Game Junk Podcast Episode #10: Top 10 Games of 2011

Posted by on January 30th, 2012   Filed under: Featured, Game Junk

0:00 – Intro / Uncle Frank’s Retro Lounge Update
11:35 – Headlines: Rocksteady Developing a New TMNT Game?
17:20 – Feature: Our Top 10 Games of 2011
1:39:30 – Top 5: Most Anticipated Games of 2012
1:58:10 – Junk Mail: Difficulty Levels and Play Testing, HD Upgrades, What We Do, Apple II and First Programming Platform, Skyrim Game Breaking Glitch, Games Without HUDs, Storytelling and Cinematic Games, Top 5 Mario Games
2:33:55 – Upcoming Releases
2:35:50 – Outro

Game Junk Podcast Episode #10: Top 10 Games of 2011 by Filmjunk on Mixcloud

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  • Kasper

    Yessssss, can’t wait to listen to it. Work today is going to be so much better.

  • Colin

    Sean… if you like platforming with color-switching gamplay, check out Silhouette Mirage (which is [interestingly enough] by Treasure, the same guys who did Ikaruga). I’m sure Frank can school you on it and probably owns it for Saturn or PSX.

  • Cool… looks like it was re-released for the Playstation at some point as well. I’ll have to see if I can track it down.

  • Good lists, guys. Thanks for reading my email!

    Here’s my personal breakdown of 2011:

    Best Games of the Year:
    1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
    2. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
    3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
    4. Battlefield 3
    5. Rayman Origins
    6. L.A. Noire
    7. Batman: Arkham City
    8. Shadows of the Damned
    9. Saints Row: The Third
    10. Dead Space 2

    (Honorable Mention: Resistance 3)

    Please Note: I had a difficult time giving Skyrim the top spot due to it’s technically flawed version released for the PlayStation 3; however, when it is actually working properly, it’s quite an achievement for the medium of gaming and quite possibly one of the best games released in this generation of consoles.

    Best PSN Games of the Year:
    1. Renegade Ops
    2. Outland
    3. LIMBO
    4. BloodRayne: Betrayal
    5. PixelJunk Shooter 2

    iOS Games of the Year:
    1. Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery LP
    2. Jetpack Joyride
    3. Tiny Wings
    4. World of Goo HD
    5. Real Racing 2 HD

    Best PS2 HD Collections of the Year:
    1. Ico & Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection
    2. Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
    3. The Sly Collection

    Best Graphics:
    Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

    Best Sound Design:
    Battlefield 3

    Best Score/Soundtrack:
    Deus Ex: Human Revolution

    Most Surprising Game of the Year:
    Driver: San Francisco

    Most Underwhelming Games of the Year:
    1. Portal 2
    2. RAGE
    3. Crysis 2

    Most Disappointing Games of the Year:
    1. Jurassic Park: The Game
    2. Duke Nukem Forever
    3. Stacking

    Best Gaming Peripheral / Technology of the Year:
    Turtle Beach Ear Force PX5 Wireless 7.1 Dolby Digital Surround Headset

    Most Anticipated Games of 2012 (The Last Guardian Memorial List):
    1. Grand Theft Auto V
    2. Bioshock Infinite
    3. Far Cry 3
    4. Max Payne 3
    5. Hitman Absolution
    6. Prey 2
    7. Mass Effect 3
    8. Tomb Raider
    9. Metal Gear Solid: Rising
    10. Journey

  • Totally with Frank on Shantae — just beat it, and if there were some way to play it on a larger screen than my iPod, that’d be the Risky’s Boots.

  • csidle

    There’s barely any interest from this listener in the retro-stuff. A Skyrim episode would be awesome!

  • Colin

    BTW: “Among standalone games, the inflation-adjusted winner appears to be “Super Mario Bros. 3″ – which sold 18 million copies on the NES. The game carried an original price of $50. When total sales are converted to today’s dollars, they reach $1.7 billion. No other title comes close.”

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/42253109/Call_of_Duty_Guitar_Hero_Top_All_Time_Best_Selling_List

  • Ozymandias

    And just like that, my day is made. Thanks guys.

  • dirrrtyfrank

    @colin
    The problem with that is (and it says in the article) that the original Super Mario Bros and Super Mario World are pack in games, so it’s almost impossible to effectively compare them. We’ll never know how many people ‘would have’ bought those games if they weren’t bundled with the system.

  • Colin

    @dirrrtyfrank: Oh, you’ll get no argument from me… I just wanted to help Sean remember what he was (probably) sourcing.

  • Henrik

    hnnnng I wanna go to Uncle Franks so bad! Did you get Streets of Rage 2 for Mega Drive?

    Also, agreed on everything said about Rage. There were some points in the game though that made it absolutely amazing, where the music would remind me of the music from Doom or Wolfenstein, and I ws running around going down shit and it really felt like games had taken a step, from back then to now. Loved that shit. Save system sucks – a bit better on pc, but another huge issue is money. I’m constantly out of money for ammo and supplies (stuck on the last mission now, because I don’t have enough ammo on my car to beat the prologue yet zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzkillmenow).

    Oh, and Super Mario World is to Super Mario 3, what Street Fighter II Turbo is to Super Mario 3. The NES version was the masterpiece. Suck it Frank.

    Now go review Deus Ex!

  • Henrik

    going=gunning :(

  • Henrik

    Rofl, triple post but I fucked up the last point too. Ah, you guys will figure it out.

  • Theman

    Haven’t played uncharted 3 yet but just beat Gears Of War 3 and loved it. Next Dead space 2. But best game of the year is by far skyrim IMO.

  • Kasper

    I don’t get the love for Skyrim, I found the gameplay mechanics tedious, the environments a mishmash of brown and grey plus most areas seem like one big copy-paste party. Other than that it was filled to the rim with bugs when it first released, ruining the first impression when everything went wrong all the time.

    But I guess it’s a matter of taste. What I find tedious and repetetive, others find entertaining. What I think is boring to look at, wanting a more vibrant and colorful world, others think is realistic. I also hate Call of Duty and the likes, sooo…

  • Kasper

    PS. Frank is awesome, Rayman Origins needs more love. THAT’S the sort of vibrant and colorful world I want. You da man, Frank, you. da. man!

  • patrik

    Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction would definitely hold up and you can probably get it for cheap on steam, Sean.

    Haven´t touched Uncharted 2 or 3. Played an hour or so of Uncharted 1 and it didn´t do anything for me. Might go back though.

    1. Portal 2
    2. Skyrim
    3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
    4. Batman Arkham City
    5. Football Manager 2012
    6. Dead Space 2
    7. Fight Night Champion
    8. StarCraft 2
    9. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
    10. Gears of War 3

    The voice-actor for Deus Ex is the legendary Timothy Olyphant btw.

    Also, I worked at an EB games store for two years. Never again. Horrible company.

  • No Diablo on Steam unfortunately. That was the first thing I thought of as well. I guess I’ll just have to try out Torchlight until then.

  • Kasper

    Sean, why not just buy it from Blizzard themselves via their onlinestore? At any rate Torchlight is nowhere near as good as either Diablo one nor two.

  • fatbologna

    The best solution to the camera in Skyrim is to run around and do everything in third person until you have to fight, then click the right stick and fight or pick shit up in first person. Boom.

  • patrik

    Yeah, you can get Diablo 2 and expansion for 20 bones on Blizzard.com. Get on it, Sean. =)

    I haven’t played Torchlight but I can safely say it’s not as good as Diablo 2. The mood and atmosphere of Diablo is something to behold.

  • Elias Toufexis voiced Adam from Deux Ex: HR, not Timothy Olyphant.

  • patrik

    Really? I was fucking convinced it was Olyphant the whole time. Well that sucks.

  • Kasper

    If you want to enjoy Timothy Olyphant in a videogame you need to buy either Modern Warfare 3 or Turok.

  • Colin

    Have you guys thought about doing premium Game Junk podcasts?

    I’m thinking that a System Shock/System Shock 2, Bioshock/Bioshock 2 retrospective would be an awesome way to amp listeners up for Bioshock Infinite.

  • Would love to but that would be a lot more work for a lot less pay off. Game Junk has way less listeners than FJ.

  • Kasper

    Perhaps you guys need to promote gamejunk a little. Trying to post new episodes on say n4g.com – a “social” gaming site – would get some new people in each time. It’s basically just submitting a link with a synopsis and an image.

  • Yeah I admit we haven’t done anything to promote it at all but it’s so irregular that I think it will be hard to build up a following anyway. Plus there are probably even more video game podcasts out there than movie podcasts.

  • Kasper

    Perhaps. But then again when people come for the first time, they might stick around, listen to older episodes and also try out Film Junk – gamers and movielovers on the Internet is two demographics that usually overlap. It’s worth a shot.

    If you’re not interested in submitting it for N4G due to your busy schedule with work and the new addition to the family, I could give it a shot, I’ve used the service numerous times and each time it has resulted in a small bump up in traffic for a little while, so there is a good amount of click-throughs.

  • Good listening as always, you guys. Truly wish I could partake of Uncle Frank’s Retro Lounge. It sounds kickass. :D

    My top 10 of 2011 based on nothing more than how much fun I had with a title. Mostly.

    10. Dark Souls
    9. Catherine
    8. Mortal Kombat reboot
    7. Uncharted 3
    6. Deus Ex Human Revolution
    5. Arkham City
    4. Portal 2
    3. Bastion
    2. Skyrim
    and… 1. Dead Space 2

    Top 3 could easily be interchanged from day to day, but I really enjoyed DS2 quite a bit. Everything about that game, from the atmosphere (lighting/sound, etc) to the set pieces to the gameplay to the story was great imo. Also, any game that uses the weird ‘skull light’ technique from Big Trouble in Little China is bad ass. :P Can’t wait to see where they take Isaac in part 3.

    MAkE uS wHoLE…