Just to recap games 10 to 5;
10. Spell Tower (iOS)
9. Bastion (PC)
8. Rayman Origins (360)
7. FIFA 12 (360)
6. Crysis 2 (PC)
And also to reiterate once again that I didn't play Skyrim, The Witcher 2, Batman: Arkham City, Deus Ex, and Uncharted 3 and all of those are games I'd expect to be vying for a Top 10 spot.
Without further adieu.....
5. L.A. Noire (360)
Much like Crysis 2, I feel L.A. Noire is a very underappreciated and almost forgotten game. When I read/listen to comments by most journalists you get the sense that this is really a failed version of GTA 1947 and to believe that is to completely miss the point. Sure, there's a gorgeous open-world depiction of 1940s Los Angeles, and sure it's a Rockstar game, but L.A. Noire is an old-school adventure game through and through.
At its core L.A. Noire harkens back to the 80s and 90s graphical adventures but it's wrapped up in great visuals, incredible facial capture technology and a brilliantly written script.
The story does drag on one act too long and the actual game mechanics can get a tad monotonous at times but L.A. Noire is an unforgettable experience and a game that you simply can't miss.
4. Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 (PC)
If you've followed my writing over the years you'll know that from 1998 to 2005 I had what could be described as a love-affair with Konami's signature soccer gaming series. However, somewhere around the mid-2000s they started started to lose the plot and things got very stale. Meanwhile, EA Sports stepped up their game and revitalized their FIFA series. PES 2010 was a solid game but lacked the pure fun of the series' best titles.
With PES 2012, the magic is back! The game isn't perfect but I haven't had this much fun since J-League Winning Eleven Club Championship on the PS2. I still find the online play severely lacking compared to FIFA 12 but single-player is insanely addictive.
I prefer the PC version not just because of the improved graphics but also because of the brilliant user-made patches that add a plethora of real-world teams, leagues, kits and stadia.
3. Portal 2 (PC)
A Masterpiece.
If this were any other year Portal 2 would be my number one with a bullet. From top to bottom everything about this game screams quality. I love Stephen Merchant's turn as your sidekick Wheatley and J.K. Simmons as the enigmatic Cave Johnson. I love the visual style and witty narrative. But most of all I love the gameplay. Valve have found the perfect sweet-spot with the difficulty of their puzzles and solving each one brings a fantastic sense of satisfaction.
The game also has one of the best endings in recent memory.
Truly Valve's finest game since Half Life 2.
2. Saints Row: The Third (360)
No, really. Seriously.
I didn't plan for this to happen. I actually feel guilty for liking this game more than Portal 2 but I can't help it - minute to minute there is no game I have had more fun with this year than Saints Row: The Third.
Since the series' inception Saints Row has always been seen as a poor mans Grand Theft Auto but this is the game where the series comes into its own - and it does so on its own terms, not as a GTA clone. Sure they may both seem incredibly similar on the surface but, open world aside, they could not be more different when it comes to gameplay style.
As Rockstar's GTA series has moved towards gritty realism, the folks at Volition have said 'fuck it' and made Saints Row: The Third the most batshit insane gaming experience ever! Best of all, it doesn't just own it's madness, it flat out revels in it and you get the sense that even some of the characters within the game know what they're doing is insane. From a quick glance at previews you might think that the madness I'm referring to are juvenile things like using giant dildos as weapons or a 'fart in a jar' as a stun grenade - you'd be wrong. I would love to give one of a dozen concrete examples from the game but to do so would be to spoil the surprises. Suffice to say, there are things in this game that you would never imagine you'd see in a videogame.
Underpinning the crazy mission design and lunatic narrative right turns are excellent shooting mechanics, a purposefully arcadey driving style, and fantastic mission variety.
Like I said, I didn't expect to like this game that much and I am a self-proclaimed GTA fanboy but I played Saints Row: The Third for 27 hours (including all the optional side missions) and I can't recall a moment that I wasn't smiling from ear to ear.
Play this game.
1. Battlefield 3 (PC)
After loving Battlefield: Bad Company 2, this was easily my most anticipated game of the year. I had it pre-ordered on both the 360 and the PC, I bought a new 22 inch LED monitor for my PC and yet, there was a moment, after playing the public beta that I thought - uh oh, this is not very good...graphical glitches, a crappy narrow Rush-mode map....actually, this is kinda crap. Did I just waste my money?
That was a notion, or should I say a fear that persisted right up until launch day. Fortunately, just 20 minutes of the Caspian Border map on the PC and my fears were allayed and the more I played it the more it became clear that this game not only met my lofty expectations, it exceeded them.
Between the PC and 360 versions I've played Battlefield 3 for almost 60 hours. Those 60 hours are almost all exclusively multiplayer and, really, that is the only reason to play this game. There is a single player campaign but its boring, poorly paced and largely devoid of invention. Multiplayer is where Battlefield earns its keep and I just can't stop playing it.
Battlefield 3 takes the excellent class-based shooting of Bad Company 2, refines it and then adds more - more vehicles, more weapons, more gadgets, larger maps and importantly, on the PC, more players. As I've said before, 64-player Battlefield 3 on a good PC is the finest argument for a new console generation around. You truly feel like you're in a war zone with player-controlled aircraft buzzing overhead, vehicles littering the battlefield and destruction everwhere.
But, what this game specializes in is creating these amazing, unique moments of utter chaos that in other games would be the result of carefully orchestrated scripting, but in Battlefield 3 are the result of emergent gameplay. Anyone who has played this game has experienced at least one 'Battlefield Moment' - be it the time they cleared out an entrenched capture point by attaching C4 to a jeep, driving at top speed and then jumping out at the last minute to detonate the explosives, or perhaps the time they ran up a hill, got to the summit and almost dropped their controller as the flaming wreckage of a F-18 fighter jet flew just over their head!
From a technical standpoint, the PC version is almost peerless. The graphics in DICE's Frostbite 2 engine are simply jaw dropping. I am continually amazd at the player models, the animations, the lighting and particle effects, the environments and more. This is the best looking game I've ever seen.
The audio is also no slouch with some phenominal sound design. It's not just the thunderous boom of machine gun fire, or the rumbling of a nearby tank that's impressive - it's the fact that you can sometimes tell where gunfire is coming from not just from the location the sound is coming from but also from the different sounds bullets make when they hit different surfaces!
Even the browser-based Battlelog interface is solid with excellent stat tracking and the ability to simply browse the web while you're waiting for the game to load or a sever spot to open.
If you haven't guessed by now, I love this game. I mentioned at the beginng of this article that there were a few games that I hadn't played but suspect they would likely be on this list if I did. Battlefield 3 is one of the main reasons I haven't. The shortcuts to The Witcher 2, Arkham City and Deus Ex are sitting on my desktop but I still haven't played them because when I do get a free minute I'd just rather be playing Battlefield.
Battlefield 3 is my 2011 Game of the Year.
Lavan
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