By
Matthew Scott Hunter
The top five games of 2011
 ‘PORTAL
2’
(E10+)
Valve
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
“Modern Warfare 3” may be the fastest selling
video game of all time, but the best first-person
shooter of 2011 didn’t include a single kill-streak.
“Portal 2” made good on the promise of its brief
but brilliant predecessor by continuing to innovate.
Not only did you have to learn to think with
portals, but also to think with light bridges,
repulsion and propulsion gels — not to mention
the added complexity of two extra portals in
the cooperative campaign. All of the game’s
many fresh ideas were surprisingly user-friendly,
so though the more advanced test chambers required
some trial-and-error experimentation, it never
felt frustrating.
Just as memorable as the gameplay was the storyline,
which took you from Aperture Science’s auspicious
beginnings in the 1950s to its cash-strapped
days in the 1970s to its present status as a
decaying nightmare of bureaucratic policies
and overabundant pneumatic tubes. A game setting
hasn’t felt this rich and atmospheric since
we first walked through the leaky halls of Rapture.
Ellen McLain’s acclaimed role as GLaDOS was
equaled by the hilarious vocal performances
of Stephen Merchant and J.K. Simmons, and the
script was frequently surprising. The subtle
setup of potato batteries was paid off when
the main villain (or so we thought) was confined
to one. An off-hand remark about portal surfaces
being made from moon rocks led to a spectacular
conclusion that was, literally, out-of-this-world.
A portal gun may be able to transport you to
any place in your line of sight, but “Portal
2” took us to a place we’ve never seen before.
‘THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: SKYWARD SWORD’
(E10+)
Nintendo
Wii
“Zelda” games are frequently the best on any
Nintendo console, but never has one justified
that console quite like “Skyward Sword.” At
a time when motion control gaming felt more
gimmicky than ever, “Skyward Sword” provided
us with an exciting, hardcore gaming experience
that couldn’t be played any other way.
3. ‘BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY’
(T)
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Between Christopher Nolan’s films and Rocksteady
Studio’s games, it’s been a very good time for
fans of the caped crusader. But you didn’t have
to be a comic book nerd to enjoy gliding over
the streets of Gotham’s seediest neighborhoods
and pummeling lowlifes a dozen at a time.
4. ‘THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM’
(M)
Bethesda Softworks
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
“Skyrim” was a time suck as virtually endless
as its titular world. There were dragons to
slay, villains to assassinate, and myriad quests
to be accepted and completed. The remarkable
thing is that all of that was in addition to
the central story, which you could ignore altogether
while still managing to invest hundreds of hours
in the game.
5. ‘UNCHARTED 3: DRAKE’S DECEPTION’
(T)
Sony Computer Entertainment
PlayStation 3
The third entry in the “Uncharted” series came
closer than ever to erasing the line between
action video game and Hollywood blockbuster.
Few games (or movies, for that matter) are as
cinematic as the elaborate set pieces in “Uncharted
3,” which always left you with that exhilarating
feeling of being in over your head. CV | 
