Posted 5 months ago
My Top 10 Games of 2011
1.) Rocksmith (360)
I don’t know how this game has not garnered more attention. I have been playing guitar off and on for about 15 years. I have never been great, I can play about 100 or so riffs and a few whole songs usually by muscle memory and looking at tabs online. I can read music and transcribe it into chords (even the odd ones with some research) write it all down then play it, but I can’t just “read” musical notation and play it on guitar. This game is phenomenal at teaching songs the way I want to learn them and the place where I am at in learning guitar.
The key is the UI for showing how to actually play a given song. It is an exaggerated display similar to tabs however a bit more interactive. Whats nice is when you start to play chords you can visually see the chord along with how it sounds which really helps solidify the chord structure inside your head.
For someone who has dabbled in guitar playing for years this game is a dream come true and everything I always wanted in a rock band type game. I am playing on my old fender and as long as the guitar (electric only) can keep a tune you are good to go. It comes with the connection cable needed for the 360 to become your amp. It has a decent array of songs out of the box and new ones are being added if you want to pick them up. They are slightly more pricey than normal plastic instrument DLC.
One thing that everyone should know though before getting the game is that you will need headphones. The delay from your 360 -> TV -> Speaker is noticeable when playing. Headphones directly form the 360 pretty much mitigate this.
2.) Battlefield 3 (PC)
I am not sure what more can be said about BF3. It is pretty much the most refined network First Person Shooter game there is at the moment. The graphics are astounding, the sound is AMAZING, and the multiplayer is pretty much perfection. I think 64 is really a good number for the map sizes that are available at the moment, and it sounds like new map packs may be hitting every few months or so. The web based menuing system, while strange at first, is absolutely an astounding piece of work from a technical standpoint. The quickness with which I can jump onto a server and start shooting is great.
I don’t know that there were any real game play enhancements vs this and other BF titles (and anything else in the genre per se) however everything is just well done in this game which is why it ranks so high.
3.) Forza 4 (360)
Racing simulators don’t get any better, much like #2 on this list Turn 10 just seemed to get everything right with this release. Just when I get to the point when I think the 360 is starting to really lag behind in graphics a game like this comes out which just absolutely blows me away graphically. What Turn 10 is pumping out of 5 year old hardware should really be seen by everyone, car sim fan or not.
The monthly car update packs are keeping the game fresh along with the new online competitions hitting each month. I am getting into the 40s on level and I don’t feel like there is any grinding going on, I am still having tons of fun and racing faster and faster cars. The career mode was designed very well and the online racing community, while a bit more hardcore than most games, still seems to be thriving when I jump on and do my American Le Mans series races with a cold beer after the kids go to bed. The community helps make this game and Turn 10 really understands that and keeps the content fresh. I don’t think the game is as good looking as Gran Turismo 5, however the community and ease of use more than makes up for it and makes the title 5x as fun to play both online and off.
(No gameplay, but I love this advert)
4.) The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (ipad)
I heard this game (story?) mentioned and downloaded it on a whim. I don’t know how this game was not all over the net. What a beautiful game, pretty much Pixar-esque in quality. Not only is the story great but a lot of the pages have mini games / interactivity that my daughter and I can play for 5-10 min each. This game really shows the power of interactivity with a tablet device for kids. The controls are intuitive and my daughter (4 yr old) pretty much inherently knows what parts of each “page” are interactive.
If you have an ipad this game is worth every penny. Probably more.
5.) Skyrim (PC)
Skyrim is going to top pretty much every list this year I believe and it should. So why did I put it down at #5? Time. My Time. I don’t have much of it these days, that is probably why I am still at about lvl 16 working my way through the Mage College quests. This game is everything I could have wanted in a single player RPG. Its amazingly beautiful, the height of sandbox-ism and you kill fucking dragons by shouting magic at them. Its an amazing game that deserves all the credit it gets. I wish I had more time to invest in it honestly. This is one of those games that I will be getting back to periodically over the next 3 years. I would say it is kinda my “default” game at this point. When there is nothing else to play I am going to go explore Skyrim. Oblivion was also the same way, its like a fine wine it gets better with age.
6.) Skylanders (360)
No game has been such a surprise hit in our house this year as Skylanders was. I picked it up on a lark after seeing one of the guys on the CAGCast talk about it and thought that my daughter might have fun playing it with me. 12 Skylanders later I think we have a small army of the little RFID creatures and we try to play a new level almost daily. Its one of those games that its easy to flip the controller back and forth on and she has almost as much fun switching out and announcing a new skylander coming into the game as she does playing the game.
Skylanders are small RFID equipped statues that register on a “portal” (usb hardware reader), as you play the game the game’s main character is the current Skylander you have sitting upon the portal. If in the course of beating the level his health runs out you can flip in another Skylander (base game comes with 3). Each Skylander has an element associated with it, so there are mini games with which element is present etc. The Skylanders themselves keep up with their earned treasures and items so they are portable enough to take over to your friends house to let them see how badass your guy is. Also the Skylander figures seem to be platform-agnostic. So more portability along with a digital registration system I assume for incomming iphone/ipad games.
Expansions for the game come in the forum of other RFID statues. For xmas my daughter received a pirate ship expansion pack that when set upon the portal a new dread pirate ship came into the main games town that took us to do battle with some pirates on another island. Quite ingenious. The whole game is a testament to simple hardware tech mixed with creative story lines and business acumen.
7.) L.A. Noire
I am seeing this game around town for about $20-25 and everytime I do I think to myself what a steal to the person that picks it up. Supurb game done with amazing new facial tech that really brings the game alive. I think Bondi ended up being bought out or went out of biz or something which is a shame because it seemed like such a great platform to create stories with. There was a small set of missions that became available right after launch, but I think thats the extent of content for the game. I did not finish the game, but however plan on revisiting it at some point when there is a lull in new titles.
Also had a KICKASS Remix soundtrack.
8.) Dirt 3 (360)
Dirt 2 was kinda lame honestly, I think I picked it up for $20 and was even dissapointed at spending that. I wouldn’t go so far as to say Dirt 3 was a reboot, but whoever it was that got in there and made some changes to the series did it right. The interface is very Codemasters and polish went into getting you around and explaining what each of the different types of races are and how they work. The game shines on gameplay though. Much like Grid there is very little modification available under the hood, most cars are pre built, however the control and changes in each make for enough variation that you don’t feel like you are cornered into a certain type car. There are different mission sets, and minimums for advancement. If you had asked me in 2010 if I ever though a Dirt game would get on this list I probably would have laughed, however this was a JJ Abrams-eque reboot of the series and they pulled it off.
9.) Orcs Must Die! (PC/Steam)
In a year with many games coming out as variations on the castle defense genre, this title really stood out to me for two reasons, 1.) you can really make the game tilt towards first person shooter as much as you want and 2.) the games humor. In regards to #1 if you want to not spend any money in game to build traps and only rely on the old trigger finger you easily can. Just pop a few mires or spikes out there and dash you way around the board trying to sword or crossbow the orcs as much as you want or you can use the traps to really funnel them around in a Rube Goldberg-esque manner and watch them suffer with the occasional arrow to the orc knee. The game allows you to really pick the method in which you want to slaughter and can almost tilt the game to a FPS if that is how you want to play. That in itself is not entirely innovative (its pretty similar to Dungeon Defenders in that regard) but that coupled with the Tick style humor and the fact it has polished WOW like graphics make for a great game all around.
10.) Dragonvale (ipad)
We always check our Dragons before we go to bed at night. We make sure that the zazzberries are on the stove for the morning, we make sure that whatever godlike crossbreading we are trying to perform in “the cave” is going well and we make sure we don’t need to clear out any trees or rocks for the new habitat. In following with the “lets just polish the hell out of it theme” this year I think Dragonvale got it right from the get go. I have never played Farmville or any of its ilk on Facebook but I have to think this is pretty similar. You are pretty much managing a dragon zoo, each action takes a while in real time to do (think EVE) unless you want to pay the company real cash (we just prefer to take the time), you can breed hybrid dragons and variations of the ones you already have. Its a good game for the 5 min before bed to check up on your dragons. I think it is free on ipad and my daughter and I have probably already put a 10-15 hours in it I think and it is great fun.
Honorable Mentions:
Bastion
Dungeon Defenders
Magic The Gathering 2012
The Gunstringer
Notes