This is a ditto of Tim James’ thread from last year. It feels like high time we got to talking about the year in games, and what’s better than making your own silly awards?
Best Use of Anthropomorphic Animals to Disguise a Horrifying Character: Ronotra Koss, Sine Mora. Really? Really Sine Mora? I’m playing a bison who is blackmailing a rape victim with knowledge of her race in a racist society so I can enact my revenge-murder master plan? Damn.
Best Reason to Stare at the Murky Water for Five Minutes Before Jumping In: Crocodiles, Far Cry 3. Fuck those things.
Best Misunderstood Taunt: Chivalry. “Malric is a DUUUUUUUDE!”
Best Game That Is Eligible to Win Game of the Year Two Years in a Row: Dark Souls. PC version!
Best Game to Play When No One Else is In Earshot: Super Hexagon. “Fuck!” “Fuck!” “Shit.” “Sigh…” “Shit!” “GOD! FUCK! FUCK!” “UGHHHHHHHH!”
I was going to start this Monday morning. I stole the thread from forgeforsaken, so that’s okay.
I doubt this crowd needs any rules. But just in case: try to only disagree in the form of another award. That keeps the tangent discussions down a bit. (I’m one of the worst offenders.) And it’s always nice when people explain themselves in list threads.
Stealth game of the year: DayZ. For me, nothing came close to the tense paranoia and fear of being caught that I felt in the early days of the DayZ mod. The downtime between dramatic moments made the atmosphere even more oppressive. I used to feel this way about single-player stealth games. None of the other ones this year had the same effect.
Best NES game: Dark Souls. People say Dark Souls is hard. It’s not. It’s Nintendo hard: cheap platforming deaths, lots of retries from distant checkpoints, and manual dexterity required. I was not mentally prepared. It took me a long time to accept the game for what it was.
Boss fight of the year: Artorias, Dark Souls DLC. It had all the elements: effective theme, well-balanced challenge, the feel of a “duel” and the right pace and breathing space to appreciate the the fight.
Most unique gameplay: (tie) Receiver and Euro Truck Simulator 2. In Receiver, you manipulate handguns with individual key presses for each action. It was a neat experience for an hour and $5. ETS2 was the same way: half the fun was rowing through 10 gears in my H-pattern shifter and messing with the lights. The other half was carefully maneuvering the truck and trailer. Unfortunately, nothing else grabbed me.
Slow Death Award, for the game that gets worse over time: La-Mulana. The first third feels like one of the greatest achievements in indie games. It’s a vast Metroidvania world that’s beautiful to look at and explore. Then the puzzles become stupidly obscure and some of the boss fights are a waste of time. By the end I was following a guide to run across the world and flip the right switches just to finish the game and put me out of my misery. But those early experiences were worth it.
Faded memory of the year: XCOM. I vaguely remember enjoying this game (aside from the interface flaws). I’m a sucker for turn-based combat. But I can’t put my finger on a single moment I cherished. I can’t picture myself replaying it, either. It’s a strange feeling for a game I liked.
Best Action RPG for the VITA Cancelled By Sony This Year That I’m Not Bitter About, Not At All: Warrior’s Lair (also worst title Sony marketing foisted upon a game over the objections of its developer this year)
Best bittersweet rescue from cancellation award: Bayonetta 2 - as a WiiU exclusive.
But will it come to the West? award: Sega, for releasing Yakuza 1, 2 and 5 (now with battle dancing) on PS3 in Japan only, without dropping a hint about Western localization.
Santa Claus Isn’t Real award: Mass Effect 3’s ending, for leaving the impression that all your choices over three games don’t matter one bit.
I’m going to steal award titles for a bit, because I feel some of you neglected the REAL winners! ;-)
Stealth game of the year: Skyrim! Sneaking around in the dwarven dungeons, with max difficulty, armed with a bow and a knife is terrifying - especially if you like me play with ONE savegame to make the whole Skyrim experience more compelling.
Boss fight of the year that everyone needs to try: Dragons Dogma - I spent 40 minutes, literally, fighting one boss, and it was the most epic, fun and thrilling time I spent in a game in years. The greatest thing about this, is that those 40 minutes wasnt spent because I died all the time - No, those 40 minutes were because the fight was awesome and broken up in several areas…Simply brilliant.
Most Disappointing great game of the year: Xcom - I love XCOM of old, and by rights I should probably love this new version of it as well, it was just not that interesting to play after the first 5-8 hours. (Runner up - Assassins Creed 3 - not fun at all)
Most fun MMO of the year, that isnt newr : Lord of the rings online - It doesnt hurt that I have a lifetime subscription but this is one game I always return to and play for a few weeks, and then put away… Great fun, and greatest world ever in an MMO to wander about in.
Shouldn’t that be “2011 game that’s most likely to appear on 2012 year-end award lists: Skyrim”?
Your rules. :)
I forgot one:
Mako 4 Lyfe award: Mass Effect (PS3 version)
These cutscenes are great, but how do they relate to killing zombies? award: The Secret World - the cutscenes are progressively more detached from the gameplay, with an old lady hunkering for the past (mission goal: kill some creatures), two people discussing a chess game (mission goal: kill some creatures) or a ghost expressing its desire to travel (mission goal: kill some creatures).
Best Teamkill: Cpl Otto Hauser shooting a rocket into the nearby wall in XCOM.
Most Evil NPC: That guy that wanted the mithril dancing shoes in Lego Lord of the Rings. You can tell he’s up to no good.
Best Skill Tree Fakeout: Sleeping Dogs. Not since Dead Island has there been such a cruel fakeout of letting gamers spending points to level up a shooting skill and then rarely giving them a gun.
Helvetica Award for Most Visually Pleasing UI: Endless Space
Comic Sans Award for Proving a Great UI Doesn’t Trump Boring Gameplay: Endless Space
Best Use of European Long-Haul Truck Brand Licenses: Euro Truck Simulator 2
Best Game to Come Out of Crowdsource Funding: The will-they-or-won’t-they make their goal tracking game that everyone played with every game on Kickstarter.
Most Half-Assed Garbage Gameplay Added To an Older Game: Mann vs Machine mode in TF2.
Internet Gamer Hero Award: Durante, author of the DSfix file that outdid the developer’s efforts on Dark Souls.
The “I am the terror that lurks in the shadows” award: Mark of the Ninja
Most creative way to deal with intruders and also fires: FTL (vent, vent everything but the medbay!")
Most rapid turnaround from “Wow this game is going really well” to “oh fuck I’m screwed!” FTL. Runner Up X-com ironman mode.
Would you just shut up already? Borderlands 2, a fairly well written funny game that can get way too chatty. Quest dialogue, bandit dialogue, talking gun/shield dialogue, side quest dialogue, Handsome Jack taunts, all stumbling over each other.
Hey wait this multiplayer is actually really good and not just tacked on Mass Effect 3
