Alaska's Top 12 Games of 2012 + Awards

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ArcBorealis

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Yeah, you read that right. Not 10. 12.

I was prepared this year to have my list be less than 10 games, or just not do it at all, because I didn't play a whole lot of games released this year, let alone ones I felt were outstanding. It was only thanks to the Steam holiday sale that I finally got to play at least 10 games I felt were my favorites from this year. Instead, I managed to play a total of 12, and for reasons that are extremely irrational and weird I made the list top 12 because of a game that is neither great nor terrible, but still made a weird impression on me that I kinda liked. Regardless, I'll do my best to explain why I even consider this one of my favorite games of the year, and still don't expect any of you to understand. That's fine. I don't care. Anyway, let's get started with this thing.

As a disclaimer, I don't have any fancy images made for this blog as Dark Souls has kept me from doing that.

12. Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

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So, this is the game I was talking about before. The game that is responsible for this being a top 12 list.

I wrote about this game earlier in the year, in which I described how blown away I was by just how weird it was and how unrelenting it was in its weirdness. And based on the title, it's a sequel, one that is surprisingly better than its predecessor, which was boring and not fun to play and did not . This game...well, I actually didn't finish it do to frustrating boss fights near the end, but I got way farther in that game than I did in the first Neptunia, mostly due to a better combat system, a decent structure with dungeons and the overworld, and just an insane amount of innuendo and crazy Japanese fan service that just about any normal person would be turned away from. Apparently I'm not normal (I already figured that before this game), as I didn't mind that stuff. Well, most of it anyway.

In fact, all that stuff made sense why it was there because of the ESRB rating. The first Neptunia game was rated T, and I was interested in that game for the weird premise of the console wars personified with moe anime girls. But it felt pretty amateurish. Neptunia mk2 does it a lot better, if not as great as it could, and it just goes off the rails with jokes regarding moments in the video , crazy characters, one really creepy and awful boss character, and again, a ton of fan service. Not so much in the visual sense but based on the dialog and voice acting as the story is told in a visual novel format. Which almost makes it more effective/terrifying as your mind ends up creating the picture in your mind.

You're probably still not convinced why I put this on here, so I'll say this now. Keiji Inafune is in the game. As two special attacks. And they're awesome. If that doesn't justify its place here, than nothing will. Moving on.

11. Mass Effect 3

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Took me long enough to get around to this game, well after the torrent of outrage over the ending among other things with this game. Several months later and a few pieces of DLC later, I feel like I experienced what might be a better version of that original game overall. If this list was a regular top 10 like I was thinking, this game would just be a runner up, not even on the main list. And with that, you found the second reason for it being top 12 because putting this below Neptunia mk2 would be freaking lunacy.

Point is, this game would be mentioned either way because for the various missteps the game makes, some which are Bioware's fault and some which are from EA's meddling, Mass Effect 3 is still a decently made game. There are moments that are legitimately great, others that are underwhelming, and the ending was an ending. It ended. I'll have more to say later on about that, but for all intents and purposes Mass Effect 3 is FINE.

The combat has some minor improvements and feels generally fun to play. It's great to see the concept of weapon mods brought back from the first game. Various missions that involve Reapers in the background are extremely impressive. Things like seeing Palaven getting bombarded by the Reapers and the ensuing space battle from the planet's moon is really cool to look at. The game takes more or less the same framework from ME2, which was great to begin with, and does a mix of good and bad things with it. Again, still a decent game, but I had moments of enjoyment throughout the game interspersed with some underwhelming stuff. There's really not much else to say.

10. Katawa Shoujo

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It didn't really come to my mind when playing it, but I realized months later that Katawa Shoujo deserved a spot on my list. Yeah, it's a visual novel where the goal reduced to its bare essence is forming a relationship with a girl that has a disability (and having sex with her at the end). It's certainly got next to no gameplay compared to some of the other games further up the list that I liked more for the story than any sort of gameplay. But that doesn't really matter, because the stories that are told with each of the different relationships (I'm assuming all 5 are great, I've only completed one and part of another ) are well done and the subject matter is handled very tastefully. It's interactive, you're pressing a button to advance the text and then make an occasional dialog choice. And that's enough for the most part. And this was my first game I played in this genre, right at the start of the year. Certainly didn't expect to enjoy something like this, given the stigma attached to the genre. It's free, it's good, it's tastefully done (except maybe the sex scenes, which I found awkward and uncomfortable), people should at least give it a try.

9. Max Anarchy

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Yes, I'm still calling it by its Japanese game, and yes, I think a game released so far in Japan only this year deserves to be on the list this year, because delaying it for release in other territories by 6 months is stupid when the game is already translated on the disc and defaults to English when put in a North American PS3 (it even calls it by its inferior name Anarchy Reigns). There is no good reason for this game to be pushed to the first couple weeks of January when it was clearly ready to go. Shame really, because the game is pretty awesome.

Platinum Games' titles have been pretty solid since Bayonetta onward, and Max Anarchy is pretty solid as well. The fighting system isn't as flexible and crazy as something like Bayonetta, but is still relatively deep for a brawler combat system, and is pretty satisfying. Most characters share the same button combos, but they all have their own unique moves, mixed in with their "killer weapons" that deal extra damage. It's no God Hand, but there's plenty of fun to have with the combat, especially against other characters.

And despite the game being marketed as a multiplayer focused game, it's got a pretty decent single player and story line. It's not lengthy or anything, and there's four areas you'll go through in each of the game's two campaigns, Black Side and White Side. Madworld had an interesting story for what simplistic game it was, and the story in this is surprising for different reasons. Never the less, having not played any actual multiplayer the single player is really fun. Make sure you people check it out when it drops in a couple weeks.

8. Mark of the Ninja

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Earlier in 2012, I got to play what I felt was one of the two greatest 3D stealth games ever, the second being its superior sequel: Thief. It was a magnificent game to play this year, not only because it was amazing how much of this nearly 15 year old game held up, but the stealth mechanics that were in place were very well done. The game had a very minimal HUD, with the most important element being a gem that lit up whenever you were exposed in the light, basically telling you to move from shadow to shadow. It was a revelation that I could technically hide right in front of a guard during his patrol but he wouldn’t see me because of being in the shadows. Mix that in with the game’s use of sound and the tools you have to manipulate that, you’ve got a stealth game that while you’ll still quick save and quick load at various mistakes you've made, you feel more like it’s your fault than the game’s when a guard spots you.

So why the heck am I starting this part off by mentioning another game? Because that is the standard I have for good stealth games, 2D or 3D. Mark of the Ninja was highly praised, and was certainly interested if not for the fact it looked really cool. My concern with that game was the possibility of displaying too much information on screen that would render the stealth, the risk aspect of it, trivial. Metal Gear Solid 1 comes to mind in that regard. Thankfully, Mark of the Ninja provides a ton of on screen information with stuff like vision cones and sound waves and what not, yet it is still very challenging and rewarding. Mostly in part to the way the game takes the player character's field of view into account. If you're in a room and the doors are closed, of course you wouldn't be able to see anything outside, and that is handled well in Mark of the Ninja. And like more modern games with stealth, something I'll admit has over the original Thief, Mark of the Ninja provides manageable means of getting out of situations where you set off an alarm without feeling like you can't do anything about it. I restarted check points so many times as I wanted to not set off anything, and it has been incredibly satisfying all the way through. If there's really a need to make distinctions between 2D and 3D games in a particular genre, then Mark of the Ninja is the best stealth game of the 2D variety. I still love the Thief games way too much to put anything else in the genre above it.

7. Hotline Miami

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It's fast. It's tight. It's brutal. It's psychedelic. It's the closest and most accurate thing so far to a game that makes you feel like you're on drugs. Really nasty drugs. And I don't even take any drugs, so what do I know? Hotline Miami is super fun.

It's not up here just for the absolutely amazing soundtrack that comes free with the game in ogg vorbis format, but because the gameplay is excellent. Looking at it makes you think it's a top down shooter, but before you get your head around how the systems work, you'll be playing it melee only. Guns are not useful in the sense that they make noise and attract other dudes, but that's only when you haven't built up your reflexes and quick thinking to mix up tactics when things get hectic. So much things you can do when completing a level. Different melee kills, using melee weapons, using guns, throwing melee weapons and guns, knocking over dudes with doors. And it all moves super fast and hard. The difficulty makes you play it more methodically because of how swift death comes, but it's ultimately better in the long run to move at the same speed as everyone else. Move fast and recklessly, and take out enemies as fast as you can. If you die, try again and adapt your plan to something better. Super Meat Boy is the closest comparison to this kind of gameplay, and it's fantastic when you approach it with that kind of speed.

Soundtrack, again, is unbelievable and makes playing the game something else. Story is just...bizarre. It's not entirely clear about what goes on, but who cares? It's great because of the mix of game play and music.

6. Borderlands 2

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Borderlands 1 is a great game with some flaws. Borderlands 2 is more Borderlands and it fixes said flaws. A more detailed story, more variety in the environments, and it just looks oh so good, especially on PC. Game play is refined and interesting with new classes and weapon part types. I had a rather difficult playthrough as I played the game 100% solo as Zer0, who is the most fragile of all the other classes, especially on True Vault Hunter Mode. Overall a lot more fun playing it, and the final boss, while not the best part of the game, is not awfully boring.

The story and humor is a bit hit and miss, but I certainly laughed more than I did wince. Enemies shouting internet memes upon dying isn't exactly great, unless you don't pay attention to what they're saying and just don't pick up on it. Handsome Jack is just a magnificent jerk, who becomes way more despicable in the last half or third of the game after some major events. They managed to surprise me quite a bit having no real expectations on what a Borderlands story could be, given there was barely a story in the first one to go by. It's all pretty good.

And even within a couple months after release, Gearbox was quick to release new DLC, with the Mechromancer and the first half of their DLC Season Pass. It's still a game I'll go back to time to time be it to check out the new DLC or if I just feel like it. Regardless, Borderlands did not remain a 2 week deal that wasn't touched again. There's a lot of game to be had in it.

5. Binary Domain

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There have been very few attempts by Japan to make 3rd person shooters, and the few that have been made, almost all of them have been awful with the exception of Vanquish and Binary Domain. The former is still in a league far greater than Binary Domain, but it's still a competent shooter with neat ideas. You could play it on easy and indulge in the Japanese version of an action movie roller coaster ride whatever that most shooters these days try to be, and you'd feel alright about it.

Binary Domain is fun because not only is the shooting competent (and gets better as you upgrade your main weapons throughout the game), but the characters and story are very interesting. The whole cast is a huge range of action movie stereotypes as interpreted by Japan, with characters like Big Bo and Dan being two buddy soldiers that are a bit dudebro, Charles Gregory is the more serious and jerkish MI6 agent, Faye Lee being the hot asian chick, and Cain being the super awesome French robot. Yeah, that last part isn't really a stereotype or trope you'd recognize, but man is he not an awesome character in that cast. And the story's pretty decent too. It starts off rather silly and dumb with Dan and Bo cracking wise with each other as they infiltrate Tokyo, but things get more serious and some major twists happen. Crazy ones. You might wonder how the heck they make any sense, but you definitely don't see them coming. The whole game is a fun ride, more fun than I'd have thought it would be possible.

4. Frog Fractions

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You know what, I don't even know how to describe this game, so I'll give you a link to the game (yeah, a flash game. Craziness, I know) and let it speak for itself.

http://twinbeardstudios.com/frog-fractions

Play it, and if you don't understand why a flash game is in the #4 so spot on my list? A) It's my list. B) I like it a lot. C) I take pity on you.

3. Asura's Wrath

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A game composed of lame character action, okay on rail shooter segments, and a bunch of cutscenes and quick time events. How in the world is this on this list, let alone at #3? I'll tell you why, because it commits to the latter part that people these days dislike in games and makes it work. It's a bunch of quick time events that enhances the experience as you watch everything unfold on screen for the next 18 episodes. 22 when you add the ending DLC.

As reductive as can be, Asura's Wrath is interactive anime. It's present like an anime, with the game being split into episodes, with commercial bumpers and to be continued at the end of each episode. It's over the top and crazy, yet it crafts a really good story that makes you feel for the characters and gets you invested in what is going on. Using a comparison to an actual anime, it's closest to something like Gurren Lagann, where you love it for the over the top nonsense just as much as you love the characters and how they develop in the plot. Asura is angry (dare I say wrathful, even), and he has good reason to be angry.

The only very unfortunate and terrible thing this game commits is that the true, final ending of the game is DLC. Yes, it's a crass, awful business choice, but the part that makes it more unfortunate is that the ending DLC is ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! The game ratchets up the ridiculousness with each episode, and Part IV Nirvana of Asura's Wrath is as crazy as it gets. I would not advocate people to buy DLC that should've been in the game from the start, but this was the one exception (well, Mass Effect 3 does too I guess. Twice) where I say deal with it and enjoy the DLC. I'm atleast glad I didn't buy the game and the most I had to pay was 7 bucks to experience the whole thing. Renting games does have its benefits.

2. Max Payne 3

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The number 2 game on this list was a rather divisive game among people earlier this year. As for where I stand on it, I like the Max Payne games. I also happen to have no nostalgia for the Max Payne games because I only played them weeks before the release of Max Payne 3 on the PC. I knew what the games were about then, and was prepared to see what direction Rockstar would take the third installment. After getting through the first act, my feelings were a little lukewarm. Max's monologues didn't carry the same weight as in the first two games, and flashback to Hoboken was an awesome moment, but felt jarring in the long term based on a homage to the first two games being the best part about Max Payne 3. But then Max shaves his head. And then the game holds nothing back. It creates its own identity from Act 2 onward while still retaining the things that made it Max Payne in the first place, putting it in a different light, even. There was still another flashback to Hoboken, but the rest of it improves in the story department greatly with some gruesome and unsettling moments, and Max becoming a character where my thoughts and emotions were in sync with his. Something that the first two games didn't quite get for me.

Playing the game though is very obviously Max Payne. You run and shoot, you can dive, you take painkillers to restore health, and you can use bullet time. Additional mechanics include things like taking painkillers while diving through the air, and a cover system. Part of this is probably just me being biased towards using mouse and keyboard for shooters, but I cannot see how the gameplay could've handled on a gamepad. Playing it as a Max Payne game requires you to move quickly and use bullet time to your advantage. Playing on PC with a mouse and the appropriate settings is the closest the game feels to controlling like the previous games, and renders the cover system almost completely useless. Unless you feel better about hiding behind cover to catch your breath quickly before getting back into the action. The gameplay was really great, the story surprised me, Max's character evolved in ways that made me feel immersed in the role. It might just be my favorite game in the series, and is close to being my favorite game of this year. But that honor goes to...

1. The Walking Dead

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What an intense, emotional ride that game is.

When it comes to gameplay, and compared to my number 2 game, it's not the highlight and Max Payne 3 beats it in that department. Gameplay in the Walking Dead is simplistic, with simple puzzles to solve, and at least a action sequence that is not fun to play. Story wise though...The other games on my list have some pretty intense moments, but nothing has as many gut wrenching moments as the Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead's story and handling of choices is like the concept of the Mass Effect trilogy's story progression distilled to a episodic game that's a fraction of those three Mass Effect games combined. And it's better. Certain aspects of the game change regarding characters and dialog, but the outcome of the episodes and the whole story is set in stone. The reason it works better is given the situation and choices you have to make, the game makes you feel like you made those choices, and the consequences that comes from them makes you feel responsible for it. Tricking you into thinking you impacted the story at every major turn may seem dumb to some people, but that just strengthen's the game's narrative because of it being able to maintain the illusion. I knew from listening to others without being spoiled that the outcome of that season is set up to end the way it does, but that didn't stop me from feeling like I had ownership of the choices that I made. And the choices it has you make are brutal. Their all shades of grey that no one wants to make. Even as a video game where you make the choice thinking it's best for the character and not for you the player, you don't feel like any of the choices you made were the right ones, atleast not without having some amount of regret.

It's an amazing, rare experience, one that does not shy away from showing things that most media is afraid to show, and is quite possibly the best example of the episodic format. Heck, even if anyone goes into it fresh right now, it's best to play those episodes one at a time, because there is some seriously messed up stuff that will leave you depressed and with nightmares.

And now for something else

In past years when I've done these GOTY posts, it's mostly been just the list. This time, I decided to add little extra something. I figured I'd add awards into the mix. However, instead of giving awards to just one game, I decided to set up 11 different categories and use them to highlight particular things from the games on this list. Not all games will receive all 11 awards though, some of them are designed for specific games. This was also so I could mention parts of the game that would be spoilers (like just about anything in the Walking Dead) and keep it separate from the main list. So if you have not played any of the games on this list (or don't care about spoilers in general), stop reading here. I don't go into too much detail about the stuff, but anyone that has played the games on this list will know what I mean. Now, without further ado, the awards:

  • Best Moment(s)
  • Best Character(s)
  • Worst Moment(s)
  • Biggest "Eh..."
  • Best Music
  • Best Use of Music
  • Best Father/Daughter Relationship
  • Best Refuge in Audacity
  • Biggest Improvement(s)
  • Biggest Disappointment(s)
  • Best Shock/Surprise(s)

Best Moment(s)

These moments are either in some story or narrative capacity, while others come out of the actual gameplay. Some of the games don't lend itself well to narrative moments like some of the other games. Also the only category where all the games on the list get nominated.

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

  • 5pb's concert in Leanbox. It's bizarre, like the rest of the game, but it's one of my favorite bizarre moments and an example of why I like the localization.
  • Keiji Inafune. And the build up to acquiring the special attack that uses his likeness. Both times.

Mass Effect 3

  • Kalros vs. the Reaper on Tuchanka
  • Going inside the Geth server on Rannoch
  • Bringing Javik to the Asari temple on Thessia. The interaction between Liara and him is excellent
  • The reveal at the end of Leviathan. Bigger deal than unearthing the last Prothean in existence.

Katawa Shoujo

  • Getting through the relationship with Rin.

Max Anarchy

  • Finishing boss fights with a God Hand styled rapid-fire fist battle (hammer those buttons!)

Mark of the Ninja

  • Stealth killing a guard from under a grate, freaking out his partner, and having him shoot and kill another guy.

Hotline Miami

  • Playing fast and reckless and having your plan work after many tries in a level. Finishing it is so satisfying.

Borderlands 2

  • Hearing Scooter scream "CATCH A RIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDEEEEEEE!!!!!!!" as Sanctuary lifts into the air, before phase shifting away.

Binary Domain

  • Shooting off robots' heads and making them shoot each other.
  • Any time Cain is present.

Frog Fractions

  • Every moment is a best moment in Frog Fractions

Asura's Wrath

  • Fighting without any arms.
  • The battle with Augus. Right down to impaling the earth with a sword.
  • The entirety of the Nirvana DLC

Max Payne 3

  • Max shaving his head and giving up drinking
  • Stomping Victor's leg after destroying his leg.

The Walking Dead

  • The final minutes of episode 5. So heartbreaking.
  • Probably everything else in the season, but that gets elaborate on more in the final category.

Best Character(s)

The award is explanatory. The best character or characters in a game. Not necessarily new characters, just any character.

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

  • Best is probably stretching it...maybe Neptune? She's not even the main character, but she's far more entertaining than Nepgear that's for sure.

Mass Effect 3

  • Javik, hands down. He fills the same role that Legion did for me in giving me insight to a race that has been a mystery to the Mass Effect universe.

Katawa Shoujo

  • Rin. Such an interesting character. And she's an artist, and I like to draw, so there's something in common there.

Max Anarchy

  • Every playable character, with maybe a few exceptions (like Oinkie. Super annoying).

Borderlands 2

  • Handsome Jack
  • Mr Torgue, from Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage. Crazy buff dude voiced by Mr. Satan/Hercules from DBZ? Sign me up!

Binary Domain

  • Big Bo
  • Cain

Asura's Wrath

  • Asura. You feel sympathy for him and why he's so angry
  • Girl. She doesn't speak English, but is a great companion whose intentions are clear. It's just sad what happens to her.
  • Augus. Don't see how anyone couldn't like this guy.

Max Payne 3

  • Max Payne himself.

The Walking Dead

  • Lee Everett
  • Clementine
  • Kenny. His character arc throughout that whole series is brilliant, and plays out different ways depending on how you went through the season.

Worst Moment(s)

Like best moment(s), but the opposite. And like best moment(s) can apply to both narrative or gameplay. Or even outside of the game, in some odd instances.

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

  • Anything with CFW Trick. Or Pirachu. So, so awful.

Mass Effect 3

  • Anything involving the kid. Including the catalyst right at the end. Awful plot device with him and Shepard's dreams.
  • From Ashes and Leviathan being DLC instead of in the main game.

Katawa Shoujo

  • Oral sex with Rin. Or just the sex scenes in general. So awkward.

Max Anarchy

  • The fact it was fully localized this year but delayed to 2013. Still bitter about it.

Hotline Miami

  • The boss fights. And the mission where you sneak out of the hospital.

Borderlands 2

  • Trying to solo True Vault Hunter Mode as Zer0. More of a personal worst moment, not necessarily the game's fault.

Binary Domain

  • The shooting when using your unupgraded weapons at the beginning.

Asura's Wrath

  • The true TRUE ending being locked behind DLC. Similar reasons as Mass Effect 3.

Biggest "Eh..."

The category in between best and worst moments. Usually signified by a shrug or indifference.

Mass Effect 3

  • The reason this award exists. Yeah, the ending had problems, but nothing that needed people to throw a tantrum over.

Binary Domain

  • Heard complaints about the boss fights. Didn't really have much of a problem with them.

Max Payne 3

  • The first act is tepid compared to where the game goes after Max shaves his head.

Best Music

This award can include either a single piece of music or multiple pieces, all the way up to including the entire soundtrack. This is judging the quality of the tracks in general.

Max Anarchy

Hotline Miami

Asura's Wrath

Max Payne 3

Best Use of Music

This award takes the best music from games and is used to recognized the best uses of said music. This judges how well it fits the game and situation.

Max Anarchy

  • Every mission uses a track from the awesome soundtrack and works almost always perfectly. Soundtrack fits about any situation the game throws at you.

Hotline Miami

  • Every use of a song enhances the experience greatly

Asura's Wrath

  • In Your Belief during the 2nd half of Episode 12, when Asura goes berserk. It's almost frightening, for me it was.
  • Same song used at the end of Nirvana, finishing off Chakravartin and Asura's sacrifice to save Mithra.

Max Payne 3

  • Tears by Health, during the final mission in the airport.

Best Father/Daughter Relationship

Kind of an unfair category, as only two games really count. Doesn't matter. I'll make up whatever awards I want.

Asura's Wrath

  • Asura and Mithra. He's vowed to punch and never forgive anyone who has made his daughter cry. Including a god. He loves his daughter that much.

The Walking Dead

  • Lee and Clementine. He's not even her father, yet the relationship they build is close to that. She's Lee's responsibility, and effectively yours as well.

Best Refuge in Audacity

This award is to recognize games for their ability to be crazy and roll with it as far as they can, usually being unapologetic about what it's doing.

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

  • So, so much innuendo and fan service. Sometimes goes a bit too far, though. But it takes pride in the amount it has.

Max Anarchy

  • The random environment effects that take place like carpet bombings or black holes (yeah, you read it right), and some over the top fights with giant monsters.

Frog Fractions

  • The whole game is basically the embodiment of this award.

Asura's Wrath

  • It just continues to amp up the craziness with each episode. It does not stop. At all.

Biggest Improvement(s)

This applies to games that have had predecessors of some kind. New games like Walking Dead or Asura's Wrath obviously have nothing to go on before them.

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

  • It's way WAY better than the first game.

Mass Effect 3

  • Combat, I suppose? Hard to really improve over something as great as Mass Effect 2, but the stuff that's improved is very iterative.

Max Anarchy

  • Combat is way more interesting and indepth than its spiritual predecessor Madworld.

Borderlands 2

  • Graphics, story, just about everything is improved.

Max Payne 3

  • Taking painkillers while diving in slow motion. Gameplay is pretty much how Max Payne has always been, not much different.

Biggest Disappointment(s)

The opposite of biggest improvements(s), and doesn't require games to have a previous game to compare to. They can be disappointing in of themselves.

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

  • It is still not as good as it could be.

Mass Effect 3

  • The overall rushed and narrow feeling of the design.

Binary Domain

  • Not a lot of interesting things done with the voice command system.

Max Payne 3

  • Cutscenes are mostly unskippable, and the checkpointing is pretty bad.

The Walking Dead

  • Episode 1 does set up the premise of the season, but it's very weak compared to the episodes after it.

Best Shock/Surprise(s)

Similar to best moments, except these are ones that you don't exactly see coming, or you see coming but has a different emotional affect than what you were thinking. This clearly fits more for something like The Walking Dead than most other games on this list, as that game was made for this award.

Borderlands 2

  • Angel's identity, and Roland's death at the hands of Handsome Jack.
  • Brick's reveal.

Binary Domain

  • Robots that reproduce, and Faye revealed as a human-robot hybrid.

Frog Fractions

  • Pretty much every moment in Frog Fractions count as a shock or surprise.

Asura's Wrath

  • Asura going berserk in episode 12. It's like the first time Goku turns Super Saiyan in DBZ, except really sad, and not a good form for Asura to assume.

Max Payne 3

  • Watching Marcello burn alive.
  • Discovering the organ harvesting conspiracy.
  • Max Payne/James McCaffery's ensuing rage over the whole thing.

The Walking Dead

  • Discovering the St. Johns at the dairy are cannibals.
  • Larry getting a salt lick dropped on his head so suddenly.
  • Killing both of the St. Johns brothers in front of Clementine.
  • Doug (or Carley depending who was in your group) getting offed by Lilly.
  • Katjaa committing suicide.

============================

And that's it. My top 12 games of 2012, and the awards given to said games. This is obviously the first time I've done something besides making a list, so this will be something I'll have to think more about in advance for future game of the year posts. Gotta say, this year has been interesting. So many of the interesting stuff I played was for things other than the actual gameplay. Not to mention a flash game was crazy and awesome enough to get a spot on this list. Heck, this was the year I started looking into visual novels more seriously with things like Katawa Shoujo. And the Walking Dead...well, we already know what can be said about the Walking Dead, that it's an excellent piece of emotional storytelling. Hopefully next year some more games can get back to focusing on refining gameplay, but I hope these other sort of moments experienced through story and cinematics continue into next year. We'll see what happens in 2013 I guess.

Cheers.

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ArcBorealis

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#1  Edited By ArcBorealis

Yeah, you read that right. Not 10. 12.

I was prepared this year to have my list be less than 10 games, or just not do it at all, because I didn't play a whole lot of games released this year, let alone ones I felt were outstanding. It was only thanks to the Steam holiday sale that I finally got to play at least 10 games I felt were my favorites from this year. Instead, I managed to play a total of 12, and for reasons that are extremely irrational and weird I made the list top 12 because of a game that is neither great nor terrible, but still made a weird impression on me that I kinda liked. Regardless, I'll do my best to explain why I even consider this one of my favorite games of the year, and still don't expect any of you to understand. That's fine. I don't care. Anyway, let's get started with this thing.

As a disclaimer, I don't have any fancy images made for this blog as Dark Souls has kept me from doing that.

12. Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

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So, this is the game I was talking about before. The game that is responsible for this being a top 12 list.

I wrote about this game earlier in the year, in which I described how blown away I was by just how weird it was and how unrelenting it was in its weirdness. And based on the title, it's a sequel, one that is surprisingly better than its predecessor, which was boring and not fun to play and did not . This game...well, I actually didn't finish it do to frustrating boss fights near the end, but I got way farther in that game than I did in the first Neptunia, mostly due to a better combat system, a decent structure with dungeons and the overworld, and just an insane amount of innuendo and crazy Japanese fan service that just about any normal person would be turned away from. Apparently I'm not normal (I already figured that before this game), as I didn't mind that stuff. Well, most of it anyway.

In fact, all that stuff made sense why it was there because of the ESRB rating. The first Neptunia game was rated T, and I was interested in that game for the weird premise of the console wars personified with moe anime girls. But it felt pretty amateurish. Neptunia mk2 does it a lot better, if not as great as it could, and it just goes off the rails with jokes regarding moments in the video , crazy characters, one really creepy and awful boss character, and again, a ton of fan service. Not so much in the visual sense but based on the dialog and voice acting as the story is told in a visual novel format. Which almost makes it more effective/terrifying as your mind ends up creating the picture in your mind.

You're probably still not convinced why I put this on here, so I'll say this now. Keiji Inafune is in the game. As two special attacks. And they're awesome. If that doesn't justify its place here, than nothing will. Moving on.

11. Mass Effect 3

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Took me long enough to get around to this game, well after the torrent of outrage over the ending among other things with this game. Several months later and a few pieces of DLC later, I feel like I experienced what might be a better version of that original game overall. If this list was a regular top 10 like I was thinking, this game would just be a runner up, not even on the main list. And with that, you found the second reason for it being top 12 because putting this below Neptunia mk2 would be freaking lunacy.

Point is, this game would be mentioned either way because for the various missteps the game makes, some which are Bioware's fault and some which are from EA's meddling, Mass Effect 3 is still a decently made game. There are moments that are legitimately great, others that are underwhelming, and the ending was an ending. It ended. I'll have more to say later on about that, but for all intents and purposes Mass Effect 3 is FINE.

The combat has some minor improvements and feels generally fun to play. It's great to see the concept of weapon mods brought back from the first game. Various missions that involve Reapers in the background are extremely impressive. Things like seeing Palaven getting bombarded by the Reapers and the ensuing space battle from the planet's moon is really cool to look at. The game takes more or less the same framework from ME2, which was great to begin with, and does a mix of good and bad things with it. Again, still a decent game, but I had moments of enjoyment throughout the game interspersed with some underwhelming stuff. There's really not much else to say.

10. Katawa Shoujo

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It didn't really come to my mind when playing it, but I realized months later that Katawa Shoujo deserved a spot on my list. Yeah, it's a visual novel where the goal reduced to its bare essence is forming a relationship with a girl that has a disability (and having sex with her at the end). It's certainly got next to no gameplay compared to some of the other games further up the list that I liked more for the story than any sort of gameplay. But that doesn't really matter, because the stories that are told with each of the different relationships (I'm assuming all 5 are great, I've only completed one and part of another ) are well done and the subject matter is handled very tastefully. It's interactive, you're pressing a button to advance the text and then make an occasional dialog choice. And that's enough for the most part. And this was my first game I played in this genre, right at the start of the year. Certainly didn't expect to enjoy something like this, given the stigma attached to the genre. It's free, it's good, it's tastefully done (except maybe the sex scenes, which I found awkward and uncomfortable), people should at least give it a try.

9. Max Anarchy

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Yes, I'm still calling it by its Japanese game, and yes, I think a game released so far in Japan only this year deserves to be on the list this year, because delaying it for release in other territories by 6 months is stupid when the game is already translated on the disc and defaults to English when put in a North American PS3 (it even calls it by its inferior name Anarchy Reigns). There is no good reason for this game to be pushed to the first couple weeks of January when it was clearly ready to go. Shame really, because the game is pretty awesome.

Platinum Games' titles have been pretty solid since Bayonetta onward, and Max Anarchy is pretty solid as well. The fighting system isn't as flexible and crazy as something like Bayonetta, but is still relatively deep for a brawler combat system, and is pretty satisfying. Most characters share the same button combos, but they all have their own unique moves, mixed in with their "killer weapons" that deal extra damage. It's no God Hand, but there's plenty of fun to have with the combat, especially against other characters.

And despite the game being marketed as a multiplayer focused game, it's got a pretty decent single player and story line. It's not lengthy or anything, and there's four areas you'll go through in each of the game's two campaigns, Black Side and White Side. Madworld had an interesting story for what simplistic game it was, and the story in this is surprising for different reasons. Never the less, having not played any actual multiplayer the single player is really fun. Make sure you people check it out when it drops in a couple weeks.

8. Mark of the Ninja

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Earlier in 2012, I got to play what I felt was one of the two greatest 3D stealth games ever, the second being its superior sequel: Thief. It was a magnificent game to play this year, not only because it was amazing how much of this nearly 15 year old game held up, but the stealth mechanics that were in place were very well done. The game had a very minimal HUD, with the most important element being a gem that lit up whenever you were exposed in the light, basically telling you to move from shadow to shadow. It was a revelation that I could technically hide right in front of a guard during his patrol but he wouldn’t see me because of being in the shadows. Mix that in with the game’s use of sound and the tools you have to manipulate that, you’ve got a stealth game that while you’ll still quick save and quick load at various mistakes you've made, you feel more like it’s your fault than the game’s when a guard spots you.

So why the heck am I starting this part off by mentioning another game? Because that is the standard I have for good stealth games, 2D or 3D. Mark of the Ninja was highly praised, and was certainly interested if not for the fact it looked really cool. My concern with that game was the possibility of displaying too much information on screen that would render the stealth, the risk aspect of it, trivial. Metal Gear Solid 1 comes to mind in that regard. Thankfully, Mark of the Ninja provides a ton of on screen information with stuff like vision cones and sound waves and what not, yet it is still very challenging and rewarding. Mostly in part to the way the game takes the player character's field of view into account. If you're in a room and the doors are closed, of course you wouldn't be able to see anything outside, and that is handled well in Mark of the Ninja. And like more modern games with stealth, something I'll admit has over the original Thief, Mark of the Ninja provides manageable means of getting out of situations where you set off an alarm without feeling like you can't do anything about it. I restarted check points so many times as I wanted to not set off anything, and it has been incredibly satisfying all the way through. If there's really a need to make distinctions between 2D and 3D games in a particular genre, then Mark of the Ninja is the best stealth game of the 2D variety. I still love the Thief games way too much to put anything else in the genre above it.

7. Hotline Miami

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It's fast. It's tight. It's brutal. It's psychedelic. It's the closest and most accurate thing so far to a game that makes you feel like you're on drugs. Really nasty drugs. And I don't even take any drugs, so what do I know? Hotline Miami is super fun.

It's not up here just for the absolutely amazing soundtrack that comes free with the game in ogg vorbis format, but because the gameplay is excellent. Looking at it makes you think it's a top down shooter, but before you get your head around how the systems work, you'll be playing it melee only. Guns are not useful in the sense that they make noise and attract other dudes, but that's only when you haven't built up your reflexes and quick thinking to mix up tactics when things get hectic. So much things you can do when completing a level. Different melee kills, using melee weapons, using guns, throwing melee weapons and guns, knocking over dudes with doors. And it all moves super fast and hard. The difficulty makes you play it more methodically because of how swift death comes, but it's ultimately better in the long run to move at the same speed as everyone else. Move fast and recklessly, and take out enemies as fast as you can. If you die, try again and adapt your plan to something better. Super Meat Boy is the closest comparison to this kind of gameplay, and it's fantastic when you approach it with that kind of speed.

Soundtrack, again, is unbelievable and makes playing the game something else. Story is just...bizarre. It's not entirely clear about what goes on, but who cares? It's great because of the mix of game play and music.

6. Borderlands 2

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Borderlands 1 is a great game with some flaws. Borderlands 2 is more Borderlands and it fixes said flaws. A more detailed story, more variety in the environments, and it just looks oh so good, especially on PC. Game play is refined and interesting with new classes and weapon part types. I had a rather difficult playthrough as I played the game 100% solo as Zer0, who is the most fragile of all the other classes, especially on True Vault Hunter Mode. Overall a lot more fun playing it, and the final boss, while not the best part of the game, is not awfully boring.

The story and humor is a bit hit and miss, but I certainly laughed more than I did wince. Enemies shouting internet memes upon dying isn't exactly great, unless you don't pay attention to what they're saying and just don't pick up on it. Handsome Jack is just a magnificent jerk, who becomes way more despicable in the last half or third of the game after some major events. They managed to surprise me quite a bit having no real expectations on what a Borderlands story could be, given there was barely a story in the first one to go by. It's all pretty good.

And even within a couple months after release, Gearbox was quick to release new DLC, with the Mechromancer and the first half of their DLC Season Pass. It's still a game I'll go back to time to time be it to check out the new DLC or if I just feel like it. Regardless, Borderlands did not remain a 2 week deal that wasn't touched again. There's a lot of game to be had in it.

5. Binary Domain

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There have been very few attempts by Japan to make 3rd person shooters, and the few that have been made, almost all of them have been awful with the exception of Vanquish and Binary Domain. The former is still in a league far greater than Binary Domain, but it's still a competent shooter with neat ideas. You could play it on easy and indulge in the Japanese version of an action movie roller coaster ride whatever that most shooters these days try to be, and you'd feel alright about it.

Binary Domain is fun because not only is the shooting competent (and gets better as you upgrade your main weapons throughout the game), but the characters and story are very interesting. The whole cast is a huge range of action movie stereotypes as interpreted by Japan, with characters like Big Bo and Dan being two buddy soldiers that are a bit dudebro, Charles Gregory is the more serious and jerkish MI6 agent, Faye Lee being the hot asian chick, and Cain being the super awesome French robot. Yeah, that last part isn't really a stereotype or trope you'd recognize, but man is he not an awesome character in that cast. And the story's pretty decent too. It starts off rather silly and dumb with Dan and Bo cracking wise with each other as they infiltrate Tokyo, but things get more serious and some major twists happen. Crazy ones. You might wonder how the heck they make any sense, but you definitely don't see them coming. The whole game is a fun ride, more fun than I'd have thought it would be possible.

4. Frog Fractions

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You know what, I don't even know how to describe this game, so I'll give you a link to the game (yeah, a flash game. Craziness, I know) and let it speak for itself.

http://twinbeardstudios.com/frog-fractions

Play it, and if you don't understand why a flash game is in the #4 so spot on my list? A) It's my list. B) I like it a lot. C) I take pity on you.

3. Asura's Wrath

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A game composed of lame character action, okay on rail shooter segments, and a bunch of cutscenes and quick time events. How in the world is this on this list, let alone at #3? I'll tell you why, because it commits to the latter part that people these days dislike in games and makes it work. It's a bunch of quick time events that enhances the experience as you watch everything unfold on screen for the next 18 episodes. 22 when you add the ending DLC.

As reductive as can be, Asura's Wrath is interactive anime. It's present like an anime, with the game being split into episodes, with commercial bumpers and to be continued at the end of each episode. It's over the top and crazy, yet it crafts a really good story that makes you feel for the characters and gets you invested in what is going on. Using a comparison to an actual anime, it's closest to something like Gurren Lagann, where you love it for the over the top nonsense just as much as you love the characters and how they develop in the plot. Asura is angry (dare I say wrathful, even), and he has good reason to be angry.

The only very unfortunate and terrible thing this game commits is that the true, final ending of the game is DLC. Yes, it's a crass, awful business choice, but the part that makes it more unfortunate is that the ending DLC is ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! The game ratchets up the ridiculousness with each episode, and Part IV Nirvana of Asura's Wrath is as crazy as it gets. I would not advocate people to buy DLC that should've been in the game from the start, but this was the one exception (well, Mass Effect 3 does too I guess. Twice) where I say deal with it and enjoy the DLC. I'm atleast glad I didn't buy the game and the most I had to pay was 7 bucks to experience the whole thing. Renting games does have its benefits.

2. Max Payne 3

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The number 2 game on this list was a rather divisive game among people earlier this year. As for where I stand on it, I like the Max Payne games. I also happen to have no nostalgia for the Max Payne games because I only played them weeks before the release of Max Payne 3 on the PC. I knew what the games were about then, and was prepared to see what direction Rockstar would take the third installment. After getting through the first act, my feelings were a little lukewarm. Max's monologues didn't carry the same weight as in the first two games, and flashback to Hoboken was an awesome moment, but felt jarring in the long term based on a homage to the first two games being the best part about Max Payne 3. But then Max shaves his head. And then the game holds nothing back. It creates its own identity from Act 2 onward while still retaining the things that made it Max Payne in the first place, putting it in a different light, even. There was still another flashback to Hoboken, but the rest of it improves in the story department greatly with some gruesome and unsettling moments, and Max becoming a character where my thoughts and emotions were in sync with his. Something that the first two games didn't quite get for me.

Playing the game though is very obviously Max Payne. You run and shoot, you can dive, you take painkillers to restore health, and you can use bullet time. Additional mechanics include things like taking painkillers while diving through the air, and a cover system. Part of this is probably just me being biased towards using mouse and keyboard for shooters, but I cannot see how the gameplay could've handled on a gamepad. Playing it as a Max Payne game requires you to move quickly and use bullet time to your advantage. Playing on PC with a mouse and the appropriate settings is the closest the game feels to controlling like the previous games, and renders the cover system almost completely useless. Unless you feel better about hiding behind cover to catch your breath quickly before getting back into the action. The gameplay was really great, the story surprised me, Max's character evolved in ways that made me feel immersed in the role. It might just be my favorite game in the series, and is close to being my favorite game of this year. But that honor goes to...

1. The Walking Dead

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What an intense, emotional ride that game is.

When it comes to gameplay, and compared to my number 2 game, it's not the highlight and Max Payne 3 beats it in that department. Gameplay in the Walking Dead is simplistic, with simple puzzles to solve, and at least a action sequence that is not fun to play. Story wise though...The other games on my list have some pretty intense moments, but nothing has as many gut wrenching moments as the Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead's story and handling of choices is like the concept of the Mass Effect trilogy's story progression distilled to a episodic game that's a fraction of those three Mass Effect games combined. And it's better. Certain aspects of the game change regarding characters and dialog, but the outcome of the episodes and the whole story is set in stone. The reason it works better is given the situation and choices you have to make, the game makes you feel like you made those choices, and the consequences that comes from them makes you feel responsible for it. Tricking you into thinking you impacted the story at every major turn may seem dumb to some people, but that just strengthen's the game's narrative because of it being able to maintain the illusion. I knew from listening to others without being spoiled that the outcome of that season is set up to end the way it does, but that didn't stop me from feeling like I had ownership of the choices that I made. And the choices it has you make are brutal. Their all shades of grey that no one wants to make. Even as a video game where you make the choice thinking it's best for the character and not for you the player, you don't feel like any of the choices you made were the right ones, atleast not without having some amount of regret.

It's an amazing, rare experience, one that does not shy away from showing things that most media is afraid to show, and is quite possibly the best example of the episodic format. Heck, even if anyone goes into it fresh right now, it's best to play those episodes one at a time, because there is some seriously messed up stuff that will leave you depressed and with nightmares.

And now for something else

In past years when I've done these GOTY posts, it's mostly been just the list. This time, I decided to add little extra something. I figured I'd add awards into the mix. However, instead of giving awards to just one game, I decided to set up 11 different categories and use them to highlight particular things from the games on this list. Not all games will receive all 11 awards though, some of them are designed for specific games. This was also so I could mention parts of the game that would be spoilers (like just about anything in the Walking Dead) and keep it separate from the main list. So if you have not played any of the games on this list (or don't care about spoilers in general), stop reading here. I don't go into too much detail about the stuff, but anyone that has played the games on this list will know what I mean. Now, without further ado, the awards:

  • Best Moment(s)
  • Best Character(s)
  • Worst Moment(s)
  • Biggest "Eh..."
  • Best Music
  • Best Use of Music
  • Best Father/Daughter Relationship
  • Best Refuge in Audacity
  • Biggest Improvement(s)
  • Biggest Disappointment(s)
  • Best Shock/Surprise(s)

Best Moment(s)

These moments are either in some story or narrative capacity, while others come out of the actual gameplay. Some of the games don't lend itself well to narrative moments like some of the other games. Also the only category where all the games on the list get nominated.

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

  • 5pb's concert in Leanbox. It's bizarre, like the rest of the game, but it's one of my favorite bizarre moments and an example of why I like the localization.
  • Keiji Inafune. And the build up to acquiring the special attack that uses his likeness. Both times.

Mass Effect 3

  • Kalros vs. the Reaper on Tuchanka
  • Going inside the Geth server on Rannoch
  • Bringing Javik to the Asari temple on Thessia. The interaction between Liara and him is excellent
  • The reveal at the end of Leviathan. Bigger deal than unearthing the last Prothean in existence.

Katawa Shoujo

  • Getting through the relationship with Rin.

Max Anarchy

  • Finishing boss fights with a God Hand styled rapid-fire fist battle (hammer those buttons!)

Mark of the Ninja

  • Stealth killing a guard from under a grate, freaking out his partner, and having him shoot and kill another guy.

Hotline Miami

  • Playing fast and reckless and having your plan work after many tries in a level. Finishing it is so satisfying.

Borderlands 2

  • Hearing Scooter scream "CATCH A RIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDEEEEEEE!!!!!!!" as Sanctuary lifts into the air, before phase shifting away.

Binary Domain

  • Shooting off robots' heads and making them shoot each other.
  • Any time Cain is present.

Frog Fractions

  • Every moment is a best moment in Frog Fractions

Asura's Wrath

  • Fighting without any arms.
  • The battle with Augus. Right down to impaling the earth with a sword.
  • The entirety of the Nirvana DLC

Max Payne 3

  • Max shaving his head and giving up drinking
  • Stomping Victor's leg after destroying his leg.

The Walking Dead

  • The final minutes of episode 5. So heartbreaking.
  • Probably everything else in the season, but that gets elaborate on more in the final category.

Best Character(s)

The award is explanatory. The best character or characters in a game. Not necessarily new characters, just any character.

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

  • Best is probably stretching it...maybe Neptune? She's not even the main character, but she's far more entertaining than Nepgear that's for sure.

Mass Effect 3

  • Javik, hands down. He fills the same role that Legion did for me in giving me insight to a race that has been a mystery to the Mass Effect universe.

Katawa Shoujo

  • Rin. Such an interesting character. And she's an artist, and I like to draw, so there's something in common there.

Max Anarchy

  • Every playable character, with maybe a few exceptions (like Oinkie. Super annoying).

Borderlands 2

  • Handsome Jack
  • Mr Torgue, from Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage. Crazy buff dude voiced by Mr. Satan/Hercules from DBZ? Sign me up!

Binary Domain

  • Big Bo
  • Cain

Asura's Wrath

  • Asura. You feel sympathy for him and why he's so angry
  • Girl. She doesn't speak English, but is a great companion whose intentions are clear. It's just sad what happens to her.
  • Augus. Don't see how anyone couldn't like this guy.

Max Payne 3

  • Max Payne himself.

The Walking Dead

  • Lee Everett
  • Clementine
  • Kenny. His character arc throughout that whole series is brilliant, and plays out different ways depending on how you went through the season.

Worst Moment(s)

Like best moment(s), but the opposite. And like best moment(s) can apply to both narrative or gameplay. Or even outside of the game, in some odd instances.

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

  • Anything with CFW Trick. Or Pirachu. So, so awful.

Mass Effect 3

  • Anything involving the kid. Including the catalyst right at the end. Awful plot device with him and Shepard's dreams.
  • From Ashes and Leviathan being DLC instead of in the main game.

Katawa Shoujo

  • Oral sex with Rin. Or just the sex scenes in general. So awkward.

Max Anarchy

  • The fact it was fully localized this year but delayed to 2013. Still bitter about it.

Hotline Miami

  • The boss fights. And the mission where you sneak out of the hospital.

Borderlands 2

  • Trying to solo True Vault Hunter Mode as Zer0. More of a personal worst moment, not necessarily the game's fault.

Binary Domain

  • The shooting when using your unupgraded weapons at the beginning.

Asura's Wrath

  • The true TRUE ending being locked behind DLC. Similar reasons as Mass Effect 3.

Biggest "Eh..."

The category in between best and worst moments. Usually signified by a shrug or indifference.

Mass Effect 3

  • The reason this award exists. Yeah, the ending had problems, but nothing that needed people to throw a tantrum over.

Binary Domain

  • Heard complaints about the boss fights. Didn't really have much of a problem with them.

Max Payne 3

  • The first act is tepid compared to where the game goes after Max shaves his head.

Best Music

This award can include either a single piece of music or multiple pieces, all the way up to including the entire soundtrack. This is judging the quality of the tracks in general.

Max Anarchy

Hotline Miami

Asura's Wrath

Max Payne 3

Best Use of Music

This award takes the best music from games and is used to recognized the best uses of said music. This judges how well it fits the game and situation.

Max Anarchy

  • Every mission uses a track from the awesome soundtrack and works almost always perfectly. Soundtrack fits about any situation the game throws at you.

Hotline Miami

  • Every use of a song enhances the experience greatly

Asura's Wrath

  • In Your Belief during the 2nd half of Episode 12, when Asura goes berserk. It's almost frightening, for me it was.
  • Same song used at the end of Nirvana, finishing off Chakravartin and Asura's sacrifice to save Mithra.

Max Payne 3

  • Tears by Health, during the final mission in the airport.

Best Father/Daughter Relationship

Kind of an unfair category, as only two games really count. Doesn't matter. I'll make up whatever awards I want.

Asura's Wrath

  • Asura and Mithra. He's vowed to punch and never forgive anyone who has made his daughter cry. Including a god. He loves his daughter that much.

The Walking Dead

  • Lee and Clementine. He's not even her father, yet the relationship they build is close to that. She's Lee's responsibility, and effectively yours as well.

Best Refuge in Audacity

This award is to recognize games for their ability to be crazy and roll with it as far as they can, usually being unapologetic about what it's doing.

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

  • So, so much innuendo and fan service. Sometimes goes a bit too far, though. But it takes pride in the amount it has.

Max Anarchy

  • The random environment effects that take place like carpet bombings or black holes (yeah, you read it right), and some over the top fights with giant monsters.

Frog Fractions

  • The whole game is basically the embodiment of this award.

Asura's Wrath

  • It just continues to amp up the craziness with each episode. It does not stop. At all.

Biggest Improvement(s)

This applies to games that have had predecessors of some kind. New games like Walking Dead or Asura's Wrath obviously have nothing to go on before them.

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

  • It's way WAY better than the first game.

Mass Effect 3

  • Combat, I suppose? Hard to really improve over something as great as Mass Effect 2, but the stuff that's improved is very iterative.

Max Anarchy

  • Combat is way more interesting and indepth than its spiritual predecessor Madworld.

Borderlands 2

  • Graphics, story, just about everything is improved.

Max Payne 3

  • Taking painkillers while diving in slow motion. Gameplay is pretty much how Max Payne has always been, not much different.

Biggest Disappointment(s)

The opposite of biggest improvements(s), and doesn't require games to have a previous game to compare to. They can be disappointing in of themselves.

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

  • It is still not as good as it could be.

Mass Effect 3

  • The overall rushed and narrow feeling of the design.

Binary Domain

  • Not a lot of interesting things done with the voice command system.

Max Payne 3

  • Cutscenes are mostly unskippable, and the checkpointing is pretty bad.

The Walking Dead

  • Episode 1 does set up the premise of the season, but it's very weak compared to the episodes after it.

Best Shock/Surprise(s)

Similar to best moments, except these are ones that you don't exactly see coming, or you see coming but has a different emotional affect than what you were thinking. This clearly fits more for something like The Walking Dead than most other games on this list, as that game was made for this award.

Borderlands 2

  • Angel's identity, and Roland's death at the hands of Handsome Jack.
  • Brick's reveal.

Binary Domain

  • Robots that reproduce, and Faye revealed as a human-robot hybrid.

Frog Fractions

  • Pretty much every moment in Frog Fractions count as a shock or surprise.

Asura's Wrath

  • Asura going berserk in episode 12. It's like the first time Goku turns Super Saiyan in DBZ, except really sad, and not a good form for Asura to assume.

Max Payne 3

  • Watching Marcello burn alive.
  • Discovering the organ harvesting conspiracy.
  • Max Payne/James McCaffery's ensuing rage over the whole thing.

The Walking Dead

  • Discovering the St. Johns at the dairy are cannibals.
  • Larry getting a salt lick dropped on his head so suddenly.
  • Killing both of the St. Johns brothers in front of Clementine.
  • Doug (or Carley depending who was in your group) getting offed by Lilly.
  • Katjaa committing suicide.

============================

And that's it. My top 12 games of 2012, and the awards given to said games. This is obviously the first time I've done something besides making a list, so this will be something I'll have to think more about in advance for future game of the year posts. Gotta say, this year has been interesting. So many of the interesting stuff I played was for things other than the actual gameplay. Not to mention a flash game was crazy and awesome enough to get a spot on this list. Heck, this was the year I started looking into visual novels more seriously with things like Katawa Shoujo. And the Walking Dead...well, we already know what can be said about the Walking Dead, that it's an excellent piece of emotional storytelling. Hopefully next year some more games can get back to focusing on refining gameplay, but I hope these other sort of moments experienced through story and cinematics continue into next year. We'll see what happens in 2013 I guess.

Cheers.

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OfficeGamer

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#2  Edited By OfficeGamer

spoilers....

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#3  Edited By emem

Nice list. :)

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me3639

2006

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#4  Edited By me3639

Sucks you cant change fonts to differentiation titles.Nice job.

One i would add is playing Borderlands 2 today i heard an enemy cry out, as he died, "Son of a" in a Chris Farley, Tommy Boy exclamation. Not going to lie i found it pretty hilarious.