Welcome back!

I realize my writing on this blog is about as frequent as me actually studying for tests in college (see: infrequently) but I'm back. At least I think (and hope) so. I have quite a few ideas for new features that I'm honestly pretty excited to write about. This week, I plan on doing a countdown of my top 10 favorite games of 2011 as a sendoff to a great year, and to get that out of the way before the onslaught of 2012 really begins. Welcome to January 1, 2012. My New Year's Resolution is to actually keep this blog entertaining and updated as often as I can. Wish me luck. :)
                                                                                          -Zach

Portal 2

Portal is one of my favorite games of all time. It is one of the few examples I can point to when the topic of a "perfect video game" is brought up. When Portal 2 was announced my expectations weren't extremely high; I didn't think anything could touch the perfection I had seen in the original Portal.

I stand corrected.

Portal 2 is without a doubt, one of the single most impressive accomplishments I have seen come out of any game studio. Valve took the foundation of the original, and expanded it in ways I didn't think could be done. While Portal's writing was pitch perfect for a short 3 hours or so, Portal 2 is consistently funny and entertaining enough to span 10+ hours. The puzzles are ingeniously well done, more-so than any other game in recent memory. The overall quality of Portal 2 is so outrageous, I'll be surprised to see anything this well polished for a long time to come. Portal 2, congratulations on being Game of the Year 2011... at least for now.

Shadows of the Damned

Suda 51. Shinji Mikami. Akira Yamaoka. Three of the brightest minds in the Japanese gaming industry have come together to create a fantastically odd new game. It doesn't take very long to figure out that this game knows what it is, and it proud of it every step of the way. If you are familiar with Suda (No More Heroes, killer7) you'll understand what kind of game this is. For everyone else, I promise that you haven't experienced anything like it before.
The characters and writing are as excellent as ever, and the shooting mechanics will be familiar to Resident Evil 4 fans. While nearly everything about the game is great, it never reaches the highs that I expected from this team of masterminds. A few things just seemed a bit off (like the weapon upgrading system) but nothing really feels broken. I definitely enjoyed this game, and it did a lot of very cool things that I hadn't seen before. I can hope for a sequel to fix a few of my little gripes, but for now we have one of the most unique games of this generation.

Child of Eden

Playing Child of Eden with Kinect your first time through should be a requirement. The pure joy that comes from controlling the delightfully orchestrated chaos that is happening onscreen rivals anything you'll play this year. Using your hands to control this game really does feel like the future, and is the most exciting use of Kinect I have seen so far. This is an excellent game, it feels like you are inside the mind of an artist. The visuals and the sounds all come together to make a wonderful symphony that you are in control of. Child of Eden makes you feel powerful like no other game has done before.

Game of the Year in January?

I just finished Mass Effect 2. If I play any game better than this all year, I'll be very surprised. This game was without a doubt, one of the best games I have ever played. What makes it so great? I loved the original Mass Effect, despite it's flaws. The combat wasn't the greatest, but the character interaction was amazing. Mass Effect 2 fixes nearly everything that was wrong with the first one, and improves upon the best parts. BioWare completely scrapped the combat system of the original, and in its place is a new system that is extremely familiar to anyone who has played Gears of War. The story is fantastic, and the dialogue is some of the best I have ever seen. Every moment of this game is unforgettable, and if you own an Xbox 360 or gaming PC, you must own this game. Mass Effect 2 is undeniably a major improvement over the original in every way imaginable, and has earned its place as one of the greatest games of all time.

Halo 3: ODST

Halo 3: ODST is a very solid addition to Bungie's greatest franchise. The game is split up into two parts; sections where you are a lone rookie ODST, and sections where you are a trained ODST in a squad. The sections that have you playing as the Rookie wandering the streets of a destroyed city are something that I hadn't seen in a Halo game before, and were a nice change of pace to the Halo formula. After every few minutes of wandering the dimly lit streets though, you will trigger an event that forces you to play a typical Halo level as a soldier from a squad of ODSTs. These levels are very fun and feel like nice formulaic Halo levels. Does ODST bring the franchise into completely new territory that we've never seen before? No, not really. Does it do enough to make fans of the brand satisfied? Yes.

Red Faction: Guerrilla

Destroy everything! That's the hook of Red Faction: Guerrilla. You are given an arsenal of weapons, an open world, and a game engine that allows the destuction of anything you can touch. The arsenal you are equipped with by the midpoint of this game leads to some of the most fun I've had all year. Sticky bombs that you can detonate at any time? Check. A rifle that desentigrates anything (or anyone) that you can see? Check. A giant thermobaric rocket launcher capable of destroying half a village with one shot? Check again. Throw in the ability to drive a truck THROUGH A BUILDING in order to rescue the hostages inside, and you have yourself a pretty enjoyable 10-12 hours of gameplay. Sure, the story is forgettable, but remembering that I got to stick bombs to a guy's face is good enough for me.