It’s been an interesting year for me, mostly because I’ve spent a fair portion of it writing about games at both www.plughead.net and www.gamingdaily.co.uk. As the year ends though it has become increasingly difficult to balance that with playing games for their primary entertainment purpose. And the family of course. Mustn’t forget them. So as the year ends and I look at the 105 games currently installed and yet to be completed in my Steam list and realise I really am going to have to reign it in.
I think I went out on a high though with my Xmas 2011 Waffle: http://www.plughead.net/happy-waffle-xmas-2011 (Do feel free to share that with everyone you know)
There have been some truly stunning releases this year but of course Skyrim is my game of the year. You were perhaps expecting me to be different and controversial and choose something that panders to the masses like Modern Warfare 3?
As nice as it would be to be able to separate myself and stand out from the crowd, sometimes something rare and beautiful comes along which unites the righteous as one voice. Something that no longer exists outside your consciousness but envelopes it. That is so compelling you measure time and space by it’s absence. Those weren’t ten minutes I spent sat on my couch watching the headline news item, those were ten minutes I wasn’t crossing the river and running up the hill towards Solitude. The thirty minute ride to work should be more than enough time to investigate and clear Wolfskull cave. As I write these words I’m 9.4miles away from Breezehouse, my Whiterun home, where I left Lydia to rest while I went in search of a Redguard woman who continues to elude me.
That’s not to say Skyrim was the only contender, as while I think 2011 has seen a fair number of titles falling short of expectations, Brink, Dragon Age 2 and Rage being examples that immediately spring to mind, the consequence of this has made those that have actually succeeded in meeting or even exceeding expectations appear all the more magnificent for it. For weeks Portal 2 provided me with tales of joyous narrative discovery and puzzles overcome. Of multiplayer larks where we’d regale each other with how we removed the light path from beneath a colleague’s feet and guffawed into their headset. Or cast a friend into the void by changing the exit portal location just as they’d reached sufficient velocity to be unable to avoid their fate.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution made me the most violent and abusive pacifist imaginable. A contradiction the game itself wears throughout, never truly providing a satisfying consequence to my selected course of action, as irrespective of my desires there’s a story to be told and divergence doesn’t feature in it. Until the push button ending, which was a bit of an elbow blade to the scrotum. And those boss fights! Even when replaying as a gun toting psychopath with a side in kleptomania they felt tagged on, which we have since learned of course, they were. That didn’t stop the game being a thrilling adventure and one I will continue to revisit, as I have with its forebears.
Crytek returned with the their trademark stunningly realised visuals with Crysis 2. A continuation of the franchise that felt more focused and polished than either of its prequels and also acknowledged that the suit is the star of these games, not the lump of meat the player inhabits. That focus however also narrows the field of view and much of Crysis 2 felt a little claustrophobic. Arguably the choices in how to take on the enemies, be it by stealthily cloaking and working my way around or bolstering my armour and going in all guns blazing, are no less decisive to the outcome than in Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s vent crawling versus shotgun to the face approach. Without the pretence of real choice or notion that decisions will affect the outcome it was easy to enjoy a traditional shooter for the modern age. Certainly in terms of pure action gaming it’s difficult to see past Crysis 2.
And let’s not forget that this year I once again get to put on my gruffest voice and whisper into the ear of anyone who’ll listen, “I’m Batman!”
I also think the independent sector has truly risen above the main game studios this year in terms of reconnecting with the audience as to what constitutes an enjoyable gaming experience. They’ve certainly filled the void that endless wheelbarrows of money thrown at cross platform development had created. Trine 2 is puzzle platforming art in motion. Waves is an adrenalin fuelled acid trip. Orcs Must Die is a bizarre action tower defence hybrid that has me sniggering and on tip toes, while I’m sat down.
However, as good, and indeed great, as all these games are they are cast aside and left on the road to Riverwood simply for the crime of not being Bethesda’s latest opus. Certainly it lacks a little polish with its bugs, pop up, broken dialogue, ill conceived UI, and backwards flying dragon patches. Nevertheless, how could Skyrim not be my game of the year when it’s the most fraught, exciting, mysterious and beautiful land I’ve ever visited?
And that was 2011, or as Cave Johnson would say, “We’re done here!”
I think I went out on a high though with my Xmas 2011 Waffle: http://www.plughead.net/happy-waffle-xmas-2011 (Do feel free to share that with everyone you know)
There have been some truly stunning releases this year but of course Skyrim is my game of the year. You were perhaps expecting me to be different and controversial and choose something that panders to the masses like Modern Warfare 3?
As nice as it would be to be able to separate myself and stand out from the crowd, sometimes something rare and beautiful comes along which unites the righteous as one voice. Something that no longer exists outside your consciousness but envelopes it. That is so compelling you measure time and space by it’s absence. Those weren’t ten minutes I spent sat on my couch watching the headline news item, those were ten minutes I wasn’t crossing the river and running up the hill towards Solitude. The thirty minute ride to work should be more than enough time to investigate and clear Wolfskull cave. As I write these words I’m 9.4miles away from Breezehouse, my Whiterun home, where I left Lydia to rest while I went in search of a Redguard woman who continues to elude me.
That’s not to say Skyrim was the only contender, as while I think 2011 has seen a fair number of titles falling short of expectations, Brink, Dragon Age 2 and Rage being examples that immediately spring to mind, the consequence of this has made those that have actually succeeded in meeting or even exceeding expectations appear all the more magnificent for it. For weeks Portal 2 provided me with tales of joyous narrative discovery and puzzles overcome. Of multiplayer larks where we’d regale each other with how we removed the light path from beneath a colleague’s feet and guffawed into their headset. Or cast a friend into the void by changing the exit portal location just as they’d reached sufficient velocity to be unable to avoid their fate.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution made me the most violent and abusive pacifist imaginable. A contradiction the game itself wears throughout, never truly providing a satisfying consequence to my selected course of action, as irrespective of my desires there’s a story to be told and divergence doesn’t feature in it. Until the push button ending, which was a bit of an elbow blade to the scrotum. And those boss fights! Even when replaying as a gun toting psychopath with a side in kleptomania they felt tagged on, which we have since learned of course, they were. That didn’t stop the game being a thrilling adventure and one I will continue to revisit, as I have with its forebears.
Crytek returned with the their trademark stunningly realised visuals with Crysis 2. A continuation of the franchise that felt more focused and polished than either of its prequels and also acknowledged that the suit is the star of these games, not the lump of meat the player inhabits. That focus however also narrows the field of view and much of Crysis 2 felt a little claustrophobic. Arguably the choices in how to take on the enemies, be it by stealthily cloaking and working my way around or bolstering my armour and going in all guns blazing, are no less decisive to the outcome than in Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s vent crawling versus shotgun to the face approach. Without the pretence of real choice or notion that decisions will affect the outcome it was easy to enjoy a traditional shooter for the modern age. Certainly in terms of pure action gaming it’s difficult to see past Crysis 2.
And let’s not forget that this year I once again get to put on my gruffest voice and whisper into the ear of anyone who’ll listen, “I’m Batman!”
I also think the independent sector has truly risen above the main game studios this year in terms of reconnecting with the audience as to what constitutes an enjoyable gaming experience. They’ve certainly filled the void that endless wheelbarrows of money thrown at cross platform development had created. Trine 2 is puzzle platforming art in motion. Waves is an adrenalin fuelled acid trip. Orcs Must Die is a bizarre action tower defence hybrid that has me sniggering and on tip toes, while I’m sat down.
However, as good, and indeed great, as all these games are they are cast aside and left on the road to Riverwood simply for the crime of not being Bethesda’s latest opus. Certainly it lacks a little polish with its bugs, pop up, broken dialogue, ill conceived UI, and backwards flying dragon patches. Nevertheless, how could Skyrim not be my game of the year when it’s the most fraught, exciting, mysterious and beautiful land I’ve ever visited?
And that was 2011, or as Cave Johnson would say, “We’re done here!”
