Skyrim.

Human Revolution did a spectacular job with modernizing immersive sims so there’s my vote.

1. Deus Ex Human Revolution
2. L.A. Noire
3. Spacechem
4. Bloodrayne Betrayal
5. Shadows of the Damned
6. Renegade Ops
7. Atom Zombie Smasher

Other:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6-_-FDR8ZU

Massively underapreciated game.

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.

This is a tough one. Dark Souls, Portal 2, and Gears of War 3 are all super close in my mind.

I think Portal 2 just slightly edges out the others. For me, it’s a massive improvement over the original, with an extraordinary world, deep and varied puzzling gameplay, and some of the best writing and voice work ever in a video game.

I know, I know: I've griped a lot about the 21st century in gaming so far. There will less griping from here on out, I promise. 2011 was actually a pretty excellent year in gaming. It's just too bad that it would take me years to discover all that it had to offer me.

Cultural Impact: Minecraft. I believe it's the best-selling video game of all time, and for good reason. Namely for, as Jamin Warren pointed out back on my old favoring gaming show when it was still going, the PBS/Game Show, its promotion of unstructured play; something key to fostering creativity and cooperation in kids especially.

Favorite Games: I've come to love lots of games from 2011, but Portal 2 still takes the cake. Drastically expanding on the possibilities introduced by its predecessor in every way, the sequel is especially interesting in how it builds out the history of Aperture. Through many glorious and highly entertaining voiceovers by the one and only J.K. Simmons (yep, from the old Spider-Man movies ) and more, you learn how the company became what it did, fell to ruin, and gather some fascinating hints at who Chell's mother might be. And my favorite villain in this medium, GLaDOS, even gets something of a (very entertaining!) redemption arc that has yielded two of my favorite events in video games:

Few things in games have made me laugh more.

Another top favorite of mine from this year was Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery EP. A modern take on classic adventure games complete with pixelated graphics and comically simplistic dialogue, this little gem stood out for not only (as the title suggests) its highly moving soundtrack, but also for its elegantly structured environmental puzzle-solving. Just as interesting though is its fairly unique approach to the gaining of experience. Namely, in stark contrast to most all other games that use RPG-style battles, this game has our heroin's, the Scythian's, base health decrease after each major battle rather than the opposite. It just feels more honest. Going through all the trials and tribulations that she does weakens her rather than strengthening her and I think that just rings true to how it might work in real life. Our trials and traumas don't tend to make us stronger. "That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger" may be a catchy, reassuring statement, but it's not actually true. Indeed, much unlike so many other classic video game heroes...

These elements stood out to me as incredibly rare and, taken in combination, unique in a way that gives this humble little game, with its many homages to the simplicity of how adventure games used to be in olden times, real and refreshing emotional power. The Scythian stands out as an especially compelling female hero both of that time and of all time in that her journey feels much more like a true hero's journey than most do in this medium, in truth, and that made it special to me.

Some of my runner-up faves from '11 include...

3. To the Moon
4. Bastion*
5. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch**
6. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
7. Dark Souls <-- My first Souls game.
8. The Binding of Isaac
9. Catherine

*Westerns were becoming a thing in gaming around that time. Some were into Borderlands. Others Red Dead Redemption. Still others both. Bastion was my pick.

**This game actually came out in 2013 here in the U.S., which I think is worth noting here. To the Moon, Bastion, and Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery EP were also games I discovered after 2011.

One final note: Since it originally released in Japan in 2004, I can't really include it on this list, but I think it worth adding that one more game I did first play in 2011, since it first came out Stateside that year, was The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, which I also loved.

Worst Game: I'm adding this category just to disparage Skylanders, which I consider the most evil game released that whole decade. I never played it, but don't have to to despise it because without Skylanders, there would've been no "amiibos" and other endlessly irritating rackets of the sort. People who made this game: I loathe you. You are evil incarnate.

Haha yeah that and Lego Dimensions were quite the scam. But the game itself was quite fun, my wife and youngest played it for years after finding bags of dumped figures in garage sales. Physical DLC rules! Bags full of levels and characters for $5 lol. We have multiple portals, tons of figures all for less than the price of an indie download.

We never got into Amiibos as you don't find those in bags at garage sales.

My vote is for Mario Kart 7.
Super Mario 3D Land is close behind.
They made for such a fun Christmas 2011 and are under-appreciated compared to their Wii U follow-ups.

2011 was a great year for gaming. My top 5 that year:

1. Skyrim
2. Deus Ex Human Revolution
3. LA Noire
4. Witcher 2
5. Uncharted 3

Dark Souls. Some other good ones this year, but an easy choice for me.