In a good way, Majin and the forsaken kingdom. I didn't think much of it at first but took a chance on it when I saw it discounted. Beneath the rough graphics is a really good puzzle action platformer.

In a bad way LBP2, playing the campaign together in LBP2 was a lot less fun, and a lot shorter then the campaign of the first one.

Mortal Kombat: After a long..long series of disappointments that made me abandon all hope i had for the franchise. MK remake enters to restore it all.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky: L.O.H series was always out shadowed by Falcom's other famous "YS series" , but this new trilogy starts amazingly with huge improvement of its older games.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective: I love Ace Attorney games and GT takes the best of that formula while adding enough new game mechanics to make for a completely fresh gaming experience.

Dead Space 2: What can i say? I really liked the first one, but DS 2 exceeded my expectations in every aspect.

Super Mario 3D Land in a good way.

Shadows of the Damned and Killzone 3 in a bad way.

Everything else was about what I expected.

Skyward Sword, Xenoblade and Portal 2

My favourite 3 games of the year (followed veeeeery closely by Skyrim), and yet, all of them exceeded my lofty expectations, but probably Xenoblade was the biggest surprise.

Dead Island. After being DEAD or so we all thought it made its return this year and blew me away. Extremely fun RPG

interesting so you hated lbp2 unlike me i thought the single player was better than first one

Xenoblade, Batman and Skyrim's scores, I was surprised they were so high
Uncharted 3, I was surprised it was so low

I was surprised by the quality of a lot of games I played this year but they weren't actually released in 2011 - I never thought I'd enjoy Final Fantasy 13, infamous, Mirror's Edge, and Dead Space as much as I did... All the other games I played this year I already knew that were gonna be great :p

I didn't hate it, it just didn't live up to my expectations. I was expecting a longer more coherent campaign after all their previous experience in expansions and after all the examples they have had from the community. The levels didn't feel as unique and varied in art style as the first one and a lot of them were chase mode / autoscroll levels which don't work very well in multiplayer, at least not for me and my wife.

Maybe the singleplayer was better in the 2nd one, multiplayer was better in the first one imo.

Not played either yet, but Dead Island and Rayman both look to be and do a lot better than I thought they would.

Oh hell yeah, i played the demo on PSN and was shocked at how good it was, Majin needs more love. 

On a side note, Killzone3, i was not expecting to like it so much, especially the MP. the campaign is much better but it is easier, by alot.  I have heard people complain about online but i dont get it. THe maps are ok, little to no lag, it looks great. THe classes are ALL useful, at least to me. oh sure a souped up sniper or infiltrator is a pain in the ass, but tactian counters that. I liked K2's MP but my main problem was it took too long to level up. KZ3 fixes that. Maybe i like it better becasue of Move? I wish Sony would do a patch for Killzone2, i would buy that game again.