Superficially, the biggest change in Soul Calibur V is in the character roster. After years of advancing carefully a few months and years at a time, the series has leapt forward a full 17 years to allow for a new generation of characters. Sons, daughters, apprentices, disciples, successors: most of your favourite characters have spawned a fresh-faced, younger version of themselves. In practice, they play like slightly tweaked versions of their predecessors, changes that are no more radical than you might expect between any other numbered game in the franchise.

This is no bad thing: seasoned Soul Calibur players will likely find themselves right at home. Newcomers meanwhile, feel that little less disadvantaged in those crucial first minutes of contact. Not that the backstory gets in the way of the action. The basics of the game and the universe are explained through the game’s main story mode, wherein the player controls Patroklos Alexander (and guests) in his search for sister Pyrrha, eventually becoming embroiled in a battle between the two swords, Soul Edge and Soul Calibur.

There's nothing to say that fighting game stories can't be good, or at least intelligible, but Soul Calibur V isn't ready to buck any trends just yet.

Thankfully, these solid but derivative characters aren’t all that is on offer, as there are several new styles to get to grips with. Z.W.E.I. is a bare-chested swordsman who calls upon a wolf-spirit for supplementary pummelling. Viola is the token Gothic Lolita, commanding a floating orb for spectacular ranged effects. Assassin’s Creed’s Ezio is also playable, offering a fusion of high powered close-range and weak, disruptive long range moves. The rest of the roster is filled up with series regulars, mysteriously saved from the ravages of age: controversial pin-up dominatrix Ivy remains, alongside crab-like bondage gimp Voldo, Toshiro Mifune tribute act Mitsurugi, and other familiars including Siegfried, Nightmare, Raphael, Cervantes and so on.

Some characters inevitably didn’t make the cut, and the availability of three unlockable characters that do essentially the same thing (round by round randomisation of styles) is disappointing. But there’s more than enough fighting hours to be had out of this roster. The fundamentals are all down pat: the controls are beautifully responsive, the loading times are unobtrusive and even the series’ trademark interstitials are that little less hammy. Visually, the arenas and the characters are highly detailed and very well animated, a clear step above the content of their predecessor.

Of course, if we’re talking visually, it would be remiss of me not to at least mention that the game features ridiculous amounts of exposed flesh, and boob physics that would make Einstein go back to the drawing board. T+A = Sex Sells, I guess, and of all the innovations Soul Calibur V could have brought, the removal of the genre’s perpetual male gaze was always the most unlikely. Soul Calibur V, consider yourself scolded. Also, even if your spiffy character creation mode has hours of dress-up, colour miscoordination fun, labeling a body type as ‘normal’ is probably a no-no.

Arenas could stand to be a little more dynamic, beyond the occasional broken wall or leap down to a secondary tier between rounds. But overall, there's a great variety of layouts.

Soul Calibur is usually counted among the more accessible fighting series out there, and whilst I’d argue this remains true, the genre is perhaps fundamentally hostile to new blood. The truth ought to come out this point: I’m not terrible at fighting games, but there are certainly times when ‘mediocre’ would be a generous description of my skills. But will Soul Calibur V be the game to make me more of a contender? I’m open to the idea, but not really convinced.

Why? Because SCV‘s training mode is simultaneously incredibly robust and utterly impenetrable. You can set up the state of the battle in any way you want, flick through pages of movement instructions and grind away to your heart’s content. It can genuinely make you a better player. And yet, the game never gives you something so simple as an acknowledgement that you’ve achieved the combo it’s telling you to perform. By comparison, Street Fighter IV‘s challenge mode – which feeds you moves to attempt and won’t let you progress until you get them right – is an obvious yet elegant solution. True, it’s probably also a lot more work. But so long as you’re in the business of creating games that players need to learn, you really should invest in the tools to make that possible.

SCV even puts some of its most essential information into a one-time pop up accessed in the story mode (i.e. the single place where it’s most likely to be encountered by a fresh player and thus be skipped or improperly understood). Among this information are the most essential core mechanics that Soul Calibur V introduces, including the Critical Edge attack, a simple showy high impact combo move that drains 100% of your critical gauge and is basically Namco’s response to SFIV‘s Ultra combos. Considering that even a single run-through of the game’s single player modes will involve facing AI opponents who use (and abuse) these moves, missing how to execute them is a severe handicap, and potentially disastrous for future play. At the very least, you’d expect a tutorial covering these new additions.

A 49 Year-Old Woman, Yesterday.

There’s also the matter of multiplayer, and how that’s changing the way that offline fighters are structured. The network element of Soul Calibur V seems to have received due attention: play is smooth even when the reported signal strength is low and the Global Colloseo’s system of regional lobbies containing tournament sign-ups, random match-ups and chat / personal lobby space has great potential. Then, ranked matches, a more traditional winner-stays on lobby system, replays and a ‘rival’ system that integrates with stats on- and offline give you pretty much everything you could ask for. Whilst the stress-test of thousands of simultaneous players has yet to prove the system, this could be a watershed moment for the online competitive scene.

These modes are good enough that they remind you how the offline game actually looks a little thin. Featuring just 20 fights, the story mode compares poorly to modes in preceding games, and they were far from perfect to begin with (but at least they featured objectives and branching paths). The substance is instead in the Quick Match mode, which is ultimately a place to grind titles for your online profile. Otherwise you’re left with the Arcade mode (and its different difficulty settings and opponent ‘routes’) and the tough as nails ‘Legendary Souls’ boss-rush mode.

Whilst undoubtedly an accomplished game, time will tell whether Soul Calibur V is actually for anyone but the fighting game aficionado and the controller-passing group of friends. The casual dabbler going solo will have to go online to get their money’s worth, and the experience will depend entirely on whether there’s anyone of comparable skill to challenge them. But at least this is an experience that deserves that much.

Verdict – Head Shot

Platforms Available – PS3, Xbox 360

Platform Reviewed – PS3

For more information on our scoring system, please read this post.

The demo is fairly minimal with single round bouts available in either UFC mode, or the all new PRIDE mode which provides a representation of the now defunct Japanese MMA group. There are two fighters available in each mode, which all in all makes for a fairly limited demo which is a shame considering the full game will have over 150 fighters along with the inclusion of the featherweight and bantamweight divisions.

It is also a bummer not being able to check out any of the career mode which will see you fight in PRIDE, the WFA and train for UFC before being called up to the main roster. Everything surrounding the game sounds great fun, and a little taste of some of the depth in this demo would have been nice.

At the end of the day though, Undisputed 3 will live and die by how it comes across in the Octagon, or in the ring for PRIDE fights. The action in the demo is a promising sign of things to come, I took to using the beginner control scheme which provides a simplified method of performing transitions. A quick flick up or down on the right analogue stick on the PS3 control puts you into a major or minor transition. The advanced method requires more stylistic moves on the stick to perform the transition you require.

Even at 720p the in-ring action looks brutal and fierce, I was pleasantly surprised with how good the game looked when throwing different kicks and punches. You also realise that this is a more mature game than THQ stablemate WWE 12 when you see the blood start to fly, and some of the ground and pound moves look deadly.

The demo is definitely short and sweet, but it provides a welcome glimpse of the game with release just a few weeks away. If you want real fighting action, it looks like Undisputed 3 may give you what you want.

UFC Undisputed 3 is released on the 17/02/12 on 360 and PS3.

The Flying Mod opens up the world of Panau like never before. The author Powerslave takes the very core mechanic of Just Cause 2 and disposes of it by removing the parachute entirely, replacing it with the ability to fly. Not the rather pedestrian gliding flight of a man restricted by a chute, but the pure, unadulterated childhood dream of being a superhero.

Spandex costume not included.

The control is flawless. With only a few minutes practise, I was able to speed mere feet from the ground, dodging between buildings and moving traffic before landing atop a speeding military jeep, punching the driver in the face and hurling him into oncoming traffic. Installation is also a simple affair, I was off causing aerial havoc within minutes of clicking the download link.

The sheer beauty of this mod comes from the very open world nature of the Avalanche engine. Just Cause 2 features vast sweeping panoramic views of distant mountains and valleys, and through the power of flight every peak and trough becomes accessible to your very whim. Pick a direction, take a step into the abyss, and soar into the sky. The valleys, bridges and treetops of Panau become your own playthings as you soar on the breeze, sweeping low to follow the path of a river or fly alongside a puzzled motorist.

Parachutes are for chumps

As an added bonus, the AI seem unfazed by your aerial antics. Free flight is a small step away from the parachuting antics of the vanilla game, so the soldiers of Panau find little difficulty in adapting to your new found freedom. Gunfire from the ground is erratic, yet still occasionally deadly to a overly careless superhero, and enemy helicopters will continue to rattle their cannons in your direction, eager to bring an end to your exploits.

Version 4.2 gives you the ability to switch your flying speed between a graceful aerial ballet and a lunatic ‘faster than a speeding bullet’ option. I’d recommend sticking with the former, at least until you’ve had significant practice, as until you’ve got to grips with it, the latter is guaranteed to slam you into the side of a building before you can say ‘is it a bird?’

I needed something special to bring me back to Panau, and I think I may have found it.

The Superman flight mod can be downloaded from Justcause2mods.com

But then, in this generation of scant exclusives, Uncharted is the single well established bragging point for Playstation owners: the perfect, colourful, lightish-hearted counterpoint to the 360′s one major new exclusive (Gears of War, dummy). It’s the birthright of any Playstation 3 owner and, as we have already established is quite good. And the third instalment was always likely to continue on that theme. And it does.

And yes, I did this ‘do I really have to review this for you people? You’re going to buy it anyway’ schtick with Assassins Creed Revelations. But don’t mind me.

Mechanically, Uncharted 3 changes very little. A wider array of animations and context-sensitive actions builds upon the fine gunplay of the first two games, and the melee combat builds a little further on Uncharted 2‘s efforts, adding a greater range of moves, multi-directional attacks and temporarily grabbed objects. This is most ably demonstrated in the game’s opening sequence, set in a nearly distractingly English pub frequented by a fine gathering of cockney football hooligans.

Uncharted 3 features an unparalleled visual representation of a desert: but the real achievement of this section is its sense of isolation and disorientation

On the negative side, perhaps the exhaustive selection of guns blur into one, and perhaps there could have been a few more changes to the core gameplay. It certainly would have given me more to say in this paragraph, though the stealth sections are still an awkward inclusion. Supposedly they too have been streamlined, but I can’t say I ever fully understood why the AI had sighted me. And aside from the two achievements you get for playing stealthily, there isn’t really any incentive to play with the system.

Graphically, it’s still the finest looking series on the Playstation 3 and the performances of the digital actors and the real-world actors speaking their lines are so neatly fused by Naughty Dog’s process that ‘performance’ is a word that you can actually get away with using. But you know that. You also know that the story is the main reason for putting money down for this game. One thing I particularly love about the Uncharted series, is that even after three games there is no grand conspiracy, no over-arching plot tritely lashing the game together.

Instead, we have a focus on the characters. Seemingly embracing the all too common comparisons with the Indiana Jones series (right down to the chapter played as a youthful Drake), Uncharted 3 is more about Nathan Drake’s relationship with father figure Victor Sullivan than it is about the antagonist’s motivations. These are characters that have been built effectively for our love – not hugely complex or nuanced, but superbly well constructed all the same.

Sully may have seemed like a simple stock character in Drake's Fortune, but he ably carries Uncharted 3's most effective plot points and themes

The thing is, beyond the parts where Uncharted 3′s characters open up to each other, or do things motivated by their relationships, it’s actually a rather weak outing. Villain Katherine Marlowe is memorable only as a facsimile of Helen Mirren, and the game openly admits that it’s not sure exactly why it’s making you stay one step ahead of whatever her schemes involve. For the first half of the game, it doles out enough about Drake’s past and enough touching moments between its heroes that it really doesn’t matter. But the central mystery – the location of the lost city of Ubar – is then essentially solved halfway through the game and it the game launches into a meandering sequence of events where character interaction is entirely thrown out in favour set-piece after set-piece after set-piece.

If Uncharted 3‘s second half were a film, no producer would sign off on it. And whilst a cinematic experience free of the constraints of budget and common sense sounds great in theory, here’s it’s just borderline tiresome. Again and again the player runs, rides and drives after a mode of transport specifically so they can be thrown around in it then off of it dramatically, always accompanied by the rat-tat-tat of the antagonist’s bizarrely dedicated henchmen. Despite fantastic environmental design, solid action fundamentals and elaborate scripted sequences the game really becomes less than the sum of its parts, and it’s surprising to see it flail around in this way.

Beat for beat, this later half also becomes too similar to Uncharted 2. You get teamed up with a local tribesperson in the eleventh hour, seemingly for no better reason than how well that worked last time (sorry Salim, you have nothing on Tenzin). From there you once again chase a convoy and blow me down if an elaborate, derelict, ancient metropolis doesn’t turn up in the middle of an inhospitable location and promptly fall apart in an entertainingly platformable way.

It has been observed elsewhere, but the gunfight inside the burning chateau is just beyond bizarre. And it's far from the last time you'll be dodging bullets inside a medium scale disaster.

You never stop having fun when it’s happening, it just strikes you all as a little much – and in the absence of something greater to criticise, or any dramatic kind of innovation, it’s what I’m stuck harping on about. There is of course the debate over whether the series is too cinematic (thus linear, hand-holding, unmalleable) for its own good, but this seems to me almost a side-effect of the genre it’s so enjoyably imitating (the classic adventure movie).

The idea that there’s a certain compulsory level of interactivity in a game is one that is creeping into a lot of games writing at the moment, and I’m not sure it’s entirely useful. Even as we welcome artsy, indie games where gameplay is more incidental, we seem to turn our noses up at any action game that takes back even the slightest fraction of control. And even if Uncharted 3 ought to stop serving up the solutions to its puzzles and put some of the challenge back in its ledge grabbing, its environments are still open enough and filled with enough collectable trinkets and visual rewards that it’s far better than the ‘one long corridor’ problems of a lot of contemporary action game design.

Uncharted 3 is everything Uncharted 2 was, just a touch less interesting – and not just because Uncharted 2 was a hard act to follow, but because of a lack of just one or two new ideas, or a little tighter control on the glut of scenarios that attempt to pass for those ideas. Nevertheless, ample multiplayer modes (including co-op and split-screen mode, an apparently heroic effort in this day and age) complete a package that you really ought to have purchased by now.

Verdict – Head Shot

Platforms Available / Reviewed – PS3

For more information on our scoring system, please read this post.

Running With Rifles is a top-down shooter by Modulaatio Games. Then premise is a simple one: warfare, and lots of it. This is the kind of game I’ve wanted for the longest: a game of endless warfare where you muck in with the other soldiers. You are not special, to begin with. You don’t even start as an officer, if you don’t want to. You are just one of the rank-and-file, and you will die. A lot.

Stepping back, you begin the game  selecting which army you wish to fight with (grey or green). You then select the initial number of occupied bases, which will affect where the battle initially focuses, your initial rank, which will increase and decrease depending on how well you do, the accuracy of the AI, and then the maximum number of soldiers, from 0 to 600. There are also two large maps to choose from. As you can see, there’s already a fair bit of customisation in place.

So how does the game hold up? It’s good, actually. Really good. At the beginning of the game, you spawn in one of your bases with whatever rank you set for yourself and a weapon chosen at random. Maybe a few grenades, if you’re lucky. Tab brings up a map where your objective is always highlighted, which often involved going to an area of the map and capturing it. By killing every hostile in the area. You are never alone: your allies will have the same objectives and you can (and should) join up with their squads. When you do well, by killing things and completing objectives, you accumulate points. Get enough, and you’re promoted, which is a similar way to how the real military does things. Being promoted allows you to recruit allies into your squad (this is done automatically). At the maximum rank of Captain, you can recruit 7 others. Being killed and ‘accidentally’ killing your own troops makes you lose points, and you can very easily be demoted.

You’ll be glad of allies when you get into a firefight. Combat is quick and brutal. There is an automatic cover system in place, which you need to make full use of if you are to survive more than a few seconds. Two or three bullets can easily kill you, and firefights are usually drawn out by reinforcements from both sides as people die all around you. It genuinely feels as if you are caught in the middle of an all-out war. The urban combat in the second map (which is not in the demo) is really where the combat shines. Forced into close-quarters, entire squads flanking around buildings, machine gunners and snipers setting up on rooftops. It is intense and it is incredible fun. The AI works well and is highly reactive, if a bit supernaturally accurate even on the standard accuracy setting.

I have only two real issues, and they’re both to do with the visuals. One is that, with there being different terrain elevations, it can be hard to tell when someone is on a hill, as the area more or less looks flat. That’s pretty minor, however, and should be fairly easy to rectify. Another issue is that it is incredibly easy to lose track of where you are, even with a yellow circle around your character, and I would say that the number one cause of my deaths is losing track of where I am in relation to the enemy. Maybe it’s just because the game feels a bit too zoomed out for me to always know what’s going on. Either way, it’s something to bear in mind.

I like it. A lot. Future plans include, well… I’ll just give you the list:

• vehicles: jeeps, trucks
• more factions
• medic features, pulling wounded teammates to cover
• boats, think inflatable size
• attack dogs
• weather effects, rain, thunder and lightning, snow
• more light sources: street lights, explosions
• destructible/constructible stuff: sandbag walls, trenches
• editable terrain: trench digging, fox holes, impact craters
• occluded field of view for additional difficulty and more interesting player vs player gaming

Running With Rifles is still in early beta, with €5.25 getting you access to the beta and all future updates. There is a demo that is a few versions old, but purchasing gets you the latest build featuring a new map, tweaks and fixes, and online multiplayer. Do I recommend a pre-order? Yes. There’s a lot here to like already, with more coming all the time. Even if you think you may not like this sort of thing, I would still recommend keeping an eye on it.

The Reticule – How would you compare CARS to titles like GTR2 and iRacing?

Andy Tudor - A lot of team worked on the original GTR2 and compete regularly in iRacing but Project CARS represents the next-gen of sim racing. By including the guys that love those games (and others) we’re getting some great insight into what the common themes are that really resonate with players (eg.. extensive telemetry, setups, ‘real race weekend’ feel & features) and mixed with our own concepts for social connectivity, dynamic weather/time of day etc.. we feel Project CARS is in a really strong position to both unite a lot of the sim racing community under one roof and compete directly with the competition.

The Reticule – Have you managed to get official licensing for the various racing disciplines you are going to offer?

Andy Tudor - Negotiations are going on all the time but they take a while to get nailed down legally. As soon as things are decided though, we tell our community (see previous Caterham announcements, Motorsport Vision track announcement etc..) so keep your eyes peeled as the next big license might be around the corner.

The Reticule – Can you give us more details about your described approach for CARS? “Being scouted playing high school football and leading your team to win the Superbowl”

Andy Tudor - That relates directly to the Career mode in Project CARS that idolizes a feeling of progression through your career from a junior or rookie starting out with just a raw passion and talent for racing, getting scouted for a semi-professional team, finding your feet and specializing in a discipline you love (BTCC, DTM, Rally, Indycar, whatever) and then going on to win the most prestigious titles/awards in that category and becoming known in the motorsports world for it. That may take an in-game year or season or maybe it’s a long-term goal but ultimately the analogy simulates the progression and opportunities a real racer driver would have as opposed to a more game-like ‘grind for cash or XP’ ethos. This kind of progression is commonly called a Franchise Mode in sports titles but it’s one that hasn’t really be explored fully in a racing title before. Other games have dipped their toe in the water here (GRID, F1) but there’s definitely room to push it further.

The Reticule – How are you going to incorporate DLC with CARS?

Andy Tudor - Plans haven’t been finalized yet, but new content will be released regularly for the game post-launch and will be tied to motorsport seasons, disciplines, manufacturers, specific events, eras (eg.. historic or 80’s cars), locations (eg.. German tracks) and many more. So it’s more like a continual MMO-style delivery than a console-style series of packs.

The Reticule – What are the strengths of the MADNESS engine when it comes to developing a game like CARS?

Andy Tudor - The MADNESS engine was built with foresight of being a multi-threaded, multi-processor engine that can be easily scaled dependent on the game type. So it has already seen a ton of improvements since it’s first inception on Need For Speed SHIFT to allow full dynamic shadow casting lights for truly terrifying night races, huge improvements to AI, physics, tire models, input etc.. Any new game features therefore can be considered as modules to plug into the engine that is already capable and prepared for it.

The Reticule – Has it been a challenge to implement the dynamic day/night and weather systems?

Andy Tudor - Work on these systems is due to start soon and the key thing is always considering the final emotional response from the player whether it’s “Wow, that looks real” or “Jeez, it looks like it’s gonna rain, better pit in next lap”. Getting this emotional response is the biggest challenge, otherwise you’re just making either pretty graphics that don’t have any functionality or something that works but doesn’t look very good. Technically of course there are some hurdles on the render side and some changes to the pipeline on the art side but it’s something we’ve thought of doing on previous projects and so are pretty prepared for it now.

The Reticule – Is Team Management limited to single-player, or will it be something you can organise Clans around?

Andy Tudor - Team Management in Career means hiring AI teammates as your second driver, communicating with your team via Pit2Car radio in races, and managing your career via the calendar (choosing which events to attend, balancing practice times with exhibition events etc..). In connected game modes, Team Management means ‘playing with friends’ similar to clan/guild play with different people taking different roles, recruitment, communication, stat tracking and scheduling systems so people can socialize and play together in a co-operative and competitive way. When combined with the cloud-based network you can imagine your phone giving you a push notification that a teammate has changed the setup for your car that you’ll be racing in that weekend whilst another has applied your new sponsors decals to the front bumper. You can reply back thanking them, and organize a testing session that night to try out the new settings with one of your team acting as the crew chief watching your telemetry.

The Reticule – What platforms is the cloud social network going to appear on, and how will it differ on various platforms?

Andy Tudor - Wherever possible, data will be stored in the cloud allowing it to be accessed either in a web browser, mobile app, or anywhere you can log in to your account. So the only difference would likely be in navigation of all that data dependent on the device you’re using.

Steph Woor

Game of the Year – Deus Ex: Human Revolution

At times, Human Revolution’s understanding of what made Deus Ex so great seems a little too cautious, perhaps even slightly checklist-like. It reinvents wheels that it was criminal for gaming to lose the use of in the first place – but what it adds and refines elevates it, I think, well above the original. It’s an intensely immersive game, and one that reminds you that a decade ago, games didn’t really trouble themselves with ‘art direction’. The sound, visuals, superior combat and parred down role playing are far from the best of it though.

The story is the deal-clincher: Deus Ex’s world of conspiracies and fantasy nanotechnology have been exposed as the B-movie material we should have been able to see them for, by a story of frankly frightening resonance. Sure, all the original’s silly factions are somewhere in the background, but the augmentation debate takes centre stage, and if there will be a more appropriate year to talk about the importance of tech and an increasingly socially stratified world… I’m not sure it’s going to be all that fun to see it. In that sense, Human Revolution is truely a game of the year – not simply the best game I played this year, but truely a game ‘about’ the year in which it was released.

2. Portal 2

Pity the comedy fan who has never picked up a controller: 2011 was something of a low-key year for guffaws, and Portal 2 contained the best of them. Perhaps it was the underlying sense of global unrest and the relentless assault of weighty news events. Perhaps conventional comedy writers were simply so depressed that Bad Teacher was in cinemas that they could do nothing more than stare into the middle distance with eyes that beg for the sweet release of death. But without Portal 2, 2011 would have been a humourless year indeed.

With that kind of background, it’s kind of apt that Portal 2 is set away from civilization, insulated from the madness of the outside world and packed with fantastic skits and one liners. Impressive too was the way that the short-form original was successfully translated into a ‘feature-length’ product. Consider how many great comedy television shows made merely passable films, and you’ve got to admire Portal’s transformation. And that the real beauty of it: it invites comparrisons with other entertainment mediums in a way that most games don’t. Perhaps they diluted the actual ‘game’ itself a little too far, but the result was far too charming to be offensive.

3. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

The third Uncharted game, sequel to two games that are quite good is also quite good. Somewhere between Portal 2 and Assassin’s Creed Revelations good, in fact. Expect a comprehensive review of how good that is when the turkey sandwich supplies run dry. Or run out. Turkey is usually dry.

4. Assassin’s Creed Revelations

I played and completed all four Assassin’s Creed games this year, which is probably something to be proud of only when at my most irrational. On a technicality, Brotherhood was a 2011 release (PC releases are still releases, even despite Ubisoft’s best efforts), so I could have slotted that in here… but no, Revelations is this year’s Assassin’s Creed release, as ridiculous as that notion is. Perhaps Revelations will start to look clever when the real sequel comes out next year and cuts all of the ridiculous fluff that weighed this otherwise solid new entry down. Perhaps.

5. Sonic Generations

As ever, my year has been a mix of the nostalgic and perhaps too few up to the minute games. I don’t think anyone had the good fortune to see any more than half of the great new titles the last two months alone have given us, but having missed out on several good titles, I can’t help but feel like I could have been playing something more significant than Sonic Generations. That something was probably Skyrim, if for no better reason than seeing my housemates playing it was quite literally like being locked indoors whilst everyone got to play outside in the snow.

But Sonic Generations deserves its dues. It sounded like such a peculiar mix of nostalgia and ugly modernity and it ended up being something remarkably enjoyable. There were almost certainly more than four games better than it in this year’s release slate, but on a personal level it struck a chord I thought I’d never hear played again.

Andrew Eldridge

Game of the Year – L.A. Noire

I know, I know. I didn’t expect it either. But after giving this list some serious thought, I’m confident in my decision. L.A. Noire is definitely my Game of the Year 2011. Sure, it’s got a list of flaws as long as my arm. It’s repetitive, particularly by the time you reach disc three, and it’s difficult too. But it’s also bloody good fun, rather unusual in how it works, and thoroughly refreshing throughout. And as the GTA series is, without doubt, my favourite gaming series to date, the option to play this style of game, from the right side of the law for once, is quite simply unparalleled.

2. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Arriving at Human Revolution as a Deus Ex virgin, I was quickly taken in by the hybrid of stealth action with run-and-gun first person shooter-y goodness. The storyline was good, the boss battles were bad. But overall, the customisation on offer on here, and the ability to truly play this game in the way that YOU want, makes Human Revolution a worthwhile entry in my top five.

3. Quarrel Deluxe

Recently, when looking for a quick gaming fix, I’ve turned to my iPod Touch on an increasing number of occasions. And although my progress in Skyrim has halted somewhat as a result, I’m glad that I’ve done so, as it has allowed me to discover a true gem – Quarrel Deluxe. A combination of Risk and Scrabble, Quarrel is incredibly fun to play, and has certainly revitalised my love for the pair of age-old board games it’s lucky enough to call mum and dad.

4. The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Despite boasting a deep storyline, an expansive and detailed world, and more dragons that you can shake a stick at, Skyrim isn’t my personal Game of the Year for one very valid reason – it feels too much like Oblivion. I know that I’m probably alone in this view, particularly as Skyrim is such a widely praised RPG, but, to me, there’s not enough in the way of significant progression here to render it my Game of the Year. It’s definitely a game of red mist calibre, but that’s not enough. At least not in my books, anyway.

5. Terraria

In my teenage years, I sunk a lot of time into flash games; Dig Dug stole many hours of my life, MotherLoad cruelly robbed days from me, and after that a deep-set addiction to games that allowed me to dig an expansive underground network of tunnels set in. I’m not very artistic either, and so designing houses in Terraria was far easier than in Minecraft. Terraria is almost Minecraft for the less visually creative; which suits me fine.

Nick Wheeler

Game of the Year – Skyrim

So much has been written about Skyrim in the past month, but it’s unquestionably one of the finest RPGs I have ever played. Building on the firm foundations established by Oblivion and Morrowind before it, Bethesda have taken the concept of sandbox gaming to its up-most by setting you loose in one of the largest and most beautiful landscapes I’ve ever seen. Not only that, but they’ve achieved the impossible and actually managed to fill it from end to end with unusual encounters, astounding sights and thrilling combat.

With the Creation Kit only just around the corner, and thousands of modders eager to get to grips with it. I know Skyrim is a world I’ll be living in for a long time to come.

2. Amnesia – The Dark Descent

A first person adventure that plunges you into a horrifically sinister and foreboding environment, where eyes watch you from every corner and death shadows your every move. Frictional Games are true masters of the macabre, proving it’s not so easy facing down the forces of darkness when you’ve got no chainsaw to hand. An absolutely unforgettable experience.

3. Frozen Synapse

It’s chess. Chess with guns. And the idea of chess with guns is awesome. Frozen Synapse is a tough, but infinitely rewarding battle of wits whether you’re playing against a human or AI opponent. Plan your attack to your hearts content, then place your fate in the lap of the gods as your best laid plans fall to pieces around you.

4. Deux Ex – Human Revolution

Nothing says incompetence like entering a hostage crisis situation and forgetting to rescue the hostages. Whilst most games would force me to reload at this point, Deus Ex takes it all in its stride and lets me carry on regardless. Also, I can sneak into position unseen, then punch down a wall and throw an automated turret at someone’s head. And how many games let you do that?

5. Minecraft

The rise of Minecraft throughout 2011 has been an inspiration to thousands of amateur developers, showing the world that games don’t need fancy graphics or need to be dark and gritty to succeed. Once you’ve seen a cow tilt its head at you in a quizzical manner, you can’t help but fall in love with its charms.

The Reticule – For those readers who haven’t heard about World of Mass Development, can you explain the basics behind this development process?

Andy Tudor – WMD is a brand-new experience for gamers and allows them to go behind-the-scenes whilst a game is being made, to see the kind of decisions that are made on a day-to-day basis, see the game come together over time, play regular versions of it up to release, and also offer their opinions on the direction of the game, give suggestions, and speak to the people making the games directly. In essence therefore it’s a VIP backstage pass to games development – one that hasn’t really been exposed to players before. For us also, it means our attention is forward focused on our players and we can get direct and instant feedback from them on our plans as opposed to developing in secret and then launching and hoping you made the right decisions.

The Reticule – What has the fan pick up been like for the various Tool Packs? What Packs are being bought the most?

Andy Tudor - Ever since launch day we’ve been staggered by the demand from the gaming community to experience this new way of making games. Especially since it starts from a one-off membership of just €10 to get onboard. Most people start this way therefore as a taster; join the forum, grab the game and test it out, and then start contributing. Soon thereafter though we’re seeing people get hooked and want more than a monthly new build of the game and access to some of the higher-level interactions so they upgrade to the €25 membership.

The Reticule – How did you decide on the profit sharing between yourselves the developers, and team members?

Andy Tudor - Fairness really – 30% to developers is a nice sweet spot between a lower percentage offered in a traditional publisher-developer relationship and a slightly higher percentage that comes from a digital-only delivery system like the iTunes Store.

The Reticule – Do you foresee businesses’ using some of the higher level packs to get advertising into the game?

Andy Tudor - Potentially, and just like any games development, in-game advertising is carefully implemented so it’s tasteful, appropriate, and fair. But in the case of Project CARS, advertising is a also natural part of motorsports so armco, billboard, and vehicle/event sponsorship are in keeping with an authentic experience there.

The Reticule – Sharing the profits out to people who buy the Tool Packs sounds a very innovative idea, why did you decide to do this?

Andy Tudor - When players join WMD, they’re in essence becoming valued members of our development team… you can play builds of the game just like us, comment on every single aspect of the game, help us find bugs, ask us questions directly etc.. Sharing the success of the game once it’s released therefore is our way of saying thanks and paying you back for your contribution.

The Reticule – You talk about releasing CARS as Free2Play, will that be solely on the PC, or will Free2Play be on the consoles as well?

Andy Tudor - We hope by the time the game is released that consoles will have caught up to the concept of a Free2Play business model but since we’re in-development currently we’re remaining agile on this strategy and will re-evaluate it nearer the time of launch.

The Reticule – Do you have any plans for a boxed retail release further down the line?

Andy Tudor - Potentially, we’re not ruling anything out currently.

The Reticule – How much input on the direction of CARS do members have and how do you gather their feedback?

Andy Tudor - The forum system allows the company hierarchy to be really transparent, meaning everyone on the team and everyone in the community has full visibility of everything going on and is therefore free to talk and comment on anything. This means that no matter whether you’re a lead artist or fan of the game, your voice can be heard. As on any forum too, it’s easy for us to see ‘hot topics’ of game features/cars/design decisions that people are really passionate about. When we need some specific feedback or input on something we can open specific threads or polls. Initially we were a bit swamped with the sheer number of active threads etc.. and the huge influx of new people but we’re on top of it now and our mantra is to always be open and honest.

Check back tomorrow for the second part of our interview with Andy Tudor.

Mark Reece

Game of the Year – Rayman Origins

The current generation of consoles has an undeniable over-saturation of Call of Duty clones and games that strive for more photo-realistic and expansive environments. As result, hardly any developers try to make games that are genuinely fun to play anymore; the kind of games that bring a smile to your face as soon as you begin playing and keep it there right up until the very end. Rayman Origins, however, is such a game.

Aesthetically charming and expertly crafted, this mercilessly challenging 2D platformer remains absolutely fair throughout thanks to superbly tight and responsive controls, which never falter or let you down. It truly is a masterclass of how to build a game that doesn’t trade off gameplay for the sake of beautiful visuals, and co-operative play for up to four players is the icing on the cake. If you’re sick of aiming down iron sights or the colour brown, then Rayman Origins is literally a breath of fresh air; a vibrant and nigh-on flawlessly executed romp that will remind many older players exactly why they fell in love with gaming in the first place.

2. Battlefield 3

If, however, you’re not sick of aiming down iron sights – or indeed, driving/piloting all manner of military vehicles and blowing stuff up – Battlefield 3 was the game to own this year. It may have featured a decidedly lacklustre campaign (although, who buys a Battlefield game for its campaign, honestly?) but that couldn’t detract from what is arguably the definitive online FPS experience on both PC and consoles, even if a few balancing issues did rear their ugly heads quite early on.

3. Mario Kart 7

A long-standing pillar in Nintendo’s portfolio of beloved franchises, Mario Kart returns in what is easily its finest instalment yet. The weapon balancing is still iffy, it’s still infuriating to be in first place before being screwed over right at the finish line by the rubber band AI… but it’s Mario Kart! Online play returns in Mario Kart 7, bolstered by the option for players to create their own communities and mould the game to their liking, ensuring almost unlimited replay value. And everything is wrapped up in some of the most vibrant visuals the 3DS has yet produced.

4. Super Mario 3D Land

Super Mario 3D Land is an odd beast. On one hand, it feels like a step backwards from the likes of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy, but on the other hand it’s a superbly playable homage to many past 2D Mario games – specifically Super Mario Bros. 3 – and the first 3DS game to go above and beyond using the stereoscopic 3D visuals to make everything look nicer and actually enhances the gameplay. And for that, it really should be commended; bring on Super Mario 3D Land 2!

5. Sonic Generations

Sonic the Hedgehog games have sucked hard for too long now. In 2008, SEGA went a step in the right direction with Sonic Unleashed – only to bodge two thirds of the game up at the last minute – and things looked brighter still with 2010’s Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I and Sonic Colours. Now though, we have the definitive game featuring the blue blur, plus it’s a celebration of Sonic’s 20-year history, merging old and new – 2D and 3D – gameplay mechanics in a game that’s a joy to play through from start to finish. If SEGA can keep this up, Sonic will end up back on top where he belongs.

Chris Evans

Before I get onto writing about the specific games, I would like to say that this has been an outstanding year for gaming, there have been so many awesome titles, and I have only played a fraction of them. So, if you wonder why I haven’t listed Assassin’s Creed: Revelations or Batman: Arkham City, it isn’t because I don’t rate them, simply because I haven’t played them yet. With that, here is my Game of the Year.

Game of the Year – Portal 2

Choosing just one game to receive the title of Game of the Year is never easy, and to be honest, any of these games here were in with a shout, but Portal 2 takes it for me. Somehow I still haven’t finished the game, but I truly feel that if there is just one game you really should play from 2011, this is it.

There were great puzzles, using mechanics from the original and evolving them beyond what I imagined Valve were capable of. If you look beyond the game mechanics you find a rich story played out by some brilliant characters in Wheatley and GLaDOS, that is without mentioning the co-op. This is the must play game of the year.

2. Skyrim

Skyrim just about beats out The Witcher 2, while the main story in Skyrim is weak compared to what we are treated to in The Witcher, it is the world which absorbs me so much. The freedom to just ignore the story and wander the world of Skyrim is something more games should take note of. It is just a shame that the inventory is so clearly flawed.

3. The Witcher 2

A different beast to Skyrim, The Witcher 2 is most definitely a PC game, and one of the finest story driven titles of the year. I need to go back and complete it, especially now I have a PC capable of playing it smoothly. An intoxicating world and lore, The Witcher 2 is also one of the best looking games of the year.

4. Football Manager 2012

My game time reads 2 days and 10 hours so far. I think that says it all, for a game which is derided by many as being a game of spreadsheets, it is telling that you can invest so much time into this game without realising it. It is a great title, even if non-football fans won’t appreciate it.

5. Battlefield 3

I really feel like Battlefield 3 missed a trick, with so much focus put into outdoing Call of Duty, I think DICE failed to truly capture the spirit of Battlefield 2. Ignore the weak singleplayer campaign and stick to what is one of the finest multiplayer shooters out there. I am just disappointed it wasn’t as good as it perhaps should have been.

Jordan Harling

Game of the Year – Rayman Origins

This game is the solution to every bad mood that you’ve ever had. Its vibrancy and charm is irresistible. Even the most hardened cynic (i.e. myself) will find it impossible to play without cracking a smile. What I’m essentially trying to say is that all of the world’s problems would be solved if we got all the bad guys to play this game.

Everything from the wonderful sound design, to the beautiful aesthetic to the finely tuned gameplay combine to make this one of the finest 2D platformers not just of 2011 but of all time.

2. Skyrim

Skyrim is far an away the most immersive game of this year. You can start playing with the intention of just completing one quest and end up playing for hours. The vast world sucks you in and there are hundreds of hours questing to be had.

There are few good things that we haven’t already said about this game. So all I’ll say is that its one of the best games this year… and it has dragons.

3. Driver: San Francisco

Driver: San Francisco was sadly overlooked by many this year. Most people just assumed that it would follow the downward spiral that every other game in the series has since the original Driver hit the scene. No-one expected it to be unique or innovative… but it was.

Driver San Francisco threw any semblance of realism left in the franchise out of the window and gave you the ability to possess drivers in other cars. In the middle of races you can possess any driver who happens to be unlucky enough to be driving near you and smash them head on into your opposition. It was an interesting approach to a genre that has been largely devoid of new ideas.

4. LittleBigPlanet 2

It seems so long since its release that its hard to believe that LBP2 first found its way into PS3s in 2011 – all the way back in January. At first glance it was easy to write off LBP2 as merely a graphical upgrade of the first game. Those who only played the single player may have even thought it was lacklustre compared to Sackboy’s previous adventure. The single player wasn’t what LBP2 was about, it was only a glimpse into what could be built with LBP2s new tools.

The real LBP2 can be found online, where a vibrant community constantly pump out innovative and inventive new games using LBP2s creation tools. The first LittleBigPlanet let players create wonderful levels but the second let you create magnificent games. Some of the creations in LBP2 make you unsure if you’re still playing on the same console let alone the same game. It’s shows the great things that happen when you give simple but powerful tools to an inventive audience.

5. FIFA 12

The release of a new FIFA game has become an annual fixture in the gaming calender. Each year a new one comes looking a bit shinier – with one or two new tricks up its sleeve. In 2011 FIFA 12 brought more new tricks than Cruyff, Ronaldinho and Messi combined. Attacking was made much more fluid, AI made meaningful runs and defending was finally introduced.

Up until FIFA 12 football games had all taken the Sensible Soccer approach of attack, attack, attack. FIFA 12′s extra focus on defence made it much more balanced than the older games in the series and added a much needed layer of tactics to the series.

Kevin McLennan

Game of the Year – Portal 2

Humour and Science are two genres that, when applied correctly mix very well for me and putting these two genres together successfully is extremely hard. So much so that the only other time I’ve seen it done well is in the book Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I say ‘other’ because Portal 2 has indeed done just that and the mix between mind bending physics lessons and witty humour is like no other. I can safely say that I have never had so much frustrating fun playing a video game before, laughing out loud at the well written and delivered characters and finding myself stumped on numerous occasions with the brilliantly crafted puzzles. Co-op is just as impressive as single player and working through the puzzles with a friend adds a whole new dimension and depth to the series. The only drawback being that it’s a little on the short side but free DLC has since been released to extend the life of the game and Valve are currently working on more. If your playing on the PC you can also download and make your own custom maps and with hundreds to choose from this is going to be your best bet for after campaign content. This is without a second thought my game of the year and if you have yet to pick this up then I can’t recommend it enough.

2. Minecraft

Build, explore, create maps, fight dragons, travel the ocean, the desert or climb mountains in single player or on a server in creative mode, adventure or hardcore and even choose your character skin and texture pack. Minecraft has almost endless possibilities for play style choice and imagination is the limit. Getting started on this game can be slow as there is a lot to learn but it soon becomes addictive and a game that I could go back to again and again.

3. Battlefield 3

With super sharp visuals and a more realistic approach to the genre BF3 has raised the bar on the very competitive FPS scene. While single player lacked anything substantial to prove itself, multiplayer was a whole different ball game. If you like epic moments on a grand scale then this is the game for you. Shooting helicopters out the sky from the top of a house, levelling buildings with your tank and crashing jets into each other are only some of the things I’ve managed.

4. LA Noire

Detective work has never been more interesting and frustrating at the same time. Carefully choosing the correct questions and searching crime scenes thoroughly became the name of the game and any mistaken judgement or missed clue can make the difference between a one star and five star report at the end of the investigation. Innovative facial capturing and a totally new game type for me made this one of the top games of the year.

5. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Stealth shooters have to be an all time favourite for me so needless to say my first playthrough of Human Revolutions was just that. My second playthrough was completely the opposite packed to the brim with all kinds of weapons, and I may yet do a third one just to discover all the endings and all the alternate outcomes to the decisions you make. The thing that’s great about HR is replayability it makes you want to come back for more and play in a different way. If it wasn’t for slightly dodgey boss fights and charged DLC that really should have been on the final disc HR would have been further up this list. Even still a great game with a good story line.

Michael Johnson

Game of the Year – Dark Souls

From Software deserve so much credit for this game, it defies convention and dares to be different – In a world where publishers cling to the safety of iterative yearly franchise updates, it takes guts to create a big-budget game that on the surface is so unwelcoming to players, tossing them into a forsaken limbo and battering them bloody. Persevere and what you find is an exquisitely crafted world, a rich and rewarding RPG system and the best melee combat in gaming. I’d thought after Skyrim released, I’d spend the rest of the year playing that, but Dark Souls drew me back in with a great patch that fixed my previous issues with the game (the multi-player mostly). My ‘quick look’ at the patch turned into a nightmarish extended run through an area known as the Catacombs and around 4 hours after I’d started, I found my palms were sweating as I made my way through the Tomb of the Giants – a pitch-black hell, populated by Skeleton Dogs who tear the unwary to shreds.

If the difficulty scaremongering that seems to surround this game has put you off, you’re missing out on something special, I thought the days where a game was capable of turning me into a foaming at the mouth rabid fanboy were long-gone. I’m delighted that From proved me wrong.

2. TES: Skyrim

I’m at the point with Skyrim (after 90 or so hours) that I tend to nit-pick when talking or writing about it. The writing is rubbish, the main-story is easy to outpace in terms of power if you partake in a bit of exploration and smithing is abusable and a bit broken. But when you’re given a world of such breath-taking scale with so much to do and see, it’s seems churlish to complain. Part of the joy of TES games is the modding scene that forms around it, if you bought Skyrim on a console you are a stupid-head, if you bought it on PC, the release of the construction set early next year will turn this into a true masterpiece.

3. Shogun 2: Total War

Shogun 2 is probably the most refined of all the Total War games, it may have a smaller scale than Rome, Medieval or the sprawling Empire, but the battles feel more fluid and responsive than ever and the setting is brought to life beautifully. One battle where I was defending a large fort and heavily outnumbered, with an 8 star general and a few veteran units (successfully) holding back endless waves of Ashigaru lives long in the memory.

4. Terraria

I am not much of a buildery type, Minecraft somehow fails to push my buttons for that reason alone. At school in art lessons I was allowed to sit in the corner and just generally mess about, so lacking was I in creativity and coherence. I can appreciate art, and I can enjoy it, I just can’t do it. Terraria removes the onus from building and design and instead lets us focus on exploring, collecting crafting and killing. It’s true that Terraria takes many cues from Minecraft and combines them with Spelunky (with a dash of Castlevania), but for my money that’s a winning combination.

5. The Witcher 2

The continuing adventures of albino sexpot Geralt of Rivia resumed in the biggest PC exclusive of the year and it failed to disappoint. CD Projeckt gave us a branching adventure with some truly difficult and morally dubious decisions to make along the way in a sumptuosly detailed fantasy world. Some issues with pacing, unresolved plot threads and slightly shonky combat detract from the experience, but it’s still a cut above.