5 Anticipated, Yet Released Games of 2011 You’ve Forgotten About | Nave360

Nave360's Charlie writes:

"Poor games. We look forward to them, then we buy them, then we play them, then we sort of love them and then we forget about them. Some of the games released early on into the year barely get any mentions at award shows because… well for that exact fact! That they were released so early on in the year. But which games that were anticipated for 2011 have people just stopped talking about? Here’s five which might get you talking for about 3 minutes before you start thinking about how Skyrim will be Game of the Year, or how Uncharted 3 will be the one to watch."

[zeal0us]

Bioware made us forget about DA2, after beating the one time just like New Vegas it got toss to the side of my bed.

Brink screw up, it brought great ideas/concepts to the fps world but they was poorly done. The campaign really doesn't provide enough info on the backstory plus there really wasn't any depth to the characters/character development.

If Bulletstorm had some MP it would of probably would been remember by more ppl. I still plan on getting the game when the price drop a little bit lower.

[Kran]

Bulletstorm had a horde mode like feature, which was for 2-4 players. So it had some sort of multiplayer. More like co-op

[BiggCMan]

I started the story in Bulletstorm, actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I could see myself buying in a little while once it's nice and cheap just to finish the story at least. Had good gameplay, enjoyed the skill shot system as well. But look at this:

"Resistance 3 – The best of the series. Unfortunately, its previous games let the franchise down"

The F**K is he smoking? Resistance 3 was definitely good, best in the series though is an opinion, and the other games certainly DID NOT let the franchise down in any way whatsoever. The first game was gold, great in SP and MP. 2 was alright in SP, great in co-op and MP. 3 was fantastic in SP, and (in my opinion) horrible in MP on so many levels.

[EVILDEAD360]

Dead Space 2 was my favorite campaign this year until Gears of War 3 dropped

LA Noire was also a game that I coulnt put down. Loved it.

Bulletstorm should have done way better numbers but it won't take away from a fun fun experience.

Everyone I know who finished DA2 really loved the game. But the internet went bezerk. It is still justy one of those games I have not had the chance to sink into. Been planning on it all year, but it just never happened.

But, just because the media and press stops, does not mean people forgot about the titles. Even if they trade them in, it doesn't take away from the original purchase.

Evil

[SilentNegotiator]

Bulletstorm had the same issue as Duke Nukem.....it was funny and meant to be a parody simply because they said so. But the naked truth was that they played it straight and were awkward and ugly for it.

Bulletstorm tossed in gimmicky kills and a scoreboard into shooting gameplay and did nothign special otherwise. They even had the nerve to mock other games (much better than Bulletstorm) and even hypocritically mocked things that could be found in Bulletstorm 100x more often than the very games they mocked!

[SilentNegotiator]

They tried to make Dragon Age more accessible, but only ended up making the gameplay not like the first, and no where near as good.

Brink looked and sounded interesting at first, but the day they tried to pawn off PC footage as 360 footage by having the 360 controller support on with button icons (Okay, they admitted it in their forums - but a forum is about as read as the tiny disclaimer that says "this isn't actually true" in size 3 font, in a TV commercial running in standard definition), I knew what sort of class this game was going to be. And behold! It was a crappy game.

LA Noire was over-rated. The investigation and interrogation was all so automatic and easy. And the rest was made of boring shoot outs and driving sections. But all gamers saw were pretty facial animation graphics and a Rockstar logo. And reviewers saw that it happened to be raining marketing money, as it normally does when Rockstar comes around.

As for Dead Space 2 itself, no complaints here, other than the online-pass infested, throw-away multiplayer. The marketing campaign however, was rather insulting to gamers.

[RankFTW]

Article should be called "5 games that Rank got Platinum on this year".

[Saladfax]

Bulletstorm was an attempt to bring a multi-player sensibility to a single-player game. High-scoring, skill-shot kills, trick moves, teabagging, and so forth are fine concepts. However, I'd argue this is geared toward the online shooter market, but are those individuals interested in doing any of these things outside of multi-player to begin with?

Then we've got people more geared toward single-player experiences. The story seemed a bit weak, and while the skill-kills are interesting, they sort of fit into a strange and flimsy premise inside the game world itself. They're fun, but to a gamer who enjoys deep, engrossing experiences, is a series of silly trick kills enough?

I can't say for sure. I played the demo, and it was pretty fun. I'd probably pick up the game if it drops below 10 bucks, but for me, the story and characters seemed to be more of that childish, Gears of War sensibility of masculinity and the whole, "This game is much too cool for you, scrub," attitude about it. I mean, the demo intro has this phrase in it:

"Might be just some demo to you, a succulent morsel of the greatest damned game ever made..."

Where Duke flies into pure parody, this game almost seems to be trying to take itself seriously. It's just not all that appealing from a solid narrative position.

Still, if it's decently fun, it might be worth a look down the road.

[Black-Helghast]

I love Dead Space 2. I still play it today lmao, its pretty fun plus i'm planning on getting the platinum since I'm 3 trophies away from the first game's plat.

[Hellsvacancy]

DS2 was pooh, thats why i forgot bout it, loved the 1st....platinum trophied it in fact coz it was so awesome

[da_2pacalypse]

@Hellsvacancy You're crazy. Dead space 2 was fantastic in every single aspect and there is no way anybody can say it wasn't better than the first. Because it was the same style of game with better graphics, better and longer story, and more replay value. yes, I forget that DS2 was released this year, but that's because it was released in January, not because it was a bad game.

[The_Nameless_One]

@Hellsvacancy
With you on that one. Loved DS1 but DS2 was a step down IMO.

[saladthieves]

@da_2pacalypse -

Dead Space 1 is still my favorite Dead Space out of the two games. This is purely my opinion.

Dead Space 2 was good, but it wasn't perfect or fantastic in every single aspect. For example, multiplayer as fun as it was, just didn't work very well.

There were some balance issues on the necromorph side with some enemies being very strong, some being very weak. Their solution of increasing the spawn time for these stronger enemies still didn't solve the issue. The multiplayer also just had only one game mode, and there was no depth at all.

Overall I feel that they should have spent more time with the single player aspect and not included in multiplayer.

[KUV1977]

MP in DS2 was really a throwaway feature. I think the game in itself was very good. Having Isaac talk like many fans requested was a rather poor decision in my opinion. Combined with the higher action part and the 'i am familiar with this'-part it made the game somewhat less scary. For me it was easier to project myself into the voiceless Isaac of the first game. I think the first was definately a better game but the second wasn't that far behind. It was still among the best games of this year. However, I really hate the hardcore-trophy. For whatever reason i am to stupid to survive it, even though i feel it is easier than the impossible-mode of the first. Strange...

[despair]

I played till about two thirds the way through DS2 and just stopped playing, never went back to it. I like the game but something in me just didn't feel like playing anymore. Didn't touch MP.

[chazjamie]

@ da_2pacalypse

It had no replay value.

[da_2pacalypse]

@chazjamie I'm guessing you never tried to get the foam finger gun... That gun was fantastic fun and gave me at least another 20 hours of replay value... I beat the game 4 times

[Iroquois_Pliskin]

I loved the graphical improvements and the redesigns on all chars. Except for King Alistair, he looked like a creep lol.
However, Bio just halfed-ass the whole game, and its pretty noticeable.

[ATi_Elite]

Dead Space 2 - about 2.5 million across 3 platforms well short of the 3.41 of Dead Space. The crappy glued on multiplayer took away from the story but really just a rental game.

Dragon Age 2 - 1.56 million compared to over 4 million for Dragon Age, so many DA fans have said DA2 sucks, mediocre DLC. Again another Rental.

L.A. Noire - almost 4 million with an incoming PC version.....Seems good to me, lots of DLC, and a good Purchase.

Bullestorm - 1.15 million (all thanks to Gears3 beta) this game was a funny average FPS. PC version had great graphics though. if you owned a 360 and love Gears well you bit the bullet (pun intended) and bought this worthless Rental.

Brink - 1.32 million (mostly thanks to 360 fans who love teh shootaz) and the CGI trailer commercial. again another run of the mill FPS. If you rented everything else well i guess Rent this. *360 fans play more than shootaz*

Crysis 2 - 2 million across 3 platforms (well below the 3.5 million PC exclusive Crysis) No DX11 on release day and being a console port PC Gamers disliked it and it was Meh to most consolers. A Rental.

Resistance 3 - 500k.....i do not know what the deal is with PS3 owners! They talked this game up but nobody bought it. looked great and felt very solid when i played it. i didn't play the MP so i won't say Rent or Buy!

also add:
inFamous 2 - 890K I loved this game as the game play was awesome. Needs more DLC but has nice replay value. Purchase!

Two Worlds II - released N.A. Jan 2011 and sold around 500k on the consoles while the PC version did millions......sure Skyrim is the RPG to get but a used copy of TWII won't disappoint plus it has some good DLC. PURCHASE!

[SSpy]

Two Worlds 2 was a huge improvement over the original. Well worth a purchase in my opinion.

[DragonKnight]

@Brownghost: Lame post is lame. It's a well established fact that PS franchise don't have exploding sales in the first week or month and rather have long legs and sell over time. That's what happens when you have too many exclusives to choose from on top of multiplats. Oh, not that the 360 fans would know anything about that. The word "exclusive" doesn't exist in the 360 dictionary anymore.

[Brownghost]

@dragonknight wow dude chill, yeah PS has more exclusives but everyone can get all of them and enjoy them. Xbox players really dont care about exclusives

[KUV1977]

It is really kind of weired and I really don't understand my fellow PS3-owners. I buy so many games it is crazy. Probably way more than I should and I know a few people who do so too. I understand that with a larger amount of choice concerning quality-exclusives not everyone can afford every game but even so, the sales numbers seem like every PS3-owner only buys one game a year and this game is FIFA or some Need4Speed. It baffles me time and again. I still hope developers keep up the great work even though sales fall short of the numbers competitors achieve.

[despair]

@ATi_Elite

DS2 is less than a year old while DS1 is 3 yrs old. Comparing lifetime sales makes no sense with that kind of disparity.

Dragon Age 2- see above just 2 years difference and I'm sure DA1 sales included the complete edition as well.

LA Noire - fun in short burst but tedious in long sessions. Rockstar name and some serious advertising helped.

BulletStorm- really fun but throwaway shooter, play once beat it and never touch it again.

Brink- overhyped and underwhelming.

Crysis 2 - see DA2 and DS2 above, one out less than a year, other 4 years. Fun game but too linear and suffered some cut backs especially compared to the original.

Resistance 3 - too many games out this fall that people want more, it will sell but after the holidays when there is a drought. PS3 owners are cheap and those who like shooters are already gonna buy MW3 and Battlefield 3, plus going up against Gears 3 is not smart.

Infamous 2- considering the original barely passed the 1 million mark after a year out, not too bad. Great game, some problems but still a great buy.

Two Worlds II - no idea, never played it or had any interest in it.

[Disccordia]

Don't say PS owners haven't bought R3 because they've been playing all the other exclusives. Very lame excuse. Xbox 360 owners have had Batman, Forza 4, Battlefield etc. in recent weeks to buy but Gears of War 3 still sold several million so far. I don't know what the reason is for R3s poor sales - I completed it and thought it was excellent - but this 'too many games to play' is not it!

Out of all the games listed, only Brink is really a poor/average game. The rest you can pick up new for less than £15 and at that price, all worth a play imo.

[Bolts]

I hate to say this but Two Worlds 2 on the PC was a good game. The combat can be meh but the engine and content was decent. Well worth the money if you can buy it cheap.

[DragonKnight]

@Brownghost: Of course, can't care about what you don't have right?

[CoD511]

@ATi_Elite
Not sure where you got those sales stats, but Crysis 2 sold three million in a three months where Crysis 1 sold one million in a three months ;) I hate the console port term too as development is simultaneous with CryEngine 3 but I won't get into that...

[Hyperbomb69]

@ brownghost
You sir have been thoroughly OWNED. Sit down.

[pedo_across-the-road]

Dead Space 2: I should get hurt for not buying that, but i will pick it up during the christmas sale.

Dragon Age II: Not my type of game.

L.A. Noire: Brought the game, really over hyped.

Bulletstorm: original story but the gameplay gets repetitive after awhile.

Brink: The article says it all

[saladthieves]

I was disappointed with L.A Noire. A bit repetitive, with limited freedom as to how you solve or approach a case

I hated that there was no continuity between cases. You could fail most of the cases from a previous desk and on the next desk you chief will introduce you as a brilliant detective...WTF?

[Pikajew]

I stopped hyping games because I don't want to be disappointed by any game that I would hype

[Kran]

Just because you stopped, doesn't mean its not there. lol

But it is true. Games are over hyped about, played, hated and forgotten about.

Give it a year and BF3 will be a myth. (I aint saying BF3 is crap. Its pretty decent in some retrospects).

[Trainz]

Dead space 2 and LA Noire are good the others are meh.

[Kran]

No matter how good they are, they have been forgotten about. Cause now, it's all Skyrim and Battlefield 3 and MW3 and Uncharted 3

@below Well Skyrim has certainly destroyed your mind. Have fun playing just 1 game when there's so much more potential this year and next. I aint saying Skyrim will be shit. It wont. But why settle for 1 game? :/

[Silly gameAr]

Wow. Do people really enjoy The Elder Scrolls this much? It's definitely subjective, because Skyrim isn't even on my most anticipated list.

[persistentlobster]

@Silly gameAR

Yes. Yes we do. After playing Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout, Bethesda games are really the only games I look forward to now. Well that and Bioshock Infinite.

[Silly gameAr]

That's cool man. I can understand that. Just because I couldn't get into the series, doesn't mean there aren't millions that aren't anticipating Skyrim. I hope you guys enjoy and it lives up to your expectations.

By the way, I'm looking for to Infinite myself.

[kma2k]

IMO Crysis 2 was the best game on this list. I actually really enjoyed Crysis 2.

[tickticktick]

LA Snore

[Finger-Eater]

What? I found LA Noire engaging and interesting.

[Tr10wn]

LA Noire was good just isn't GTA and people cant understand it, i really enjoyed.

[Vortex3D]

Until you try to play as dumb detective style. You simply cannot fail as long you are good in shooting and chases. For questioning, it does not matter even you got everything wrong. As long you found enough clues for the next location to appear, you will win every case.

[spektical]

yea the detective stuff really dried out by the 13th mission. In fact, I never finished this game, It started to become a chore, and that's when I sold the game.

The game gives you the world of GTA, but with little to no interaction, plus the whole game is based on looking for clues to interrogate suspects. I could see this as missions in a GTA game, but not a full fledged title.

[NovusTerminus]

I remember all those games... But most of them sucked.

Dragon Age 2 was brain dead to play, and since the enemies level up with you... It kind of makes it useless to level up, no matter what happened I felt like I was still level 1.

Dead Space 2... Still stands as one of my favorite games this year. I just adored the game. I got the plat for it as well, and Hardcore more was a blast.

[2v1]

lol@ DA2 lvln up system

[ShaunCameron]

I didn't forget about those games. They just didn't register in my conscience. Maybe it's because they all happened to be in genres I never had much interest in. (Shooter, RPG)

[kma2k]

played all of them including the honerable mentions with the exception of the pokemon game. I gotta say though i havent "forgten" any of these games

[VampiricDragon]

alot of mediocrity there.

The best gaes this year have been released on the ds in my view

[BrightFalls76]

Dead Space 2 was a fantastic game, I truly enjoyed all of it. As for LA Noire, if it had been more GTA/RDR it could have been huge. After playing and loving everything about Red Dead Redemption I thought LA Noire would be just as fun but in a different era of America. Unfortunately it was all facial animation and picking up garbage:/

[Cajun Chicken]

Personally, LOVED Bulletstorm. DS2 was an awesome too seeing how I played it right after the first.

I wasn't a fan of LA Noire at all. Nothing more than a fancy tech demo where everything but the faces were animated with different timing.

[XeoZin]

I would mention Portal 2 too. One of the best games i played this year.

[CoD511]

... except not many have really forgotten about it :P

[Canary]

And yet publishers keep pushing the hype and consumers keep eating it up. I'd say something like, "when will they learn," but that would be too easily misunderstood: this is YOUR fault. YOU never learn.

[jefet21]

good list, kz3 and portal 2 need to be on that list

[Brownghost]

WTF for portal 2 ?

[Brownghost]

This guy is an idiot saying that brink was made by bethesda but they really just published it. Also dead space 1 will always be my favorite over the less scary 2 but was not that bad. Replace DS2 with crysis 2

[Krakn3Dfx]

Brink made the list but Resistance 3 only got honorable mention? Crazy!

[Blink_44]

Totally forgot pokemon black/white was released this year.

[Buuhan1]

I knew people would forget about L.A. Noire and I'm quite happy I was right. Critics were just waaay to distracted by the "tech" in that game to realize it was a pretty meh game.

[gypsygib]

It's not because of COD that people stopped playing Crysis 2, it's because Crytek and EA released a potentially great but broken game, acknowledged the problem, then abandoned the game.

[ChickenOfTheCaveMan]

Woot!! Bulletstorm came out this year, bought this in the bargain bin like 2-3 months ago.

Very nice game for those who missed on it i.e. quite a few people :P

[gypsygib]

Bulletstorm was the worst game I've played all year and I've played/owned pretty much every major release excluding sports titles.

Bulletstorm actually required less skill than most shooter, I just wanted it to be over and that almost never happens.

[byrnezy]

LA Snore was soo boring, I mean I have never played a game that painful before, very broken, bar facial animation everything looked and played stiff! Wasn't my cup of tea at all, enjoyed DS2 an also didn't mind DA2 although Origins was superior

[Tr10wn]

Bar facial animation? if by bar you mean "bad" you are trolling, the game was hyped by the new tech which was used for facial animations, this game was made for a more mature audience and the little kids went out to get it because it has the Rockstar logo in it, this game isn't GTA, i love GTA even more than this but i know how to appreciate this kind of games, there are games that are more boring than LA Noire, DA2 for example.

[CoD511]

bar = except

[byrnezy]

If you could read English (tr10wn) you would know I ment besides/except (as CoD511 points out) the facial animation everything else was stiff an outdated.
I'm 24 so how mature do you have to be to like this game, maybe you should grow up as the only people who use the word trolling or troll are usualy under the age of 18...

[biRdy]

Who said I forgot about them?

[Lord_Sloth]

I didn't forget about any of those. Dead Space 2 is awesome and I played DA2 again just last week. Sure it was a disappointment but still I've played worse.

I blocked the other 3 out of my mind to prevent any further trauma.

[SneeringImperialist]

They wernt forgotten they were just crap lol!

[breakdancefight]

I think we can add Rage to this list quickly. For what was being sold as id's return to form and learning from there past mistakes, but what we got was a instantly forgettable safe shooter. If Borderlands hadn't done the wastelands of Pandora better and Fallout 3 didn't rule with it's tale of post nuclear survival Rage may have had a chance, I repeat may have. I know I will be put through the ringer on this one, but Arkham City is already on my list of forgotten games. Another example of how bigger doesn't always equal better. Where Christopher Nolan made the Batman franchise acceptable as a film franchise, Rocksteady did the same with Arkham Asylum making it what I believe the Bioshock of the comic game genre(with bad end boss and all). Arkham city though took the Joel Schumacher approach making everything bigger, brighter and throwing in DC villians for what felt like fan survice.

[gamerwiips360]

One of the Best SP Campaign this year.. very few games match it. A wonderful job done by Visceral Games, They took the Naughty Dog route with those moments.. Those who played they know it.

[-Gespenst-]

Ay? I haven forgotten L.A. Noire. That game was amazing.

[frostypants]

This article reads like it was written by a 12 year old. Can we please get a modicum of quality control on N4G? Just because someone has a website doesn't make them a writer.

[I_Guts_I]

Resistance 3 the best.lol Go play RFOM and say that...

[bozebo]

Because most of those games were trash :/

LA Noire would be the exception, with Dead Space 2 also being a decent game.

[StitchJones]

Dead Space 2 and L.A. Noire were both really good games. The other three were let downs. I mean Brink was supposed to be friggin awesome and it couldn't get out of it's own way. Dragon Age II was a total joke. The town names alone were so laughable, I think anyone working for Bioware should hang their head in shame.

[Son_Lee]

Dragon Age II was much better than Origins. Origins was just too slow to start and unplayable on consoles. DAII fixed those issues. Combat is MUCH better, and I found the story and characters better.

[Zephol]

This year!: Bulletstorm, Crysis 2, Duke Nukem Forever, Mk9, LA Noire.

[e-p-ayeaH]

RAGE and DIRT 3 great games that many ppl already forgot about.

[EVILDEAD360]

Not even close to the truth. Still on my first playthrough on Rage and love every minute.

Evil

[lex-1020]

I still play Deadspace 2 but the rest of the list is good.