Skyrim is (almost) everyone's game of 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011 11:20 AM
Following on from the Spike TV VGAs declaring The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 2011's Game of the Year, Gamezine has undertaken some original research to see if one title can be crowned 'Best Game of 2011' overall, based on the 'top ten' lists and blogs of multiple sites of note currently clogging up the internet.
And it seems Bethesda's dragon-slaying, sword-clashing, life-consuming epic RPG is indeed the near-unanimous choice for this year's ultimate game.
Gamespot named Skyrim their Game of the Year overall, seeing off the likes of Portal 2, Batman: Arkham City and Dark Souls.
IGN pegged the game for best Xbox 360 and PC title, awarding Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception the accolade for PS3.
Elsewhere Wired.com's Gamelife chose Skyrim as did the Wall Street Journal.
To top it off, Kotaku stated that Skyrim had the best game music of 2011, trumping the highly regarded Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
However, dissenting voices could still be heard among the festive throng of praise – Gamesradar declared it their Reader's Choice, but plumped for Portal 2 for editorial Game of the Year.
Gamasutra opted for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings for best PC game of the year, ignoring Skyrim altogether.
In addition, a site called mygaming.co.za also found Batman: Arkham City had received a higher average score overall (96.06) than Skyrim (95.55), a number achieved by averaging figures on Metacritc and Gamerankings.
Regardless of any naysayers, most agree Skyrim is one of 2011's premier titles - it seems that the Christmas number one this year is, for once, highly justified.
What is it that makes Skyrim so awesome for so many? Drop your thoughts to nick.hagan@adfero.co.uk.