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After putting nearly 80 hours into Skyrim, I feel informed enough to give a quality review. Having said that, I could very likely double that amount of time with the quests I have left to do. So I can’t honestly say that I’ve experienced everything this massive game has to offer, but I have experienced all of its core systems and hope that will be enough to give you a fair and informed opinion.

Five and half years after Oblivion, three years after Fallout 3, Bethesda has finally made their triumphant return to video games with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As technically impressive as those games were when they released, there’s really no contest when compared to Skyrim. Not only is this game world much bigger than its predecessors, it also feels more alive because of an ecology of dragons, giants, mammoths, and dozens of other creatures. And every nook that those beasts find their way into is so unique and visually stunning that you’ll wonder how you ever trudged through Oblivion‘s cookie-cutter dungeons. Every inch of Skyrim begs to be explored so it can tell its story. Like every other Bethesda game, those stories tend to involve crippling bugs, weak characterization, terrible AI, and simplistic combat, but the sheer immersion offered by this colossal world where you can essentially do or be anything you want whenever you want makes Skyrim an unforgettable experience.

Breaking the studio’s tradition of opening in a dungeon of some sort that eventually leads to your first jaw-dropping glimpse of the world at large, Skyrim kicks off out in the open with a wagon ride into a nordic village that’s got a chopping block with your name on it. It’s also being kept warm for Ulfric Stormcloak–leader of a rebellion against the Imperials. Good thing for you, Ulfric’s got some friends in high places and just as your head settles into the bloody stone, a dragon–the first one in ages–swoops in to wreak havoc on the village. The fire-breather’s merciless destruction of just about every building in sight gives you a chance to escape, and from there, you’re free to aid the Stormcloaks or Imperials in their civil war, follow the main story-line to quell the dragon crisis, join up with various guilds, get married, chop wood, become the world’s greatest cheese thief, or anything else you can think of.

What’s truly impressive is that you’ll set out on most of your adventures not because some NPC told you to, but out of an insatiable compulsion to explore all the beauty Skyrim has to offer. With mysterious and ancient monuments shimmering on the horizon, imposing fortresses bordering that bridge you want to cross, icy crevices diving into hidden cities, and so on, there isn’t a game out there that can distract you as well as Skyrim can. And I mean that in the best possible way; delaying the task at hand for what turns out to be an hour long trek through a dank, cobwebbed hideout of vampires can be more rewarding than pushing the plot forward. And it’s precisely because every seemingly trivial cave or fort or campsite is so finely detailed, so distinct from everything else, that exploration comes so naturally. This is to say nothing of the dozens of bustling cities and scenic villages that fill out the landscape. There’s just so much to see in Skyrim–all with its own unique flavor that still manages to conform to a greater aesthetic–that it can feel like the real world sometimes.

Of course, if you take the time to look at textures up close, you’ll ruin the illusion; a game this big simply can’t look cutting edge under the microscope. But Skyrim is a game about the sum of its parts, and when everything’s moving together the way it should, the cold, stony, nordic setting is downright breath-taking. It’s easy to get caught up in Skyrim’s majestic version of the Aurora Borealis, but a dragon’s semi-stiff animations might detract if you let them; the swirling snowdrifts of the north can really place you in the storm, but poorly lit conversations with NPCs can pull you back out. In short, Skyrim isn’t the best looking game out there, but its pervasive and varied art direction never fails to make you feel like a mighty hero risking life and limb by adventuring through grimy sewers or crumbling tombs.

The sound effects also go a long way in establishing that immersion. Whether you’re wielding a sword, ax, mace, or shield, the clangs of combat are always weighty and lethal. The blood-letting sounds especially gruesome when the camera pulls out for special Fallout 3 style kill animations. These slow-mo stabbings and bludgeonings are doled out with moderation, making the squish of an fatal entry wound all the more effective. They usually take place in third-person, but occasionally go in for slick first-person kills that feel really satisfying. And if you’re not hearing battle up close, the twang and thwick of a bow and arrow should satisfy your aural senses from range. But nothing’s more exciting to the ear than the crackles and whooshes of high-powered magic. Casting different spells from each hand can really feel like conducting an orchestra of mayhem sometimes.

The score is equally engaging with its deep drum rolls, exultant horns, and commanding chorus; it really echoes the nordic culture of honor and glory. The only place that Skyrim‘s audio really falls short is in the voice acting department, where roughly half a dozen actors do the voices of every character in the game, and poorly at that. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, you’ll want to punch every NPC in the face if you have to talk to them for more than twenty seconds because the lines are delivered so lazily. Frankly, Bethesda should be embarrassed to have released such shoddy, repetitive work. And the few times when you actually want to hear what someone’s saying, it’s not uncommon for background music or NPCs to completely overpower the character you’re talking to. This can get annoying during important story moments. Along those same technical lines, you can expect frequent framerate drops, texture pop-in, and more than a few freezes. At least there are some funny bugs and glitches to balance all the frustration out.

For better or worse, Bethesda’s particular brand of RPG has never been about characters and an emotional story. Bethesda games put you in a sandbox and let you fill in your own story while choosing to play virtually any kind of character you can dream up. Skyrim is no exception. The joy of exploration is the real draw of the game, with combat simply giving you something to do while you dive deeper into the world’s rich history, both written and waiting to be discovered. And in a true feat of world-building, that rush of discovery never gets old. There are so many different kinds of enemies that all inhabit their own distinct regions that you might run into new ones dozens of hours into the game. At higher difficulties, different foes can require different tactics, but at the default setting, you may as well be invincible by level 20 (which isn’t that high).

Among the bandits, trolls, giants, witches, wild beasts, werewolves, vampires, and more that you’ll encounter, the headliner has to be dragons. The first time you’re just strolling around some swamplands or plains or mountains and a random dragon swoops down to light your horse on fire, it’s pretty frickin’ awesome. It’s even more insane when villagers run out to help you fight the monster or when you simply come across a dragon already fighting with a giant and his herd of mammoths. Everything about it feels really organic, even if close observation of the AI makes it seem anything but natural. But when you actually man up and go in for the fight, you’ll find that dragons are perplexingly weak creatures that rarely offer a challenge. Whether you’re facing a fire dragon or a frost dragon, they just aren’t nearly as intimidating as those in Dragon Age. And as long as I’m inviting that comparison, it sure would have been nice to have some special kill animations for Skyrim‘s ticket-seller.

The only thing that ever makes a dragon fight difficult is when they’re flying around and evading your hits (this is actually the premise of one of the most poorly designed boss fights I’ve ever encountered). Thankfully, at a certain point in the main storyline you gain access to a special “shout” that can ground the beasts for some quality strikes. But that’s not the only shout. Because your character is a “dragonborn” with dragon blood in his or her veins, you have the ability to “speak” the dragon tongue. Turns out that their conversations usually come down to breathing fire or wind or ice, becoming ethereal, calming animals, conjuring lightning storms, etc, etc. There are dozens of shouts to learn in the game, all unique and all with varying degrees of power that can be mastered. They’re essentially magical attacks that don’t use up any magic, but they’re all kept in check with recharge timers. They can generally help you out of a tight spot when standard attacks aren’t doing the trick, but they never feel especially powerful.

As for those standard attacks, don’t expect many changes from Oblivion. It is true that combat has been reworked so that each hand controls one attack–giving you a wide array of options like dual wielding, dual casting for more powerful spells, a balance of melee and magic, or two-handed heavy weapons–but at its core, you’re still just hacking away without much thought. The animations are slightly better than its predecessor, but they certainly don’t compare with most other Fantasy RPGs. And don’t even think of playing in third-person, because then the comparisons get really embarrassing.

But the combat’s not nearly as bad as the tacked on puzzle-solving you’ll find throughout. Some of it is intentional, like doors that can only be unlocked by arranging stone icons in specific arrangements. The first time you encounter one of these you’ll probably be very lost because without any indication whatsoever, the developers expect you to use a zoom feature to closely examine the key to the door. Hidden away on the underside, as tiny as can be, is the order you’re supposed to use. At least you know better for the rest of the stone puzzles, but that still doesn’t make them any more interesting. Then there are the unintentional puzzles; by that I mean that vital chains and levers are so frequently hidden in ridiculously stupid nooks and crannies that you might mistakenly think a door is glitched shut. I mean, I looked for these things, hard, with night vision on. I still couldn’t find them until I went online and watched videos. It’s certainly not the case for every dungeon, but it happens enough to become a problem. Maybe a hint system could have helped. Or maybe friendly AI that doesn’t just stand in the way with a dumbfounded look on its face.

Where Skyrim makes up for its less than visceral combat is with its breadth of supplemental systems. Fighting gets a lot easier once you start crafting and upgrading your own weapons and armor. Then again, if you don’t want to spend points in the Smithing or Enchanting skill trees, you can always invest in Alchemy to coat your weapons with poison and fortify your own attributes. Or you can avoid combat all together and go the stealth route with Sneak, Lockpicking, and Pickpocketing skills. The point is that you can play how you want, and no matter what path you choose, the systems you’ll use are deep and rewarding. As long as you can find the materials–various metals and leather for Smithing, wild ingredients for Alchemy, etc–you can forge your own equipment. Your abilities at lower levels can be disappointing, but after enough investment in any particular tree, you can start to do really cool stuff.

For example, I invested heavily in Smithing, Enchanting, and Heavy Armor (among others). I crafted my own armor, took a potion to temporarily boost my Smithing skill even more, and upgraded it to “Legendary” levels. I then proceeded to enchant it with magical properties that I derived from destroying magical loot I’d found throughout the world. And in my Heavy Armor tree, I invested in a perk that allowed my unarmed attacks to add my gauntlets’ armor bonus modifier. Because my particular race (Khajiit) starts out with an extra 15 damage for unarmed attacks and my handcrafted armor is so good, my unarmed attacks became significantly more effective than any weapons I came across for a good portion of the game. But then I decided that I wanted to use a sword instead, and before long, I was deadlier than ever.

Conversely, you might invest heavily in Speechcraft and open up economic benefits that I haven’t. You could buy the best equipment at every shop and get by that way. It really is up to you how you want to play. And thanks to some thoughtful streamlining, leveling up and investing in skills is easier than ever. Rather than gaining arbitrary “experience points” and then spending them in a menu, you get better at everything you do by doing it. Wear light armor a lot? You’ll become more effective with it. When enough of your skills have advanced, your character’s general level will go up, giving you the option to upgrade your health, magic, or stamina. After you do that, you get to pick a “perk” from any skill tree you want. Better perks require a higher level in that particular skill, but since each skill increases the more you use it, it’s easy to unlock the coolest perks for things that you actually use. The perks themselves have a wide range of effects, with some simply making your armor or weapons X% more effective, and others doing cool stuff like disintegrating enemies with low health if you use electrical magic on them. You can even save your perk points for later if the specific perk you want isn’t available yet. It’s a really smart, rewarding system that’s all packed into an aesthetically pleasing, if not somewhat difficult to navigate menu.

That menu literally plots your progress as constellations in a colorful, stardust infested sky; it looks wonderful. The other menus are surprisingly minimalist in comparison. In fact, navigating to your inventory or map or magical powers looks so clean and modern that it feels inconsistent with the rest of the game. It’s not a real issue, but the actual navigation can be a bit counter-intuitive at times. Going to your menu takes you to a sort of central hub where you can navigate in four directions to get to where you’re going, and then you proceed from there. It works fine, but for some reason, once you’re in a sub-menu, pressing B or O like you would in any other game menu on the face of the Earth takes you out completely and puts you back in the game world; you always have to use the directional control, sorting through varying levels of sub-menus to get back to the hub. Once again, it’s not a huge issue, but it’s a recurring problem that many gamers will never get used to.

Similarly, there’s a “Favorites List” that serves as a sort of quick pause for hot keys. Most developers have come to realize that consoles are best fit for radial menus that can easily display close to a dozen hot options that can be selected in seconds flat. Skyrim, on the other hand, simply offers a vertical list of things that you can favorite in the main menus. There’s no limit to what you can add to the list (as far as I know), but anything more than five requires scrolling up and down a list (with no continuous scroll) where you can easily mistake one favorite for another. Furthermore, this list provides no information what so ever on what you’re selecting, so you might accidentally select a shout thinking you’ve selected magic. You also can’t tell how much damage anything does from this menu. For that matter, the main menus aren’t particularly informative either; you’ll have to memorize which weapons are one or two handed based on name alone, which isn’t as easy as you’d hope. They also lack crucial sort features, making it a real pain with all of the weight-induced micro-management that’s required.

Ah, yes, inventory management. Some consider it a hall mark of Elder Scrolls games. What would we do without it? While I do agree that it shouldn’t be axed entirely and that it does add a lot of depth to the game, I simply can’t stand spending ten minutes figuring out what I want to drop three separate times in one dungeon. Maybe if there were some auto-sort features that showed what armor configuration is best, or if there were even a simple weight sort or value sort, maybe then it wouldn’t be such an issue. But instead you’ll be spending a lot of your time paused in menus. And when you finally get back to town to sell all of your loot (with the exception of the stuff found in Dwemer ruins, most loot isn’t worth keeping), you’ll find that most shop keepers don’t have nearly enough gold to buy your goods. It’s not uncommon to travel to multiple cities so you can make some money and get back down to your regular weight.

Rounding out your time in menus is the quest log, which quickly fills with dozens of tasks if you don’t manage it carefully. It’s easy enough to deactivate quests so you only have what you’re looking for on your navigation bar, but it’s not so easy to know what you should deactivate. Some quests initially appear as full-fledged side quests or main quests, while others fall under the “miscellaneous” category. Most of the time, miscellaneous quests are simple fetch or kill missions that are procedurally generated to always take you to unexplored dungeons. You do the deed, get paid, and then do some more if you want (the generation is unlimited). However, for some reason, many full-fledged side quests start out in the miscellaneous menu, so you can never really be sure what’s worth ignoring and what could lead to one of the game’s most memorable quests. Why? I couldn’t tell you. But at least there’s in-depth stat tracking so you can keep count of how many innocent souls you’ve slaughtered in trivial fetch quests for fear of passing up narrative material.

Silent monks make for memorable characters, right?

So if the combat’s so simplistic and easy, the pacing is bogged down by an overabundance of micro-management, and the menus are under-informative, it must be a gripping narrative that drives you forward and compels you to keep playing, right? Well, not exactly. Skyrim‘s main story certainly isn’t bad; in fact, it’s pretty epic. But in all likelihood, you won’t be able to remember more than two or three characters’ names a month after you beat the game. Bethesda just doesn’t do interesting characters. Everybody’s an archetype and that’s just the way it is. That’s something that most video games are guilty of, but fortunately for other games, they usually have some semi-interesting set-pieces and halfway decent mission design. Skyrim certainly has some opportunities for awesomeness (there’s a part where you ride a dragon, but you don’t actually get to see or play this), but it doesn’t capitalize on any of them. When put up against some of the more interesting team-based stuff BioWare has been doing with their core missions in recent years, Skyrim‘s “go here, kill this in the same way that you’ve killed everything else, and don’t break a sweat doing it” philosophy is rather disappointing.

Thankfully some of the guild arcs offer more interesting experiences. For me personally, the funnest way to play Elder Scrolls games is stealth, and the Thieves Guild offers plenty of that. It doesn’t really compare to Oblivion‘s Thieves Guild questline (that finale was gold), but it’s still good. More action-oriented gamers will probably enjoy the Companions line, which is essentially Skyrim‘s version of the Fighter’s Guild. This arc is actually better than its predecessor’s, with some cool werewolves to boot. Having said that, being a werewolf isn’t nearly as awesome as being a vamp in Oblivion because they’re super weak, but hey…you know. There’s also the Dark Brotherhood, the College of Winterhold (i.e. Mage’s Guild), a civil war that lets you choose between two sides that are both a bunch of fatheads, and dozens of non-guild questlines or one-off quests. Personally I haven’t run into anything as memorable as Oblivion‘s “A Brush with Death” or “Whodunit?” but I’ve still got a whole lot of side quests to do.

Skyrim is a bit of a conundrum. When looking at it objectively, it’s filled with major and minor glitches, the load times are super long, the combat mechanics are simplistic and grow boring due to lack of challenge, there’s way too much micro-management, there aren’t any particularly memorable quests in the 80 hours I’ve played, it doesn’t do much to push the genre forward in terms of mechanics, and it’s just way too big and unfocused for a healthy adult to enjoy without sacrificing other parts of his or her life (in case this sprawling review didn’t reflect that enough for you). But I love it. I want to play another 80 hours. I want to start new games with different character types. I want to do these things because excepting its predecessors, there aren’t any other games that offer so much freedom in such immersive worlds. Skyrim takes my obsessive compulsive personality’s favorite aspect of RPGs–exploration–and builds an entire game around it. The size and depth of its beautifully crafted game world raises the bar for all other open world games, and realistically, with PC mods, you could play this game for years without getting sick of it. Just don’t stop to compare individual parts to other games, because it’s not Bethesda’s M.O. to do any one thing better than anybody else. They’re a company devoted to the big picture, and Skyrim is a picture that will stay in your head for a long, long time.

"Hold on: I've got to brew a lil' somethin' somethin' to keep from getting distracted."

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Another year, another reflective diary entry on how many social opportunities I sacrificed for video games…wait, that’s not right! No: this is a celebration of what has probably been the best year of games since 2007. So let’s get down to business and start with the InsaneBear tradition of looking back on the previous year’s games and re-evaluating our opinions in hindsight.

As infallible as I’d like to think my criticism is, time has mellowed my venom toward two titles–Alan Wake and Red Dead Redemption. The first is an incredibly atmospheric game with interesting and unique characters, but its gameplay isn’t nearly as innovative as the developers would have you believe. In fact, it really lacks variety and struggles to separate itself from other Third Person Shooter formulas. That said, I’ve amended Alan Wake from a score of “Mediocre” to “Meh.” As for Red Dead, it’s a great Rockstar game, which is a bit of a back-handed compliment if you know me; the game world might be the most immersive I’ve ever occupied and the writing rivals that of Hollywood’s best films, but the game half of the equation is riddled with too many problems to be excused. But looking back, Rockstar’s faithful recreation of the wild west and its majestic vistas is memorable enough to move on up from “Meh” to “Good.” Still, none of these changes affect InsaneBear’s

2011 2010 Game of the Year – In my opinion, Halo: Reach has only pulled further away from the next closest competitor, BioWare’s Mass Effect 2. I have played XBLA Puzzle-Platformer Limbo since last year’s awards and that enters the debate for its haunting visuals, devilishly fun puzzles, and being one of the best examples of how to tell a meaningful story using the strengths of the video game medium, but there’s really no question in my mind that Reach was the best gaming experience of 2010. I think that the level of customization that’s not only present, but actually encouraged in its finely tuned multiplayer modes will be remembered for years to come. The campaign is really solid, but it’s the love-letter to that split-screen gamer hiding deep in our hearts that makes Reach the pinnacle of multiplayer FPSs on consoles, even today. I can’t write about this game without wanting to put a LAN together.

Now let’s stop reminiscing about 2010 and reminisce about 2011 with our ten GotY candidates instead. It is the great pastime of gamers, after all…

Bastion – Every year there’s at least one downloadable game that combines the daring indie mentality with AAA presentation and gameplay for a truly memorable experience, and Supergiant Games’ debut title is just that. With some of the most artistically impressive visuals and audio of any game this year and deceivingly simple Action-RPG combat to go with a tightly written story about the cost of progress, Bastion has stuck with me like Limbo or Braid–that is to say, more than most big budget retail games.

Batman: Arkham City – Drawing on the strengths of its predecessor–one of 2009′s best games–this follow-up to Batman: Arkham Asylum improves on the best melee combat in video games, sets it in a chillingly authentic open-world slice of Gotham, and lets you glide around with the ease and excitement of Spider-man 2‘s web slinging. And is it possible to watch those divine combat animations without hailing the developers at Rocksteady as gods among men?

Dead Space 2 – Horror games seem to be a bit of a dying breed lately, and while Dead Space 2 is a little more action oriented than its superb predecessor, the shrieks and gurgles of disfigured necromorphs lurking in the dark certainly qualify as scary in my book. But what really sets Visceral Games’ second effort apart this year are the heart-pounding set-pieces, breathtaking lighting effects, and fantastically paced upgrades that give a great sense of progression. Oh, and the man vs. monster multiplayer is wicked fun.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Few games in this generation of linear, set-piece driven Action romps offer the kind of choice and freedom found in Eidos Montreal’s Deus Ex prequel. Building off of its predecessors’ design principles, nearly every obstacle in Human Revolution can be approached from multiple schools of play, meaning every player’s Sci-Fi adventure should be satisfyingly different, whether they’re a stealthy spook, a silver-tongued fox, or a cyborg bad ass that punches through walls. A distinct visual aesthetic and score help this game to stand out as especially unique in this copy-cat age of gaming.

Gears of War 3 – The series that has defined the Xbox 360 since its inception in 2006 concludes with this monument to multiplayer mayhem. Four player campaign co-op, five on five competitive matches that feel different from every other Shooter on the market, a Tower-Defense evolution of the super addictive Horde mode, and a Beast mode that puts you in the hulking flesh of berserkers and corpsers to smash the living daylights out of the COG all add up to the funnest Gears in the franchise. Plus, it’s all packed into one of the best looking games on the 360.

L.A. Noire – Like most other Rockstar games, this seedy trip through the corruption of 1940′s L.A. features some of the most authentically developed characters and dialogue in video games. The open world does a very good job of establishing the time and place and manages to make you feel like a real detective in the process. Reading suspects’ faces in interrogations isn’t always easy, but it’s a unique mechanic that puts Noire‘s superb facial animations to practical use and sets it apart from the run ‘n’ gun of most other games these days.

Mortal Kombat – Fighting games don’t always get the recognition they deserve from the masses, but this latest entry in the Mortal Kombat series is accessible enough for anyone to enjoy while also offering a good dose of nostalgia for veteran fans. The violence has been raised to comical levels (or nausea-inducing, depending on your sensibilities), and the campaign is so much deeper and more developed than anything else the genre has ever seen that this will inevitably become the bar which other Fighters are measured against. Then of course there are the hundreds of off-the-wall Challenge Tower trials and the always fun split-screen matches.

Portal 2 – It’s hard enough to live up to the standard of a classic, genre-defining predecessor, but this sequel surpasses its parent game in almost every way. Thinking with portals is as fun as ever, but Valve adds a half dozen new tools to solve puzzles with, and the end result is a much more varied and fresh game that still gives a mental challenge more rewarding than just about any other. Throw in a thrilling story with the likes of Cave Johnson, potato-GLaDOS, and Wheatley and you’ve also got one of the funniest, most well written narratives in video game history. Oh, and there’s co-op that actually complicates the fundamental gameplay in a significant, yet logical way.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (review pending) – Bethesda’s triumphant return to Tamriel is the sort of technical marvel that will be remembered for years to come. It has unquestionably changed what’s expected of open world games with an unbelievable variety of environments and dungeons that are quite literally jaw-dropping in their beauty, an organic ecology of wildlife ranging from rabbits to dragons, and the freedom to approach its living world however you so choose. And it’s all served with a healthy side of engaging story, whether you find it in the main quest or one of the dozens of meaty side quests.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception – The masters of cinematic set-piece action brought us a fiery chateau, a capsizing cruise-liner, and a 20,000ft in-flight cargo plane evacuation among other things in 2011, and somehow Nathan Drake managed to overcome more internally bruised organs than we ever thought possible to still get a few quips in. Co-op and competitive fisticuffs round the package out.

Honorable Mentions – Games that I should have played but didn’t…

Battlefield 3 – Fully destructable buildings and vehicular combat make this the cream of the Military Shooter crop.

Catherine – Trade in your guns for Cupid’s arrow in this mature exploration of romantic relationships and an everyday guy’s struggle with infidelity. Surreal nightmare puzzle sequences allow for metaphorical conflict resolution–something that Western developers can’t seem to wrap their heads around.

Dark Souls – By being the most challenging game of 2011, the sequel to RPG Demon’s Souls is consequently its most rewarding. It’s also graced by a distinct visual style and unique, weighty combat.

LittleBigPlanet 2 – If you can think it, you can do it in Sackboy’s user-generated playground. Advanced level creation tools allow for sampling in various genres, and you can even direct your own cut-scenes. Adorable audio and visuals pair with quality platforming to satisfy the less creative gamers out there.

Minecraft – It’s debatable how much of a game this actually is, but one thing is for certain, and that’s how fiendishly addictive gamers are finding the indie hit’s creation tools to be. Few games offer the power to forge whatever deranged fantasy world you want to.

Rayman Origins – An absurdly zany art direction and four player local co-op team with some of the most intensely satisfying platforming in years to finally offer an alternative to Nintendo’s stranglehold on the genre.

Star Wars: The Old Republic – It hasn’t even been out long enough for any proper critical opinions to surface, but the impression seems to be that by staying true to the KotOR name and focusing on story and character development above all else, BioWare’s MMO could have what it takes to compete with World of Warcraft in 2012.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – It’s looking like Nintendo’s Wii U will release in 2012, meaning that Skyward Sword could very well be the Wii’s swan song. Thankfully, it’s got everything you’d expect from a Zelda game and uses Wii Motion Plus for sword fights that are more precise than anything the system has seen before.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings – A dark, mature narrative that branches with more consequence than anything BioWare could ever hope to deliver is complimented by mouthwatering visuals and combat. This is the one game on this list that I want to play most; thankfully, it will be releasing on consoles in early 2012.

To the Moon – Without exposure on XBLA or PSN, To the Moon is one of those “indie indie” games that most people have never heard of. And while it leans more toward interactive fiction than an actual video game, the tale it weaves could be the most moving of the year. It just goes to show that photo-realism isn’t the key to engaging, emotional stories that get the tears rolling.

And now for some games that are especially memorable for different reasons…

Brink – Brink had a lot of cool ideas. Unfortunately, those ideas were so poorly executed that this was the first game I ever failed to finish reviewing after starting. Here: take a look at how far I got before the PTSD kicked in.

Score: Bad
Difficulty played on: Normal
Time to beat: 6 hours
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Loved the most: Objective-focused gameplay.
Hated the most: It is broken in every sense of the word.

Seamless integration of single-player and multiplayer, parkour-style mobility with a gun in your hand, class-based gameplay with a defining focus on player customization: these were the things promised by Brink, an FPS with intentions of shaking the stagnant genre up. Had developer Splash Damage succeeded in executing all of those grand ambitions, Brink would be far greater than the Team Fortress 2 rip-off many have labeled it as. Unfortunately, those foundational ideas are executed so poorly in the final product that it truly doesn’t even deserve the comparison. Brink is a game that’s so utterly broken that it’s hard to even imagine what the original vision was supposed to culminate in. All that can be known for sure is that this is not a fun game and there is no redeeming value to justify your time or money here. Brink is a bad game.

Duke Nukem Forever – Quite simply the single worst video game I have ever played. Don’t believe me? Just watch Ryan and I endure its crapitude in the last episode of Let’s Finish where innocence and happiness still existed in our virtual worlds.
Warning: watching Duke Nukem Forever may lead to feelings of extreme depression, and in rare cases, thoughts of suicide. Proceed at your own risk.

Stacking – I still remember the day I realized that Double Fine isn’t an endless factory of laughter and joy…it broke my heart.

But enough with the negative: let’s look to the good in 2011 with our official awards. With more and more HD remakes and remasterings coming out every year (totally thankful for that, by the way) I figure it’s high time we get a category to pay tribute to the year’s best. Some of these games are good enough to compete for Game of the Year, but I reckon that would be a little unfair, considering they’ve already had their shots. So let’s kick things off with InsaneBear’s

Best Remakes/Remasterings of 2011

Beyond Good & Evil HD – It doesn’t really add anything new to the original, but if you’ve never played that, $10 is a small price to pay for one of the best Action-Adventure games of all time.

Ico & Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection (review pending) – Shadow of the Colossus is widely hailed as one of the best games of all time not only for its artistic and introspective narrative but for its thoughtful, minimalist approach to game design. It’s a game that anybody who takes games seriously should play. Ico is the game that came before it–the game that Team ICO made its name with (har har). Finding an affordable copy of this cult classic in the West was a tall task before this must have collection hit store shelves.

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (review pending) – The original Metal Gear Solid is inexplicably missing, but with MGS 2, 3, and Peace Walker all receiving graphical upgrades, as well as control overhauls and more developed online features for the last two respectively, this is a collection that no MGS fan should miss. Peace Walker is an especially nice inclusion given its limited exposure on the PSP.

Best Biceps of 2011 – This was a tough year with a lot of competition for the title. We had the always ripped Batman flexing his goods for thugs and goons across Arkham City; there was the Cole Train chugging around the ole Thrashball field in Gears 3; and we can’t forget the mighty power of Goro’s many biceps and their penchant for literally tearing dudes in half in Mortal Kombat. But in a year like this, it seems like the right thing to do is to fall back on a classic–The Duke. Mr. Nukem might act like a thirteen-year-old boy, but he’s got the pipes of Hulk Hogan in his prime. He’s also got the in-game steroids to prove it.

Most Serenading Voice of 2011 – You know, when I throw these wacky “next year awards” out at the end of every year, it’s meant to be more of a joke than a serious category. But surprisingly, I didn’t even have to think about the winner of this special recognition. I can listen to Zia from Bastion‘s crooning ballads like Duke Nukem can pound beers on the fourth of July. Listen for yourself and let her song take you away.

Game of the Year Runner-Up – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

2011 Game of the Year – Portal 2
Skyrim is a very close second (very close), but in the end, Bethesda’s open world is a very flawed masterpiece; Portal 2 on the other hand, is one of the most fundamentally flawless games I’ve ever played. It’s accessible to everyone; it’s both funny and engaging on a narrative level; the gameplay has the proper balance of challenge and reward; and most importantly, it’s paced so perfectly that I can’t think of a single moment in the campaign where I got bored. Portal 2 is a game that developers of all genres should be studying for a better understanding of game design in general.

And that’s another year in the books–and a damned good one at that. The best part is that 2012 is looking just as good. If we take just a second to look past all the copy-cat Shooters out there then it’s clear to see that we’re living in a golden era for video games. Perhaps the Wisest Character of 2012 will tell us just how good we have it at the end of next year.

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Here at InsaneBear, we try to hibernate through the winter whenever we’re not writing. But we always like to wake up this time of year to wish all of our readers a happy holiday and new year. Be sure to check in over the next week for our special Game of the Year podcast and official feature, and as always, keep enjoyin’ those vidja games!

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Concept Art - Muted realsim that progressively gives way to colorful stylization as the action gets hotter.

Introduction: K.I.A. is a Tactical Modern Military First-Person Shooter that seeks to explore the human cost of war through a morally ambiguous narrative and gameplay mechanics that reflect your character’s emotional state in varying degrees of exaggeration. Stepping into the boots of Private Jose Hernandez, you’ll undertake an odyssey of war that spares no women, children, or refugees. Along the way you’ll bond ever closer with your squad-mates over conversations of home, risky favors, and nerve-rattling combat. The eleven soldiers who fight by your side hail from varying backgrounds, but every one of them will come to be considered family to Pvt. Hernandez over the course of a harrowing global conflict. But can the men of Charlie squad save you from yourself?

Background: -Narrative arc that traces the bonds of Charlie squad from training to the end of the war inspired by Band of Brothers.
-First-Person cover system similar to that of Crysis 2‘s.
-Tactical squad-commands like those in Brothers in Arms.
-Vehicular combat comparable to Battlefield 3‘s.
-Some of the visual filters recall the stylized trappings of Killer 7 and Borderlands.

Description: K.I.A. is a game that aims to put you in the mind of a soldier from beginning to end. That’s why it starts at boot camp with your fellow soldiers. Not only will boot camp teach you all of the skills you need to navigate a HUDless world, it will allow you to begin bonding with your squad-mates. An innovative dialogue system that allows you to select passive, aggressive, or neutral responses (fully voiced) to NPC dialogue on the fly–without menu pop-ups or cut-scenes–drives organic character development throughout the game, whether conversations take place at the mess hall, amid the local night-life when you have leave, or even in the heat of battle.

After a short while of boot camp and training, you’ll get your first eye-opening taste of action. But this isn’t some trivial shooting gallery: your first kill is emotionally overwhelming and will become an integral part of the story that’s revisited in playable dreams and hallucinations. In fact, that entire first battle is frantically overwhelming. This is where K.I.A.‘s unique visual filter is introduced. When things are relatively calm, the visual style is very realistic, save for a muted color palate that makes things seem slightly off. But as the action gets more intense, especially when bullets start flying too close for comfort, the screen will begin to “bleed” colors. The bright red of blood and the burning yellow of muzzle flashes will begin to overpower the surrounding browns and greys, “bleeding” into their surroundings and becoming more exaggerated the longer you’re exposed to fire. Progressively, the realistic friends and enemies around you will morph into stylized figures not unlike the faceless foes of Killer 7. This drastic and dynamic aesthetic transformation visually echoes the adrenaline-fueled intensity of combat, thus bringing you closer to the mind of Private Hernandez.

But there’s also an advantage to living on the dangerous edge (besides the appealing color palate): over time, as you become more and more acquainted with the art of killing, your character will begin to revel in it. When the adrenaline starts pumping and the colors start bleeding, time will slow down just enough to give you an edge over your highly-trained enemies. However, it’s no guarantee that you’ll make it out of battle alive, and if it’s abused too often, Hernandez’s vision will start to blur in regular time, forcing him deeper into his bloodlust.

Of course all this is mostly an aesthetic twist on standard FPS gameplay. However, about midway through the campaign, you’ll be promoted and take on the responsibility of tactical squad-commands. Much like those in Brothers in Arms, you’ll be able to order two fire-teams in real time with simple suppressing fire and flanking maneuvers. Like that series, flanking and deft use of cover are necessary to victory in K.I.A. because of advanced enemy AI.

But if you want to learn more about your comrades’ pasts than is revealed in the main storyline, you can take on optional side quests that usually involve personal favors in between missions. These can always be skipped, but characters tend to open up more around base or when on leave, and the range of non-combat situations waiting to be explored hold much of the game’s humor.

In addition to K.I.A.‘s globe-trotting, emotionally gripping campaign, there’s also a full multiplayer suite with all of the expected modes. But there’s also a “Finish the Fight” mode that sets you in an online competitive campaign, where cumulative match results determine which faction controls which maps. If your faction controls a map, you gain some minor bonuses in combat, but not enough to rest your laurels on. This is a persistent war where every match helps the total effort to move across the global map and defeat the opposing faction. The war effort can also be extended with DLC. This mode is also unique because it utilizes the campaign’s squad-command feature by giving the most experienced player on each team the ability to set objectives and issue simple commands to the two (human) fire-teams under his control. Orders don’t have to be followed, but when they are more experience is rewarded and fighting generally goes smoother.

Key Features:-Mature, emotionally moving narrative that places you in impossible moral situations to expose the true cost of war.
-Dynamic visual filter system that exaggerates the swing of emotional states in a soldier’s life.
-Tactical squad-commands that enable more realistic, thoughtful combat.
-RPG-like side missions and character development.
-Real-time dialogue system that allows you to maintain movement and action while naturally communicating in any situation.
-No HUD, no cut-scenes, no switching between perspectives for cover; you are always immersed in the game world.

Genre: Tactical Modern Military First-Person Shooter

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

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Where's the honey?

Please, we encourage you to eat too much, drink too much, watch too much football, and generally just revel in excess. Just remember: genocide should never be celebrated, unless of course we’re talking about the genocide of turkeys.

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Concept Art - That's about right.

Introduction: Slayer takes all the action, drama, and comedy of Joss Whedon’s beloved Buffy the Vampire Slayer and puts it into a choice-driven Action-RPG set ten years after the destruction of Sunnydale. You play as one of the many potential Slayers who was awoken in the events of the series finale, and with none other than Giles as your personal Watcher, you must assemble your very own Scooby Gang to combat Buffy herself. An unidentified big bad has sired the most powerful Slayer the world has ever known and together they’re working to undo all the good that’s been done. You’ll encounter Angel, Spike, Willow and the rest along the way, but ultimately, only you can stop the vampire slayer turned vampire.

Background: -It’s a licensed game that draws from the universe of Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
-Rhythm-based combat similar in feel to Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Description: Ever since the Hellmouth in Sunnydale was closed, Buffy and her friends have been tracking Slayers across the world and training them in the ways of vampire fighting. But after years of building up this unified network of warriors and preventing many an apocalypse along the way, the group’s leader is mysteriously turned. Soulless and more powerful than ever, Buffy is hell bent on returning demons to power. Seeing how grim the situation is, Giles and Buffy’s friends do what has to be done and begin strategizing for the latest big bad, starting with their star pupil–you.

In Slayer, the man who taught Buffy like she was his own daughter takes you under his wing as your Watcher. While you may take orders from Giles, you have some choice in building your core of allies from eight unique NPCs with various talents. You can take up to three friends into battle with you at a time and assign others to research duties for combat bonuses, puzzle hints, and level short-cuts. But party members will only level up in tasks they do, so your bookworms could easily become kidnapping targets if you always leave them to research on their own (thus forcing a rescue mission if you want them back). Likewise, pure fighters won’t be much help if any cryptic puzzles come up in the midst of a mission.

When you are in the heat of battle, you’ll have an array of vampires, monsters, demons, and anything else that goes bump in the night to fight against. Combat involves highly choreographed brawling based on rhythmic attack combinations and counters. Some enemies can be taken down with your standard fists and stake, but others will require swords, axes, crossbows, and more. These weapons all alter the flow of combat in their own way and can satisfyingly dismember foes, but they also sap your stamina much quicker than simple stake fighting. However, once a weapon’s spilled enough blood, a wicca can exploit that primal power with enchantments and make the weapon more powerful.

But that’s not all they can do; party members include a variety of specialists including wiccas, half-demons, Slayers in training, and so on. In a fight, you can command your allies to use certain attacks or tactics, thus fully utilizing the trio of magic, melee, and ranged attackers.

Most important on your quest to save the world is the fact that you can dress your Slayer how you want, you can have her fight how you want, and you can have her speak the way you want. As you level up you can tweak your fighting style to suit several different melee approaches and the dialogue choices you make will have consequences in and out of missions. Relate more to Faith than to Buffy? Nothing’s stopping you from being a bad girl Slayer. Then again, maybe you’d like to see a wise-cracking Anya type with Slayer power. Or hey, you could even play like that one mentally unstable Slayer who cut Spike’s arms off (temporarily, of course) in Angel. It’s all about how you want to fight evil. Some Slayers might even be willing to make some compromises with Wolfram and Hart to get things done without so much violence.

All of this classic Action-RPG fun comes together in a dimension hopping, apocalypse-preventing, quip-filled adventure with the Whedonesque dramedy you love. All of your favorite characters, big and small, play roles ranging from plot-changing player (oh, you know Angel is going to get turned into Angelus at some point) to comedic cameo (there may or may not be a Clem side-quest that involves collecting kittens so he can get into a high-stakes poker game). Some friends will be lost, some hearts will be broken, and you’ll be taken for a ride that explores Giles and Buffy’s relationship in more depth than ever before, all in the name of saving the world.

Key Features: -Fully exploits the rich settings, characters, and monsters of the Buffyverse.
-Dialogue, side-quests, and more let you play as the style of Slayer you want to be.
-Assemble your personal team of allies in the fight against evil…and outdated fashion senses!
-Squad commands encourage tactical combat that fully utilizes each team member’s strengths.
-Fluid hand-to-hand combat that makes you feel like a truly powerful warrior.
-An arsenal of customizable and upgradable weapons for those times when a stake just isn’t enough.
-Witty and hilarious dialogue.

Genre: Action-RPG

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

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Concept Art - The starkly clean world of Mirror's Edge tainted by a renaissance of graffiti.

After a bit of a hiatus, circumstances have allowed for the return of InsaneBear’s “Pitching” feature, in which I conjure up a basic game concept and present it for my faithful readers to critique and compare against the current gaming landscape. What’s good or bad about this game? Which of its elements would you like to see in other games? These questions and more are an important part of “Pitching” that will allow us to create a meaningful dialogue on conventions of game design. Of course, the feature’s return is subject to reader response; so let us know if you’d like to see more like this or if you’d rather stick with InsaneBear’s traditional features!

Introduction: Tag is a parkour-based First-Person Action-Adventure that sees you change the world–with a can of spray paint. Set against the backdrop of a near-future Police-State where the fearful public willingly conceded their freedoms in the name of safety, government censorship has slowly eradicated freedom of speech and freedom of the press. But you’re one reporter who’s not afraid to do what’s right, and through your connections with an underground paper, you’ve positioned yourself to join a cell of political graffiti artists who’ve been sweeping the city with a physical message that a digital government is struggling to combat.
Plot your way to the tops of buildings, leave your mark, and try to escape the anti-graffiti task force. Forge your freedom.

Background: -Conceptually influenced by Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure and Exit Through the Gift Shop.
-First-Person parkour mechanics inspired by Mirror’s Edge.
-Tag designer workshop not unlike the Forza series’ intricate paint shops.
-Hoverboard sequences are designed to supplement the free-running parkour for a constant fluidity and inertia very similar in feel to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3.

Description: As a daring young journalist working for an underground paper, you’ve landed the story of a lifetime by gaining an exclusive interview with the head of a radical graffiti troop that the government has labeled as terrorists. The only catch is that you have to tag along on the troop’s missions for one year before you can print your story; the leader wants to ensure that his message is not misinterpreted, and he needs to know that he can trust you before he meets you face to face.

So you agree and become part of the group after you craft your personal tag and complete an initiation tagging. The crafting process is quite in-depth and allows you to create a virtually limitless number of designs using layered geometric templates like those found in Forza‘s paint shops. And what’s especially cool about the tag creator is that it imports the designs of every other player and populates your game-world with them, resulting in a dynamic virtual art gallery where the highest rated tags are placed in the most prominent locations around the city.

But the heart of the gameplay is made up of two elements: Puzzle-Platforming your way to the best tag locations and putting your fluid parkour skills to use in relentless escape sequences. The first half of the equation pits you against elaborate Platforming obstacles that require precision jumps and a strategic eye. Any mistakes could send your progress plummeting back down to where you started. And with a limited amount of time to reach your target, there’s a real choice to be made in whether you settle for lesser tag locations or risk going for the most visible.

Depending on how you choose, you’ll gain a certain amount of reputation points. These points can be spent learning skills from other members of the troop. Some members specialize in physical training and help you to run faster and jump farther, which grants access to parkour paths that many members are incapable of taking. Others specialize in spotting potential paths and can give you a “Parkour Sight” ability, which highlights the fastest path, the safest path, and hidden paths according to color. Lastly, there’s a group that specializes in gadgets, allowing you to use distracting smoke-bombs, grapple hooks that can save your life if you miss a jump, or even an upgraded coolant system on your hoverboard (very important if you plan on using it for more than ten seconds at a time).

All of these skills are very useful in the escape sequences that follow each tagging. The Anti-Graffiti Task Force doesn’t use lethal weapons unless they have to, but they’re perfectly willing to use net guns, bean-bag guns, and even tranquilizers. And being the well-funded agency that they are, they have no shortage of hoverboards, helicopters, or men to chase you down with. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop from twenty stories up with all of these highly trained agents chasing you becomes even more heart-pounding when you add in your hoverboard (or hi-jack one of theirs).

The hoverboard is a unique piece of technology that allows you to gain speed by gliding over railings and ledges or by hitting jumps and ramps for big air. You can even equip it mid-air to land with minimum friction and build up speed before you get to the next climbing obstacle, almost like stringing a combo together in a skateboarding game. The only catch is that the cheap boards available to the public overheat after ten seconds of use and require a 30 second cool down period. This means that a tight balance of running and boarding is required to maintain the seamless and constant motion necessary to escape your pursuers.

All of this intense action is set against a variety of thumping techno and hip-hop beats that feed into the rhythmic sense of motion and the graffiti culture. A gripping story of artistic expression combating the triviality of a “safe and civilized” culture caps things off.

Key Features: -Fluid and immersive First-Person Parkour action.
-Timed hoverboard allows you to keep the pace fast and string “combos” together.
-RPGish skill trees help you build a character that suits your play-style.
-No fatal combat.
-A deep an flexible Tag creator that lets you craft something unique and then populate other players’ worlds with it.
-A dope Trip-Hop soundtrack that drives the action and lends some authenticity to the graffiti culture being depicted.

Genre: First-Person Parkour/Action-Adventure

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

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