10.0
Michael’s Top Ten from 2011
10. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3
The Modern Warfare series has always been my favorite of the Call of Duty games with Modern Warfare 2 being my favorite of the series, combining great multiplayer maps with obsessive progression. Modern Warfare 3 brings the same package to the table and though it is a little depressing that the level of improvement from MW 2 to MW 3 is less than that of the first to the second game, the point remains that Modern Warfare 3 is a polished, fun, first person shooter experience.
09. Minecraft
O.K. I’m know this may be a technicality since this game has been publicly available for years, but it did have its official release last November. Minecraft is great because like many who play the game, it is a game that can simply be about creation and creativity. Not many games let the player flex that creative muscle and even less let you do it to the extent that Minecraft does. And it doesn’t hurt that the soundtrack helps to immerse you into a world that seemingly has no characteristics at all.
08. Orcs Must Die
Orcs Must Die is great for a few reasons. 1) It takes the classic tower-defense genre and sets it in a 3-D world. 2) It throws in real-time action. 3) It doesn’t take itself seriously. That last one is very important because right from the get-go, the writers give you the feeling that this is going to be fun. And it is! When you start the game, your master has died and you, the apprentice, must take up the task of defending open rifts from waves of marauding orcs. But, with each successive wave, as is common in tower-defense games, you build and upgrade your defenses and grab your weapon of choice to mow down the ones that make it through your various traps, ranging from tar pits to spike traps, to explosive barrels, and more. It’s seriously impossible to be bored when playing this game.
07. Word of Warcraft: Cataclysm
I know, I know. Cataclysm came out in 2010, but come on. It came out Dec. 7th, 2010 and I barely got into it in that time. It wasn’t until this past Summer that things really got going for me (what else was I supposed to do with all that time off?). This game has been a social experience for me first and foremost since I started playing during the Burning Crusade expansion pack. If I wasn’t playing with friends, I wasn’t playing at all, so when a group of friends wanted to make our own guild, I thought, “Sure, why not? Sounds like fun.” And it was. I loved logging on to play with them as we tanked, healed, and battled our way through every boss encounter. We never took ourselves too seriously, my guild and I that is, but when someone didn’t show up, causing a postponement of the scheduled raid, it put a damper on how everyone felt about playing. But, that game is one-of-a-kind in that is the only game I’ve played that becomes a huge responsibility when I play it. Having a scheduled time to play a game is like following in Benjamin Franklin’s footsteps and setting aside time for sex (he really did that). It’s weird. But, I still love World of Warcraft, and I know I’ll come back to it sooner or later.
06. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
This is another game that came out of nowhere for me, but I’m glad I gave it the attention it deserves. In a world filled with fantasy RPGs, CD Projekt was able to create an immersive story with combat-oriented gameplay that was a refreshing experience coming off of hours of walking backwards and shooting arrows into the enemies found in Skyrim.
05. Gears of War 3
The Gears of War franchise is one that I loved from its inception, but that love dwindled when I played its first sequel back in 2008. This time, however, things feel like they’re back to normal, both on the campaign and multiplayer sides. There was a certain flow that I missed from the first game and I’m happy to say that its somewhere in this title, creeping up just when I thought it was gone, so while Gears of War 3 may not be my favorite of the series, it’s a damn-good second.
04. Bastion
Thanks to the guys at Giantbomb.com, Bastion was on my radar of games I had to check out this year (“Building the Bastion” – that was great). I was so impressed by the unfinished versions of the game, that I knew I had to play based on the art style alone. Little did I know, I was walking into a world (and game) unlike any I had ever experienced before, all with really fun gameplay, a neat story, fantastic music, and this sexy voice that seemed to follow me everywhere.
03. Portal 2
Seeing people post things about Portal on the Internet was, for me, like being that guy that shows up late for the party when everyone is already drunk and you’re just trying to have fun while that girl you thought was cute just squeezed Easy Cheese down her mouth. O.K. Maybe it’s not exactly like that, but the point remains; I’m late. So, that is why I sat down and 1) finished Portal 1 and 2) started and completed Portal 2 all in the same 48 hours. It’s tough to judge the two games when they feel so vastly different. In Portal 1 you were solving puzzles in confined settings non-stop, but Valve went bigger the second time around, adding tons of new characters and taking the player out of those white-wall rooms and into the ‘real’ world. I was more impressed by the story the second time around, but the puzzles seemed lacking in the first two-thirds of the game. Implementation of new obstacles and devices to interact with were introduced about halfway through and while the game does take longer to complete than its predecessor, I couldn’t help but feel some of those chapters were just interactive cut-scenes. That said, it was an amazingly fun ride, one that had me opting to finish the game when my body wished I would just go to bed.
02. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Deus Ex: Human Revolution actually crept up on me. I wasn’t following the game since its announcement back in 2007, but it caught my attention just months before its release and I’m glad it did. Being a virgin to the Deus Ex series, DX: HR (as the “cool” kids call it) was stunningly rich with interesting gameplay and RPG elements that complimented each other. The beauty of it was that a player could approach the same scenario in a multitude of ways and experience different outcomes. The game is a first person shooter, but you can literally finish the game without killing a soul; that doesn’t rule out straight-up punching someone in the face, though.
01. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
What a game. The Elder Scrolls series didn’t capture me until its fourth installment, Oblivion, but seeing as how Skyrim is a much improved-upon version of it, I was glad to grab at ASAP (and by ASAP I mean as soon as finals were over). With so much to do, so much to explore, and a vast RPG system, I’ll be staying in Skyrim for the unforeseeable future and a game that can keep me interested that long is worthy of the title of my game of the year.
No Comments