Game(s) of the Year 2012?

[dimensional]

The Last Story for me nothing else comes close its not very long but I never felt it dragged and I had great fun with the combat system you know its doing something right when you want to grind because its fun. Xenoblade Chronicles would be above this but that came out last year over here.

Honourable mention :-

Journey - amazing experience lacking as an actual game but when the rest is this good I dont care.

I have played loads of games I have enjoyed this year but I wouldnt call them game of the year material. Persona 4 Arena was my most looked forward to game of the year but I still cant buy that thanks to the region locking and atrocious handling of the EU version by all parties involved. I am also not including HD versions and basic remakes in my list.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Games of The Year For games that came out this year:
Mass Effect 3
Dishonored
Mark Of The Ninja

Honorable mentions:
Hitman Absolution
Borderlands 2
Halo 4

Games Of The Year (For Games I Played This Year But Might Not Have Come Out This Year)
:Mass Effect 3
Deus Ex (Seriously how this game adapts to your decisions is blowing me away)
Rayman Origins
Fallout New Vegas (This game is scaring the shit out of me....)

 

[DustyDrB]

2012 was pretty awful as far as games go.

No it wasn't. Just because it didn't conform to your tastes doesn't mean it was an awful year.

If anything it was one of the best years yet. Clear signs that the modern-warfare-shooter trend is beginning to end with Medal of Honor flopping and even Black Ops taking a different route, the indie market spreading its wings even wider, the XCOM remake being fantastic and a commercial succes proving that not everything has to be remade as a shooter to be successful and some surprising hits that really lifted the medium up as a genre and proved even more that videogames as a storytelling medium are maturing more and more; Spec Ops: The Line, The Walking Dead and Journey.

Yes, 2012 was a brilliant year for this medium.

Agreed on this. I'd have to say 2012 has been my favorite year for gaming. I've just played so many games from different genres that were all fantastic. And there have definitely been some positive trends this year, as you mentioned.

 

[bobmus]

1. Borderlands 2
It really is a great co-op game, and a hell of a lot of fun.

2. Dishonored
Despite the ending judging me for killing all the things, it was still a great little single-player number.

3. Halo 4
Though the single-player is as lacklustre as ever, the multiplayer is a definite improvement over Reach for me.

 

[N3squ1ck]

No particular order:
Dishonored, Hotline Miami, Spec Ops: The Line, FTL

 

[kyogen]

GOTY: Dragon's Dogma

Runners-Up:
Dishonored
Legend of Grimrock

The enhancements/expansions of The Witcher 2 and Dark Souls are also great work from the developers, but those games weren't technically new this year even though they released on new platforms.

 

[Tiswas]

Going by American standards: Xenoblade Chronicles.
Going by UK standartds....um...not sure. Aint really played anything that didn't have some huge flaw in it. (Assassin's Creed, Borderlands 2, Mass Effect etc) probably if I had to choose would be Kid Icarus Uprising or Nintendoland.

I'm actually REALLY struggling to think of a game I absolutely loved this year :/

 

[Cowabungaa]

Walking Dead: Point and click adventure games were never my thing.

See, this is what I mean, exactly my point. This isn't about your tastes. This year the medium advanced a great deal, set a lot of steps in the direction of a brighter future regardless of what you may like. There's more in the world than just your cup of tea. The Walking Dead might not be your thing but that doesn't mean it's not brilliant. It doesn't mean that Clementine is suddenly not one of the best written child characters ever and it doesn't mean that the dilemmas that game makes you solve are suddenly not very well thought out and miles better than the black-and-white-with-a-grading moral choices we had in videogames so far.

It wasn't all perfect as the HD remake trend that also started might indeed be seen as a bad thing. Oh but you're definitely wrong on one thing; Halo ain't generic. It's one of the silliest complaints regarding that game. Name me five shooters, because it's generic right?, that do the same thing as Halo. If anything Halo is bucking the trend of modern military corridor shooters with it's wider levels, non-ADS combat, colorful design and the fact that you're shooting at freakin' aliens.

And as for XCOM, saying Valkyria Chronicles is better is quite silly mostly because other than being turn based they share not all that much. Aesthetically pleasing is down to taste. Not everyone fancies the Japanese style as much as you seem to do y'know.

 

[epidemia]

Well judging from previous years its definitely going to be whichever one isnt all that great but sells lots of units and has a ton of hype so Im guessing Mass Effect3. As for my choices, unless all nude girl wrestling simulator 2012 comes out in the next few days, Im voting Xcom.

 

[Nomanslander]

Now thinking about it, this year has been sorta disappointing overall. Mass Effect 3 was a let down (and personally not just because of the ending). Dishonored, even though a good game, somehow still manages to bore me every which way. Haven't played AssCreed3 nor Xcom so can't really say much about them (But I did watch others play AC3 and it doesn't look that good, and Xcom just isn't my bag). Only game I really liked was Max Payne 3 and it seemed no one else played the game. Compared to last year (Dark Souls, Skyrim, Dues Ex:HR, Portal 2, Batman:AC) games this year just haven't been able to make the cut.

But then again... I still haven't beaten Dishonored and I should give Xcom a try, plus I really did like AC3 setting. And there is FarCry 3 coming up.

 

[A-D.]

Eh..lets see..

1: Crusader Kings 2

2: Port Royale 3

3: Towns

Thats pretty much my own personal list of games released this year that i have spent a ridiculous time playing and only having fun with. Got over 350 Hours out of CK2 so far, which beats the runner up New Vegas by 200 Hours ;P So clearly its doing something very right.

 

[NZT48]

1:Mass Effect 3 is my game of the year. My biggest complaint is the Auto-Dialogue. Yes, I even liked the Extended Cut endings. 2: Assassin's Creed 3. 3:The Walking Dead.

 

[Zeraki]

Mine would probably be.

-Mass Effect 3(thank the gods this isn't BSN, or I would get torn apart)
-The Walking Dead
-Darksiders 2

Yeah, I haven't really played many games this year.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

I'm hoping Far Cry 3 to blow me away (I've heard very, VERY good things about it), picking it up today anyway.

Its a great game but not quite game of the year material for me.



My games of the year would be:

- XCOM: Enemy Unknown

I had doubts of whether or not I would enjoy this game much but once I started playing, it really got its hooks into me deep. Outstanding deep, tactical and strategic gameplay combined with the leisure of a turn based system prove to produce a really amazing game. The combat sections are broken up well by base and research management and the ability to customize your soldiers is a really nice touch, giving a very personal feel to your squad. No problems at all with this game apart from the odd graphical glitch, nothing which has negatively affected gameplay and no element feels unfair.


- The Walking Dead

I don't really need to explain this one, just a fantastic engaging story which completely overshadows any gameplay issues, making them negligible. A great example of where a game's story can be the most important and valuable aspect.


- Natural Selection 2

A deep and highly skill based and teamwork oriented first person shooter that really stands out among the other shooters such as Battlefield or CoD which are content to sit on their ass in the brown mud. The graphics are very pretty, particularly the alien structures and creep, which are quite colourful. While its a pretty steep climb for beginners, sticking with it is highly rewarding as once you are competent at the game its very satisfying. Additionally the large emphasis on teamwork seems to have made this games community one of the nicest I've experienced. Most players will focus on working together with their teammates and admit their mistakes over generally being a dick and only the newest players complain about imaginary balance issues. Its obviously not immune from undesirable people but from my experience its pretty damn good compared to other communities. Whats more is that its also an RTS.

 

[Spartan448]

Honestly, GOTY will probably go to fucking COD: Blops 2 or some shit like that, just because it's a AAA game.

But if I had a choice...

GOTY: Spec Ops: The Line. THAT, people, is how to make a shooter. I think it taught the whole FPS genre a few lessons. Some took those lessons better than others (Looking towards Halo 4, actually a pretty good game this time around, ESPECIALLY with the characterization of Lackley, Cortana, and the Chief, though the captain of the Infinity, whose name escapes me at this time, could have been done better), and some fell asleep in class and only wrote down the name of the topic in their notes and at test time, filled in random boxes and flunked the class, dropped out, and became Wal-Mart greeters (COD: Blops 2).

Best shooter: Spec Ops: The Line or Halo 4. Both were well executed, and whilst I would definately give GOTY to Spec Ops: The Line, I still think Halo is the better shooter. Mostly because of the Mantis. You have to respect a giant 'Mech.

Best RPG: I think that would go to Dishonored, X-Com: Enemy Unknown, or the Walking Dead, should one just be looking at the "Popular" titles, but I think this years best RPG goes to Scribblenauts Unlimited.

Best MMO: Guild Wars 2. That game just blows me away. Even on the lowest settings, the graphics are excellent beyond compare, almost on the level of EVE: Online's graphics. The story and game mechanics are also very well executed.

Best Indie: FTL: Faster Than Light. This game is a nice break from the usual of "oh, you died? Feel free to pick up where you left off and repeat this a thousand times until you get it right!" With permanent death mechanics, and a different galaxy each time, every playthrough in FTL is as challenging as the last. Unless you have the Tier 2 Stealth ship. The Halberd Beam is just massively OP.

Best Expansion for an MMO: If I didn't fly a Heavy Missile boat in EVE, I'd say Retribution would be the winner of this catagory. But CCP decided to give Tier 1 Heavy Missiles a 10% damage cut. 22% against smaller targets. F*** you, CCP. This better get fixed in the winter Rebalancing. The only other expansion this year was the WoW expansion I believe, but WoW is a horrible game anyway, so... Retribution it is?

Runners-up: There are a few games that are pretty good but I don't think would make the cut. These are as follows:
Hitman: Absolution
Assassins Creed III
Borderlands 2
Far Cry 3
Mass Effect 3

Gag prize: This is the category for games that REALLY missed the mark on how to make a good game. They are as follows:
COD: BO2
Medal of Honor: Warfighter
Inversion
The Amazing Spider Man

Best Mod for a Game Ever: Wouldn't actually be a catagory, but DayZ is just AMAZING. So there.

 

[MammothBlade]

Borderlands 2- Massively improved upon the original. Developed a personality.
Crusader Kings II-Great strategy game. The combat system is slightly broken but it makes up for it as an unrivalled dynasty simulator.
XCOM:Enemy Unknown-A brilliant revival of the strategy genre. It has a great mixture of base-building and combat modes, with highly open-ended gameplay.