I know, I'm a few days late, but HAPPY NEW YEAR anyway!
2011 pasted really quick it seems...Even quicker than usual. It was a pretty good year for my real life, and a not-so-good one for my internet life. I hardly got any modding done whatsoever...But on the plus side, I played some really great games this year, like Half-Life, Mass Effect, Just Cause 2, Batman Arkham City, ect. And I also accidentally got myself into a role-playing project called Dawnbreaker, which is loads of fun, if not for the fact that it soaks up massive amounts of time.
Now, time for recaps, lists, and resolutions, all of which are in no particular order.
Best Non-2011 Games I Played This Year:
I played every Half-Life game in order of release except for Decay. Half-Life is now my favorite shooter franchise.
This game...Is awesome. It had a very Knights of the Old Republic feel, which is good, because KotOR is my favorite game ever. I hope to play Mass Effect 2 this year, and later, Mass Effect 3.
I got this as a Christmas present, and man, it is INSANE.
BioWare's first RPGs, if I remember correctly. I played them co-op LAN with my sister this year. Great games.
This game really took me by surprise. I'd heard the name several times before, and I finally looked it up sometime in 2010, and found it got really, really good reviews. A super hero game being good? How can this be? So I just made a mental note to check it out sometime, then half a year later, I finally played it. I loved it so much, Arkham City became my most wanted game of 2011. The gameplay, music, voice acting, were all fantastic.
Free roaming, fast paced driving around on a very breakable island never gets old. Ever.
You can destroy anything. Nuff' said.
Best 2011 Games I Played This Year(Actually, every 2011 game I played):
Definitely my game of the year. Met and surpassed all my expectations, and was completely awesome while doing it. HIGHLY recommended!
The characters, story, atmosphere, music, were all perfect in this game. The single-player campaign is pretty straightforward and easy, but the co-op mode is there for those of you looking for more of a challenge.
This game is really, really fun to play with friends. One of my favorite co-op games.
At first it looks like a 2d minecraft, but it is very much it's own game. Minecraft is about survival, building, and creativity. Terraria is about exploration, combat, rewards, and survival. Sure you can be creative and build huge castles in Terraria, but it's a lot more fun in Minecraft. Just like exploration and combat is a lot more fun in Terraria than in Minecraft. So yeah, I recommend both games, but all in all I prefer Minecraft.
Despite officially releasing this year, Minecraft does not make it on this list because I've been playing it since 2010.
Best Mods I Played This Year:
I sadly didn't play many mods this year, but I did play quite a few good ones, such as...
First HL2 mod I played. New gameplay and maps were very well done, and I look forward to part 2(Or 1, depending on how you look at it).
Fascinating mod...I will say no more until you go play it. Do it. If you have Half-Life 2, you should really download this mod.
One of the best Mount & Blade mods I've ever played, and, it's Lord of the Rings! Can't get much better than that.
A Jedi Academy mod that replaces the saber system with a new and improved one, which blocks, parries, special moves, ect. There's actually a lot to the mod, which surprised me at first. Definitely worth a look.
All still very WIP, but also very fun. Modern guns in a Star Wars game...Yea...It's pretty sweet.
New Years Resolutions:
I don't think I've ever made a New Years Resolution before this year...But this time I actually have a good one. Or rather, two.
1. I will finish ALL of my mod projects.
(STOP laughing, I haven't finished yet)
2. Any mod that I do NOT finish by the end of the year, I will abandon and never return to.
Here are my reasons:
1. During 2011, I was bogged down in so many projects, that I ended up hardly working on any of them, and none of them were getting the attention they deserved.
2. I've had this game idea for almost four years now, it was actually the reason I got into modding. Last year I finally got some serious planning done, and I now have pages and pages of character info, detailed gameplay info, scripts, plotlines, a couple pecies of concept art, ect. But all my other mods were holding me back from starting real development. When 2013 comes along, I want to be working on one game, and only one game.
3. Why don't I just drop my current projects and get to work immediately on my game you ask? Well...In the case of a couple projects, they aren't even mine, I'm just helping. And until I get a couple things finished, I feel like I shouldn't leave. In the case of my solo projects, like Return of the Sith...Well, call it some kind of stupid pride, but there are WAY too many dead mods floating around, and I don't want any of my mods to ever be "added to the pile". Because I announced it and made a page for it, I feel obligated to finish it. So, 2012 is my final deadline so to speak. It is the last chance I'm giving myself to finish everything.
So my mod goals for this year are like this:
First, I will work on Jedi Betrayal until the demo is released.
After the JKB demo is released, I will work on my Tales of a Forgotten Realm module, until it is done. Then, I will work on Return of the Sith and Jedi Betrayal. How will that turn out? Who knows! We'll have to wait and see. I'm fairly sure that I'll be able to at the very least finish two of them though.
Well...I think that's it...Thanks for reading, and have a good 2012!
