Best Graphics: Technical of 2011

When I started playing video games they were all made of pixels.  Tiny colored blocks stacked on top of each other to form shapes.  The hero, the enemies, the background were all made of these blocks.  Now games are made of millions of polygons and graphics have taken amazing steps toward realism.  Our nominees for this award:

Rage
L.A. Noire
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Battlefield 3

And the award goes to L.A. Noire. Rockstar Games set out to create a realistic noire style detective game, and that is what they did.  It would not have worked either if it had not been thanks to their pain staking attention to detail.  The facial recognition alone had to have take months of work. Congratulations Rockstar on bringing the bar up a notch.