by cybexx
This is a list of the best games I played in 2012. Some games, like Persona 4: Golden didn't make this list because I haven't played enough of them. It should be noted that my aim was to create a Top 10 list but as games were pushed off the list I didn't delete them. So just because a game isn't on this list doesn't mean I didn't like it, it just means it was never a Top 10 contender.
Showing 1-10 of 17 items
Right from the reveal it looked like exactly the game this needed to be and every time the marketing plan pealed back another layer it looked better and better. Turns out it is absolutely as awesome as I wanted it to be. Always tense, with great balanced decision making, Firaxis absolutely nailed it.
Usually with a Telltale series I find myself falling behind when the 3rd or 4th episodes roll around, usually rushing to finish them when the final episode is released. But with Walking Dead I was playing each episode as soon as I could find an uninterrupted 3 hours of time. Amazing Characters, cringe-worthy decision making that often had me regretting my choice seconds after I made it (but I never reloaded). After Jurassic Park I was worried about the Studio but they couldn't have had a better comeback.
I love stealth games. I love deciphering moving, evolving, environmental puzzles. I love the feel of going through a room as cleanly as possibly. Mark of the Ninja's great UI and gameplay-focused art-direction gives you all the information you need to know at a glance. It makes you vulnerable enough to give you reason not to just run about mashing the attack button but a powerful feeling when your the predator which is an amazing balancing act.
This weird 80s acid trip is one hell of a game. A very aggressive stealth game. The feeling of satisfaction after clearing a room is amazing. Pair that with an astounding soundtrack and intriguing snippets of narrative and you have yourself an ever so bloody good time. The only way to proceed is to kill...
I did not expect to like this nearly as much as I did. I knew from the announcement that I was going to buy this game but I forgot how much I enjoy the Halo series and 343 managed to capture those feelings quite well. Sure it could have used more Promethean enemy types and it somewhat squanders its villain but it was a very enjoyable Campaign. The changes to competitive multiplayer are great and Spartan Ops is quite fun with some friends even if it does re-use levels a bit too much.
While not quite as tight a stealth game as Mark of the Ninja, Dishonored's blink mechanic is a very novel way of navigating an environmental to avoid enemy detection. The art direction makes that environment amazing to look at and the Deus Ex style multiple paths gives it some decent replay value.
While I don't buy Journey as an "Indie" game (Sony funded it and a lot of the tech seems to have come from Santa Monica) it is a great game. With amazing looking rendering, fluid movement and an interesting adventure it is a game absolutely worth experiencing. But I think the seamless co-op is the aspect of this game to watch in our industry moving forward.
Star Trek meets rougelike in this fantastic little space sim game. I'm not very good at it, I haven't defeated the last boss or unlocked much yet but it is a blast to play. All the little systems that interlock with each other form a very interesting experience even when I keep running into bad luck.
Overblown internet reactions aside, Mass Effect 3 is still a pretty awesome game. The combat is tighter than ever, there is more variety to encounters than ME2 and the multiplayer doesn't suck. A lot of closure is given to many long-standing relationships, the way one of them ended for me will continue to haunt me. It feels like Bioware maybe spent a bit too much time building bits and pieces of content to reflect all your choices from the previous games and not enough focusing on the new stuff. The endings in of themselves are okay, they map very similarly to the endings Deus Ex presented back in 2000 but the fact the choice is presented as just a bunch of switches is quite lame.
With Rockstar not willing to set any of its open-world games outside of the USA (GTA London being the one exception) it falls to other developers to fill this gap. United Front borrows a lot of elements from other games like Arkham Asylum's combat, Just Cause/Pursuit Force's Stunt Position Mechanic, Wheelman's slam-n-ram and many other bits and pieces from other open world games. This could of resulted in a mess but instead the game controls tightly and the way that side mission rewards feed back into each other makes it feel like a cohesive world with a lot of activities worth doing.
