Your Game of the Year for 2012

[JordanWCE]

1. Far Cry 3
2. Halo 4
3. Mass Effect 3
4. Max Payne 3
5. Sleeping Dogs

I'd like to change my list, and push everything on there down one spot:

1. The Walking Dead
2. Far Cry 3
3. Halo 4
4. Mass Effect 3
5. Max Payne 3

Bought TWD on Steam a couple of days ago, wow, what an amazing experience so far (about to start Episode 5).

 

[dexter_]

Kills me reading all these positive impressions about TWD. I'm one of the unlucky ones who got hit with the save bug. The fact that telltale are ignoring peoples complaints about it on their forum doesn't fill me with confidence that it'll ever get fixed.

 

[FGMPR]

Yeah, that sucks man. I probably should of put that down as a negative, even if it didn't effect me. Telltale have been a-hole's about it so far.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Think this year has been a rather disappointing year for gaming. Having only a PS3 so I couldn't see what exclusives the 360 had. Assassins Creed was hyped up to be amazing, fell way short. The new Resident Evil game was horrid, bring back the feel of 4. FIFA 13 was glitchy as hell, still have it but haven't put it in for atleast a month. NBA 2k13 was just not a big enough leap to make the jump from 12 which to me has been the best basketball game of all time. Max Payne was fairly average, was massively hyped. Future Soldier was a clunky piece of poop, though I had fun playing Co-op on it.

Top 5 Games for me.
1. Farcry 3
2. Tokyo Jungle
3. Journey
4. Dishonored
5. Black Ops 2

(Haven't played Sleeping Dogs, Borderlands 2, Mass Effect 3, Walking Dead. From the sounds of those games they would knock out Dishonored/Black Ops 2 for me)

You;ve missed some beutiful games, the 4 you quoted are up there, however i like the love for Tokyo Jungle, thrashed that a bit and its pretty fun


This year PC Dominated games,

 

[HBK619]

Since I already had these written down, I'm going to add my 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th games to my Top games of 2012 list.

Keeping in mind I haven't played AC3, Dishonored or The Walking Dead (although will be playing TWD very soon - no doubt that'll push one game out).

6. FIFA 13 - Still improving year after year as well as still being a market leader in how good sports titles are. FIFA 13 has all the modes you could want and vastly improved and nuanced gameplay over it's 2011 release. Ultimate Team is still as addicting as ever and Career mode fixed the issues that people had from the 2011 release as well. This game is always in my rotation and always sees a good 100+ hours put into it each year.

7. Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit - What a truly crazy game. A side scrolling platformer, that's also a dual stick shooter, where you control a dead rabbit that is prince of the underworld and rolls around in a saw blade for most of the game. With an amazing soundtrack to boot! You have 100 monsters to defeat and for each one you also get a mini-game. Then once you've defeated those monsters they get sent to an Island and can be put to work for rewards in game. This is better left to showing off than talking about, but it feels like an old Sega Mega Drive game, which I guess goes with Sega publishing the game. All I can say is that this game was one hell (pardon the pun) of a surprise and thanks to PS+ it was free too!

8. Max Payne 3 - Just like Hitman, Max Payne is back! Although not quite hitting the highest of notes as Hitman did and turning more into a generic-ish 3rd person shooter with a great hook. This is a game where Max Payne feels more out of place and that it's a story just with Max Payne in it, rather than a story based around Max. However, Max Payne in anything is still a good thing and the gameplay is still rock solid, with the bullet time probably more fun than ever this time around with a few tweaks to it and the addition of the RAGE engine giving some fantastic rag doll and landing positions.

9. Call of Duty: Black Ops II - This game makes it in purely based on the campaign. Realistically, campaign alone I'd have this game probably up higher, but because this is 1/3rd of a game where the other 2/3rd's are dreadful, I am voting it down more. Treyarch crafted a truly unique, truly different but still COD at the core campaign here and I was astounded after going into it with very low expectations. There's impact, emotion, variety and most of all fun. The campaign doesn't feel like a re-tread, it feels unique to what has been done in the past and from that, it succeeds.

10. Sound Shapes - This is a truly neat little platformer. You play as a blob and collect music notes throughout the levels that end up creating your soundtrack for the game. Featuring one of the best gaming tracks of the year with Beck's 'Cities' coupled with an outstanding art style and crisp graphics, I found myself rocking along with just about every track and level in this game. Then to keep it going even more, there's a level creation suite and the ability to upload those levels online. So there's an infinite amount of levels to play out there, and some of them are genuinely awesome!

 

[rockwolf]

Dragon's Dogma and Torchlight 2 are the only games I played that came out this year, and they were pretty fun so I guess they would be my top 2.

I also played The Walking Dead but it felt more like an interactive movie than a game so I don't bother including it.

 

[HBK619]

This was a very, very weak year for me. I'd have to say my GOTY is Dragon's Dogma.

The game had a heap of flaws, but most importantly it was a new IP. From Capcom of all companies.. home of "Resident Evil: We Don't Give a **** Anymore", and "Let's Make Another Mash Up Fighter". It was a risk.. something new, unique and it paid off IMO.

Was listening about this games story last night.

Not sure if you encountered/chose it, but it's right at the end and based on a choice you make at the end of the game. (This isn't really a huge gigantic spoiler for the game that apparently barely has any story anyway, although it is about the end of the game - so some might not want to read - I find it fascinating regardless)

Spoiler

If you choose one way you go into this god mode type thing where you can't do anything but roam the world in a ghost like form, you can't do missions or kill anyone or anything. The only thing you can actually do is kill yourself with a knife that's in your inventory and doing this sends you back down to earth to relive the game again through the New Game+. Which is basically an inference that this is what has been happening during the world of Dragon's Dogma and will keep happening over and over again.

It's a really incredible twist put into the game. However the disappointing aspect obviously 1) That it takes you playing the entire game to get to that point and 2) They don't do anything with it (and who knows if they'll get a sequel to do anything with it and if this starting point can be expanded on well enough to make use of such an awesome plot point).

I'm probably not doing it justice, but listen from 1:11:00 on this podcast (only takes a few minutes to be explained).
http://www.giantbomb.com/podcast/?podcast_id=367

 

[Face_Plain]

You have to get that ending. There are multiple endings based on decisions, but all of them show you the consequences in a cutscene then give you a retry option to send you back and give a different choice until you get the 'true' ending and credits. One ending you completely skip the end boss and postgame. That would have been a flat ending if that was it.

I liked it because it meant you didn't have to play around with saves/look up google to see all the endings. Sure, it makes it feel like there is only one 'correct' set of choices but this wasn't exactly a lore heavy game and the story was hogwash mostly so just having a decent ending was a surprise.

 

[Premiers04]

Ok I'm changing mine, The Walking Dead is my GOTY.

 

[Royale]

Day Z GOTY.

This is after having played xcom, mass effect 3, dishonored, max payne 3, guildwars 2, I've played most of the big new titles this year. This free mod for Arma II is easily the best.

 

[The Big Sauce]

Far Cry 3 is unequivocally my game of the year.

I can't remember the last time I had a game that I had to come back to. The story was great IMO, a lot stronger early on, I liked the character's decent into madness. The support cast were all strongly acted and by the end I knew which side I was with. It implemented a lot of things Assassin's Creed has, but does them a lot better (hunting, radio towers, outposts & fast travel). In fact I've left ACIII for dead in order to play this. It has an exceptionally we worked soundtrack as well. Heightening the right moments.

Quite frankly it has raised the stakes in what I expect from a single player shooter.

My runner up was Borderands 2.

Brilliant in co-op, great in solo play. I thoroughly enjoyed my weeks in Pandora levelling up my characters. There is simply so much to do, so much depth and almost always better loot to get!

 

[caMoGFC]

was rayman origins out this year?
if so, that goes pretty close for me.

also i have every episode of the walking dead on my hd....with how huge this show has gotten it seems like i should watch it and then maybe try out the games hehe

 

[Valentino Dmitri]

I liked Dragon's Dogma as well. Hope it gets a sequel that smooths off its rough edges ie: less repeated sound bites, less fighting obsolete enemies as you level up, that kind of thing. Nothing too serious. Wouldn't mind giving it another go now, just thinking about it.

Mass Effect 3 was good. Was quite defensive of the bizarre choice of ending at the time, but I've not had the desire to revisit the series since, so maybe that says a lot. I don't think the player ever had any real agency over the plot in the previous games but they did a good job of hiding that. The smoke and mirrors were pretty clear by the end. A handful of sensible if cliche rpg endings would have been the way to go. Still though, will never forget Mordin's hero moment.

Some good stuff on IOS this year. Super Hexagon and New Star Soccer are pretty great. If you've got like 3 dollars burning a hole in your pocket they both come highly recommended.

I am one of 3 people who like Grasshopper Manufacture games so it was a pretty good year. Lollipop Chainsaw, Liberation Maiden and Sine Mora are all good gear. Can't remember if Frog Minutes was this or last year. Haven't got around to playing Black Knight Sword either.

Everybody's Golf on Vita is great, probably the best thing on the system.

NSMBWU and ZombieU seem good but have had a bad experience with the system refusing to update where i couldn't play for a couple of weeks so opinion is soured. Incompetent *sticks releasing s**t for christmas when it's not ready.

 

[Premiers04]

was rayman origins out this year?
if so, that goes pretty close for me.

also i have every episode of the walking dead on my hd....with how huge this show has gotten it seems like i should watch it and then maybe try out the games hehe

Nah Rayman was last year and get onto the Walking Dead ASAP. Game is brilliant, show likewise.

 

[The Big Sauce]

Actually I want to change my votes.

GTA Vice City iOS
MGS 2 Sons of Liberty HD
GTA III
GTA San Andreas
Jak II HD

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

Not huge on sports game usually but 2 blew me away. Yet to play FC3, Dishonoured or TWD.

5. Sniper V2. Bare bones in some aspects, and some vey obvious flaws, but damn running around a bombed out Europe picking off Nazis was very fun. And I hate myself for enjoying the Xray kills so much.

4. Max Payne. Great story, shooting mechanics just ordinary. This gets pushed up becuase of the closing airport sequence that found a great song that matched the game perfectly. One of the better game moments Ive experienced.



3. Borderlands 2. Fun as s**t.

2. NHL 13. Havent played a hockey game in years but found myself addicted to this one.

1. NBA2K13. Still flawed, but the best basketball sim yet. At probs a hundred hours and will put in plenty more.

 

[Jabso]

I will do this in about 2 years when I complete all the games from this year I've got.

 

[CasuallyDressed]

I decided to play through Dishonered again.

I love this game!

 

[Lance Uppercut]

1. Far Cry 3: ******* cracker. Way too much fun
2. Max Payne: insane 3PS, soooo Max Payne. A whiskey in the hand and a dame with a bullet in her head on the floor
3. Sleeping Dogs: incredible interpretation of the sand box. Insane location, awesome kung fu
4. Assassins Creed 3: another rollicking instalment

 

[TheKanga]

1. Dishonored
2. Sleeping Dogs
3. Journey
4. Catherine
5. FIFA 13
---------
6. Far Cry 3
7. Forza Horizon
8. Mass Effect 3
9. Paper Mario: Sticker Star
10. Halo 4/Max Payne 3
---------

I've just started Mark of the Ninja as well, which i believe may make it's way into my top 10.

 

[TheKanga]

1. Far Cry 3: ******* cracker. Way too much fun
2. Max Payne: insane 3PS, soooo Max Payne. A whiskey in the hand and a dame with a bullet in her head on the floor
3. Sleeping Dogs: incredible interpretation of the sand box. Insane location, awesome kung fu
4. Assassins Creed 3: another rollicking instalment

Wei Shen is a boss
I just finished the story and i think I'll go back and get 100% it's that good!

 

[Igloo]

Awesomenauts was this year, wasn't it? If so, I'll give that an honourable mention. Really enjoyable game.

 

[HBK619]

Awesomenauts was this year, wasn't it? If so, I'll give that an honourable mention. Really enjoyable game.

Yeah, a May release. Another PS+ freebie too.

Would probably fit somewhere in my top 15, great little game for sure. Certainly opened my eyes more to MOBA's.

Definitely one of the best theme songs for the year! AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOMENAUUUUUUTS!

 

[caMoGFC]

i sometimes leave the controller on awesomenauts just to listen to the theme song

 

[Cory]

Trying to the find that music that was in the FC3 mission kick the hornet's nest.