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

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

HAPPY NEW YEAR! YOU MADE IT!

Over six hundred and fifty people submitted lists this year! That's fantastic! That's easily 200% more than last time!

2012 was definitely an odd year for games. Easily the strongest year for downloadable titles ever, as the top ten list will clearly show. A big year for narrative in games as well. It's shocking to see how sparse the list is of AAA titles and sequels. Partially that may be because many of the AAA titles this year turned out to be disappointments, but the "smaller" titles picked up the slack with ample ability!

If you want a complete and thorough rundown of all submissions go to the following google spreadsheet where I have uploaded all the data I drew from the code. Each game received 10 points for being at the number 1 spot on a user's list, 9 points for being second, 8 for being third and so on and so forth. The "Appearances" column lists how many times the game appeared on someone's list, regardless of its placement. Then after that, it shows how many people voted for a game to be number 1, number 2, so and so forth etc. etc.

Now! Onwards to the list!

	1. The Walking Dead Are you surprised? You aren't. No one is. Not only is The Walking Dead the Giantbomb Community's #1 Game of the Year, it is #1 BY A LANDSLIDE. Sitting comfortably at near DOUBLE the score total of the runner-up. 68 percent of users put The Walking Dead on their GOTY lists and the majority of them put it as their favorite game that year! Score: 3613 Distribution: 181 102 39 31 24 20 15 9 7 11
	2. XCOM: Enemy Unknown XCOM: Enemy Unknown, A turn based strategy game, makes it to 2nd place, losing to an interactive point and click adventure. Tie me down and slap me silly. XCOM was evenly featured among the top 3 on most users' lists. Score: 2255 Distribution: 69 54 53 33 30 21 17 10 17 7
	3. Journey Journey makes it to third place. Impeccable art direction and design make it a nearly faultless game with a compelling take on multiplayer communication. Score: 1944 Distribution: 52 67 42 29 19 12 14 6 14 6
	4. Mass Effect 3 Scandal be damned, nothing is going to stop Mass Effect 3 from making it to the Top Ten. Score: 1686 Distribution: 22 41 29 41 37 28 19 22 24 26
	5. Borderlands 2 Borderlands 2 makes it to fifth place. It's damn fun and it's damn addicting. Maybe you aren't going to be crying over it, but you are going to be smiling. And more importantly, you're going to spend hours playing it and still see no end in sight. Score: 1432 Distribution: 26 30 29 33 20 24 27 19 10 14
	6. Far Cry 3 Though a late arrival Far Cry 3 makes a strong impression. Complaints about the story's ending aside, few games deliver on the quantity and quality of experience as Far Cry 3 does. Score: 1339 Distribution: 26 32 36 22 23 16 18 11 9 8
	7. Sleeping Dogs There were few people who would have told you Sleeping Dogs was going to be anywhere near a Top Ten list before it came out, and yet here we are. Doing little revolutionary, Sleeping Dogs manages to take the features from games it borrows from and create an absolutely solid and engaging open world. Score: 1165 Distribution: 13 17 22 34 24 30 23 14 14 12
	8. Hotline Miami I think my favorite thing I've ever heard said about Hotline Miami was this: forget Mortal Kombat, forget Doom, if the media ever blamed Hotline Miami for violence... just throw your hands up and say "yeah, sorry, we f***** up." No other game this year is as psychotic, as hypnotizing and as violent as Hotline Miami. It has a way of getting somewhere deep inside you and sticking there like an itch. Score: 1048 Distribution: 11 17 27 19 22 19 24 20 18 17
	9. Mark of the Ninja Mark of the Ninja makes it to ninth by virtue of tight and engaging game design. You feel like you can pull off anything and you feel damn cool every time you do. Score: 1030 Distribution: 13 11 22 20 25 27 23 24 16 4
	10. Dishonored And another stealth game ends 2012's Top Ten list. Like Mark of the Ninja, Dishonored makes a compelling stealth game by providing player choice through gameplay that is exciting and fun. It will be interesting to see what the designers do with the sequel because a re-invention and revolution of the stealth game seems nigh if not already here. Score: 953 Distribution: 10 14 22 22 18 26 16 18 15 11

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

This list isn't too surprising, I'm just happy to see Sleeping Dogs on there.

Sheesh, I only own 2 of the games on this list! Guess I missed out on a lot of 2012's best.

I am genuinely surprised to see Mass Effect 3 not only appear on the list, but on the top half at that.

@Yummylee said:

I am genuinely surprised to see Mass Effect 3 not only appear on the list, but on the top half at that.

Me too, despite that, it's probably the best top ten list I've seen this year.

I bet that you'll still find people complaining about this list even though it was done democratically! I wish Mark of the Ninja was higher, but I'm glad it's still there! I'm also surprised that ME3 and Dishonored are on that list! Still, I like most of these games. Great job @ThatFrood for doing this!

This is a good list.

I guess I'm one of the few NOT surprised to see Mass Effect 3 on the list. Set aside the vitriol over the ending, it's still a great game and the culmination of a fantastic trilogy.

@Yummylee said:

I am genuinely surprised to see Mass Effect 3 not only appear on the list, but on the top half at that.

It's still a great game. It just stumbles during a lot of really important areas.

Glad that Sleeping Dogs is there and that Journey is 3rd. Least year for each of the games you showed the amount of times it was put in each spot and the total points. I miss that.

The biggest surprise to me is how similar it is to the staff list.

And not a single game on my list made it.

I don't know how I feel about Dishonored beating out both Fez and FTL. Guess face and neck stabbing holds more influence over the user base than I thought. Pretty cool list otherwise. Happy New Year ya filthy animals.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

Glad that Sleeping Dogs is there and that Journey is 3rd. Least year for each of the games you showed the amount of times it was put in each spot and the total points. I miss that.

That data's still available, maybe I'll edit the list to add it to the main post. But you can see it all here.

Edit: edited list to have the top ten's distributions.

This might be my favourite list on the site.

5 of my games made it on the list. We have walking dead, journey, mass effect 3, borderlands 2, and sleeping dogs. I was hoping asuras wrath would make the cut.

Not my favorite list, even though Sleeping Dogs did make it in there, but THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN.

Awesome stuff.

@ThatFrood said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

Glad that Sleeping Dogs is there and that Journey is 3rd. Least year for each of the games you showed the amount of times it was put in each spot and the total points. I miss that.

That data's still available, maybe I'll edit the list to add it to the main post. But you can see it all here.

Yeah, I noticed that. I'm going to start looking through it now.

hotline miami trick (WOO WOO)

also good to see sleepy dawgs on there.

Great list, and thanks for putting to together. Really interesting to see what made it, and what didn't.

Turns out someone put Dead or Alive 5 above me. I wonder whom.

I'm pretty surprised looking at the full list in the Google doc how far up the list London 2012 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games made it.

I mean, 141 isn't very far up the list, but it's still above some notable games.

:D Hooray.

Thanks for putting this together, really interesting to look at our combined list - Four of my games made it.

Also, we are an elite club, the four of us that put VLR at #1 ^__^

haha crusader kings 2 made it higher than black ops 2

IN YOUR FACE WOODS

Where is FTL? That seemed to be on a lot of developers' and journalists' lists. It was amazing, although it was a little too luck based. Only 5 of my favorite games made it on. The 5 games that didn't were Halo 4, Torchlight 2, Xenoblade Chronicles, Fez and FTL. The 5 games that did were XCOM, Borderlands 2, The Walking Dead, Far Cry 3, and Mass Effect 3.

You motherfuckers forgot FTL.

@Kerned: @Cubidog1: FTL made it to 12th place, just behind Fez at 11th. Interestingly, FTL was on more lists than Fez, but Fez scored more overall as it was ranked higher on average.

I'm pretty happy with this list overall. Good picks duders. 6 of the games I picked ended up being on there. Still need to give Journey and Far Cry 3 a run through, and I might actually get around to trying Dishonored sometime in 2013.

Logic has the day!

Looks like i need to play dishonored and mass effect 3. Time to dust off that 360

I was the only one to put Warriors Orochi 3 and Hakuoki on a list?

SADNESS.

Its funny noticing some non 2012 games lower on the big list.

The community list is far closer to my list than the GB crews were. Mainly because of Syndicate and ZombiU which ended up no where on the community list. But I guess everyone has their personal obscure favorite this year, Dragon's Dogma was mine.

You assholes left out Dust: An Elysian Tale

Good job guys, that's probably the best list I've seen this year. I'd say ME 3 and Borderlands 2 are a little high, but other than that it's excellent.

@ThatFrood: Cool! I'd love to see the overall stats, Marino-style. Honorable mentions and all. Though, this is still an interesting result. :)

@TruthTellah said:

@ThatFrood: Cool! I'd love to see the overall stats, Marino-style. Honorable mentions and all. Though, this is still an interesting result. :)

the raw stats are in that google doc he posted

@TruthTellah said:

@ThatFrood: Cool! I'd love to see the overall stats, Marino-style. Honorable mentions and all. Though, this is still an interesting result. :)

Overall stats like how? Graphs? I could get around to it. The info dump is here though.

Good list. I have every game on this list - although I haven't finished Mark of the Ninja or Dishonored yet.

My biggest surprise is that Syndicate didn't make number 7 on the community list...just kidding, I'm actually not surprised at all.

Just like Dragon Age II last year, I'm the only person to put Resident Evil 6 as their #1 game.   :D

@Animasta said:

@TruthTellah said:

@ThatFrood: Cool! I'd love to see the overall stats, Marino-style. Honorable mentions and all. Though, this is still an interesting result. :)

the raw stats are in that google doc he posted

I was thinking more like graphs or something along those lines(Marino-style), but it sounds like @ThatFrood understood what I meant. It's fine if they can't get around to it. I just thought it would be quite interesting as an addition to this final top 10. :)

@ThatFrood: Looking at the raw data, it's interesting to me that Fez and FTL got so close to being in that Top 10. Those were both in my top 5, and I'm glad to see they were appreciated by so many people as well!

Rad. Wish XCOM beat the Walking Dead because I have issues with Walking Dead's shit action sequences but I'm one to talk as XCOM was not on my list but Walking Dead was at 7. Well, at the rate I'm going through XCOM having just got it a week ago maybe it'll be my 2013's 2012 Game of 2013. The game I feel most sorry for is Syndicate. Hey people, you really should've played Syndicate!

I like that it's published because it means I get to rename my Best Of 2012 list to be what I want it to be named. GOTY 2012 is a poor name for a list!

@ThatFrood Great job compiling these lists! It's always interesting to see what the community thinks. Also, happy new year :)

@TruthTellah said:

@Animasta said:

@TruthTellah said:

@ThatFrood: Cool! I'd love to see the overall stats, Marino-style. Honorable mentions and all. Though, this is still an interesting result. :)

the raw stats are in that google doc he posted

I was thinking more like graphs or something along those lines(Marino-style), but it sounds like @ThatFrood understood what I meant. It's fine if they can't get around to it. I just thought it would be quite interesting as an addition to this final top 10. :)

Graphs have been added to the google spreadsheet. May add more later. Just click to a different sheet on the google doc. You'll find them at the bottom.

@TheMasterDS: Yeah, I'm aware that GOTY 2012 isn't the best title, but I need something that is hard to screw up. The more complicated I make instructions, the worse things get.

@Hailinel said:

I was the only one to put Warriors Orochi 3 and Hakuoki on a list?

SADNESS.

I placed Warriors Orochi 3 as my #10. My list must have evidently been omitted for some reason.

@Yummylee: Did you submit your username to the google doc? I do not see it there.

@ThatFrood: Ermmmm... no. Though, iirc, when you set this up last year you only had to make a list titled ''GOTY 2011'' and then it would just magically be gathered into the ether. At least I think so. I can definitely remember my picks making it on the overall list because I was the only one to place Lego Star Wars III on there.

Doesn't matter anywhoo. I don't think my picks would have budged the overall placements across the list :P