> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.killscreen.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Ballots: Tom Armitage
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/ballots-tom-armitage/
- Published: 2012-01-06T09:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2015-11-17T14:34:27.000Z
- Description: High Scores 2011 ballot.
- Author: Anonymous
- Tags: Article, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-26 09:39

### Games

1\. Battlefield 3 (10)  
2\. Batman: Arkham City (10)  
3\. Bastion (10)  
4\. The Binding of Isaac (10)  
5\. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (10)  
6\. From Dust (10)  
7\. Frozen Synapse (10)  
8\. Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony (10)  
9\. Outland (10)  
10\. Portal 2 (10)

### Comments

(These are not really ranked 1-10; they’re ordered alphabetically. They are all great for completely different reasons, and it seemed unfair to choose between them.)

Here’s my secret: I’m shamelessly mainstream. When I get home from a day at a desk, designing or programming, I like to play games on my sofa. And so: lots of major console releases there, from the advanced hiking simulator that is *Skyrim* to the elaborate team sport (disguised as a military shooter) that is *Battlefield 3*. It’s not all AAA-ware, though. The fact that games like *Bastion* and *From Dust* saw release on major platforms makes me enormously happy, and they deserve their place. What binds all these titles together? Perhaps it’s just about wonderful worlds to escape to. Wonderful for their aesthetics: the cold mountains of Tamriel; the endless greyboxes of decades of Aperture Science; the silhouetted landscapes of *Outland*; the spectacular 17th century Mars of Jamestown; the steely glowing cyberpunk of Frozen Synapse; the rich, detailed decay of *Arkham City*. Flip that around, though, because they’re also wonderful systems to get lost in: Skyrim’s bottomless, endlessly free systems; the careful addition of gels to the *Portal* formula; the binary-coloured bullet-hell of *Outland*; the marvellous Vaunt mechanic in *Jamestown*; the perfection of turn-based (and play-by-mail) strategy in *Frozen Synapse*; the bottomless gadget-belt and inventive environment of *Arkham City*. At heart, I’m an escapist, and I escape into beautiful worlds and deep mechanics equally.

*Back to [High Scores 2011](http://killscreendaily.com/articles/high-scores-end-2011?ref=killscreen.com)*