This list of the top 10 of 2011 isn’t about aggregating the best scores, it’s a long thought-over list of the games which really stood out and made a difference this year. These are the games you’ll still think about fondly in five years time and in some cases you may even still be playing.

10 - The Dream Machine (chapters 1 – 4)

http://www.thedreammachine.se/

Not many games play to this tempo, the pacing is slow, the puzzles require focus and the written dialogue is aplenty. Sure lots of adventure games are like this but not many take you to such interesting places. The first chapter of the game (which is free) mostly focuses on your character moving into a new apartment with his girlfriend. The interactions with characters during the chapter are so very refreshingly humble and weighted in realism in a way you never, ever get with videogames. This game has genuine character building and even though it has sinister overtones, the evil elements never truly reveal themselves.  This is a beautiful game I recommend spending a Sunday evening with the first chapter and a glass of whiskey. Telltale wishes it could make adventure games like this.

Oh and it’s a browser game so everyone can play it

9 – Rayman Origins

With some of the best audio of the year and an incredible flair for art and animation loaded with personality and imagination, Origins is easily one of the best games released this year. Ubisoft are a difficult studio to like these days what with overly aggressive DRM and a questionable marketing focus, but as long as they keep making wonderful games like this then they will stay cool.

8 – Swords and Sworcery EP

Next to Rayman this is one of the most beautiful looking games of the year, a bold art style with identity and character. The audio does a splendid job of building a mood which is unique to the game and its ethereal locations. The game is cryptic, minimalist and unpredictable. A joy from start to finish and the best example of tablet gaming to date.

7 – Portal 2

It’s hard not to enjoy Portal 2 with its sharp, witty script and top tier voice acting, regardless of its flawless mechanics and some of the best level design in videogames to date. Audio is also top-notch and leagues above anything Valve has done before but I just can’t push the game higher than the others in this list. It’s an exceptional game, genuinely funny and bold in its achievements for co-op mechanics, I actually don’t think Valve could have done a better job with it. Wheatley’s remorse also makes for my favourite character moment of the year.

6 –  Deus Ex: HR

This game is executed so well, its presentation so tight and its intentions met so clearly that it’s easy to not recognise the games acomplishments. This game can be described as smooth; conversations, scenes and mechanics are transitioned between so smoothly it’s hard to notice any change. The music drifts through action and exploration perfectly whilst the gameplay flips between stealth and combat in a way that feels almost scripted and meaningful. The game breaks new ground while encompassing the principles of what we loved about the first Deus Ex. Its greatest achievement however is establishing such a strong sense of place in such an abstract and stylised world, the art direction and visual design is stunning, I took over 400 screenshots of the game and adored every street corner, lampshade, magazine cover,  sign post and artwork. The game does decadence beautifully.

5 - Zelda Skyward Sword

I’ve always defended the Wii, it has some cracking games which you won’t find on any other platform. Mario Galaxy, Muramasa, Xenoblade, Red Steel 2, DK Country… I didn’t like the first Wii Zelda much, it had its moments sure but I thought it looked ugly and tried too hard to impersonate Ocarina of Time. If Skyward Sword took the place of Twilight Princess then I don’t think the Wii would ever have needed defending. Skyward Sword defines what can be achieved with motion controls and makes all those pre-Wii fantasies we had come to realisation. It’s fucking great, there’s just the right amount of  movement vs actual in-game translation. For a Zelda title at least you wouldn’t want any more fidelity than just swinging in 8 directions. Typical to what makes Nintendo an incredible developer though is how the entire gameworld and its inhabitants are designed to take advantage and to challenge this game-changing control mechanic. The first boss kicks your arse  and works more like a tutorial than the actual tutorial, this boss teaches you how the game wants you to play it and once you’ve conquered it, the game responds fantastically to your inputs.

Musically the game features an impressive, fully orchestrated theme which is as memorable as the one in Wind Waker and artistically Nintendo have found a pleasant balance between the grounded style of Ocarina and the expressive style of Wind Waker. I still think they could have been more bold artistically but it all works very well, especially in character design – the characters of which are so fun to interact with.  The game is a little too long and even tedious in spots but the good greatly outweighs the bad. My favourite Zelda.

4 – Witcher 2

As with Deus Ex, Witcher achieves a sense of place wonderfully. CD Projeckt set out to create they years best looking RPG’s and it succeeded without question. Skyrim looks good, but not this good. Flotsam forest had me walking around with my mouth wide open, a massive area featuring a vibrant village and a forest with trees larger than your screen can fill. What this game achieves better than any other this year however is its characters; there’s a massive cast of people to talk to, each one drawn with huge fidelity and packed with individual personality. Unlike with Skyrim where you often find ‘the blacksmith bloke’ or ‘the old lady’ a great bulk of the people here really do feel unique. This coupled with a narrative path which the player can directly influence and interact with makes this one of the boldest games this year. It must have been a bitch to make and I hope more people play it, I’m yet to play the newly released 2.0 version of the game which supposedly fixes the early game difficulty so hopefully this will help new players get into the game quicker.

3 – Bastion

Portal 2 might have the best usage of audio in this list but Bastion has the best soundtrack. It’s similar to S&S EP in that the music is full of songs and contemporary styles for a genre of game not befitting it but I think the quality of music and the wonderfully inventive instrumentation used in the Bastion soundtrack tops it. The rest of the game is on equal awesomeness as the music, the combat is a hack and slash with skill set in a mysterious world and the plot is told through a dynamic and excellently conceived narration. I think this is one of the only games in this list outside of S&S where if one single element from mechanics, presentation and narrative was any less incredible then the rest of the game would suffer.

2 – Dark Souls

Nothing else this year has been quite as exciting as an early game scenario fighting two stone gargoyles on the roof of a giant cathedral situated atop a massive cliff-face; in the beginning of the game you’re told to ring two bells one high and one low, the gargoyles are defending the higher bell. It’s an incredible fight against all odds, the game gives you just enough of an advantage to champion the creatures though, at the time it feels like the game gives you no advantage. With the creatures defeated you climb the bell tower and ring the bell the result of over 20 hours of play is about to present itself to you…

…Nothing happens.

1 – Skyrim

The longer you play Skyrim the more its problems start to surface, I’m at over 60 hours and there are clearly some things about the game that I really don’t like.  This is in contrast to almost all the other games on this list where there’s very little I don’t like. Because of this it’s hard to justify why Skyrim is the best game this year, but looking at this list I don’t think that there’s any other game world I would rather explore more. It might not be as unpredictable as Dark Souls, it’s not as characterful as Witcher 2 and it’s not as joyous as Skyward Sword but it’s still a constantly surprising, engaging and genuinely awe inspiring game on a scale that all of the top 5 games combined can’t begin to match.

About the author

Michael Manning

Michael is a sound designer and composer working in the games industry. His portfolio can be found at www.manningaudio.com