With 2012 off to a good start, it’s time for us to take a look back at 2011 with our annual The Year in Screenshots feature that highlights our favorite games of the year. Rather than argue about awarding a single game as our game of the year, we here at SmashPad prefer to just tell you our 25 most favorite games of the year and give each game equal billing.

If you want a glimpse of the numbers ..read more

The Battlefield series has become one of EA’s most popular franchises, providing some of the most explosive and addictive multiplayer experiences in any shooter on the market today, rivaling even that of Call of Duty.  Battlefield 3 is no exception; marking the best entry in the series to date, DICE has gone all out to deliver a polished, one-of-a-kind multiplayer experience that you will have a hard time putting down.

What Is It?

 

Battlefield 3 is known first and foremost ..read more

Just when you think a game can’t possibly be topped, Rocksteady Studios rockets through the roof and takes off into the stars with Batman: Arkham City. The sequel to the award-winning title, Batman: Arkham Asylum, thrusts the player back into the cowl of the Dark Knight as the story continues beyond the massive destruction of the asylum. So for those who thought they actually were Batman, let’s get you out of those silly pajamas and into ..read more

Developer Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series has become Sony’s flagship franchise for its PlayStation brand of gaming entertainment systems. ”Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” received a monumental amount of success following its release in 2009, becoming Metacritic’s most critically acclaimed game of the year.  Anticipation quickly grew for the inevitable sequel.  These expectations were not in vain — Uncharted 3 is just as good, if not better, than its predecessor.

What Is It About?

“Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception” once again puts players in the shoes ..read more

If looking at screenshots of the game immediately make you think of the first few minutes of the superhero blockbuster hit, The Dark Knight, you’re not alone.  Is it as good as The Dark Knight?  Definitely not, but PayDay: The Heist is a fun game to play that should surprise a lot of shooter fans.

What Is It?

PayDay: The Heist is a multiplayer first-person shooter developed by Overkill Software, and that’s all there really is to say.  The premise of the ..read more

2D platformers are nothing new, especially when they’re downloadable games available on services such as the PlayStation Network and the Xbox Live Marketplace.  Every once in a while, though, there are sidescrollers that are pleasing, and the PSN has a fresh one in Sideway: New York.

What Is It?

Sideway: New York is a title that immediately showcases a unique sense of style.  The game puts you in the shoes of Nox, a graffiti artist tagging away on the walls of New ..read more

With the ongoing struggle of the current NBA lockout, much of the NBA season has been thrown into the gutter with almost no end in sight, which is unfortunate because last year gamers experienced what was probably the best basketball video game of all time in NBA 2K11.

Though they didn’t have to, 2K Sports has come out with NBA 2K12, and the game is every bit as good as its predecessor.

What Is It?

Ever since last year’s debacle that ended up ..read more

With the ongoing struggle of the current NBA lockout, much of the NBA season has been thrown into the gutter with almost no end in sight, which is unfortunate because last year gamers experienced what was probably the best basketball video game of all time in NBA 2K11.

Though they didn’t have to, 2K Sports has come out with NBA 2K12, and the game is every bit as good as its predecessor.

What Is It?

Ever since last year’s debacle that ended up ..read more

The Hardboiled Chicken fights back against the Penguin regime that in this 2D shooter on PSN.

What’s This Game About?

Hardboiled Chicken is on a mission to take out the leader of the totalitarian Penguins that have taken over Albatropolis and free them from the tyranny that they’ve endured under their rule. The infamous commando is very much on a warpath towards his goal that emulates action heroes like Arnold and Stallone and has the cheesy one-liners to match his destructive capabilities.

Rocketbirds: ..read more

id Software is one of those developers who do not release a game until they feel it is done. Unfortunately, this also makes them less than prolific. The theory though is that quality trumps quantity. With Rage this theory has proven itself to be true.

What Is It?

The last fully id developed game was Doom 3, which was released in 2004. Since then there have been new versions of Quake and Wolfenstein, but neither of those were fully developed by id. ..read more

EA Canada, the Hockey branch of the EA Sports brand, has been on a complete tear for several years now. Just as competitor 2K Sports hit a monumental slump from which they still have yet to even show the earliest signs of recovering, NHL 07 debuted a fantastic new gameplay engine for the long-running franchise, with each subsequent year adding substantial improvements over its predecessor. The most notable innovations include the Be A Pro mode, which effectively transforms your Hockey ..read more

For years, the Mortal Kombat fanbase was the polar opposite of the fighting game community at large. While most franchises were finding their success in implementing the greater depth and balance that a tournament scene thrives on, Mortal Kombat revelled in its simplicity, targeting a playerbase mostly bewildered by the more technical points of the genre and/or attracted by the spectacle that defined the series from the beginning.

Since the fighting genre boom of 2009 that kicked off with Street Fighter ..read more

Released in 1999, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is unquestionably one of the most finely-crafted games of all time, with a number of players considering it among the greatest overall. With such a strong following, it’s no question why fans were disheartened when the legacy Xbox Live shutdown left gamers without a completely legitimate way to play 3rd Strike online. That all changed at the 2010 San Diego ComicCon, when current Street Fighter series producer Yoshinori Ono announced 3rd Strike ..read more

With the start of another NFL season comes another entry to EA Sports’ long-running Madden football series.  Over the last few years EA Sports has added different nuances to the gameplay in order to enhance the experience and while nothing vital was truly “added” to the core gameplay, the latest entry is also one of its more polished.

What Is It?

Madden has been the best-selling football game this entire generation for a number of reasons.  The most obvious of which is ..read more

Publisher Atlus has been all money lately.  While the team is known for making mostly “niche” games, they’ve established quite a fanbase especially with eastern gamers.  From the Persona games at the end of the PS2′s dominance to other Shin Megami Tensei games on the handhelds, Atlus has simply been putting out quality titles.  Catherine is the publisher’s first internally-developed title for a high-definition console, and those patient enough to handle the game should find that this is ..read more

THQ and developer Volition had a pretty solid presence on the Comic Con show floor by showing off a demo of Saints Row: The Third. Tucked inside a makeshift private theater “guarded” by pimps and Penthouse Pets, a very excited presenter showed off some of the new features the Saints will be bringing to the table this fall.

Unlike the previous two Saints Row installments, you’re immediately put at the top of the chain. After two installments, the Saints have created ..read more

The title of Most Surprising Demo at Comic Con likely has to go to Mass Effect 3. A video would have been expected. But a hands-on demo? It’s a sign of how important games are becoming at Comic Con. This was the same demo shown at E3, but Comic Con provided its public hands-on debut.

The lenthy, 20-minute demo let me choose one of three classes: adept, sentinel or soldier. Sentinel was chosen to get the most general sense of how ..read more

With an incredible amount of Batman fans eagerly awaiting the 2012 release of The Dark Knight Rises, they’ll be easily taken care of with the upcoming Batman: Arkham City. Picking up where its predecessor Batman Arkham Asylum left off, Arkham City pits the Bat up against an entire city overrun by psychotic thugs.

Our Comic Con demo (which was the same used at E3) threw me right into a sticky situation for Catwoman. Dangling dangerously close to an acid pit, Two-Face ..read more