This year got off to a great
start with Dead Space 2 standing
out in January as an early contender for Game of the Year. Yet, the following months fizzled with
highly anticipated games like Dragon Age 2 disappointing fans, while critical
darlings like L.A. Noire stubbornly refused to appear on PC until later this
year. Fortunately the PC indie
scene coughed up a couple of great games in the first half of this year, giving
PC gamers something to tide us over until the blockbuster glut in the fall. Our PC Department of
Fergus Halliday, Ari RunaninTelle, Jonathan Gann and Charles Battersby panned
the river of mediocrity to find the Three Best Games of 2011 (so far).
Charles: Third on our list is Magicka, a PC exclusive indie game by Arrowhead Studios,
published by Paradox Interactive. It’s rare that blockbuster games are actually
funny, so smaller developers are your best choice for genuinely amusing video
games. Aside from being a
surprisingly entertaining title at launch, the developer has kept up a stream of
DLC and updates since it came out at the tail end of January, including Magicka
Vietnam. That’s right, wizards with AK 47’s.
Fergus: When I first saw Magicka, I glazed over it and wrote it off as a budget
European RPG of some sort. Then I saw a video of Totalbiscuit and Yogscast
playing the game. About a third of the way into the video I paused it, linked
it to all my mates and immediately bought Magicka. The single player of the game was funny thanks to
the self-referential humor and pop culture references. The chaotic multiplayer is one of the
most fun games I have played in years.
Ari: The only original IP on my list, Magicka is a $10 indie game released exclusively on digital
download sites. It's similar to a dungeon crawler, but with better gameplay. It
allows for constant creativity in your spell-casting. Creating spells never
gets old, and it would be a far weaker game without them. While it's
fun alone, Magicka truly shines
in multiplayer, especially when your friends are in the same room. My favorite
part is the chaos that ensues in co-op, with friendly fire being just as likely
as a normal death. Luckily, there's a revive spell. 
Charles: The second best game of the year, Dead Space 2, was
the first big blockbuster to come out in 2011. "Dead Space" is a franchise I love, even though I only
discovered it shortly before Dead Space 2 came out. It had even more
brutal combat than the first game in the series, a surprisingly good
multiplayer component, and it significantly elevated the storytelling of the
series. Gone is the faceless hero
cliché, and this time around Isaac Clark was an interesting character involved
in an emotional journey… that involved lots of stomping on space zombies.
Jonathan: Dead Space 2 was a favorite of mine, as I was a big fan of the
first game, and EA did a good job building on what they had established with
it. Overall, the atmosphere, weapon design, and a lot of the general “feel” of
the controls were just spot on. Many people don’t like this franchise since
it’s very similar to the Resident Evil sort of wheelhouse, but it was one of my favorite horror games of all
time, and an excellent PC port to boot. The multiplayer was a little
lackluster, but the single player more than made up for any shortcoming a
tacked-on last minute mode may have had.
Fergus: I'm a huge fan of the first Dead
Space, as well as the old System
Shock games, and found Dead Space
2 to be an absolute blast. The story
picked up exactly where the previous game left off and the sheer intensity of
certain sequences in the game completely amazed me. I even found the
new multiplayer component of the game to be really cool and fun, if a
little unbalanced.
Ari: I love survival-horror, particularly Resident
Evil 4. So when I heard of Dead
Space, I was on-board even if it was
just "Resident Evil in Space." It was a pleasant surprise that it was
a dark, scary, and occasionally thrilling experience that remained unique,
though it cribbed from many masterpieces of horror. The same can be said of Dead
Space 2, but it's more of an
evolution of the original than an innovation on survival-horror gameplay. All
the gameplay has been streamlined and improved, the graphics look as smooth as
ever, and the PC version controls far better than the original Dead Space on PC. As long as Dead Space is this good, the franchise can continue
forever. 
Charles: The top game on our list of Best Games
of 2011 was an easy choice: Portal 2. No one saw the first
Portal coming, but this one had four years of hype behind it, and it lived up
to expectations.
Ari: The most serious GOTY
contender so far, Portal 2 is a
very smart game, though very different than its predecessor. If Portal was an indie flick, Portal 2 is a summer blockbuster, with larger environments,
far more story, and memorable setpieces. The quirky humor remains intact as
well, keeping Portal 2 unique.
The puzzles widely expand on the concepts laid down in the original, while
still keeping the difficulty curve reasonable. Then there's the co-op, which is
just as well designed as the single player, and far more challenging.
Fergus: It would be impossible to talk about
the best PC games this year without mentioning the sequel to 2007's Portal. Portal
2 hit all the right notes with its
story and the level design far surpasses that of the original. Valve perfectly
nailed the humor of GlaDOS from the first game a second time without revisiting
the "Cake is a lie." All the additions to the game, particularly the
Gels, feel right at home and the co-op mode of the game is exactly what fans of
the first game wanted.
Jonathan: Portal 2 was the obvious one. It built upon everything the
first game established, and then some, adding some of the most amazing co-op
I’ve played with my wife in a long time. A challenging yet accessible puzzle
game and first person platformer. Valve has shown that they have some of the
best writers gaming has to offer, and they flaunt it well. There’s no cash-ins
on previous memes and familiar ground, it’s all new and all amazing. Although I
cannot argue it was the longest, it really was the best gaming experience I had
this year.
Runner-ups
Here are a few personal choices that we enjoyed but didn't quite make our "Best of" list:
Charles: Even though Grey Matter came out last year in Europe, it only hit America this February. This funny, clever adventure game by Jane Jensen is one of my favorites for the year so far. It isn’t as flashy as Portal or Dead Space, but it does have a great story, witty dialogue and a wonderful protagonist – the sexy, mischievous street magician Samantha Everett. It’s definitely something for adventure fans to check out.
Jonathan: Bulletstorm. Something I didn’t even think I would like. Just a bunch of dumb shooting with a scoring system. But, the skillshots are fun to chain together and add a layer of depth to the game that I didn’t expect. Many people will go through the game playing it like any other shooter, thinking of it as a generic boring shooter, but they will be doing it wrong. While the single player isn’t any kind of amazing storytelling masterpiece, it’s coherent and compelling enough to justify all of the blood and guts that occur for the duration. A lot of people will probably give me flak for this, but I really, really enjoyed Bulletstorm, and I don’t care who knows it!
Ari: Jamestown. The PC
hasn't seen much of "Bullet-Hell" shooters for a very long time. Even
if you've played these kinds of games before on other platforms, Jamestown is a treat. It has a ridiculous premise, uses it
well, looks amazing with hand-drawn art, and still has classic bullet-hell
gameplay. The fact that you can play with friends is pretty great, too, even if
it is local computer only.
Fergus: Bulletstorm. In a sea of ever graying color pallets and ever
dulling war scenarios, Bulletstorm
was a fresh injection of fun, color and originality into the world of FPS
games. People Can Fly and Epic came together to give gamers an awesome setting
with unique characters that stand apart from other FPS games and the story of
Grayson Hunt is definitely one that I want to see continued. The skillshots
feature in Bulletstorm also set
itself apart from other FPS games and made just shooting stuff fun again.
Read our full reviews of
Magicka, Dead Space 2, Portal 2, Gray Matter, Bulletstorm and Jamestown, and tell us in the comments below what your favorite games are from the first half of the year.