Game of the Year 2012
I may not be the best at putting my thoughts into words, but these were my 10 favorite games of 2012.
List items
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My top 3 games of 2012 might as well be tied for 1st. The Walking Dead is far and away my favorite single player game I played all year. The Walking Dead introduces my 2 favorite characters in years with Clementine and Lee, and spends the next 15 hours making me make the most grueling decisions I have made in a game in the name of protecting Clementine. Every decision I made was to protect Clementine and set an example for her. When presented with an empty car full of supplies, I decided not to take them because I wanted to teach Clementine it was wrong to steal. In most games I make decisions based on whether I want to be a good guy/bad guy. In TWD I just wanted to make sure that Clem was safe. And at the end of 5 episodes, I was as attached to the 2 main characters as I have ever been in any game. After the credits rolled I just wanted to know that Clem was safe. Show me another game that does that.
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If The Walking Dead is my favorite single player game, Borderlands 2 is my favorite coop game of 2012. I played the entire thing with a friend (who also played through the original Borderlands with me) and I can't imagine playing that entire game solo. Finding loot, gaining XP, and completing quests are as fun as ever. The writing is great throughout most of it with a few corny eye rolling jokes. I beat it in a marathon weekend, then immediately started the new game plus mode. After beating that, I farmed the bosses for the perfect orange loot. Then when I was done with that, I started a new character. This game has so much replayability that I am sure that by this time next year I will still be going back to the game occasionally.
The DLC has been good so far as well. Mr. Torgue ended up being one of the funniest characters which was very surprising since every time he talked at the beginning of the DLC I wanted to mute him.
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Okay, I'm going to get this out of the way right away; Halo is my favorite franchise of the last 2 console generations. Some of my fondest gaming memories are going to a friend's house with 15 friends and playing 4 people on 4 xboxes and playing for hours on end. So I may be a bit biased.
Halo 4 is the most fun that I have had with a Halo game since Halo 2. I played through the campaign on Normal, it was fun and just as challenging as I wanted it to be. I died a few times and had to figure out how best to kill the new enemies. While I was playing I was thinking to myself "I am never going to be able to beat this on Heroic or Legendary." I had pretty much given up on those achievements and so I went on to the multiplayer and Spartan Ops modes.
A few changes were made in Multiplayer that I think makes this game one of the best since Halo 2. 343 Industries finally added perks and custom loadouts to the MP sandbox that makes every encounter a challenge. It is still basically shoot the other team until their shields pop then shoot them in the head. Now though, you have to worry about armor abilities, how fast can their shields regen, can they reload faster than me, or how many grenades do they have left? These may seem like minor additions but any one of these can make a huge difference in a fast paced firefight. The maps all seem to be perfectly designed for specific gametypes and a specific number of players.
Once I got more used to the weapons and enemies, I decided to try and tackle Legendary. It took a week of playing as slowly and patiently as I have ever played a Halo game but I finally got the achievement for beating the game solo on Legendary. It has been a lot time since I have felt as accomplished in a video game as that.
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The Mass Effect games have always been towards the top of my year end lists and ME3 is no exception. Mass Effect 2 may have been a better game, but ME3 does a fantastic job of concluding Shepard's journey. Curing the Genophage remains one of my favorite moments of the year, and creating relationships with new characters remains as interesting as ever. I didn't have the same problem with the ending that some people have, and I never went back to play the extended endings dlc, but I was satisfied with how it ended.
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Trials Evolution is a simple game that exceeds very well at telling me I'm slower than my friends. The best feature about this game is that it is always showing me my times compared to my friend's times. This is all I need to get me to play the same level 25 times until I beat their time. The controls are tight and easy to get used to and the levels start really simple but become a challenge in themselves later on. Trials Evolution has the same addictive traits as Geometry Wars and that makes me so so happy.
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This was a game I was surprised to find myself playing. Whenever I play stealth games, if I get caught I restart and try again. Not here. In Dishonored I played as stealthily as possible, but as soon as I got caught, I am using all my weapons at my disposal to take out the guards and get hidden again. The world is really fleshed out and interesting and the level design is fantastic. There are always 3 or 4 ways to approach a situation so the gameplay never felt stale.
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I was sneaking up on a base when I was attacked by a tiger, I ran away from the tiger straight towards the enemy encampment where the tiger quickly lost interest in me and attacked the pirates. The entire base was taken out by one tiger and I got a stealth bonus. 'nuff said.
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What started as an interesting platformer quickly became me sitting with a pencil and pad trying to work out the hidden messages everywhere in the game. Once I discovered that there was a hidden alphabet, I quickly fell in love with the game. I never did find all the mysteries that were there to find, but I think I need to go back and find them soon.
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XCOM is a turn based strategy game that I wasn't sure I would enjoy. Boy was I wrong. XCOM does such a good job of making me think about every action I take and think about the consequences of all my actions. In a game where things can go from bad to shit in a single turn, every action is tense and very stressful. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the game. Even playing on easy, I never felt like I had a huge advantage. XCOM is a very challenging game that rewards you greatly for succeeding.
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Every year I get the urge to play a driving game and just zone out while playing. Forza Horizon is the best driving game I have played in years. The controls feel tight and driving around Colorado aimlessly is a blast.
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