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Game of the Year 2011 - Genre Awards

Find out what games of 2011 best represented the nine most notable genres in gaming.

 

Portal 2 - Winner

It's hard to even begin to understand how Valve could follow-up the original Portal. Full of wit, humor, and ingenious puzzles, the experience was a hard one to top. Needless to say, there was concern that Valve couldn't replicate and improve on the experience well enough to justify Portal 2. However, Valve proved once again that they have what it takes to shatter expectations and provide an absolutely stunning gaming experience that will be fondly remembered for years to come.

Unlike most puzzle games, Portal 2 is more of an adventure, using puzzles for the meat of the gameplay, while splicing in humor and spectacular environments to give it character. Exploring the innards of Aperture Science, organically learning its back story, and utilizing all of the new tools made for an experience that was similar, but completely unique from the original. 

Taking it one step further, a full co-op quest was included that not only tied in the story of the main game, but offered up one of its own. Rather than just dropping another character into the fray, the co-op experience was built around having two players making the solution to each and every puzzle one that absolutely required the active participation of both players. Truth be told, Portal 2 is not just the best puzzle game of 2011, it's one of the best ever.

Catherine - Runner Up

When Atlus decided to shake things up with a title outside of their usual fare of RPGs, it caught gamers' attention. Of course, the tantalizing sexual imagery helped too... Needless to say, the experience proved to be something much deeper than a few cheap thrills.

Combining a character-driven story with a tough-as-nails puzzle game set Catherine apart from the crowd. Pushing and pulling blocks to make your way to the top of a tower during a nightmare, your plight as Vincent was one like no other. Utilizing a variety of techniques, players would have to reach down to the depths of their puzzle solving skills to conquer the unique challenge of this year's Puzzle Game of the Year Runner Up.

Honorable Mentions

      

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Comments

Angelo Grant Staff Writer

12/14/2011 at 12:37 PM

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?

daRth_kiLL

12/14/2011 at 01:03 PM

I'm happy as hell Portal 2 won best puzzler. Catherine was good, but I felt Portal 2 was a much better game...the online co op is the most fun I've had playing online with anyone. I have to agree with Angelo though....Dark Souls didn't even get an honorable mention. Why's that?

Julian Titus Senior Editor

12/14/2011 at 01:11 PM

Dark Souls is one of those games that sadly went under our radar. Not that we don't agree that it's a worthy game, but I don't think anyone on the staff has played it yet. I'm still trying to get back to Demon's Souls for my Travel Log series.

Nick DiMola Director

12/14/2011 at 01:15 PM

We each voted for our top 3 in the genre and Dark Souls only placed on 2 people's lists and that was in the 3rd place position. As such, it wasn't really enough to get a mention. I think it's one of those cases where it's been a year rich in RPGs and it's a game easily overlooked when considering your 3 favorites of the year. Disgaea 4 was also omitted for similar reasons.

Truth be told, I was pretty surprised it didn't get a bunch more votes.

Angelo Grant Staff Writer

12/14/2011 at 01:16 PM

Ah. Well hopefully hiring new staff should sort that out in time for next year. It's a niche game, so I can understand why not everybody played it.

Mike Wall Staff Alumnus

12/14/2011 at 01:17 PM

Yea it's tough this really was one of the greatest years in gaming EVER! So unfortunately that means that there was just not enough spots to represent all of the great games that came out this year.But in honesty having to many great games to choose from is a pretty awesome predicament to have.

Vic Roman Staff Alumnus

12/14/2011 at 01:28 PM

Dark Souls, if only I had been here earlier haha. I have been raving and ranting about that game since it's release, and was raving about Demon's Souls up until the day of Dark Souls release. I'm definitely a bit sad it didn't make it on this list, but this game was so jam packed of quality titles that the masochistic Dark Souls was bound to be left behind. It's personally one of my top 3 games of the year though.

daRth_kiLL

12/14/2011 at 02:49 PM

it's all good fellas, not mad atcha. Disgaea 4..another wonderful title that I didn't give enough attention to. Glad it's in my Q...though I may just wait for a price drop and pick'er up for keeps. That game's easily playable for 100+ hours.

Vic, I knew you'd have something to say on SOULS. It's shaping up to be more fun than Skyrim, for me.

TripOpt55

12/14/2011 at 04:34 PM

This is really reminding me how many games I need to play from this year still. I'm leaning towards Uncharted 3 over Zelda at the moment, but have not finished Zelda yet, so I have to wait and see. Still need to play Dead Space 2, Rayman, Kirby, Layton... ahhhh! Hopefully I will get to some of these games soon.

Julian Titus Senior Editor

12/14/2011 at 04:59 PM

I have 30 games in my backlog, but I checked last night and noticed that only 9 of them are from this year. I played and finished a lot more games this year.

Kathrine Theidy Staff Alumnus

12/14/2011 at 08:09 PM

Nice job on this one guys, it was great seeing everyone come together to make this.

Rob Ottone Staff Alumnus

12/14/2011 at 09:26 PM

Like Julian, I, too, have a 30 game backlog. Thankfully, I love myself too much to put "Dark Souls" on that list.

Julian Titus Senior Editor

12/14/2011 at 11:18 PM

Oh, Rob, it's not that bad. Check out my Demon's Souls Travel Log. It doesn't hurt nearly as much as people say.

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