I know its a bit late, and how this is also not as big as those major gaming media companies who contribute to the overall vote, but I'll add a little bit on what I though was game of the year and why, so forgive its roughness as its just a quick (and long for my standards) overview of my GOTY, i didnt cover everything and only some of the parts that stood out to me to make this my GOTY! So unless you haven't read the title, its Portal 2! My favourite game this year with Going back to aperture, the place of conspiracy, corruption and evil disk operating systems.
The first portal was simply amazing, it drew in every aspect of creativity and brain-bending puzzles, and the second improves on that in everyway. Its as everyone says, insanely hard puzzles until you solve them, and then you feel stupid. This is an amazing rare experience that is rarly seen not just in games, but in anything nowadays, and when in co-op, the experience doubles as you and your partner may try and try again to outsmart each other, only making yourself look even more as an idiot, but thats only part of the fun compared to working together! The single player campagin for me was brilliant, from start to finish, it was interactive, fast but not rushed, had huge verity, puzzles straight forward & others which you could approach many different ways like the original portal (especially in the white gel parts) and i enjoyed every moment of it, especially the most epic climax in a game i have ever experienced (cant spoil it) followed by the most satisfying ending i also have experienced in a games ending, as this really was the 'end', seeing how we dont expect chell to appear again. The co-op following was equally as amazing, everything the single player did right but not only with a friend, but with another interesting story, that although wasnt as 'impacting' was just as engaging and still managed to give not such an end, but an opening, as shown by the follow DLC as well that the co-op story still has yet to end, maybe we'll see one more future DLC campaign, but whatever it is, im sure it will be awesome. If you want a satisfying co-op experience (like I did), then get Portal 2, but be careful, in some cases its like sex, treat your first time wisely as once you've played the game through once it isnt the same the second time (not entirly in a bad way).
Another reason for me to give it GOTY is the incredible soundtrack; including the use of interactive/dynamic music while doing puzzles (especially the use of classical, oh how i love that) and even better the original sounds at the end. Yes, we still got a GLaDOS single, but for me it was the Turret Orchestra that blew me away, so good that i downloaded it to listen to it on my iPod, man, i only wish there was a longer version. Many people seem to complain about its short length, although it is short, i think it was perfect for the type of game, any longer and it would have been repetitive, any shorter and it wouldnt feel like a real game, so to me it hit the sweet spot of what I would call a satisfying single player experience. The co-op depends on how good you are with your friends, although slightly shorter than the single player, i think its good, as i managed to get a whole convinant play though with my friend in one day and experience it all fully at once, rather than in sections every now and then and having to tireringly track down your partner, sort times and make arrangements if the co-op were to be really long and took quite a few plays (starting up the game) to get through it. The replayability for me was the achievements, although many stopped after they 'completed the game', i saw much more replayability in going back and getting
all those 'possible for once' achievements, which i had fun doing and saw much more things than i though in the campaign such as the new rat man dens. Even in co-op, they were even more challenging and fun to do, this enabled me to play through it more than once without it feeling all the reptitive and still managed for me to enjoy myself. So its length and replaybility for me was spot on!
People also seem to complain about the source engine, and how the graphics in Portal 2 'aren't the best', to me thats not a problem. I grew up in gaming with the source engine through lovable titles such as CSS, Gmod, TF2, L4D and I still love it to bits, to me it looks awesome and never gets old. The controls and physics are top notch and the graphic standards in portal 2 itself i though was extremely good, there was nothing i saw 'amazing' in the graphics, but there was DEFINITELY nothing i saw bad! If your one of those graphic-whore haters, than maybe Portal 2 wont float your boat, and if it doesnt because of that reason I think your a fcuking retard, but thats just me. Overall, i think Portal 2 wins it for me, Theres so much more i can cover of why this game for me was the best game i played this year, although Serious Sam 3 would take the best FPS action game (until i got optimisation abuse, read more below), the game i had the most fun with and enjoyed was Portal 2, the consistent post-game support as well as free DLC has continued to make it look better and better and i hope future DLC will also be just as exciting!
Now you may be wondering why i would chose Portal 2 over some other titles, so i'll give it to you straight and tell you about my experiences with other'large' titles, starting with skyrim. Skyrim was NOT my GOTY. To me it had a huge amount of content and lots to do, but that was it, graphics werent that amazing and i found them hard to love as well as the poor engine, the quests got quite repetitive after a while and can be said as either 'exploring, killing or collecting' in a nutshell. There was no co-op when i think it was quite possible and the single player campagin missions as well as the gulid missions (although better than oblivion) still werent impressing. Dragons were also disappointing and got repetitively easy after a while. Although the music was one of the best parts of the game to me (I love orchestral scores with huge verity), the biggest issue was the lack of motiovation in skyrim, after a while i honestly did not care what i did, who i did it for and why, i was drawn away from the game and it felt like a chore, i had the big issue of "i have heaps of quests to do but i dont give a fcuk if i do them or not" and that to me ruined this sort of game. Skyrim was not my GOTY, and infact, it wasnt really that much of an enjoyable game to me for what it sold itself for; Portal 2 being a quite satisfying experience with excellence co-op which i managed to enjoy to the fullest while skyrim being a large game with heaps of stuff to do aiming for a huge experience but was too much of the same thing for me and failed to meet my expectations of what i though i would get out of the game. What i did get out, i didnt enjoy that much, but i did enjoy the game to an extend, but not at all good enough for it to be even considered one of my top favourite games, let alone GOTY. Other titles such as Batman AC and Uncharted 3 I HAVE NOT PLAYED either due to the horrible costs ($99) or even worse the bloody exclusiveness of the game. Serious Sam 3 was also very close to my GOTY as i had so much fun in the first hours i played it, but it was the fact that it fun at 20FPS on the lowest settings on everything, especially splitscreen and the poor support that followed afterwards that drove it away from me, unable to get a satisfying experience from it. Dead island wasn't that engaging and even in co-op i didnt feel as though i had as much fun with my friends as i did in Portal 2. Lastly, Battlefield 3 for me was really really good, its just that the maps were poorly designed compared to BF2 and BC2, this put me off and really, the web browser server browser was also very very weird it, and although worked, we did not ask for it and DID NOT WANT IT. Back to maps, I didnt play much until B2K came out AND WHEN IT DID, i noticed i couldn't play properly with my mouse, so although not the games fault, I am waiting for a new mouse before playing this game because i want a complete experience and not some half dumbwit one when i cant aim, but even so, the absolutely worse most possible thing that happened, that battlefield 3 contains the thing i ABSOLUTELY HATED MOST OUT OF ANY OTHER GAME THIS YEAR, and i'll describe how it was an utterly terrible selfish asshole retarded move, idea and rip off in three words;
BLOODY FUCKING ORIGIN!!!!!!. But back to being civilized, honestly, this would make a good third behind SS3 and Portal 2 as there is much i can compliment about this game, but also a bit that i can criticize.. (you know who to blame)
So there it is, my GOTY and why, and also as importantly why others werent. Remember this is just my opinion and if you disagree, thats fine, I just hope you had as much fun with Portal 2 as i did, and if you havent got it yet, GET IT, it when down to $7.5 in the steam sales, and im sure with all the valve coupons you got you could easily buy it soon, even without theses its only $30 and im sure you could easily afford that compared to other horribly priced games (AC, MW3, BAC, im
LOOKING AT YOU). Portal 2 was a great game this year, infact this year was a great year, and i hope next year will be as well, especially with two upcoming titles that have caught my attention; Fortnite for having a chance at being a game ive wanted for a long time, and Borderlands 2 for possibly improving everything i loved about the first Borderlands (and thats a heck of a lot). Goodbye 2011, HELLO 2012! - Joyduck7
"ahh valve, you've done it again! now how about trying to count to three"
