henke on 27/12/2012 at 08:29
These are all on PC unless stated otherwise.
1. FTL
Only game to make me feel like Dark Souls and Frozen Synapse did last year. 99% pure game. An absolute minimum of story or handholding to dillute the experience. It's simply a set of rules. You figure them out and outsmart the game. Or you loose and go back to square one. There is a story, but it's not one written by the developers. It's one that gets written, and re-written by you each time you head out on a new trek across 8 sectors of space on a desperate mission against almost unwinnable odds. This time... this time it might work.
2. The Walking Dead
The complete opposite of FTL in many ways. Every step of your journey has already been mapped out by the developers. But you forget about that along the way, and loose yourself in the story. You begin to care about the characters in a way that few other games have ever pulled off. And then, it breaks your heart.
3. Mark of the Ninja (XBox 360)
Looks and plays great. Most surprisingly however is that the story gets quite good at the end as well.
4. Hotline Miami
Well the soundtrack and the story are great. But really it's the gameplay which elevates it. Rarely does a game requires such a delicate mix of careful planning and extreme violence.
5. Dishonored
What can I say about this game that you don't already know? It was good, alright?
6. Black Mesa
Apparently this mod was based on some old computer game from back in the 90's or something? Whatevs, certainly an enjoyable romp anyhow!
7. Waking Mars
It was alright on iOS, but the PC version is the one that really does the game justice.
8. Dragon's Dogma (XBox 360)
There's a physicality to the combat here that reminds me of Dark Souls and Shadow of the Colossus. The world is wide open and offers as many moments of emergent gameplay as Skyrim. This game seems great. On paper. Sadly it gets bogged down by a lot of backtracking, quite dull quests and a lot of silly story moments. I dearly hope the devs are allowed to make a sequel and learn from their mistakes with the first one.
9. Binary Domain (XBox 360)
Solid shooter with a gripping plot and an interesting gameworld.
10. Thirty Flights of Loving
May have only lasted a quarter of an hour but left a stronger impression than many other games I played this year.
Refreshingly many good original IPs this year. :)
Honorable mentions: Tiny & Big, Project Black Sun, Lunar Flight, Max Payne 3, Kung Fu Strike, Dear Esther, Jagged Alliance: Back In Action, Chivalry
Still gotta play: Sniper Elite V2, Sleeping Dogs, ME3, FC3, AC3, XCOM, Miasmata, Spec Ops
iPad games of the year: A Blocky Kind Of Love, True Skate, Carmageddon, Offroad Legends, Anomaly Korea
june gloom on 27/12/2012 at 08:48
1. The Walking Dead
TWD absolutely destroyed me. The writing, the characters, the plot, all of it building up to a fever pitch that ended in a bravely downer ending with no foreseeable way to get a "good" ending. Good endings don't exist in TWD. It kicks you right in the feels and then does it again. While it's for all intents and purposes an adventure game (albeit one that feels a little like classic Resident Evil with less shooting and more talking) I think it transcends its genre and is proof that Telltale have really outpaced their earlier efforts.
2. Dishonored
This was GOTY until I played TWD -- and indeed, it comes close. It's like this crazy fucking mashup of Thief, Deus Ex and Bioshock, with shades of Half-Life 2. Though I am serious when I say this is the best game to come out in 10 years, the only reason it lands in second place is because, comprehensively, TWD is better overall within the constraints of what it's trying to do while Dishonored is a bit weak on story and pacing.
3. Spec Ops: The Line
This is the game for people who hate tacticool manshoots. This is the game for people who like tacticool manshoots. It's for both, for very, very different reasons. It starts off so safe, so banal, then 15 minutes the shit hits the fan and all of a sudden you're being told you're a monster because you totally fucking are.
4. Lone Survivor
The closest thing to Silent Hill 2 since Silent Hill 2. That same sense of creeping dread, surreal symbolism and that horrible sense of being alone... I only wish it had been longer. It's very difficult, but then again what's survival horror without being a little tough?
5. Cry of Fear
I waited like, what, 3 fucking years for this fucking thing? Worth the wait. Afraid of Monsters was every bit just a prototype for Cry of Fear. While it has its sticky spots (there's a nightmare sequence late in the game that was damn near impossible) it does a lot to bring back the terror, the fear of the dark. Cry of Fear and Afraid of Monsters go into that pantheon of games that have influenced me massively on an aesthetic level, along with games like Manhunt, Deus Ex and Thief.
icemann on 27/12/2012 at 09:22
1. Mass Effect 3 (despite the ending)
2. Dishonored
The end (since I've not played any other games released in 2012).
demagogue on 27/12/2012 at 09:30
I've just played Dishonored & Faster Than Light.
I liked them both. In that order.
I also played Stalker, ArmA2 & starting Deus Ex HR, which would all get on the list but they aren't games from this year.
gunsmoke on 27/12/2012 at 10:15
Mark of the Ninja. Freaking awesome. Really scratched the Tenchu itch.
henke on 27/12/2012 at 10:30
Quote Posted by dethtoll
4. Lone SurvivorReally? I thought it started out good, then went nowhere and ended disappointingly. Felt like "Home" did a similar thing but more concise and satisfying.
I defenitely gotta work up the courage to get back into Cry of Fear though. Stopped playing just after I got attacked by the deformed kid in the pedo-guy's appartment.
*shivers*faetal on 27/12/2012 at 12:01
TWD
XCOM
FTL
BL2
Jason Moyer on 27/12/2012 at 12:41
I bought a lot of games this year but only played the priority ones, and they were awesome:
1. Dishonored
2. Thirty Flights Of Loving
3. Legend Of Grimrock
4. Borderlands 2
5. Mass Effect 3
6. Alan Wake + American Nightmare
That's it for the ones I've played but there are a ton on my upcoming playlist, like Spec Ops, XCOM, Sleeping Dogs, Epic Mickey 2, etc. A pretty good year for gaming considering my favorite studio didn't put out a game this year.
Renault on 27/12/2012 at 15:04
As usual, I didn't play too many games from the current year, still catching up on years past backlog, and playing lots of Thief/Dark Mod FMs. The exceptions:
Dishonored - Loved this game for what it was, didn't pretend it was the next Thief or System Shock, but it was probably the closest thing to a LGS title that we'll ever see again.
Day Z - Got so addicted to this for a while, lots of hours killed with marathon sessions, not as much recently though. Looking forward to the standalone.
Legend of Grimrock - Great combo of old school with the modern touch, actually haven't finished it yet but I plan to get back to it soon.
Slender - OK, this game really freaked me out.
skacky on 27/12/2012 at 15:06
I haven't played a lot of new games, but these are the ones that definitely rock:
4) Mark of the Ninja
3) Natural Selection 2
2) Hotline Miami
1) Dishonored
I played Legend of Grimrock but never got very far, I find dungeon crawlers very repetitive even if I enjoy the genre, so I only play 1-hour sessions. The game is pretty good though, and definitely not that easy. I tried Hitman Absolution but that game just sucks. They Bleed Pixels is a fiendishly difficult platformer with combat and the level design is absolutely brilliant. Everything in this game is here to make you rage so freaking hard, but it's never cheap. It's a lot of die and retry though, like Hotline Miami and Super Meat Boy. I still haven't finished it so I can't put it on my list, but I'm loving it even if I'm so angry at it sometimes.
