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Yes, I know Minecraft's technically been available since 2009, but it led the charge on so many of 2011's biggest steps forward that I had to include it. (Also, it didn't officially leave beta until last month, so take that, calendars.)
Foremost, Minecraft gave the indie movement a recognizable face, helping it grow to the point where, say, Terraria could go toe-to-combat-boot with Modern Warfare 3 for a top spot on Steam. Further, it validated an open development model by involving players every step of the way. With games now growing increasingly reliant upon post-release patches and DLC, Minecraft's mindset is the next logical step. Is it right for all games? Of course not. But it's a very appetizing proposition, especially given the newfound popularity of things like Kickstarter funding.
Overall, this has been an absolutely incredible year for indie games, and Minecraft deserves a big, pixelated pat on the back for lending a hand.
From Dust was a great idea wrapped in a mediocre game. But that's not why it's here. Somewhat incredibly, it managed to be nearly everything that's currently wrong with PC gaming all at once. It kicked off its freefall dive into a canyon populated exclusively by cacti and woodchippers with one of Ubisoft's trademark month-long delays. Why? No real reason was given -- but obviously, it was an attempted middle finger to pirates. Unfortunately, waving said finger in pirates' faces only made them angry, causing them to bite back with more piracy.
Next up, dishonesty. Ubisoft initially promised that From Dust would kick the publisher's reviled “always on” DRM to the curb. Then it didn't, and Ubisoft tried to hide its red hands by deleting all evidence of its previous promise. Eventually, however, it was forced to patch out the draconian menace due to overwhelming outrage.
Even then, though, From Dust's PC port was horrendous. Among other things, it was locked at 30 FPS, lacked anti-aliasing, and was generally unstable. Ultimately, Steam was forced to offer refunds. Other developers, of course, employ each of those practices separately, but From Dust made the freaking planets align. Which is just another strike against it, honestly. Maybe I liked my planets all disorganized and un-apocalypse-causing.
Yes, yes, LoL's been around since the days when it was still clever to turn Internet acronyms for laughter into videogame names. And no, I don't have a Minecraft-style loophole for this one. You caught me. In penance, I'll put my lie-spewing hands in a waffle iron. I won't turn it on, of course. Why, that'd be silly.
Anyway, 2011's almost certain to go down in history as the year free-to-play went from foreign novelty to ultra-successful business model, and few games have benefitted more than LoL. Further, unlike potential flashes in the pan like DC Universe and every other MMO ever, LoL's a bonafide long-term success story. The game's been free-to-play since day one, and it hasn't stumbled since.
LoL's also a big name in the eSports scene, which has grown tremendously in the past year. Along with national-sport-sized hits like StarCraft II, Riot's massive MOBA has helped propel pro gaming to new heights, offering multi-million dollar prize pools each season.
Two words: dumb fun. Both of these games blasted and, er, dildo-smashed their way through all the slow-building, yawn-inducing epics and “srs bsns” multiplayer modes to remind us that, yes, games can be over-the-top, gleefully profane, and -- most importantly -- fun. Screw saving the world. I just want to remote-control a robot dinosaur with laser vision and go surfing on fighter jets.
Comments are closed on this article
Ridnarhtim
December 19, 2011 at 9:48am
Wasn't the issue with DNF that it introduced too many 'modern' mechanics? From playing the demo, the things that I didn't like about it were the 2 weapons limit, regenerating health and linear level design - all of these, as far as I can tell, have become the norm for shooters in the post-Halo/MW era.
Kinetic
December 20, 2011 at 2:21pm
+1 This, coupled with the fact that the game spent a good deal of time mocking other games for doing the same thing.
Listening to the satire in DNF was like watching a fat friend eat a whole chocolate cake, while mocking another fat guy for being fat.
Ghok
December 16, 2011 at 5:56pm
So true about LA Noire. I really like the game, but so much of the core gameplay is TERRIBLE. Yet what it got right is really good, and it is such a breath of fresh air.
unsunghero225
December 16, 2011 at 9:10am
good list..... I forgot about some of the games listed on here, like DA2.
RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
December 16, 2011 at 5:27am
The only thing I know about Minecraft is that it has something to do with Legos.
I'd like to play Bulletstorm. I'll look into LoL. Ubisoft blows dead goats, nursing right next to EA.
t.y.wan
December 16, 2011 at 4:38am
Skyrim PC should be in the list... There are similar amounts of glitches in that game with any Fallout:NV or Fallout 3. You see BS "physics" everywhere, things that shouldn't be realistic to be present, things that are which is not implemented at all. The melee mechanics is goofy, the menu is god aweful, the graphics is not that amazing and most importantly, the gameplay, the linear dialogs and many many rubbish they just didn't bother to fix...
X2brute
December 16, 2011 at 10:52am
"Games That Matter More Than the Games of the Year" "Skyrim: An undeniably great, but blah blah blah. You get the point." Read the artice before you criticize it, or at least the title.
praetor_alpha
December 15, 2011 at 9:40pm
I tend to be weary of games that are represented by a common Internet acronym. All we need is World Troop Force (or similar), and we have a set!
bonafidewallst
December 15, 2011 at 6:13pm
I think Duke Nukem was important, though I disagree with the author's reasoning regarding the offensive nature of the content. Is it really any more offensive than Bulletstorm and Saints Row? I don't believe so.
The problem with Duke Nukem, the big sticking point, is that it epitmoizes everything terrible about modern FPS design. Everything you find wrong with games like Call of Duty, Sniper Ghost Warrior, Call of Juarez, Homefront and any others, are crystallized into an abhorrently clear example within Duke Nukem Forever. What really makes this a kick in the balls is that it's all within a game series that used to demonstrate everything right about old-school FPS design. Add a 14-year wait on top of all of this, and that to me shows why Duke Nukem is a shining example of what is wrong with both modern game design and marketing philosophies. Its content may be offensive to some, but what's most offensive to me is that this game passed a QA process somewhere along the line. Despicable.
Frencho
December 15, 2011 at 5:35pm
Dragon Age II is a flop, dont defend it! Period! If ppl start saying, but this scene was nice, but that minuscule part of gameplay got it right... Bioware wont make amends, the IP is really tainted now, Dragon age 3 has a lot to prove in comparison to superb sequels like the Witcher 2 and Skyrim.
bling581
December 16, 2011 at 10:37am
Sorry to disapoint, but even though I agree with many of the authors points I still have to admit it was a fun game. There were many new things they did get right. I know a lot of people didn't like the new combat system but I think it made things a bit more exciting then and real time. It was a bit too fast and in real life people can't jump across the screen, but it was more exciting then watching an Origins battle. I enjoyed the new character trees also. Stuff actually tied into each other and I liked being able to choose a ton of skills or focusing on a few and upping the special abilities.
Maktaka
December 16, 2011 at 1:12am
A flop how? It sold more than well enough to make a good profit. It injected some much needed uniqueness into a gameworld that previously had a great backstory propping up very vanilla combat and enemies. It had some of the best characters bioware has done to date. It smoothed out the difficulty curve of DA:O (which like Witcher 1 and 2 started hard and ended easy), although I didn't play until after the 1.03 rebalance patch. Crafting was far, FAR more enjoyable and sans all that in-and-out-of-camp pain in the ass that DA:O had.
It also suffered from a way-too-short development cycle, leaving the overall game notably shorter and head-deskingly repetitive with its dungeons.
The things DAII got right are what come from actually trying to make amends for the things that DA:O got wrong. They're the things that can't be corrected without having a team that has the humility to say "we spent months designing this system, and it didn't work, so we're completely scrapping it." The things it got wrong (content, content, and content) are the things that come from not having enough time and money, which is much easier to correct than getting the game mechanics wrong.
iceman08
December 15, 2011 at 4:37pm
I love SRTT for, as you said, "dumb fun." and the devs actually acknowledge they want to keep that going
