Game of the Year 2011 Part 2: A WINNER IS YOU

Careful consideration has led me to this and every one of these games is a complete and utter blinder. There's a couple of sleeper hits in there too, like I said I root for the underdog, and for once there isn't anything in the list that can honestly be called shit, no Rogue Warriors or Dead to Rightses that limp up on three legs, cough up a hairball at my feet and give me the puppy eyes and make me declare my undying love for them. But I digress. Onwards.

10: Dead Island - Techland - PS3 (360, PC)

Dead Island is a game I've not spent much time with so far, but it's already left a huge impression on me. It's like a happy half way point between Fallout 3 and Borderlands, with obvious influence from Valve's Left4Dead too. Set on the fictional resort island of Banoi, the game tells the story of four survivors of a Zombie apocalypse who find themselves immune to the virus. There's tons of weapons, from the makeshift such as wrenches, claw hammers and baseball bats, to military grade guns and explosives, to the downright bizarre (a morning star? on the beach?), and both shuffling Romero Zombies and savage, sprinting 28 Days Later ones, plus the more mutated Thugs, Butchers, Suiciders and the like, so every fan of the genre is catered for. The game was at number 7, but the repetitivity of the quests had me re-think. Still, the general quality of Dead Island surprised me.

9: Bulletstorm - People Can Fly - 360 (PS3, PC)

Another pleasant surprise, Bulletstorm is doubtlessly the best FPS I've played all year. Following the exploits of space-pirate Grayson Hunt (voiced by the great Steve Blum, who is in every game you own) and his crew of mercenaries striving to bring down the evil mega-army they once worked for. The main draw for the game is the variety in player-dealt mortality, with a huge array of weapons and environmental hazards at your beck and call, backed up by an energy whip, used to move your enemies around the battlefield, and your own trusty right foot. And on top of this, there's quite an emotive story being told of betrayal and redemption, and some of the most imaginative swearing I've ever heard. The only thing missing is a co-op mode, as you are rarely alone in the main campaign, bit of a missed opportunity there.

8: ICO/Shadow of the Colossus Collection - Team ICO - PS3

I know, I said I couldn't place SSFIV3D any higher because it's a re-release, but the fact that both of these games are outstanding pieces of code that a lot of people missed the first time around means it would be criminal to ignore it. Both games are unlike anything else prior to or since their original release, and have influenced everything from Resident Evil 4 to Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and still look beautiful after all these years, especially with the 1080p shine and updated textures. Whether you're holding hands with girls or stoving the shit out of a 60ft tall cow-thing, this collection is worth every penny.

7: Gears of War 3 - Epic Games - 360

As with Call of Duty, Gears of War is a series I've never been able to enjoy to it's potential due to my distaste of online multiplayer, but unlike CoD, Gears has a more interesting plot and a sci-fi setting to draw me further in. Gears 3 then, is the climax of the trilogy, and ramps everything up a notch to deliver a great experience from start to finish. The visuals are unparallelled on the XBox 360, and for a game about grunting shaved gorillas causing mass-genocide, the story is surprisingly engaging too, at least by the third iteration. The new characters, badass scavenger weaponry, amazing visuals and a tale of human triumph in adversity is great and all, but the deal is sealed with a playable Cole Train chapter, which is what I've craved since the beginning.

6: Mario Kart 7 - Nintendo - 3DS

Probably the first time a DS game has ever made it into my top 10, which is testament to the quality of the 3DS as a gaming machine more than anything. Mario Kart 7 is the perfect casual multiplayer game on-the-go, and deserves this spot just for the amount of monotonous dinner hours at work that it's consumed, sometimes with four of us hunched around a table battling for the gold. Away from work, the unlocking of characters and car parts has whipped me into a collector fanboy frenzy, and I've even been known to even take the race online, which is something of a rarity for me.

5: Shadows of the Damned - Grasshopper Manufacture - 360 (PS3)

Another surprise for me, SotD is basically a retelling of the story of Dante's Inferno, where a man must travel alone to the depths of hell to retrieve his lost love from the clutches of the devil. Developed in tandem by Suda 51, of No More Heroes and Killer 7, and Shinji Mikami, known for Resident Evil and Devil May Cry, among others. SotD plays like a cross between RE and DMC, but has the distinctive sexual themes and toilet humour of Suda 51's games, and with Akira Yamaoka (the genius composer of the Silent Hill soundtracks) providing the music, and Steve Blum once again headlining the cast, everything comes together to form something very special. And how can you pass up the opportunity to play as a character who's actual name is Garcia Fucking Hotspur?

4: Batman: Arkham City - Rocksteady - PS3 (360, PC)

As with Arkham Asylum before it, Arkham City would have been higher on the board if it was released any other year, but there have been so many triple A releases in 2011 that it will have to stew here. Playing largely like Asylum, City just cranks everything up to eleven, with bigger environments, more gadgets and a more epic story that puts everything at risk. The Catwoman chapters add a nice bit of variety too, and the sped up Assassin's Creed combat seems to flow a lot more evenly now, although the questionable knockout animations are still there. But the main draw, apart from the great fanservice (fan-favourite characters such as Hush, Azrael and Rhas al Ghul make appearances), is the amazing storytelling - Paul Dini is the best there is at what he does, and the twists and turns are everywhere and often completely unexpected. Dini also proves he has huge bollocks by how the game ends, a very bold move sir...

3: Mortal Kombat - Netherealm Studios - PS3 (360)

2011 saw a huge return to form for the Mortal Kombat franchise, that once rivalled Street Fighter for genre dominance. As a lifelong fan on the series, any MK game is likely to feature in my top ten, but even if I remained neutral, MK9 is still among the best fighting games I've ever played. Retelling the story of MK1-3 through the eyes of an enlightened Raiden who attempts to alter the course of history after receiving visions of good's eventual defeat at the hands of the diabolical emperor Shao Kahn, MK9 sees the return of a 2D plane of battle, and also to the OTT violence and gore that was toned down to meet a T/15 rating for the previous game in the series, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, much to the annoyance of the fanbase. There are boat loads of playable characters, including guests such as God of War's Kratos and A Nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy Kruger, a deep and well-made story mode with some ballsy plot twists, buckets of unlockable content and some great extra single player and online modes to keep you occupied. Any fan of the genre would be mad to miss this.

2: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - Naughty Dog - PS3

A high point in the series, for me at any rate. While the aiming was decidedly clunky, there was a return to the level of exploration and platforming that first made me fall for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, which I felt to be lacking in the sequel, and the melee combat has been cranked up a notch making it very enjoyable and satisfying, similar to that of Arkham City. Add to this some of the most dramatic set pieces known to man, all delivered with the ad-libbed voice/physical acting the series is famed for and a visual quality unrivalled on a home console and you're onto a winner. Probably the best exclusive on the PS3, any other year it'd have been number one easily, but not every year sees the release of a new Elder Scrolls...

1: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Bethesda - 360 (PS3, PC, Mac)

I missed my opportunity to write about this game while it was still new (it's funny, I was strangely busy for the few weeks after Skyrim's release. What was I doing again? Oh yeah, Skyrim.), but anyone who's read any of my blogs for any length of time will know of my love for Oblivion and Fallout 3, and Skyrim is the best of both worlds. To be honest, even if I had written a Skyrim post, I don't even know where I would begin, and I certainly don't know where I would stop. I'd probably go on about how the game is absolutely stunning visually, how great the custom class levelling system is, how awesome it is to bring down a dragon, how it's bloodier combat is so much more satisfying, how varied the map is, how fun the smithing is... I could literally go on forever, which is ironic, because with the infinite quest system so can Skyrim. No game is perfect, but fuck me, Skyrim comes very close. I want that quoted on the box for the inevitable Game of the Year Edition.

Predictions for next year? Well I'm personally very excited for Resident Evils Revelations and 6 respectively, Mass Effect 3, Silent Hill: Downpour, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Street Fighter X Tekken, Tekken X Street Fighter, Title Fight (if it indeed exists), Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Lollipop Chainsaw, and that's ten just off the top of my head. Hopefully this year will be as good as the last one.

Game of the Year 2011 Part 1: The Runners Up

I'd almost given up on blogging recently. For some reason I had a completely unfounded lack of interest, which I pretty much can only attribute to lethargy, as I seem to spend most of my nights sat trawling various Cheezburger websites trying to fend off the will to eat my own face out of boredom, when such monotony could easily be avoided if I just put metaphorical pen to metaphorical paper and write something. So I am.

Traditionally my GOTY posts have come mid January, so I can hoover up the last possible contenders for the throne that I've missed over the year, but this time a few games that I have wanted to play have slipped through the net, some that I own but haven't had time to play yet (Rage, Splinter Cell Collection, Resistance 3, LittleBigPlanet 2, The Sims Medieval), and some that I've had my eye on but haven't had the cash to lay down (The Conduit 2, Halo: Anniversary, The Adventures of Tintin, X-Men: Destiny and BloodRayne, and I know there are some questionable titles there but I love an underdog). I doubt any of these games would have worried the top 10 though, LBP2 probably deserves to but with the time and effort I'm willing to put into it, I'll never see it to it's full potential. Onwards then, to the runners up.

29: Two Worlds II - Reality Pump - PS3 (360, PC)
Rumoured to be great, ended up a damp squib. An improvement over the first, but still borderline unplayable.

28: Hunted: The Demon's Forge - InXile Entertainment - PS3 (360, PC)
Attempts to fuse God and Gears, but fails to capture the strengths of either. Alright, not great.

27: LA Noire - Team Bondi - PS3 (360, PC)
This game had such huge ambitions, but failed to live up to them. The story is a shambles too. Technically incredible though, I'll give it that.

26: Killzone 3 - Guerrilla Games - PS3
What went wrong? after the awesome Killzone 2, this 4 hour long apology of a game failed to impress, with it's lacklustre set pieces and awkward attempts at humour. Good Collector's Edition though, admittedly.

25: Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition - Capcom - 3DS
As good as SFIV still is, it's not really any different to what we've been playing for the last two years, so I can't place this any higher.

24: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Relic Entertainment - PS3 (360, PC)
A better job at what Hunted tried to do, but the ridiculous method of self-healing and annoyance of the cockney Orks' repeated dialogue (Kill the Spice Moreens!) are a recipe for many a rage-quit.

23: Red Faction: Armageddon - Volition - PS3 (360, PC)
It saddens me to see the end of a series I've loved since it's beginning, and further so that it didn't go out with the bang it deserved. RF:A is alright, but just alright. The series didn't really need aliens to be fair.

22: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Sledgehammer Games - 360 (PS3, Wii, PC)
For someone such as myself, with no interest in the affairs of the military or online gaming, there is a limit to what I can get out of CoD. It was entertaining, with great set pieces and graphics, but forgettable and short.

21: Spider-Man: Edge of Time - Beenox - PS3 (360, Wii, 3DS, DS)
Fun but unimaginative, the game is mainly sticking to what it knows. Steeped in geekery and with some great storytelling, it somehow lacks the level of appeal that Shattered Dimensions had.

20: Dead Space 2 - Visceral Games - PS3 (360, PC)
Dead Space 2 is a solid game, and would probably score higher on a lot of lists. I just felt that it lacked the polish of the first one though, there wasn't the same sense of dread, and in giving Isaac a voice they exposed him as a bit of a whiney twat.

19: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D - Nintendo - 3DS
A timeless classic, but the 3D effects, motion controls and polished graphics can't hide the 'been there, done that' feeling.

18: Alice: Madness Returns - Spicy Horse - PS3 (360, PC, iOS)
Dark and thrilling, this game was a joy to play, and at times a bit disturbing. Think God of War with a dash of Silent Hill, and a good helping of Tim Burton and you're half way there. It's absolutely beautiful too.

17: Assassin's Creed: Revelations - Ubisoft Montreal - PS3 (360, PC)
A bit of a disappointment, but after Brotherhood I expected it to be. While there's no denying the fun to be had with the AC engine, the games are getting shorter and the story more shoehorned in. Here's hoping AC3 will return to what made AC2 amazing.

16: Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Eidos Montreal - PS3 (360, PC, Mac)
Great fun but a little too retro. Reminiscence of the first Metal Gear Solid and a lot of freedom in how things are done had me glued to the game, but stupid boss fights and outdated gameplay prevented me from loving it.

15: Marvel vs. Capcom 3 - Capcom - PS3 (360)
Another great fighter from Capcom, I mean if these guys don't know it, nobody does. What let it down for me though was the dubious choice of characters. Not really the fan service I wanted, although Deadpool was a delight.

14: Dragon Age II - BioWare - PS3 (360, PC)
Although the gameplay was significantly improved along with the visuals, the signature EA dumbing down and an overall lack of story, not to mention re-used environments and continuity fails, keep this from the top 10. Very enjoyable, but lacking compared to the excellent original.

13: Pokemon Black/White - Game Freak - DS
Pokemon is what a Nintendo handheld is made for. It may have gotten a little out of hand now, with upwards of 600 of the little blighters to catch, but the magic of schoolyard collect-and-swap gameplay is still as present as ever, and the graphics have received a welcome overhaul. Easily the best DS title out there.

12: Duke Nukem Forever - Gearbox Software - 360 (PS3, PC, Mac)
What? My house, my list. You don't like it? Fuck off then! DNF, while not a technical wonder that pushes the limits of gameplay and visuals to unobtainable highs, makes this list simply for it's fun factor and nostalgia, taking me back to being a kid again, sneaking a go on Duke Nukem 3D to catch a glimpse of those pixelated boobs and hear those oh-so taboo naughty words. I just don't think the world was ready for you to return, Duke, despite being 14 years coming.

11: The Legend of Zelda: The Skyward Sword - Nintendo - Wii
I wanted this to be in the top ten, because it genuinely is a great game. It's gorgeous, has the best use of motion controls I've seen and it isn't afraid to try something new, a rarity among first party Nintendo games. But the amount of 'collect all the x before y happens' bits, and repeated boss fights, there's no excuse Nintendo, and where you had a great 35-hour game, you could have had an unforgettable 15-hour one. Still, this is probably the best Zelda to date, one of the best Wii games for that matter.

So I aim to post the top 10 within the next couple of days, stay tuned!

Never been Appier

So, the initial attempt at a non-gaming post then.

So after gaming then, my main passion in life is probably music, and as such I'm rarely seen out and about without my headphones (Coloud, Marvel licenced 'The Punisher' headphones, natch) permanently throned upon my colossal dome. For the last few years I've been enjoying the company of an old Sony Walkman something-or-other, with a 16gb capacity and trusty physical, actual buttons for navigating the interface, but as the headphone jack socket started to give out, I decided to upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy Player 50, pictured atop this very page beneath the title.

The Galaxy Player 50 is essentially to the Samsung Galaxy smartphone what the iPod Touch is to the iPhone, all the bells and whistles without the obligation to attempt a social life. As does it's parent, the Player runs on the Android OS, albeit a very basic version of it, can connect to the Internet via Wifi, and it's 16gb memory is easily expandable with a microSD card. I have equipped it with a 32gb card, bolstering the overall memory to 48gb. But that's not what this is about, no.

My point is that the old player had a little above 1800 tracks on it, all hand picked favourites from my own CD collection, and as absurd as it sounds, such a small amount of songs had gotten a little boring and predictable, so I decided to make use of my new-found capacity by loading full albums onto it, along with a whole bunch of new music, and before I knew it my play list had hit the 9000 song mark, and the Galaxy Player's built in music player had become sluggish under all that weight. When I attempted to search for a particular album or artist, the thing just died on me. So I decided to check the Android Marketplace for a solution, and came across an App called PowerAMP.

The app acts as a secondary music player, and is just what I needed. It not only has a more user-friendly interface than the built in player, but it's also a lot faster and more responsive. The website boasts that the app can scan 1000 tracks a second when you search a folder, and even on such a basic version of Android it was right on the ball when timed. Not only that you can filter by album, artist, title, genre, whatever at ease, and add tracks to the now-playing list instantly.

But wait, there's more. Swiping the displayed album art skips the track back or forth, which is surprisingly a lot easier than pressing the skip button on the touch screen. Not got the album art? Sorted. PowerAMP will download it for you as you listen, and can be set to only do this over Wifi so as not to ramp up those pesky data charges for Android smartphone users. It will also pause and resume a track when the headphone jack is removed/inserted, so you don't miss a second of the music, handy for lengthy podcasts and such. And the app comes with four slick visual themes to suit your mood, each in turn cooler than the default Galaxy music player.

For any Android device used as a music player, I'd call this app essential. I love it and I've only had it a few days. There's a 15 day free trial and then it's $4.99 to buy, a bit over £3 in real money, so it's great value for money too. Check it out at the official website here.

Holy Unboxing, Batman!

Alright, it took a bit longer than 24 hours but anyone who's played the game will understand that my free time has been somewhat occupied since the game's release. Anyway, after the crushing disappointment of Arkham Asylum's Batarang and the fairly poorly presented UK Mortal Kombat Kollector's Edition, WB have delivered a belter here. I'll start with a 360° shot of the box.

 

Note the last shot of one of the side panels, the contents sheet can be removed to reveal another panel underneath featuring the same artwork on a plain white background, much like the opposite side with The Joker.

When the plastic sleeve is removed the four outer panels fold down to reveal the Kotobukiya-produced statue (Kotobukiya make all of the DC Direct collectible statues commercially available, which are often priced upwards of £100). The statue is really we presented, and it feels sturdy and well made. It's probably on a par with the Assassin's Creed II White Edition's statue. Also need to point out (I found out after I finished with the photos) that on the back of the standing panel, behind the back fold-down panel, is another piece of black and white artwork, this time depicting The Riddler.

The base of the box has a drawer in it that conceals the animated movie Gotham Knight on BluRay in a plastic sleeve. I haven't actually watched this yet on BD, but I've owned the film on DVD since it's release, and it's quite a good watch. Story wise it fits between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and it is comprised of six short movies written by different authors and drawn by different artists in a similar manner to The Animatrix, and all feature the legendary Kevin Conroy as the voice of Batman, just as the game does. Not sure if the film is still on BD for the XBox360 CE, presumably it's just a standard DVD as you can't assume that all 360 users have access to BD as you can with PS3 users.

The standing panel houses the artbook, pictured above (more on that in a second) and various leaflets which are (pictured row by row, left to right) the health and safety leaflet for the statue (no joke, it even shows you where the sharp points are on the ears and gauntlets, as if you can't work that out for yourself), A download voucher for the 'Music inspired by' album (featuring original music from bands such as Coheed and Cambria and Panic! at the Disco, which I have yet to listen to but I will at some point), The Frank Miller inspired Dark Knight Returns costume DLC code for use in the game's Challenge Rooms, The Iceberg Lounge Challenge Rooms DLC code, The game's instruction manual, the Catwoman DLC code (which adds her as a playable character in the challenge rooms, and also adds four Catwoman chapters to the main campaign), And finally a code to get access to the closed beta of Gotham City Imposters, which looks shite, and some B:AC themed content for the game once it's released. I'll more than likely not use that, so if anyone wants the code give me a shout. I think it's format of your choice, because you redeem it on the game's website.

A couple of shots of inside the art book, good quality print and all. Had a flick through and then put it back in the box where it shall live on for all eternity, as with every other art book I own. I purposefully chose a page with The Joker's arse on it though.

This is my only bugbear with the set, the Asylum CE had the game in a cardboard sleeve which was the size of a standard DVD case, which stood out a clear centimetre or so above the rest of the PS3 games on my shelf. The City CE just houses the game inside the art book. Is it so hard just to include the case?

Finally a close-up shot of the statue, next to two DC Direct figures as a size comparison. Also unintentionally pictured is the Sacred 2: Fallen Angel Collector's Edition 'Statue', further showcasing what a failure that was in comparison. This is now where the statue remains, rightfully in front of the Asylum Batarang that so let me down two years ago.

...Continue?

Hey.

Assuming you don't know who I am (and it's pretty safe to assume so in all honesty), My name is Pete. As far as blogging goes, I'm the ex author of the relatively popular 24 Hour Gamer UK, the ill-fated Gaming Overtime and The AC, and the complete non-starter 24 Hour Vision. Thing is, as I intended to show with 24HV, gaming isn't everything to me. It's pretty high on my priorities, but sometimes, particularly in the gaming drought months of the summer, I like to do other things, like immerse myself in a movie, marathon a DVD/BD box-set, find all sorts of humour down the back of the Internet, buy toys and read comics, play guitar, and sometimes, just sometimes, crack open those vault doors and brave the outside world.

So yes, there will still be gaming posts. There will probably be a Batman: Arkham City Collector's Edition unboxing within 24 hours of this post going live. I'm also still planning on bringing a Game of the Year post to you in early 2012 (although anyone who knows me can probably figure out what it is to be, but numbers 2-10 might be interesting), and I'm still going to review a game in the old style whenever I find one that strikes me as amazing (or amazingly bad) enough to write about.

But that's not all. This last few months alone I've seen Jurassic Park at the cinema, fallen in love with The Walking Dead and struggled with Battlestar Galactica, witnessed a return to form with the latest season of The Big Bang Theory, discovered untapped (to me anyway) music in the form of bands like Deez Nuts, Your Demise, All That Remains, Anti-Flag and Rise Against, along with new albums from old favourites like The Misfits' The Devil's Rain and Limp Bizkit's Gold Cobra, and come so close to finding the last vital piece to my Silent Bob outfit only to be shot down by the price-tag. I will not pay upwards of $400 for a coat.

So that's the purpose of this blog then, the adventures of me (which was to be the blogs actual title). As with 24HG-UK, it's completely self indulgent, I'm writing this for myself more than anything. And if other people read it, that's even better. Goodbye for now.