I don't post a lot but I do realize Top # Lists are as common and unremarkable as fly's. That said, games are a medium I truly admire and devote thought to so IF you chose to read this, know it is done in love, consideration and maybe some bitterness.

Thanks!

1) Journey. Who can know if it will be a worthwhile game on a third or fourth playthrough but I can safely say it had me in a state that no piece of art or entertainment had before: I was honestly touched by the company of another. That was singularly amazing. Everything else was pretty damn amazing too.

2) X-Com: Enemy Unknown. The last strategy game I loved was 1998's Starcraft.

3) Mass Effect 3. While NOT talking about the ending, ME3 still had plenty wrong with it. The lighting was all 'hard core' and dark, the side quests made no damn sense, the characters and writing were not up to ME2's and everything felt figgity and kinda rushed. That said. It's still a great game with sharp, interesting combat and a more interesting universe than most games of the last decade. Disappointing? Oh my god yes. Still better than most of what I played this year? Yup.

4) Halo 4. So despite an uninteresting ending and it feeling really just like another fucking Halo game: it being a good Halo game really puts it above any other shooter out there. The amazing sci-fi aesthetic and always changeing combat puzzles give it the beating heart of a shooter that doesn't dry up when you finish it. The multiplayer is still the most interesting out there and the assault rifle finally sounds like a son-of-a-bitch again!

5) Far Cry 3. Again, disappointing. Not nearly as emotionally or environmentally involving as Far Cry 2 it was nevertheless fantastically satisfying to stealth your way around camps without eyes ever falling on you. That or just blowing shit up. Or just wandering around the jungle. It played great and it left a good portion of that up to you. That's why it's here. Unlike...

6) Walking Dead. Y'know, I didn't want to hop on the Walking Dead train but it is pretty good. It's story is engaging and... and... well, nothing else. The gameplay feels like filler and is often poorly thought out and frustrating. When you are asked to collect objects or solve a 'puzzle' the game becomes a huge chore which is why it's so far down. Sure it's engaging, but so is a good TV show. And it's that and it aint much else. Lee is boring, Clementine is boring and the redneck guy is ok. For my money, everyone interesting is dead by episode 4, so yea...

And we're done. That was my Top 10 for 2012. Because y'know, games this year were pretty fucking banal. Maybe good, but that doesn't mean I am going to care. Witcher 2, Mark of the Ninja, Borderlands 2, Dishonored and Sleeping Dogs were all games just uninteresting'ly clinging to their genre and suckling off proven knee-jerk impulses. I couldn't be bothered to finish any of them. If I don't care about the place I really don't give a crap about whether the next gun will be better than mine nor do I care if I killed that guy without him knowing I was there. WHY WAS I THERE? Ahhhh, who cares...

From everything I hear 'Fez' may need to be on my list but I played a lot of that game and put some notable thought into it and came out with nothing of the bigger puzzles. I guess I'm just too damn stupid for Fez. Really though, at the end of the day only two games grabbed me this year and they are at #1 and #2. The rest was good.

Thanks for reading. All one of you.

Seriously though, thanks,

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