Xbox 360 Top 5 of 2011

2011 has been and gone and millions of people will have just received a new gaming device, whether that was an iPod touch or a Nintendo Wii. This week we’re going to be looking back at the years best releases across all gaming devices. With the release of 3DS last year, Vita and Wii u this year and the inevitable announcements from Sony and Microsoft at this years E3, things are certainly winding down on the home console front; but it’s still been another cracking year of gaming. Mike Luckett starts us off with his top 5 360 games of 2011.

5. Dead Space 2

I just had to get this game in the list, I LOVE survival horror games with Resident Evil on Gamecube being my first real experience with games like that. They don’t come round very often but Dead Space takes my love for space and sci-fi and makes a brilliant horror game out of it. Much improved over what the first game brought us (which surprised me how good it was). This had a brilliant creepy atmosphere with the sound effects, some areas of the game were that dark you literally could only see where you were pointing your torch and sometimes an enemy would be in the room and you would be franticly be looking around only to get a knife arm in your back! Great game.

4. Sonic Generations

First things first, I am a sonic fanboy but I can be honest when certain games have been far below standard (I am looking at you Sonic the Hedgehog 2006) however SEGA have outdone themselves with this one! It was such a joy to play, hearing so many classic tracks from over the years re-done, playing classic levels re-done really brought a smile to my face. I found it great to play as classic & modern sonic in their own ways, classic with the more platforming feel whereas the modern more racing at speed. It was great to play a sonic game without the obvious downside to it (Sonic Unleashed warehog I’m looking at you) Only downside was there wasn’t that many different levels and because the game was so good it just made me want to play more and think of what other great levels from previous games would have been like in it, WHERE WERE YOU ICE CAP ZONE!

3. Batman: Arkham City

It’s BATMAN! What more can I say? Starts off a bit slow and just throws you in but once you get your grove going it’s brilliant. Loads of classic villains, a great fluid combat system once and like Arkham City, this game really makes you feel like you are the Batman!

2. Gears of War 3

Gears of War was the first 360 game I played and a game I thought was great so I had the same feeling I had when I picked up Gears 2 (a sense of joy). Whereas it may not have the originality anymore with the always great cover system etc, A better campaign (great end to the trilogy), dedicated online servers, improved controls, better online matchmaking, improved horde mode and new weapons makes this easily the best out of the three Gears games!

1. Skyrim

This is the first Elders Scroll game I have played and I am hooked. I was a massive Fallout 3 fan (first Fallout game I played) so thought I would give this a try. Seems like a massive game with lots of various missions and a giant map to explore. Only criticism I have is the combat feels a bit ‘meh’, although I am currently practising magic which I am preferring to melee. I didn’t like melee combat in Fallout 3 so it feels a little for me that the worst from Fallout is the ‘main’ combat for Skyrim. However from coming face to face with your first dragon to creating a blade this game just feels all kinds of epic. Even though I have yet to complete it, the sheer amount of content in this game deserves to be my game of 2011.