Oh god I wrote too much!
1. The Walking Dead; My number one slot, my Game of the Year, was an easy choice. Going into 2012, I never would have thought that The Walking Dead would be my favorite game of the year mainly because I was unaware of its existence until episode one was released. To me, great storytelling in games is more interesting than great gameplay. The reason I say that is because great storytelling is such a rarity in games. The medium is still young and developers are still figuring out just how to tell great stories. 2012 will mark the year that a developer finally figured out how to tell a story that is worthy of the attention of everyone. Yes, there has been some great story telling in games prior, but The Walking Dead is a new high point. While it is bordering on an interactive storybook, The Walking Dead is still very much a game. TWD's greatest success if it's writing, on so many levels. First, Telltale games was smart and decided to tell what is essentially a linear story, but they were still able to make it so that the player felt that they were having real impact on it. While you do have impact on the world, you don't really have any effect on the story. The Walking Dead's brilliance is that your influence is on the characters. You, the player, establish your relationship with the characters in the game and when Telltale kills them off, you hurt, or you cheer, based on how you decided to treat them. Doing this allowed them to tell a tightly knit story that ends the same way for everyone. And what a story it is. It's intense, terrifying, grotesque, heart wrenching, and heart breaking. Add to it one of the very best written children in entertainment history and The Walking Dead ends up being a bit of a watershed moment for gaming. No game has been as emotionally ravaging as The Walking Dead has been and I don't know when it will be surpassed. Hopefully Season 2. I think I'm ready for more, but I'm not sure if I've fully recovered from Season 1 yet.
2. Borderlands 2; Much to my own benefit I didn't play a ton of Borderlands 1. It didn't click with me until late in the summer of this year when I played through the rather lackluster story. Playing through the first game was enough to make me understand why people liked Borderlands so much and why they were so excited for Borderlands 2. I think that because I didn't play much more than 15(ish) hours of the first Borderlands I was able to enjoy Borderlands 2 so much more. What a game. Borderlands 2 successfully improves nearly every aspect of the first game and makes for possible the most fun playing game I have played in years. It's a massive, exceedingly addicting game with a colorful world and a unique and often entertaining cast of characters. Most importantly though, it is just fun to play. Gearbox has gotten the mix of gunplay and powers just right. It is a frantic, fast paced cacophony of action that I couldn't stop playing. Interestingly I spent the majority of my time playing on my own and not once did I get bored. The overwhelming number of quests and the never ending search for the better gun never got old and the only reason I have stopped play it is because I hit the level cap on my main character. The moment that cap is raised, I'll be back in Borderlands 2 having even more fun.
3. Journey; I'd heard some of the early buzz about how brilliant Journey was, than it came out and the extraordinarily positive reaction from the public made it a must buy. Journey is one of a handful of games that I will now mention when people ask if they should buy a PS3. It is the single most unique and beautiful games I have ever played. Coming in at about 2-3 hours long Journey doesn't last long, but what it accomplishes in that short time is remarkable. Sitting down to play it I wasn't sure what to expect from the gameplay and story. Interestingly, there isn't really much to the gameplay or story, yet at the same time, there is so much to Journey's gameplay and story. Journey is one of those rare games where the gameplay and story become one thing. It is somewhat hard to describe Journey without blatantly explaining it's story, which would than ruin it for others. Suffice it to say that playing through Journey is one of the most memorable experiences I have had playing a game. 2012 will go down as the year that video games figured out how to tell truly emotional stories. Journey tells it's story in the most minimal way possible. Not a single word is spoken or written the whole time. All there is telling the story is the jaw dropping visuals and utterly mesmerizing (now Grammy nominated) soundtrack. I still have difficulty expressing what it is about Journey that I loved so much, but I think it is a game that everyone should play. Like Portal 2 last year, Journey is something that could have only been accomplished in a video game and it is a shining example of what a game can be. It's a beautiful and emotional triumph for interactive storytelling and it will go down as one of the best games in the PS3's lineup.
4. XCOM: Enemy Unknown; I never expected to like this game simply because I am not a fan of turn based strategy games. Boy was I wrong. XCOM: Enemy Unknown has some of the most interesting gameplay to date simply because of the wide range of emotions you go through. The most interesting part is that the emotions come purely from playing the game as the story is inconsequential. I can't really think of a game that makes you feel so many things simply through playing it. It is intensely satisfying to beat a level, or one shot an enemy. XCOM is also simultaneously frustrating, infuriating, and extremely stressful. The dice roll on hitting an enemy is the main cause of those other, less satisfying emotions. "98% chance to hit that Cyberdisc. Good because I need to kill that bastard, otherwise my best guy is going to get murdered. Here we go. Goodbye Cyberdisc! Oh, wait a tick, my shot missed. Fuck. 98% hit change and I missed. Tits. WELL! There goes my best dude. Oh, my other two best guys just panicked. Well shit." That happened on more than one occasion and it sucks, but is also totally awesome. It's a strange reason to like a game so much, but the feeling of satisfaction overwhelms the negative emotions that XCOM puts you through and it results in one of the most unique and enjoyable games I've played to date.
5. Mass Effect 3; This was the game that I got hyped for more than any other game this year. I don't really care what the internet thinks, yeah the last five minutes are pretty terrible, yeah the core gameplay and story structure is a little strange, and yeah it is not nearly as good as Mass Effect 2, but I loved Mass Effect 3. It had some of the most exciting and emotional moments this year for me. So much of that comes for my attachment to the characters and the universe that Bioware has spent so many years building. I feel like Mass Effect 3 is a lot like Lost. The final destination may not have been that satisfying, but the journey getting there was amazing. The characters and dialogue are still the core of ME3 and 3 has some of the best character moments in the trilogy. I completely understand why so many people dislike Mass Effect 3 but I truly enjoyed 95% of Mass Effect 3 and I am already ready to replay the whole trilogy. Despite 3's flaws, the Mass Effect universe is still one of the best, most fully realized science fiction universes to date.
6. Far Cry 3; Far Cry 2 was one of the most disappointing games I've played and most of that is on me. I got way too excited for it and it just wasn't the game that I wanted. Because of this, I deliberately didn't get excited for Far Cry 3. I wanted it to be great, but I remained skeptical. Thankfully thought, Far Cry 3 is one hell of a game. It might actually be the best playing, best looking, most fun open world game to date. The only reason that it is low on my list is because I have yet to finish the game and won't be able to for several weeks from now. But the ten hours that I have played proved to me that Far Cry 3 is a hell of a game and I just want to go play it right now.
7. Halo 4; This is actually a bit surprising to me because, being a massive Halo fan, I figured Halo 4 would be higher on my list, but here it is, appropriately in the number 7 slot. I actually went into Halo 4 with lowered expectations mainly because it wasn't Bungie making this game. Thankfully though, 343 truly proved themselves worthy of making Halo and made one hell of a Halo game. But Halo 4 is a Halo game through and through and my biggest complaint about Halo 4 is that there isn't really anything new in Halo 4. It feels very safe in many ways, which is probably the right thing to do as 343 had to gain everyone's trust. That being said, 343 made a hell of a good Halo game. It is the best looking, best sounding, and campaign wise, the best playing Halo game to date. The multiplayer borrows a few too many things from Call of Duty, but it all works well, for the most part. Halo 4's multiplayer is certainly not as perfect as Halo 3's multiplayer, but considering that I don't really enjoy multiplayer games anymore, I have enjoyed my time with Halo 4.
8. Rayman: Origins; I know this game didn't come out this year, but I didn't get around to playing it until this summer. Playing Origins this summer was easily some of the most fun I have had playing a game in a long time. It has one of the very best art styles to date and the 1080p, 60 FPS really helps the speeds and gorgeousness of the game. Add to it that utterly magnificent and dynamic soundtrack, Rayman is one of the greatest looking, greatest sounding games to date. Thankfully it also is a blast to play. Yes, it is intensely, deceptively, infuriatingly difficult. But I played it right through to the end and enjoyed every minute of it. It's an absolute shame that Ubisoft put it out when they did because it got lost in the Holiday games rush. I think everybody should play Origins. It's just so damned good.
9. Dishonored; Dishonored was an interesting one. I had payed basically zero attention to it leading up to it's release. Through osmosis I had learned what, roughly, the game was and I wanted it to turn out okay because I love a good "Deus Ex" type of game. Thankfully it turned out great. While the story is extremely lacking, the world and gameplay is what Dishonored excels at. Dishonored's greatest success is in the magic abilities you are given. Those abilities makes moving through the environment easy and fun. They give you a huge range of gameplay options. Want to play it like the most insane John Woo movie ever? You totally can. You can also play it extremely stealthy and you will also have a total blast. It's unfortunate that Dishonored has such a crappy story, if it had had a great story it would have been way higher on my list. But a fun to play game with a bad story is better than a bad playing game with a great story.
10. Diablo III; In the first of many games that came out in 2012, Diablo III was not on my radar. I had played Diablo II briefly a decade ago, but I was young at the time and its brilliance was wasted on me. Fast forward to Diablo III's release. At the time of it coming out I didn't have any real intentions of getting it but I did end up purchasing it because of all of the positive things I had heard about it. And they were right; Diablo III is a ton of fun. And who would have thought clicking on shit could be so addicting. The never ending search for better loot is Diablo III's crux and it works. Yes, I only really played it for a week or two, but I enjoyed every minute of the near thirty hours that I clocked in that short time. And the moment that any sort of expansion comes to Diablo III, I'll be right back in it. I should note that this was probably the toughest spot on the list to fill because I could have put any number of games right here. Sorry Spec Ops!