Your (underrated) GotY 2012

[Shocksplicer]

I agree with nomzy on spec ops: the line, never played a game that broke the fourth wall so perfectly.

You, sir, do not know what the Fourth Wall is.

OT: Thomas Was Alone. Just a little game about platforming rectangles, but it manages to be extremely heartwarming and emotional.

 

[Gabanuka]

I played Frog Fractions yesterday.

That wins best game for all years.

http://twinbeardstudios.com/frog-fractions

I agree with nomzy on spec ops: the line, never played a game that broke the fourth wall so perfectly.

You, sir, do not know what the Fourth Wall is.

Have you played Spec Ops? That game shatters the fourth wall like nothing else.

 

[Baron_Rouge]

It would be Spec Ops, but the opinions I've heard have been pretty much universally positive, so it's not exactly underrated...so Kingdoms of Amalur. A brilliant game that deserved a far better end to its story.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Jumping the gun a bit, ain't you? 2012 has a good few days left! I'm waiting for something to come out of left of field and surprise me!

But, let's assume nothing does. Hotline Miami. It's not that underrated, especially for an indie game, but it's certainly no Black Ops II, or even Far Cry 3 as far as general gamer awareness goes.

 

[cikame]

My two favorite games this year were Trials Evo and Tekken Tag 2 but i don't think those are underrated.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Well, my actual game of the year is Mark of the Ninja. So...it still applies.

I'm going to have to second Mark of the Ninja, a great stealth game which works surprisingly well in 2d

 

[AldUK]

Just played Frog Fractions.

Weird, weird game. I feel like I've just done drugs or something.

 

[OuendanCyrus]

Tales of Xillia 2

 

[babinro]

Diablo 3

It's arguably underrated because of fan bombings giving it like a 3.5 on metacritic.

Diablo 3 is a strange game in that I'd probably only score it a 7.5/10.

I could easily rant for pages about things I disagree with...and yet it all boils down to a fun game with addictive game play. I wouldn't put 1000 hours into a game I didn't absolutely love. There's probably less than 5 games in my life that I've ever devoted THAT much time to. Diablo 3 is well deserving of overall GOTY as a result.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

There hasn't been enough talk about Journey this year.
inb4 daystar

I'd play it if I had a PS3, but sadly I don't. Obviously it's not going to come to Xbox, but how about a PC port? I'd buy that day 1.

I've been too busy playing catchup with games to be able to pick one I guess.

 

[kortin]

Can I count Okami HD? If so, that's definitely my underrated game of the year.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

I'm going with Transformers Fall of Cybertron since to me it was one of the best game I've played all year but alas it flew under so many radars compared to other games this yr and the same goes for it's previous game.

 

[Scipio1770]

You, sir, do not know what the Fourth Wall is.

Huh, I was fairly certain you couldn't play the game without catching on to it; care to explain your reasoning?

 

[2fish]

I am not sure what counts as underrated.

I mean many of the games I list have either sold well or gotten praise if not both, but I would not consider them the big games that everyone still talks about months after their release unless you go to a forum specific to that game.

FTL
Mark of the Ninja
Spec Ops the Line
Legend of Grimrock

None of these are games that completely slipped under the radar, but they did get overshadowed rather quickly.

 

[acosn]

SPEC OPS: THE LINE. I will not rest till everyone has played this game.

Honourable mention to Dragons Dogma.

Is it really that good? I see people occasionally write posts about it being surprisingly good but I've never had the urge to try it beyond a small demo I tried where I wasn't really impressed. Can you perhaps (if it's no bother) try to sell it to me?

As for mine, Mass Effect 3. Hated by all because of 15 minutes at the end of a 30 hour game. Yes the ending was bad but it didn't stop me having an amazing time up until that point, hell I got teary on more than one occasion during my play through.

The entirety of ME3 is a demonstrably bad game. The god awful ending is just what gets the most attention because it's especially bad. Generally speaking when you can't get the ending right (typically you already have this mapped out very early in story development) you've fucked over the entire plot because that's what is supposed to pull everything together into a coherent theme. So by fucking up the ending they destroyed the entire point to the story, and in an RPG (term used losely) that tends to be a big deal.

I respectfully disagree though I realise it's just a case of our differing opinions, it's just in many cases when someone says Mass Effect 3 is terrible the only evidence they tend to bring up is the ending and the rest of the game is never mentioned. I feel far to many people forget about the fun they were having up until that point, it's a shame you found the whole game bad though :/ out of curiosity which of the titles was your favorite?

First had the best plot, 2 had the best refinement of game mechanics, even if it did dumb it down a bit.

This is, of course, bearing in mind, that the entire trilogy is highly derivative of previous work in scifi, and the series as a whole is largely irredeemable. They're only good if you've never had any exposure to that style of game, and scifi in general.

 

[AldUK]

I am not sure what counts as underrated.

I mean many of the games I list have either sold well or gotten praise if not both, but I would not consider them the big games that everyone still talks about months after their release unless you go to a forum specific to that game.

FTL
Mark of the Ninja
Spec Ops the Line
Legend of Grimrock

None of these are games that completely slipped under the radar, but they did get overshadowed rather quickly.

I did really enjoy Legend of Grimrock, still have it on my computer actually. Never did finish it though, I don't think it's quite good enough for game of the year unless you're a seriously hardcore fan of the old fashioned RPG. (And I mean, Atari old-fashioned. Like Eye of the Beholder.)

 

[Kingjackl]

My underrated GOTY would be either XCOM: Enemy Unknown or Mass Effect 3. XCOM for being an awesome game, but likely to be forgotten in the run-up to 2013 due to being overshadowed by all the triple A shooter blockbusters like Halo 4 and Black Ops. Mass Effect 3 for being a fantastic game that everybody has only played the last 5 minutes of and nothing else.

 

[BernardoOne]

I wouldnt call Mak of the Ninja underrated when the metacritic for it is 92. As in, the average of reviews is 92.

 

[Lugbzurg]

I guess it doesn't count because SOOOO many people are talking about it but I'm not sure that Spec Ops: The Line sold that well so I'm gonna chuck that one out.

Because it really is just that fucking awesome.

That's just what I was thinking. And I'm seeing other people up there mentioning The Walking Dead, which I certainly don't think is underrated. Frankly, it seems overrated to me. People just won't stop yammering on about it. I'm hearing people go on and on and on about it completely out-of-context for no reason at all, even more so than Call of Duty!

On the other hand, there are people insisting that it isn't a real videogame. Excuse me? It has a win state, a lose state, objectives, a main goal, a set of rules, and it's an interactive piece of software designed for entertainment. Does it have something to do with it being a point-and-click role-playing game? If so, then would that mean that Monkey Island, Sam & Max, The Elder Scrolls, and Fallout aren't videogames, by that logic?

 

[Brainwreck]

Mark of the Ninja. Because everything.