Your Game of the Year?

It's been a hell of a year for AAA blockbuster titles, even to the point that I doubt a single one of us have put serious hours into all of them. The likes of Arkham City, Skyrim, Skyward Sword, Uncharted 3, Battlefield and Modern Warfare have commanded the last two or three months, but what about those titles released earlier in the year that might not be so fresh in the memory - The Witcher 2, Dead Space 2, Portal 2, LA Noire, Deus Ex HR, Zelda OoT 3D? Maybe something a little more leftfield - Saints Row the Third, Shadows of the Damned, Dark Souls, Gears of War 3, Forza 4?

For me, it's Skyrim. It's a magnificent game world and whilst it's not perfect, what it does well it does better than anything else out there at the moment. That, and it has werewolves.

Arkham City. Portal 2 as a close second.

Uncharted 3 has to be my biggest disappointment this year.

Why was U3 so disappointing?

No single player bonus content.

Arkham City.

L.A. Noire would be a really, really close second. So sad Team Bondi went defunct.

Hmm, either Yakuza 4 or Skyward Sword.

I only bought five games this year, and I have only played three of them. Only two to completion. Too much old crap, too much Just Cause.

For me, it's probably Catherine, which I haven't even finished. Shadows of the Damned looks like it might be a strong contender.

Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3.

I have arkham city now, I love the game but I'm not going to give it game of the year. Personal dislikes. Like how I hate being underground, or inside a maze of a building than I do gliding through the city. Should have been more things to sandbox with. Riddler riddles and trophys are tedious. And I dislike pressing the same 3 buttons over and over in a action game, I mean I've played DMC1&3 DMD man. I expect more.

But Batman, Robin and NightWing are too dope and the game has lord of the rings production values so its hard not to love. But what I'm trying to get across is that I don't think it's perfect. Worth my 72 dollars absolutely though.

I don't know why you'd compare it to DMC. It's not that kind of system. But the combat can be somewhat varied if yo put the effort in to use the special moves and gadgets.

U3 all day

Batman: Arkham City. U3 was a bit of a disappointment, as Moose said, and so Arkham City takes it for me.

Arkam City was a bit of a dissapointment to me. Way too much Batman in it.

U3 failed to impress me more than U2. U2 had a better story and Drake was at his best in the game. Batman Arkham City managed to take Arkham Asylum to a whole new level while retaining a story equally as impressive. Arkham City's story was not all over the place and I enjoyed the gameplay of Arkham City more than U3. The time put into the actual game and not the visuals was considerably higher in Arkham City and it showed. Don't get me wrong, I loved U3 and the graphics were stunning. But obviously having better graphics has never equaled a better game.

Portal 2

Skyrim has given me the most fun and playtime out of all the games I bought this year, so yeah, Skyrim.

I've added a poll, place your bets and... go!

Given feedback thus far, I'm thinking Arkham City looks like the overall victor.

Skywrds Sword has my vote. Still playing it

Voted for Dark Souls as between it and The Witcher it's easily drawn me in the most out of any of the games in the poll, I haven't even finished it yet which, though partially a result of me having too many games to play, is somewhat indicative of how deep you can actually get into it.

I agree with people saying that U3 was something of a disappointment, not that in was a bad game in any way it just wasn't really any better than Uncharted 2 was which, after the big jump in quality between 1 and 2, just felt like a let down. I hope Naughty Dog hits their stride again with The Last of Us because there's no question about them being one of the better developers out there, I think they just need some new material to work with.

I felt that Arkham City, while great, didn't quite capture me the way Asylum did, most likely because of how linear the latter was which allowed them to have a more focused story. Though I prefer some things about the open world style and it was great that it allowed Rocksteady to include a great variety of side characters the story itself didn't seem as good. Also it loses points because Rocksteady delayed the PC version by a month to add graphics options (and nothing else), it uses 3 kinds of DRM at once and DirectX 11 support is still broken.

Saints Row is also a good contender for this as when it's still 'going' it's some of the most fun I've had in a sandbox since Just Cause 2, once the story is over however there's very little to do and the repetitive side missions can only take you so far.

No game that requires mods to fix bad design decisions and bugs should win GotY so Skyrim is disqualified in my mind. They do get points for making their engine not look quite as shitty anymore and having less bugs on release than usual though. Shame about the PS3 version.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, With Sonic Generations coming in a close 2nd and Sonic CD at 3rd.

The only game on that list I purchased or played was U3 so by default it was my GotY. I understand the "disappointment" sentiment you guys have. While I wouldn't go that far in describing it, it wasn't the end all be all game i wanted it to be. The multiplayer is great though and if anyone says otherwise they are just straight up lying.

I'll be getting Syrim soon after I get Assassin's Creed so I'll let you all know how bad that game is. Also I feel Infamous 2 deserves to be on the list. That would have been my runner-up.

Arkham City

Bag of Oranges wrote:

No game that requires mods to fix bad design decisions and bugs should win GotY so Skyrim is disqualified in my mind. They do get points for making their engine not look quite as shitty anymore and having less bugs on release than usual though. Shame about the PS3 version.

The PS3 version in particular seems to suffer, but that's always the case when porting from one platform to another. The odd bug or glitch is entirely forgivable in a game so huge, though for what it's worth I've encountered nothing more than the occasional (as in it's happened twice) freeze during a loading screen - though given in both instances I'd been playing for several hours straight, that was likely just down to the 360 getting too hot.

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Saints Row is also a good contender for this as when it's still 'going' it's some of the most fun I've had in a sandbox since Just Cause 2, once the story is over however there's very little to do and the repetitive side missions can only take you so far.

Yep, when it was good The Third was great. Trouble was, it didn't ht those peaks quite as often as it could have.

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I agree with people saying that U3 was something of a disappointment, not that in was a bad game in any way it just wasn't really any better than Uncharted 2 was which, after the big jump in quality between 1 and 2, just felt like a let down.

This is actually my main worry with Mass Effect 3 - ME2 (my GotY 2010) was a huge improvement over ME1, yet I somehow doubt ME3 will be the same leap. To best ME2 by that kind of degree is simply unthinkable. Yes, I know ME3 isn't out yet, but barring a huge disaster it's going to be in the running for GotY 2012 so I can keep it relevant.

I've got The Witcher 2 sat on the side at the moment, unopened. I got it on the cheap a few days ago, but Skyrim has kept me from it and I've still not beaten the original Witcher yet.

Rockstar_Bob wrote:

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, With Sonic Generations coming in a close 2nd and Sonic CD at 3rd.

Thanks for mentioning Sonic CD

On a side note is Catherine really as good as so many people say it is?

I enjoyed U3's campaign more than 2's. The story was weaker in U3 but U2 really dragged in parts. If it still had the SP bonuses U3 would be the best of the trilogy for me. Without them, it's the worst.