2. Mass Effect 2 (Though technically a 2010 game, it was not released on PS3 until 2011.)

3. Saints Row: The Third

4. L.A. Noire

5. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

2011 was an amazing year in video games, with the October-November period delivering some of the most anticipated games OF ALL TIME! The industry itself is making more money than ever, rivalling cinema in terms of profits and in participation of pop culture interest.

Anyway here’s my TOP 5…

1. RISE OF THE PLANETS OF THE APES – As a fan of the franchise, this film delivered a thoughtful story and script, with wonderful acting performances from Andy Serkis and John Lithgow. Truly emotional, also.

2. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS – Perhaps I had low expectations for this? But it had an intelligent and respectful script and a superb performance from Michael Fassbender as Magneto. In a year blessed with several comic book movies, this was by far the best of them. The ending is quite sad, depressing and distressing, however.

3. SOURCE CODE – Time travel and alternate time lines are always tricky in motion pictures, but this film presented in a very linear and easy to comprehend way. A smart movie from a smart director.

4. RANGO – A refreshing, fun and original animated movie. Everything that the Cars 2 is the complete opposite!

5. SUCKER PUNCH – Perhaps more brain-dead than thoughtful, but I felt there was still some interesting subconscious storytelling, whenever the visuals are not dominating the screen.

Honorable mentions: Thor, Captain America and Conan The Barbarian all didn’t set the world on fire, but were worthy movies I would happily re-watch and certain are deserving of a sequel or two.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is GAME OF THE YEAR of 2011.

Ok, so now you don’t need to read anymore. Unless perhaps you really want to know why?

Depth. A big world. You can be anyone. You can do anything. You can go anywhere. You can build weapons! You can be nice or be an ass-hole. LOL

I really don’t even want to talk about Skyrim. It’s really just a game that has to be experienced and whether it takes one hour, twelve hours or over one-hundred hours to feel the immersion, there is no denying the awesomeness of this game.

The true beauty of the game.. oh, by the way, the game is beautiful… is that every player’s journey is unique and different, yet comes with it shared experiences that I’m sure will unite the memories of gamers in the year to come.

I’ve have two separate game saves of Skyrim running simultaneously (one is male lizard thief and the other is female Nordic warrior). They are two totally different experiences with two different results. However, the are both fantastic journeys.

If there was only one game you had to play for 2011 (and beyond), this is it.

score: 10 out of 10.

I vaguely recall playing the first two Driver games back on the original PlayStation console. I remember the Driver 3 getting a real negative reaction when released on PS2 a few years back, too. So, I didn’t jump at the chance of getting this, until I started to see some positive gaming reviews for this and finding out about a unique gaming mechanic that I think might be interesting to explore.

Driver: San Francisco storyline is basically a homage to the television series Life On Mars, beginning as our main character John Tanner suffers a traumatic incident and the game appears to play out in some kind of coma dream. The beauty of this convuloted story premise, is that Tanner is able to shift is aural body between drivers of vehicles at a whim, making for some exciting gameplay and racing around the streets of San Francisco.

The great thing of the game is that the main story can largely be ignored, as the player can simply drive around to complete the numerous small challenges that are scattered around the map. Indeed, you really are required to do some of these challenges in order to upgrade your abilities, purchase vehicles/garages and even progress through the larger story, eventually.

The driving mechanics are excellent, in terms of feeling in total control of the your vehicles and its power and speed. I think Driver:SF has the best drifting experienced in any racing car game I’ve played. To fly around corners at top speed, hand-brake turn and drifting back into the correct lane of traffic has never before felt as exciting and smooth.

For the most part, the game itself is not hard and you most likely only likely to fail a mission due to lack of preparedness or malfunctioning of the game’s AI. Collectables in terms of finding movie reels opens up special bonus missions or re-creating famous car chase scenes from film & television. I really loved this feature.

Driver: San Francisco is a great experience, and sure the story is kind of wacky and unbelievable, but the game is pure fun and well worth experiencing. An under-rated game that is well worthy of attention!

score: 8 out of 10.

Saints Row 2 really surprised me back in 2008 and became my game of the year. I always had faith that Saints Row: The Third would be just as crazy, fun and awesome. (1) But could it be even better?

Set a few months after the events of Saints Row 2, various events have occurred for the Saints gang to relocate from Stilwater to Steelport in order to rebuild their empire and .. ahh. fuck it. (2) Who cares about the story, this a Saints Row game!?

Carnage, mayhem and violence is of the highest order, mostly performed in the most perverse way possible. This is why we love Saints Row! A huge amount of fun to be had on a large map where everything is possible. All of which can be experienced in online co-op, also.

Saints Row: The Third is super great fun, never to be taken seriously. Technically it’s also superbly crafted and great looking.

However, above I had posed two questions. The answers are (1) No, Saint Row 2 is better because (2) the story really does matter. Saints Row: The Third story is not all that interesting, whilst Saints Row 2 had a brilliant story with a surprising emotional impact. I’ve replayed the Saints Row 2 storyline many times. I think my future Saints Row: The Third experiences will just be cruising around, causing mayhem. But hey, that’s fine too. Afterall, it’s only a video game.

score: 9 out of 10.

Uncharted 2 was an outstanding achievement for PS3 gaming, offering up an exciting and fluid action-adventure game unlike anything experienced before. So with exceedingly high expectations, would Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception able to go even better?

The games does a lot to try to expand upon the back-story of lead character Nathan Drake and his long-time friendship with his mentor Sully, as indeed the opening game is a flashback mission chronicling their initial meeting when Drake was just a young boy.

The set pieces and locations are a key feature to all the Uncharted games, and this game does not disappoint here. Unique locales, beautiful scenery and overall interesting environments all build a great atmosphere. The trademark epic Uncharted moments are definitely there, too.

Gameplay though is quite mundane and predictable. Most of the action has been experienced before and the shooting is still kind of terrible. Not sure why it takes 3 or 4 headshots to put down the one enemy? The puzzles in the game offer a good respite, but they also seem to be rather dumbed down from previous games in the series.

The story and game really picks up in the last third, when things almost get existential and wacky. However, the finale itself did not provide anything terribly innovative and I felt like much of the ending of the game was very similar to what I had experienced before in Uncharted 2.

Uncharted 3 is a great game, but it is not the greatest game, and I would probably go back to replay Uncharted 2 before attempting another experience of this game.

score: 8 out of 10.

Batman: Arkham Asylum was such an amazing game, especially for being a movie/tv/comic book franchise video game that was ACTUALLY great to play. So, they expectations for Batman: Arkham City was understandably very high.

For me, Arkham City, at the very least, is just more of the same. As the title suggests, Batman is now in a bigger environment, but this doesn’t necessarily translate it a better experience. Much of the appeal of Arkham Asylum was that Batman is trapped within a confined space, and much of the battle was for him to find a way out of areas.

Some innovation and expansion of Batman’s cool weapons are excellent, as his abilities felt more unlimited due all these wonderful toys. To fully glide and explore the cityscape of Arkham is effortless and joyous.

The fighting and battle combat still remains the main focus of Batman’s abilities and this looks and plays as beautiful than ever. Batman’s ability to switch to “detective mode” and seek out clues and areas of examination is still a fun and integral part of the gameplay. However, I do tire of only seeing the beautiful environment in only a neon gold or blue glow (and this was also my complain from the previous game).

Arkham City is a great game and any Batman fan would love to play it. However, I’m not convinced it’s a better experience than Arkham Asylum, simply providing more of what worked with a little bit of enhancements.

score: 8 out of 10.

Armagedoon POP CULTURE expo, Melbourne Oct 2011

The first open-to-public EB Games Expo was an enjoyable event, held at the Gold Coast in October 2011.

Without doubt, Dead Island provided one of the greatest video games trailers of all time. It was also without question, a vehicle to promote the upcoming game, and not a accurate presentation of the look and style to expect. As well being an emotionally charged and visually stunning trailer, it did the perfectly the precise sole reason for its purpose… to make me want to buy the game.

However, true doubts that Dead Island could deliver (on a game that has been 5 years in development), especially as this is the same developing team that recently released the substandard Call of Juarez: The Cartel video game, only a few months earlier.

Playing as one of four characters, you have to escape an island near Papua New Guinea, with limited resources and a few fellow companions to assist you. The game can be played solo or online co-op.

The story progresses through main quest objectives, but your character often is distracted or required to perform many numerous mini tasks in able to achieve much in the game. Truly, there is a lot to do in the game, and I was often continually being pulled in all different directions to complete many small tasks at once!

I really enjoyed Dead Island, the weapon building system is neat and I enjoyed the extreme violence of hacking up zombies with a variety of methods and weapons.

The game did get a bit tiresome, and I spent the second half of the story just progressing though the main story objectives, skipping many of the numerous side quests, in an effort to finish the game in a timely manner.

Dead Island gives the player plenty to do and mostly does it well, and with online co-op ensures much replay value also.

score: 8 out of 10.