Like in 2010, we have a list of my favorite games that I played during 2011.  As with the year before, this won't be just games that came out in 2011 (I only played three of those), but the Top 12 games that I played and beat for the first time during 2011.

12. The Witcher (PC, 2007)

I'll be honest...by the end of this game, I was a bit disappointed. When I first started, towards the end of the year, I thought this was going to make first place on the list, easy. It had an awesome beginning that looked like it was only going to get better. However, the game slid down the list a bit by the end. A lot of that is because I'm not a huge fan of sidequest-heavy games. I think it's a bad sign when the optional portions take up 75% of the game. The sidequests themselves weren't bad, but they seemed to drag a little, especially since a lot of them are required early on just to get money to buy supplies. The rest of the game, however, was very good. This is probably the most brutally realistic fantasy world I've ever seen in a video game, and it continued to surprise me all the way to the end. Easily my favorite part about it is the fact that decisions made during the game really matter, and a lot of important events in the game depend on the decisions you make a while before the events in question. The story was also well written, and while a lot of the characters could have used some more development, they still carried the story well. The main focus of character development was the main character, who doesn't remember his past, which means you have to rebuild his identity from scratch (which also leads into the tough decisions mentioned above).

11. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (PS1, 1999)

This is one that Micah has been trying to get me to play for some time. The opportunity arose, and I tried it, and...yeah. I liked it. First, just to get the game's biggest problem out of the way...the main character is extremely forgettable. I know there are a lot of popular characters who aren't very memorable, but at least Link has the advantage of being in a series with a lot of other forgettable characters. All the other main characters (except maybe Ramus) are really memorable, but Alex hardly ever even speaks, and he does very little unless it's something only he can do. Now, with that out of the way, the rest of the game was really good. I think it's the first time I've seen a turn-based video game RPG where positions of the characters really mattered in battles. The story was pretty good, even though it felt kind of incomplete (but that's just because they covered the rest in the sequel).

10. Simon the Sorcerer (PC, 1998)

There, we've entered the Top 10 list. Now, how about a game that everyone seems to have heard of, yet nobody seems to have played? This was definitely one of the funnier games I played this year. The main character is a jerk half the time, but he, along with everyone else in this world, gets a number of great lines that makes you not care about that. The setting is definitely a parody of fantasy worlds, particularly fairy tales. A lot of specific fairy tales get referenced and parodied over the course of the game. The story wasn't all that memorable, but really, the real fun in this game is in its silly nature and the humor. I keep going back just to watch the opening credits.

9. Gothic (PC, 2001)

I may consider this one to be a guilty pleasure. It had its problems (in great numbers), but I still enjoyed it immensely. This is another game that tried to show a brutally realistic fantasy world, like The Witcher, but didn't do as good a job. The world is still dangerous and cutthroat, but not quite to the same level. Which is odd, considering the world in question is a prison colony, where the prisoners are in charge. The main character is a semi-satire of nameless heroes. Again, like The Witcher, there's no backstory, so they give you the opportunity to make game-changing decisions. The first decision you have to make is which of the three factions of the prison colony you want to join. Depending on your choice, you will immediately make allies and enemies. Before that, however, any enemy is definitely a dangerous one. You literally start with being able to be killed in two or three hits by the weakest enemies. To make it worse, the game's biggest problem is definitely its combat system, which, while not too terrible once you get used to it, is still very hard to master and very annoying until then. Aside from that, I think that while the story isn't spectacular, it's definitely underrated. They developed it more in the sequel (which, unfortunately, was far from making this Top 10 list), so that helps. The biggest problem is that it takes forever to get the game started, because it's so easy to die at first. Expect to die literally hundreds of times. I did.

8. Descent (PC, 1996)

Aaah, the basic concept of running around and shooting things with little reason. How could this list not have a game like that? This game is virtually character- and story-free. 99% of it is spent flying around shooting things. The gameplay is like a cross between Wing Commander and Doom. it's 360-degree movement in all directions, in zero gravity. The goal is simple: shoot your way to your target, then blow up the target.

7. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii, 2011)

Yep, I was ranting about this game for almost a year and a half before its release, and here it is on the list. This game was definitely the best-designed Zelda game. The setting was good, the music was good, the artwork was good, and the characters were good (for a Zelda game). Even Link showed more emotion than he usually does. However, every game has its faults, and Skyward Sword unfortunately had some major ones. First, the combat system. While it was fairly well done, and used the motion controls pretty well, I could never quite get the hang of them. Maybe it's just me, I dunno, but in swordplay, the action controls seemed too sluggish, and the direction controls too sensitive. The other major problem is the story. Now, as it's Zelda, we don't expect a huge amount of story. Still, this one seemed like it had a lot of potential, and like was building up to something bigger, but in the end, didn't get there. My hope is that this will be like Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance...a good game followed by an absolutely spectacular sequel.

6. Star Fox Assault (GC, 2005)

After Star Fox Adventures, I had little hope for this game. It was the last of the series that I hadn't played, and while I'd already played and loved Star Fox Command, I didn't think this game would hold up very well. Boy, was I wrong. Where Star Fox Command put way too much into what I like to call either "Fox On Foot" or "Ocarina of Arwing," Star Fox Assault found a good balance between flight missions and ground missions. On top of that, they FINALLY gave Fox a gun. About time. One interesting thing to note is that this game felt very much like an arcade game.  This makes sense, considering it was the first (and I think only) Star Fox game developed by Namco.  The downside is that possibly because of this, there aren't many levels, and the game is very short. The story was, I think, the best of the series. They introduced a fairly impressive enemy, and (for once) decided to stop bringing Andross back from the dead. And, thanks to the fact that I initially played these games out of order, it was nice to fill in some of the gaps between Adventures and Command. By the end, I was definitely wishing that it could have kept going for a while longer.

5. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (PS1, 2000)

This is one of the games that's making this a Top 12 list instead of Top 11...it didn't seem fair to have two games from the same series in the same list. Lunar 2 is, in many ways, similar to Lunar 1. Good story, good gameplay, good characters, and everything. The only difference? Lunar 2 did it about a hundred times better. They improved practically EVERYTHING for the sequel. They finally answered the questions I had about the world of Lunar after the first game (my predictions were disturbingly accurate). They improved the gameplay, so it was easier to use the combat system and inventory menus. They even gave us a more memorable main character (though, I think the other characters, except the new dragon companion, may have suffered a little). All in all, Lunar 2 is basically just the next chapter of the Lunar series, just done considerably better. Now I just need to find a copy that doesn't break during cinematics.

4. Portal (PC, 2007)

Yeah, I know, I put this game in last year's list. But that was before I started counting Christmas as the beginning/end of the year for these lists. That's why I started with a Top 11 list instead of Top 10. Pretty much everything I said about this game last year still holds. While it's a short game, it's still awesome. It's a headache creator, but that's as much because of the puzzles as the teleporting. GLaDOS's lines still remain hilarious to this day, and I still get a fun challenge every time I play.

3. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem (DS, 2010)

Believe it or not, this game is a lot more fun than it sounds. Once again, Mario surprises me by appearing in the year's Top 10 list. From the moment I started this game, I was hooked. It's like Lemmings meets The Incredible Machine. The story is very basic "rescue the princess from the villain," but the gameplay makes it great. The puzzles in this game are challenging, and often extremely frustrating, but well worth the play.

2. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC, 2009)

Here's another game I wanted to play the moment I saw the trailers for it. And it didn't disappoint. Though I'm definitely more of a fan of this genre now than I was when I played this game, it was still a great game at the time. The big thing this game had for me was probably the character bios of most (if not all) of Batman's villains that you find during the game. And, of course, you get to fight most of those villains during the game. But let's face it...the main reason I love this game is because of Mark Hamill as The Joker.  Don't pretend you didn't love this game for the exact same reason. Not really much else I can say...chances are, you've already played this game a million times. Micah has been telling me that I have to play Arkham City, so that'll probably be the first game of 2012.

1. Portal 2 (PC, 2011)

Folks...seriously...what can I say? Much like Lunar 2, this game takes everything its predecessor had done, and improves on it. The "puzzles" are more complex and challenging, the dialogue is funnier (especially thanks to some new characters), and there's slightly more story than in the first game. Multiplayer in this game is one of the best things EVER. (Yes, I played this with Micah, who else?) Something about two portal guns and tests designed for teamwork is considerably more fun than the original, and on top of that, it even gives an additional story to the game (two if you count the recent expansion). My only hope is that for Portal 3, they'll include multiplayer for up to four people instead of just two.

And that's all for the Top 12 games I played in 2011. Games for 2012 will possibly include Arkham City, Gothic 3, Witcher 2, Descent 2, Simon the Sorcerer 2, and lots of Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, and Wing Commander.