I think may have been one of the best years for gaming ever, right up there with good ol' 2007. The Market was flat-out saturated, and I occasionally had to make tough decisions about what I wanted to play. Here's what I thought:

Narrative:
Infamous 2:
Infamous 2 was a game that delivered on the promises on the original while improving on it's concept. I think it was easily the best action game of the year, outclassing more popular faire like Uncharted 3 and perhaps Dead Space 2. The developers behind infamous, first and foremost, are really good at connecting you to characters and to the gameworld. Relation ships between all of those components are very convincing, and the action in this game steps up a notch in these 3 or 4-way epic battles. It also had some pretty fun Halloween DLC.

L.A. Noire:
A lots of people had a bone to pick with something or other about this game, but it can't be denied that L.A. Noire gave us something we had never had. But I really think there were parts of it that escalated gaming to a new level.

Portal 2:
Aside from being a blast to play, Portal had a strong narrative, was mostly nonviolent, and featured 2 strong female protagonists, who never received the Lara Croft sexualization treatment. It's sad to say, but that's kind of a big deal in the world of gaming. Multiplayer took things to another level too, since you finally had to put two heads to those wacky puzzles instead of just one.


Competitive:
Mortal Kombat:
In a competitive market saturated with Modern military shooters, Mortal Kombat revitalized the fighting game genre in full force with a fresh take to an old favorite.






What do you think?