This year I'm going to be less rigid in deciding which games I add to my top ten list. Last year I only allowed games that I had completely finished to be included, but this year I'm going to allow any games that I have played enough of to form an opinion.
In descending order:
#10 - Fez was quite a unique experience, and while I can't say I loved every bit of it, it was still a pretty fun game. And I've said it before, but being unique in this day and age is certainly commendable. The music is also quite good.
#9 - I'm not a huge fan of super hard games, but Dark Souls strikes a perfect balance between difficulty and fairness. If you die, it is probably your fault and you know exactly what you did wrong. It's a testament to just how well it is designed. I had a pretty good time with Dark Souls.
#8 - It's difficult to remember back to February when I was playing this game, but I remember enough that I know I liked it quite a bit. The music was excellent, the world beautiful and the combat, divine. The story wasn't very good, but the writing was pretty good in other aspects.It's such a shame that we probably won't ever see another game in this world, but the memories of playing this one will sustain me.
#7 - It's no secret that I love Okami, despite never completing the original when it came out 6 years ago. Finally getting the opportunity to finish it in beautifully HD-ified form was one of my favorite gaming experiences this year. I still think this is one of the most beautiful games ever made, perhaps only trumped by the #5 game on this list.
#6 - Having never really played Diablo 2, I had no previous benchmark to compare Diablo 3 to. I knew what it was about, and how it was going to play, but - perhaps advantageously - I had no expectations that needed to be met. I went in expecting a fun, well made loot-driven dungeon crawler. I didn't come out disappointed.
#5 - Never before have I experienced a more powerful, emotional story without a single word being read or spoken. Journey may be light on actual gameplay, but it more then makes up for it with atmosphere. Perhaps more then any other game I have ever played, Journey creates an experience unrivaled by anything on any medium. Just play it already.
#4 - Another game that came out of nowhere! I've always been a fan of Klei's stuff, even if it is light on content and depth. But they outdid themselves with Mark of The Ninja. Not since playing Metal Gear Solid 2 for the first time some 10 or 11 years ago have I had this much fun with a purely stealth game. I think this game is now the benchmark upon which all future stealth games will be measured.
#3 - If the internet didn't exist, I think this game might have won #1. Then again, if it didn't exist, I wouldn't have ever played Far Cry 3...but let's not get in to that. After finishing Mass Effect 3, I was content. I wasn't particularly blown away or anything, but I was content and satisfied with how the story wrapped up. After reading about all the outrage of the ending and later with the stories of Leviathan and Brad's experiences, my opinion started to change. But I'm more of the "journey, not the destination" mindset when it comes to Mass Effect 3. And man, what a journey.
#2 - Having never played the original XCOM, I wasn't sure what to expect from this game. All I knew was that Firaxis was behind it and it sounded like it might be pretty good. Hey, what do you know? I was right!
#1 - If you had told me at the beginning of the year that I'd be picking Far Cry 3 as my 2012 Game of The Year, I would have called you crazy. Or something worse. This game just came out of NOWHERE! I had certainly known about it's existence, but I had zero interest in it at all. As someone who doesn't like shooters and has never played a Far Cry game other then the demo to FC1 to test my new video card years and years ago, it's quite amazing that this game is even on this list; much less occupying the number one slot. Far Cry 3's story is awful, and I don't think I've ever hated a player character in any video game as much as I do this one, but that isn't the point. When it comes down to actually PLAYING Far Cry 3, no other game on this list is quite as fun.
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