What games (for PC or Xbox) do I need to play before years end?

I'm trying to get my list together of all the games I need to play before the year is over and the game of the year podcasts get into full swing. What games do I absolutely need to play this year? and some worth putting off till next year? Here's my list (some of these I've played):

Walking Dead, Gears of war 3, mass effect 3, Trine 2, syndicate, The witcher 2, darksiders 2, sleeping dogs, dishonored, AC3, Diablo 3, Torchlight 2...

XCOM and Dishonored are receiving relatively positive buzz.

Borderlands 2. That's it.

You just mean before the GOTY podcasts come out so you won't get anything spoiled?

Apart from the obvious ones, probably a fair number of XBLA games.

BINARY DOMAIN

The PC version of Dark Souls (Prepare to Die Edition) if you haven't played it yet.

I dunno Probably Halo and Assassins Creed. I think You should probably play Mark of the Ninja, Fez and Asura's Wrath as they're games I'm pretty sure will be mentioned at some point in the end of year podcasts.

Personally I think everyone should play Binary Domain, but I doubt anyone but Vinny will finish that before the end of the year.

As far as 2012 in indie games, check these out:

• Dust: An Elysian Tail (XBLA)
• Dustforce (PC/Mac)
• Waking Mars (iOS)
• Super Hexagon (iOS)
• Torchlight 2 (PC)
• Fez (XBLA)

And there's still a lot more to check out that I've missed, like Mark of the Ninja, Lone Survivor, Retro City Rampage, Hell Yeah!, FTL, They Bleed Pixels, McPixel, Spelunky, Legend of Grimrock, Vessel, etc.

Krater doesn't get much attention, but I think it's great. Soundtrack is awesome, and I'd recommend giving it a shot if you're into squad-based RPGs. There's a free co-op mode coming out at the end of the month, so now is probably a good time to give it a try.

SLEEPY DAWGZ

and Fez.

@believer258 said:

You just mean before the GOTY podcasts come out so you won't get anything spoiled?

Apart from the obvious ones, probably a fair number of XBLA games.

pretty much - I want to be able to listen and avoid major spoilers. So really - I guess I'm looking for games that have major narrative elements.

Trials Evolution and Mark of the Ninja are both pretty great.

Max Payne 3 was pretty good

@TheAdmin said:

@believer258 said:

You just mean before the GOTY podcasts come out so you won't get anything spoiled?

Apart from the obvious ones, probably a fair number of XBLA games.

pretty much - I want to be able to listen and avoid major spoilers. So really - I guess I'm looking for games that have major narrative elements.

In that case, just Sleeping Dogs, Walking Dead, and Max Payne 3. I can't think of anything else that really has a ton of narrative elements. Dishonored, maybe, but Patrick said that its narrative isn't a very good reason to play the game and it was never really advertised that way.

Oh, and I already know - Mass Effect 3. But I don't think that's really going to be in any category other than "biggest disappointment", and RE6 will probably get that one. In my personal opinion, Mass Effect 3 holds no truly interesting narrative moments that are worth stressing over. There was not a single story beat in that game that was particularly compelling, with the obvious exception of the ending, and that was not compelling in and of itself. Just the buzz surrounding it.

But I don't want to fire up the Mass Effect 3 hate train, I liked the game a little bit, I'm just pointing out that you can let that one 20-30 hour game slide and you won't miss much.

EDIT: OK, Halo 4. Sorry, I forgot about that one, but that's not even out yet so maybe it will be more of a disappointment than ME3.

Fez, Mark of the Ninja, FTL: Faster Than Light

I liked Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and it's worth mentioning due to it's ties to the biggest gaming news story this year.

I'll second XCOM: Enemy Unknown, great game what I've played of it so far.

edit durr, get a PS3 so you can play Journey and Tokyo Jungle

FTL

Fez, The Walking Dead, FTL, Mark of the Ninja, Sleeping Dogs, Max Payne 3

It's not out yet but that forza horizon demo made me wish that game was out already....like holy shit that game....imagine Dirt, Forza and Burnout all mashed into one.

i know at least one of these won't reflect the popular opinion, but my favorite games so far this year have been Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Dust: An Elysian Tail. I seem to have just discovered a bizarre, unconscious obsession with games that have colons. Weird.

Look at the review list. Check off any game in 2012 with 4+ stars. Play any of them you wouldn't want spoiled. If they didn't review it they probably won't talk about it during GOTY deliberations.

@TheAdmin said:

I'm trying to get my list together of all the games I need to play before the year is over and the game of the year podcasts get into full swing. What games do I absolutely need to play this year? and some worth putting off till next year? Here's my list (some of these I've played):

Walking Dead, Gears of war 3, mass effect 3, Trine 2, syndicate, The witcher 2, darksiders 2, sleeping dogs, dishonored, AC3, Diablo 3, Torchlight 2...

Can you actually find time to finish all of those games? It's an awesome list but I admire the time you have!

I personally have loved Kerbal Space Program this year. It's crazy.

Borderlands 2

Civ 5 (Out last year)

FTL: Faster Than Light

Day Z

Good Luck!!!!