2011 has been a fairly good year for games, with many worthy releases on all platforms. There were some surprisingly entertaining games in fact one of them made my list. So without further ado here are my top games of 2011...

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3

I'd been looking forward to Space Marine since its announcement in 2009, however as a player of the tabletop game I generally get pretty excited about all 40k games. The videos released earlier in the year and the hands on from E3 confirmed my suspicions that it would be an awesome game. It is in fact one of the best 3rd person games I've ever played! Taking on the role of Captain Titus you get to fight both Orks and Chaos on the Forgeworld of Graia with a variety of melee and guns that the player only need press a different button to change between the two. If you're a fan of 40k and still haven't picked this up it's very much worth your time.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Retribution
PC

Retribution is the latest release in the Dawn of War II RTS franchise, and brought the previously playable Imperial Guard from the original into Dawn of War II. Players can fight their way across Subsector Aurelia in the engaging singleplayer campaign with a variety of different races. This was a solid addition to the DoW II series that is one of the best RTS games available, and brings players a good 40k RTS fix.

WWE All Stars
Xbox 360, Playstation 3

WWE All Stars brought the old and the new of the WWE universe together in this completely over the top arcade style wrestling game. With the ability to perform over-exaggerated moves; nothing is spared in the ring where even the simplest of moves will take you several feet into the air. All Stars is definitely not lacking with a wide variety of moves at your fingertips including special and elaborate finisher moves, whilst it does come across as quite basic at first it is not long before you realise that there is a lot to learn such as chaining grapple moves together without your opponent being able to stand up.

Dead Island
PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Dead Island is a First Person survival game with some RPG elements, set on a fictional tropical island. What attracted me to Dead Island was not the trailer, but that it both looked great and was easy to pick up and play, even after long periods of time. With a treasure trove of weapons you'll have mountains of customisation, and yet still find yourself kicking zombies in the face as a source of great satisfaction. There isn't a lot to dislike in Dead Island's beautiful setting, and the sandbox gameplay allows varied missions.

Saints Row: The Third
PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3

This was my surprise of 2011 I didn't really know what to make of it until it's release and a few hours of play, from that moment I was hooked. The game has a wide variety of vehicles ranging from sensible road going vehicles to VTOL jets equipped with machine guns and missiles. The story is ridculous to match the player characters and vehicles, there are some choices that you can make which can see you blowing up buildings, or base-jumping from heights; every second of the game is packed full of crazy action. This was one of our best purchases this year.

Top Downloadable Game of 2011

Burnout Crash!
XBLA, PSN, iOS

Burnout Crash! Is a top-down 2D take on the crash junctions from the early Burnout games. This is not your average Burnout however, and the aim of the game is simply to cause as much chaos and destruction in a junction as you can with no racing! The use of cheesy music for various features in the game such as blowing up a gold car or an ambulance driving through is fantastic, and the use of the ridiculous super features can see tornadoes or alien spaceships aiding your destruction. I don't really play a lot of XBLA games but as a fan of the Burnout series this one stood out and it is one of the best downloadable games that I've played this year.

Most Anticipated Game of 2012

Carmageddon Reincarnation
Multiplatform

So at the moment details on Reincarnation are still pretty thin, and it appears to be a new take on the original Carmageddon. Stainless Games are still at the helm and the game is currently in production, the website has concept pictures as well as forums and other things. However as an avid fan of the series (apart from TDR 2000) I eagerly await the arrival of a new addition to the Carmageddon series, as do many other die-hard fans. Fingers crossed on a release in 2012!