Another of the 10 best games of 2011 is on a portable system? You're damn right it is.
Ghost Trick is one of the best experiences I had with a game all year long. Like a great book, I couldn't put it down. I plopped over 10 hours into this game in less than a week and it was sooooooooooo good. Probably half of that time was spent reading text, so if that isn't you're kind of game, it may be time to jump ship right now. But for the rest of us...
If you have any affinity to the Phoenix Wright games, you'll know how Ghost Trick creator, Shu Takami, operates. He makes crazy situations for his wonderfully written characters to get into, and always knows what he's doing with his plots. Sure they get pretty silly most of the time, but that's what makes them so fun!
The main idea of Ghost Trick is that, in the opening seconds of the game, you died. You have no idea who you are and no memory of your life. In trying to find these answers, what plays out is one of the best mystery stories told in any game I've played. Ghost Trick is primarily a puzzle game where you solve puzzles to prevent the deaths of others and every puzzle is wrapped around an important event in the story.
I could ramble on about how much I loved this game all day, so please just try it for yourself. You'll get to meet a hyperactive dog named Missile who is one of the best supporting characters of the year, and a investigator who DANCES to and from crime scenes.
He's the greatest dancer of 2011. TRUST ME.
-Zach
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
GotY 2011 - Part 2 - Super Mario 3D Land
I love platformers. The variety in them is pretty crazy when you look at all the different things that can be done from within on genre. Some of my favorite games from 2010 year were platformers, Super Meat Boy, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and of course, Super Mario Galaxy 2. Mario is one of the biggest reasons why I, and lots of other people, have such a fascination with platformers. They did it first, and they're still doing it right today.
This year we have Super Mario 3D Land, another exceptional game by the Galaxy team. The game is perfect for a portable system. The levels are about 2 minutes each so you can pop in for a quick game, but there are so many levels you won't blow through them too quickly. I loved the variety in the level design, its always fun to go to the next level just to see what new ideas this brilliant developer is going to show you next. I've never been a fan of swimming levels in Mario games, and thankfully they keep them to a bare minimum here, probably less than 5 throughout the entire game. Pretty much every level is a pure delightful platforming challenge. And just when you think you're done with it, they throw another 8 hours or so of content on you.
The 3DS is being overlooked by more than a few people, but this is why you need to purchase the system. If you have any love for one of the best series in video games' history, don't overlook this game. It stands up to some of the best games in the franchise.
-Zach
This year we have Super Mario 3D Land, another exceptional game by the Galaxy team. The game is perfect for a portable system. The levels are about 2 minutes each so you can pop in for a quick game, but there are so many levels you won't blow through them too quickly. I loved the variety in the level design, its always fun to go to the next level just to see what new ideas this brilliant developer is going to show you next. I've never been a fan of swimming levels in Mario games, and thankfully they keep them to a bare minimum here, probably less than 5 throughout the entire game. Pretty much every level is a pure delightful platforming challenge. And just when you think you're done with it, they throw another 8 hours or so of content on you.
The 3DS is being overlooked by more than a few people, but this is why you need to purchase the system. If you have any love for one of the best series in video games' history, don't overlook this game. It stands up to some of the best games in the franchise.
-Zach
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
GotY 2011 - Part 1 - Resistance 3
I'll admit, at the beginning of the year I had no intention of playing Resistance 3. I had heard negative things about the first and second game in the series, so I didn't plan on giving this one a second thought.
After picking it up a few months after its release, I was treated to the best first person shooter campaign in years.
This is one of the few games that motivated me enough to finish it in two sittings. I played nearly to the end of the game in my first, then finished the last couple of missions the next morning. Then I immediately started playing it again.
The game never ceases to impress, and the quality of level design and flat-out brilliance behind the whole thing is reminiscent of Half-Life. By which I mean it is really fucking excellent. There is so much variety in enemy design, weapons and abilities you pick up throughout, and the locations you visit, that you really feel the love and care the developers put in to crafting this wonderful experience.
I LOOOOOOVEEEEEEEEEEEE this game. A lot. Really. Please go play it. Now.
-Zach
After picking it up a few months after its release, I was treated to the best first person shooter campaign in years.
This is one of the few games that motivated me enough to finish it in two sittings. I played nearly to the end of the game in my first, then finished the last couple of missions the next morning. Then I immediately started playing it again.
The game never ceases to impress, and the quality of level design and flat-out brilliance behind the whole thing is reminiscent of Half-Life. By which I mean it is really fucking excellent. There is so much variety in enemy design, weapons and abilities you pick up throughout, and the locations you visit, that you really feel the love and care the developers put in to crafting this wonderful experience.
I LOOOOOOVEEEEEEEEEEEE this game. A lot. Really. Please go play it. Now.
-Zach
Monday, January 2, 2012
I am not stalling.
Okay okay okay, maybe a little bit. But I just remembered I did something at the beginning of the year that will be really interesting to look back on right now. Before I played anything this year, I made a 2011 predictions list about what my Game of the Year list would look like by year's end. We can compare this to my actual list when I finish it. Yaaaaaay.
GAAAHHHH. I'm back. I've had this page open for about 20 or 30 minutes now. I just searched through 14 notebooks to find this. 14. I counted them. I looked through most of them twice. So that's almost like I went through 28 notebooks just to find this for you.
JUST FOR YOU.
I'll just leave this here now.
Game of the Year 2011 Predictions:
1. Mass Effect 3
2. Skyrim
3. Dragon Age 2
4. Batman: Arkham City
5. Portal 2
6. Uncharted 3
7. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
8. L.A. Noire
9. Dead Space 2
10. Gears of War 3
It's incredible how much the list has changed since then. About half of these games didn't even make my top 10 by the end of the year, and games that I hadn't thought twice about were far better than the majority of the titles on this old list. (Mass Effect 3 was delayed to 2012, as I had expected coming into the year, but I thought on the off chance it did come out it would be the best game of the year. Now it'll just have to be the best game of 2012. Maybe. Watch out for Bioshock Infinite, buddy.)
-Zach
GAAAHHHH. I'm back. I've had this page open for about 20 or 30 minutes now. I just searched through 14 notebooks to find this. 14. I counted them. I looked through most of them twice. So that's almost like I went through 28 notebooks just to find this for you.
JUST FOR YOU.
I'll just leave this here now.
Game of the Year 2011 Predictions:
1. Mass Effect 3
2. Skyrim
3. Dragon Age 2
4. Batman: Arkham City
5. Portal 2
6. Uncharted 3
7. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
8. L.A. Noire
9. Dead Space 2
10. Gears of War 3
It's incredible how much the list has changed since then. About half of these games didn't even make my top 10 by the end of the year, and games that I hadn't thought twice about were far better than the majority of the titles on this old list. (Mass Effect 3 was delayed to 2012, as I had expected coming into the year, but I thought on the off chance it did come out it would be the best game of the year. Now it'll just have to be the best game of 2012. Maybe. Watch out for Bioshock Infinite, buddy.)
-Zach
Game of the Year 2011 - The Facts
My goal at the beginning of making this list was to make a comprehensive #10, #9...#1, you understand. But one person making a list of 10 favorite games and saying without a doubt "This game is 1 rank below this but 2 above this" is nearly impossible. Trying to justify why one game places one space higher or lower than another is a matter of preference, and even that changes minute to minute. So I've decided to not assign arbitrary numbers to rank each game.
To clarify, the order of appearance does not reflect my enjoyment of each one. It'll read more as a "These are the 10 games that you shouldn't miss this year, and here is why."
Also, contrary to popular belief, I actually haven't played every single video game released this year. If I leave something wonderful off, I may not have played it! Sorry :s
Alright, how about we get to some games?
-Zach
To clarify, the order of appearance does not reflect my enjoyment of each one. It'll read more as a "These are the 10 games that you shouldn't miss this year, and here is why."
Also, contrary to popular belief, I actually haven't played every single video game released this year. If I leave something wonderful off, I may not have played it! Sorry :s
Alright, how about we get to some games?
-Zach
Sunday, January 1, 2012
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
-Zach
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
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.
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.
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