GOTY 2012
This is a list of the games this year that I believe deserve to be recognized, judged based on quality, innovation, and entertainment value.
List items
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A must play for everyone who plays games and has been playing them for years. It plays with player expectations and player agency in a very interesting way and changes the relationship between the player and developer. Everything about it contributes to its narrative and to the player's emotional reactions to the events that carry out in this tale. There are plenty of reasons this game is my game of the year. It's unconventional, interesting, and emotional but those adjectives don't even describe the half of it. Spec Ops: The Line is ineffable, you have to play it through to truly understand its greatness.
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As the culmination of all the stories and ideas of Mass Effect, Mass Effect 3 had plenty of expectations to deal with. These expectations are based on a love of the fiction; from the books about Grayson to the comics about the Shadow Broker, the Mass Effect Universe sure has a lot going for it. It's a shame that the ending turned out the way it did, it ended the universe as it was previously known and it had more than a few logic gaps. Mass Effect 3 is still a great game. It takes you to the places in Mass Effect you've always wanted to visit with the characters you've come to know and love. Even the multiplayer, which I viewed as tacked on, was unpredictably addictive and fun. Ultimately, Mass Effect 3's shortcomings are surmounted by its many positives and still is a great conclusion to a fantastic series.
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What appears to be a standard shooter with stereotypical characters and wacky dialogue is much more than that. It is a tale of love, of humanity, and of French robots. Underneath the surface, Binary Domain explores what it means to be human through the lens of artificial intelligence and robots. The game play is standard, employing Gears of War style shooting and cover. Its fun, but still feels unoriginal. Binary Domain narrative is interesting in such a way that it overcomes its shortcomings. Also, I cannot love Big Bo more than I did at the end of the game.
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It's the sequel to Borderlands. More guns, more narrative, more classes, more character, and more dubstep. It takes what is most fun about Borderlands and expands while removing the unnecessary parts. It also provides more direction and more story, a welcome change in this series. Outside of that, Borderlands 2 diversifies its content, the environments are different, the guns look and feel different, and the powers each class possesses play different. Overall a great package and a blast to play through, either alone or with friends.
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On the surface level, Skullgirls is very creepy game about watching disproportionate women go at it. But under this voyeur level, it is a great fighting game with interesting and diverse characters. Its small cast lends itself to great focus on the details of each and leads to a relatively balanced game where each character is versatile and powerful in the right hands. The background art of the stages along with the character designs is gorgeous and novel. I couldn't imagine liking this game because of its appearance as game for creeps but boy was I wrong.
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A dark tale of a bodyguard and the girl he's sworn to protect turns out to be a fun game with cool and interesting powers. One power especially, Blink, is so much fun to play around with and is still so useful in dealing with various situations. i can't believe no other game implemented something like it. The ability to blink right into a guy's face and then performing a graceful stab in the face is so satisfying. It's choice system is not especially complex and doesn't pan out to much but changes the ending dramatically. Overall a great game with a cool world, cool powers, cool gadgets, and a ton of fun to be had.
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Fuck yes, ninjas done right. Sneaking around and stabbin' dudes has never given me so much pleasure.
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Why, you may ask, is a Prototype game on this list? It's because it is fun as hell to play. It lacks a lot in story but that's not the point of the game. Playing with the powers is so much more fun than in it's predecessor because of a lot of smart things they did with the upgrade system. The stealth element is never tedious and is almost always optional. You can go about this game in a covert way or you could just run up to everyone and punch them with your hammerfist. It's not about telling a tale or sending a message but about what video games were originally created for: having a great time.
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The franchise that piqued the interest of many at its inception shines on the PC. With an actual keyboard/mouse, control has never been so easy. The levels are handled really well compared to previous iterations and the vast amount of words is exciting. Pitting a gigantic, fiery, winged Cthulhu against a giant, supersonic, deathly is still awesome.
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It's pretty much TES: Oblivion with good combat. The class system is particularly exciting because of its flexibility and allows the player to reset whenever, encouraging experimenting with different ways to play.
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