What a year for gamers. Some of the biggest games on the PlayStation 3 came out in 2011, and the competition to name the very best was an absolute nail bitter. This was the year of sequels with all but one nomination coming from a brand new entry into the gaming space. The year started with the highly anticipated L.A. Noire, catching many off guard with its unique approach to storytelling and impressive graphics. L.A. Noire lost steam in our competition for best game of the year perhaps because it came out earlier in the year, but almost certainly because the other games on the list have some extremely devoted fans.
Dark Souls kept us up at night with its absolutely brutal learning curve. As the spiritual successor to Demon’s Souls, the latest entry swept up a fair portion of our votes, and certainly deserved its recognition from critics and fans. Portal 2 was another sleeper hit, perhaps releasing too early in the year for many to consider it for their pick of best game of 2011. However, the clever writing, enjoyable multiplayer, and brain-bending puzzles were more than enough to secure a fair portion of the vote.
And then came the three heavy hitters, the three games that many knew would fight for the game of the year. Batman: Arkham City was everything we wanted from our dark detective. He fought his way through the scum of the city, taking out numerous super villains and even getting a little batty with Catwoman. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was an absolute masterpiece in terms of scope. Players report spending hours, sometimes hundreds of hours, questing, crafting, sneaking, and exploring the land of Skyrim. But while players report their vast love of Skyrim, there were very vocal opponents of the nomination because some PS3 owners experienced crippling problems with their copies of the game. The issues were enough for some to simply cast a vote against Skyrim for pure anger. But Nathan Drake has a way of capturing the hearts of nearly every PS3 owner. While many seemed to agree Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception didn’t quite match that of Uncharted 2, many felt the title deserved to win game of the year. It was a brilliant adventure with crisp graphics and a high quality narrative.
At the end of the competition, the battle lines were drawn, the PSU community and the editorial staff had their voices heard, and a winner was declared.
Here are the nominations for Game of the Year for 2011.
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Developer: Naughty Dog | Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Dark Souls Developer: From Software | Publisher: Namco Bandai
Portal 2 Developer: Valve | Publisher: Valve
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Developer: Bethesda Game Studios | Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Batman: Arkham City Developer: Rocksteady Studios | Publisher: Warner Bros.
L.A. Noire Developer: Team Bondi | Publisher: Rockstar Games
… and the winner is………..
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..
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim with 30 out of 77 community votes
To say the fight for game of the year was fierce is an understatement. Skyrim narrowly topped Uncharted 3 by only three votes. That’s right; the game of the year was decided by three votes. Despite bugs, some crippling PS3 versions, the PSU community decided that Skyrim deserved the top honor. Some members even acknowledged that the bugs weren’t enough to sway their vote.
Skyrim takes the Game of the Year award largely because it’s addicting and you can easily get lost for hours upon hours. Members who voted for the game said they simply loved exploring the world and couldn’t put it down. We’d still like to congratulate Naughty Dog for creating an extremely exciting and enjoyable game in Uncharted 3, and for almost toppling one of the most anticipated titles in recent history. But, the year belonged to Bethesda and its terrific work on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The community and staff have spoken, and thus concludes a look at the best games from 2011.
We would like to congratulate the team behind The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for creating the Game of the Year in 2011 as voted by the PSU community and staff.