My Favorite Games of 2011... GO!

I’ve played a lot of games this year. When I say I’ve played a lot of games, I mean to say that I’ve played a LOT of games. Whether I tried something out for a better understanding to sell the game, or for my own curiosity. As 2011 comes to a close, I’ve compiled a list of my favorite games of the year. I will post each game individually to make it a bit easier to follow.

Maybe you share my favorites, or maybe you disagree and have a favorite of your own. If so, feel free to leave a comment on any of the games that will be posted over the next few days. For now, let’s delve into my favorites of 2011!

Motion Gaming... The Future?

I heard a rumor stating that the next Microsoft console will be 100% controller free. This means that motion gaming will be a thing of the future via Kinect. What do you gamers think about that? Are we that far into the next generation that you’d be willing to give up controller-based gaming?

I’ll be ready to drop my controller when I can play in something like Stark Trek or Tron. Playing with a controller has dominated the last forty-something years in the business. What if motion gaming took over? To me, it would be something if we could switch over to motion gaming, but we’d have to faze the controller out. It seems as though everyone wants to have some type of motion capability in their games from Forza 4 (Kinect) to Tiger Woods 12 (PS Move), and even in upcoming games like Metal Gear Solid Rising and Mass Effect 3.

Maybe it’s not just a bandwagon anymore like I originally thought it would be. Perhaps it’s the future of gaming, but how should developers move forward? From the games that have been fitted with motion control, do you think gaming is taking a step into the future or taking a turn for the worse? Thoughts, opinions?

DLC... the bane of my gaming existence!

From Red Dead Redemption to Alan Wake; Call of Duty to Halo, downloadable content can be quite irritating. Map-packs and weapon upgrades are a bit understandable, but are extra story missions necessary? Story missions are classified as extra content that tells a part of the story that was originally left out or added to lengthen the main campaign. It seems quite unnecessary, as well as costly. How many gamers have purchased a game and find that they are paying extra just to fill in the gaps? How many times have we been subjected to a full-price game that hasn’t been completed?

Any Assassin’s Creed title after the first one has at least a few story missions that are released after the actual game. Take AC: 2 for instance. They tell the story of how Ezio Auditore was involved in some influential events in history with Chapters 12 and 13. They also fill in the gaps between Chapters 11 and 14 in the main campaign. My problem with this is that Ubisoft clearly had an idea as to what they wanted to do with the story, yet they couldn’t add those two campaign chapters until later on. Wouldn’t that mean that the game is incomplete? If I buy a game at full price (games usually sell at $59.99), and play through the entire story mode only to realize that there are pieces missing…

Let me put it this way; If a new book came out, and the author chose to withhold three chapters in the hopes that readers will buy the next book just to see what happens; it doesn’t seem very cost effective for the reader, especially when the reader has to pay $30 for the initial book. Does that mean that they now have to pay an additional $15 just to flesh out the plot? I’ll continue for those of you who still don’t get it.