Were it up to me, I would only swap a couple runners up with their 1st place winners. I'd put Gears 3 over MW3 easy.
Also, while I appreciate Radiant Historia getting some love, where the hell is Dark Souls?
Game of the Year 2011 - Genre Awards
Find out what games of 2011 best represented the nine most notable genres in gaming.
NBA 2K12 - Winner
Even a lockout-shortened NBA season couldn’t keep NBA 2K12 from being the year’s best sports game and, to be quite frank, one of the best basketball simulation games of all time. Drawing inspiration from last year’s uber-successful Jordan Challenge mode, 2K Sports created a new gaming experience that simultaneously plucked at the nostalgia ridden heartstrings of old school ballers and then massaged the new school’s need to prove themselves in the newly created “Greatest” mode. Having the ability to finally pit Bill Russell against Shaq and LeBron against Magic was the source of an immense amount of joy for me personally.
But all this would be for naught if 2K couldn’t also provide a fluid and mechanically sound gaming experience. It delivered in spades, presenting the gaming community with one of the most intuitive and realistic basketball sims ever. Character models have been overhauled since last year’s outing, and movements are so well animated that it’s sometimes easy to forget that you’re playing a game and not just watching one.
New additions to the “My Player” mode and a robust online experience round out some of the features that truly make this game stand out. I’m not one to suggest buying another sports title just a year after an excellent edition in the series, but NBA 2K12 should not be missed by anyone that considers themselves a sports fan.
FIFA Soccer 12 - Runner Up
This year of FIFA improvements were enough to give it a nod as the Sports Game of the Year Runner Up. Since all sports simulations are striving to become the most realistic game in their genre every year, this is not an easy feat. FIFA 12 does the best job of selecting the correct player attributes to each superstar. You can literally tell when players like Messi and Rooney have the ball, since FIFA mimics their movement in distinctive ways. You can see Christiano Ronaldo running like he would, as well as his characteristic kicks on set pieces.
Celebrations are even more robust than years past, where some of your favorite players even emote like they do during the real World Cup. Defending has been made much harder for inexperienced players, so that you have to follow a player, rather than just go up and tackle them. But the best improvement is definitely the dribbling mechanic. You can really make a difference against an inexperienced defender with all of the moves at your arsenal. You just might not get to show off as much, since the matchmaking online has been improved by placing you with more players of your skill level, instead of matching you with random newcomers a lot like last year’s version. Finally online, if someone quits, you won’t lose out on the win like earlier installments.
Overall, the improvements add a depth and difficulty curve to an already great franchise. Harder makes it much better.
Honorable Mentions
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