With huge AAA titles like Elder Scrolls 5, Uncharted 3, and Modern Warfare 3 all arriving sometime in the fall, it seems like many gamers spend much of the year looking forward to the big titles of the holiday season. By comparison, the summer can seem an unbearably barren wasteland.
With these huge titles on the ever-distant horizon it’s easy to overlook the gems we’ve already seen this year. Here’s my Top Five Games of 2011 up to date. If you’ve missed any of these, it’s worth checking them out.
5) Marvel vs. Capcom 3
After years in the making, the sequel to fan favorite Marvel vs. Capcom 2 did not disappoint.
With amazing graphics and the typical (although smaller than usual) quirky cast of characters, the third game in the acclaimed series offered plenty of reasons to bust out the old combos.
Now, if only Capcom would have put in the features and characters they are throwing in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 the first time around.
4) Dragon Age 2However you feel about Dragon Age 2, you can’t say Bioware was afraid to experiment. The first Dragon Age won fans for its grand scope and its throwback gameplay.
The second Dragon Age made an about-face in the opposite direction, offering a sleeker combat and dialogue system as well as a story focused less on saving the world and more on political intrigue. While some fans of the first game were put off by the changes many, myself included, enjoyed them immensely.
3) Little Big Planet 2
The first Little Big Planet charmed it’s way into our hearts. It was a hard act for its sequel to follow.
Luckily, the sequel passed with flying colors. Adding fun little cutscenes to go with expanded and simplified creation toolset, Little Big Planet 2 was a blast. Fans of the game have pushed these creation tools to unprecedented levels, creating levels as diverse as Final Fantasy remakes and first person shooters.
2) Killzone 3
Killzone 2 suffered from an overabundance of hype. Although it handled its burden fairly well, certainly better than the original Killzone did, Killzone 2 left many gamers wishing for a little more. Perhaps out of caution, Killzone 3‘s release was surprisingly low key compared to its predecessors, and seemed much better because of it.
Killzone 3 was a very polished shooter with fun weapons and some really great action sequences. Even Rico was tolerable in this one! Kind of.
Well, he had a beard at least. That’s something.
1) inFamous 2inFamous surprised many gamers. Combining nuanced sandbox gameplay and a solid, if sometimes controversial moral choice system, it won many fans and scored stellar reviews.The sequel improved on the first in every way possible.
Sucker Punch were happy to show that they’d been paying attention to their critics with inFamous 2. Everything about the sequel seemed an improvement over the first game – better voice acting, better presentation, cleaner action, and bigger villains. The much better cinematics and stellar ending blew me away.
A fantastic game from start to finish, and my pick for the best game of 2011 so far.
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