Welcome to the ZTGD Reviewer Rodeo. Each week, we’ll grab on to the hottest issue, hold on for dear life, and wrassle it to the ground.
Here we are at the mid-way point of 2011. It’s only fitting that we weigh in on our Game of the Year contenders from the first six months.
John “Dubya” Whitehouse
It seems crazy that we are already at the halfway mark for the year. So many great titles have already been released, with so many more to look forward to as we approach the ‘silly season’!
Without a shadow of a doubt, my top game so far this year is inFAMOUS 2. Having just finished it I was so impressed with the way they had improved on the 1st game. With cooler powers (even for ‘Good’ Cole), a fantastic story and more varied side missions, it really did hook me in. Another fantastic game that will no doubt be a real contender for GOTY is LA Noire. A real powerhouse in new tech and an engrossing story makes LA Noire stand out. It also featured a fresh approach to gameplay, that made it different from other Rockstar games. But those games are just the tip of the iceberg, the first half of the year also saw some shining stars such as; Portal 2, Dirt 3, Crysis 2, Dead Space 2 and Mortal Kombat.
Seeing as we are celebrating half the year, I will give you half of my Top Ten as it stands so far…
1. inFAMOUS 2
2. LA Noire
3. Dirt 3
4. LittleBigPlanet 2
5. Portal 2
But we must not forget that although 6 months have past, we have another 6 to go. With releases like Batman: Arkham City, Modern Warfare 3, FIFA 12, Battlefield 3 and Uncharted 3 all still to come, this year may prove one of the best for gamers in a long time.
Drew “Frustrated Fury” Leachman
Killzone 3
This is my Call of Duty. I got out of shooters about 3 years ago and I’ve slowly tried to get back into them. Without a doubt, if there was a game that has truned me back on to the FPS genre, it is Killzone 3.
Mortal Kombat
MK has come along a changed up the way I play fighting games. It offers more than just a game that you can play other people in, there’s co-op, the full challenge tower, and a ton more to do that just go online and fight people. MvC3? Sorry, but you have just been owned.
inFamous 2
What can I say about inFamous 2 that hasn’t already been said? I’m a self-proclaimed fanboy of the inFamous series, and this game doesn’t disappoint. The new powers, the overall story, and the character interactions will be talked about for years to come.
LA Noire
The game everyone’s been talking about for the past 5 years has finally arrived. LA Noire is unlike any game I have ever played. Team Bondi has outdone themselves with this game. The ending may have let me down a little but the whole package blew me away.
MK24ever
Helo?…
“Helooooo?”
Is anyone here?
“isss anyooone heeere………..?”
Well, I guess not from the echo, ZTGD,you must inject people on this website man! Even haters would be welcome!… hehe
Well, despite I use to be the “you’re all wrong” guy, I’ll have to agree with everyone’s choices, or I would if I had already played all the games you mentioned, but since all are games I’m very interested in, and after reading the reviews I’d say they would end up on the top of my list, well… maybe I’d skip LA Noire, I fucking hated GTAIV, and Rockstar left me with a really bad taste in the mouth with that game!
From what I actually played I’d go for MORTAL KOMBAT, it’s like my nickname made sense once again! The story mode alone was game enough to make me a proud MK fan once again, despite I almost cried with rage when fighting Shao Kahn at the end of story mode… that cheating bastard!!!!!!!
And my other pick for game of half year (Who comes with these titles anyway??!) goes for Stacking, I already planned to buy it but Sony decided to give it for free to PSN+ subscribers, so it was a win win situation! It’s a very, very original game, puzzle oriented with an absolutely GORGEOUS art-direction, it went almost to “Flower” level of awesomeness and uniqueness! I recommend it to anyone who sometimes just loves to play “something else”.
I have Killzone 3 in the box for one month now, still have to put that disc on my PS3… but the laziness is strong with me, and I still shiver every time I remember the awful SP campaign of KZ2!
ZTGD
Dude, comments are something on my agenda, I want to be able to make it easier to post here using your Facebook login so you don’t have to sign in here. It has been a crazy Summer, hoping to get some downtime from writing to do more coding. It can be hard to stretch between the two. :)