GOTY 2012
Out of the 40 or 50 games that I played this year which 20 do I think stood out the most? No need for pointless suspense because here they are;
List items
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I feel that for the last 3 years games in the hack and slash or brawler genre have been on a steady decline in excitement and originality. Dust shows that the genre still has hope by implementing a huge amount of unique game play mechanics and having a really fun and original combat system. As well as telling a truly epic story. All this and it most likely had not even a 10th the budget of failures like Ninja Gaiden 2 or 3 turning other blockbuster titles to dust.
Runner Up : Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - I really enjoyed the first 30 Hours of Amalur. However to finish all the side and main quests the game took me around 70. The game doesn’t introduce enough new mechanics or enemy’s to be interesting for that length of time but for the early goings it was enjoyable. With a unique fantasy setting and fables combat system done right. A kingdom of mediocrity.
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Far Cry 3 is just a fun game, in its story, characters, game play and even world. I never got bored of raiding enemy camps, hunting animals or fighting endless squads of stereotypical pirates. I hated Far Cry 2 because it had some great fun gameplay elements but a tone of unnecessary annoying parts. The only two things that needed improving in Far Cry 3 for it to take the number one spot would be a better co-op campaign and a less safe third act to the story.
Runner Up : Assassin's Creed III - Very similar games but far cry beats AC3 on all fronts.
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I love Halo, the first three games would all be on the top games of all-time list for me. So Halo 4 taking the third slot is extremely bias.
Runner Up : Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 - For the last two years the Magic games have been on my GOTY lists. This year even though I spent hours playing 2013 and enjoyed many a matches I feel like overall they didn’t change enough from the last game. The leap in features between mtg 2010 and 2012 was huge and hopefully the next game in the franchise will take more risks in its design and help bring back some of the magic.
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Asura's Wrath is a strange choice for the fourth slot of GOTY because the game part is nothing special. Gameplay is generic brawler action at best. But everything around the fighting is f***ing beautiful. Don’t need to wright anything else about it because the game speaks for its self when you "play" it. There was a lot of wrath from fans over the dlc containing the true ending but I felt like I got my worth out of the original game without the dlc and the extra true ending was just an added bonus.
Runner Up : Fez - Most games could learn from the way Fez focuses on the character of its environments and overall world. Each zone is a unique wonderful mini adventure that leaves you anxious to see the next area. But this game is also let down by its simple gameplay.
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I am a stronger believer that story telling is as important for a game as the gameplay it’s self. The Walking Dead is another game on this list where the gameplay is not the reason to play it. The stress and depression it induced on me as I played it watching my terrible choices unfold and people die is incredible. It’s near impossible for most games to get such an emotional response out of me as the walking dead did. The ending brought me to actual tears and because of this the walking dead easily walks it way in at number 5.
Runner Up : Max Payne 3 - Really enjoyed the cinematic movie like experience that is Max Payne 3. I really enjoyed the fast gun play and dark gritty story but the later levels of Max Payne can be a bit of a pain with too many enemy spawns and long corridors.
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I think that Resident Evil 6 would be a mediocre or terrible single player game. But as a Co OP experience it is unmatched this year. Endless fun with a friend to shoot zombies and run away from huge bosses. You know a game bad ass when you are jumping a motor bike up a ram to grab mid-air and save your dangling co-op partner from a helicopter while there are explosions everywhere.
Runner Up : Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - Had huge amounts of fun playing Co-op and multiplayer with friends on the Xbox live but a lack of launch maps and an uninteresting single player story means that future soldier is far from residency at number 6.
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Syndicate has a fun and interesting single player campaign. With interesting visuals and gameplay mechanics that help freshen up the heavily saturated FPS genre. But the real unexpected delight of Syndicate is the co-op. For some weird reason what could be a very boring co-op mode like in Far Cry 3 is hugely fun and made me replay the co-op missions multiple times to max out my online character. There’s no one part of the co-op that stands out but as a hole it’s just so much fun with friends.
Runner Up : Mass Effect 3 - This year EA decided to focus a lot on multiplayer in their Mass Effect franchise. The multiplayer is a lot of fun but just falls a little flat when replaying missions. The single player is great but inferior in quality and mass to the previous adventure.
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I hated the first Darkness game and had little interest in the comics. Somehow this game is completely different from the previous. The gameplay is original and a fun slaughtertastic time with a weird comic book style story to back it up. All-round unexpected enlightening entertainment.
Runner Up : Dishonored - This is another game that caught me by surprise. I had no interest in the game at all like the Darkness 2 but it turned out to have an interesting setting, story and gameplay. In any other year Dishonored would be on my GOTY list but this year had so many unexpected surprises that there’s no room for it just an honourable mention.
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I Am Alive is not getting the credit that it deserves this year. There are so many bad or boring survival horror games each year. I Am Alive goes completely left field for its gameplay and story and won me over completely. It’s far from perfect but I prefer my games to try interesting things and mess up a bit then play it safe like the Call of Duties.
Runner Up : Sleeping Dogs - Really sleeping dogs is a better game in every way than I Am Alive and should take the number 9 slot of my list. But I had to give I Am Alive its deserved praise. So sleeping dogs is the unfortunate cut from this list. With fun unique gameplay and Chinese martial arts/gang movie style story.
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I have never played the original XCOM game so cared little about the announcement of a new addition the franchise. However i love turned based strategy and this might just be the greatest Turn Based Strategy game so far. The only negative to the game is the difficulty being inconsistent. The game took me about 26 hours. The first 10 was super easy but out of nowhere a mountain of a difficulty curve hit and for about 8 hours I had an extremely hard time. Eventually getting my upgraded sorted out and crawling through the storm the remaining 8 hours of the game where a breeze again.
Runner Up : Mark of the Ninja - All future stealth games should learn from the lessons that mark of the ninja tight design teaches. I would like to see all future stealth games be marked in some way from it and implement features that make mark of the ninja a fun game that overcomes a lot of the challenges that stealth game encounter even games like my beloved splinter cell.
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