My favorite stuff of 2011 - Part I

It's that time again. Yes, it's time to hear me wax on about how awesome my opinion is. 2011 was an eventful year... full of... events... that happened. There was also lots of media, and out of that stuff, this is what I liked the most.

2011 Game #25 - Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3


Koei has been running a really nice racket, releasing the same game every year with minor tweaks and whatnot. In a way, Dynasty Warriors is Japan's Madden, except sometimes there's giant robots. While DW7 was definitely fun, DW Gundam 3 is the game that deserves to be on my list for 2011. It's way better than the second game, which wasn't an easy thing to accomplish considering how DW Gundam 2 was already one of the best games in the DW franchise.

2011 Game #24 - BloodRayne: Betrayal


I don't think anyone expected to hear from BloodRayne after a double dose of shit movies courtesy of Uwe Boll, but if Dungeon Siege could bounce back, so can BloodRayne. Except, while Dungeon Siege came back largely as the same game it always was, BloodRayne Betrayal is like nothing we've seen before. Taking notes from oldschool Castlevania and merging them with the sidescrolling beat'em up sensibilities of games like Shank, WayForward has another amazing 2D game to add to their immensely impressive repertoire. I'd also like to make a shoutout to WayForward's Aliens: Infestation, which I thought was excellent but couldn't find room for on here.

2011 Film #10 - The Muppets


The Muppets isn't a perfect film by any means. But it sure has heart. I went into it expecting something really special, and while I definitely got that, the experience was sullied by the brief but undeniably excruciating presence of Jim Parsons. WHY?! Fuck him and fuck his stupid show!

2011 Game #23 - Rock of Ages


It's quite a simple premise. Giant boulder rolls down hill and destroys shit. Well, it's pretty damn addictive. It also has a charming aesthetic and a lot of zany humor. It's about as close to a Monty Python game as we'll ever get.

2011 Game #22 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim


That's right, I'm putting baby in the corner. It's not that I didn't like Skyrim. Hell, I played it for about 80 hours. It's just that nothing really popped for me. In the end, it just felt like a barely prettier version of Oblivion. I guess that's a little hypocritical of me to say, seeing as how I like a lot of game series that never change between entries, but I think I enjoy Elder Scrolls' base concept a little less than those other games. There are moments that I had that were unique to this game and even unique to my playthrough of this game that I'll never forget, but in the end, Elder Scrolls is still really rough and needs some kind of evolution before it wins me over in quite the same way it does with the rest of the gaming world.

2011 Show #5 - Breaking Bad: Season 4


So this year, I'm changing stuff up a bit. Since anime has gone to shit and I have a hard time finding even five shows I enjoyed enough to put up on a list, I'm expanding what once was the anime category to include all shows, live-action, Western, what-have-you. This season of Breaking Bad started off a little rough, but the last half of the season started getting exponentially better with each episode, culminating in one of the most satisfying and "OHHHH SNAP!"-laden conclusions I've seen on Western television.

2011 Film #9 - Crazy Stupid Love


Crazy Stupid Love does not use a comedy template that I typically appreciate, but it takes some twists and turns and eventually provides a unique experience among the rapidly worsening comedy front with its Hangovers and Bridesmaids. I think the key element here is how genuine it is. It doesn't feel like the script was punched out by a machine and punctuated by punch-ups from comedians who are safely phoning it in. It feels like a story about real people in real situations that just happen to be funny. That sort of thing takes a lot of confidence these days, where it seems like most movies have to scream at you, "LAUGH, DAMN YOU! THIS IS FUNNY!" Crazy Stupid Love deftly avoids the pandering and has enough faith in its audience to let them discover the funny on their own.

2011 Game #21 - Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection


With Final Fantasy IV getting re-released on what feels like an annual basis, it takes a lot to make the game enticing these days. This wonderful PSP set accomplishes this by packaging the original classic with the previously WiiWare exclusive follow-up The After Years and a brief interlude aplty titled Interlude. The quality of the sequel material is debatable, but one thing that can't be denied is the fact that this is the best version of Final Fantasy IV, which means it's the best version of one of the greatest RPGs ever made.