First things first.

It’s my fault that our 2011 lists are so late getting out. I asked GamerDork’s wonderful writing staff back in December to start thinking of “Game of the Year” lists, or explorations, or whatever they felt like doing to commemorate the year, so that I could have a whole bunch of stuff to start off the new year with a bang.

Then my computer exploded. Well, sort of. Anyway, the end result, excuses aside, is that a lot of great stuff has been waiting patiently in the background to be seen, and that’s what will be featured on GamerDork this week. Before I launch into other folks’ experiences, I just wanted to be up front about why they’re a little late.

Also, I wanted to get my own list out first. Editorial privilege, you know.

I played a lot of games in 2011. This isn’t exactly a unique statement, is it? I feel like I may have gotten a bit excessive, though. I made a resolution at the beginning of last year to complete a game a week to cut down on my terrifying backlog, and I did indeed stick by that! I spent a few months unemployed at the beginning of the year, as well, and that did….scary, scary things to my overall time spent gaming. It’s probably a good thing I resisted the urge to go back to World of Warcraft.

Practically, what this has meant for me has been that it’s a lot more difficult to nail down what my favorite games–or, more to the point, my “games of the year”–might be. What a problem to have, eh? I can’t say I’m complaining.

Instead of having a single top five list (or top ten, or top three, or so forth), then, I’m breaking it up into three different lists, each with its own separate agenda. Let’s start with the list that might head off some outraged reactions if I get it out of the way early:

Top Five Games I Probably Should Have Played in 2011 (But Didn’t):

5. Shadows of the Damned

“Serious” games are all well and good, but sometimes you just have to play something with a gun called the “Big Boner.” I didn’t put Saints Row the Third on this list, largely because I didn’t play the first two, but it’s the same general principle. Ditto Bulletstorm, but that’s going to show up elsewhere.

4. Dark Souls

I was terrified of Demon’s Souls when it first came out, because I felt like I should like it, but the rumors of its difficulty made me feel like if I tried it and didn’t want to keep going, I had failed as a gamer. So, it sat on my shelf until the beginning of this year, when I became completely obsessed with it. Yes, it is a REALLY hard game, but it’s also very fair. If you fuck up and die, it’s because you fucked up and died, not because the game arbitrarily decided to kill you.

Anyway, with all the time I put into Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls should have been a lock for me to play (and probably love) in 2011, but it just didn’t happen. It’s in my plans for sure, though.

3. Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure

(Note: Since I wrote this, I have indeed broken down and delved into the madness that is Skylanders. My current count is twelve. I knew this would happen.)

Every time I walk into a game store right now, I stop and paw wistfully at the Skylanders for a while. I’m not sure why I haven’t broken down yet; maybe it’s just that I know I’ll fall headfirst down the rabbit hole and go all Jeff Gerstmann on it, and my brain is making a desperate effort to save both my wallet and my sanity. Editorial powers mean that you may someday soon be seeing photo galleries of me and my Skylanders on this very site though, so…well, watch for that, I guess.

2. Star Wars: The Old Republic

I listen to a lot of podcasts, and while what I’ve heard about The Old Republic hasn’t necessarily been universally positive, it has been universally….. WoWish. I was very deep into WoW for a long time, and although I haven’t been back (largely because the people I was playing with at the time no longer play either), the concept of that plus lightsabers is awfully tempting. It’ll happen in 2012, for sure.

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I know, I know. Shush.

Top Five Games I Really Wanted to List in My Top Five (But Couldn’t):

5. Bulletstorm

You know, I don’t care if they DID make a game where the phrase “I’ll kill your dick” is uttered completely seriously. In fact, I kind of liked Bulletstorm because of all the nonsense. I couldn’t quite see my way clear to declaring it as one of my favorite games of 2011 because….well, they DID include lines like “I’ll kill your dick.” Ridiculous games have their place, though, and I had a great time with this one, much to my own surprise.

4. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

My complaints against Uncharted 3 are much the same as other people’s; I absolutely think it is a fantastic game, and I enjoyed it a great deal, but it simply didn’t stand out the way that its predecessor did. Something feels distinctly wrong about brushing aside a game that’s clearly so technically and artistically accomplished simply because they did it before, but for me, Uncharted 3 slipped from my memory after I finished it in a way that Uncharted 2 didn’t.

3. LA Noire

This is another one that’s incredibly impressive from a technical standpoint, and indeed, impressive in general. The reason it didn’t make it onto my personal top five list is, simply, the disconnect between the player and Cole. There are times when you feel completely absorbed into the game, true, but then it can all be ruined by attempting to gently prod for more information only to have your on-screen proxy slam his fist into the wall and demand to know why you’re a rapist/murderer/demon. If that’s not enough, three words: Enforced flamethrower section.

2. Catherine

This one’s a painful admission. I really, really wanted to love Catherine. It has all the hallmarks of a game I should love, after all: it’s from the team responsible for Persona 4, it’s incredibly weird and Japanese, and it combines puzzle-solving with what amounts to a relationship sim. While I have nothing but respect for what Atlus tried to do here, though, it simply didn’t fit all that well for me. It’s a deeply flawed game, but it gets major props for doing something different and delving into material that most games don’t dare to touch, at least not in this way.

1. Alice: Madness Returns

For a very long time, I considered American McGee’s Alice to be my favorite PC game of all time. In a way, I still do (although I wouldn’t advise going back to play it again right now…. yikes). I wasn’t disappointed by its sequel, but the reason it didn’t make it onto my list is that it simply didn’t have the same impact that the first one did. Technical weirdness like texture pop-in aside, it was too long, and perhaps too much. Warts and all, this one came really, really close to making it onto my list anyway, but I couldn’t decide in the end whether it was nostalgia pushing my hand or not, so here it sits.

My Top Five Games of 2011

5. Batman: Arkham City

I knew I’d like Arkham City. After all, Arkham Asylum was fantastic, and this should simply be more of the same, right? Well, sort of. Many of the issues I had with AA were resolved with AC, including feeling cramped and forced to backtrack. This wasn’t a plus for everyone, but it was for me. I also got really into the side missions, despite them feeling sort of disconnected from (and at time, at odds with) the main story. In the end, it surprised me how much I enjoyed roaming around that part of Gotham, so it gets a place on this list.

4. Bastion

From the time I spent playing Bastion at PAX East 2011, I was pretty much smitten with it. It’s beautiful, has a simple, addictive gameplay system with upgrades available, and the narration draws players into the story in a way no other game has really matched to date. It’s a lovely, well-constructed package in which flaws are difficult to find, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I never played any of the prior Deus Ex games, so I had absolutely no expectations going into this one. In fact, I very nearly didn’t play it at all; I had no plans to pick it up, and only did so after hearing tons of good things from others (I’m a total sucker for peer pressure). When I did, I ended up loving the open-endedness of the game’s progression, and the multiple paths that become open to you as you customize your character. I suck at stealth, for example, so rather than waste points in those abilities, I centered on making a speedy hacker who was tough and good with guns. This served me just as well as if I’d gone in a different direction. Let’s just ignore those boss fights, shall we?

2. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Motion controls are the bane of my gaming existence. The Wii games I play are frequently in spite of them, and my favorites tend to be the ones that don’t require me to use them at all, but rather allow for a Classic Controller or simply turning the remote sideways to emulate a NES paddle. Skyward Sword is the first Wii game I’ve played where I felt that the motion controls were not only bearable, but actually added to the game itself. Without them, the experience would not have been as strong. I could go on about the story being immersive and brilliant (primarily to pre-existing Zelda fans, but that’s me anyway), or about the impressionistic visuals being perfectly suited to the Wii’s capabilities, but in the end, I think the highest praise I can give Skyward Sword is that it made me like motion controls. That’s impressive.

1. Portal 2

I’m pretty sure Portal and Portal 2 are the only games I’ve ever played that can simultaneously make me feel like a genius and an idiot. The “AHA!” moments that they provide when you finally see that solution that’s been evading you are like nothing else. It would have been all too easy for Portal 2 to simply ride the coattails of its predecessor and do the same thing, only bigger. Sure, it does that to a point, but it’s so much more than that.

The writing continues to be consistently brilliant, the performances by all of the voice actors are inspired (particularly J.K. Simmons as Cave Johnson),  and the mechanics take a simple idea and expand it into something that effortlessly fills a whole game without becoming stale. More than that, they manage to add a co-op mode that’s completely different from the single-player experience and make it just as robust. I was impressed and dazzled and drawn in, and I believe that Portal 2 truly deserves the title of Game of the Year.

For me, anyway. Opinions will vary.