corruptedsave Games of 2011

This article was written as a contribution for “The First Ever SMPS.Net Games of the Year 2011 Thing” which you should really go and check out for a broad range of well-written lists covering many games, old and new. This article has had a typo corrected, screenshot captions added, and uses some different screenshots than it originally included, as well as a link to new a video of me playing Dark Souls.

A Possible Glimpse of Things to Come

Deus Ex: Human Revolution has great references sprinkled everywhere, rewarding exploration.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution doesn’t quite live up to the original game, but it was a respectable, thoughtful effort. While boss fights fell flat, the hacking, sneaking, and upgrading of abilities made for an enjoyable experience that could be a glimpse of bright, promising future for the franchise and gamers alike.

A non-tea-bag taunt in Monday Night Combat.

To say that Monday Night Combat is an intelligent game is an understatement as it mixed personality and gameplay to create a fun, balanced, and unique competitive multi-player game. Using sound to balance an invisibility cloak, or rewarding players for doing a scripted, non-offensive taunt to earn some money instead of tea-bagging are ideas that will hopefully permeate game design in the coming years.

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E3 2010 Reactions

The Good

The new Star Wars: The Old Republic cinematic was really cool...

But the reality is that TOR is a MMO, and while it looks promising, it's not that pretty.

This was initially under my radar, but Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is the only future PS3 game that has interested me.

Monday Night Combat looks as cool as ever, and Summer of Arcade can't start soon enough.

From what I've read about the gameplay of Deus Ex Human Revolution, I think I can afford some optimism here. It looks like Ghost in the Shell the game, which is a good thing.

What can I say? I loved Halo CE and Halo Reach looks like it will be returning to those same roots, but also with space battles.

The Bad

I'm sure Portal 2 is going to be a great game, but I already escaped Aperture Science's lab and turned Glados into a slag heap. I'd really rather not go back there, but I guess I have no choice.

Nostalgia Alert: I was excited when I heard that Golden Sun DS was on the show floor, but the visual aesthetic looks ugly. I can't help but feel that the charm of the original style is lost.