LogFAQs > #876887398

Valve's last single player campaign came out in 2011 too. Portal 2 iterated on the original. Everything was more involved: the puzzle, the narrative, there was even a complete co-op that you didn't know you wanted until it came out and was awesome. I didn't like Portal 2 nearly as much as the original: there was a simplicity and efficiency to that game that was lost when the game added layers of complexity. It was never simply about flinging yourself anymore. Now you had to find the perfect solution. (Well, moreso than the original which felt very DIY). Portal 2 improved on the concept but lost players like me in the process. Valve disappeared from single player gaming at this point: DOTA 2 would go into open beta in 2011 and Valve never looked back. Fans have been distraught ever since.

2011 didn't lack for huge games. I've written a post or two so far and haven't even mentioned the launch of the 3DS. The 3DS was a weird thing - glasses-free 3d that worked. There was a ton of debate on if people wanted this or not: most people were on the fence but said that the only way it would work is if you didn't need any glasses. The 3DS showed well but it had a $249 price tag, much higher than the DS and without a strong library of launch games. The highlight was probably a port of Street Fighter 4?, and maybe Pilotwings. Sales lagged and Nintendo did something unprecedented, slashing the price $80 and offering an 'ambassador' program for early adopters in the form of ten free virtual console games. The 3DS was sketchy until Mario and Mario Kart came out during the holiday season. There was a smattering of classic 64 ports like Ocarina of Time and Star Fox 64 to keep people going. It was really a botched launch. If they had any actual competition it might have mattered.

The biggest news of the year had to be the hack. The Playstation 3 was finally hitting its stride. It finally had some killer games like Uncharted 2 and God of War 3. Their online offerings were getting better. Trophies showed up in 2008 and most games had them by 2010. (MGS4 wouldn't have them until 2012.) Gabe Newell went on stage at E3 2010 to announce that Portal 2 would have cross-play on PS3 with Steam, making it the definitive console version. Mortal Kombat 9 was going to hit on the same day ("Portal Kombat" day). And then, just like that, PSN was dead. At first it was just down. It took days to even understand what was happening. Eventually Congress got involved. PSN was down for a total of 23 days, basically missed the launch of two huge games in full, rendered a SOCOM game completely unplayable for its first month and led to an epic bow of shame by Kaz Hirai and friends. Ugh. It's kind of amazing how far this has disappeared from the limelight. People seem to trust Sony and their online services again. It's only been six years!
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xyzzy