Your (underrated) GotY 2012

[Westaway]

Fall of Cybertron, it's a great game no one seemed to notice.

It's pretty much War for Cybertron but worse in nearly every way- I think there's a reason it's been ignored.

 

[NZT48]

The Witcher 2 since it was released for Xbox this year.

 

[StupidNincompoop]

I completely forgot about one game that came out this year.

ZombiU. The one game that makes the wiiU worth getting.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

my GotY so far is Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP.

What's the appeal of that game? Did I completely miss something as it's the only game this year I've had to just stop playing and never touch due to being unfathomably dull.

Totally agree. It's an insult to both old school pixel games and adventure games.

 

[Entitled]

Katawa Shoujo. Because the escapist and 4chan are the only places that know about the game.

The Escapist and 4Chan being the only people aware of a game raises so many red flags about what kind of game it must be...

Exactly. And it's premise, genre, origin, and news coverage raise even more flags. That's why it's underrated, because people care more about the flags that their prejudices raise, than about the overwhelmingly positive reaction of everyone who looked behind these.

By the way, I think there were quite a few other fans it had, for one thing there already was a Visual Novel fandom outside of Escapist/4Chan to begin with, and it also gathered some readers every time a gaming news site tried to give it the Fox News Treatment, who tried to check it out for themselves anyways.

If it would be released now, as opposed to the past January, it would even have a chance to get onto some of the more open-minded and indie-favoring GOTY lists as "best story" or "most emotional" or in whatever categories.

 

[IamQ]

Katawa Shoujo. Because the escapist and 4chan are the only places that know about the game.

How the flying fuck did I guess right on what game this was? Seriously, I read like 3 articles a year ago, didn't even know the title, and I was still right.

...

Does this mean I have to buy it now? Or at least torrent it?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

XCOM was definitely not underrated.

CK2, Frog Fractions and FTL fit the bill here, although FTL got a lot of attention being the first Kickstarter finished, so that's debatable.

 

[Contradiction]

Dragon's Dogma
Did you really expect me to say anything else.
Flawed like all hell but absolutely amazing. Great combat and story, with a few twists and variations in both to keep them fresh. Easily Top 10 ever played and top 5 of rpgs
Keen for the sequel.

 

[xplosive59]

My vote goes to Katawa Shoujo. It's a masterpiece, considering its premise, history and budget of zero dollars.

At the very least, listen to the soundtrack. It's amazing. Easily one of my favourites, ever.

The soundtrack was done by Sebastien Skaf, he has over 100 songs on his youtube channel and most of them really good.


OT: Strike another one up for Katawa Shoujo (although it is not really a game), I also feel like Sleeping Dogs was underrated although still being a very big release.

 

[Baldry]

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

That's a horrible thing to wish on people. There's so many better things to do with ones time.

Well if Spider Jerusalem say's something's a horrible thing it truly must be...

 

[Frybird]

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

Quoted for Truth.

For me, Mark of the Ninja came from absolutely nowhere and was immediately mindblowing.

 

[Entitled]

Katawa Shoujo. Because the escapist and 4chan are the only places that know about the game.

How the flying fuck did I guess right on what game this was? Seriously, I read like 3 articles a year ago, didn't even know the title, and I was still right.

...

Does this mean I have to buy it now? Or at least torrent it?

It's legally free.

 

[Baldry]

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

That's a horrible thing to wish on people. There's so many better things to do with ones time.

Well if Spider Jerusalem say's something's a horrible thing it truly must be...

I'm glad you're finally learning! Took you long enough. Next, we will learn why Heavy Rain is one of the worst games of this console generation.

Guess I should be glad I haven't played it yet, I can only assume the reason is the gimmicky gameplay?!

 

[Baldry]

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

That's a horrible thing to wish on people. There's so many better things to do with ones time.

Well if Spider Jerusalem say's something's a horrible thing it truly must be...

I'm glad you're finally learning! Took you long enough. Next, we will learn why Heavy Rain is one of the worst games of this console generation.

Guess I should be glad I haven't played it yet, I can only assume the reason is the gimmicky gameplay?!

The gameplay is nothing but a series of quicktime events, the controls are directly ported from those 1990's Alone in the Dark games and the puzzles are nothing to write home about.

So all that's left is the story, which is an awful mess of clichés, contrivances, plot holes, bad acting and worse writing.

But at least they're trying something new! Shouldn't that be something that appeals to you Spider, gotta take your victories where you can!

 

[Kekkonen1]

I really don't even have an obvious choice for goty this year, as I dont feel any game have come even close. I guess for me Xcom and Baldurs Gate EE (does that even count?) comes the closest. Journey was good as well.

 

[Baldry]

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

That's a horrible thing to wish on people. There's so many better things to do with ones time.

Well if Spider Jerusalem say's something's a horrible thing it truly must be...

I'm glad you're finally learning! Took you long enough. Next, we will learn why Heavy Rain is one of the worst games of this console generation.

Guess I should be glad I haven't played it yet, I can only assume the reason is the gimmicky gameplay?!

The gameplay is nothing but a series of quicktime events, the controls are directly ported from those 1990's Alone in the Dark games and the puzzles are nothing to write home about.

So all that's left is the story, which is an awful mess of clichés, contrivances, plot holes, bad acting and worse writing.

But at least they're trying something new! Shouldn't that be something that appeals to you Spider, gotta take your victories where you can!

It's not something new. They've just taken quicktime events, something that we've already seen done to death for nearly 15 years now and a re-skinned "choose your own adventure" mechanic that has been around since text based games and put a label on it. It isn't even a new venture for the studio, since they made the exact same kind of game in Fahrenheit some years previous.

I mean, I don't particularly like Journey, but at least Journey tried something different in creating a system of communication with players that relied on nothing but simple sounds and gestures. That was something that tried breaking new ground, even if the game itself wasn't all that.

Well the annoying thing about that is that these days that that can be considered original.

Also what's so horrible about Spec ops, granted it's basically Heart of Darkness for gaming but why is that such a bad thing, it made me feel some raw emotion and I can't play games that have white phosphorus without shuddering. Sure most people considered the controls to be nothing special but that was the idea, make the player feel at home in a normal shooter then BAM actual plot.

 

[Hylke Langhout]

Retro City Rampage has a 71 on Metacritic score of 71. It's pretty much my game of the year. Despite having some awkward keyboard controls (which can easily be solved with a gamepad) it was filled with tons of jokes and references as well as some great missions and a fun world to play around in. I even bought the soundtrack of the game on CD. Seriously, more people should play it.

Also, Frog Fractions is completely insane and absolutely awesome. Go play it right now.

 

[Baldry]

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

That's a horrible thing to wish on people. There's so many better things to do with ones time.

Well if Spider Jerusalem say's something's a horrible thing it truly must be...

I'm glad you're finally learning! Took you long enough. Next, we will learn why Heavy Rain is one of the worst games of this console generation.

Guess I should be glad I haven't played it yet, I can only assume the reason is the gimmicky gameplay?!

The gameplay is nothing but a series of quicktime events, the controls are directly ported from those 1990's Alone in the Dark games and the puzzles are nothing to write home about.

So all that's left is the story, which is an awful mess of clichés, contrivances, plot holes, bad acting and worse writing.

But at least they're trying something new! Shouldn't that be something that appeals to you Spider, gotta take your victories where you can!

It's not something new. They've just taken quicktime events, something that we've already seen done to death for nearly 15 years now and a re-skinned "choose your own adventure" mechanic that has been around since text based games and put a label on it. It isn't even a new venture for the studio, since they made the exact same kind of game in Fahrenheit some years previous.

I mean, I don't particularly like Journey, but at least Journey tried something different in creating a system of communication with players that relied on nothing but simple sounds and gestures. That was something that tried breaking new ground, even if the game itself wasn't all that.

Well the annoying thing about that is that these days that that can be considered original.

Also what's so horrible about Spec ops, granted it's basically Heart of Darkness for gaming but why is that such a bad thing, it made me feel some raw emotion and I can't play games that have white phosphorus without shuddering. Sure most people considered the controls to be nothing special but that was the idea, make the player feel at home in a normal shooter then BAM actual plot.

Spec Ops annoyed the hell out of me with it's smug, art school attitude. It basically forces the player to play the game in one strict way (and I tried almost all the other potential ways), then turns around and pretends like it has something meaningful to say, admonishing the player for playing the game in the one, sole way that it is possible to play in the first place.

Then there's the whole "oh, well, the only way to stop is to not actually play the game", which smacks of a severe case of head-up-the-arse syndrome. The same way that Haneke tried to soap boax his stance on action films by making Funny Games (twice!) and doing the same thing. Look, we get it, violence is not great. War is awful and should be avoided. Yes. But having a scene where the player is forced to pick the most violent, over the top weapon possible (and I tried not to pick it, even just attacking the compound), and then pretending like this was something the player wanted is cheap and bad writing.

On top of that, the game of was nothing special. It had every single cliché, contrivance and mechanic from all the other shooters, it did nothing else differently, but used morality as a gimmick, which I find more reprehensible than having just an average brown shooter roll out carnage for a few hours.

Yes but they did say they wanted to add the option to be able to fight your way through but they were made to add a crappy multiplayer thus diverting time and resources away from the singleplayer which is what the game was about. And wasn't it aiming to be clichéd to emphasise it's point, if it had altered from the normal course of regular shooters then it loses its point.
I will agree with you on the "only way to stop is to not play the game" bullshit. Why not give me the option to just walk away and die out in the desert, there's a lot of things they could've done to change that but it was enough of a gamble as it was and they were trying to give the player a specific journey and message.

 

[Daget Sparrow]

Lone Survivor. The ending confused the hell out of me, but once you figure it out it'll blow your mind.

On top of that, the gameplay was fantastic. One of the best survival horror games I've played in the last few years.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

I don't know, Trine 2 was pretty good.