You’ve seen the nominees and winners for GamerNode’s Special Honors and Best of 2011 Nodie Awards; now it’s time for the biggest virtual trophy of them all.
It took a lot of deliberation, some of which you can listen to at the bottom of the page in VS Node 21: Games of the Year, a podcast discussing the GotY nominees and two honorable mentions at greater length. We allowed six nominees this time instead of the usual five because of how many great games there were to choose from, but in the end, we did manage to narrow it down to a single winner.
Listen and read on to find out who took home the title of 2011 GamerNode Game of the Year, and of course feel free to chime in via our comments section here on the site, on Facebook, and on Twitter using the #NodieAwards hashtag. We always love to hear from you and to talk games together.
Game of The Year
The nominees are:
Batman: Arkham City
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Portal 2
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
And The Winner Is…
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
In the busiest time of the year, I made sure to devote a hundred hours to Skyrim, though it wasn’t like it gave me a choice.
– Ben West
Never have I gotten so lost in a game for so many hours without completing the story… and there is no sign of the need or desire for anything else.
– Dan Russo
A massive (often dauntingly so) world of Tolkienian lore, magic, and intrigue are what makes Skyrim my game of the year. Not only did it blow my expectations out of the water, but it provided me with a veritable escape that I won’t soon forget.
– Brad Tramel
More so than anything else, Skyrim creates a world that players want to completely lose themselves in. Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 were great games, but Bethesda has truly outdone itself this time.
– Anthony LaBella
Skyrim is not a game. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a universe. You don’t play Skyrim, you submerge yourself into it. Never has as series intimidated me as much as The Elder Scrolls. Not because of challenge or difficulty, but because how deep I’d fall into its truly endless experience. You can’t “beat” Skyrim. You just choose to stop playing it.
– Greg Galiffa
Inhabitable emergence: Skyrim‘s greatest achievement is its often believable mimicry of the analog world’s random events. Its toolset offers freedom of expression more than any fantasy role-playing game before. The frost-dusted forests, hills, and cities of Skyrim are alive.
– Dan Crabtree
Bethesda has a way of making games that exist beyond the scope of what other studios ever dream of. Skyrim outreaches any project Bethesda has ever given gamers. If I could only have ONE game, Skyrim would be a very strong contender.
– Eddie Inzauto
Runner Up: Portal 2
Podcast: Play in new window
