Portal 2 deserves to annihilate the competition this year. Nothing else came close to me.
People are blown away by Skyrim's open world (and rightfully so) but it's core gameplay, the combat, is absolutely terrible, (Especially having played it right after the very satisfying Dark Souls) performance issues abysmal, dragon fights anticlimatic, and second to second gameplay repetitive. Yes, there's more content to the game, but that matters little when it's all so fundamentally similar. The actual level design just doesn't compare in any way to Portal's. (And does amount of content really even deserve to merit applause? Are books, movies, albums, etc. given extra kudos for being x pages/minutes longer? And how many of you guys are actually running out of things to play with the huge amount of releases in the holiday anyway) And that's not even mentioning the fact that Portal has enjoyable dialogue and VA- a first in gaming for me.
Each of the other potential contenders fall short for me as well- Dark Souls for its terrible final levels, Arkham City for its weaknesses compared to its predecessor, (poor pacing, less focused story, weaker level design, less inventive boss battles) Uncharted 3 for being a fairly standard shooter (with, previously, terrible aiming) wrapped up in "cinematic" game design with autopilot puzzles and platforming, and Skyward Sword for its inumerable problems. (Although, don't mistake me, it's still a great game- when its good, it's amazing. Fi, a slow start, tons of padding, occasionally unresponsive motion controls, hideous graphics at times, too heavy a story early on, too light later, etc. really hurt it though) Super Mario 3D Land would actually be my runner up, if I had to pick one, in front of all the blockbuster titles being considered. It's easy, sure, but that is it's only real flaw.
No, Portal 2 stands out as a masterful creation among the slight disappointment that has characterized the rest of the year's releases for me and I'm sad that other less deserving games are getting more appreciation simply by virtue of the proximity of their releases and nature of their AAA PR status. I guess I should note I have yet to finish Rayman- which feels a little off to me but is very good otherwise so far- and I have not played The Witcher 2, Rage. and BF3 on account of not having finished my new rig yet. I also haven't played MW3, out of a lack of interest, AC:R, having not played the others in the series, or Gears 3, because my 360 hasn't worked for 3 years. Lastly, I'm waiting till next year to pick up Xenoblade when it comes to America.