Your top 10 of 2012?

This article will happen before year's end, but unless something spectacular hits out of nowhere, Spec Ops The Line and Mass Effect 3 are duking it out for the top spot.

Since we are primarily on a movie site, can the thread be re-titled to something a little more specific?

 

ETA: Nevermind.  I guess it's in Video Games.  I commented because I don't typically look at the subtopics.  My bad.

Edited by wd40 - 11/12/12 at 7:47am

The wild card being the upcoming Hitman...other than that my picks are locked up.

Well so much for that...Early review broke my heart. Can only hope this is an anomalous review and other publications like it, but that drm bit does piss me off.

 

Eh, some of those negatives seem like they came from somebody who didn't play before.  No saves and weapons not carrying over from mission to mission is nothing new (and the lack of saves certainly never kept me from exploring).  Goals being things other than assassinations are also fine on occasion but "open this door" missions sound horrible.  I really want to see other reviews though, things like encouraging us to kill guards and getting to a target only to have a cutscene not assassinate them will be a deal breaker for me.

Far Cry 3 and Persona 4 Golden (not really, since its a fact its going to be fantastic) are my wildcards; still got to play through some of my list, but based on early experiences, id say this is my list in no particular order:

 

-Spec Ops The line

-Borderlands 2

-Dishonored

-X-Com

-Mass Effect 3

-Guild wars 2

-Deponia/Chaos on Deponia

-Dust and Elysian tale

-Mark of the ninja

-Torchlight 2

Wow, I seriously need to get on the bandwagon with some of the games released this year.  Damned offspring prevent me from playing nearly as much as I used to.  Anyway, here's what I've been playing a lot of YTD 2012 (although not all of these came out in 2012).

 

1. Skyrim

2. Mass Effect 3

3. Batman: Arkham City

4. SSX

5. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

6. Assasin's Creed 3, but only very recently

 

My wife has been hogging everything up with XCOM, so I suppose I should add that.  And my damned kids have been further hogging the system up with anything Kinect-related.  Oh, and Dungeon Seige 3 sucked.

 

Looking forward to picking up Dishonored at some point.

Edited by neil spurn - 11/13/12 at 6:59am

Dishonored

Fez

Hotline Miami

Journey

La-Mulana

Legend Of Grimrock

Max Payne 3

Resonance

Retro City Rampage

The Walking Dead: Season 1

Edited by Barry Woodward - 11/21/12 at 11:06pm

I'm apparently quite outgunned here as a gamer, having only played a handful of 2012 titles, but my general impression was this year was a considerable step down from 2011. But then, next year sounds ridiculous, with God of War, GTA, and Bioshock Infinite all hitting in the first four months or so. I'm even pretty jazzed about the South Park game.

No, the South Park game sounds fantastic a) If they pull off what they've been proposing about it, and b) if it ever manages to get released/finished.

 

Holding off on my top 10 for a little while as I work through the stuff in this year's backlog I need to play. But it'll come. What I can say pretty safely though, is that it'll include a couple of franchises I'd previously written off. Been quite the surprising year in that way.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/dont-believe-the-blogs-the-pc-version-of-hitman-absolution-is-just-fine

 

Perhaps this will make you feel a little better. I trust Ben Kuchera a hell of a lot more than random posts on reddit.

I'm surprised there isn't more indie games on some folks lists.

 

I really feel like for the past couple of years all of the "Game of the Year" AAA type games have been pretty ho-hum.

 

Journey's going to show up on a lot of people's lists, possibly at the top, and they will be absolutely right in doing so.

Hell, Walking Dead might be my fave of the year after Mass Effect.

I can say pretty certainly so far that FTL will find a spot on my list. Possibly Legend of Grimrock as well.

I think there's enough 'game' in Walking Dead for it to qualify. Telltale are clearly still drawing from enough tropes of old-school point and click adventure games for it to retain that feel, and the action stuff if actually quite clever in that it may be artificially hard to aim your shots and swings, but only just enough so that you're already rattled enough to make it seem harder than it actually is. There's a lot of maintaining control in pressure situations (Same with a lot of the decision making) which still requires player skill. Its real success is putting you in an emotional state that makes this relatively simple stuff a challenge in the moment.

I don't see my list changing now that this year is winding down.

1. Journey
2. Spec Ops: The Line
3. Borderlands 2
4. Mass Effect 3
5. XCOM
6. The Walking Dead
7. Crusader Kings 2
8. Minecraft XBLA
9. Dishonored
10. Mark of the Ninja

Putting this list together, a few things struck me about this last year. First of all, many of these games I count as my favourites even though I haven't put nearly as many hours into them as I'd have liked, due to a combination of life stuff and the joy/constant backlog crisis that are Steam sales.

As a result, these are the games that have captured my imagination and compelled me to keep playing past a handful of hours. What's been strange about this year is that I've been turned around on a few franchises I previously wrote off, or which failed to grab me (Assassin's Creed, Halo 4, FIFA).

At the same time, I've found this time around that there's been far less in the indie sphere that's gripped me. There's been lots of 'fun but uninspired' stuff like Shoot Many Robots, and while I enjoyed the demo for Fez the bugs scared me off a full purchase (still mulling over this one, though). Recently Mark of the Ninja has impressed me, but i simply haven't had the chance to play enough to know if I'd put it in the top 10.


1) XCOM: Enemy Unknown

I don't think any game has captured my imagination more this year. An absolute joy to play, even if I am awful at it.


2) Borderlands 2

I was a huge fan of the first Borderlands, and Gearbox haven't disappointed with the sequel. Yeah, it's a loot n' grindfest, but I enjoy the mechanics of this more than the traditional top-down Diablo style. Also, kudos for having a season pass that is actually worth the outlay.


3) Crusader Kings 2

Paradox's dynasty-'em-up has to be one of the dark horses of the year. Okay, you need a spare month to actually learn how to play it properly, but the experience of guiding your royal family through decades of turmoil and dysfunction is a joy to behold. Like XCOM, it's a game that feeds the imagination, and where every failure just makes your story more interesting.


4) The Walking Dead

Telltale's big comeback after the disastrous reception of Jurassic Park. While it becomes clear that player choice doesn't quite impact the storyline quite as much as initially suggested, its influence on your relationships with the cast of characters makes all the difference. Telltale didn't just nail the spirit of the Walking dead comic/show; the game represents everything they've tried to evolve the point-and-click adventure into, a mix finally perfected.


5) Halo 4

While there's aspects of where they took Master Chief's story that I don't totally agree with, 343 Industries finally addressed the elephant in the living room that has left me cold on Halo in the past: MC himself. 343 try to move him from being a cypher with a really fun AI sidekick to establishing him as a personality in his own right, and the signs are mostly good. Throw in a well-paced and stunning-looking campaign and some promising MP, and youget the first Halo game in years to actively interest me in the world.


6) Mass Effect 3

I had my issues with the ending, but that shouldn't diminish the hours of excellent gameplay preceding it. That final run to the portal with Harbinger raining fire down upon your head still counts as one of the most gripping experiences I've ever encountered in gaming, and Bioware did a wonderful job in wrapping up many of the characters' stories (Mordin *sniff*). Even the MP turned out to be quite fun.


7) FTL

Again, a good year for games that engage the imagination for narrative. A deceptively simple starship captain simulator that sees you traverse the galaxy with a barebones crew, pursued by a ruthless enemy force hellbent on blasting you to atoms. A lot of people seems to have been put off because it looks like an RTS, but it's really its own thing and incredibly simple to pick up. It's the dilemmas you continually run into that give the game its challenge, and makes it fiendishly addictive.


8) Minecraft XBLA

The other indie game to hit my top 10 (Although Minecraft's so established nowadays it feels weird still calling it 'indie'), it made me finally 'get' Minecraft. Kudos to mojang for their regular updates as well, which are rapidly making this version approach parity with the ever-expanding PC version. They've earned every one of their roughly eighty-nine squillion sales.


9) FIFA 13

THE big suprise this year. I've always been a staunch Football Manager fan, but having become a bit disillusioned with the series' increasing bloat I decided on a change. Now I know that these EA Sports games are all iterative updates rather than new games, so they never appear on best-of lists, but bear in mind that the last FIFA game I owned was '97. On the Megadrive. Utterly blown away at the sheer amount of stuff this game gives you to do, and the controls are smooth as butter. Now that I finally get what all the fuss has been about, colour me impressed.


10) The Witcher 2 (360)

Yeah, we got it late. I never got this on PC because frankly, I think it would've melted my computer, but it was totally worth the wait. A wonderful blend of modern and old-school RPG mechanics, an interesting universe, a videogame antihero taht actually has a bit of charisma... lovely stuff.



Honourable Mentions

Mark of the Ninja
Retro City Rampage
Rock Band Blitz
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
Legend of Grimrock
Max Payne 3
Planetside 2

Edited by Workyticket - 12/9/12 at 3:39pm

Having a kid and running a business doesn't leave much time for gaming so I only have 2 from 2012 that I played (still raiding the bargain bin and catching up on titles)....

 

Mass Effect 3:  

 

This one has stuck with me.   The ending was fine with me and even if it wasn't, there was so much good stuff in it from a story and gameplay perspective to have it rank as the best of the year.

 

 

Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning:

 

The story sucked.   The world building sucked but the gameplay, graphics, and mechanics?   AMAZING.   Even when the story was boring the shit out of me, I was having to much fun finding loot, breaking down the weapons, and making awesome new weapons from the parts.   Plus the game is long.   The studio that made this game went bankrupt but I'm hoping the engine this game ran on appears in a game that has a story worthy of it.

You wouldn't be Liam Neeson would you, with all the lists you're making? I got a great pitch for Taken 3. Liam is vacationing in Hawaii enjoying peace, sun, and surfing. Meanwhile, flash travel across the Pacific a pack of wolves are psychically talking to each other deciding they want vengeance on him for The Grey. The wolf pack intensely jump in the water and decide to swim all the way to Hawaii for payback. This is executed with Zulu-esque precision, a slow build up to a seemingly epic showdown between the two forces of nature. Half an hour in, you see the corpses of the wolf pack floating, some being swallowed whole by killer whales, after drowning from exhaustion. End credits...summer blockbuster easily.

Amalur was a fun game. It was very close to making the 10 spot, but the forgettable story and skippable world lore held it back from being something more. I really enjoyed the combat and things they tried doing with the base systems. It's too bad the studio is kaput and there won't be any follow up - game sucked up a lot of my hours in the early part of the year.

1. The Walking Dead - In pure storytelling, Lee and Clementine's struggle affected me more emotionally than any game, TV show or movie in recent memory. The choices were more about flavor than plot, but when the flavor is this good, who cares?

 

2. Guild Wars 2 - So much content, so much to do, and so much of it is actually fun. Plus a ton of free additions already and more on the way. Best bang for the buck of any game I've ever played.

 

3. Dragon's Dogma - A deep, innovative, fun RPG from Japan?!? Unpossible!

 

 

That's it. that's my whole list. These three are in their own league, the instant classics.

Having built my first gaming PC in almost a decade most of this year was dedicated to my massive backlog. That being said, in no particular order:

 

1. Hotline Miami

2. Walking Dead

3. Max Payne 3

4. League of Legends (Shut up, I'm counting it!)

 

Anemic I know, but it's just too hard to resist those $5 sales.

 

Honorable Mention:

 

1. Diablo 3 (I wish there was a bit more variety/innovation in the story and settings, but how disappointed can I be in a game I sunk 100+ hours into?)

 

And the "Wah-Wah" Award Goes to...

 

Mass Effect 3 (Would have been fine as an Assassin's Creed-esque sorta sequel, but as the third entry in an amazing trilogy it came up well short in my eyes.)

Halo 4 will be making the list. Assassins Creed III won't be. I....didn't foresee that coming.

Ahhhhh TOP TEN!!!

 

Crysis 2

 

FIFA 13

 

NBA 2K13

 

Medieval Total War 2

 

Call Of Duty : Black Ops 2

 

Call Of Duty 2

 

FIFA 12

 

Matrix: Path Of Neo

 

Hitman : Blood Money

 

Far Cry 2

 

 

 

 

 

"Its not what we say, but what we do.."

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Edited by zviko - 4/29/13 at 6:17pm

Journey is by far my number 1, I have never seen such a perfect blend of abstraction and (deceptful) simplicity all at once. It might be the foremost artistic achievement in the medium since... Shadow of the Colossus? Okami? Majora's Mask? I personally think it tops all that. the metaphorical implications of the player's Journey (is it life-to-death? is it an analogy for a harsh part of your life?) make it a simplistic and yet deeply personal experience all at once. you can make of Journey what you will. It can be a way to vent out your frustrations at your everyday life. It can be simple, beautiful escapism. It can be a summation of anonymous postmodern human interaction. it can be whatever you choose to see it as. except for two unquestionable statements: it is absolutely a superior achievement in contemporary art (in any medium you can imagine) and it has some of the loveliest music you will ever hear in your life. 

 

Even though I love film more than any other art form in the world, this year I must hand it to thatgamecompany and, especially, their resident genius Austin Wintoury. 

 

Journey is nor only a work of visual art, it might be the premium visual narrative of 2012.

  Max Payne 3 also blew me away... dramatic, well written, slightly offensive to some of my fellow brazilians (and I love that it is - I'm not an easily offended person) and probably the best written character in a game I've seen for a while (despite his emo monologues).

 

one of the few games I'd call "moving".

I don't think I played ten games that were released this year, so here's my own kind of "list":

 

Narrative experience of the year: Gotta give this one to Walking Dead. What it lacks in branching and scope I thought it made for in terms of personal involvement and effect. I've never experienced a game that felt like this.

 

Time sink of the year: Torchlight 2. When I first picked it up I blew through the campaign in a week, but the nice loot and fun factor had me coming back again and again. It's the perfect game to play with my morning coffee with the news on in the background before heading out to work, and each class has its own unique vibe and they are all capable of lots of different builds and playstyles. I've spent a lot time with this one, and still don't feel like I've experienced everything that it's got to offer. And there are mod tools coming. Yikes.

 

Overall GOTY: Max Payne 3. If it weren't for The Walking Dead, this would be the most progressive narrative in this gaming year. While there are no choices that effect the story, it gives us characters that feel real and an involving character arc that is unusual for the medium. It also just nails its tone so well that it's impossible not to get swept up in the experience.

blah double post, sorry. about 8 hours later, no less!!!

I don't play nearly enough games.

1. Mass Effect 3
2. The Walking Dead
3. Dishonored
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops II
5. Max Payne 3

I still have yet to play Max Payne 3, The Walking Dead,Spec Ops or the Witcher 2 for 360 (and I haven't played enough of Zero Escape), all of which I could see as major contenders on the list. However, here is the list as it stands currently:

 

1. Mass Effect 3

2. X-Com: Enemy Unknown

3. Mark of the Ninja

4. Journey

5. Assassin's Creed 3

6. Persona 4 Arena

7. Sleeping Dogs

8. Far Cry 3

9. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

10. Dishonored

 

Kind of a mediocre year, imo. I like all of the games on this list, some quite a bit. However, last year was an embarrassment of riches with Dark Souls, Skyrim, Catherine and Deus Ex all superlative experiences and plenty of other solid titles backing them up. After the first 6 on this year's list, I struggled a bit. 

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

2. Walking Dead

3. Assassin's Creed 3

4. Halo 4

5. XCOM

6. Max Payne 3

7. Inversion

8. Mass Effect

 

Still gotta find 2 more to finish the year with a bang!!

 

 

__________________________________

Good Games, Good Music, Good Friends

 

I <3 Megan Nicole!

Because I'm a cheapass, I spent most of my year playing games that came out in previous years and are now super cheap.

Here's the 10 titles I bought this year and enjoyed. Bolded games released in 2012

 

10. Guild Wars 2 - Mac

9. Last Story - Wii

8. Donkey Kong Country Returns - Wii

7. Rayman Origins - Wii

6. Diablo 3 (for a while, before I finally cracked and couldn't stand it) - Mac

2. Kingdom Rush - iPad

1. Xenoblade - Wii

 

So looking at that list:

- I'm kind of gob smacked my Wii has had so much use. Other than what is listed, I've also been hitting up Zelda, Okami and some VC games

- I have kids, so easy-yet-intertesting multiplayer games are a win. Kirby, Rayman and DKC all have features where I can help little kids through hard sections.

- The PS3 and XBox games are so, so boring to me now. I care little for FPS games.

- I do want to play XCOM and ME3 at some point.

Xcom

Mark of the Ninja

The Walking Dead

Xenoblade Chronicles

Hotline Miami

Far Cry 3

FEZ

Journey

Dishonored

Mass Effect 3

 

Honorable Mentions:

Guild Wars 2

The Darkness 2

Forza Horizon

Torchlight 2

FTL

SSX

Borderlands 2

 

Special Mentions - 4 Star AAA games that were good, but not good enough - Halo 4, Black Ops 2

Biggest Disappointment - Resident Evil 6 or Assassin's Creed 3

Don't Give a Shit of the Year - WiiU

Best Downloadable Game - Mark of the Ninja

Best Soundtrack - Hotline Miami

Best Story Kind of Thing Where the Gameplay Isn't Very Good, But Way To Do What You Did - Spec Ops and To the Moon

I considered NintendoLand for my list, but only cause it's lots of fun to play with the kids (ages 3 and 5). The Pikmin game in particular is awesome with me on the gamepad playing the traditional Pikmin-RTS-style with the kids playing a simplistic Gauntlet-style melee game. I've got my money's worth from the game, but it would probably rank 15 or so on my list.

If I went to a full top ten, New Super Mario Bros. U would definitely be on it.  It's a total blast.

MegaManRising, A top...12?  I do not legitimately have one.  However due to the Collecting of Compiled Classics and non classics, my 12 are courtesy of...The WB in the form of...Midway Arcade Classics...

1) Gauntlet 2

2) Gauntlet

3) Spy Hunter

4) Joust

5) Robotron

6) Defender

7) Total Carnage

8) Smash TV

9) Defender II

10) Sinistar

11) Joust 2

12) Marble Madness...Appropros...just like this...List!