Remember the time Armand K got really wasted and wrote that weird paranoid manifesto about how I’d tried to lock him out of the Bordello because he owed me $7.42? Well, I don’t know if Armand’s fully kicked the habit, but I’m pleased to have him back (and apparently lucid) with another guest entry. He’s been enjoying our Games of 2011 series and thought he’d just go ahead and do one himself. Game on, my …
I’m the last person on the list so far to write one of these, so that means I’m going to tread some ground our other authors have already walked. That’s all right with me, though it does mean there may not be too many surprises on my list.
These are in no particular order, really. As with the other lists, I’m not saying “objectively, these are the best games made in 2011.” These are the games I primarily played in 2011, which define the year for me personally, and which I found most obsessworthy or worthy of conversation. I also decided, so as not to go on forever, to narrow this list down to games actually released in 2011, but I’ll mention other titles below.
When I think back over the last twelve months of my gaming year, the word that instantly springs to my mind is “change”. I began 2011 the same way I’ve started and ended the last fifteen years; as an exclusively console gamer. But mid way through this particular year something changed. I built my own PC. On a personal level this represented a huge undertaking, something I never thought I’d achieve and certainly not successfully, …
Usually I wouldn’t even consider writing one of these lists because my playing throughput is so spectacularly bad that I’m always — and by some margin — behind the curve with releases. The 2011 wave has been a particularly overwhelming one for me with game after game crashing in and yet, somehow, I’ve managed to stay afloat and play enough — merely enough — of them to warrant chiming in.
About a month ago just before the run up to the Eurogamer expo 2011 (which Mat C and myself covered here), Joel Goodwin, a.k.a. Harbour Master of Electron Dance, posted up a discussion the two of us had about our experience with the little miracle that is the Portal 2 co-op campaign entitled Men of Science. Joel without me realising also recorded some of our antics and spliced them together to form a very special …
You know the problem with perfect things? They’re perfect. And the moment something exceeds expectations, everyone expects more. Shadow of the Colossus was – and is – transcendent; “perfect,” even. Except for one thing. And though that one thing wasn’t enough to seriously tarnish the game, after that encounter it was super hard for me to be objective. I found it difficult to forgive or forget a flaw that would have gone unnoticed in any other game. Because Shadow of the Colossus was perfect, imperfections stand out.
There’s something bothering me about Guild Wars 2 and it’s a stumbling block many game developers trip over, and one which is undoubtedly a very expensive problem to rectify…
Via Steam. First with Armand, then with Dobry. Who still owes me a Shogun 2 review.
The third Aperture Investment Opportunity has just launched on the official Portal 2 website. It doesn’t spoil anything. It’s purely for fun. It will make you laugh. Who doesn’t like to laugh? Enjoy! Email the author of this post at lewisb@tap-repeatedly.com
The second Aperture Investment Opportunity launched a couple of days ago on the official Portal 2 website, and boy is it funny. For anyone concerned that it might spoil the game, I assure you that these marketing videos contain no in game footage but are purely for fun, using the duo Atlas and P-Body to great effect. I’m surprised Valve have managed to trump the last, but this one in parcitular did have me smiling from ear to …
I’m surprised one of my fellow writers wasn’t on this like a tramp around chips yesterday and yet in the eyes of the internet, I guess it might now be considered old news being only one day old. Still, I’ve just watched it again for the sheer joy of it and I’m sure there are plenty out there who haven’t seen it yet. Voiced by J.K Simmons of Juno fame (amongst many others), Valve really have nailed the …
I’ve been playing more co-op games recently than I ever have and when you’re playing with the right people they’re the most fun you can have with your clothes on. If you play with your clothes off then that passion could have no boundaries, so be careful. I’ve got two words to sum up my thoughts on this Portal 2 video posted over at RPS this morning: Oh my.
It’s not really that alarming. Actually it’s not alarming at all. It’s just a bunch of pre-E3 news, and an opportunity to use the word “confluence.”
I take back what I said about Steam being evil because it made me buy Alpha Protocol. How can you hate Valve? Those guys crack me up. Big outlets (read: not us) got an announcement today, regretfully informing them that the Portal 2 event at E3 was canceled. But as is always the case with Valve, there’s more to it than that.
Reading PCGamer today, new information about Portal 2 has begun to rear its head from the Valve parapet, with the game now taking place several hundred years after the first. The new changes announced so far include a two-player co-operative mode in addition to the single player, while players can now take advantage of physical effects that “bleed” through portals, such as air from vents or the use of tractor beams through the portals themselves …