2012: Quietly turning into a fantastic year

EmperorSubcutaneous

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Dec 22, 2010
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Personally...

1. Journey
2. Guild Wars 2
3. Botanicula

I don't buy games very often, or even play them really, but these three games were not only ones I was greatly looking forward to, but also met or exceeded my expectations. They're now all on my top 10.

Dear Esther, The Secret World, Slender: The Eight Pages, and even Mass Effect 3 also get points. Spec Ops: The Line, Torchlight 2, and Borderlands 2 are making me interested in trying out genres I've never cared about before, so they get points too. And I'd also like to check out The Unfinished Swan, and Okami HD as well (if that counts).

Yeah, it's been a pretty good year.
 

Sight Unseen

The North Remembers
Nov 18, 2009
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Best surprise games for me this year is a close one between these two games for me:

1. The Walking Dead
2. Dishonored

Both games I didn't realize were even in development until about a month before they came out, and both are game of the year candidates for me, easily!
 

Woodsey

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Aug 9, 2009
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It's been OK. Lots of games but nothing that's utterly torn me a new arse hole.

Dishonored is, mechanically, utterly wonderful - a true Immersive Sim, for sure - but its narrative has left me surprisingly despondent.

Sleeping Dogs was the definition of average, I don't see why everyone's cumming over that. It failed at making you actually play an undercover cop (think Splinter Cell: Double Agent for how to do it properly), and has no thrust of its own. It's GTA IV, except the mechanics aren't shit. But then loads of sandbox crime games have managed that since then, and "then" was five years ago.

Spec Ops was excellent, but in making its point it's burdened by the fact that it has to fully embody a generic shooter to do so.

Mass Effect 3 was great too - yeah, the ending was pants, but the whole thing's one long instance of emotional catharsis, which was an unusual and gratifying experience to have.

And then there was DayZ, of course - my love.

But 2011 had the killer trio of Portal 2, The Witcher 2 and Human Revolution. This year, not so much.

[sub]Oh, and Journey was shit! You've all been horribly, horribly duped.[/sub]
 

Baron_Rouge

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Oct 30, 2009
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Spec Ops: The Line was my biggest surprise of the year. It completely took me in, and whisked me away to a land of pain, suffering, and horrible guilt. A fantastic experience. My top 3 are as follows:

1. Spec Ops: The Line
2: Dragon's Dogma/Kingdoms of Amalur (I can't decide between the two)
3: Journey

There were plenty of others too. Starhawk, Torchlight 2 and Tokyo Jungle immediately spring to mind, with PS All-Stars, AC III and AC: Liberation looking to make this a pretty brilliant year for gaming.
 

Baron_Rouge

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Woodsey said:
Oh, and Journey was shit. You've all been horribly, horribly duped.
I had a moving, emotional experience. I constantly marvelled at the artistic design, and I went back to play it multiple times after I'd finished it. I felt a whole range of emotions when I played it, from sadness to joy to wonder. It made me hopeful about the future of gaming, and it made me appreciate living in an age of interactive media where experiences like this are possible. I felt more playing this game than any game in recent memory, and I got all of that for $20.

You may not have had the same experience as me, but please enlighten me; how have I been duped?
 

peruvianskys

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The Madman said:
There have been a lot of great games released lately, but even so my favourite so far has still probably got to go to Crusader Kings 2, which has probably turned into one of my favourite strategy games not only in recent years but, well, ever. It's just such a fantastic take on grand strategy driven not by numbers or statistics but instead by personal relationships, plotting, backstabbing, and personalities. That it also includes the strategic elements of armies and conquest is just the icing on the cake.

Crusader Kings 2, my game of the year almost without doubt.
Seconded, I'm absolutely in love with it still. I think it may be my most-played game of all time.

Top five for me would be, in no order:

Dishonored
Crusader Kings II
FTL: Faster Than Light
XCOM: Enemy Uknown
Mark of the Ninja
 

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
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Ayup. It took it's time, but it turned out to be an awesome year.

- ME3
- Journey
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown
- Dishonored
- The Walking Dead
- Day Z


Hell yes. Best year since 2007. And there's still a fair few games I haven't gotten around to yet.
 

kyogen

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Feb 22, 2011
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2012 hasn't been too bad:

Enhanced/expanded content for The Witcher 2 and Dark Souls, and also...

Dragon's Dogma (outstanding new IP)
Dishonored (also an outstanding new IP)
Risen 2 (really nice continuation of the successor to the Gothic franchise)
Final Fantasy XIII-2 (not bad; interesting upgrade of XIII's gameplay, and I liked the ending)
 

Woodsey

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Baron_Rouge said:
Woodsey said:
Oh, and Journey was shit. You've all been horribly, horribly duped.
I had a moving, emotional experience. I constantly marvelled at the artistic design, and I went back to play it multiple times after I'd finished it. I felt a whole range of emotions when I played it, from sadness to joy to wonder. It made me hopeful about the future of gaming, and it made me appreciate living in an age of interactive media where experiences like this are possible. I felt more playing this game than any game in recent memory, and I got all of that for $20.

You may not have had the same experience as me, but please enlighten me; how have I been duped?
I was being flippant. I'm glad it made you fuzzy. I thought it was vapid and generic. Looked pretty though.
 

Baron_Rouge

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Oct 30, 2009
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Woodsey said:
Baron_Rouge said:
Woodsey said:
Oh, and Journey was shit. You've all been horribly, horribly duped.
I had a moving, emotional experience. I constantly marvelled at the artistic design, and I went back to play it multiple times after I'd finished it. I felt a whole range of emotions when I played it, from sadness to joy to wonder. It made me hopeful about the future of gaming, and it made me appreciate living in an age of interactive media where experiences like this are possible. I felt more playing this game than any game in recent memory, and I got all of that for $20.

You may not have had the same experience as me, but please enlighten me; how have I been duped?
I was being flippant. I'm glad it made you fuzzy. I thought it was vapid and generic. Looked pretty though.
Fair enough, if that's what you thought. I just thought I'd explain how I felt about the game and how I didn't feel duped with the experience I had :) Games are inherently subjective, if I had a profound emotional experience and you didn't it's entirely reasonable for you to feel duped, just as it's reasonable for me to fill fulfilled.

Also, I don't know what you mean by fuzzy.
 

Woodsey

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Aug 9, 2009
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Baron_Rouge said:
Woodsey said:
Baron_Rouge said:
Woodsey said:
Oh, and Journey was shit. You've all been horribly, horribly duped.
I had a moving, emotional experience. I constantly marvelled at the artistic design, and I went back to play it multiple times after I'd finished it. I felt a whole range of emotions when I played it, from sadness to joy to wonder. It made me hopeful about the future of gaming, and it made me appreciate living in an age of interactive media where experiences like this are possible. I felt more playing this game than any game in recent memory, and I got all of that for $20.

You may not have had the same experience as me, but please enlighten me; how have I been duped?
I was being flippant. I'm glad it made you fuzzy. I thought it was vapid and generic. Looked pretty though.
Fair enough, if that's what you thought. I just thought I'd explain how I felt about the game and how I didn't feel duped with the experience I had :) Games are inherently subjective, if I had a profound emotional experience and you didn't it's entirely reasonable for you to feel duped, just as it's reasonable for me to fill fulfilled.

Also, I don't know what you mean by fuzzy.
I don't think I was duped.

And fuzzy, as in warm and fuzzy, or describing something as a "profound emotional experience".
 

WanderingFool

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Ive been waiting patiently since they first announced Borderlands 2. No that its out, and ive played through it twice (second time was a biiitch...) Im quite frankly unconcerned with anything else.

Or I was until I saw FTL. Didnt think much of it until I saw a play through of it. Now I want it.
 

Baron_Rouge

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Oct 30, 2009
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Woodsey said:
Baron_Rouge said:
Woodsey said:
Baron_Rouge said:
Woodsey said:
Oh, and Journey was shit. You've all been horribly, horribly duped.
I had a moving, emotional experience. I constantly marvelled at the artistic design, and I went back to play it multiple times after I'd finished it. I felt a whole range of emotions when I played it, from sadness to joy to wonder. It made me hopeful about the future of gaming, and it made me appreciate living in an age of interactive media where experiences like this are possible. I felt more playing this game than any game in recent memory, and I got all of that for $20.

You may not have had the same experience as me, but please enlighten me; how have I been duped?
I was being flippant. I'm glad it made you fuzzy. I thought it was vapid and generic. Looked pretty though.
Fair enough, if that's what you thought. I just thought I'd explain how I felt about the game and how I didn't feel duped with the experience I had :) Games are inherently subjective, if I had a profound emotional experience and you didn't it's entirely reasonable for you to feel duped, just as it's reasonable for me to fill fulfilled.

Also, I don't know what you mean by fuzzy.
I don't think I was duped.

And fuzzy, as in warm and fuzzy, or describing something as a "profound emotional experience".
Ah, OK. Thanks for the clarification!
 

Erttheking

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Eh...I'll get back to you with my top 3 when Halo 4 and Assassin's Creed 3 are out. I agree though, FTL, Dishonored and X-COM are awesome. Doubly good for me because I picked up a PS2 and Persona 4 this year. I'm desperately trying to find time to play everything.
 

Baldry

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My top three games of the year, in no particular order: Spec ops: the line, Dragons dogma and Final Fantasy XIII-2

Spec ops blew me away with it's amazing story, seriously this game, if you haven't played it go and buy it now and never look back. Only downside was the multiplayer, shouldn't of been there.

Dragons dogma was an amazing game brought down by it's lack of stuff to do, you have a massive world to roam in but not to much explore and the story's not half bad.

And as for Final fantasy I'm putting it in my top three because it's a step in the right direction, Square's trying something new with the time travel element which is fun but the story is great the characters aren't hateable it's nice to see Square returning to form.
 

Mistermixmaster

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Aug 4, 2009
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Oh man, this year turned out to be so great, I can't honestly make a top three. I'm just gonna toss 'em all at ya, in no order whatsoever!

- GRAVITY RUSH
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown
- Guild Wars 2
- The Walking Dead

- Persona 4 Golden (I know it's not out yet, but I KNOW it will be great)
- Persona 4 Arena (Not in the EU yet (I know, wtf?!) but this WILL also make it on this list)
- Sleeping Dogs
- Spec Ops: The Line
- Journey
- Top Gun: Hard Lock
- Cherry Tree High Comedy Club
- Binary Domain
- The Darkness 2
- Mass Effect 3
- Syndicate
- Katawa Shoujo


Holy heck this year has been a blast. And this is just the new releases, not counting in all the other games I've started playing this year, like Dark Souls, Ace Combat 04 and Uncharted.
 

BathorysGraveland

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Only games I've played this year was Risen 2 and Mass Effect 3.

Mass Effect 3 is my introduction to the franchise, and it's pretty cool. I had no problems with the ending personally, and found the gameplay fun, as far as shooters go, at any rate.

Risen 2 was mixed for me, but mostly good. The combat and environments were the highlights and the pirate theme was enjoyable, though extremely simplistic. The characters were generally okay, though a few were lame. The storyline was very minimal, though I've come to expect that from Piranha Bytes now. The boss battles were a damn joke though, I mean holy shit were they silly. The first enemies you fight are tougher, but whatever.

I was also planning on playing War of the Roses and Chivalry, but turns out they seem to be absolute shit, so am passing on that now.

It's been an okay year for me, I suppose.