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Nick’s Top 10 Games of 2011

Another year has come to a close.  While some gamers look forward to the big titles of next year–Mass Effect 3, BioShock Infinite, and Halo 4 among them–most gamers are still playing the deluge of games that have been released this holiday season.  Games like Call of Duty:  Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, and The Elder Scrolls V:  Skyrim are still sucking away hundreds of hours from many gamer’s lives.  I’ve played most of them, and so I’m going to tell you which games stood out to me the most this year.  As with any list of this nature, there’s bound to be some disagreement; I know right off the bat that my #1 pick isn’t going to be the same as most other people’s pick.  Yet, I feel confident that these are the 10 best games I’ve played this year and the 10 games that I would recommend above all others.  Note that games like Batman:  Arkham City, The Legend of Zelda:  Skyward Sword, and Super Mario 3D Land have been disqualified because I haven’t played enough of them to make a decision on where they’d fit on this list, if they would fit at all.

1.  L. A. Noire:  I gave L. A. Noire a perfect “10″ review score earlier in the year and said that it was the best game I’d played up to that point in time.  I was fairly certain that something would topple it–Uncharted 3 or Skyrim, perhaps?–but nothing in the latter half of the year eclipsed L. A. Noire.  This is the game that, when I look back on the year, really sticks out for me.  It’s unlike any game I’ve ever played; there are action scenes, sure, but they’re not the main focus of the game.  In fact, players can skip over action scenes entirely after failing them a few times if they just want to experience the story and characters.  The main focus of L. A. Noire lies in actual detective work.  As detective Cole Phelps, you search for clues at crime scenes and then interrogate witnesses/suspects.  The whole process feels like an evolution of the old-school PC point-and-click adventure titles of the ’90s.  The now defunct Team Bondi’s amazing facial capture technology allows for real facial movement and expressions when interrogating people–it’s like you really are interrogating someone.  The entire thing is woven around a pitch-perfect recreation of 1947 Los Angeles, too.  Those expecting another Rockstar game along the lines of Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption are bound to be disappointed, but open your mind a bit to something new and you’ll have a unique experience you’ll never forget.

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Dark Souls Journal Entry 2 by Nick Cohen

In contrast to when I played Demon’s Souls, after playing Dark Souls for about 15 hours I can proudly say that I’m making progress.  I’ve managed to defeat a few bosses, upgrade my character’s stats, and even explore scary new areas.  Does this mean that Dark Souls is easier than its predecessor?

Hmm, that’s an interesting question.  I think that I can identify two distinct reasons why I’m having a better go at Dark Souls than I ever did with Demon’s Souls.  The main reason for this, I think, is that I’ve made a better character with better-allocated skill points.  You see, in Demon’s Souls I made the mistake of choosing a character class that I would normally do well with—the knight, basically the equivalent of a “tank” class in MMOs.  You know what I mean by this—a character with heavy armor and weapons that is as slow as a snail and meant to wade right into combat and hack away at enemies.  The trouble with this is that Demon’s Souls—and, by extension, Dark Souls—isn’t set up to be played this way.  I don’t care if you’re wearing armor made out of dragon scales—the enemies in these games will absolutely destroy you if you try to take them on headfirst.  You have to be able to block their attacks with a good shield and, if that fails, evade out of the way of their attacks.

The trouble with the knight class is that all that heavy armor weighs them down to the point where they can’t effectively dodge out of the way.  I’ve seen the slow roll evade practiced by knights described as the “fatty roll,” which is a pretty good descriptor.  The fatty roll is so slow that it’s next to impossible to evade attacks.  This made getting anywhere in Demon’s Souls nearly impossible for me.

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Analysis–Spike Video Game Awards 2011 by Nick Cohen

It’s the end of the year, and that means awards season is upon us.  Spike’s Video Game Awards (VGAs) kicked things off this year with a show that was at times entertaining and perplexing.

The star of NBC’s show Chuck, Zachary Levi, was the host of the VGAs this year.  He proved to be a decent choice; he seemed to know what he was talking about and even cracked a few funny jokes.  Sure, his opening video sketch was terrible, but these things usually are, right?  At least Spike didn’t go with some completely random host like they sometimes have in the past.  Artist Deadmau5 was on hand–complete with goofy mouse headgear–to provide some techno music (I think it’s techno?) to fade to commercials with.

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Dark Souls Journal Entry 1

Review–Battlefield 3

Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360

Developer:  DICE (Digital Illusions CE)

Publisher:  Electronic Arts (EA)

Rating:  “M” for Mature

Review by:  Nick Cohen

Platform reviewed on:  PC

After months of hype and an uneven multiplayer beta, Battlefield 3 is finally here.  EA and developer DICE have been promising the most realistic, best looking, and best playing first-person shooter (FPS) on the market.  EA hasn’t been coy in marketing this game; they’ve promised that Battlefield 3 was going to be the “Call of Duty killer” when it was released.  The game is out, I’ve played tons of it, and I have to say—EA wasn’t lying.  Battlefield 3 is the best looking, best sounding, and best playing multiplayer shooter out there (key word here being “multiplayer”).  Battlefield 3 really is the “Call of Duty killer.”

I’m going to spend the next few paragraphs gushing over what Battlefield 3 does right, and trust me—it does a lot right.  The first thing everyone wants to know about Battlefield 3 is how the graphics look; can it really look as amazing as the videos EA has released?  If you’re playing on a decent gaming PC, prepare to be stunned; Battlefield 3 actually looks better than it did in those videos, even on moderate settings like my PC runs it on.  I can’t even begin to imagine what it looks like running on Ultra settings, but the Frostbite 2 engine puts out the most amazing graphics I’ve ever laid eyes on.  Lighting is insanely gorgeous, textures are extremely detailed no matter what distance they’re viewed from, environments are massive, character models look great, the framerate remains steady (of course, this depends on what hardware you have); I don’t care what you’ve played before (Uncharted 2?  Pfft.  Gears of War 3? Not even close), Battlefield 3 makes all other games look pathetic by comparison.

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Battlefield 3 beta impressions

Platforms:  PC, PS3, Xbox 360

Developer:  DICE (Digital Illusions CE)

Publisher:  Electronic Arts (EA)

Rating:  “M” for Mature

Written by Nick Cohen

From September 27^th through October 10^th, I got to sample the much-hyped “Call of Duty killer,” Battlefield 3.  Thanks to DICE, EA, and my Limited Edition copy of Medal of Honor—which granted me access to the beta two days earlier than most people—I got to sample two maps and modes from the most-anticipated FPS of the year.  Does Battlefield 3 look as spectacular as we’ve been led to believe?  How does it play?  What are the differences between the console versions of the game and the PC version? Will it be able to topple Call of Duty this holiday?  Read on to find out.

Being a Battlefield veteran (I first played Battlefield 2 on PC years ago and have played every installment in the series ever since), I kind of knew what to expect from the Battlefield 3 beta—huge maps with tons of vehicles, amazing graphics, and an extremely well-polished gaming experience…none of which I actually got from the beta at first.  Wait, what?

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Review–Gears of War 3

Platform:  Xbox 360

Developer:  Epic Games

Publisher:  Microsoft Game Studios

Rating:  “M” for Mature

Review by Nick Cohen

In 2006, during the early years of the Xbox 360, Microsoft was looking for a big exclusive game to move its new Xbox 360 system off shelves.  Call of Duty 2 and The Elder Scrolls IV:  Oblivion had proved to be hits, but neither game was published by Microsoft and neither did the sales numbers of Microsoft’s flag-bearing Xbox franchise, Halo.  With Halo 3 not releasing until the fall of 2007, Microsoft needed to give consumers a big reason to upgrade to an Xbox 360.  With Epic Games’ Gears of War, Microsoft found that reason.

The original Gears of War was a huge hit, bolstered by a huge marketing campaign, a surprise-hit multiplayer mode, and—let’s face it—a lack of competition.  Gears sold like crazy and gave Xbox 360 gamers a great shooter to play while they waited for Halo 3.  In 2008—facing stiffer competition from Halo 3 and the hugely popular Call of Duty 4:  Modern Warfare—Microsoft and Epic released Gears of War 2, the sequel to Microsoft’s biggest exclusive new game of this generation.  While initial sales were high, Gears 2 ultimately suffered from a disappointing campaign and a new matchmaking service for multiplayer that barely worked.  Consumer’s interest in the Gears of War franchise waned while series like Call of Duty attracted millions of new players.

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