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.

2.  Portal 2:  The original Portal released back in 2007 as a small part of Valve’s The Orange Box compilation.  The game was short and weird, so Valve wasn’t sure if Portal would be a success as a standalone release.  As we all know now, of course, Portal was a breakout success, outshining even Half-Life 2:  Episode Two and Team Fortress 2 as the best reason to own The Orange Box.  When Valve announced that Portal 2 was going to be a standalone full-priced release, many gamers were skeptical.  The first game was great, true, but it was also extremely short and didn’t exactly seem like a game that needed a sequel.  Thankfully, Portal 2 is an unquestionable success that outdoes its predecessor in every way.  Portal 2 is much longer than the first game and features even better puzzle design built around new gameplay mechanics, but that’s not what makes it such a standout game.  Instead, it’s the story that reveals much of Aperture Science’s history and the hilarious new characters that really make Portal 2 rise above many other games released this year.  The hilarious and treacherous Wheatley–deftly voiced by British comedian Stephen Merchant–alone is enough to earn Portal 2 the #2 spot on my list.

3.  Battlefield 3:  Ask most gamers about Battlefield 3 and they’ll most likely say something about the game’s graphics.  It’s true that Battlefield 3–especially on the PC–is the best-looking game I’ve ever seen.  However, it’s the large-scale online battles that truly make Battlefield 3 a must for any FPS fan.  You haven’t experienced anything quite like Battlefield 3‘s enormous 64 player battles that mix infantry and vehicles together with outstanding gameplay and the best audio/visual presentation around.  Call of Duty is downright boring next to the dynamic chaos that occurs all around you in Battlefield 3‘s biggest skirmishes.  Those seeking a tighter focus can play smaller infantry-only Team Deathmatch and Squad Rush modes, too, meaning there’s something here for every multiplayer FPS fan to get into.  The bland campaign and afterthought co-op are disappointments, for sure, but Battlefield 3‘s outstanding competitive multiplayer offerings more than make up for any of its deficiencies.

4.  Deus Ex:  Human Revolution:  When I sat down to write this list, I knew right away what my top three games would be.  Coming up with number four, however, was tricky.  I knew it’d be an RPG–but which RPG?  There were a ton of great RPGs this year, including the extraordinarily popular critic darling Skyrim.  Yet, the RPG that I had the most fun with this year–and one of only two I’ve finished so far–is definitely Deus Ex:  Human Revolution.  Deus Ex isn’t even a good RPG in many ways–its story is generic, its characters are uninteresting, and the voice acting is absolutely horrendous.  Yet, Deus Ex is a ton of fun and allows you to mold protagonist Adam Jensen any way you see fit.  Want to focus on sneaking around and hacking into computers?  Feel free to do so.  Want to go in guns blazing like Rambo?  I don’t recommend it, but you can if you’d like, particularly later in the game.  Want to talk your way out of most situations?  You can do that, too.  Deus Ex:  Human Revolution allows you to play the game however you’d like while having a lot of fun doing so–and isn’t that the main point of an RPG?

5.  Dark Souls:  ‘Oh, come on now Nick, this is getting absurd.  Another RPG beats  Skyrim?  And it’s a ridiculously hard RPG that only the most masochistic gamers are going to enjoy?  This list is utter nonsense and I’m done reading it.’  Wait, impatient reader, hear me out!  Skyrim will be next on this list, I promise.  Besides, Dark Souls is a better game than Skyrim.  Why?  Simple; Dark Souls is better-looking, more unique, more challenging, and ultimately, more fun to play.  Sure, it’s not as massive as Skyrim, but Dark Souls has a truly unique open world that is gorgeous to look at and features a smorgasbord of incredible environments to explore and creepily designed enemies to fight.  Just wait until you see the hideous bosses that await you in the depths of Dark Souls‘ deepest sewers, castles, and forests.  Dark Souls‘ Lordran is infinitely more creative and impressive to behold than Skyrim‘s generic Nordic-inspired world.  Better still, Dark Souls features easily the best combat in any RPG.  In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Dark Souls has combat that is on par–if not even better–than an action game like God of War or Devil May Cry.  The barrier to entry is extremely steep thanks to a merciless difficulty level and deep systems that aren’t explained anywhere in the game or in the game’s manual, but those who are brave enough to take up the challenge that Dark Souls provides will find the most creative and memorable RPG in years.

6.  The Elder Scrolls V:  Skyrim:  The popular choice for best game of the year, Skyrim needs no introduction.  Everybody knows what to expect heading into this game–a massive world, deep RPG systems, streamlined leveling, hundreds of hours worth of great gameplay, and dragons.  Skyrim is so massive that you can put 200 hours into it and still not have seen everything the game has to offer.  The combat is much improved over previous games in The Elder Scrolls series, too, having some sense of weight and allowing for dual-wielding of weapons and spells.  The flipside of all this–and the thing that nobody seems willing to admit–is that Skyrim can be downright boring.  In other games, I almost always have something fun to do.  In Skyrim, though, I spend an ungodly amount of time aimlessly wandering around and searching for something to explore.  I’ve spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 hours playing Skyrim so far, and at least 15 hours of that time has been spent either wandering the world in search of adventure or talking to the boring townsfolk that inhabit the game’s cities and villages in the hopes of picking up a new quest.  When Skyrim gets exciting, though, it gets really exciting; dragons swoop down out of nowhere and attack, frost trolls chase you up mountains, and a cave may be a secret vampire lair.  Skyrim is a game that is the very definition of the word ‘massive:’  I just wish it was also the very definition of the word ‘fun.’

7.  Uncharted 3:  Drake’s Deception:  This one really hurts me.  Seriously, the amount of emotional pain I feel over Uncharted 3 is downright depressing.  It’s not because Uncharted 3 is an emotionally downbeat game, either; the pain I feel is that of disappointment.  No other game in 2011 disappointed me as much as Uncharted 3 did, not even Crysis 2 (which didn’t make this list for a reason).  Uncharted 3‘s direct predecessor–the phenomenal Uncharted 2:  Among Thieves–is the closest thing I’ve ever experienced to a perfect game and probably the best game released last decade.  It really was this good; if you ask me what needed changing in Uncharted 2, I’d give you a blank stare for a couple minutes while eventually stumbling out with “….um, the final boss could have been better, I guess?”  Ask me what could have been better about Uncharted 3 and I’ll talk to you nonstop about frustrating enemy encounters and pathetic enemy A.I..  Remember the awesome-looking cruise ship level that Naughty Dog demoed at E3?  It’s not fun at all thanks to a bunch of combat scenarios that involve lots of heavily-armored enemies that require multiple magazines worth of ammo to take down and seemingly-endless waves of enemies in tight locations.  The cruise ship section isn’t the only part of the game that is this frustrating, either; the entire middle half of the game is this way.  The entire game suffers from what may well be the worst enemy A.I. I have ever seen–these morons run back and forth in straight lines in the open when tons of cover is right next to them, begging to be shot.  It’s a complete shame, too, as Uncharted 3 manages to look even better than the last game and has some of the best scenarios I’ve ever experienced in a game, including an amazing sequence where Drake wanders the desert and the best chase sequence in any entertainment medium.  The characters, dialogue, puzzles, climbing sections–all are top-notch and put every other game to shame.  When Uncharted 3 is firing on all cylinders, no other game can touch it in terms of spectacle and fun factor.  It’s a shame that the atrocious A.I. and extremely frustrating difficulty make this my least favorite Uncharted game.

8.  The Witcher 2:  Assassins of Kings:  The last RPG on this list–and the last one worth playing this year–The Witcher 2 is every PC fanboy’s dream come true.  Exclusive to the PC for now (an Xbox 360 port is supposedly coming next year), The Witcher 2 leverages the power of gaming PCs to produce stunning visuals with the best character models ever seen.  The lighting effects and environment design look great, too.  The game suffers a bit from being generic high fantasy–it’s The Lord of the Rings with more sex– and there are quite a few annoying bugs (every time I tried to play the dice poker minigame, the game would crash on me), but the characters and dialogue are well-written and feel real.  The combat is supposedly inspired by Demon’s Souls‘, but it’s not nearly as good or as challenging.  It’s fun, though, and extremely deep.  In fact, The Witcher 2 is easily the deepest RPG I’ve yet played–there’s no pointless streamlining here.  Alchemy, crafting, magic, combat, skill trees, dialogue choices, decisions that literally change the game you experience; it’s all extremely deep and obviously made for a PC audience who grew up with classic BioWare RPGs such as Bauldur’s Gate.  It’s a bit tough to get into, sure–the tutorial throws everything at you at once, and there’s barely any time to get adjusted before you’re fighting for your life–but this game isn’t Dark Souls and won’t require constant dying on your part once you get the hang of things.  If you want to experience the deepest RPG around and have a decent gaming PC, The Witcher 2 is what you’re looking for.

9.  Gears of War 3:  The final part of Epic’s fantastic trilogy, Gears of War 3 isn’t terribly innovative; instead, it improves upon what’s already in the franchise.  Thought the story and characters of the first two Gears games were boring and flat?  Not so with Gears 3–this game has the most touching and heartfelt moment I’ve experienced in a game this year.  Seriously.  The graphics are even better than in the last two games, making for one of the best-looking games you can buy.  The cooperative Horde 2.0, four-player co-op through the campaign, and new Beast modes provide the best co-operative gameplay of the year.  The competitive multiplayer is unbalanced and keeps the game from placing even higher on this list, but everything else the game does is topnotch.  Even if you weren’t a big fan of the previous Gears of War games, you owe it to yourself to play Gears of War 3.

10.  Rayman Origins:  The last slot on my list could have gone to any number of great games released this year, including Dead Space 2 and Mortal Kombat.  Instead, I chose to highlight the best game that’s going to get buried under the avalanche of huge holiday releases, Rayman Origins.  Rayman Origins is a beautiful 2D platformer that features extremely creative level design and gorgeous graphics.  It’s also challenging–just the way I like my platformers–and has great replay value thanks to four-player co-op and a huge amount of secrets to find.  The game’s a bit short to be a full-priced $60 release, but GameStop is now offering the game for sale at $30 brand new.  If you like games like New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Donkey Kong Country Returns, you’ll love Rayman Origins.

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.

To counter this, I picked the default Warrior class for Dark Souls.  Supposedly, the best way for n00bs to start out is with a ranged character, preferably a magic user.  That way, you can avoid getting close to enemies.  However, staying away and peppering enemies with spells or arrows just isn’t the way I like to play RPGs.  Give me a big sword and shield and let me wade into the fray!  Picking the warrior class has allowed me to do just that, but I’m also agile enough to quickly roll out of harm’s way should I need a breather.

The other reason I’ve having an easier time with Dark Souls is that the bosses have been easier for me.  The first boss was really easy thanks to an effective trick—simply climb up onto a tower and use the new falling attack that does tons of damage on the Taurus Demon a few times and voila!  Easy victory.  The Moonlight Butterfly seemed tough at first, but once I figured out that I could hit it more effectively by two-handing my sword I made quick work of it.  It still wasn’t easy—one of its attacks hit me almost every time—but most of its attacks were easily dodged and the Moonlight Butterfly was completely defenseless at times.

That’s not to say that all enemies are easy.  The second boss encounter I faced—the Bell Gargoyles—was extremely challenging.  You see, at first there would be just one Gargoyle.  His attacks would do tremendous damage, but it was easy to roll of their way or block them and counterattack.  However, once the Gargoyle was down to about half health, another would fly in and start breathing fire that was impossible to block.  The fire was easy to avoid, true, but having to deal with it plus the other Gargoyle was almost unbearable.

This is the first Bell Gargoyle you fight. Another one enters the battle once you bring this one down to half health.

I spent hours trying to fruitlessly kill those darn Bell Gargoyles until I stumbled upon the weapon enhancement feature.  You see, Dark Souls doesn’t explain a lot of its systems (something I’ll get into more in-depth later).  I didn’t even know I could upgrade weapons at blacksmiths until I really dug into the menus.  For a fairly cheap amount of souls—the game’s currency—I could make my lowly sword into a powerful death-dealer.  All I needed to do was grind the enemies in the area for souls until I could upgrade it a few times.

Grinding didn’t take me long thanks to the abundance of enemies in the area.  Once I had enough souls to upgrade my sword to the point where I thought I was ready to tackle the Gargoyles—I upgraded my sword from doing 61 damage per swing to doing 106 damage per swing; a huge upgrade!—I made my way to the roof where the Gargoyles were. An epic fight ensued—it probably lasted a good 45 minutes—and it wasn’t easy.  One misstep could send me flying off the roof to my death or right into a Gargoyle’s flames, but my upgraded sword was tearing into their flesh with aplomb.  I had 10 Estus Flasks (healing potions) at the start of the fight thanks to a kindled bonfire, but I used them all in defeating the first Gargoyle.  After I defeated that one, it was down to a one-on-one fight between me—with half health and no Estus Flasks—and a Bell Gargoyle with about 25% health remaining.  I lured the Gargoyle into breathing fire—which causes it to stand in place for a long time—and went to work on his body with my upgraded sword.  I came very close to stepping off the edge at one point—what fun that would have been!—and I was sweating and could barely breathe, but I finally managed to kill it and ring the bell that signaled my victory.

The victory against the Bell Gargoyles gave me a sense of satisfaction that is completely unique to Dark Souls.  When I’d finally managed to defeat them and ring the bell after hours of getting my butt kicked, I felt like a gaming god.  Sure, blowing up a tank in Battlefield 3 or completing a sidequest in The Witcher 2 is rewarding, but Dark Souls’ boss fights are so tough that you feel unbeatable after defeating one.  Of course, this lasts for all of about 15 minutes, and then you run into a new area with enemies so tough that they beat you to a bloody pulp in mere seconds.

After beating three bosses, I ran into a guy that inducted me into a covenant (the benefits of being in this covenant aren’t entirely clear, I might add) and was then willing to sell me Miracles.  Miracles are spells that require a stat called Faith.  By spending 4,000 souls, I was able to buy a healing miracle that I hoped would help me out.  I leveled my Faith stat up to the required 12 and equipped the talisman necessary to cast miracles.  Instead of healing myself, however, I did nothing.  Huh?  I tried everything—equipping the talisman in my right hand, trying to select the healing spell in the menu—but nothing worked.  There is absolutely no mention in the manual or in the game itself of why this Miracle shouldn’t be working for me.  You see, Dark Souls is one of those games that make you figure out most of its systems—the tutorial teaches you very basic combat controls and nothing else.  If you don’t like experimenting and discovering how a game works on your own, Dark Souls is not the game for you.

So, that’s where I am now.  I’ve wasted a ton of souls buying a healing Miracle that I don’t know how to use and have come up against a brick wall in the form of the Capra Demon.  The Capra Demon is a boss in a new area called the Undead Burg.  The Undead Burg lies underneath the first area you explore and is filled with numerous quick-moving enemies that will make you bleed if you allow them to.  The Capra Demon seems like it’s not going to go down easily—stay tuned for journal entry #3 to see if I’ve managed to defeat the Capra Demon and make my way to a new area of Dark Souls.

Platforms:  PS3, Xbox 360

Developer:  From Software

Publisher:  Namco Bandai Games

Rating:  “M” for Mature

Written by:  Nick Cohen

Platform played on:  Xbox 360

In lieu of an actual review of Dark Souls—I’m not sure I will ever be able to beat the game, which is necessary for a full review—I’m going to keep and update a journal of my time spent in Dark Souls.  I’ll give you my impressions of the game and also update you on my progress (or lack thereof) with each post.  Please note that spoilers lie ahead with each journal entry, as they’re necessary to tell you what I’ve been doing in the game.  I’m not sure how often I’ll update this journal, and some updates may not be too exciting since it’s likely that there will be periods of time where I’m not making any significant progress, but I will try my best to pump these out on a semi-regular basis for as long as I play Dark Souls.  Come join me on my ambitions adventure.

Dark Souls is hard.  It’s really, really hard.

Dark Souls is a game unlike any other, with the exception of its predecessor, Demon’s Souls.  Whereas most games nowadays are relatively easy compared to most games on the NES or even the original PlayStation, Dark Souls is actually harder than games on those classic consoles.  In my brief (roughly three hours) time spent playing Dark Souls so far, I’ve died countless times.  I’ve fell off cliffs, died twice in the game’s tutorial, been poisoned by rats, and been hit by exploding firebombs.  Yet, I still keep coming back for more.

You see, Dark Souls is extraordinarily tough, but it’s also a ton of fun and very rewarding.  When you die in this game, you know why, and it motivates you to do better next time.  A typical life in Dark Souls involves starting out at a bonfire—the game’s checkpoints.  These bonfires will heal you and restock your supply of Estus Flasks (re:  healing potions), but they will also respawn most enemies (only bosses don’t respawn).  You will walk for a few feet and get attacked by a swarm of enemies.  You will die.

You will respawn back at the bonfire with newfound knowledge of what lies ahead for you.  Maybe you will overcome this challenge; maybe you won’t.  If you don’t, you will respawn back at the bonfire and have to try all over again.  If you do conquer the challenge, you will continue on for a little bit until you run into a group of enemies or a trap that will kill you, forcing a respawn.  Things will continue on this way for a while until you eventually have the knowledge of what lies ahead and the skills needed to overcome the challenges necessary to encounter a boss.  The first time you encounter this boss, you will die.  Most likely, you will also die on the second attempt.  And the third.  It will probably take many failed attempts, but eventually you will defeat the boss and feel like the best gamer on the planet…that is, until you encounter the next challenge.

That’s how my first few hours with the game have been so far—I’ve died over and over again, but have managed to escape the tutorial area and defeat the first true boss (the Taurus Demon).  With each death, I’ve gained the knowledge necessary to progress a bit further—all it takes after that is good execution of a strategy to overcome the challenges.  My Warrior character (you customize your character before starting the game proper, choosing from a variety of classes with different stats) is outfitted with decent swords and a good shield, but he also lacks any arrows or magic spells.  This has forced me to attack each enemy up-close-and personal.

The Taurus Demon is the game's first boss. As a result, it only took me about 15-20 deaths to overcome.

Thankfully, the combat system in Dark Souls is topnotch.  Dark Souls may be an RPG, but the combat is better than in most action games.  There’s a certain weight to each sword strike that makes fighting both fun and strategic.  Since your attacks are generally pretty slow, you have to get good at blocking, evading, and countering.  You also have to know how to draw enemies away from each other—unlike in most games, if you’re attacked by three enemies up-close in Dark Souls you’re most likely dead.  Enemies will kill you in a few hits at most (plenty of enemies will kill you instantly), and some—like the giant rats and their ridiculously powerful poison—cause debilitating status effects.

Outside of the strategic combat, Dark Souls isn’t much of an RPG.  Your character has tons of stats to level up, weapons can break, and you can pull up menus that will make onlooker’s eyes pop with their complexity, but nothing except leveling up is mandatory.  That’s the thing; you can play Dark Souls almost like an action game if you want.  It will still be mercilessly tough and slow-paced, but you can choose to ignore most of the deeper RPG elements if you wish.  I often find myself forgetting that I’m playing an RPG simply because there’s barely any story and I almost never have to look at menus or stats.

Dark Souls looks fantastic, but there is a lot of slowdown at times.  The slowdown can certainly hinder you if you’re in a tough fight, but it’s usually not a big concern.  The music is excellent, particularly in the opening cinematic.  Speaking of which, I think Demon’s Souls’ opening was much better.  It’s a minor complaint, but Demon’s Souls had my favorite opening cutscene ever, whereas Dark Souls’ is merely decent.

As I progress further into the game, Dark Souls can only get more interesting…and much, much harder.  I’ve heard frightening tales of this game’s savage difficulty, but I look forward to overcoming all challenges the game throws at me.  Will I give up after trying and failing to defeat an early boss over the course of 50+ hours like I did in Demon’s Souls?  Or will I persevere and triumph in the face of incredible danger?  I’m not sure, but you should continue following my progress through this hellish world as I go deeper and deeper into Dark Souls to discover what else the game has up its sleeve.

Gallery 1988 has recently put their Multiplayer exhibit up for sale. Prints of the gaming-inspired artwork are available from their website’s exhibit page. Be quick about any purchases, these limited edition prints are going fast.

Here are a few of my favorites:

- “Prince of Darkness” by Mike Mitchell

“Kill Screen” by James Flames

“Princess Toadstool” by Nate Duval

“1981″ by Tom Whalen

Various matchmaking options will be available, along with a ranking system and voice chat, and once purchased the game will be free to play online. This has caused some fans to complain about being charged for online play even though it will be a one off payment and not a subscription.

No date has yet been announced for the release of the update. (From NeoWin.net.)