Shooters
Despite the boundaries between genres becoming increasingly blurred, if 2011 belonged to any one strand of gaming, it was the shooter. The two headliners came towards the end of the year in the form of Activision's Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and EA's Battlefield 3, of course, but the sheer volume of high-profile releases was notable.
Crysis 2 (reviewed in E227) moved the series' high-tech fight from the jungle to the city, Bulletstorm (reviewed in E226) reinvented the melee attack, Killzone 3 blitzed players' senses with its distinctive audio/visual assault, Resistance 3 showcased Insomniac's fabulously imaginative weapon design, and Codemaster's Bodycount went back to basics - perhaps stripping away a few too many layers in the process.
Despite its divisive boss battles, Eidos Montreal's Deus Ex: Human Revolution delivered an experience rich in choice and saturated with credible detail - almost exactly the opposite of Duke Nukem Forever, then, which gatecrashed a decade, let alone year, in which it really didn't belong. There were other missteps too, most notably the generic Homefront (reviewed in E226) and fundamentally broken Dead Island. Almost as if in answer, then, came two of the genre's most celebrated creators to show the rest of the world how it's done in the form of id's Rage and 343 Industries' Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. And we mustn't forget Epic's Gears Of War 3, which delivered dizzying scale and bombast to Xbox 360 owners.
Projectile fans not wishing to keep their feet on the ground had plenty of options, too. Q-Games delivered two excellent examples of its trademark PSN exuberance in PixelJunk Shooter 2 (reviewed in E226) and PixelJunk Sidescroller. Star Fox 64 3D proved a revelation as the game burst into 3D on Nintendo’s handheld, and Ace Combat: Assault Horizon turned out to be one of the best entries in the series for a long time. Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury brought bullet-heaven into searing high-definition and Child Of Eden provided some of the most beautiful on-screen moments of the year and yet another reason to investigate Kinect.
Racing
While 2011 just missed out on laying claim to Gran Turismo 5 and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit - both of which came out the preceding November - it was still a vintage year for tarmac fans. Codemasters finally reconciled the needs of European and American rally fans in Dirt 3 while Forza Motorsport 4 provided a thrilling, if overtly familiar, drive. The Need For Speed series also refined its more realistic branch with Shift 2: Unleashed (reviewed in E227) in the process managing to offer a whiff of the stomach-churning fear that must come with pointing a real car at the apex a little more quickly than is really safe.
But it wasn’t all about realism, and there were some enjoyably leftfield takes on driving from Mario Kart 7’s brilliantly implemented hang gliders and MotorStorm: Apocalypse’s (reviewed in E226) delirious track destruction, to MotoHeroz riotous platforming and the out-of-body experience that is Driver San Francisco. Need For Speed: The Run’s cinematic aspirations didn’t fare quite so well, however, while Test Drive Unlimited 2 (reviewed in E226) set a new high bar for unnerving character design.
Adventure and action
Adventurous sorts were well catered for in 2011, with plenty of defining series installments and a smattering of brand new IPs. Naughty Dog further solidified its reputation for cinematic flair with Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception – though it was disappointing to see that the second game’s love triangle had all but petered out. Playing the foil to Drake’s Indiana Jones-baiting exploits was Visceral Games’ claustrophobic horror masterpiece, Dead Space 2. Yakuza 4, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Batman: Arkham City and Saints Row: The Third also provided the opportunity to return to now-familiar worlds.
It was mostly left to Team Bondi and UTV Ignition, then, to release adventures not suffixed by a number, and what stylish games LA Noire and El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron turned out to be. Despite the former's protracted development and the controversy over working conditions at the studio which surfaced after the game’s released, Team Bondi’s adventure reconfigured genre staples into an experience that felt genuinely fresh. El Shaddai went in the other direction by presenting biblical stories through a psychedelic filter and was sparklingly brilliant as a result.
Minecraft finally reached version 1.0 after a very public beta, in the process adding an endgame and some rudimentary structure to an experience that already thrived on open-ended abandon. Meanwhile, meanwhile, offered an elegant - and unmissable - take on interactive fiction and Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP updated the classic adventure template for a decidedly post-modern audience.
RPG
Action, turn-based, massively multiplayer or otherwise, the past year has offered some exceptional role playing experiences. What better place to start than Nintendo’s Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword, 2011’s only Edge 10 and the game that finally saw Nintendo’s hardware fulfill its potential.
Even if your Christmas wasn't white this year, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim provided all the snow you could ever want, and, more importantly, dragons. But one of the most anticipated PC RPGs, The Witcher 2, also proved to be one of the most divisive, and our experience was a disappointing one. Bastion, Okamiden and Infinity Blade 2, however, all offered decidedly fresh takes on the notion of an epic quest.
Meanwhile, Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story (reviewed in E226) and Catherine gave the JRPG, at its most traditional and creative extremes, a much needed burst of vitality, while From Software shone a stark light on our gaming credentials with the unforgiving Dark Souls.
Fighting
NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat (reviewed in E228) reboot may not have delivered a fighting experience on a par with its peers, but its wholehearted commitment to the series‘ trademark viscera was a short-lived guilty pleasure nonetheless. While Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3's constant onscreen chaos was a thrill even when you were on the receiving end of it. Dead Or Alive: Dimensions and Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition confidently brought their respective series to 3DS, and Fight Night Champion’s (reviewed in E226) bone-crunching realism was the best entry in the series to date.
Strategy
In a world of free-to-play and quick-fix mobile gaming, you’d be forgiven for thinking that playing god – or at the very least, a general – was becoming unfashionable. It’s certainly been a quieter year for strategists, but that only meant that the examples which did surface had more space to shine. Creative Assembly’s Total War: Shogun 2 (reviewed in E226) offered the series most focused entry yet, while Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War II – Retribution (reviewed in E227) broadened its remit with frantically enjoyable results. And Eric Chahi's From Dust gave players such a distractingly enjoyable sandbox to play in, that it was easy to forget your next objective.
Turn-based combat was in fine fettle too. Frozen Synapse was a tense, intoxicating affair; UFO: Enemy Unknown designer Julian Gollop brought his expertise to bear on the Tom Clancy series in Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars; and Disgaea 4 was as deep as any one of its predecessors, but showed signs that the series is beginning to run out of ideas.
Platformer
The best examples of platforming this year made the most of 2D – at least in terms of their core mechanics. Rayman Origins' luxurious hand-painted visuals and perfectly-judged inertia recalled the genre’s 16-bit heyday, Super Mario 3D Land honed in on Mario at his purest, while LittleBigPlanet 2 provided players with a remarkably powerful toolset for producing their own mini-games. Then there was the eminently charming, and peerlessly colourful, De Blob 2 or Nintendo's delightful homespun Kirby's Epic Yarn.
Puzzle
Portal 2 could just as easily sit alongside the biggest shooters of the year, or even with the adventure games, but Valve's thoughtful reappropriation of the firstperson perspective is, at its heart, a puzzler. The sequel might have lost some of the original's taut focus, but there were no shortage of ideas - or Wheatley and Glados provoked laughs - to take up the slack.
SpaceChem was punishingly difficult, but its flawless logic offered tremendous rewards and Echochrome II took the honour of becoming the first must-have Move game. Where's My Heart? revelled in simplicity, beauty and restraint, despite its challenge.
On iOS, meanwhile, Shaun Inman brought a little of Nintendo's spirit to mobile with his solid-fueled puzzler The Last Rocket, and Where’s My Water? mixed PixelJunk Shooter-style elemental chemistry with a clean-freak alligator. What more could you ask for?