1 Like I am looking forward to playing some of those naval battles. I need to get a Wii U so I can get to play ACIII.
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18Jan 13
It's that time again. Time for my third (out of six) Game of the Year Awards blog. This time around is perhaps the most fun; it deals with every award that doesn't fall into the other five categories. Let's hop to it.
Best Trailer: "The Last of Us" VGA Story Trailer
2011 Winner: "Dead Island" CGI Trailer
Wow. That's the one word to describe Naughty Dog's latest trailer for its upcoming apocalypse action/adventure. It shows so much about the highly anticipated game while revealing so little. That's been a part of why so many gamers are intrigued by the game, they have no idea what to expect other than it being amazing. We do finally get a glimpse at just how wide this game's range is in terms of distance and tension. We also meet a couple new characters and are teased by some of the game's beautiful backdrops. Also featured is the first bit of soundtrack, which sounds great. Great trailer that increased my hype to the max.
Biggest Disappointment: Resident Evil 6
2011 Loser: Dead Island
While some like RE6, the majority of the original fan base from the PS1 days hate it and what the brand has become. Yes, it is a somewhat solid game, but Resident Evil no longer feels like a survival horror game that keeps you on your toes. It feels more like an action game with horror elements that aren't haunting. It was a huge step back for the series despite the massive hype.
Worst Game: Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified
2011 Loser: Thor
2010 Winner: Iron Man 2
The good news: SEGA did not make a mockery out of The Avengers. The bad news: this game. In what was supposed to sell PS Vita units and gather third party support, Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified dropped the ball and then some. While Black Ops II won over fans and critics alike, nobody dug this spin-off port that looks and feels older than the original Medal of Honor on PlayStation 1. It's single player lacks detail, has awful AI, and consists of under 4 hours of gameplay. The multiplayer is a bit better, but it is still lacking and is unacceptable under the series' standard. COD BLOPS Declassified sucks and is worthy of this "award".
Best Surprise: Assassin's Creed III's Naval Gameplay
2011 Winner: Rayman Origins
Every Assassin's Creed fan such as myself had a mile long list of what they were excited for in ACIII. Meeting George Washington! Bayonets! Exploring Boston! Climbing trees! But nobody was expecting anything out of the naval gameplay, which turned out to be one of the game's brightest highlights. In replacing Revelations's boring tower defense, ACIII offered a brand new gameplay experience that let you captain a vessell into war on the raging seas filled with enemies hell bent on sinking your ship. You steer, command attacks, manage the sails, and collide ships to enter a battle on foot with the enemy. I was blown away by how it all felt smooth and relatively flawless. It was easy and challenging when it needed to be, leading to some adrenaline fueled moments at sea. Assassin's Creed III kicked ass (for me anyways), and the naval gameplay was a huge reason why. I hope Ubisoft takes this concept and does a pirate spin-off next!
Best Atmosphere: Assassin's Creed III
2011 Winner: Batman Arkham City
2010 Winner: Red Dead Redemption
I am a sucker for great atmospheres in games. It can be the difference between a good game and a great game for me. I love taking my time in each level and exploring every inch of an open world. I can respect the time and effort the developer put in to make the game come to life, feel like a real place, and look beautiful. Assassin's Creed III is a perfect example. The ACIII map is huge and consists of four very different areas: The frontier, Boston, New York, and Connor's homestead we built from the ground up. Boston and New York look authentic to their time period and full of rich history, you can feel both cities breathe. The frontier is truly remarkable however. Keep in mind that this isn't nature's beauty, but a team full of talented developers that put in the overtime to make the game look nice. There are conveniently placed trees for your traversal, mountains just begging for you to climb and explore them, hills of plains that pull you into the time period, and forts that must be studied twice before you engage them. The animals, the soldiers, the town folk, the landscape, and the famous landmarks all add up to one amazing atmosphere I will never get enough of.
Best Multiplayer: N/A
2011 Winner: Assassin's Creed Revelations
2010 Winner: Battlefield: Bad Company 2
I'm done with multiplayer until it is reinvented. Deathmatches, search and destroys, buddy team-ups, and free for alls get boring. I almost gave it to Borderlands 2 by default because it looks cool and gathered massive acclaim. But really, why? What does it do differently than Borderlands 1? Does it change the way we think about multiplayer? No and no. Sure it's solid and all, but it travels a beaten path I'm tired of walking. I haven't played multiplayer in over a year with exception of a few rounds of Assassin's Creed III, which is cool and all, but it is the exact same thing as Revelations but slightly worse. This award as a whole is a loser. Developers need to stop throwing in pointless multiplayer in to games for no reason (I'm looking at you Tomb Raider) and stop rehashing what they did last year. Playing online with friends and strangers is fun, but it hasn't been for a while now thanks to the lack of innovation.
Best Moment: Burning Down Hoyt's Drugs in Far Cry 3
2011 Winner: inFamous 2 Endings
2010 Winner: Call of Duty: Black Ops Russian Roulette
Far Cry 3 is absolutely filled with adrenaline pumping, epic, badass, powerful, and insane moments. It's a game like no other in that regard, you just do not know what the hell you are going to do next. Free falling out of a chopper is crazy, taking down an entire base of pirates with nothing but melee attacks is badass, the hallucinations are crazy, and every encounter with Vaas is intense. But no moment in FC3 was better than when you first get your hands on a flamethrower and set fire to the main villain's drug field and the pirates trying to stop you. It's very powerful, the fire animations look great, and the background music adds to the effect. But it'd not really the pyromaniac fun that makes the moment great, it's getting even with the villain who kidnapped your friends. What also makes it great is that the main character is not used to violence at first, like any of us would act (I hope). But as time goes on, he gets a sick feeling of rush and pride as he kills each enemy. The transformation is perfect and when he realizes the animal he has become towards the end of the game, you can't help to feel guilty with him. An excellent moment in the game full of moments.
Best DLC: Harley Quinn's Revenge - Batman: Arkham City
2011 Winner: Batman Beyond Skin - Batman: Arkham City
2010 Winner: Undead Nightmare - Red Dead Redemption
While I agree that this story continuation diminishes the value of perhaps the best ending of a video game ever, it was still awesome to be playing more Batman. And Robin too! A nice treat for the fans, even if it should have left Joker's story alone and tackled a different villain.
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Well that took much longer than I anticipated, sorry if there's a few misspellings or awkward sentences towards the end, I'm beat tired. College takes a lot out of a hard working student. ZZZ. Thanks for reading and please comment 
- Dylan
15 comments
1 Like 
best multiplayer choices Halo 4, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, Call of Duty Black Ops 2, which one do you chose?
@Gamer1985 Probably Borderlands 2, if I had to. It's cool to play co-op with friends, but you could do that in Borderlands 1. THAT was original and fun, Borderlands 2 just offers more of the same.
Far Cry 3 should have been single player only, Halo 4 isn't as good as Halo 3 (nor does it do anything new), BLOPS 2 is better than MW3, but none of the others.
Like I said, I think multiplayer is in a really bad, rehashed place right now. I hope the next gen does something to reinvent it like GoldenEye, Halo, and COD4 did.
1 Like fun list - I was surprised by the challenge in the Naval battles, it was tougher than expected!
1 Like Yeah RE6 was a big let down. Capcom really screwed it up with that one. There was just nothing fun about it.
1 Like I have to agree with you on Resident Evil 6, the game felt too far devoid of what made it a great series, and the quick time events really brought down the experience for me. I was hoping for a bit more control during certain events.
1 Like that was a great part in Far Cry 3, and Resident Evil 6 was disappointing i have played all the RE games and is one of my favourite series RE2 being my favourite but i was still able to enjoy RE6 for what it was an action game.
i can't wait for The Last of Us it looks Amazing!!!!
1 Like I seem to be one of the few people who was underwhelmed by the naval missions in AC3. Most of them were far too short and far too simple to make me care much about them, and while the mechanics and overall atmosphere of the combat was solid and engaging, they lacked depth. How come I couldn't do something like taking out the sails of an enemy ship and then ramming into them so that I could jump on their vessel, kill their captain, and collect some treasure as a reward? Things like that could have spiced up the gameplay, but instead the only thing you can do most of the time is choose your type of shot and then alternate between broadsides and swivel guns until the enemy ship is sunk.
I get your point about multiplayer. It's usually the same nowadays and it's been a while since there has been any innovation for it. The last example of a game with truly different multiplayer would be Journey, however it's not a game for people who are obsessed with constant action and K/D ratios. It's more about subtle storytelling, isolation, companionship, scope, and emotion. If you can get "into it", then you realize how well the multiplayer/co-op works. If not, you'll likely be bored.
Anyway, good blog here.
1 Like Too tired for any attempt at wittiness or observation. Good concept. Good execution.
I liked reading this.
1 Like The jury's still out for me on Assassin's Creed III. I can sort of get behind every one of its qualities that you've mentioned, but something about the experience still felt lacking compared to the others. I suppose my main problem with the game is that it felt like it had no real core. The Homestead and naval missions are clearly side activities, but even basic gameplay systems like freerunning and combat feel like diversions. The problem with that is that there's no centralized experience left (other than the story, perhaps) to divert from. As a collection of cool ideas and mechanics, AC3 is pretty brilliant, but as a cohesive, anchored game, it feels sort of empty.
I also loved the pot burning sequence in Far Cry 3. I even thought Skrillex's Damian Marley remix was a perfect bit of music to use during the mission.
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