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2011 Honorable Mentions: Doug’s List
Jan 17th
2011 has been a strange gaming year for me. I’ve been able to follow the industry as much (or more) than ever before thanks to some fantastic web sites and podcasts, but for much of the year I couldn’t (and didn’t) buy a new console game. I’ve made up for lost time since October, but much of my attention has also gone to older titles. I almost excused myself from Game of the Year discussions by default.
But there are many games that I have played which deserve recognition. So kick back and read on!
2011 Game of the Year Awards: Number 1
Jan 10th
And here we are friends, at the end of our third-annual Game of the Year awards ceremony. We laughed, we cried and we certainly didn’t argue as much about the placement of 2011′s games as we had in 2010. This is a good thing.
By a near-unanimous vote (meaning three out of five of us agreed), we bring you our finest and most spectacular game of the entire year that was 2011.
As is our custom, we will next post a list of Honorable Mentions from each of our handsome and intelligent contributors during the coming seven days. It will be our individual chance to showcase the titles we think deserved a top spot but were perhaps outvoted on, or we might just tell you what Flash games were the coolest. Time (and editing) will tell.
Thank you for reading!
2011 Game of the Year Awards: Numbers 3 and 2
Jan 10th
Only three games are left to cap-off 2011′s best of the best. Well, we should be more specific and write that only one game is left after you finish reading this entry.
And no, number one is not Minecraft.
2011 Game of the Year Awards: Numbers 5 and 4
Jan 10th
We’ve reached the halfway point for our top 10 games of 2011! Boy, were there a lot of sequels last year or what? At least we liked them.
2011 Game of the Year Awards: Numbers 10, 9 and 8
Jan 2nd
Did you miss us? Because wow, we sure missed you. It’s been a few months, but we’re back with another top-ten list for the year that was 2011. Just as we did in 2009 and 2010, all five of us met one day in late December and spent hours debating what we felt to be this year’s best and most important games.
However, this was our first year where everyone was hundreds of miles apart from each other. With Doug and Tyler in Japan, Spencer in Seattle, Aaron in Portland and Nick in Austin, the logistics were a much bigger hurdle this time around. But thanks to the magic of Skype and an inexplicable need we all share to see our games make the cut, we’ve pulled it out again.
A couple things to keep in mind: We are only evaluating games that came out in the year 2011. That gets a little murky when you look at things like the PlayStation 3 enhanced release of Mass Effect 2 and Minecraft officially leaving beta, so we decided that once a game is evaluated in one year, that’s it. Barring anything short of a comprehensive remake, it probably shouldn’t be considered a game that was released in 2011.
Next week we’ll bring you each writer’s list of personal favorites, but for now, let’s get started!
Shadows of the Damned: A new way for Japan?
Oct 24th
Within ten minutes of beginning Shadows of the Damned, you’ve been subjected to a litany of dick jokes, seen a woman burst at the seams (literally), and have been introduced to a protagonist who’s chosen middle name is “Fucking.” Before bringing in the late title card, the main character and his gun/sidekick have a quick discussion about this trip into the underworld is going to be “our own road movie,” setting the scene for what follows.
It’s really easy to discredit Shadows of the Damned as potty humor, old gameplay mechanics, and JAPAN. I know, because for a while this summer, I did. However, after playing Grasshopper’s latest, I’m convinced that not only is this bound to be a cult classic of a video game, but could be a model for the Japanese developer community going forward.
Visiting the Fantastic Fest Arcade
Oct 22nd
I almost stumbled upon Fantastic Fest completely by accident. Even though I’m on the fabled Alamo Drafthouse newsletter, I somehow missed the fact that there was a big, dorky exhibition going on just down the street from me in late September. At first I assumed it was only a film festival, but then I heard about the Fantastic Fest Arcade: a small, free exhibition of indie games.
These weren’t just obscure tech demos or proof-of-concept exhibits, although those would’ve been cool too. There were some big-name games and developers on-site, including Polytron’s upcoming 3D-meets-2D platformer, Fez, and thatgamecompany’s (Flow, Flower) upcoming experimental cooperative game, Journey. And a game called Octodad about a “loving father, devoted husband, [and] secret octopus.”
So of course I had to go.