In order to figure out which games I actually played this year, I've decided to just make a list of them all. There are some games that I would have loved to play, but just didn't get around to them...so I will list them at the end. This year was kind of hits and misses all over the place. A lot of games that I was super hyped for, kind of let me down. But on the flip side, some old friends returned to be just as (or even more) awesome.

So without further adieu, my top 10 games of 2012.

10. Need for Speed: Most Wanted

- Stunning mechanics and graphics...but not a whole lot else. As someone who doesn't delve too deeply into multiplayer, I was highly disappointed in the single player offerings of this game. Please Criterion, pleeeaaase make a Burnout for the next-gen launch window.

9. Persona 4 Arena

- When I first heard that Atlus was making this fighter, I was just completing my second playthrough of Persona 4. But being a core Street Fighter 4 player, I just couldn't get too into the fighting system of this game. Seeing them expand the world of Persona was great though, and the presentation in this game is top notch. Now here's hoping for Persona 5 with those same characters.

8. The Walking Dead

- I was one of the few (I believe) who waited for all 5 episodes of this game to come out before playing. I'm glad I did, because the cliff hangers would have been killer. In terms of story (which is why you play games like these), this game does make a contender for GOTY, but sloppy performance and terrible gameplay (the shooting especially) brings it down.

7. Mass Effect 3

- FFFFFFFFFFFFF... I wanted to love this game. LOVE IT. But I just couldn't. Mass Effect 2 could quite possibly be my game of this generation. This game just didn't have the same impact.

6. Dust: An Elysian Tail

- Oh how I love beautiful looking games, and this one certainly is beautiful. It blows my mind that one guy did almost everything in creating this game. I'm not too into furry lore, so the story was kind of hit and miss for me. But this game was super exciting to play and very nice to look at.

5. Dragon's Dogma

- Mixing Skyrim, Shadow of the Colossus, and Dark Souls is quite a feat. No, this game did not do that perfectly. But it tried, and succeeded more than it failed. A few more variations on the sub-boss monsters, and a better questing system would have made this game better, but I still had a blast with my tiny asian warrior and her long faced old man pawn.

4. SSX

- Oh boy, this game sure was over the top. I sunk hours and hours into getting perfect lines down mountains across the globe. I absolutely loved SSX on the PS2 and they certainly did not disappoint with this one.

3. Persona 4 Golden

- Above I mentioned having played Persona 4 through twice. My diehard love for this game was the one and only reason I bought a Vita. I'm so very happy that Atlus went above and beyond what they were expected, and delivered a package that not only beautifies and expands on the original PS2 game, but introduces more features to the game as well. It was well worth the money.

2. Borderlands 2

- Oh how I wanted to put this at #1, but I just couldn't. I put hours into the original game (are you seeing a pattern here in the games I've played?), played it until I absolutely couldn't play it any longer. This one just didn't hook me as much. Don't get me wrong, it's still a superb game, and it is a better technical game than the first one, but the story was mainly misses for me. Tiny Tina and Claptrap just grinded on me, it made me want to skip sections of the game, and loathe turning in quests to them. So close, yet still somewhat far Gearbox. Here's to waiting for BorderWorlds!

1. Asura's Wrath

- Above I mentioned The Walking Dead's shortcomings. The game that they need to look at to fix those is none other than this one. This game is interactive storytelling at its finest, with so many head exploding moments I could barely be reminded to press a button when a QTE happened. Couple that with my love for anime and I could tell from the very first trailer that I would love this game. Sure the combat and Panzer Dragoon sequences left a lot to be desired, but I didn't care. This game was definitely made for me.

Games that I missed out on that I would still like to play: Spec Ops: The Line, Resident Evil 6, Far Cry 3, Dishonored, Sleeping Dogs, Mark of the Ninja, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

Heh I guess I should have put this in General Discussion... oh well.

I might be optimistic, but I'm hoping some of these popular downloadable games (Mark of the Ninja, Fez, Spelunky and Dust: An Elysian Tail) will go on sale during the XBL Christmas Sale.

I'm one of those who considered Asura's Wrath to be such a missed opportunity. I paid 6 bucks for the rental and felt ripped off. It needed so much more juice and fuel to its fighting system other than bitch-slapping red-animal/demons with its clunky fighting system. And then, there's the rest of its anime, which was cool to watch. If only the intro of each episode didn't spoil the whole thing.

Totally glad you loved it though. On a side note, you really did miss on a lot of great games.

@Briggs713 said:

I might be optimistic, but I'm hoping some of these popular downloadable games (Mark of the Ninja, Fez, Spelunky and Dust: An Elysian Tail) will go on sale during the XBL Christmas Sale.

Splunky was on sale a few weeks back for half the price, and Mark of the Ninja, and Fez will be on sale on the 20th (One day only) and 23rd for Dust: Elysian Tail.

Matter of fact, while we're at it, here's the full list.

Nice list, glad Asura's Wrath is seeing some love! That game was awesome.

SSX LOVE!

Much respect. I would've put it on my Top 10, but the fall-off that the game had... I just wish I could justify playing it more, but the late-game level design is just...not...good.