[Hyunickel]

2012 was an interesting year for Video Games, one that certainly got a lot more diversity mixed in it than 2011. We got games like the Unfinished Swan and Journey which, despite the odds, managed to get into mainstream media and be recognized as compared to full fledged retail releases like the Halos and Assassin’s Creeds.That’s an incredibly amazing feat, and it currently puts us in a weird transitory year that seems to have a lot more secrets in the works for us.

More importantly however, the year had such a diverse selection of titles that it made choosing my favorite games of the year that much more daunting.

But finally I managed to choose my top 5 games of 2012 and here they are, in no particular order:

- The Walking Dead: This game deserves quite a lot of praise when it comes to the way it used storytelling and character development as a mechanism to get me completely hooked on it. The Walking Dead made me care SO MUCH about the choices I made, that it became extremely hard watching their consequences unfold. Morality is a concept that the Walking Dead by Telltale doesn't take lightly, and that shows throughout every shred of the entire experience.

- Journey: thatgamecompany has certainly created a series of interesting games with Flower and Flow, though none of their previous pieces of work come close to what Journey was able to achieve. Explaining what Journey is is in fact a pretty hard thing to do. Some call it an unparalleled experience, others simply ask you to just pick up the controller and enjoy the sheer beauty of the world you are about to set foot into. I however, would tell you that Journey is certainly unlike any game you've ever played before. So if you have a PS3, go pick it up NOW, because it's worth every penny paid.

- Sleeping Dogs: I was excited about Sleeping Dogs the moment I first heard about it. Setting an open-world Sandbox game in Hong Kong was something that I really wanted to see done well in a Video Game. Sleeping Dogs nailed it right on the head. It didn't necessarily bring in anything revolutionary, but it combined a different set of solid mechanics really well. The game had an engrossing story, enjoyable combat, and a world filled with tons things to do. It nits all those pieces together well enough to create quite the memorable experience.

- Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward The sequel to 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors was everything that I wanted and more. It took the depth of it's predecessor and just expanded it immensely. It introduced a set of new charecters that were all interesting, and had backgrounds that screamed "I NEED TO KNOW MORE" . It also had puzzles that were much harder than the first game, and that required a lot more thinking to go through successfully. If you were a fan of 999, then VLR is what you need. I'm 12 hours in and it doesn't look like I'm stopping anytime soon.

- Mark of the Ninja Stealth done right. That's how I would describe Mark of the Ninja. The 2D Side-scrolling Stealth game does the genre justice by bringing every bit of awesome the genre could offer and wrapping it together for your enjoyment. A slick presentation, gorgeous visuals, and gameplay that is both open and rewarding is what sets this game apart from the pack. Loved every bit of my time with it.

I discuss and explain my choices further in today’s video:



How about you guys, what were you favorite games of the past year?

[Vinterberg]

My list would be:

Chivalry: Medieval Warfare - such glorious and gory warfare
Sine Mora - Takes me back to my childhood, in cool 3D
Krater - Simply love the setting and combat system
Hard Reset - Blade Runner-esque FPS

[cyber12]

My games of 2012:

Journey: only amazing...

Minecraft: this game makes soo much fun

[Pham]

I still have not played a lot of 2012 releases but here goes:

Unfair winner tier: Katawa Shoujo (visual novel, but it could still count so I am putting it in)

Top 5:
1, Darksiders 2
2, Borderlands 2
3, Far Cry 3
4, Planetside 2
5, I cannot think of anything to put here.

Would probably make it in but I have not played it yet tier: Mark of the Ninja, Dark Souls PC, Hitman: Absolution maybe.

I just realized all my favorite games are sequels. We really need some new IPs that are good.

[FoggyFishburne]

Man, I was thinking of making the same thread but I'm a massive pussy. I'm just like "meh, the Witcher community probably don't play many games and aren't interested in anything other than lifting weights and driving motor cycles on rails while holding a cow in the other hand"...

Anyway! Here are my favourites of this year!

Mass Effect 3.

HA! Gotya!

1. Walking Dead by Telltale Games.

I hate zombies. Anyone who uses them is an uncreative, untalented hack that deserves to die. So Walking Dead had the odds stacked against it. Then I started hearing shit about it. How emotionally invested they got into the characters and how thought provoking the choices were. So I was like, bah pshiiii let's try this shit out. See what the fuss is about.

Well, damn. I love this game. Truly. Characters are amazing. Lee especially. It's nice to play a character that's not a white dude with short brown hair. The racism and sexism within the gaming industry and communities is rampant. It's nice to have some diversity in the characters, specifically when it comes to their ethnicity and genders. Voice acting is superb. Period.

Gameplay is simplistic as hell but that's how I like it. Grim Fandango is one of my favourite games of all time but unlike The Walking Dead, its gameplay sucks dick. Here, the gameplay serves the story and does it well. There's a timer on dialogue options, increasing the suspense and terror that a zombie holocaust would bring about. Just an amazing game.

2. Mark of the Ninja by Klei Entertainment

I didn't give this game much thought at first. One of my pirate friends recommended it to me and I was like, yeah I'll check it out. Nearly 6 months later, I bought in on a Steam sale, played it, and now I'm in love with it. Incredibly well designed. Kinaesthetics are smooth as all hell. Level design is creative and fun.

Even the story and the way it very subtly conveyed the side effects of the Mark was actually pretty cool. Masterfully designed and just a lot of fun to play.

3. Far Cry 3/Dishonored by Ubisoft/Arkane Studios respectively.

They share the same spot because they're both doing one thing great and other things either poorly or not as well. Dishonored had amazing gameplay. The stealth, the killing by knife, the blinking were all fantastic elements and gameplay flowed so well. This is probably due to the fact that the gameplay designer was the man behind Dark Messiah. An unappreciated gem of a game. Well, it's no masterpiece but it had some things it did really well. Gameplay was one of those things and it's nice to see he's still consistent about his gameplay philosophy. Story and voice acting sucked cock however. The plot is basically the same as the Witcher 2. Except done fucking poorly.

Far Cry 3 had a narrative that flowed a little better, and better voice acting. But meh. Nothing to write home about. The Walking Dead has put shit into perspective. If your story isn't as well told, as well written, then you're shit according to me. If you're gonna have a story in your game, make sure it ends up being quality stuff. Anyways, once again, this is a game I recommend for the gameplay. It's fun, it's fast paced. The stealth, unlike its predecessor, actually works really well and the island is a lot of fun to traverse, if only a little boring due to it all looking pretty much the same. Oh and you have a bow. That alone justifies a purchase!

4. Spec Ops: The Line by Yager

Just an amazing game, incredibly well designed, solid story, consistent through and through in quality and integrated choice into the gameplay flawlessly. Buy it. It's a sad story though so be warned.

5. I don't know what game to put here. I gravitate towards Hitman Absolution, Max Payne 3 and Deadlight by IO Interactive, Rockstar Vancouver and Tequila Works, respectively.

Honourable mentions goes to Journey by thatgamecompany. I haven't played Journey but I've seen a lot of footage and read a lot about it. I get the impression that if I had played it, it would be on my top 5 list, easily taking the third spot.

Holy shit. This ended up being an incredibly long post :S Ah well, enjoy wasting your time. Hopefully you didn't read it all.

[TheStalkWitcher]

Mass Effect 3 ,Dishonnored , The Witcher 2 EE.

[RSIK4]

Hitman Absolution
and Max Payne 3
standsout for me.....though i continually playin and enjoyin TWEE and TW2EE......these 2 games are my favri8........

[Benzenzimmern]

FoggyFishburne said:

4. Spec Ops: The Line by Yager

Just an amazing game, incredibly well designed, solid story, consistent through and through in quality and integrated choice into the gameplay flawlessly. Buy it. It's a sad story though so be warned. ›››

The story of this game was just groundbreaking. I think I've never felt so bad while playing a game and it's a good thing.

I haven't played much this year and when I was doing something game related, it was mostly doing witcher stuff.

1) Halo 4

I am a real pc gamer, but my number one is Halo 4. I own a XBox 360 and I only have five games for it. Halo 3, Halo: Reach, Red Dead Redemption, Halo: Anniversary and Halo 4. Halo was my first shooter and I played it in coop with friends until I could recite every level with every corner and tree in it. I love the music and I love the story. It's not as well told as in the witcher games, but it's just so... I don't know. Epic. This is a story for the heart (but not for the mind). Halo 4 has got some of the best cinematics I've ever seen in a video game and they pushed the story a little bit forward (finally), so I think it was a worthy successor.

2) Far Cry 3

I loved the first Far Cry game (altough it got mutants in the end... why?). Maybe it was a little bit pride because a german newcomer studio made a game that could compete with Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 (the story of the first witcher game is kind of similar). I liked the story of Far Cry 3 and especially the voice acting (even the german version was great. Maybe because your nemesis Vaas had the voice of the german version of Heath Ledger. Good choice for a psychopath).

3) Spec Ops: The Line (see above)

4) Planetside 2: Well, battles with hundreds of gamers at the same time. Do I need to say more?

5) Max Payne 3 (one playthrough), Dishonored, Hitman: Absolution, Dark Souls, Assassins Creed 3

I own them, but I haven't had much time and desire to play them yet. Max Payne 3 had a great story and cinematics, but all the blurriness because of his alcohol and pill abuse was getting on my nerves.


Ps: I really need to check out The Walking Dead

[ShadowKiller007]

1.The Witcher 2- X360
2.Dark Souls
3.Far Cry 3 and Halo 4

[gregski]

I didn't play too many 2012 titles, but here's my list:

1. Far Cry 3 - for the immersion, the exploration and the open-world done (almost)perfectly right.

2. XCOM: Enemy Unknown - for being a re-imagination of a classic that keeps the spirit of the source while adding it's own

3. Borderlands 2 - for Handsome Jack being one of the best villains ever and proving to me that a game played in co-op with a friend gains at least +158% of fun factor

[Luc0s]

Not too many great games in 2012. The few games of 2012 that I did play and actually enjoyed are:


1. Far Cry 3 - Awesome open-world sandbox game with amazing graphics and a cool story.

2. Assassin's Creed 3 - Also an amazing semi-open world sandbox game with good graphics and an interesting story. To bad the ending is rather shitty though.

3. Dishonored - A very interesting and unique stealth action-adventure game in a cool and interesting dystopian setting. I hope we get to see more games set in this particular setting. I would love to see more of the world of Dishonored.

[jfprovata]

Borderlands 2
The Secret World-I can't believe I actually enjoy playing an MMO.

[Costin Moroianu]

1: Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition - Despite some flaws it still is the best RPG I've ever played in terms of the combination of choices, moral complexity, gameplay and graphics
2: XCOM: Enemy Unknown - A badly balanced game and yet quite enthralling through it's gameplay.
3: Planetside 2 - Large scale warfare that beats the crap out of any other shooter.
4: Far Cry 3 - Interesting sandbox with a good story and great gameplay
5: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 - Great story with a memorable and well written antagonist.

Honorable Mention: Dark Souls - Incredible game, best gameplay in ANY RPG but has the worst port I've ever seen in a game.

Worst Game: Mass Effect 3 - Objectively an OK if not good game but as a former ME fan it destroyed character and universe/lore that I had deeply cared about without even providing the great adrenaline rush that was in ME2, a failure.

If you want to get into the ME series then play ME1 and ME2 and ignore ME3, just think of your ending for the trilogy and you would very likely have something more well written then ME3. ME1 and ME2 ARE worth playing.

[slimgrin]

I think Dishonored would be my favorite.

[Luc0s]

I don't really count The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition as a 2012 game, as The Enhanced Edition content is basically more of an add-on the the actual game, that was released in 2011.

If I would count TW2:EE as a 2012 game, it would be my favorite game of 2012 obviously.

[lubo 1654]

Definitely Far Cry 3 for obvious reasons. Darksiders 2 and Black Ops 2 were also pretty good.

Mass Effect 3 is the worst, Diablo 3 was kind of disappointing as well but it can stil be fun if you are playing with your friends.

[Pangaea]

1) Baldur's Gate 2

x) Who gives a fuck, nothing else compares

[Chromie92]

Pangaea said:

1) Baldur's Gate 2

x) Who gives a fuck, nothing else compares ›››

KoTC >

[kyogen]

Dragon's Dogma--Great combat, nice customization, fun times with nihilism and eternal recurrence.

Dishonored--Yay, sneaking! It's not Thief, but I liked its universe and visuals, and I enjoyed the stealth gameplay. I've tried slaughtering my way through it, but that feels weird and is taking me longer than sneaking.

[Saoe]

Sleeping dogs.
Mass Effect 3.
Unmechanical.
Orcs must Die 2.
Max Payne 3.