Last year's Game of the Year voting was a blowout. This year, not so much. The top ten see-sawed wildly until the very last votes were cast. But from the nearly three hundred games represented in the voting pool, these were your top ten for 2011:
Battlefield 3
In the crowded category of online military shooters, Battlefield 3's chaotic, squad-based gameplay prevailed. The stunningly gorgeous Frostbyte engine certainly didn't hurt, either.
Dragon Age 2
Undoubtedly a controversial choice, Dragon Age 2 appeared in more "most disappointing" notes than any other game. But its intimate storyline, tremendous voice acting, and meaningful romances won over enough players to vault it into the top ten.
Saint's Row the Third
Satirical, vulgar, and downright bizarre, Saint's Row the Third charmed seemingly everyone who played it. It's proportion of #1 votes to total votes cast was impressive and shows that its fans, while fewer in number, were dedicated.
Batman: Arkham City
Larger, burlier, and more riddled with trophies than its predecessor, Batman: Arkham City gave us all a little taste of what it feels like to be the Goddamn Batman.
Dark Souls — Special Award: Console Game of the Year
Brutal, cryptic, and, at times, downright mean, Dark Souls punished its players until they loved it, and then it punished them some more.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings — Special Award: PC Game of the Year
Somewhat unwieldy subtitle aside, The Witcher 2's improved combat system and meaningful choices pleased gamers tired of the usual black and white dichotomies of modern RPGs. Watch for this game to take another crack at the top ten next year when it's released to the grubby, console-playing masses.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
At the beginning of the year, the consensus was clear: if Eidos Montreal screwed up Deus Ex, there would be rioting in the streets. Thankfully, Human Revolution is a worthy prequel to that great gem of PC gaming.
Bastion — Special Award: Indie Game of the Year
While it might be tempting to make this write-up a reference to Bastion's Narrator, the Clock isn't gonna do that. He'll just say that this indie game touched a lotta hearts and meant a lot to a lotta people.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim — Special Award: Best-Loved Game of the Year
Deep, sprawling, and beloved, Skyrim tallied up more #1 votes than any other game this year. Judging by the comments made about this game, more man hours were spent exploring the icy realm of Skyrim than almost anything else this year. And yes, you get to punch a dragon.
Portal 2 — Special Award: Most Loved Game of the Year
Racking up more total votes than any other game, Portal 2 took a few votes here, a few votes there, and climbed its way to the top. I'll avoid the temptation to make this description a string of space jokes, potato jokes, lemon jokes, and GLaDOS-style snark. Instead, I'll ask: is it really any surprise that GWJ loved a Valve-developed game more than anything else?
And now, some special awards, for games that were significant but didn't crack the top ten:
Classic Game of the Year: Batman: Arkham Asylum
For the first time this year, voting was open to any game players finished for the first time this year, rather than just new releases. Two years after its release, Arkham Asylum made a strong showing in the final tally and cemented its place as a game that will be loved for years to come. Hell, even I liked it, and I hate fun.
Mobile Game of the Year: Game Dev Story
Apparently, those of us who aren't game developers liked to pretend that we were with this mobile title, where we waged console wars to scar the heavens and ground into dust rivals we liked to call "B. Kotick."
Handheld Game of the Year: Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
Also a frontrunner for "WTF subtitle" of the year, Tactics Ogre was a beautiful, intricate swansong for the sometimes troubled PSP.
Here are the Official Rules of the 2011 Community GOTY Voting Thread. We'll do this FAQ-style.
- What games are eligible for voting? Anything you played for the first time in 2011. So, your fourteenth trip through Mass Effect 2 (because you really, really wanted to import a blonde renegade FemShep adept into the next one) doesn't get to count, and if you just logged your 1000th hour in Left 4 Dead, then that doesn't get to count, either. But if this was the first year you cracked open a classic like System Shock 2 or Silent Hill 4, go ahead and stick it in your list if you loved it enough. Voting this year is open to any game on any platform from any year.
- What if I didn't finish it yet? If you haven't finished a game but feel like you've played enough to know that you really love it no matter what happens in the end, go ahead and list it. Let's face it: some games are really stinking long, and you might not have been able to finish them yet but still know they're excellent.
- Why are we doing it this way? Because we're old. This is a site packed to the brim with mature, adult gamers with jobs, family obligations, hobbies, and other things that take up our time. This is also a site packed to the brim with people who can't afford the new hotness as soon as it's released. We've all got piles, and we all play through them, but we don't often get a chance to say that we really love something even if it's old. (We could tell tboon that, I suppose. Love you, tboon!)
- What if the top game ends up being from 2007 or something? It won't.
- So how are votes counted? Games in the top spot on a list are get ten votes, second place gets nine, et cetera, et cetera, with tenth place getting a single vote. Out of format lists (i.e., lists that aren't ranked and/or lists that go over ten) will get one vote for the first ten games mentioned.
- Can I list a game multiple times so that it gets more votes? No. That's cheating.
- When does voting open? When does it close? Voting is open as of right now, so go post your list! Voting will close at midnight-ish on the 31st of December. That'll give people time to wrap up some of those late November games and also to sample whatever they might find under the Christmas tree.
- Are you going to do anything really neat and special with the results? I'm so glad you asked, because yes! Aside from the community's top ten list and the traditional top games for each platform, the results will be sifted through for some other results like:
- Best Rereleases - This was a year ripe with HD rereleases and enhanced ports designed to get more of your money. They'll get some love in this separate list.
- Best Classic Game - This is the top vote-getter among games released before 2011.
- Most Loved Game of the Year - This is the game that gets the most unranked votes.
- Hidden Gems - This will be a selection of new games that get a lot of enthusiastic love from a very small number of voters. If a title were to get, say, two number one votes but not appear on any other lists, this is where it would show up.
- And more! If I think of something! Or if you think of something! Or something!
- Wasn't this supposed to start on the 15th? It's only the 14th! Yes, but work is going to be very busy tomorrow.
Now get voting!
Would you guys mind numbering your lists, if they're in order? It will help me with the bookkeeping.
Would you guys mind numbering your lists, if they're in order? It will help me with the bookkeeping.
I'd say it's safe to assume order = rank, if not then put your foot down now and assume it anyway. I tried to put them in order, but only vaguely as I'm not getting into "Is portal a better puzzler than TW2 is an RPG?" or assigning points to things.
Another hint for those with bad memories (on PC): Go into steam's library, list view, add a column (the +, top right) for 'last played', and sort by last played. You see what you played this year.
1. Bastion
2. Portal 2
3. LitleBigPlanet 2
4. Jetpack Joyride
5. Amnesia: The Dark Decent
6. LIMBO
...and I haven't played any other games. Stupid college.
1. Saints Row the Third
2. Deus Ex: HR
3. Gears of War 3
4. Bastion
5. Portal 2
6. Battlefield 3
7. Bulletstorm
8. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
9. Crysis 2
10. Alpha Protocol
- Saints Row The Third (360)
- Dragon Age 2 (360)
- ilomilo (XBLA)
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution (360)
- Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (360)
- Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS)
- Mega Mall Story (iOS)
- Portal 2 (360)
- Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (XBLA)
Notable exceptions: I haven't played the campaign for Gears of War 3 yet, just lots of multiplayer.
ClockworkHouse wrote:Would you guys mind numbering your lists, if they're in order? It will help me with the bookkeeping.
I'd say it's safe to assume order = rank, if not then put your foot down now and assume it anyway. I tried to put them in order, but only vaguely as I'm not getting into "Is portal a better puzzler than TW2 is an RPG?" or assigning points to things.
Another hint for those with bad memories (on PC): Go into steam's library, list view, add a column (the +, top right) for 'last played', and sort by last played. You see what you played this year.
I think friend Clock wants them numbered because it will help him tally the votes. Help him out, he's doing this out of the goodness (shocking, I know!) of his heart.
Here's my list, in order of awesomeness. The fact that DA2--which I loved--comes in fifth place is just indicative of what a great year this has been in videogames. I never got around to playing some of the major releases, either (MW3, Gears 3, Forza 4). I did play Ico and Shadow of the Colossus for the first time when the HD remake came out this year, so I'm including those as a single item.
1) The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
2) Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (aaaaalmost a tie for #1 spot)
3) Portal 2
4) Uncharted 3
5) Dragon Age 2
6) Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
7) Deus Ex Human Revolution
8) Batman Arkham City
9) Two Worlds 2
10) Ico/Shadow of the Colossus collection
I think friend Clock wants them numbered because it will help him tally the votes. Help him out, he's doing this out of the goodness (shocking, I know!) of his heart.
*sigh* Fine.
1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
2. Skyrim
3. Battlefield 3That's all that I've played enough to be able to put on a list like this.
Is that including games released before 2011? Those are eligible, too.
Nightmare wrote:I think friend Clock wants them numbered because it will help him tally the votes. Help him out, he's doing this out of the goodness (shocking, I know!) of his heart.
*sigh* Fine.
Thank you.
Nightmare wrote:I think friend Clock wants them numbered because it will help him tally the votes. Help him out, he's doing this out of the goodness (shocking, I know!) of his heart.
*sigh* Fine.
I'm sure Clocky appreciates it. 
Edit: oops the man himself Tannhauser'd me!
liquid wrote:1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
2. Skyrim
3. Battlefield 3That's all that I've played enough to be able to put on a list like this.
Is that including games released before 2011? Those are eligible, too.
Yeah. I played some but they are either not worth it or I've played them before and only this year I've dug deeper into (LoL). It's been mostly StarCraft 2 unfortunately. Even though I hate the game, everything else seems a bit duller than it would have been.
I may revise the list once the steam holiday is on, been on the lookout for dirt cheap portal 2 and dead space two.
Oh shit, I forgot. Mafia 2. Will add in the previous post.
1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
2. Skyrim
3. Battlefield 3
4. Mafia 2
That's all that I've played enough to be able to put on a list like this.
1. Frozen Synapse
2. League of Legends
3. Back to the Future
4. Battlefield: Bad Company 2
5. Bit Trip Runner
6. Dragon Age Origins (yes, the first one)
7. Sanctum
8. Deus Ex (yes, the original)
9. Borderlands (got it in June)
I am REALLY behind on my gaming... Maybe I should add this since it's my current obsession...
10. Webstorm 2.0 (a Javascript dev environment)
1 The Binding of Isaac - Still can't believe that I spent 125+ hours on this simple flash game.
2 LIMBO
3 Bastion
4 Dead Space 2
5 GTA Episodes from Liberty City
6 Skyrim
7 Tiny Wings
Also, a pox on you for making me remember what I played this year.
I may edit this later, but this is pretty accurate.
1. Dead Island - I haven't finished the game yet, but this one totally took me by surprise with its fun co-op.
2. Dead Space 2 - this is my favorite franchise, and a very worthy successor.
3. Iron Brigade (formerly Trenched) - just a delight, and I highly recommend.
4. Bulletstorm - Totally under-rated game. Very fun and I highly recommend.
5. Ghostbusters - This game was just magic for me. I grew up loving the movies, and this was voiced/written by the original actors. It was a bit janky, but still super-duper-shmooper fun.
6. Shadows of the Damned - Play this. It is obscenely delightful.
7. Portal 2 - This doesn't require explanation.
8. Rage - I looked forward to this for so long, and while it was very fun to play and beautiful - its lack of a story really knocked it down for me.
9. Bioshock 2 - What a surprise! I liked(not loved) the first, so I only played this because clocky was actually praising it(and it was very cheap). Biggest surprise of the year.
10. LA Noire - A really interesting game, but ultimately less than the sum of its parts. They tried to do too much, and ended up wasting a lot of resources. Too bad about the drama surrounding its creation, as I think a sequel would have been really amazing.
Honorable mentions -
Dragon Age 2
Rocksmith
Batman:AC
Gears 3
1. Saints Row: The Third
2. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
3. Starcraft 2
4. Gears of War 3
5. Batman: Arkham City
6. Dead Space 2
7. Crysis 2
8. Dragon Age 2
9. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
10. Forza 4
Looking back, my list is top-heavy. 1 through 5 were pretty amazing and could be in a lot of different orders, and then there's a serious drop-off to 6 through 10 (which could also probably be in many different orders).
1. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2. Forza 4
3. Mortal Kombat
4. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
5. Crysis 2
6. Gear of War 3
7. Stacking
8. You Don't Know Jack
9. Jetpack Joyride (iOS)
10. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (iOS)
1) Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360)
2) Forza 4 (360)
3) Batman: Arkham City (360)
4) Deus Ex: Human Revolution (360)
5) Dragon Age 2 (360)
6) Portal 2 (360)
7) LA Noire (360)
8) Uncharted 2 (PS3)
9) Lego Star Wars III (360)
10) Lego Pirates of the Caribbean (360)
Skyrim is a runaway winner for me, but 2-7 are probably all on about the same level.
8. You Don't Know Jack
I know it doesn't have a chance in hell making the final cut, but damn I loved this game.
1) Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360)
Skyrim is a runaway winner for me.
Same. What a juggernaut.
1) Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC)
2) Dark Souls (360)
3) Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together (PSP)
4) The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (PSP)
5) Minecraft (PC)
6) Battlefield 3 (PC)
7) Dragon Age 2 (PC)
8) Forza 4 (360)
9) Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 (DS)
10) Gears of War 3 (360)
Honorable Mention: I will leave off my voting for Xenoblade and Zelda Skyward Sword until next year, because the former isn't even out in the US yet (and I've only scratched its surface) and I haven't even started the latter yet. Too much Skyrim! 
1) Batman: Arkham City (I played through Asylum for the first time this year but actually prefer City)
2) Mass Effect 2
3) The Binding of Isaac
4) Shadows of the Damned
5) Game Dev Story
6) Bastion
7) Braid
8) Atom Zombie Smasher
9) Jamestown
10) Portal 2
I've included Portal 2 for the writing and the early/end levels. I thought the middle of the game was frustrating and just not fun as it mainly involved me trying to spot the one surface I could open a portal on rather than feeling as though I was solving a puzzle.
1) Rocksmith
2) Portal 2
3) umm... TF2?
Didn't play much this year I guess, but those were awesome.
1. Portal 2
2. Batman: AC
3. Limbo
4. AC: Revelations
5. LBP2
You missed an eight, Jeff.
1. Skyrim (PC)
2. Battlefield 3 (PC)
3. Portal 2 (PC)
4. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC)
5. Warhammer 40k – Space Marine (PC)
6. Assassin’s Creed – Brotherhood (PC)
7. Witcher 2 (PC)
8. Orcs Must Die! (PC)
9. Batman Arkham City (PC)
10. Frozen Synapse (PC)
You missed an eight, Jeff.
doh. thanks. I was making some edits, and flubbed it. I'll fix it.
Btw, I wanted to say that this might just be the best GOTY system I've yet seen. Excellent job on the rules and getting it set up. This style is far more conducive to this community, IMO, than a straight '2011 only' vote.
1 - 5 Dark Souls
6 Rocksmith (Does this count as a game?)
7 Catherine
8 Saints Row The Third
9 Portal 2
10 Shadows of the Damned
1 - 5 Dark Souls
6 Rocksmith (Does this count as a game?)
7 Catherine
8 Saints Row The Third
9 Portal 2
10 Shadows of the Damned
[*]Can I list a game multiple times so that it gets more votes? No. That's cheating.
Want to flesh that out into a top ten, or is that final as a top five?
Btw, I wanted to say that this might just be the best GOTY system I've yet seen. Excellent job on the rules and getting it set up. This style is far more conducive to this community, IMO, than a straight '2011 only' vote.
Thanks. I hope that some fun results come out of it.
I think these are the only "new" games I played this year
Good news! You can vote for any game that you played for the first time this year, whether it was released in 2011 or not. Did you play any games from your backlog that would change up that Top 7?
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