Just wanted to jump in to say:

1.) @Axel, I wholeheartedly agree with every word you've said here.
2.) MinnMax's Deepest Dive is indeed delightful. Though I wanted to get through it at my own pace and not wait, I watched them after I had finished the game as they came out and it was amazing to have the context of what was to come and watch them experience it.

@kristen-rogers The Ctrl+F5 did it. I was reticent to do a complete scorched-earth approach to clearing out everything (extensions, cookies, cache, etc.) within the browser with all the other sites I have pre-existing information saved, but I was resigned to do it if the above didn't work. I don't know what happened with the cache to cause the issue, but it's (finally) fixed now (as I'm typing this response in Chrome). Thank you so very much for helping me! I greatly appreciate it! ^_^

@kristen-rogers Thank you for your suggestions too! I had tried to clear out cookies earlier and that didn't work, but I tried your incognito mode suggestion, and it shows properly. So I went into Extensions, and there's only three things: Google Docs, sheets, and slides. Since I never use those, I don't see how that could do anything. So special thanks for helping me realize it's regular Chrome. I'll keep looking!

And it happened! Awesome! Both of these are great games that I didn't get to until well after the fact, but I'm glad I did.

For Batman: Arkham City, I know I've said this elsewhere (I think in the 2015 thread), but trying the Arkham Asylum demo on 360 got me into not just the Rocksteady Arkham games, but also the Nolan movies. But going from Asylum to City wasn't immediate; it took a while for me to get City, but when I did, I felt irritated it took me so long. Of all the games, City has my favorite story, and having Arkham City split into specific areas of territory for the villains (Joker, Penguin and Two-Face having their own space) really gave off a sense of unique turf in an open city. With each game, the settings have gotten better, and while Asylum gets a lot of deserved of having captivating interiors and being an interconnected 3D metroidvania island, The potential of city just spoke to me more. Another underrated aspect of City is introducing side-stories for more villains to be involved that don't get as much attention like Hush and Deadshot. Getting to play as Catwoman was a nice change up (and the first shot of the game being such a nod to the end is too good). Finally, obviously, the most notable part the City is known for: The top tier boss fights.

Despite how much I enjoy Arkham City, my GOTY for 2011 is Portal 2. The original was a revelation to me and something so good in such a condensed package I thought couldn't be improved. But Stephen Merchant and J.K. Simmons alone proved me wrong, not to mention the story, and just as excellent, the co-op mode. The writing in this game is probably (for me) top five across all games. GLaDOS being even better really further underscores this. Because she is a potato. I replayed it within the last few months and every aspect of this game holds up exceptionally well. The puzzles are good teases, and introducing the gels and funnels as mechanics just further twisted the perspectives. And yes, because no one really cared as much as I did at the time about Portal 2, I grabbed a second controller and beat co-op by myself. The only thing about the game that is slightly to its detriment is that replayability is dependent upon how long between play sessions you go, giving you enough time to forget the puzzle solutions. Easily a top 15 game of all time.

Again, like Uncharted 3 above, I'm not going to tag everybody (and that would quadruple unnecessary seeing as these are the top two games of 2011 as determined by us), but yeah. High five one and all!

And finally (in terms of what I want touch on, not the post. Sorry for the novel), my list with words about the games that didn't make it.

1. Portal 2
2. Batman: Arkham City
3. Gears 3
4. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
5. (HM) Resistance 3
6. (HM) Dissida: Duodecim Final Fantasy
7. (Doesn't qualify) Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
8. (HM) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
9. (HM) Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One

Ratchet & Clank All 4 One was in the midst of a stretch of R&C games that were not good and to this day it's inexplicable. I credit with trying to make an R&C game with not just co-op, but 4 player co-op, and it just doesn't work. From gameplay to mission structure and linearity to even story itself, All 4 One was a disappointment that hit hard.

I'm not a Call of Duty person, and the Modern Warfare trilogy cemented that. When I saw this game's demo on Xbox's stage, I'll admit it, I was impressed. Enough so I borrowed my father's copies of the first two MWs. This game is whatever, in that the multiplayer was iterative of all that came before it, the campaign was nothing more than very loud and bright set-pieces to escalate an increasingly nonsensical plot, and spec-ops was a, "play it once, and never again" kind of mode. Oh, and the horde mode Survival wasn't compelling either.

Halo: Combat Evolved is a good game on its own, and the graphical upgrade that is Anniversary is a fun contrast with the stark retro graphics of the original. But with the exception of the skulls, achievements, and terminals, the game didn't do anything new. Recency bias speaking, but we've been spoiled the Remakes of the last couple of years.

Lastly, Dissidia: Duodecim is a trip. The ONLY Final Fantasy in which the named main protagonists and villains of all mainline entries interact with one another in a single story. Seeing all the vignettes between all these different characters is fascinating. The gameplay is a learning curve and a 3D free roaming fighter isn't really what one would think when describing a Final Fantasy game, but if enough time is put into the mechanics, you can actually do well. ESPECIALLY if you played the original Dissidia, where you can import ALL of your progress over to Duodecim, particularly because the entirety of the first game is a part of Duodecim. Think of it as like a Left 4 Dead in Left 4 Dead 2 situation. But the mechanics, plus the repetitive nature of fights (as they're all 1v1) in pretty bland environments is the game's biggest detriments. It's like the story was the primary focus while every other aspect of the game was secondary. But to end on a positive note: I'm a BIG fan of many of the character designs, and the box art RULES. The original's was also as awesome, with a reversible cover, one side the forces of Cosmos, the other the forces of Chaos.

Thank you so much for reading any of this if anyone has! Kudos again to Axel and to all participants for making another fantastic thread!

Thank you for the suggestion! I was running 81.whatever and updated, but Chrome is still not showing it right (Though this message is from I.E. and everything looks completely fine). It's not terrible to devote a browser solely to a single site so I'll keep doing this temp fix, but I'll keep looking into what's causing it. Knowing my luck, it's probably some minute setting hidden somewhere Chrome decided to switch in the background.

I'm not surprised to see Skyrim reach top three. It's one of those games, for good or ill, that just takes OVER the gaming zeitgeist. We're still in the midst of Fortnite, and before that was PUBG, which was after Overwatch, Hearthstone, GTA V, and then this. It's weird just how all-encompassing a game can be to an industry and a hobby. Anywho, Skyrim is a game that has two personal issues: 1.) Way, WAY too much to do and choice. Kind of "paralysis by analysis" as it were. For me, it's not a selling point to say a game is triple digit in hours and you still will content to parse through. And 2.) Spiders. $^#& Spiders.

And with that, I'm hoping my top two will actually be the forums' top two and if that is the case, it'll be the first time that's happened. I'm excited to see the final reveal later tonight!

No I have not. I'm typing this response in Chrome, and also, I went to click to reply to you directly and the screen jumped up several posts without bringing up the reply text box. I'm about to try and log in to a different browser to see if that's the problem.

EDIT: OK, this edit is being typed using Internet Explorer. It appears to be a Chrome issue. Don't know how to fix that, but since it's my default browser with all my saved preferences, I'll keep checking using it to see if it fixes itself, but until then I'll default to I.E. so I can see the forum properly. Thanks for the response though @tokeeffe9 !

For some reason, threads are not loading the most recent posts, I'm not seeing timestamps, and the page count at the top of the screen just isn't there. Don't know if anyone else is experiencing this or if it's just me.

Ah there it is. Dark Souls. Not the genesis (Hey there Demons Souls), but this game was the explosion of popularity for it. I'll never forget when my best friend got it for Christmas and I pretty much lost him to it for a WHILE. I've never cared for the aesthetic, difficulty, and up until recently the mechanics, but "Baby's first Souls-Like" (tm) a.k.a. Jedi Fallen Order finally got me to understand the value (and satisfaction) of perfectly timing a block-parry-dodge combo.

I'm actually surprised it didn't medal, and now I'm convinced what the final three are. Just got to wait to see the order (and as always, I'm REALLY looking forward to the post-reveal breakdown).

I also forgot to mention (as it came to me when I was trying to fall asleep) another moment that stood out to me is what happens to Sully when Drake is hallucinating. I'll admit it: I believed it. And while I'm happy it wasn't real, I do understand how it could've had a lot more lasting impact if they kept with it.

And if anyone cares, Nolan North JUST started doing his first ever playthrough on his Retro Replay channel. He's going to have guests (his castmates) as he goes through it. First episode had Richard McGonagle (Sully) and Robin Atkin Downes (Talbot).