Games of 2011: Skyrim
Did you know that there’s a new Mission: Impossible film out this Christmas? I had no idea until the other day. I assume they must have masses of advertising running for that on TV, in cinemas, online and “outdoors” (I eventually spotted it on a train station poster), but despite spending most of my life hanging off the digital world like a conjoined foetus, somehow its existence had passed me by. So that’s something to say for video games in 2011, because if nothing else they have been very noticeable. Professional footballers spend their Saturday afternoons sprinting across pitches ring-fenced by ubiquitous adverts for FIFA 12, and we stare at them through screens adorned with ball possession statistics brought to us by EA Sports. Meanwhile, every other ad break during the X Factor – you’d cry if you knew how much they charged for 30 seconds – is a succession of Wii and Kinect adverts, occasionally interspersed by Saints Row: The Third or Modern Warfare. Battlefield 3 was one of Google’s fastest-rising search terms of 2011, and every bus shelter on my way to work shouts at me about Uncharted 3’s “gripping” gameplay, and has done for the past four weeks. Read more…
