Gamedot’s 2011 review – Scott Griffiths

By Scott Griffiths on December 21st, 2011

Last of the staff writers to review 2011 is veteran gamer (he won’t like me for saying that – Ed) and rebel Scott Griffiths. We say rebel as he’s decided to slightly go against the format. But we don’t care, as he at least answered the questions and didn’t sit on the fence, unlike one writer…

Disappointment of the Year

Duke Nukem Forever. How could it possibly be good? After such long development cycles and cancellations (14 years), then the tease of a possible resurrection, followed by a shock announcement by Gearbox Software that not only they were taking the helm, but the release date was within 6 months – many fans of the Duke actually wept tears of joy. Then the demo was released and we wept many tears of fear. I cancelled my pre-order in the hope that I was wrong and the final product would be awesomeness of the highest degree. I wasn’t wrong and the final game (as Duke would say if he could) sucked balls. 14 years old and the crass jokes, antiquated controls and the mish-mash of ideas were the result of such a long and problematic cycle.

Why Gearbox didn’t just take the rights and start afresh to deliver a reboot of the franchise worthy of the fanbase is an obvious monetary one. Only time will tell if the Duke (and indeed us loyal fans) will recover from the debacle of Duke Nukem Forever.

Game and Developer of the Year

For me the worthy winners of this are Portal 2 and Valve. Valve has steadily become the ‘Apple’ of the gaming developing universe. Gaming Nirvana delivered to the masses from Counter-Strike to Half Life and onto Left 4 Dead, every franchise an almost perfect marriage of challenge, action and storytelling. But it wasn’t until the Orange box release with the stand alone puzzler Portal and it’s quite mad artificial AI GLaDOS that the mainstream began to take notice. While it was very clever and very good, it was hard to imagine the idea of a sequel holding its own as a full game in its own right.

2 minutes in however and any initial apprehension is quickly dispelled by the masterstroke of a character in Wheatley – made all the more brilliant with Steven Merchant as the actor behind the little robot. If anyone could make the most of Merchant’s deadpan comedic value it’s Valve, and the life he brings to the role is the best example of utilising talent and not showboating big names on the cover. J.K Simmons is also a delight as Cave Johnson, a typically gruff 50’s era Man’s man of a boss. But it’s the details that Valve does so well. For those willing to look it’s impossible to pick a hole in the games infrastructure to destroy the magic that Valve weaves throughout. Sure it may have some pacing issues, but it’s nothing that spoils the end result. And that’s not even getting into the clever and brilliantly co-operative multiplayer…

 

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