The Giantbomb Community's Top Ten Games of the Year for 2012!

@Yummylee: Last year was the same too ;) but no worries, I went ahead and manually added your stuff to the list.

@ThatFrood: Nice. Those are some good lookin graphs. :)

Now let's get some pie charts in here of total voting for all titles as part of the full amount of votes and we'll call it a day. (heh. Sorry, I'm just giving you extra work to do. You've already done something pretty cool.)

would've switched Journey for Walking Dead (WD's #2 btw) but it seems oddly better than the actual site list. Zombi-U? Syndicate? really?

@TruthTellah said:

@ThatFrood: Nice. Those are some good lookin graphs. :)

Now let's get some pie charts in here of total voting for all titles as part of the full amount of votes and we'll call it a day. (heh. Sorry, I'm just giving you extra work to do. You've already done something pretty cool.)

You know what I would like but is not feasible, if even possible. To click on any of those game positions and see which users put that game there. That is a terrible explanation. I mean if you could click on spot number 5 for say, Sleeping Dogs you would see the 24 people who had it there in their list.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@TruthTellah said:

@ThatFrood: Nice. Those are some good lookin graphs. :)

Now let's get some pie charts in here of total voting for all titles as part of the full amount of votes and we'll call it a day. (heh. Sorry, I'm just giving you extra work to do. You've already done something pretty cool.)

You know what I would like but is not feasible, if even possible. To click on any of those game positions and see which users put that game there. That is a terrible explanation. I mean if you could click on spot number 5 for say, Sleeping Dogs you would see the 24 people who had it there in their list.

ooo. What a diabolical idea. Then we could systematically weed out those people we disagree with...

Brilliant plan, @ImmortalSaiyan . I didn't know you had it in you to hatch such a scheme, but this could really help us purify the grand Duder's Republic of Giant Bomb.

@TruthTellah said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@TruthTellah said:

@ThatFrood: Nice. Those are some good lookin graphs. :)

Now let's get some pie charts in here of total voting for all titles as part of the full amount of votes and we'll call it a day. (heh. Sorry, I'm just giving you extra work to do. You've already done something pretty cool.)

You know what I would like but is not feasible, if even possible. To click on any of those game positions and see which users put that game there. That is a terrible explanation. I mean if you could click on spot number 5 for say, Sleeping Dogs you would see the 24 people who had it there in their list.

ooo. What a diabolical idea. Then we could systematically weed out those people we disagree with...

Brilliant plan, @ImmortalSaiyan . I didn't know you had it in you to hatch such a scheme, but this could really help us purify the grand Duder's Republic of Giant Bomb.

Haha. Actually my plans for it were not so evil. I was curious who the other people who liked some lesser picked games on my list were. Like the one person who put DOA5 above me.

@ImmortalSaiyan: well... it's "feasible". I don't store whose list I get what scores from but I could. My real problem is figuring out a way to shove all of that information in there, because that would be a lot. Essentially every single cell would, instead of just holding an integer value, also have to contain a list of users. Bulky. But feasible.

But yeah, I have thought about doing exactly that. Right now I'm basically writing to an excel file and then copying that to google spreadsheets... but perhaps the google API has a way to directly import from c# and if so, maybe I can instruct it to write notes to a cell. If that's the case, then yes, your idea could work. Runtime would probably shoot up a bit but, eh. That's for a different time, though.

Holy hell, where is Persona? I am worried it could cause (gulp) a possible internet site, or National catastrophe.

It's a pretty good list, though I stupidly forgot to submit mine until too late.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@TruthTellah said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@TruthTellah said:

@ThatFrood: Nice. Those are some good lookin graphs. :)

Now let's get some pie charts in here of total voting for all titles as part of the full amount of votes and we'll call it a day. (heh. Sorry, I'm just giving you extra work to do. You've already done something pretty cool.)

You know what I would like but is not feasible, if even possible. To click on any of those game positions and see which users put that game there. That is a terrible explanation. I mean if you could click on spot number 5 for say, Sleeping Dogs you would see the 24 people who had it there in their list.

ooo. What a diabolical idea. Then we could systematically weed out those people we disagree with...

Brilliant plan, @ImmortalSaiyan . I didn't know you had it in you to hatch such a scheme, but this could really help us purify the grand Duder's Republic of Giant Bomb.

Haha. Actually my plans for it were not so evil. I was curious who the other people who liked some lesser picked games on my list were. Like the one person who put DOA5 above me.

Likely story. These things always start with an innocent enough suggestion. Oh yeah, we just want to have people wear armbands so we know who to give the Hanukkah presents to... riiiight... I'm on to you! >_>

heh. Just kidding. I see what you mean.

@me3639 said:

Holy hell, where is Persona? I am worried it could cause (gulp) a possible internet site, or National catastrophe.

What's funny is that Persona has a super high number of #1 votes for where it is on the overall list. If you look, Persona 4 is 17th with a score of 455 but it has 22 #1 votes. Sleepy Dawgs, which is 8th, only has 7 #1 votes.

It's simple really. Persona 4 Golden is only for the psvita. That's a small audience. But the few people who did play it liked it a loooot.

At least Ridge Racer Unbounded got two appearances, I really liked that game despite it's many issues, but dropped it off my list in favor of 3 really strong free to play games.

Apparently I was the only one to have Evochron Mercenary on the list.

2 other people put The Real Texas on their list besides me. Feel pretty good about that.

Trolling through the bottom of the list is kind of fun. Apparently there are some heavily medicated people around here.

That is a damn fine Top 10, we should all be proud.

Thanks again for getting this list together. You should list the game that didn't make the top 10, I'd like to see where my other choices ended up.

edit: oops, didn't see the link to the google doc.

Yay!

@Irvandus said:

Great list, surprised by Dishonored and Mass Effect. Dishonored because it seemed to be forgotten by everyone.

I'm personally surprised Dishonored is so far down on this list. It is my #1, and while I didn't think it would be #1 on this list, I thought it would at least be Top 5.

Forgot to vote or do whatever. Cool list. The Walking Dead kicked my ass's head.

@FakeKisser said:

@Irvandus said:

Great list, surprised by Dishonored and Mass Effect. Dishonored because it seemed to be forgotten by everyone.

I'm personally surprised Dishonored is so far down on this list. It is my #1, and while I didn't think it would be #1 on this list, I thought it would at least be Top 5.

I for one think it seems intriguing, but I haven't had time to play it yet, so it didn't end up on my list. Can't speak for anybody else obviously, but I'd guess there are a few others who haven't had time to play many of the most recent releases, with the exception of Far Cry 3 because it became such a phenomenon that it took priority before a few other games just to see how it had turned out, at least for me.

I am kinda disappointed that The Walking Dead won. It has some great things going for it(great characters specifically), but I would rather watch it than play it, and for a videogame, that's not beneficial.

Holy shit, can't believe MOP, blacklight and civ got so few votes.

I wonder if really this few people here play shooters/wow/civ or if people simply forgot/didn't think they qualify due to them being f2p or "expansions".

@Aterons said:

Holy shit, can't believe MOP, blacklight and civ got so few votes.

I wonder if really this few people here play shooters/wow/civ or if people simply forgot/didn't think they qualify due to them being f2p or "expansions".

I personally don't play many multiplayer games (which includes MMOs and MP shooters), and while I like strategy games, they usually don't make my Top 10 lists, because I mostly play games for narrative, and those games are typically just fun things I play "on the side." :P

@tourgen said:

2 other people put The Real Texas on their list besides me. Feel pretty good about that.

Trolling through the bottom of the list is kind of fun. Apparently there are some heavily medicated people around here.

I didn't get to The Real Texas, yet, though I bought it on GOG during their recent sale. I hope to get to it this year.

Good list. Feel terrible for FEZ, I forgot to submit a list and since it's the game most definitive of this generation (and probably the second best game made this gen behind RDR) I feel like it should be on every list at this time of the year. Need to play Hotline and Sleeping Dogs still from this list. BL2 as well, I guess, but seems like it's just more BL and since I didn't like BL doubt I'd care for BL2. Good year for smaller games, bad year for bigger games.

Tekken Tag 2 beat Frog Fractions, I am satisfied with this list.

To those 9 other dudes who had Black Mesa on their list - you guys rule. Also, Mark of the Ninja is up there, I am content. 
 
EDIT: Quite a few people put Witcher II on their list -- console version, I take it?

@ThatFrood: well done sir. while i don't take GOTY awards as seriously as some (as can be seen in some of the comments) it's the info dump on the numbers, how everything breaks down that was interesting.

I don't really like Fez, I'm kinda glad it isn't top 10.

I do like FTL though, but I can live with it being 12th.

Dota 2 is really low on this list, but I suspect that is because no one knows when the fuck it officially came out.

The top 20 games sorted by score per appearance (with at-least 10 appearances). Really surprise on how the walking dead did considering how many votes it got.

Also, one awesome person voted for CLOP.

Thank you.

@Sir_Lizardman: clever, I'll add a sheet that sorts it that way.

Nice list. Six of mine made it on there. Main one I wish made it that didn't is Asura's Wrath.

Very expected list, I am glad the rightful winner won this one at least. 

MAn, I'm going to try Borderlands 2 and Journey. Good list.

Mass Effect 3 being as high as it is shocks me, and I would swap it for Dishonored. Otherwise, a very solid list.

Thanks for the work on putting this together.

Pretty much what I expected. Still disappointed that so many people put The Walking Dead at #1. I hope that this will be one of those games that time will reveal to be a flash-in-the-pan. I think it is a conspiracy. Whitta must be part of the Bilderberg Group.

And thanks to the the dude that compiled and posted the list.

@Sir_Lizardman said:

The top 20 games sorted by score per appearance (with at-least 10 appearances). Really surprise on how the walking dead did considering how many votes it got.

Rankings	Game	Score	Appearances	Score per appearance
7	Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward	111	16	6.94

Why do we keep fooling ourselves? This is and will be the GOTY :P

Just kidding. VLR is my personal 2012 GOTY, but I'm glad to see that the community appreciates other gems of this year. Mark of the Ninja, Hotline Miami and The Walking Dead are amazing games.

Fuck yeah, Hotline Miami.

No FEZ ? YOU PEOPLE disappoint me ! :(

Reading the full list is shocking. Family Guy: Back to the multiverse came higher than than Star Wars: The Old Republic (I know it technically came out in '11, but still)

EDIT @ThatFrood I'm not trying to be rude or anything cos I think you have done a great job, but I think the average score you put up is pretty meaningless in its current form. For a true and meaningful average you need to count all the 0 scores for each game in the calculation (effectively all the people who have played a game but not included it in their top ten).

I understand this would be a difficult task but I think it would be very illuminating to know this as it might help uncover some hidden gems among the list. I guess the only way to do this would be to get everyone who has submitted a list to check off the games they have played against the final list in that google doc. Then you could recalculate the averages with the correct amount of 0 scores. (I would remove games not released in 2012 from the list as lots of people might have played them but would not have been considering them for this list)

I know this is really pedantic but it would be interesting to find out.

Good to see Borderlands 2 on there ... like the humor or not (I liked it), it was a great game. I was a little bummed it wasnt even mentioned anywhere in the GotY-casts.

I wasn't the only one who had Super Metroid in their top ten this year?!

Finished Sleeping Dogs last night and I'm happy it made it to the community top 10.

@leebmx: I see what you are getting at, but it is definitely outside of expectations, and the average presented is far from meaningless. Taken within its bounds, the average still provides relevant information. To do what you're suggesting and still keep the information "meaningful", one would have to expand the list to be a Top 20 or higher, some sort of discretion between a game at 12th and a game at 19th would be necessary. Those "0 scores" are just outside the bounds of a Top Ten list, they would have to be extended in order to incorporate them.

Additionally, you would be surprised how appropriate 10 games is for most people. Many people struggled to put even that many games they played from 2012 on their list. So those "0 scores" would be fewer in count than you might expect.

edit: oh, and as for the games that didn't come out in 2012 or are otherwise "odd", they don't impact the list in any meaningful way as they usually only appear on 1-2 lists. Out of 650 lists, that makes no difference. The exception, of course, being Minecraft, but I think with some applied discretion you can just discount that.

What, you guys all have terrible taste...

Nah, I'm kidding. Decent list overall excluding a few. Journey should have won though, you jerks!

I didn't play any of the games on this list, last year. Still want to check out Sleeping Dogs though (like what I played in the demo.)

Thanks for putting this together! I really enjoyed going through the data and seeing what the community thinks of last year's games.

I wasn't expecting Mass Effect 3 to be ranked one higher than I had it, given the explosive reaction it received when it launched. It's also interesting how more people put FTL on their lists than Fez, but Fez was placed higher on lists among people who liked it than FTL was among its fans. I suppose it's because FTL has a broader, more immediate appeal than Fez, which only people in certain niches are going to love once they dig into it.

Thanks for putting this together for another year, really cool seeing what the community thinks. Seven of my top 10 made the list and the other three would probably be my number 11, 12, and 13 picks.

guess i'm late to the party, only finished my list last night.  but seems allright.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy made it into the top 50 - I am ok with this.

I would love to see more data, fancy giving us a raw data dump. I would love to see how many people put Little Inferno on there list.