Top 10 Best PS3 Games of 2011

Now that the holidays are over and gamers perhaps have a bit of extra money to burn, pubs are making press releases right and left. Titles are being announced, release dates are being finalized (and changed, and re-finalized…), and gamers are chomping at the bit to get the slightest peeks at upcoming projects. 2011 is already looking to be a ridiculously exciting year for PS3 games, particularly with so many curiosity-inducing teasers hovering on the periphery of my ISP's sad bandwidth in streaming HD. Here are ten titles, some exclusive to PS3 that I'm really enthused about for 2011. 

Journey 

I have to confess up front that I think Jenova Chen is a genius. Having played through Flower in one sitting and then conducted fiendish experiments in my own living room, forcing gamers and non-gamers alike to do the same (well, I wanted to see the whole "dynamic game balancing" idea in action) for a pittance of chips and salsa, I came to appreciate the magnitude of brain that must have come up with the idea in the first place, and the subtle manipulation of emotions that tended to occur with most of the subjects over the course of the game. Same with Flower's "spiritual predecessor", Fl0w. So when I found out Chen was working on a new game, one that incorporated multiplayer in a much more involved way, I was psyched beyond words.  

The Last Guardian 

This action-adventure puzzler from Team Ico, formerly referred to as Project Trico looks exciting for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that previous titles from Team Ico have proven to be both visually beautiful and quite unique in terms of gameplay. While the exact scenario and mechanisms have still not been made clear, this game is rumored to be slated for release in late 2011.

      The story, from what little we've been told, involves the player taking on the role of a young boy, who appears to be trapped in the ruins of a palace and is trying to escape. Also contained within the ruins is a giant creature resembling a griffin, named Trico. Trico will be dangerous and hostile at first, and the player must try to win him over in various ways, potentially including healing various wounds, to build trust. As a relationship develops between creature and human, cooperative efforts will come into play with regard to solving the various puzzles that are encountered, which sounds like it could prove to be a very powerful use of applied psychology within a game. If nothing else, this game may reveal a lot to us about our own brains by virtue of the fact that in addition to the usual physics of game puzzles, we will have to consider an emotional relationship which changes over the course of the game. 

Portal 2 

Early last year, new achievements appeared in Portal. This is not necessarily indicative of much, as sometimes developers throw these out like scraps to hungry street dogs in lieu of a full expansion or a sequel. Portal was, after all, only ever intended to be a bonus game, based on a fairly experimental and obscure project called Narbacular Drop. But the burning, delirious devotion to Portal by its fans was such that a sequel was all but demanded.

       Human beings have a natural tendency towards apophenia, the seeing of patterns in information where none truly exist. This was probably an evolutionary advantage at one time, but if the trait is too prominent in individuals today, they are often dismissed as conspiracy theorists. Which is why Valve announced Portal 2 in the best possible way: Encoded Top Secret Message. Of course, an official announcement was made later on, and on that day, paranoid wing-nuts were vindicated.

      Portal 2 will feature a single player mode, in which everyone's favorite passive-aggressively murderous AI, GLaDOS returns. All of the old architectural elements are back, along with new physics-bending technology such as gels which accelerate objects, or cause them to bounce. To be completely honest, Portal 2 looks like it's going to be pretty dang hard. There will also be co-op play featuring two robots, though it could merely be versus that is disguised as co-op, based on some of the mean things that GLaDOS says in the demo. In any case, this is one of the most globally anticipated games of 2011, and by the looks of it, this distinction is well-deserved. 

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