2011 was quite the turn around from 2010 for me, so many great games of which 3 made it into my top 50, actually 4 but that one didn't release in the West until 2013.
To get the one disappointment of 2011 out of the way, Skyward Sword. Awesome dungeons, Sand Sea was incredible but after putting it down twice before from getting too frustrated with the motion controls, 3rd time was the final nail. Failing because the wii motes weren't cooperating (doing the opposite or not responding) then having to sit through the same unskippable cut scenes over and over, terrible game design.
Infamous 2 was very enjoyable, very satisfying game play loop.
Deus Ex Human Revolution was great, apart from the boss battles, yet perfect balance between open world and linear progression.
LA Noire very good, played it mostly in B&W for extra immersion. The city was the star.
Uncharted 3, while not as good as two, was still very enjoyable. Plus the desert was amazing.
Dead Space 2, not as good as the first one, but also still quite enjoyable.
Dragon Age II, also not as good as the first one but I still enjoyed it start to finish.
The Witcher 2 Assasins of Kings is my favorite in the series. Better than TW3 imo. Playing through chapter 2 with two different save game paths, alternating between each side, thus seeing each mission play out from opposing viewpoints was amazing. I ended up with 5 branches at the end, playing each path concurrently. Just like Fallout New Vegas, this is how I like choices to play out in games, actual different paths.
Terraria was very addictive and amazing to play in 4 player split-screen on my projector. Awesome co-op game.
Rayman Origins also had great local co-op, very well made platformer. Better co-op than Wonder.
Catherine seemed to have come out of nowhere, great surprise. I spend as much time on the arcade machine puzzles in the bar as on the actual game.
Resistance 3 is where the Resistance series really shined with a campaign that reminded me of all the great things from Half-Life 2. Also great to have full weapon selection and not be limited to two weapons at a time! I would love to play this campaign again in VR :)
#4 for 2011 release in my top 50 is Skyrim
with over 60 hours game time on pS3 and another 130 hours on PSVR, that world will live on in my mind forever.
#3 for 2011 (but came out in 2013 in NA) Ni No Kuni Wrath of the White Witch
Studio Ghibli making the cut scenes was a dream come through. It's a shame the second one lost Ghibli's touch. The game was pretty good as well, but I mostly remember it for the hand drawn cut scenes and Ghibli style characters.
#2 Portal 2 which I played on PS3 and PC thanks to multi platform release
Topping the original in every way with loads of humor. Great game play both with controller and Mouse+KB. And some great world building in the background. What can top this game?
#1 Dark Souls, another map that is now a permanent fixture in my mind
Genius open world level design. Even though I don't really like the boss battles (F Ornstein and Smough, 4 kings etc) nor the PVP nonsense, the world design alone carries this game all the way to goty for me. Exploring the world through slow attrition was the best. The shortcuts brilliantly placed.
Too bad the fixed difficulty keeps it from being enjoyed by more people and is what's still holding me back to start Elden Ring. My first play through of Dark Souls crashed after 20 hours, leveled myself into a useless corner and had to start over. This time with guides to make it a lot easier and also a lot more enjoyable. The Souls series remains a love hate situation. Obtuse for the sake of being obtuse, difficult for the sake of being difficult. At least Dark Souls worked well with magic as I generally suck at parry and easily lose track when fighting up close.
The two reasons I pushed through with this game is the world building and our second born had even more trouble sleeping (acid reflux missing valve, couldn't lie on his back for the first year). So he was on my lap through the night until my wife got up early morning, shift work. He snored half sitting up on my lap while I played Dark Souls on the projector on a comfy couch in the dark. Dark Souls was a great slow paced, dark game, perfect for the job.
Edit: Oh I forgot Minecraft. No wonder, it pissed me off that the transition to Bedrock edition messed up our world we played and build on for 3+ years. Maybe it deserves gotd but atm the negatives outweigh the positives. The shift to MS accounts was a big hassle, still is since my kid's Minecrafts are on different MS accounts than the ones they use for their laptops. My kid lost all his worlds when he tried out a beta Minecraft something in the MS launcher which overwrote his save games while it suggested it was safe. Dealing with mod compatibility was a pita and our shared world has gaping holes in it and broken red stone logic. Minecraft did not age well. But was fun to build many different contraptions and puzzles in at the time.
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