John’s Top 10 Games of 2011
There has been some debate on just how good of a year 2011 was for game releases. Opinions have ranged everywhere between the mild to wild for last year. Personally, I lean more to the wild side and say it was a fantastic year for gamers. There seemed to be great games for anyone and everyone including AAA to Indie titles.
For me, I try to look at several different factors when judging games. I usually tend to ask myself four questions:
1) How fun is it?
2) How often do I think about the game when I’m not playing it?
3) Does the game make me want to come back and play it?
4) How innovative is it?
To be honest, selecting the top 5 games wasn’t too hard for me since there were a few games that clearly stood above the others. It was trying to select the other 5 from a large list of worthy titles and selecting just a few. There were so many “must play” games from 2011 that are worth noting. But every time I thought I had my top 10 selected, I’d usually find another game that made me reevaluate my list. Finally, after 8 or 9 revisions, I think I have my Top 10 for 2011.
Game Music Bundle 2 Giveaway
****************UPDATE****************** Congratulations to Bah Crocker, the winner of our Game Music Bundle giveaway! Keep checking here on the website and @EverydayGamers on Twitter for more contests.
So if you have been following either me or @EverydayGamers on twitter, you know about the Game Music Bundle 2. Similar to the Humble Bundles, you can pay what you want for this collection of game soundtracks from some of the hottest Indie games, including Sword & Sworcery, Machinariun and Jamestown, and 25% of the profits goes to charity (find out more at gamemusicbundle.com). If you pay more than $10, you get 9 additional albums, with more being unlocked as more bundles sell. You are also given a chance when you buy it to get a free gift version to give away for a few dollars more.
Well, as I did pay that little extra. I have a link to give away.
Chris’ Top 10 Games of 2011
This was a tough gaming year for me. In 2010, we had an early, no-contest GOTY winner in Mass Effect 2. I am still blown away but hat game, in anticipation of Mass Effect 3. On the other hand, 2011 saw the release of a lot of great games, many of which I was fortunate enough to play; but nothing seemed to be a runaway winner for GOTY. I’m pretty sure I played more games and wrote more reviews in 2011 than I have in previous years, and still nothing seemed to out-muscle the competition completely.
Eric’s Top 10 Games of 2011
2011 was an odd year for gaming. Many will argue it was one of the best if not the best, and while I understand that argument, I disagree. For me, in order to call a year the best in gaming, it has to have good games releasing consistently throughout the year, and 2011 just had too many lulls where there were no good games coming out. The last few moths of the year were chocked full of great games, but because they all released in such a short time period, it took some time to get enough time into the big games for me to determine which ones were my favorite.
Patrick’s Top 10 Games of 2011
This year has been an interesting year. A lot better than I had initially expected it would be. When looking at all the games coming out for the year I wasn’t sure if I’d be buying many of them. Nothing really caught my eye. We had big franchises with their 3rd titles being released as well as a handful of sequels but not too many new IP’s. The year has now passed and I can honestly say it’s been a busy year. I played a lot more games than I had planned and I am happy for it.
Fish Food Ep. #50 – The Games of 2011
We’re officially over the hill! Listen in as Patrick and Jordan discuss every single game they played in 2011. Games covered include Portal 2, Killzone 3, Homefront, Crysis 2, Deus Ex, Dead Island, Brink, Bastion, Skyward Sword, Rayman, and much much more! We also reveal our top 5 games of the year!
EDG Podcast Ep. #138 – The Overrated, the Overlooked, and the Angry Mailman
Listen in as Eric Bouchard, Chris Maeurer, John Danforth, Jay Sims, Kyle Stroud and extra special guest Anthony Alex of the
Angry Mailman Podcast discuss this year’s overrated and overlooked games. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, yes, it is a LONG podcast. Read more
Trine 2 : First Look
Way back in 2009, Frozenbyte unleashed a gem of a puzzle/platformer on PC?Mac and PSN. That game was Trine, a beautiful and brilliant physics puzzler where the player guided a wizard, a thief and a warrior through a myriad of clever puzzles, using there own unique abilities, in a quest to find an heir to the fallen king and save a kingdom. In a couple short weeks, Trine 2 will continue that story, and we had a chance to play around in the beta. Will Trine 2 capture the majesty of the first title, or will it’s success just be a fairy tale?
Dead Island: Post-Mortem
Sure the game is only 2 months old, so it may seem odd to feature it in a post-mortem article. If you haven’t already seen our review, you can link it
here, but I felt compelled to share my own thoughts on the PC version, especially since I’ve been vocal about being disinterested in the game all year. From the moment I saw the trailer, I had a few things enter my mind. First, it was a beautifully crafted trailer, but there is no way the game will a) look that good or b) play that well. Second, who really wants more zombies? Read more
Tell Us How You Really Feel: Battlefield 3-Single Player
Let’s face the honest truth here, who plays games like Battlefield or Call of Duty just for the single player? There are a few out there, whether you don’t have Internet or maybe multiplayer just isn’t your thing. But does that mean we as reviewers should turn a blind eye when the single player is so glaringly bad it makes us want to break the copy of the disc in two because the multiplayer is that good?