2011 Showdown: Which Console Had The Best Games Library?

Multiplatforms

Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 has always been known for being the better system when it comes to multiplatform games, and it’s usually always the lead platform too. This year saw the release of a ton of brilliant, high quality multiplatform titles. The year began with the likes of Portal 2– a brilliant, intelligent puzzle game that went on to be loved by one and all- and then, we just got one memorable game after another. There was Batman: Arkham City, which was an improvement over Arkham Asylum in every way, giving us an awesome story, a well realized world and mind blowing combat. There was Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a brilliant game that left it up to the players to decide how they wanted to proceed, not just in terms of story, but gameplay as well. There was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which scored a perfect 10 based on its excellent campaign, addictive co-op and deep multiplayer.

There were others too, like Skyrim, of course, which won our GOTY award- it may not have been the most polished game of 2011, but it most certainly was the most addictive, deep and engrossing one. There was Battlefield 3, with its large scale multiplayer battles and mind blowing visuals. There were other, less memorable yet almost as good multiplatform titles as well- GoldenEye 007: Reloaded, FIFA 12, Rage, Sonic Generations, Saints Row: The Third, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine and a thousand others (exaggeration).

There were also Bulletstorm, Dragon Age II, Homefront and some others that were disappointing when all was said and done, but still enjoyable on the whole.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3- Eiffel Tower Collapses

Overall, 2011 was as good a year for Xbox 360 owners- as far as multiplatform titles are concerned- as was expected, if not more. There were a ton of releases, and while some like Mortal Kombat, Dead Space and others were better on the PS3, others like Modern Warfare 3, Deus Ex: HR and Skyrim were clearly better on the 360. In a way, the superb multiplatform lineup saved the Xbox 360 from failing hard this year, because its exclusive lineup was clearly not something to be overly proud of.

GRADE: A+

Wii

The Wii’s multiplatform lineup was only marginally better than its exclusive lineup. There were hardly any games to speak of. The Wii even managed to ruin Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Driver: San Francisco,which were so good on the consoles. Sure, there were games like FIFA 12, PES 2012, Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, Rayman Origins and WWE ’12, all of which were enjoyable on the Wii (Rayman was perhaps the best on the Wii), but these were about the only notable titles to speak of.

Being a system that is nearing the end of its life cycle, that is perhaps what we all expected. And the Wii was never strong in this area anyway.

GRADE: C

PlayStation 3

If PS3’s 2011 exclusive lineup can be described as “spectacular”, its multiplatform lineup can be described as “even more spectacular”. Gone is the time when several developers used to release games on the Xbox 360 and PC and not on the PS3. Gone is the time when the devs were not familiar with the PS3 hardware and used to give us crappy versions of their games (ala, Bayonetta). No, this year, the PS3 came into its own. Not only were the PS3 versions of most the multiplatform titles as good as the Xbox 360 versions, some were even better. Mortal Kombat featured an extra character- Kratos. He was also the one we probably like the most. Dark Souls looked and ran better on the PS3. Dead Space 2 featured more content.

Then there were others like Portal 2, L.A. Noire, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Batman: Arkham City, DiRT 3, Crysis 2 and many others. Of course, there was the occasional multiplat that was, well, not so good on the PS3 (Skyrim, I’m looking at you), but they were few and far in between.

Mortal Kombat- Kratos Gameplay Montage

Overall, this was a great year for PS3 owners in terms of multiplatform titles as well. There were a few that did not run very well on the PS3, but there were none that the system missed out on, and several were even better than their Xbox 360 counterparts. We can only hope the PS3 will not lose steam from here, and that it will carry forward this momentum into 2012.

GRADE: A+

CONCLUSION

This was a tough call. The Wii never was in the running (we hardly managed to write anything about it in this category), but the Xbox 360 and the PS3 were neck and neck here. Both had the same titles, here, it’s not like before, when the Xbox 360 used to have multiplatform titles that were not released on the PS3, or were released later, and both had some titles that were better than the other system’s version. However, we chose the PS3 because not only has it caught up with the Xbox 360 in this area in a very short time, but also because there were a lot more games on the PS3 that were better than their Xbox 360 versions. However, this decision had been much simpler if the PS3 version of Skyrim did not suck so much.

WINNER: PS3

Go over to Page 3 to see which system had the best downloadable games and remakes/re-releases in 2011