Here's the official list. Some games that came close but didn't cut it: Journey, Civilization V: Gods and Kings, Crusader Kings II and Mark of the Ninja.
Some games that came out this year, that you might expect to see here, but I didn't get to play: Dishonored, Sleeping Dogs, Hitman Absolution, Syndicate, Persona 4 Golden, Darksiders II, The Last Story and Borderlands 2. Maybe next year I'll clean shop.
This game snuck up on me. I went into it with no knowledge of what made it good and only the foggiest interpretation of what the gameplay mechanics were. What I got was a sublime blend of hyperviolent action and visuals paired with the best music and most surreal story I've seen in a game. This isn't just a well thought-out game that hits what it's aiming for. It's the full actualization of the designer's vision of the most psychotic world made for video games. There isn't another game that I can recall that challenged my twitch reflexes just as much as it demanded an intelligent understanding of what the game was about. I may be reading too far into the bizarre plotline found in the game, but there's enough there to warrant multiple playthroughs for some level of analysis. If not for that reason, the quick-reflex violence provides a plethora of comical or tense moments that you'll want to revisit several times. Hotline Miami is what I would call a perfect game, there isn't anything I would change about it to make it better. That's something I can't say for most games, let alone ones from this year, which is why I can safely pick it as my 2012 Game of the Year.
There's nothing more frustrating than seeing a developer come close but eventually miss and there's nothing more satisfying than seeing an array of good ideas work perfectly together. Those two emotions accurately summarize my experiences with Far Cry 2 and Far Cry 3. Four years ago, I grinded through what I would call a less-than-enjoyable game just to get an iota of the ambition that Far Cry 2 had. That moment never came in 2008, but Ubisoft was given another shot this year and nailed every aspect perfectly. Far Cry 3 is best summed up as "Far Cry 2 if it was good," which is saying a lot to me. The open world jungle allows for multiple mechanics to be at-play at all times. Occasionally leading to a perfect storm of coincidences that provide an unforgettable one-off encounter. Far Cry 3 manages to repeat these moments multiple times without the crutch of scripted mission structures. In other words, it feels like magic when things go right and they rarely go wrong. You could be invading a rebel camp and suddenly a pack of wild dogs have already begun to terrorize your enemies. As you approach the camp using stealth, the world can turn on you again in an instance with the appearance of a tiger trying to rip you to shreds. There's no one moment that all players of Far Cry 3 share in common, but they all have a list of their own crazy stories. This emergent gameplay style makes a terrific case for how video games can be uniquely excellent and Far Cry 3 presents that viewpoint better than any other game this year.
I'll always be bummed over the backlast over 2K's XCOM first person shooter, especially since it seems like the game may never come out at this rate, but I can't hold those negative emotions against the by-product of that reboot, Firaxis' XCOM: Enemy Unknown. This is close to my dream game. A game that combines the tactics and overworld elements from strategy games along with tactical action and skilled planning found in well thought-out shooters. Enemy Unknown is almost too-good to be true, but it does bare a few faults to keep it from perfect. However, the minor flaws are overlooked by the cerebral experience that is entirely unique to Enemy Unknown. Unless you want to trek back to 90s era PC games, they just don't make games like this anymore. It was thrilling to combat the alien threat with my squadron of nicknamed Commanders and I've never been as crushed over a character's death, than I was watching one of my top officers fall victim to an alien ambush. XCOM brings you up as much as it smacks you back down, which causes an understandable love-hate relationship. But I'll always go back to this game no matter how much it abuses me because I know there's simply nothing else like it and has no business being as good as it is.
I never thought I would see the day where I named a fighting game as one of my favorites for the year. I've haven't been able to penetrate the genre in the past and wondered if there would ever be a game that would open its doors to me and allow me to experience what everyone else loved about these games. I might not be an aficionado just yet, but Persona 4 Arena has certainly laid the ground work. I found the combos easy to perform and the internal logic uncharacteristically approachable. For the first time, I felt like I really understood what I was supposed to be doing. This may just be the result of the Persona theme keeping my interest or maybe the game is expertly designed to welcome newcomers and invite them into the world of fighting games. I'm not sure either way, but I do know that I've played meat bowls worth of this game and enjoyed almost every second of it, minus all the controller throwing.
If I was a drug addict, than choices in video games would be my vice of choice. I absolutely love the idea of choices in games and how each player can have different experiences with the same game. The Walking Dead sold me on that concept with its first episode, and I've counted the days for the next release every month since. I will admit that the series was not always good to me. Most of the choices seemed to be meaningless in the end and Episode 3 was a complete slap in the face, but I never expected to get as invested in this story as I was. Telltale has created a landmark in video game storytelling, both through the main character Lee and his child companion Clementine. For once we have good examples of black and child characters who don't fall victim to obvious stereotypes or annoying personalities. As a game, there's not much you do to interact with The Walking Dead, but what little involvement you have connects you to the story and characters more effectively than any game this year. Each episode beats down your optimism and by the time you finish the series you'll learn if a video game can make you cry. The best part is despite how depressing and sad the tale may become, you'll love every second of it.
Most people probably won't look back on The Darkness II as fondly as I have, which is perhaps part of the reason I added it to this list at all. I feel gamers collectively get attached to gimmicks of franchises that make them standout from the genre they're a part of but forget about why we like that genre in the first place. The Darkness II doesn't pull any unique tricks to the first person shooter formula that we haven't seen already, but what it does have it executes very well. I think there's something worth rewarding when The Darkness II's basic function of shooting bad guys is more fun in this game than in many others. The reason for this is because all of the development pieces click together perfectly. The guns have thick sound effects that make them sound as lethal as they are. The unique art style makes environmental details pop-out and leaves a visual impression. The story is carefully paced and the voice actors make you believe the characters you're playing as. If video games were made based off of check lists, The Darkness II would likely have a very high score. It may have some faults, but I know the first thing I did after finishing The Darkness II was load it up from the beginning for another go around, and that's reason alone to call it one of my favorites from this.
If it weren't for the booming popularity of websites like Kickstarter or the recognition that small indie games have developed over the past few years, I probably would've started this entry with "this is a game no one has heard about and even fewer have played." Luckily, we don't live in that world and FTL has rocketed in popularity faster than... well you know. And for good reason too. Simple in concept but grand in imagination, FTL allowed me to fill in the blanks of all my Spaceship commanding dreams. Over the course of my FTL playthroughs I've discovered I'm not very original and mainly name my ships and crew members off of other famous Sci-Fi, but that's the beauty of the game. You can impose whatever narrative you feel is appropriate and see how far you can get across the galaxy. For $10 dollars there's a lot of great ideas at work in FTL. My only wish is that this not be the last we've seen of the developers and that they expand their concepts into further nerdom in future iterations. Specifically: a firefly expansion of some kind, wouldn't that be cool?
It's pretty difficult to follow up after Mass Effect 2, which I'm pretty sure is one of the best games ever. With that in mind, it was easy to swallow how much Mass Effect 3 didn't accomplish, because it'd be unbelievable if they managed to make that kind of magic again while simultaneously wrapping up an entire universe-worth of fiction. Still, Mass Effect 3 is quite a good game and scratches all those Mass Effect itches we've had since its predecessor two years ago. The combat has been slightly improved to make moving around the battlefield a bit smoother and some new ideas have been added to make the action feel like an action game instead of an RPG trying to be an action game. Of course the storylines all get wrapped up in this game with some conclusions being more satisfying than others, but at the end of the day it's still the Mass Effect story we've invested so much into, it'd be hard to completely screw everything up. Unfortunately the game does fumble on a few occasions such as the low number of squadmates you get to interact with, much of the best content being locked up in DLC and of course that original ending which will likely outlive the game's own legacy. Regardless, Mass Effect 3 is as good of an endpoint for the series as any of us could've realistically expected and anyone with an interest in the Sci-Fi genre should give it a whirl.
I'm doing a lot of damage to my credibility, because Fez is another game I have not finished but I doubt many people have. Unlike Xenoblade, I've spent a great deal longer with Fez and experienced most of the baseline it has to offer. Most people probably love Fez for the absolute nuts level of secrets and hidden puzzles found in the game, but even if you can never penetrate that high-intellect level of problem solving, the base game is fantastic on its own right. The 3D world flipping mechanic allows for interesting puzzles that haven't been seen before and the design leaves enough bread crumbs for you to find your way without feeling like a moron. Fez opens a portal to the 16-bit games of the past and allows you to relive your childhood in all the ways you'd like to remember. There's a classic game to be enjoyed here, even if you never can decipher what the writing on the wall means.
Unfortunately I'm only ten hours in Xenoblade Chronicles which doesn't come close to warrant a full-on appraisal of the game or even an accurate impression of what I like about, but I do know that I like what I've seen and heard it only gets better. I've avoided the JRPG genre for a long time because of the conventions that seemed to be cemented in place, with no sign of change. Xenoblade is the maverick that intends to rock the boat. There's no long introduction, you start playing the game immediately, you can save anywhere, there's item customization and skill progression that's attuned to your style, you can choose which party member you play as and a boatload of other great innovations to a genre I almost viewed as dead. I'll consider it an apology letter for Final Fantasy XIII and begin to look at this genre with more optimism in the future.
