Tuesday, January 10, 2012

My Top Games of 2011

Well, it's been a crazy year for me. Lot of changes in my life have occurred, such as getting married and moving out with my wife to a place 450 miles away. Overall, they've been great changes (such as the marriage lol).

One good constant though has always been video games. They're always there when I need to relax, decompress from the day, or just have fun. It's been a great year for gaming. Now for my top list of video games of 2011, it's going to be a little different. Some of these games may have come out the year or more before. It's the games I've played and enjoyed.

My top 5 list of video games I've played this year are:



It's on everybody's list, unsurprisingly. It's a massive world, open-ended, with an incredible amount of options in how you tackle the game. There were hours where I'd just run into the world and see what was out there. It was an awe-inducing game with a lot of memorable moments in the unscripted quiet beauty. Seeing the sky and the mountains and traversing is one of those moments. And then there's the incredible spectacle moments like the first time you fight a dragon. At level 4! I haven't even finished the game.


To be honest, I don't really remember playing much of the original Deus Ex. I remember though that I had a distinct feeling of enjoying it, because I bought the sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War. And I was super excited about Deus Ex. This game was fantastic for its setting and options in playthrough. A lot of the things I loved about Skyrim, I also loved in Deus Ex. But the main difference is that this was a world of cyberpunks instead of elves. I am a sucker for good Sci-fi, and this game had amazing Sci-fi. Not in stereotypes, but in tropes and themes. Questions of the human condition and our future were raised in the game that made me think. I remember when I finished the game, I wanted to more. So in that sense, it was a great game.


It's Star Wars and Bioware. That enough should tell anyone why this is a great game. But then again, Bioware has kind of faltered with its last game Dragon Age 2. And the Star Wars property has seen better days (before the prequels). But to me, Star Wars and Bioware is the magical mix. But that also just made me more wary about how the game would turn out. Well I wasn't disappointed. The game's only been out about a month, but I've played it more than some games I've played this year. The story is just epic. And it's worth the price of admission just for the class story quests. Right now I'm rolling as a dark side Sith juggernaut, and the choices I make the character are the farthest things I could possibly do in real life. And that's what's so exciting. The game's story exudes how epic of a hero or villain my character can be.


This game has had it's ups and downs. I'm still unsure whether the battle between the elephant in the room, Modern Warfare 3, was a necessary thing or not. What I do know is that I prefer the BF series to the MW games, even though Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare had the best singleplayer fps experience I can remember with a war shooting game. BF3's singleplayer was all right. It's the multiplayer that makes it shine. Flying in jets or attack helicopters, shooting people from 300 yards away (my personal record), and working in tandem with other players makes this game a fantastic fps.


What can I say about Starcraft 2? No other game has engrossed me and opened me up to more than any other game than Starcraft 2. I played the original Starcraft back in 1999 when I was starting out in highschool. It was a video gaming life experience. I played that game a metric crap ton. But looking back now? I barely scratched the surface of the Starcraft world affair. I never played a ladder match in Brood War. Nor did I play any multiplayer games outside of versus the AI with my friends. Starcraft 2 is a whole other beast. I've gotten over 1000 wins as protoss. I'm only platinum, but I started playing the beta and was copper. I have friends that play the game with me and they're in Master League. And that only serves to motivate me to get better at the game. The game has transcended the experience of being a game that I put it in for fun, to a much more serious endeavor. It's reminded me of my college career in competitive debate. I never understood why people would get enraptured and engulfed by sports. They'd form fantasy leagues and watch games every week and throw parties about it. I understand that now, because of Starcraft 2. I've been to Barcrafts, where people gather at restaurants and bars to watch competitive Starcraft tournaments. I've even competed at online tournaments and gone to one LAN (in person) tournament. It's that big of a deal for me. I have guilty pleasure dreams of dropping everything I am doing here and moving with my wife to South Korea to become a SC2 progamer. I joke about it with her. And what's even more crazy? I've become so enthralled with this game that my wife happily watches these tournaments with me. There'll be nights (such as last night) where she asks to put GSL on.