Cast Your Vote For The Escapist's Game of the Year 2012

[fabrimuch]

I was torn between Spec Ops: The Line and The Walking Dead, but I ended up voting for the zombie game because I think it did so many unexpected things it deserves my vote.

I mean, think about it. It´s an episodic point n´ click adventure game from a small company, focusing 100% on the story and its characters instead of big explody setpiece moments, beautiful cel-shaded graphics instead of hyper-realistic ones, and made with a much smaller budget than any AAA game. And doing that, it managed to win several game of the year awards. I think it points in which direction the industry should head and that deserved my vote.

Though I wouldn´t mind if Spec Ops won the award instead


With that said, I agree that these kind of awards would be more meaningful if they were given out by experts of the industry instead of posted for the users to vote. I myself only played four of the games on this list, so I don´t really know if Journey would have blown my mind had it not been a PS3 exclusive.


And am I the only one who´s baffled that Mass Effect 3 got nominated with that ending? I mean, after the huge controversy, I didn´t think anyone would consider it the BEST game of 2012 (not a bad game by any stretch, but I mean, c´mon).

 

[RedDeadFred]

I'm hoping people will vote for Skyrim again. After all, we previously voted it THE GREATEST GAME EVER CREATED BY THE HANDS OF MANKIND. And obviously no game could surpass that reality warping greatness that was Oblivion version 2.0. So the logical vote goes to Skyrim.

Hooray! You have an opinion! Congratulations! Now maybe post it in a different thread where it's actually related to the topic or just make your own...

It is related to this thread. We've already picked the greatest game ever created, so why bother voting?

It's also a massive amount of sarcasm for how obscenely flawed the voting system actually is.

It's not related... We are picking GOTY which means best game released this year. Skyrim was not released this year. This is not hard to understand and I'm sure you get it. Also, when did we vote Skyrim to be the best game ever(it is actually one of my favourites but I don't recall it winning anything like this)? I remember us voting on the best game in the Escapist's history but this happened some time this summer and Portal won. Also, why was the voting system flawed? People voted on their choice of which games should move on in each bracket. It's not like Skyrim had an easy ride to get to the finals, it defeated a lot of amazing games.

Anyway, I'm actually genuinely curious now to hear what your GOTY is. If you don't tell me I'm going to have to guess just based off of our brief conversation. I guess I could look at your post history but that would take a long time and possibly be creepy...

Last year, Escapist voted the greatest game created in the history of the Escapist. Portal did not win, Skyrim did, as a result of the voting occurring 2 weeks after Skyrim was released. And while Skyrim is a good game, it is by no means the greatest game ever created, not with the legion of errors and bugs that made the game unplayable for many people.

As far as my vote goes, I gave it to Borderlands 2, though I haven't played Spec Ops or Journey.

Well, at least we agree on Borderlands 2.

I don't really have a favourite game ever. Just a bunch of games that I highly enjoy and I couldn't pick one to go above the others. Skyrim is on that list but to each their own. I have it on PC so that helps a lot. I doubt I would rate it so highly if I couldn't use mods. Especially since said mods can get rid of a large amount of the bugs.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I'm going to choose FTL. Because let's face it, it's not hurting anyone, and also because of how surprisingly deep the combat is and how varied the encounters are. In my mind it's better than the others for its resources.

 

[EvilPicnic]

Why the hell is Persona 4 on the list? It's awesome game and all, but Golden is just an HD port of the 2008 game. You might as well include Peace Walker HD...

And where is Max Payne 3? Not the best Max Payne for sure, but a FAR better game than Blops2, Halo 4, Diablo3, or AssCreed3...

 

[Pero]

Dishonored or Far Cry 3? I can't decide.. arggggh. I guess I'll go with Dishonored becouse it's a new IP!

EDIT: Well I voted for Far Cry 3 becouse it got out so late I'm sorry for it becouse it won't be on much top 10 (or wahtever) lists.

 

[DustyDrB]

I looked through the entire list and found exactly one game that I played: FTL. So my choice was clear. I was kind of surprised not to see Torchlight 2 in the line-up, though.

It's a pretty small list, really. I'm surprised Mark of the Ninja (my GOTY) made it on this list. But there's no way they'd be able to get every game. It's been an incredible year in which a wide variety of great games (most of them not AAA) were released.

 

[ViktorWhite]

1st thing I thought; Why the hell isnt dark souls on this list
Then I remembered it was a 2011 game

 

[Spartan212]

I voted for Guild Wars 2. Considering I'm still playing it and having a blast, it gets the nod from me

I enjoyed The Walking Dead and Spec Ops as experiences, not games. I feel that if you can watch a Youtube video of someone playing them and get the same enjoyment, it's not a great game

Doesn't gameplay factor into games anymore when considering the "best"?

 

[ritchards]

Have not played any of those games... guess I'm not a gamer then?

 

[ejrocksthisworld]

So I narrowed it down to Assassin's Creed 3, Mass Effect 3, Dishonored, The Walking Dead and Halo 4. I never beat Dishonored (haven't finished it yet) and haven't beaten The Walking Dead (only own the first episode) so that narrowed it down to Halo 4, Mass Effect 3 and Assassin's Creed 3.
I took the positives from each and compared them to one another: Graphically I felt Halo 4 was the strongest because it took the Xbox 360's graphics and pushed it to levels we haven't seen before, however I felt like Assassin's Creed 3's world was more beautiful just out of sheer scope. The gameplay for Assassin's Creed 3 was the strongest in my mind, however the protagonist was uninteresting and there were quite a few bugs with the release of the game that have yet to be fixed. Meanwhile Halo 4 had two strong protagonists however their secondary characters were weak and uninteresting. The strongest antagonist I felt was Assassin's Creed 3 in Haythem Kenway (God I loved his character) and even in Charles Lee, whereas in Halo 4 the antagonist seemed uninteresting and distant for most of the game. The ending for Assassin's Creed 3 was good for Connor (who redeemed himself to an extent at the end with his character development) but very confusing with the modern day Desmond story arc (unless if you take an in depth analysis of all the Assassin's Creed games), whereas the ending for Halo 4 seemed to be pretty solid, however was extremely depressing (for me) and left little room for a sequel (unless if I missed something).
What about Mass Effect 3? Well Mass Effect 3 won my vote in the end for a number of reasons: The protagonist and the supporting characters are all rich and complex, some of the more memorable moments in the series' history can be found here, the antagonist (or antagonists) are all pretty solid, with the dlc update the ending is a ton better, the gameplay is fun and well constructed, graphically the game is beautiful, and the scale of the game is massive in scope. I hardly see any faults in Mass Effect 3 (they are there but are few) and when compared to Assassin's Creed 3 and Halo 4, I believe Mass Effect 3 to be a superior game.
Unfortunately I was unable to complete Dishonored or The Walking Dead before this time so voting for either of them would of been unfair on my part, and I also haven't tried out the other games that have come out this year so perhaps there are others who are more worthy than Mass Effect 3, but my vote goes to the game that, through my experience, deserves to win.

 

[Albetta]

Where the hell is Torchlight 2?

 

[Reaper195]

I'm annoyed I have yet to be able to get around to playing Spec Ops: The Line. But I guess that's a good thing, because I'm madly torn between The Walking Dead, and Journey. Journey was a fantastic game, looked beautiful, had one of the best soundtracks ever, and the anonymous multiplayer concept was amazing. The Walking Dead had me in tears a number of times, and really made me question my actions...which is disgustingly hard to do in games these days. Or ever, really. The voice acting was top-notch, and had some of the most tense moments in video game history. Not to mention...dat Ep 5. All dem feels.

Fuck it, coin toss.

*Toss*


The Walking Dead.

 

[tce11]

I was wondering how I would pick between Lollipop Chainsaw and The Walking Dead, but you made it easy for me by not having one.

Lollipop Chainsaw is the game I enjoyed playing the most this year, but Walking Dead is the game I found the most emotionally engaging and affecting. Both were good for entirely different reasons, but still both fantastic games.

Surprised no one else has mentioned LC yet this thread, oh well at least it will get a Jimquisition award tomorrow.

 

[LoLife]

Narrowed it down to Xcom & GW2, but in the end backed GW2. I just wished I played Journey the game sounds decent! looks like I'm going to get my PS3 back of the my brother to give it a good caning =D

 

[Atmos Duality]

The fact Diablo 3 is even nominated makes me ashamed to be a gamer.


I voted for Borderlands 2, but dammit if FTL wasn't neck and neck.
Of all the games I've played this year, those two have retained the best longevity.

 

[Cheeseman Muncher]

I've only played about a handful of the list this year but I've got to go with The Walking Dead. I was expecting a cheap knock-off tie-in but got one of the most enjoyable story experiences I think I've ever had playing games.

 

[Zburator]

Persona 4 Golden for me.

The Vita is such a small team >_>

 

[Mhora]

My knee jerk for this one was Spec Ops, that games just insanely well crafted on all fronts to push the message/theme/generally reinforce the story of the game... and its the only game I've played I've felt bad about playing and felt like I was supposed to feel bad about, if that makes any sense

 

[Caffeine_Bombed]

The Walking Dead, but it was a close call between that and Dishonored.

While Dishonored was brilliant in nearly ever aspect, I felt it fizzled out towards the end (not to mention it was incredibly abrupt) and I could have put at least 2 extra missions in there.

But The Walking Dead (excluding a couple of glitches) was more or less flawless to me. Again, the final episode seemed a little rushed but it was heart-breaking and that song at the end was just perfect.
No game for a very long time has ever made me feel so connected to a character and whenever I lost one of the people I cared about I felt truly sad.
It's also voiced incredibly well. Considering these are cell-shaded characters, I was very impressed with the intensity of emotion the voice actors could bring to them.

Besides these points, I loved the gameplay in general. Though you're mainly aiming the crosshairs and tapping a single button through most of the action, the situation feels urgent. Whether it's a single walker or a whole herd, you had to be quick and accurate. Even when you're relaxed and in a 'safe place' you had to stay on your toes as you could get jumped at anytime. The whole game just created a perfect atmosphere and sense of environment: in this world you were never truly safe, always thinking "Something's gonna happen sooner or later."

Overall, just a beautiful and unique experience. Not just the best of 2012, one of the best games I've played in my lifetime and I can't wait for the next season!

 

[Whitbane]

Had to go with The Walking Dead, just because, damn...

So many awesome games this year, though. Gotta play some Spec Ops when I get a chance. Also need to pick up Torchlight 2/Diablo 3 and I want to try the Secret World sometime.

When I sleep at night, I can hear my wallet crying.