Batman: Arkham City
I'm standing atop a tall building, labeled as "Ace's Chemicals". I've just equipped my Batsuit thanks to Alfred dropping an equipment pod into Arkham City. I kneel at the corner of the building, and my gaze locks on a few of Two Face's thugs standing outside the dilapidated court house. "If anyone knows what's going around here, it's her." Batman says gruffly to Alfred. "Things do not bode well for Ms. Kyle, knowing of Two Face's love for all things binary." Alfred replies. I stand and look out over Arkham City. "I've got to find Catwoman." Batman says to himself. My objective marker leads me directly to the aforementioned thugs, and I know what I have to do. I leap majestically off the building and fling open the wings on my suit. I glide gracefully down to the targets, locking on to one in particular. I land on the thug, his neck in hand, and flip him into the ground. I hear various shouts like, "It's the freakin' Bat!" and simply, "Whoa!" I quickly stand, and the fight begins. Ten thugs, one Batman. The fists, bats, and metal pipes start flying. Each punch Batman lands is overly satisfying. Each crunch of a fist to the face, thud when a foe is knocked out, each grunt, every pipe that hits the concrete. I literally cringed several times just from the excellent sound effects.
Once finished, Batman rubs his knuckles and walks in to the court house like a boss.
Welcome to Arkham City.
Arkham City meets my list for quite a number of reasons, and maybe it should be even higher in my list. But one thing that always stands out to me the most is the quality of the story, and how it's portrayed through it's excellent voice actors. Mark Hamill's Joker is absolutely stunning, as well as Kevin Conroy's Batman. They play off each other extraordinarily well. Joker sounds perfectly sadistic, with no regard for human life. Batman sounds angry, witty, and above all human. Conroy's Batman is my favorite Batman hands down. Batman still walks, talks, acts, and IS a complete boss, but the one thing others don't add to Batman is his humanity. Conroy does that beautifully, and the game is much better off for it.
The story is engrossed in Batman's universe, and you meet just about all of his rivals in the very long main campaign, and then some more for side missions. There are surprises at each turn, and Batman always responds with quick wit and flying kicks. I really don't want to spoil anything about the story because ALL of it is important. I don't think I've ever played a game where every aspect of the story is important. 
Another thing that shines about Batman's second excellent escapade on consoles is it's astoundingly enjoyable combat. I mean, what good is a third person brawler if the combat sucks? While it looks like a ton of mindless button mashing, the game rewards you if you don't, adding critical hits and extra damage to the flow of combat. There are quick-fire buttons that spice up fights with Batman's special gadgets, and the game rewards you for changing up combat here as well. Enemy AI is very smart, they pick up and throw stuff like chairs and boxes, they know to arm themselves when they get the chance, they are really good shots, they can gang up on you, and they propose a hearty challenge even on normal. The third person combat is the best of any game I've seen.
Arkham City is a sight to behold, as it should be. Rocksteady added an incredible amount of detail to this mini-universe. Snow flurries around you, there are random posters on every wall, and the dilapidated structures look appropriately destroyed. Each location is starkly different from the last ranging from museums, to steel mills, to a frozen over laboratory, to a labyrinth-like subway system. The game is very detailed and is stunningly beautiful.
If you haven't picked up a copy of Arkham City, do it soon. It's one of the best experiences to be had on current-gen consoles.
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