Winner: Game of the Year of 2011

What does "best" mean? When you're talking about art and entertainment, the answer isn't that easy. Is "best" different from "favorite?" Is "welcoming" more important than "challenging?" These are but a few of the questions we asked each other as we went head-to-head in a GameSpot meeting room, staring each other down and passionately arguing for our personal choices for 2011's Game of the Year.

Each of our nominees for Game of the Year is a worthy winner. The question becomes: What's worthier and why? How do you compare such disparate games as Ghost Trick and Dark Souls? Is it more important for a game to do less but do it perfectly or to be more ambitious but mess up some of the details? The questions are endless. The fact is that there's no formula for this stuff. If there were, we could plug the pertinent information into our review-o-meter, it would spit out the answer, and we could have all gone go-karting instead. But face it: Some of these games are innovative and some are iterative. Some are buffed to a shine and others are a bit rough around the edges. Some focus on world building; others challenge you with devious puzzles. And sometimes, a game does something that defies comparison.

And so we asked ourselves the most important question of all: In a decade, when we look back on 2011, which game will define the year for us? From there, things started to come into focus. The game that defines 2011 may be different for us than for you, but what a testament to a great year in games--that so many games provided us so many different kinds of experiences and with such quality. The next time you think that there's no diversity in gaming, remember our nominees for Best Game of 2011. They tell a very different story.

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[MtnDew189]

skyrim definitely deserved it

[DarkCat500]

Toooootally agree, excellent choice gamespot

[WhiteandNerdy44]

@BboyByungGyu THANK YOU. You are actually a sane person here other people are like " OMG SKYRIEM IS SO G@Y LOLOL MW3 SHOULD WIN".

[WhiteandNerdy44]

@WWEWWFFan15 MW3 is like a DLC to MW2. Every COD game that comes out feels the SAME I bought MW3 played it LITERALLY for an hour and then returned it.

[WhiteandNerdy44]

@hydingnewworld HOLY SHIT THERE IS A THING CALLED ADBLOCK. Seriously I am tired of people complaining about ads get ad blocker plus and be done.

[ThatPudgyItalian]

@Raizulee1 Its just as worse on PS3. Its the best on PC

[TheBadBuffalo]

Skyrim fanboys are so annoying...

(I know I'll get lots of hate for this)

[citizenunintended]

5:28 "Once you start Skyrim, you can't quit it."

I quit Skyrim.

[AztecSniper7]

I have one question! Where's Mortal Kombat!?

[hydingnewworld]

I HATE ADS!!!!!SO PLEASE KICK THE ADS GAMESPOT!!!

[Tonypikmin]

I just clicked on the video to see what would they talk about Skyrim.

[MrDevinator99]

i think we all agree on skyrim?