I'm gonna have to give it to the indie game scene in general. Minecraft got released, sure, but did anyone here only start playing that post-release? Walking Dead, FTL, Miami Hotline, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare... there's a bunch. Oh, and it's not a game, but Steam Greenlight. Love you too, Gabe.
I haven't really played and/or finished a lot of this year's bigger releases (time is money friend, and I have neither), but out of games I've played, Borderlands 2 comes first.
Other than that, yeah, Max Payne 3 was pretty cool, Spec Ops sounds like it was amazing.
Didn't appreciate ME3's ending, but that's another rant for another time.
Diablo 3 also gets a very honourable mention. (Is that the crackling of flames I hear?)
It has its issues - a lot of them, to be sure - but its main one is that it's not Diablo 2. If it had been the first in the series, I don't think it would have copped as much flak. I actually haven't played the first or the second, and I'm aware that that means I'm speaking largely out of ignorance, but as an introduction to the series, it was pretty good. I've enjoyed it, and I still haven't finished Inferno mode, but I appreciate the fact that Blizzard are actually trying to fix the problems. Sure, they should have ironed them out pre-release, but at least they ARE fixing them. Overall, it's a solid game.
I also really really really want to play Dishonoured. That one looks awesome too. Not too keen on the next batch of releases (AC3, BO2, Halo 4, Et Cetera 7...)