Well, it's almost the new year, and all the talk has been about which game is going to be game of the year. Some of the companies really pulled out the stops against the competition. Others pretty much did the same old shit while pretending it's New & Improved
Modern Warfare.
I have half an hour to kill, so here's my personal top 5 PC games.
(I will freely admit I haven't played all the PC titles I could have, and I haven't even touched consoles all year.)
5.
Cthulhu Saves the WorldI'll say one thing for why this game is better than 99% of the crap you've played in your life. Five minutes after the opening credits, they're talking shit about Aquaman and fangirls. BAM. Your Mind = Blown.
Also: Cthulhu respects the 4th Wall even less than Deadpool.
4.
TerrariaAKA Minecraft with a point. While I appreciate the staggering freedom Minecraft can grant, Terraria has a cleaner look (that is to say, it doesn't look like a developer's pet project gone viral), it's a better gameplay experience, and I had more fun with the crafting recipes. And call me terminally old school, but I appreciate boss fights.
Also: Terraria isn't buggier than an ant hill.
3.
Arkham CityExcellent followup to Arkham Asylum. You're Batman, bigger and better. Nothing will ever beat the sheer joy of snapping a thug's leg at the pelvic bone or bending their metal baseball bat into a horseshoe with a B-| face. Almost put this sucker at #2, but a slightly rougher control scheme and some weak areas in the story (both contrasted against the perfect controls and story of Arkham Asylum) forced me to reluctantly drop it down a spot. Still a stellar game that beats some justice into anything released by EA this year.
Also: Still the only game to perfectly balance stealth and action. Batman makes less noise than outer space.
2.
Portal 2Valve is to videogames what Pixar is to children's films. This game just flat out excels in every area. No, it's not as 'perfect' as Portal. Yes, it's a puzzle game with commentary, but it's commentary that causes you to bust your large intestine from laughing too hard. Portal 2 is goddamn gold from start to finish, and has one of the most utterly satisfying endings I've ever seen from a game.
Also: JK Simmons may be just as badass a voice actor as Mark Hamill. Or he may just be JK Simmons. That is to say, epic.
1.
BastionBastion is brilliant because the creators realize that videogames are essentially interactive stories and they treat the mechanics of the game in kind. Every new weapon comes with a fable growled in your ear by the cynical narrator. Each upgrade and 'level up' grants gameplay changes, not stats. How you play the game is more important than how
long you play
WoW, Diablo. The art and music is a perfect mix of anime/SNES-era Japanese games with American Old West and Industrial Revolution themes.
Best of all is the story. Every character develops. Every character has history and presence. The story itself slowly unfolds to a final, bittersweet conclusion that makes the player stop and go, "...Whoa."
This game isn't just #1 for 2011, it's on my top three games of all time.
Also: The Kid never says one word the whole game. He's still better than every Final Fantasy protagonist ever.
Never posted anything about games in 2010, but I'd say GotY was Red Dead Redemption, followed by the Death Spank series. RDR was the best Western game ever made, period, and the DS series is one of the very games I've ever played that was funnier than even Portal.
-Kraken
"After a year, the Kid's time was done. Came home to find his momma's time was done too. No sign of the money he'd been sending back to her."