WhatIfGaming Game Of The Year 2011 Awards

The highway of our heart never ceases to the speed limit. Constantly becoming variable throughout the year, the speed of the thrills in newer titles and greater sequels have kept us seeing the wonders of a road that seems to be endless. Once again the highway creates memories which leaves us alone at the passenger seat of life looking out at the night sky of remembrance. Some of us have conquered the hype of ordinary titles, the injustices of mediocre talent, and those games which have shown a devotion to game design which is more about marketing than true gameplay throughout the year. Alas in the confines of these terrible titles, there are those which reaffirm the very nature of recognition and praise, those which dare immensely and conquer the year with their prowess.

It is with pleasure that we provide the millions of anticipated readers what they have been waiting for since the dawn of 2011: the video game industry’s most exceptional and gratified WhatIfGaming 2011 Game Of The Year Awards ceremony, presenting its official Game Of The Year awards before anyone else with a collective decision from industry experts and WhatIfGaming editors worldwide through its defined rigorous selection process which focuses on industry and developer recognition. The moment you all have been waiting for is finally here. Similar to the previous years, WhatIfGaming is first to give out Game of the Year Awards this year. See the Worst Game Of The Year and laugh at its shortcoming or weep for it, ponder about the cohesiveness of Best Script, or play through a title again to experience Best Voice Acting gone unnoticed by some.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Years to our beloved millions of WhatIfGaming readers! See you all in 2012.

The sound of guns and the call of your fellow soldiers perturb the air as the quick jolts of bullets whiz by in the air pockets away from audible sense. These are the sounds of Activision and Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and it is a title of realistic skirmish proposition. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 utilizes the same extensive and genius formula that made Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare an incredible success while taking the core foundational changes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops to reinvigorate life into a newer and greater title. Singleplayer campaign mode is extensively chaotic with large and daunting set pieces, multiplayer is the best it has ever possibly been with just the right fast-paced amount of new additions along with Call of Duty: Elite services, and the dauntlessness with which Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 lives up to its name by keeping integrity with all of the prior titles shines through like a beacon of design achievement.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is unequivocally not just a title which lives up to its expectations, but a title that is the best first-person shooter for every hardcore and casual player. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sees no shortage of shooter action and entrusts gamers with an august sense of thrill and graceful combat.

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Assassin’s Creed: Revelations reveals everything in a storyline epic title of the year that took more than five years to complete. Ubisoft Montreal has kept the same action as its incredible predecessor from Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, the title which focused on the next adventure of Master Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Multiplayer action is still fast paced while a bit more refined, and the singleplayer campaign mode is just as adventurous and bloody. Regardless of these aspects, single-player mode does suffer from a few inherent flaws but manages to make a title that is quite possibly one of the best Assassin’s Creed titles to date. Altair Ibn-La’Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze show the world that being an assassin is just the beginning in what becomes a title all about revealing everything in the secrets of the Assassin order.

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Saints Row: The Third brings back the mayhem and rather “unique” nature of a franchise raunchy for references to sex, doing anything virtually naked, and engaging in a lot of chaotic heists for respect that can have hundreds of ways to go wrong in the city of Steelport. Saints Row: The Third is an excellent open-world sandbox adventure that is undeniably better than the first two, and is a game where the adventure is rampant even if the graphics are not extremely impressive on consoles. PC users get the full benefits of a world that aims to be a fun place and moreover a dangerous place, especially with mod packs and community features consoles cannot see the light of day with. While it may not be as glamorous as it is on consoles, Saints Row: The Third provides incredible over the top action, a decent storyline, and lastly cooperative gameplay modes that are worth not passing up if you are into over-dramatic action sequences and just pure bravado in some aspects of a video game that strives to be utterly insane.

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Mountains start off as terrain regions of rock that accumulate a wealth of life, habitat, and moreover weather for ages to come. Tamriel’s mountains share their wisdom with the Elder Scrolls written on paper that can never be altered, and these Aedric Prophecies in return speak of these lands that hold unknown origin and magic in their existence. The mountains age with the times, and they see the struggles that make them the immutable forces of power and vast exploration beyond archaic and even a message for future prosperity. Whether through Morrowind or Oblivion, the mountains along with the lands have stood a test of time in man’s struggle for history and chronology. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim brings back the beauty of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and makes a world that is illustriously one of the most breathtaking environments ever created in 2011 for a video game. Through a profound development of customization, historical Elder archives of the Dragonborns, and a story to tell in all of its provincial lands, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim transports players into a medieval realm of Nordic refinement with the insatiable ceremoniousness of lands that are never forgotten and moreover so mysterious. Every abysm of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has adventure through limitless cultures brimming with the role of every person, whether it is by a grievous fire attack, a sharp but swift strike of the blade, or the devious subtlety in the stealth of a thief. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim opens a fairy tale in a video game title inspired by every Elder Scrolls title created, bringing back the last prophecy of one of the noble Elder Scrolls to life and effectively revealing to us the vast knowledge and truths revealed in the sacred pages of the Elder Scrolls themselves and the dragon language of the past.

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This night of Gotham has never seemed so blighted, congested with the echoes of Joker’s maniacal laugh as the world turns upside down with a semblance of ordered chaos. Rocksteady Studios’ Batman: Arkham City takes elements of Batman: Arkham Asylum and pushes it to a level which unfathomably creates one of the most heroic and daring licenses to make a name for itself in the video games industry through a sequel. The realm of licensed video game content has always seen its shares of abhorrent titles (Batman Begins in particular) or disastrous game to film transition rights. Batman faces the greatest challenge of his time, coupled with a level of combat that is smoother with its share of button mashing melee repetition. Through a rampageous contrast of the night’s wonders, Batman: Arkham City takes The Dark Knight’s veil of black justice with fervor, expanding it to a new definition through extraordinary free-roam and a storyline that is as memorable as the definition of a plot itself. Arkham City may just be the end for Batman, or at least the psychotic personalities within hope for this outcome to spill the blood of The Dark Knight.

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Battlefield 3 is the most anticipated first-person shooter game to be developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and the wait has been in the aptitude of extraordinary vain for Battlefield 2 hardcore fans of the series and lovers of fulfilling first-person shooters alike. Battlefield 3 does try to holster its weapon into the satchel of justice, particularly besides the realm of disappointment. There are guns, vehicles, multiplayer modes, and even a single-player storyline haphazardly thrown in for good measure but sadly all of these things create a sense of disillusionment; The level of action and intensity is bland with every shot no matter what mode considering most are hardly differentiated, and the vehicles along with the storyline prove the dimensional analysis that a video game can be beautiful visually and still play out with a mediocre thump. While Battlefield 3 will find its solace in the hands of those who enjoy bad company with a little thrill, it will find itself sooner in the comforting embrace of a bargain bin come December.

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Step into the world of death and monsters. Third-person action Role Playing Game (RPG) Demons Souls, debuted by publisher ATLUS and developer FromSoftware with sound game mechanics, but unfortunately lacked any real substance; there was a missing concept of a true online system, supplanting orbs for people, and finally a death experience that heightened difficulty of the gameplay to an extreme high. While difficulty is surely a subjective experience, the implementation is hardly anything but objective, which previously gave the Demons Souls creators the inconceivable notion that extreme difficulty is something more than a boorish attempt at making a game discernible in a market where most games. The sad fact is, lack of balance aside in Dark Souls, difficulty has clearly been made a tool that serves as a spectrometer for a a terribly aggravating game experience not based on actual complexity of difficulty, but rather in the Neanderthal notion that difficulty “just makes a game better.” Monsters are endless in their boring dungeon-raid assaults, certain gameplay design elements with huge bosses are flawed in the design aspects to kill them properly without backtracking for better equipment, and moreover Dark Souls lacks any strong rewarding experience other than the satisfaction of having finally completed an aggravating 15+ hours of gameplay.  Dark Souls does have solid elements in terms of visual aesthetics of enemies, traditional inventory and button mashing, but even these are hardly enough to keep it from appearing more than a button mashing disaster of massive proportions.

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Imagine a wasteland that appears beautiful, winds roaming around the crevices of a vast mountainous terrain; now, imagine this place completely and utterly devoid of a good storyline and gameplay and you end up with RAGE. While the title provides mediocre action at best, RAGE carries a ragingly disappointing gameplay style as it is a game which lacks a lot and delivers very little for its price other than an online simplistic rodeo racer through a huge Motorstorm-like designed world. Bethesda Softworks and id Software have tried to make RAGE something unique, given the characters are dressed in a outlandish way and the environment itself is beautiful, but sadly a disconcerting storyline with gameplay mechanics next to nothing but point and shoot make it stale beyond belief than just a deserted region.

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FIFA Soccer 2012 is back and with a vengeance from its 2011 counterpart, which was impressive as much as it was crisp in visuals and gameplay. FIFA 2012 brings back the skills of the team-gameplay coordination with newer realistic animations, engaging online modes, and finally a presentation style that is still iconic regardless of any problems the game mechanics itself has. The formula has been tried, tested, and proven and Electronic Arts really felt the need to keep to the same formula. Whether or not this was a great decision is meant to be seen.

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Gears of War 3 passes down a legacy in the long-awaited trilogy of the Gears franchise, completing one of the best third-person shooter franchises in history.  Operation: Hollow Storm brought an alluvion of hope, aiming to end the 15 year-long war with the Locust forces. Unfortunately, this Operation failed to decimate the Lambent and Locust forces, keeping the world of Sera in the brim grips of a constant strife. Gears of War 3 coalesces fluid gameplay mechanics with detailed destruction, meticulously rampant action, and sleek visuals to create the final title of a series that is powerful as much as it is defining. The level of quality has dramatically improved since Gears of War 2, the multiplayer is purely, excitingly fun while the cinematic direction is stunning. Gears of War 3 creates an indelible legacy that is sure to be remembered for a long time through the triumphalism of Marcus Phoenix, and the remembrance of the heroes that have kept mankind’s existence from plummeting to a dim fate.

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