Summary
- 2011 is often forgotten when it comes to legendary years in gaming, but it’s easily one of the best.
- That was especially true for any gamers like myself who had to wait until Christmas to play everything.
- Skyrim is just the beginning for one of the most stacked holiday seasons of all time.
Over the past few decades of gaming, there are a select few years that are often heralded as ‘all-timers’. 1998, 2007, 2018, and 2023 all instantly come to mind, but there’s a year I don’t see get nearly enough respect for how legendary it was – 2011.
As much as I love the years that gave us Banjo-Kazooie, BioShock, God of War, and Alan Wake 2, they all pale in comparison to the bonanza of games that launched in the same year that Charlie Sheen, and everyone else, was ‘winning’: Gears of War 3, Dragon Age 2, LA Noire, LittleBigPlanet 2… and I haven’t even gotten to the really good ones yet.
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While anyone who was lucky enough to be an adult in 2011 was likely able to buy whatever they wanted, that wasn’t the case for me. As a 12-year-old at the time (yes, you’re old), I had to put all of my eggs in Santa’s basket and hope he was as much of a gamer as me.
Still, even if I wasn’t old enough to toddle over to a Gamestation (yes, you’re really old) and had to wait to play everything in the last six days of the year, even I knew what a landmark year for gaming 2011 was. So let’s take a walk down memory lane and remember the Christmas to beat all Christmases.
The RPG To End All RPGs
Kicking things off with a dragon-sized gimme here, but unarguably the biggest Christmas game of 2011 was The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. I mean, come on, we’re still talking about it more than a decade later, especially with Bethesda re-releasing it every couple of days.
Even if we’re moments away from Skyrim: Extremely Special Edition, No Really We Mean It This Time, that first release was truly something special and one that every gamer sunk into throughout the holidays. Bonus points for having plenty of snow.
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Ho-Ho-Holy Crap
What didn’t have even a drop of snow but somehow managed to be the perfect holiday game is Uncharted 3, which took Drake to the Rub’ al Khali for his most personal and ante-upping journey of the series until A Thief’s End came along.
Though on the weaker end of the Uncharted tetralogy, its blockbuster action set-pieces, simple but satisfying multiplayer component, and correct assessment of sand being the worst thing ever created cemented it as another highlight of any gamer’s Christmas.
Rayman Origins
2011’s Best Game For Those With Good Taste
Skyrim and Uncharted 3 might have been the biggest games of 2011, but for the real gamers out there, Rayman Origins was the limbless horse to bet on. In fact, it’s still one of the best things to come from Ubisoft in the past two console generations, doubly so as the second most recent Rayman game to release.
I jumped between a lot of games during 2011’s Crimbo, but some of my favourite memories of that year come from no-lifing Rayman Origins and experiencing pure platforming perfection. And again, bonus points for the seasonally-fitting snowy levels.
An Xbox, If They Were Still Mad About The PSN Outage
Pour One Out For The PlayStation Store
Sadly, one of the most notable things to happen to the world of gaming in 2011 was the infamous (no, not that one) PlayStation Network outage, which lasted a whopping 23 days and gave Xbox fans plenty of ammunition for the big green box that could.
While Sony did eventually offer out a few free games (which, funnily enough, included inFamous) to try and repair the damage, it was like putting a bandage over a bullet hole. Many a gamer took the holiday as a chance to switch sides altogether, and who could really blame them?
A Kinect, If They Trusted Xbox A Little Too Much
Eye For An Eye-Toy
PlayStation might have had a rough time in 2011, but at least Xbox came out swinging in response, right? Unfortunately, the grass wasn’t much greener in Microsoft’s field, as the Kinect well and truly proved.
Sure, there was some fun to be had with Kinect Sports and maybe even Kinect Adventures if you were optimistic enough, but most found the Kinect to be a buggy mess that never lived up to its potential. Not every Christmas present was a banger in the year that Will and Kate tied the knot.
A Nintendo 3DS And Super Mario 3D Land
Ah, The Era Of 3D Gimmicks
As the Kinect pushed gaming technology backwards, Nintendo was there to nudge it forward again with the 3DS. While the neck-craning DS successor actually came out towards the start of 2011, not every gamer was able to pick it up then.
With that in mind, the 3DS made a perfect Christmas present in 2011, and was almost definitely matched with the handheld’s best game – Super Mario 3D Land. Failing that, Mario Kart 7 and Ocarina of Time 3D were also good options. Just be happy you didn’t get Sonic Generations.
Battlefield 3 Or Modern Warfare 3
Battle Of The Threequels
Battlefield 3 Destruction
While Xbox and PlayStation struggled to keep their player bases in 2011, a much greater battle was fought between Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3. Unless you were lucky, chances are you had to choose which shooter threequel Santa left under your tree.
So which was it – Modern Warfare 3’s fast-paced twitch shooting or Battlefield 3’s city-levelling destruction? The choice, dear reader, was up to jolly old Saint Nick, but I think it’s fair to say gamers had a happy Christmas playing online no matter the choice.
Battlefield 3 was the better choice, for what it’s worth.
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