What Was Your Game Of The Year?
What game stole your heart? What game truly made you think, "This is gaming at its best" ?
For me, that game was "Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery".
In many ways this is a minimalist game. Nothing is told about the hero, who arrives atop a mountain, and then proceeds to go across the land to take the ancient tome from the sanctuary of Mingi Taw.
Nothing is told of why there is a living darkness guarding it that will then relentlessly pursue you as you attempt to unite the three Trigons of Power in order to open up an ethereal bridge to the otherworld and to set the tome on an ascent into the greatness of the heavens.
You are an archetype, the hero. It is an archetype, the evil. You are guided by an archetype, the wise narrator. You are backed by archetypes, the sheperdess and the woodcutter, in the roles of the wise woman and man.
Combined with interesting modern sensibilities that either may attract or distract, such as full integration with Twitter (every accomplishment can be sent to your Twitter account, such as "By the side of the old road there was a stone carved with a pair of glyphs in the shape of a sword & a shield."
It is orchestrated by indie sensation Jim Guthrie, and many of the puzzles are musical. Some are so musical that only those with an understanding of basic music theory will fully grasp how they solved some puzzles, which are always attempts to trigger environments in a specific musical pattern.
It is part classic Sierra adventure gaming, part Legend of Zelda, and part Mike Tyson's Punch Out (when combat becomes involved, in which timing is everything).
Its stripped down narrative, sweeping music, overlying sense of dread and wonder, adventure sensibilities, gorgeous pixel art, quirky modern mechanics and simple assertion that it is the hero's journey made for the finest game I played in 2011.
Available on iPad and iPhone (buy the iPad version. Art is too gorgeous to minimize). Soundtrack on iTunes, also available as a vinyl record.
For me, that game was "Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery".
In many ways this is a minimalist game. Nothing is told about the hero, who arrives atop a mountain, and then proceeds to go across the land to take the ancient tome from the sanctuary of Mingi Taw.
Nothing is told of why there is a living darkness guarding it that will then relentlessly pursue you as you attempt to unite the three Trigons of Power in order to open up an ethereal bridge to the otherworld and to set the tome on an ascent into the greatness of the heavens.
You are an archetype, the hero. It is an archetype, the evil. You are guided by an archetype, the wise narrator. You are backed by archetypes, the sheperdess and the woodcutter, in the roles of the wise woman and man.
Combined with interesting modern sensibilities that either may attract or distract, such as full integration with Twitter (every accomplishment can be sent to your Twitter account, such as "By the side of the old road there was a stone carved with a pair of glyphs in the shape of a sword & a shield."
It is orchestrated by indie sensation Jim Guthrie, and many of the puzzles are musical. Some are so musical that only those with an understanding of basic music theory will fully grasp how they solved some puzzles, which are always attempts to trigger environments in a specific musical pattern.
It is part classic Sierra adventure gaming, part Legend of Zelda, and part Mike Tyson's Punch Out (when combat becomes involved, in which timing is everything).
Its stripped down narrative, sweeping music, overlying sense of dread and wonder, adventure sensibilities, gorgeous pixel art, quirky modern mechanics and simple assertion that it is the hero's journey made for the finest game I played in 2011.
Available on iPad and iPhone (buy the iPad version. Art is too gorgeous to minimize). Soundtrack on iTunes, also available as a vinyl record.
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I also enjoyed the atmosphere. Especially the pretending that comes when you are a child, brought to life through the game (and the adults being oblivious to it was fun too).
It's the only game this year that I bought at full price, and I don't regret it for one minute.
All right, I'm basically obsessed with the Trine games to begin with, which is weird because this is the first platformer series that I've seriously fallen in love with. Sure, it may be easy for a lot of people, but I found that it provided me a challenge and was overall an enjoyable and entertaining experience. And gorgeous: graphics, music, classic fairy tale style...the whole thing really.
It was creative, melded gameplay and story seamlessly, and contained one of the more touching scenes I've ever seen in a video game. Oh, and it had a great sound-track to boot. Pity it was so short.
Also, Portal 2. It almost doesn't feel like it came out in 2011 it was so long ago...
Both games made me emotionally invested in the narrative and the characters, which for Zelda was a welcome change after Twilight Princess. Twilight Princess, the only character that I really enjoyed the character development for was Midna. I couldn't have cared any less for Zelda in a Zelda game. In Skyward Sword, I wanted to save her. I wanted to see a happy ending. I needed to see the next part of the story. Arkham City was much the same way, though I am by no means saying that Arkham Asylum's story was as weak as Twilight Princess's. But Arkham City took the story to a new level, and I really hope that Rocksteady didn't write a corner that they can never get out of, or more importantly, compose a story that they can't top in the future.
Gameplay wise, I can't say much that hasn't already been said. Zelda is Zelda, the format is much the same, although the Sky Overworld is, to me, much better than the sailing in The Wind Waker, and the motion mechanics are much more smooth than Twilight Princess...as well as not feeling tacked on. Also, I like how the Overworld segments before you get to the dungeons have puzzles to them too, as well as plenty to do. Arkham City. Plays like Arkham Asylum, but a bit smoother and more refined. Only minor gripe is having to hold the D-Pad to shift to certain items because they're stacked, but when you've got as many things in your arsenal as Bats does, what can you do?
Graphics. I'll get this out of the way. I LOVE SKYWARD SWORD'S GRAPHIC STYLE! I really think that it's proof that the Wii can produce really pretty games. And like The Wind Waker, I feel that the artistic direction will help Skyward Sword age gracefully, unlike Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess. Arkham City felt like Batman. You know. How it SHOULD be. Not how we've been fed it through the Burton, Schumacher, and Nolan films. This was Batman fighting a war against crime. And the places and people we saw were brought to life fantastically. And I still love how beat up the Bat-suit gets over the course of the game.
Characters. Wow. As I said, Skyward Sword made me care about saving Zelda. While not the first Zelda that I swore when she got kidnapped, I cared about this Zelda more because, for once, she was running ahead of me of her own free will, not just snatched away at the beginning of the game and locked in the final dungeon. And I can't say just how shocked I was at the depth of Link's facial expressions. Much more vivid than Twilight Princess's Link. Ghirahim was delightfully creepy and a bit mad. And Groose's character arc was fun to watch. And in my opinion, English voice acting could have ruined this game for me because of how much text there would've been to translate, and matching lip "flaps" in a video game is probably very time consuming and would've lost a lot in translation. As for Arkham City...the voice acting, in THIS instance, sold me on the characters. Of course Kevin Conroy and Mark Hammil were at the top of their game as Batman and Joker. I loved the way Troy Baker approached doing Two-Face by giving him two distinct tones, and Penguin's voice was delightful. The only one that got me a little annoyed was the fact that they changed Harley Quinn's voice. And I don't know why. But her character didn't really change, she was still absolutely devoted to her puddin'.
Now my final category. Music. To me, music is just as important as anything else in game. More so when it comes to The Legend of Zelda. And did the music of Skyward Sword wow me? No. It flat-out FLOORED me. As in I needed to pick my jaw back up. Skyward Sword's music is AMAZING. From the opening story music to the Staff Roll, I loved every bit of it. And thankfully, the voice-"singing" didn't sound too terribly synthed like it has in the past few games. I think we can get beyond that at this point. Arkham City's music was likewise amazing and one of the few soundtracks I will ever buy off Amazon to download. It had a good serving of the Elfman score, a bit of Goldenthal's Batman Forever theme, and a lot of the Zimmer score. The theme played at the start screen is fantastic enough that sometimes I'll just boot that up and leave it for a bit.
So, that's my lengthy review and hopefully you guys can see why I have a hard time choosing between the two games. Zelda, of course, has a lot of nostalgic and sentimental attachment that makes it hard to pick something over it, but Batman comes so close that if these two games were racehorses, I don't think even a photo finish would do it justice. So, my game of the year is both Skyward Sword and Arkham City.
Oh man. Well, in that case, objection withdrawn. I was thinking either she just didn't want to, or Rocksteady decided to go a different direction. And all things considered, her replacement's voice wasn't TOO off-base.
I think Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery and The Dream Machine look great, but I haven't actually played them.
2. Portal 2
3. Rayman Origins
4. Xenoblade Chronicles
5. Catherine
Terrible year for adventure games, it's been the year of the rpg... Witcher 2 and Skyrim are up there as well. Xenoblade is the best JRPG i've played in years, and Dark Souls has the most precise and satisfying combat since well...Demons Souls
And I love Skyrim, for all it's flaws and bugs it still manages to be completely immersive, and it's fixed just about everything that I took issue with in Oblivion. Apart from the not being able to fight on horseback thing. Plus it's just so very pretty. (well, when you're playing it on a PC that can run it on ultra-high anyway...)
Well, it did have a good story and voice acting
sure, but the thread is for 'game' of the year
Different tastes I guess. I thought the story of the BTTF game was quite well done.
Agreed.
The mechanics are perfectly simple. A lot to do, but nothing to intrinsically deep or complicated.
It allows you to not worry too much about the details, and just explore the world, experience the characters and creatures.
(A good example of this, is the books. They are essentially unecessary, but they are numerous and contain a lot of lore. Reading them can be very fascinating for a fan of the series)
Not a lot of games do this, or even CAN do this, which is what makes it so special.
But! That's all I'll complain about Skyrim since this is not the thread for it
Probably the wrong forum to keep objecting to these kind of comments. I wont let it get to me :eek:
It's not like my statement was an opinion. Just look at my signature!:)