Year in Review: The Ballad of Good Vs. Evil

The year is almost done and Christmas is around the corner. With that in mind I think there's no better time than now to do a best and worst list. Now, these games are just the ones I completed this year and not necessarily the year the games were originally released. I will discard games which I've played or completed in previous years. All the games I completed this year will be listed at the end.

Best of 2011:

Portal 2: An incredible brain teasing adventure that's easy to learn but hard to master. The only shortcomings are in the replayability and complexity of the final puzzles. Some of this is alleviated in the co-op campaign but even that is surprisingly easy for the most part. There's more free DLC on the way including a level editor for those unfamiliar with the Source Editor so there's no regrets with this purchase. Also, it's more clever and humorous than anything on the market today. And really, anything that spawns this many internet memes has to be great, right?

Fallout: New Vegas: I love a deep, immersive RPG and this one takes the cake. The game is extraordinarily buggy despite a year's worth of patches, tweaks and DLC but it's definitely playable. Fallout 3 has the same problem but if you're willing to give the game patience it can be your best friend, your fiance and your mistress all at once. Personally, this was my favorite game this year and thanks to phenomenal DLC expansions I'm still playing it. For action RPG fans there's very little to hate in this package aside from the bugs. This game is even better than Fallout 3 if less impactful.

Super Mario Galaxy 2: The sequel to Mario Galaxy is quite similar however the levels are more linear courses rather than the sprawling environments of Mario 64. This is the perfect companion to New Super Mario Bros.. In fact, Mario Galaxy 2 includes several 2D levels that play with gravity and props in crazy new ways. As always, Mario stars in the best platformers on the market and I doubt anything will top this game until Mario's next adventure. If you liked the first Galaxy and New Super Mario then you're in for a treat.

Assassin's Creed 2: The first Assassin's Creed was a great idea that was held back by a few control issues, uninteresting side quests and a prolonged campaign that overstayed its welcome and became superfluously combat heavy. This game takes the good, polishes it, and transplants it into a more fun campaign that's ultimately similar to the previous game but flows so much better without getting boring. Seeing as this game has received not one but two direct sequels there's a lot of gold to be mined out of this concept. This game is the true beginning of what could become the new Legend of Zelda. In many ways it already has become that important with the community.

Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony: Grand Theft Auto 4, one of my personal favorite games of all time gets one last, crazy sendoff with this expansion pack. Calling it an expansion pack really short changes this game. It easily contains a 10-12 hour campaign reminiscent of the crazier styles present in GTA: Vice City not to mention a healthy spread of side missions and diversions. Also, there's a host of new weapons and abilities available including a riot shotgun and parachute jumping from planes. Plus, you have the option to replay any mission you want to try and get the best scores possible, a feature Rockstar has wisely recycled for future games. TBoGT may not be as long or strong as the original GTA4 but it's easily just as fun if not more so compressed into a smaller package that still blows away most other high profile games in the genre. All I can say is, "Bravo Rockstar, bravo!"

Worst of 2011:

Bulletstorm: Everything about this game either stinks or is poorly utilized. The controls are fluid and fun but the enemy AI prevents you from exercising it properly either from being too smart or too dumb. The storyline is lame and predictable. The writing and dialogue is about what you'd expect from a Beavis & Butt-head dream journal. The skill shot system is more frustrating than fun and most of the time you actually pull off a good one is due to it being practically spoon fed to you. For an FPS from Epic Games the difficulty level is yawn inducing. This might be the worse game I ever finished in my life, period.

3D Dot Game Heroes: For being an homage to the Legend of Zelda this game unwisely focuses on fan service and references rather than fun game design and balance. The dungeons are boring and devoid of any meaningful puzzles. Combat is either laughably easy or controller breaking difficult based on how long your sword is. The mini games are so difficult they were probably rejected from Demon's Souls. To its credit the game is fairly long, includes a new game + and has some humor to spare. However, this game is rooted in the game design cliches of the 80s for better and for worse. For the most part it's for worse. I'd just play Legend of Zelda instead because it's still more fun than this.

Red Dead Redemption: This game isn't bad per se but it's boring. You could say this game is essentially Grand Theft Auto 4 set in a 1911 Western. If that sounds like a great idea to you then cool, you'll probably love it. However, to me the joy of GTA comes from the vitality of the city, the people and creating chaos at my whim. Also, I happen to like stories involving drug gangs and organized crime more than Westerns. When you get down to the meat of Red Dead Redemption it's a lot like GTA, you ride a horse to one mission checkpoint, complete it, then ride to the next mission. In GTA I loved driving around because there was always something to see or havoc to create. In RDR there's just open space. Sure you can hunt animals, collect herbs, infiltrate gang hideouts, wrangle horses, etc. However, these activities bored me and didn't make up for the all the dead time when I'm just traversing empty space. I later learned I could fast travel via campfires but I expected more out of this title. So what I'm saying here is that the game isn't bad but I was just disappointed. It has a solid ending though.

Bad Company 2: Before I start I can't comment on the multiplayer campaign. I haven't played what I feel is a substantial amount of time in it to voice an opinion. However, the single player campaign is a complete mess, a total joke. The enemy constantly bombards you with rockets to keep you from cover which is more infuriating than exciting given you often can't retaliate without losing a limb. To me the worse offender is all the vehicle missions. Vehicle missions in military shooters are never fun, they never make sense and they always feel cheesy. Overall, this campaign is one of the worst I ever played but I know it was only a small part of the overall package so I won't fault it as bad as say Bulletstorm.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit: Like RDR this game wasn't all that bad except for a few issues. However, I was greatly disappointed. See, Criterion's previous game was Burnout Paradise which is my favorite driving game of all time. I can't heap enough praise on Burnout Paradise. Hot Pursuit, by comparison, was a major step back. Sure the driving was good and the cars were fun. Sure the courses were varied. Sure you could drive around the county at your leisure like you could in Burnout. However, Paradise City felt alive and thriving. That's what made it fun to drive in. Also, Burnout hosted a massive online package of missions and competitions. Hot Pursuit doesn't. Sure, you could compete with your friends for the best times on courses and missions. Sure, there were plenty of online races. But all of this could be done in Burnout Paradise and lots more. The biggest disappointment is that the Cop campaign is more aggravating than fun. The racing campaign I enjoyed a lot but would have been better without all the traffic that pops in just early enough for you to notice but just late enough for you not to be able to dodge it. I wanted Burnout Paradise 2, and this game wasn't it. Otherwise, I'd recommend this game it was fun for awhile.

Honorable Mention:

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX - Best New Downloadable Title
The newest iteration of Pac-Man feels completely different than the old arcade days. Now, the ghosts form a train that constantly tails you, the maps transform dynamically and you're fighting the clock rather than the board. The first time you hit a super pellet and eat 30 ghosts in a row you'll get what this game is about. It's as quick and addicting as anything I'd played this year.

Chrono Trigger - Best Retro Title
My favorite game is Final Fantasy 6. Chrono Trigger came out about the same time as FF6. I believe that if I'd played this instead of FF6 when I was a kid then CT might be my favorite game of all time instead. Who knows? This is a classic RPG with a few elements that feel innovative even today. Plus, it holds up exceptionally well after over 15 years and the DS remake adds a few complimentary features that make the game immediately better.

MAG - Most Anticipated Sequel
MAG is a pure multiplayer shooter akin to Call of Duty and Battlefield's online offerings. The difference here is that it's an exclusive PS3 title that boasts up to 256 player battles on dedicated servers. Teamwork has a heavier emphasis in this game than most others of its ilk otherwise the experience falls apart. There's several issues holding this game back from greatness along with a general lack of content in the package. There's only three maps per game mode although each map is so huge it's not as glaring a weakness as it seems. There's very few weapons and virtually no variety with most of them. Worst of all is that the community is arbitrarily broken into three factions and you can't switch between them at will. So, basically one faction is massively overpowered in number and commitment while the other two get beasted more often than not. I imagine a sequel could fix most of the problems, issue a ton of new content and make a serious run at building a community that's competitive with the big boys. I'd keep an eye on this if a sequel comes because it could be huge.

And there's my best and worst of 2011. Thanks for reading.

The Complete list of 2011:

PS3:
3D Dot Game Heroes
Assassin's Creed 2
Darksiders
Dead Nation
Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
Hydrophobia: Prophecy
MAG
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX
Portal 2
Red Dead Redemption
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Streets of Rage 2
Super Startdust HD

PC:
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Bulletstorm
Duke Nukem Forever
Fallout: New Vegas
Half-Life
Recettear

Wii:
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Super Mario Galaxy 2

Nintendo DS:
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Chrono Trigger