Here is my GotY list for 2012. It has been compiled with the help of this list that I have been updating throughout the year.
I want to throw out a mention about Virtue's Last Reward. I just finished 999 last week, and got a Vita last month, however, I haven't gotten around to playing VLR yet. I feel extremely confident that it would be on this list. I loved 999 so much that I wanted to at least mention VLR.
These games are amazing. I find the story telling, writing and characters to be really interesting and enjoyable. The controls during the more action-oriented sequences need a little work and can be annoying, but I find those sections don't detract from my enjoyment of the rest of the game.
As most people I was disappointed in the ending, but none of that changed the fact that I had a lot of fun playing the game. I love the Mass Effect series. It's probably my favorite series to come out of this generation of consoles, and despite the ending, I loved this game.
When I first heard of this game I wasn't all that interested because I didn't care for Shank or Shank 2 all that much. That being said, I love this game. Every moment of it was enjoyable. I'm not a huge fan of stealth games, but everything about this game feels right. I honestly can't think of one thing that I disliked. Proves that you should never judge a game based on the developer's past games, or you may miss out on something great.
I wouldn't say that I love open world games, but I do enjoy playing some of them. That being said, I really liked Sleeping Dogs. I liked the setting, I liked the characters, and I liked the focus on hand to hand combat instead of guns(although there are guns too).
Is a good portion of this game QTE's and cutscenes? Yes. Does that stop it from being batshit insane and completely awesome? Hell no. I just flat out had a ton of fun playing through this and watching everything unfold.
I will admit that I haven't quite finished this game yet. I am right there at the end, but just haven't sat down to finish it up. I loved playing this so much that I just couldn't leave it off of my list. I really like everything about it. The combat, the visuals, the characters, the story, it's great. And kind of amazing that it was mainly done by one dude.
Another one that I have yet to sit down and complete despite being near the end. I currently have around 75 hours invested in this game, and I have found it to be wonderful. The story and characters are great, and I think the game looks beautiful.
I've always had a love of turn based strategy games. Final Fantasy Tactics, Shining Force, Fire Emblem, etc. However, I had never played any of the Xcom games. I didn't even really know that this game was turn based until seeing videos about it. I loved playing this game. The difficulty can get rough at times and there isn't much of a story, but I found the game play extremely fun. I did run into some problems. Had a couple system lock-ups near the end, and I felt the last mission was vastly more difficult than anything before(which always kinda bugs me). None of that was enough to stop me from having a really good time with this game.
The reason Dragon's Dogma ends up on this list for me is the combat. I greatly enjoyed the combat of the various classes you can play as. I found playing the game and fighting enemies to be just plain fun.
Not much to say about Borderlands 2. As others have said, it's more Borderlands, but with some slight improvements. I think it looks a little better, controls better, and has way more unique weapon types. I'm really enjoying playing it, as I did the first.
