Game of the Year, From The Elitist.

So game of the year. Wait.. game..? You mean... just one game?

This year has been a remarkable year for video games, and fallen dictators. Although... I doubt those are related... unless.......

This article brought to you by my desire to use meme faces. 

I know I know I know, Batman doesn't kill. I just noticed the dates and thought it was funny, don't eat me....
It's a nearly flawless game, with fantastic writing and AWESOME characters. Unfortunately I am not the most familiar with Batman cannon. I felt like in order to truly enjoy the games to it's fullest, one really needs to understand the little nuances of the story that relate back to characters, villains, and events from the comics. I missed almost all of that, save for what Mr. Outlaw explained to me. So I can't give it GotY.

I'm a huge Zelda fan, you folks know that. So Skyward Sword? I can't. Not in good conscience. I loved the game, and I am very happy with it. However, it had enough flaws, and frustrated me to often to justify giving it the best game of the year. Flaws and the like I won't recount... beeecause you can just read my review! Also, I'm lazy.
 It does shows growth in the franchise, and we shall see what happens in the future!
Special Mentions: Arkham City & Skyward Sword.

Goddammit....

Skyrim? Well... almost. Skyrim brings a whole new standard to quality RPG, but it also lacks several things that make a games story feel consistent. Skyrim was my most anticipated game this year after watching Dragon trailers over and over. The whole idea of random Dragon encounters sounded really thrilling, and it was; until about the 50th time even after I beat the main story.. thingy. I would become leader of a faction, and the members would still treat me as though I was a recruit. Becoming a Bard did little else aside from triggering some guards to refer to me as Bard, the same way they call me "sneak-thief". Not especially prestigious. This game absorbed hours of my life, hours I sha'nt regret, I love it, but aforementioned video game farts deny it the GotY spot.
Runner Up: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Well, moving on to the important stuff, if you work your memory juice (that's how memory works, right?) back to early early this year. In January, EA brought us a little gem... Dead Space 2.
Dead Space 2 was, in my humble opinion, the best game to release this year, for 3 reasons
1. Huge character and story progress from previous game
2. Brilliant Multi-player
3. EMOTION! SOUL!
Wait.. is that four?

Isaac was not a character. Not in DS. He was the faceless Hero. Yeah it's cool it's kind of poetic. It allows all of us insignificant bastards to feel like Master of the Universe for 20 hours before we have to clean the dog shit off the carpet, but in reality it's a little lazy. Isaac became a man we could relate to. Someone we wanted to win. An engaging/inspiring/blahblah hero is always more fun. Giving him a face, and a character, made his tribulations feel more real. I was able to see the anguish on his face, and I wanted to just hug him... after I help him sever this mutated baby-monster's head. I have made my feelings on Dead Space fairly clear in the past, honestly, I had to stop myself from writing too many "favorite moments" on this game. Every scene felt powerful and was obviously cared for deeply.
Watching a game like DS, turn into DS2, you can feel the desire the teams had to make the game like nothing anyone had seen before. The more love that goes into a game, the more beautiful it becomes. This game felt like a piece of art during the entire game. Not to mention.. we owned the SHIT out of some sonsabitches in multiplayer! It's a teamwork based multiplayer that requires a healthy amount of strategy. You can't just run around Rambo style and hope you win. You gotta think, and you have to work together. Love it. We were unstoppable!!
So... yeah.
Game of the Year: Dead Space 2. 

Goodnight! Happy New Year, you rapscallions!