2011 - A retrospective

Gamers already know: 2011 was a good year for our hobby/lifestyle. We saw the release of various love-at-first-playthrough-games, breakthroughs in technology, announcements of titles or breakthroughs to come...all in all, 2011 certainly was neither slow nor boring. Korn's Arcade would like to, at this time, do something it hasn't done so far: review the entire year. Let's break it down.


Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Rage. Skyrim. The Old Republic. Duke Nukem Forever. Batman: Arkham City. Battlefield 3. Modern Warfare 3. Dragon Age 2. Assassin's Creed: Revelations. Bulletstorm. Dead Space 2. Crysis 2. Portal 2. Mortal Kombat. Homefront. These are all games that came out in 2011 and, for one reason or another, will stay in our minds for more than a fleeting moment. With gaming being what it is and dozens of new games coming out every single month, that's quite an achievement. Out of these games, the vast majority are sequels, which sadly shows the unwillingness of the industry to experiment and take risks nowadays. Then again, the players themselves are unwilling to take risks these days and are more likely to buy a sequel to a game the liked than a new IP (Intellectual Property). But once more, I digress.


Picking the game of the year (henceforth GOTY) from this list would, for most people, be a no-brainer. And, forgive me, I mean no insult, that's exactly what it would be: a no-brainer. 


Having given Skyrim numerous tries since launch, I cannot in all good conscience give my GOTY seal of approval to it. It simply isn't. This has nothing to do with my personal gripes with it. Skyrim is a re-polished Oblivion, which was a re-polished Morrowind. Nothing more, nothing less. Some of the annoying features were left out, some weren't. Some good things stayed, some didn't. Some new features were introduced, some stayed archaic and clunky. Unfortunately, Skyrim enjoyed an almost unprecedented amount of hype that caused sales to skyrocket, fanboy drooling to flood major cities and people completely ignoring, or worse off choosing to ignore, or, even worse not being able to see that Skyrim, at its core of cores is, let's face it, a bit shit. It's boring. It's a beautiful open world that you can explore. Well la dee dah. So was San Andreas, but San Andreas had soul, had characters, had emotional investment. Skyrim has none of these things. Search your feelings, you know this to be true.


I'm fairly sure most reviewers will pick Skyrim anyway but there is exactly one f**k I give about that, and it took an arrow to the knee ages ago. So thumbs up to Forbes magazine that, though admittedly not a gaming publication, nevertheless chose to name GOTY Deus Ex:HR instead of Skyrim in its gaming section. Not that I agree 100%, but still, at least someone didn't swallow the Skyrim hype whole. Read Paul Tassi's article on why he didn't pick Skyrim here. By the way, he and I are not alone in this: at least half a dozen sites have picked Portal 2 as GOTY.


Other than Skyrim, though, 2011 saw the releases of many other games worth mentioning. The bashed-by-critics and deemed disappointing but at its core fun Duke Nukem Forever. 

The Fallout-esque technical wonder that is Rage. 

The unapologetically gory fun but relatively commercial fail of Bulletstorm.

The flawed, intentionally provocative and ultimately, tired Modern Warfare 3.

The genuinely scary Dead Space 2.

The last of the Mortal Kombat series, bringing the fun of an over the top beat-em-up back into our lives. 

Dragon Age 2, continuing the mythos created by Bioware and introducing complex moral choices that actually had gamers think before replying in NPC dialogues.

Crysis 2, the sequel to one of the most groundbreaking first person shooters of all time, ultimately not as good as the original but nevertheless its cinematic storytelling and Hollywood credibility (a certain mister Hans Zimmer wrote the music for it) did wonders for gaming as a whole.

Batman: Arkham City, that saw the groundbreaking Asylum continued, perhaps not as well, but still better than most comic book games.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations that concluded the Ezio and Altair storyline, opening up the road to AC3.

Battlefield 3 that sought to reinvent the team shooter with the use of  new and integral physics and destructibility, hailing the PC as the gaming flagship, was after all a tad too ambitious for its own good.

Homefront that, while as a shooter was rather generic, was nevertheless memorable because of its drama engine (that rather than scripting, ensured that anything really important or spectacular had a higher chance to happen near you) and, let's face it, that intro.

Which brings us to the big three. Three games that I personally consider equally deserving of the GOTY title. Unfortunately, only one can go home with it, while the other two can rest assured in the knowledge they were considered for it by someone scrutinizing games in really tough standards.

Finalist number one...Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Deus Ex:HR had a really, really heavy burden to overcome. Sequel to both the legendary Deus Ex and the hated Deus Ex: Invisible War, it was never going to be judged without these two in mind, coming up short in the case of the first, being too similar in the case of the second. Gladly, HR managed to not only overcome this, but shine in its own right. We've seen dystopian futures before, but none so alive and vibrant as the one in Human Revolution. Part William Gibson, part Phillip K. Dick, part George Orwell, HR poses the same philosophical conundrums regarding technology as the greats of cyberpunk and science fiction, at the same time without losing focus on the very human story at its core and, perhaps more importantly, without losing sight of the rule that games should, when all's said and done, be fun. The world might not be as open as the one in Skyrim, but it's a world that feels real, the characters have personalities, and the way you play the game is completely up to you.

Finalist number two is, naturally, Portal 2. For many reason, Chell, GlaDOS and Portal 2 in general will always have a special spot in my heart of hearts. Some of you might even remember that the Portal 2 review was the maiden post of this blog. But that's besides the point, really. Maybe it's the fact that Portal is one of the most non-violent major releases of last year and, indeed, last decade. Maybe it's the intelligence of its design in puzzles, stories, characters. Maybe it's the voice talent and storytelling that create the right sort of mood and atmosphere at all times. Maybe it's the charm that oozes from every single pore of the game. I don't know; it's a weird sort of beast, Portal. Every single aspect of its gameplay would be suicide in another game, but in Portal they mesh and mix beautifully, bringing to light a rare gem. You can't even imagine what I'm talking about if you haven't played it, and if you haven't, shame on you.

Which brings us to my personal choice of GOTY...

...which is none other than Old Republic. Again, this has absolutely nothing to do with my love for both Star Wars and Bioware. It has everything to do with the fact that, objectively, it's the better game of the year, even by a little. An MMO, but so much more than an MMO, Old Republic manages to capture a kind of cinematic magic few single player games manage to. It wraps hundreds, thousands of stories under the mantle of the Lucasverse, giving you a choice of character and alignment unprecedented in online games and getting one up on single player games by ensuring all your choices can only be made once. No quickload to rectify a rash decision, no going back to being friends with someone you screwed over. And that's just the NPCs. A great RPG with a joy of discovery and wonder you just don't get nowadays across various planets, stations and spaceships, and all that with other players. Old Republic is an adventure nothing short of magnificent, full of adrenaline occasionally, requiring deep thought at other times, it's most definitely a must-play.