2012 GOTY Awards Lobbying Thread

@Winternet Dark Souls for 2012's 2011 GOTY, 2012 had the PC release as well as the awesome Artorias of the Abyss DLC. Amazingly well designed game with a thriving community.

Highest Emotion to Dialogue Ratio: Journey. It manages to be touching and profound, without a single line of dialogue.

Best Downloadable Game could easily go to Mark of the Ninja, Spelunky, Fez, Journey and The Walking Dead. All are very refreshing in their own ways.

Hotline Miami and had great music (also downloadable)

could planet side 2 qualify for best MMO?

There should definitely be a "Most Ambitious Story Telling" category:

- Walking Dead

- Spec Ops: The Line

- Journey

Best Characters: Lee and Clem in The Walking Dead. I actually am about 90% sure they will both make the final GB list, though. It's almost not fair, no other game really even attempted to make characters like TWD did. However, the game did a better job than most movies/TV do of making memorable characters.

Best Co-op: motherfucking PORTAL 2. I am still pissed about their dismissal of it last year. :P

@bkbroiler: meh. They're pretty good but for instance I still think there are better little girl characters out there (Nanako from P4 and probably Yonah from Nier). Binary Domain also has a cast full of deep, multifaceted characters in it.

I need to finish Binary Domain. i'm playing with a 360 controller on my PC and it is infuriating how the buttons don't change appropriately. Also the gameplay is so bland I didn't really feel like continuing.

I don't think Nanako holds a candle to Clem, and I have played most of Nier and don't really recall Yonah being all that memorable or even present in the story. Clem pulls some dramatic goddamn weight in that story. For my money she is the best child character ever created.

This is gonna be madness to maintain.

I think any game that matter to the staff they will remember it. That said I would like to hear some discussion on Spec Ops: The line.

For best story of course but also best character in captain walker.

Hotline Miami - Best Soundtrack it's what I imagine being on cocaine sounds like, and I love it.

If it actually comes out this year I'd nominate Kinect Party (Happy Action Theatre 2) with Best Use of Dubstep.

• Best use of screen tearing in the title of a game: Syndicate

Best use of BURST: Asura's Wrath. Please make this a category.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I think any game that matter to the staff they will remember it. That said I would like to hear some discussion on Spec Ops: The line.

For best story of course but also best character in captain walker.

Seconded, with GUARANTEED win for the Northy. If they sleep on Spec Ops there will be no justice.

@Dtat said:

Journey: GOTY

Journey successfully takes advantage of what makes games a unique medium better than any other game this year: the interactive mechanics. It tells an abstract version of the classic "Hero's Journey" with very little use of narrative techniques from other forms of media. It instead makes you feel and understand things through only the gameplay mechanics. Aspects of human nature are explored in the ways you interact with another person through no traditional means of communication. Any prejudice or preconceptions are stripped away, and your personality is laid bare through your actions alone. I felt a deeper connection to my anonymous, faceless partner than I have ever felt to any character or player in a game. Journey provides you with an experience that cannot be recreated in any other medium. No other game this year can make that claim. If games are to grow as an artistic medium, we need games like Journey that stand solely on the merits and strengths of the things that make them unique. to other forms of expression.

After spending some time trying to express my thoughts about Journey I just gave up because this guy ^ already perfectly stated why Journey should be a top contender for GOTY. While everyone may be pulling for The Walking Dead to take GOTY/ best downloadable game, the outcome pales in comparison in how i felt towards the end of Journey. I was crushed when my partner and i got separated when the snow got too thick, we were there for each other the entire game then I had to go on without him.....that with the tone towards the end of the game made for an exception experience that hasn't been matched yet.

Haytham Kenway. Best new character of the year by far.

Few games make me identify more with one of the antagonists than the main character, also Haytham is Bond but with knives.

Spec Ops The Line - Best Story

Not only did it turn the whole shooter genre and violent games on their head, it also created character progression directly through gameplay as Captain Walker's demeanor and barking became more psychotic.

Best Voice Acting

It's almost perfect that Nolan North was cast as the generic squad leader where your expectations of his happy-go-lucky everyman acting are turned right around alongside his character's downward journey to becoming a stubborn, dissociative, and desperate shell of a man. From saying "tango down" to "kill that motherfucker" and growling "reloading", North delivers animalistic shouts later on that will chill you to the bone. It's a varied performance, and possibly his best to date.

Best Character

Captain Martin Walker starts out as the generic, well-meaning squad leader who then after a traumatic event starts to lose all rational thinking. No longer is his goal to save the civilians out of Dubai, but to focus on someone to pin all his blame to. During combat, no longer are his melee kills fast but drawn-out and more brutal, almost as if he's getting satisfaction. His battle chatter becomes animalistic and psychotic, and by the end Walker is a broken, irredeemable man. He's no longer the protagonist.

@Chavtheworld said:

Oh yeah, as far as actual suggestions for the Bomb crew to check out, I recommend Adera on Windows 8/Microsoft Surface for worst voice acting. It's an adventure game, and the main character has the single worse voice acting I've ever heard.

Agreed. I S-Ranked this game. It's not completely terrible...but the voice acting is. Laughably bad, even for a free game.

Give some rewards to Spec Ops: The Line and Mark of the Ninja, and then I'll be a happy pony..

Best Voice Acting:

• Nolan North as Captain Martin Walker in Spec Ops: The Line. It's a real tour-de-force for the guy, but what would be a stunning performance on its own only gets better due to the added context of North's typecasting as Drake throughout the years.
• James McCaffrey as Max Payne in Max Payne 3. What makes Max Payne as a character is not a leather jacket, having hair or sitting around in New York. It's McCaffrey's jaded, tired delivery - his voice might have changed a little bit, but the spirit's the same.
• Noah Watts as Connor Kenway in Assassin's Creed III. Great performance on a technical level - there's no needless inflection, narm or overacting. His rant to Achilles about sitting on his ass is definitely his finest moment.

2012's 2011 Game Of The Year

• The Binding of Isaac. Wrath of the Lamb adds so much content it might as well could be a sequel.
• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. The Enhanced Edition, the 360 release, there's no reason or excuse to not play this game right now.

Best Story:

• Spec Ops: The Line. Amazing deconstruction of modern military shooters and the entire concept of player agency.
• Hotline Miami. Like Spec Ops, it's a great study of violence and player agency in games. It also uses the medium and the 80's cocaine-dream stylization in some great ways.

Most Disappointing Game/Wasted Potential

• Darksiders II. Remember how Darksiders was a great game that began to drag a bit towards the end? Darksiders II is a great game until you finish the first act, because the devs desperately needed to add 5 hours of gameplay at the cost of completely ruining the pacing.

Best Character:

• Clementine in The Walking Dead. Telltale created a character you want to protect and a kid that's not annoying at all, which is an achievement in itself.

Asura's Wrath - for game of the year for me.

The game was crazy as hell yet, there was a lore (backstory) hidden within the concept art and the other images. Together they helped explain a lot of the events and history (like the split between human and demigod). However, most of it you had to piece together yourself.

Best Character - Asura from Asura's Wrath

They did a really job at giving Asura a backstory which helped players understand both his personality and his hatred and anger at what Deus did to him.

I don't want to bring up the DLC ending as while it was worth it and did finalize the games ending, it cost money which was kinda of an insane move on their part (but, still totally worth it in the end).

Man I really didn't play anything new this year with my crappy laptop while in the states. I'll have to check out all this stuff when I get back home. Also I know literally nothing about Asura's Wrath.

@Kyreo said:

Hotline Miami - Best Music

I cannot agree with this enough. I can't think of a more tone perfect soundtrack in any media property recently.

The most surprising game of the year - Sleeping Dogs, Why? was cancelled by Activision and picked up by Square Enix it has great characters fun missions beautiful graphics especially the reflections and lighting in the game.But the biggest reason is the combat in the game the best in any sandbox game ever made very addictive and fun.On a side note major props to Square Enix for publishing this game also there doing fantastic jobs on there PC versions of there games.If there is publisher of the year award mine goes to Square they are doing justice for PC gamers.

Best Music - Max Payne 3

The soundtrack by Health just fits the mood and style of the game perfectly. The music has stuck with me long after I beat the game.

Best Voice Acting - Nolan North as Captain Martin Walker

Nolan North's performance in Spec Ops: The Line blew me away and changed my opinion of Nolan North completely. Truly amazing.

Best Story - Spec Ops: The Line

The way Spec Ops deconstructs the shooter genre is fantastic. Both the subtle touches and big events throughout the game make it the most memorable story this year.

Best Character - Clementine from The Walking Dead

Telltale's ability to make me care for a character in such a short amount of time is amazing. The emotional connect you develop with Clementine is really something else.

Best Graphics - Asura's Wrath

Asura's Wrath just oozes with style. From the unique character designs to the sheer beautiful scale of the set pieces, Asura's Wrath takes the cake when it comes to graphics.

@Winternet: YOU DON' FUCKED UP SON, I WAS TALKIN' 'BOUT CONNOR KENWAY, NOT HAYTHAM KENWAY

Also, I forgot about this:

Best Soundtrack:

• HEALTH for Max Payne 3. It's great music, "Tears" is the song of 2012 and unlike many other OSTs, Health's music stands on its own.

@Ghostiet: You right, my bad. Fixed now.

Have to lobby The Darkness 2 for Story and maybe character (that crazy dude telling you about artifacts and the darkness)

Most Disappointing Game = saying Mass Effect is too easy and putting Darksiders 2 here is a joke. I will go with Doom 3 BFG for a lazy job on delivering interesting title.

@Danteveli: If you could develop a bit on your thoughts and reasons about The Darkness 2 story and the character I gladly add it to the list. Just so I can have a sentence or two in there.

@Ghostiet said:

Best Soundtrack:

• HEALTH for Max Payne 3. It's great music, "Tears" is the song of 2012 and unlike many other OSTs, Health's music stands on its own.

This this this. If Health don't win a prize for best licensed song in a game for 2012, I'm gonna dive out from cover, go into bullet time and shoot some dudes in the skull.

I know the crew doesn't care for it, but I'll echo Dark Souls as the best 2011 game in 2012, no matter how underdeveloped it was, the PC version did a lot for the game and its fanbase, and the DLC was just great. I spent as much time with it this year on PC as I did on release for 360, which brings me to a total of at least 200 hours. I'd like to hear a mention of it at the very least!

I liked Asura, but its not what I want from a game. The value would only have been slightly lessened as a movie, and there's so much stuff to nitpick on. Still would love to hear the crew give some opinions on it. It's definitely one of the most interesting releases, and prettiest game of the year by far. Love that artstyle.

Other than that, I only really cared about Mark of the Ninja and Xcom this year... And those are 100% getting discussed on the casts.

I think the biggest surprise of the year Is Dragon's Dogma.

I was not even aware of Dragon's Dogma until i saw the Quick Look of it. After seeing the combat system I decided to give it a try and ended up spending more time in this game than any other game this year.

I nominate Asura's Wrath and Sleeping Dogs for "Biggest Gap Between How Good a Game Is and How Bad It Could/Should Have Been." Perhaps Hotline Miami, too.

Asura's Wrath because it was a $60 2-3 hour QTE that (arguably) didn't even wrap up what little story there was unless you paid an extra $15 for the DLC. It's just about the perfect embodiment of what's wrong with modern video games, but goddamn if it wasn't a ride worth taking. I feel guilty about loving that game because of the terrible precedent it sets for other publishers.

Sleeping Dogs because it's origin as an orphaned True Crime sequel. Not that the True Crime games were bad, necessarily, it's just hard to expect much from a game that gets half-built, cancelled, sold for parts, then reassembled under a different name by a different developer. Somehow it all worked out, though.

Hotline Miami because the other games by Cactus that I've played (Mondo Medical, Hot Throttle, and some other that I can't remember the name of) have been interesting, but not necessarily very fun. I'd have expected Hotline Miami to be a clever little novelty, but we got one of the best games of the year (in my opinion).

@awesomeusername said:

The Walking Dead - Best story, Best Characters, GOTY.

I agree. And specifically Lee Everett for Best Character.

This might sound weird but I don't really want the guys to talk about stuff just because we have voted for it, or made a list or something. If they are not interested then it won't be good discussion. If this list can jog their memories and remind them of some things they should try and play before GOTY then that should be all it should do.

I hope this does't sound like I am shitting on @Winternet 's efforts, its just my opinion. Anyway my two cents worth are:

Sleeping Dogs for most surprising game and biggest waste of celebrity voiceover talent, I think Emma Stone has said one line to me so far. For best Villain, i'm really liking Dexter from Hitman, really sleezy and awful and delivered with real relish by the actor.

I'd also like to say that all GOTY talk is irrelevant until Far Cry 3 comes out this week cos that game looks amazing. Also to all the people voting for Spec Ops as GOTY you are crazy, it had an interesting story and a few cool moments but the fact that people are rating that game so highly just goes to show how bad video game narrative can be.

Lastly I would vote for Max Paine 3 as most underrated game of the year with the best action (untill FC3 maybe), and best music. The soundtrack was amazing, really adding to the sense of jittery, out of control mayhem. Shame so many people hated that game.

@stooven said:

I think the biggest surprise of the year Is Dragon's Dogma.

I agree. I also would love to see Dishonored as Best New Story or New Ip. That game was excellent and the story and environments where immersive and very well done.

Soul Calibur 5 deserves an award for best multiplayer. In a world where games nearly always open with a disaster of netcode, months of trouble with patching, and fighting games in particular are subject to these it's a miracle that this game turned out the way it did. Being able to play, on decent American internet, against people on different continents is a feat in and of itself, not to mention the blast that the game is to play in any of its multiplayer modes at any skill level. The usual "if someone is wildly better than you" rule applies as it does to any competitive game.

It's quite amazing that you could literally use the netplay as a way to learn the game from a legitimately competitive standpoint. That hasn't been the case since BlazBlue, which actually fucked itself from a competitive standpoint unlike SC5. That's not even mentioning the character creation's implementation in multiplayer (mostly due to an overabundance of dicks).

Best Downloadable Game - FTL & Mark of the Ninja should be on there.

@stooven said:

I think the biggest surprise of the year Is Dragon's Dogma.

Again, a small explanation behind it and I can add it to the list.

Flat-out, I think they should consider Hotline Miami for Game of the Year. It's an incredibly tight, well-crafted experience that doesn't overstay its welcome. The internet has more than proven that it's a game with multiple interpretations when it comes to its story, meaning, and existence as a game overall. Moreover, it's the one game in the last decade that I can think of which was willing to be nearly as brutal and bloody as it was. Seriously, that game went places a lot of others won't dare to.

The soundtrack was great, it had a ton of replay value, and the visual aesthetic was a great use of pixel art. It can easily contend against stuff like XCOM and The Walking Dead.

@Atlas: I just recently got Darksiders 2. I've been playing through it, and I'm failing to see where that game is disappointing at all. Maybe I just have an innate love for that franchise which puts blinders on my eyes, but I'm having massive amounts of fun with it. The level of scale that they added to the whole thing is so fucking fantastic! Honestly, Diablo 3 is MASSIVELY more disappointing. SHOW OF HANDS: WHO IS STILL PLAYING DIABLO 3? That's right - not many. They killed it with later patches. I quit playing and haven't turned back since (well, once to check out the Paragon stuff...that lasted all of thirty minutes).

Starhawk for best Multiplayer, a game that combined the meaty feel of Red Faction Guerilla with seamless RTS elements and great vehicles.

It also has a great soundtrack and surprisingly decent campaign, but the mp is where it really shines.

Sad that OP won't consider my plug for Journey as GOTY :(

Krater: Best music (alternatively best song. I would go for Parabolic Hyperflies, but take your pick)

The best part of the game. Atmospheric and beautiful.

The best 80's inspired music of this year came months before Hotline Miami

@Winternet said:

Hey duders! What's up? So, that's that time of the year, huh. I personally can't wait for the Giant Bomb GOTY discussions and deliberations to start. It's always a high point for me on the video games calendar, as I assume it is for many of you.

The GB podcasts for Game of the Year are always great, but there's always a time that comes out during the show that you think to yourself "man, it would be great if they had said something about this game here" or "it would be great if they focused more on this part of this game" or "I believe this game should have been at least mentioned on this category". It's with these thoughts in mind, which I believe have come up at least once for everyone during these occasions, that I came up with the idea to create this thread (I've wanted to do it for a while, but never had the time to do it).

Wait, what is this about?

The purpose is for the community to gather their opinions and then hopefully pass them through to the crew.

Note: This is not about us telling them what we think should win GOTY or any other category. It's not about a bunch of people going "Halo 4 is GOTY" or "XCOM is GOTY" and so on. This is about stimulating discussion about certain games/categories that we feel need to be addressed. It's also not about super obscure games that 10 people in the world know about their existence.

And how does this work?

It's very simple. Just name the game(s), category(s) and a small commentary explaining your opinion. I'll add them here (if they're not stupid, not in a good way) and then I'll make sure the crew gets hold of it. (actually, I can't promise that, so I'll just say I'll try my best). If the game and opinion you were thinking about is already on the list, make sure to name it as well, since the more people are backing up a game the stronger that opinion gets. You may also been thinking about a game or a particularity about said game, but you don't know in which category that would fall in or you don't really care where that game comes up during discussions, as long it's mentioned, you can bring that idea forth as well. Everything goes (almost everything).

I'll give an example. I think Asura's Wrath is a game worth being discussed. I'm not really sure in which category it should appear (even if in the main one), but I think it's worth a bit of focus from the crew. At the time of the release, the opinions tossed around by them would end up inevitably in "well, but for 60 dollars . . ". I would like them to now take that game in consideration without that idea in mind.

Another example (this one a bit more unreasonable). I did not like that last year "The Binding Of Isaac" was brushed aside from the discussions. So, I say that it should be considered for the "2012's 2011 Game Of The Year" category. Yeah, it only got an expansion, but it was so good and it lengthen the game by so much.

Well, I think I've said all I needed to say. I hope you guys like the idea and participate. I also am not naive. I know the chances of this having an actual impact on the GOTY deliberations are very slim (but how awesome would it be if it did?), so I encourage we also take this thread to discuss between us the ideas that are tossed around in here.

Happy discussions!

The List

Video Game	Category(s)	Comment	User(s)
Asura's Wrath	Game Of The Year Best Character (Asura) Best Graphics	"The discussion around the game should now take place without the "it costs 60 dollars" aspect that was part of the discussions at the time of the release." "I can't really explain, I just really liked him." "They did a really job at giving Asura a backstory which helped players understand both his personality and his hatred and anger" "I think I'd like to see Asura's Wrath jokingly nominated in every category." "This game is beautiful, very unique. The characters look like they were carved out of stone. The scope and scale really make the visuals stand out." "Asura's Wrath just oozes with style. From the unique character designs to the sheer beautiful scale of the set pieces, Asura's Wrath takes the cake when it comes to graphics."	@Winternet @Spike_Kojima @Cloudenvy @YI_Orange @handsomeb @Jackhole @GTCknight @deathfury
The Binding Of Isaac	2012's 2011 Game Of The Year	"The Wrath of the Lamb expansion gave a new breath to this game and extended it's longevity immensely." " Wrath of the Lamb adds so much content it might as well could be a sequel."	@Winternet @Ghostiet
Binary Domain	Best Character (Cain)	"A polite, very dry, very witty robot who is also a FRENCH JAMES BOND." "Big Bo isn't the best thing about the game, Cain is"	@Cheesebob @GunstarRed @Vitor
Journey	Best Multiplayer Best Music	"The way the game handles multiplayer is in a way revolutionary, getting people to work together regardless of their personalities. This aspect should not be overlooked." "It's incredibly well scored and ties into the emotional experience of playing the game extremely well. (...) no game used music to heighten the game's atmosphere like Journey."	@Master_Funk @Atlas
Kid Icarus: Uprising	Best/Most/Funniest Writting/Voice Acting	"I want to say Kid Icarus for something"	@GunstarRed
Persona 4 Arena	Best Soundtrack	"The music is largely original and all around great. (...) it's almost criminal not to acknowledge it's music."	@YI_Orange
Borderlands 2	Best Character/Villain (Handsome Jack)	"(...) I think Handsome Jack is an incredibly effective villain. (...) he's someone I genuinely hated by the end of that game. "	@YI_Orange
Adera	Worst Voice Acting	" It's an adventure game, and the main character has the single worse voice acting I've ever heard." "Laughably bad, even for a free game."	@Chavtheworld @TopCat88
Darksiders II	Most Disappointing Game	"(...) the game was a huge sales disappointment for the studio. I know this category is usually about design and gameplay, but I just thought I'd introduce a different spin on an established category" "Darksiders II is a great game until you finish the first act, because the devs desperately needed to add 5 hours of gameplay at the cost of completely ruining the pacing."	@Atlas @Ghostiet
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	2012's 2011 Game Of The Year	"(...) the implementation of Steam Workshop, which made modding the game easier and more accessible than it had ever been. And in a game that for some is as dependent on mods as an Elder Scrolls game, that's a huge positive."	@Atlas
Need For Speed: Most Wanted	Best "Big Ass Ramp" Game	"Massive weight and inertia simulation is (...) what makes driving and jumping its cars so rewarding."	@Seppli
	Best Trend of 2012 (Consequential/Impactful Decision-Making in a Linear Story)	"It's been one of the most interesting parts of 2012, and has popped up time and time again (Spec Ops: The Line, The Walking Dead, Black Ops II apparently). It's something that deserves recognition."	@RPGee
Sid Meier's Civilization V	2012's 2010 Game Of The Year	"With Gods and Kings, Civ 5 got expanded to a point of absurdity." "Vanilla Civ 5 was truly awesome; with G&K, it's even better." "This category is so silly, that it has to exist. And CIV V is the perfect game for it."	@ThePickle @Atlas @Winternet
Battlefield 3	2012's 2011 Game Of The Year	"There's been a lot of extra content; 3 map packs this year counting Aftermath, Premium Content (Assignments, Double XP events), Private Servers. (...) I'd just like to see it in the discussion."	@handsomeb
Dark Souls	2012's 2011 Game Of The Year	"had the PC release as well as the awesome Artorias of the Abyss DLC. Amazingly well designed game with a thriving community." "the PC version did a lot for the game and its fanbase, and the DLC was just great. I spent as much time with it this year on PC as I did on release for 360"	@YOU_DIED @TobbRobb
Assassins's Creed III	Best Character/Villain (Haytham Kenway) Best Voice Acting (Connor Kenway)	"Few games make me identify more with one of the antagonists than the main character, also Haytham is Bond but with knives." "Great performance on a technical level - there's no needless inflection, narm or overacting. His rant to Achilles about sitting on his ass is definitely his finest moment."	@adam1808 @Ghostiet
The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings	2012's 2011 Game Of The Year	"The Enhanced Edition, the 360 release, there's no reason or excuse to not play this game right now."	@Ghostiet
Max Payne 3	Best Voice Acting (Max Payne) Best Music	"What makes Max Payne as a character (...) It's McCaffrey's jaded, tired delivery - his voice might have changed a little bit, but the spirit's the same." "The soundtrack by Health just fit the mood and style of the game perfectly. The music has stuck with me long after I beat the game."	@Ghostiet @deathfury @Ghostiet @bibamatt @leebmx
Spec Ops: The Line	Game Of The Year Best Story Best Character / Best Voice Acting (Captain Walker)	"An average shooter with nothing special going on at the gameplay front. But still, by the end of the game, it left a mark like few other games have in recent years." "Not only did it turn the whole shooter genre and violent games on their head, it also created character progression directly through gameplay as Captain Walker's demeanor and barking became more psychotic." "The way Spec Ops deconstructs the shooter genre is fantastic. Both the subtle touches and big events throughout the game make it the most memorable story this year." "(...) North delivers animalistic shouts later on that will chill you to the bone. It's a varied performance, and possibly his best to date." "Captain Martin Walker starts out as the generic, well-meaning squad leader who then after a traumatic event starts to lose all rational thinking. No longer is his goal to save the civilians out of Dubai, but to focus on someone to pin all his blame to. During combat, no longer are his melee kills fast but drawn-out and more brutal, almost as if he's getting satisfaction. His battle chatter becomes animalistic and psychotic, and by the end Walker is a broken, irredeemable man. He's no longer the protagonist."	@Winternet @AssInAss @Ghostiet @ImmortalSaiyan @Chumm @Village_Guy @deathfury
Sleeping Dogs	Most Surprising Game	"cancelled by Activision and picked up by Square Enix it has great characters fun missions beautiful graphics (...) But the biggest reason is the combat in the game"	@JEC03
Hitman: Absolution	Best Character/Villain (Dexter)	" really sleezy and awful and delivered with real relish by the actor."	@leebmx
Soulcalibur V	Best Multiplayer	"Being able to play, on decent American internet, against people on different continents is a feat in and of itself, not to mention the blast that the game is to play in any of its multiplayer modes at any skill level. It's quite amazing that you could literally use the netplay as a way to learn the game from a legitimately competitive standpoint."	@SirOptimusPrime

The Walking Dead for Game of the Year and Story of the Year. I was in tears at that ending no game has ever moved me personally as much as The Walking Dead

For a year that honestly was pretty mediocre (end of generation, financial crises at various developers, etc), I'm not sure there are enough dark horses to warrant such a thread? Something is terribly wrong when the same titles start popping up...

Oh well, let's start parading out the dark horses, before we send them to the glue factory (caveat: I never had enough time to play most of them, but hearsay and hype at release are still great gauges for GoTY considerations).

• Best Music / Wii game: Rhythm Heaven Fever (Wii): For a console that started its dominance with a mini-game collection, it's only fitting that its final outing would be another mini-game collection. And for a generation that saw the rise and fall of music / rhythm games, it's oddly appropriate that its swan song would be on the most popular console. Though by all accounts the visuals are striking, the music catchy and the games challenging, it still leaves a bitter aftertaste saying goodbye to the piles of plastic instruments and dust gathering Wiis.
• Best Music / Vita game: Lumines: Electronic Symphony (Vita): The game that most people will admit was glued into their PSPs makes a triumphant return to another Sony handheld. People love the music, people love the visuals. The 249 USD / EUR price tag for a Vita and almost no games in the foreseeable future? Not so much.
• Biggest Surprise: Battleship (360 / PS3): You can have your so-called sleeper hits. I'm looking at you Sleeping Dogs, Asura's Wrath, Spec Ops: The Line. My pick is Battleship. Yes, it is a licensed game. Yes, they're generally shit. Yes, it's another FPS. But somehow Double Helix, makers of such gems as Front Mission Evolved and GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, added in enough novelty in it that it made for one of the most surprising Quick Looks this year.
• Biggest Surprise: Tokyo Jungle (PS3): There was a time when Japanese games were, to put it mildly, eccentric. Despite their oddities, there was always something compelling about them: whether it was a solid gameplay mechanic, the utter insanity of their plots, or a fiendishly designed difficulty curve, they always seemed to lure you back in. Tokyo Jungle has it all, and though you could initially dismiss it with another sigh of "Oh, Japan...", this tiny little game showed that there still are some developers in Japan that are willing to go crazy.

And now... The walk of shame:

• Biggest Disappointment: Street Fighter X Tekken (PS3 / 360 / Vita): On paper, this showed so much promise. Pitting two of the fighting game genre's giants against each other, they had to do something right. Right? Well, it's still a good fighting game. But small annoyances like the Gem system, fighters locked behind a DLC wall, dodgy online, initial bugs and Capcom's own tendency to saturate the fighting game market (Marvel vs Capcom 3, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, SFxT, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure HD, and Marvel vs Capcom Origins? Really, Capcom?!) left a sour taste even in the most favourable of fans.
• Biggest Disappointment: I Am Alive (PC / PS3 / 360): Remember E3 2008? Yes, it has been that long. How Ubisoft can release a string of Assassin's Creed games (count them: 4 main AC games since 2008!) and still release a game in which the traversal is buggy, the combat is uninspiring and the plot is utter nonsense. Wait, that's at least one thing it has in common with the AC games.
• Biggest Disappointment: PSVita: Well. I guess one word pretty much sums up the Vita, if not the amount of compelling games that are unique to the system.

@Dtat: :) Like I said in the first post, there's no reason to add Journey for that category, because they will undoubtedly talk about it. I think Journey will make the personal top10 list of at least two of the duders.

@sarge1445: Same thing goes for your case. The Walking Dead will be all over the Best Story/Game Of The Year categories.

 @Gaff said: 

• Biggest Disappointment: Street Fighter X Tekken (PS3 / 360 / Vita): On paper, this showed so much promise. Pitting two of the fighting game genre's giants against each other, they had to do something right. Right? Well, it's still a good fighting game. But small annoyances like the Gem system, fighters locked behind a DLC wall, dodgy online, initial bugs and Capcom's own tendency to saturate the fighting game market (Marvel vs Capcom 3, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, SFxT, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure HD, and Marvel vs Capcom Origins? Really, Capcom?!) left a sour taste even in the most favourable of fans.
• Biggest Disappointment: I Am Alive (PC / PS3 / 360): Remember E3 2008? Yes, it has been that long. How Ubisoft can release a string of Assassin's Creed games (count them: 4 main AC games since 2008!) and still release a game in which the traversal is buggy, the combat is uninspiring and the plot is utter nonsense. Wait, that's at least one thing it has in common with the AC games.
• Biggest Disappointment: PSVita: Well. I guess one word pretty much sums up the Vita, if not the amount of compelling games that are unique to the system.

You can add me to the 2012's 2011 Game Of The Year - Dark Souls category.

I spent more time playing that game on PC than I did on PS3 the first time through. Not to mention that the game looks even better running in higher resolution and with the PC Mods installed with more detail than the console versions.

Steel Battalion Heavy Armor for most disappointing game

It may say "Steel Battalion Heavy Armor" but all the people who bought the Kinect hear is "bummer".