14 DAY TRIAL // At the end of each year gamers take a look back at some of the experiences they went through and compare them to previous years. While we were certainly treated with quite a lot of impressive periods in recent times, 2011, at least in my view, managed to outshine them all, seeing a huge amount of great games, both triple-A and smaller ones, be released.
As such, let’s take a look back at some of the great titles that have appeared in the last 12 months.
Right from the beginning of the year we were treated with some great games, ranging from bold experiments like Bulletstorm, to long-awaited sequels, including Dead Space 2, Killzone 3, Dragon Age II, Crysis 2.
After that initial time frame, the releases didn’t let up, with all sorts of games from all sorts of genres being deployed, including Total War: Shogun 2, NFS: Shift 2 Unleashed, The Witcher 2, or even our own Game of the Year Runner Up, Portal 2.
While the summer of 2011 once again saw a pretty big drought in terms of new releases, we had more than enough games launched right at its beginning to fill the time with, including L.A. Noire or Infamous 2, not to mention plenty of high quality downloadable titles, like From Dust or Bastion.
At the end of summer and beginning of fall, however, gamers were once again flooded with great titles, starting with the stunning Deus Ex: Human Revolution and continuing with equally surprising titles like Driver: San Francisco, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, or Hard Reset.
In October, the heavy triple-A hitters started appearing on store shelves, including Battlefield 3 or Batman: Arkham City, and continued into November, with the likes of Uncharted 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and, of course, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
While gamers were barely coping with these releases, November 15 arrived, seeing the release of multiple games in the same day, including Saints Row 3, Need for Speed: The Run, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, as well as Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition.
In between these games, we also saw plenty of high-quality downloadable releases, like Orcs Must Die, Trine 2 or Renegade Ops, which delighted, through their great experiences and lower prices, gamers who were left almost bankrupt after the flood of games mentioned above.
2011 may have been a year marked by quite a lot of events, both globally as well as locally, but if you were a gamer, no matter your budget, platform or preference, it brought a huge amount of great experiences.
As such, as we end the year today, let’s hope that 2012 will manage to even come close to the last 12 months.