With apologies to the games I haven't played yet (The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag), the games I'm in the middle of playing (Fire Emblem: Awakening, Tearaway), and the games I had issues with (The Stanley Parable, Rogue Legacy, Antichamber):
It may just be fresh in my mind because I didn't play it until November, but The Last Of Us might ultimately be the biggest impact of the year for me. I didn't have the issues with the mechanics that others seem to; aside from a couple of frustrating encounters, I found playing the game gripping from beginning to end. The characters feel so realized, the world is so thoroughly detailed, and the denouement is so devastating. Even the "zombies", a thing that I am so very tired of, are handled in a way that makes them feel dangerous and frightening.
I didn't expect to like Gone Home as much as critics did, and I certainly didn't expect to unreservedly adore it. Despite being a few years younger than the sisters at the heart of the game, and coming from a considerably different background (at least as far as growing up in America in the 1990s is concerned), so many of the details were deeply relatable. The SNES cartridges! The X-Files! Music on cassettes! Plus, you know, the emotions. Gone Home even has just enough gameplay hooks to entertain grit-obsessed nerds like me, what with its notes, lock combinations and secret passages. Not to mention the extra layers of story that one can easily miss if one doesn't look at everything (LEAVES OF GRASS??? ARE YOU FUCKIN' MY MOM, RICK???)
It was very nearly my #1, and while I ultimately decided it wasn't as big a deal as I wanted it to be, it's still the game I spent the most time with this year. I play the hell out of every GTA game but this is the first one I actually went to the effort of getting 100% completion on, which I think says something. As for GTA Online...well, that's not what I bought it for.
Everyone will talk about how this game is unlike anything else, or the impossible moral choices it forces you to make. Nobody seems to be talking about how it's one of the funniest games of the year. Of course, that's assuming you laugh at relentlessly cheerful old men who just can't get their shit together, having to disarm poorly-made bombs deposited at your workstation, and letting your mother-in-law die first.
If you make a good Metroidvania, it'll probably become a favorite of mine. If it has luchadores and a shape-shifting goat-man that is SO ANGRY THAT YOU KEEP DESTROYING HIS STATUES, I might be in love.
I can always go for a western, and while Gunslinger's mechanics aren't especially novel (it's mostly Max Payne in first person), its storytelling and level design are fantastic. And where else are you going to go toe-to-toe with--among others--Jesse James AND The Clanton Gang AND Butch & Sundance?
Here's a game that probably won't show up on anyone else's list, but it really struck a chord with me. Mechanically, it's a pretty basic Legend of Zelda clone ("basic" in that it's not much more complex than an NES game), but Anodyne's writing and visuals create a surreal and often disturbing tone that few other games achieve. I encourage everyone to give it a shot...if you think you can handle it.
Almost didn't make my list. As an early-in-the-year release, and an inevitably disappointing one (how could it possibly live up to expectations?), it sort of slid off my consciousness. But year-end discussions have brought it roaring back, and suddenly I remember that in spite of its problems, Bioshock Infinite is probably the weirdest, most ambitious and auteur-driven AAA title possible.
I'm an only child, and The Swapper is my Brothers. Because I don't have a sibling. I just have endless disposable copies of myself, drifting in space.
YEAH, IT'S A 2012 PORT OF A 2008 GAME. YEAH, IT WAS ON MY LIST LAST YEAR TOO. But this year, I spent my summer in Inaba. Persona 4's the first JRPG I've finished in years, and the first SMT I've ever actually finished despite the fact that I own most of them. And when I did finish it, I spent a day simply not knowing what to do with myself.
