GOTY 2012
2009's 2012 Game of the year
League of Legends is a masterful mix of fun and strategy that combines these elements in a way that works perfectly for all levels of play. Many games promise working in a similar way, but none of them reach the level that League of Legends has achieved. This is the game this year that I spent the most time playing because the skill ceiling is so high that I just wanted to get better and climb the rankings. When looking through the list of games that came out this year, I wondered what I was playing for the first half of the year and I remembered League took most of my gaming time, so for that I thought it deserved some recognition.
Most Disappointing Game
Mass Effect 2's amazing story and well realized world made it such a delight to play for the 40 plus hours I sunk into it. Coming in to 2012, I was quite excited for ME2's sequel, but it didn't have the same elements that made it's predecessor so enjoyable. The game begins by the Reapers attacking Earth and subsequently has you finding little objects that you overhear people want on the Citadel. Earth, I hear you're hurting, but this spaceman is missing his family jewel that could get me a tiny bit of galactic readiness, so could you guys hold on for just a bit? I kept trying to understand why Shepard would waste his time while he could be preparing to stop the Reapers. I also didn't enjoy that all of the major galactic races decide to start beef with their age old enemies as soon as the Reapers show up. (Priorities?). The combat system was improved and the horde mode multiplayer was a nice edition to the game, but the story was not interesting enough for me to enjoy it as much as I had it's other games.
Number 5
Robot Entertainment has quickly become one of my favorite developers with last years release of Orcs Must Die! and I was extremely excited to pick up the sequel to their silly action waved base survival game. The inventiveness of their traps, spells and how those worked together made this game fantastic. I am sad that it hasn't gotten much GB love, even though Ryan said that he would try and do a Quick Look of this game a couple I love Mondays in a row. Robot supported their game with a couple of DLCs that included even more spells and traps for you to kill those pesky orcs.
Number 4
Borderlands 2 is an addictive loot grind that I just kept wanting to play and play until I hit the maximum level of 50, then I kept playing on a new character for another 20 hours. The jokes in this game were quite hit or miss, but i felt a majority of the jokes were a hit and some even sunk my battleship. The one time you meet and then immediately murder Sarcastic Slab completely makes up for the endless "Cool Story Bro!"s that my commando said. Not all of the new characters aren't all home runs, but they aren't all bad and the characters from the first game come back in interesting in interesting ways that surprised me the first time I saw the reveals. The expansions that have come out thus far has furthered my experience with Borderlands 2's inventive guns and enemies and I am excited to play for many more hours when the rest of the DLCs are release next year.
Number 3
This game is one of my biggest surprises of the year. I had not heard or seen anything about it until the Quick Look and I was immediately sold. Spelunky was a new experience for me, it was my first rogue-like(ish) game that I had played and I'm afraid that it won't be topped anytime soon. The traps and creatures you find in the various stages in the game are as much an enemy to you as they are as a friend and I think that's the magic of the game. Even though this game is balls hard and unforgiving, I kept crawling back to it's addictive gameplay, because I just want to help Tunnel Man out. I have almost mastered hanging from the ceiling and throwing a bomb at the shopkeeper while he goes beserk and runs outside of his shop...almost. The multiplayer is just as good, if not better than the single-player. As simple as the multiplayer is, hitting your friend in the face with 99 bombs in 15 seconds could not be more ridiculously gratifying.
Number 2
X:COM is a great blend of turned based strategy with your team of hilariously named dudes fighting aliens and a macro strategy while you're at your base, managing angry countries with apparently no military for themselves. Even the the game's narrative isn't that interesting, my small self made narratives while playing the game were enjoyable. I could just use the rest of this section to tell you stories of Brosef Stalin's heroism, but I would get sad telling you about his seemingly pathetic death at the hands of a swarm of Thin Men. Even though I could of reloaded my save to reverse my increasingly idiotic mistakes, I just kept playing and dealt with the consequences because that would ruin the fun for me. It's extremely stressful when you sprint inside of a building only to crash the sectopod party. As stressful as that is, It was even more rewarding when my snipers just barely killed it thanks to overwatch. I'm glad the gameplay is streamlined from the original so it was possible for a first timer like me to play and enjoy it for over 40 hours. It has the similar effect of Civilization of "just one more turn".
Number 1
Oh, God. This game...The Walking Dead is the only video game that has made me care so much about the characters and how I desperately hoped that they wouldn't die. I can't talk too much about it without being too spoilery, but I will say when I finished an episode, I couldn't put it down. Thanks to buying this game when it was on sale soon after the 5th episode I didn't have to put it down. I played all five episode within the span of 3 days and I think that helped me enjoy the game more because I am not the kind of person who enjoys waiting next week for the new episode of Two and a Half Men (espcially because that show ceased being entertaining as soon as Charlie left). The emotional toll of characters dying didn't have time to resonate in my mind because I was busy trying to keep Clementine and the other survivors alive. Giving myself no time to remorse helped me connect with the characters who also had to just keep going on with life, moving from one place to the next and surviving. The hardhitting, everything is fucked choices are what made this game the masterpiece that it was. It was amazing and making you think you could effect the world even though it was a largely linear story.