Happy new year, everyone! Now comes the time where we reflect on the best games of the past year. This is my personal list of my favourite games of the year.

Number 5

*insert arrow in the knee joke here*

I know, I know. Skyrim at number 5? Am I mental? Well, I didn’t enjoy Skyrim as much as a lot of other people did. Probably because I’m not the biggest RPG fan. I also ran into some AI issues, graphical glitches, and the game crashing.

However, I will admit that I can’t help but admire the sheer size, scope, and effort that was put into this game. The graphics (for the most part) are fantastic, the game-play is engaging, and the amount of stuff to do is unbelievable. Skyrim earns it’s place in my top 5 games of the year.

Hey, Duke. This is how you make an old school shooter.

I love this game. If you have read my review, you know why. The game-play, the voice acting, the utter, utter craziness. I love it all. This is a love letter to the old school Duke Nukem (NOT the new one). The new Serious Engine 3 works like a charm, and I had a blast playing this. Anyone who likes retro 90s shooters with tons of blood and gore, BUY THIS GAME!

I had a future once, then I discovered Minecraft…

Although in Beta for quite a while (so long in fact that several of my friends didn’t think this was a 2011 game), Minecraft was officially released at Minecon in November 2011. Easily the most addicting game since……..ever, Minecraft is a ton of fun. And best of all, it never ends! You can keep building, and building, and building. It’s like computer Lego.

Imagine Batman: Arkham City’s takedowns. With arm blades.

What is it to be truly human? Is it right to defy nature and electronically enhance ourselves? Will it backfire? Are we playing god? Do you sacrifice some of your humanity for enhanced intelligence, strength, or vision? Is it worth it? These are all questions you ask after playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

A remarkable story, engaging game-play, and beautiful graphics. Plus a bad-ass protagonist. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the best FPS of 2011, and I’m shocked that it hasn’t appeared on hardly any lists. Deep, meaningful, and thought-provoking, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of those games that makes you question life itself.

Now you’re thinking with portals.

I always have real trouble with puzzle games. The original Portal I never completed on the Xbox 360. I had spent £13 on the Xbox Live Arcade version, without realising that I could buy The Orange Box for about £10 second hand! D’oh! Anyway, I never beat it. Once I got my good computer, I bought Portal 2 (this was back in May), not really for the single player, but for the co-op to play with my friends. Only after I’d bought the damn game did I realise that none of my friends had bought the game or were planning to buy the game (again, d’oh!).

So after I grumbled my way back to my computer (and after spending £39.99), I realised that I had got the original Portal with it. I decided that I should really beat the original before I played the sequel. So I did. Luckily, I was actually pretty far along in the game, but I did have to replay it. After I’d beaten that, I started Portal 2. Obviously, Portal 2 had a lot of hype and very high expectations, of course the original could be beaten in 4 hours by someone who was good at puzzle games. So, is Portal 2 better than Portal? Well, let me say this: I’ve only just beaten it!

The game is rich and massive, and gives you about 16-17 hours of playtime (again, for someone who’s good at puzzles).

Portal 2 is a improvement on it’s predecessor in every possible way. The graphics are more richly detailed. The writing is witty and  the story is engaging. The puzzles are challenging, but not to the point where it becomes frustrating. I love this game so much, I want to hug it. However, I bought it on Steam, so unless I hug my laptop, that is not possible. Portal 2 makes me more happy than any other game I’ve played this year, and may well be game of the year for me. Yes, I’m including Skyrim in that statement. I love this game that much. I urge everyone to buy this game that hasn’t, especially now you can buy it on Steam for £19.99 (or Amazon for £12.99. Link here.). The story involves Chell, our silent (in typical valve tradition) protagonist who looks kinds Lara Croft-like. When Chell wakes up from a ‘relaxation vault’, she finds she has been in the vault for a very long time. So long, in fact, the Aperture Science is now overgrown with vegetation and most things are broken. GLaDOS (the evil AI whom you defeated in the first game) is switched off, and everything seems okay. Well, it’s far from it. Chell is woken up by Weatley (voiced by Stephen Merchant, famous for co-writing and co-starring in the show Extras with Ricky Gervais), a bumbling, British AI who seems jolly enough. After a trying to escape, Wheatley makes a less-than-desirable shortcut through GlaDOS’ chamber. A few mistakes later, and GLaDOS is up and running, and testing, once again.

Don’t worry. It’s just as confusing in context.

The puzzles in Portal 2 are difficult. As someone who doesn’t play puzzle games very much, the puzzles were very difficult. I was so stuck sometimes I was tempted to reach for a walkthrough. I didn’t, though, which is why I’ve only just completed it. However, they’re never horribly frustrating, and they’re more intriguingly difficult rather than throw-your-keyboard-out-of-the-window difficult. The solutions seem so simple once you’ve done them.

The voice  acting is hilarious. Stephen Merchant is really well-cast as Wheatley, and Ellen McLain returns as GLaDOS. McLain is just as superb as she was in the first game, except the character has been much more fleshed out than in Portal. She seems even more sinister, but even more funny at the same time. The writing suits the actors perfectly, with Wheatley seeming at times to be very similar to another character Stephen Merchant played…….

The graphics are much more detailed than in Portal, and the earlier levels depicting the same early test chambers from Portal, but overgrown with vegetation, are only there to show off the new graphics (according to the developer commentary)!

While the single-player is the meat of the game, Portal 2 now has a multi-player feature as well. This co-op campaign features a new story and characters, Atlas and P-Body, two funny robots designed by GLaDOS specifically for testing. The co-op campaign is much more focused on comedy, and it is very funny. Though I do recommend setting up a voice chat with the person you’re playing, because it’s damn near impossible to play without it.

Portal 2 is a fantastic experience. Hours of fun, challenging puzzles, great graphics, some very funny writing, and superb voice acting. I can literally think of nothing wrong with this game and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

And that’s my top 5 games of the year. Keep in mind this was a personal list, so if your favourite game got missed out I either didn’t play it or didn’t like as much as you.

What’s your list? Tell me in the comments section. Follow me on Twitter @Game_Node and like me on Facebook.