vice City.

     Note: This game killed my PS2 from playing it so much.

14. Gears of War 3

     It's hard to imagine that every Gears of War game gets better then the one prior, but they do. Gears of War 3 is so good, it's as if they took all the pros of the first two games and merged them. Even game duration, Gears of War 3 with RAAMs Shadow is longer then Gears of War 1 and 2 combined. It has 4 player co-op (instead of 2 player, 2 + 2 = 4, they literally added all the pros), multiplayer has more features and depth then both Gears of War 1 and 2 combined, and the level of polish is outstanding, never seen any game run off the Epic engine run so glitch free, and with such good pacing.

     This game is just such an amazing all rounder. It's great for multiplayer for those nights you don't feel like doing anything loaded with multiple types of gameplay modes and events, it has great co-op for multiplayer action, and amazing campaign with several twists, many of which I didn't see coming and overall this game just has so much more content then most others. It's the reason I subscribe to XBLG and it's the reason I still play multiplayer games on consoles.

     I'm just a sucker for well polished games like this, and I have never experienced a co-op game like this ever before (well....... not for a long long time). This might not be my favorite game of all time, but if I were trapped on an island and I could only bring 1 game, this might be it because of the sheer amount of content.

     I won't spoil my list, but after this, there is only 1 non Nintendo platform game on my list. Anyone who has looked at my list and knows me probably knows what that is too.

Favorite Campaign level: Act2: Ch1 - Using the Catapults and fighting 2 Brumacks. Also playing as RAAM in RAAM's Shadow.
Favorite Versus Level: Clocktower Remake, and Gridlock Remake
Favorite Hoarde Map: Sandbar and Overpass