Cast Your Vote For The Escapist's Game of the Year 2012

[Encaen]

Cast Your Vote For The Escapist's Game of the Year 2012

[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/content/GameoftheYear/2012/]

We couldn't agree amongst ourselves, so we're leaving it to you to decide the best game of 2012.

There's no doubt that 2012 was a big year for videogames. From XCOM: Enemy Unknown to Dishonored to Mass Effect 3, we've played so many great games this year that we couldn't seem to agree on which game deserved to be king of the hill. While we couldn't pick just one as the best, we did manage to trim it down to a tidy 20 titles. Now we're turning to you, the experts, to determine which game deserves the top honors for the year.

To get in on the action, check out our Game of the Year 2012 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/content/GameoftheYear/2012/] page, and take a gander at the list. If you want to learn more about any given title, just click "Learn More" to see all the related content on The Escapist. Once you've made the tough decision, and narrowed your own choices down to one, just click the "Click to Choose" button to the left of the title to select it, then click "Vote Now!" to submit your vote.

Naturally, for a decision this big, you'll want to discuss it amongst yourselves, so please take to the forums below to debate the merits of your choice for Game of the Year 2012. Maybe you'll even sway some votes to your side. Speaking of, voting will run from 9am Eastern, December 17th until 9am Eastern, December 24th. The winner will be announced on the 26th at 12pm Eastern. You only get one vote, so choose carefully. Also, as a special "Thank You" for your vote, you'll even get an exclusive badge based on the game you chose.

Good luck and happy voting!


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[Shinsei-J]

I think we can all agree with Journey.
Yep, it's unanimous.

EDIT: Damn it, I forgot about Spec Ops: the line.
Hmm, this makes it hard for me.

 

[Entitled]

It's not like I expected either of my favorites to actually win, but still, it would have been cool to have an option to vote for them as well.

 

[Owlslayer]

Gotta go with the Walking Dead. It was a damn amazing experience. Tho Spec Ops was pretty damn close to getting that vote, as well. I´d say it was a pretty good year for games, lots of good stuff came out.

 

[Killclaw Kilrathi]

Tough choices, but Guild Wars 2 is the clear vote for me. The classes, the setting, the actually enjoyable gameplay which wasn't trying to be a WoW clone with a dozen action bars like just about every other MMO.

Still, I like the fact that FTL is on there and I wouldn't mind at all if that turned out to be the winner. Not that it would since it's an indie game up against all these big name releases, but it would be cool. If it were possible, I totally would have picked it as runner-up.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Of those? Bloody hell, I'll go with UFO. It's a bit too short and the tech trees could have been fleshed out more but none of that really mattered because I was playing a remake of an old PC strategy game on a console and it wasn't an FPS. That alone is worth the top spot.

My absolute not-constrained-by-shortlist pick goes to Trials Evolution though. There are many things that make this a great game but I shall focus on the one I feel is most significant: the endless replay value afforded by the full editor provided with the game and the posting of these community made levels on XBL for free. Kinda rare in this day and age, especially for consoles.

 

[TheIronRuler]

I voted Spec Ops the Line. Suffering through that game was worth it to see the endings.

 

[AntiChri5]

Gotta go with the Walking Dead. It was a damn amazing experience. Tho Spec Ops was pretty damn close to getting that vote, as well. I´d say it was a pretty good year for games, lots of good stuff came out.

As fantastic an experience as they both were, i don't think they were all that great as games.

Don't get me wrong, every gamer should definately play them for the experience (The Walking Dead is the only game to have ever made me cry) but i think "game of the year" should go to something more rounded. A game that excels on multiple fronts, not just one.

 

[Guffe]

I voted for AssCreedIII
The only game I've played out of those
.>
<.<

 

[SNCommand]

Was a tough choice for me between Spec Ops: The Line, Dishonored or Mass Effect 3, but in the end I decided Mass Effect 3 is my choice for Game of the Year

 

[fix-the-spade]

So, where's Planetside 2?
Or Thomas was alone?
Black Mesa?
Global offensive?
Max Payne 3?
Natural Selection 2?
Super Hexagon?
Sleeping Dogs?
Day Z?

Seriously, you found space for Halo 4, BlOps 2, Mass Effect 3 and even the Secret World (seriously?). Is this really game of the year as voted by Escapist users or Game of the year out of these ones that spent a lot with us on advertising?

Ahem,

Knee jerk rant over, I don't really think that. However, in a year that's actually been pretty good for games, the Escapist GoTY short list seems to be an awfully shallow list of triple A 'same sameyness' games, a couple of Indy titles, a serious WTF or two and then a few new, extremely worthwhile titles. If it's going to be a publicvote, there needs to be more options, it's not like The Escapist is short of users.

I've played everything on that list except Persona 4 and Pandaria, the only ones I'd consider even close to Game of the Year are Borderlands 2, Journey, Walking Dead and Dishonored.

All the others are either the same game as last time out, a direct remake or tremendously disappointing against what they promised. There's been better than this in 2012!

 

[gardian06]

Oh no. the Escapist is "learning" from the VGAs, but only letting us vote on Game of the Year. Will they be getting Samual L Jackson to announce it too? the only thing that I can truly give them is that they are giving the option of 20 titles.

OT: the funniest thing is that each of these games would fall into Game of the Year for very different reasons. emotional impact, overall fun, shear comedy...

So it will mostly depend on which one delivered its desired effect to the largest number of readers.

 

[Owlslayer]

Gotta go with the Walking Dead. It was a damn amazing experience. Tho Spec Ops was pretty damn close to getting that vote, as well. I´d say it was a pretty good year for games, lots of good stuff came out.

As fantastic an experience as they both were, i don't think they were all that great as games.

Don't get me wrong, every gamer should definately play them for the experience (The Walking Dead is the only game to have ever made me cry) but i think "game of the year" should go to something more rounded. A game that excels on multiple fronts, not just one.

I see your point, and while writing my post, i thought about something along the lines of that. That`s why i used the word "experience", not "game" when i wrote it. But I guess it`s just a preference in the end, since i still really wanted to vote for it. I mean, i still see your point, but from the games i played that came out this year, those two just seemed to broke some barriers that i haven`t seen any games do so before, and well, they really, really impressed me.

Out of curiosity, what did you vote for?

 

[Emmenia]

I voted XCOM as it's the only one on that list I've played. Been meaning to pick up Walking Dead and Journey for a while though.

 

[Mojo]

Gotta go with the Walking Dead. It was a damn amazing experience. Tho Spec Ops was pretty damn close to getting that vote, as well. I´d say it was a pretty good year for games, lots of good stuff came out.

As fantastic an experience as they both were, i don't think they were all that great as games.

Don't get me wrong, every gamer should definately play them for the experience (The Walking Dead is the only game to have ever made me cry) but i think "game of the year" should go to something more rounded. A game that excels on multiple fronts, not just one.

I see your point, and while writing my post, i thought about something along the lines of that. That`s why i used the word "experience", not "game" when i wrote it. But I guess it`s just a preference in the end, since i still really wanted to vote for it. I mean, i still see your point, but from the games i played that came out this year, those two just seemed to broke some barriers that i haven`t seen any games do so before, and well, they really, really impressed me.

Out of curiosity, what did you vote for?

Sorry for butting in here like this, but I feel pretty much like AntiChri5. I loved The Waling Dead and Spec Ops, I was VERY close to vote for Spec Ops, but after all I went for FC3. It just had everything in a neat package. The story wasn't as deep as Spec Ops or as emotional as in The Walking dead. It was a well written story with very memorable characters, beautiful visuals and aesthetics, great gameplay. You get the idea. Didn't get a chance to really try MP yet, but from what I hear its very decent too. I didn't play Dishonored/X-COM/Journey yet, so I cant vote for them, but I got them on my list.

 

[Yossarian1507]

I went with Spec Ops: the Line on this one. Even though I can't really go from the usual "I expected a weak CoD clone and was really surprised" standpoint, because Yahtzee's review was the first time I heard of this game, it was still a very powerful experience, and giving me something more than "just" fun is a thing I look for in video games lately.

Close runner ups were The Walking Dead (for similar reasons as Spec Ops, although episodic content, and "story tailoring to your decisions" being bullcrap pushed it away in the rankings), and X-Com (because this game is a digital crack cocaine. Seriously, the only form of rehab from this addiction is playing it on impossible difficulty).

Overall, a very good year for gaming IMO.

 

[Frission]

I don't which one to go with. Spec Ops, Walking Dead and X-Com were not the greatest games this year, as purely games ,but they're a direction I think the industry really needs to go.

 

[Entitled]

OT: the funniest thing is that each of these games would fall into Game of the Year for very different reasons. emotional impact, overall fun, shear comedy...

So it will mostly depend on which one delivered its desired effect to the largest number of readers.

Issn't it like this no matter what we do?

Even if you would collect games with the same basic reason behind their popularity, such as "emotional impact", the winner would be the one that is more directly tuned at the typical Escapist reader. Spec Ops: the Line has emotional impact if you are familiar with modern FPS narratives, while Walking Dead would have extra emotional impact on you depending on your protective instincts, Dear Esther has an emotional impact if you just want to lay back and enjoy the artistic style, Katawa Shoujo relies on familiarity with animesqe aesthetics and familiarity with Visual Novel tradition, while Day Z relies on emergent gaming and immersion.

The winner wouldn't be one that is objectively "more emotional" than the others, but the one that directs it's emotional effect on the biggest possible niche.

 

[V8 Ninja]

I'm extremely disappointed with the lack of Torchlight II, but Borderlands 2 is a good second choice (and one that I actually played this year).