Ok, here we go, like in the other threads, this is WIP
update 1: ok, I knew Analogue was gonna make it to my list, so rushed through it and there it is.
update 2: banners up!
update 3: thanks to GiantEnemyGoomba for pointing out I had fucked up the format
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Introduction
Two things I've noticed about my GOTY list. The first would that there's a lot of negatives made in all of the games' explanations. That's basically because I've been disappointed by all the games I was excited for, except Dark Souls. Dishonored and X-COM didn't live up to what they were trying to modernize, and there just wasn't enough good in the year, for the list to be full of praise and joy. I've been fortunately surprised by many games I didn't expect to love, like Spec Ops, Hotline Miami, etc., but my dreams of a good Max Payne 3 and Mass Effect 3 were shattered and Dishonored just didn't (couldn't) live up to my hype.
The second thing is that there's a lot of story focus into my picks. I've realized that while this year has been disappointing in many aspects, I've found myself experiencing love, dread, friendship, camp, surrealism, guilt and more. And I've left out so-called emotional games like Mass Effect 3, Max Payne 3 and The Walking Dead because for all their strengths (or lack of thereof, in Max Payne 3's case) I think they conveyed their stories in a disingenuous way and are just movies in disguise. The ones that stuck, though, like Hotline: Miami, Alan Wake and Spec Ops, deserve all the more praise for blending traditional and unconventional storytelling and doing it with excellence.
The List
1. Dark Souls (PC) ; Another great Souls game, made even better by perfect 60 FPS, 1080p and amazing DLC. The design is refined to perfection, the bonfire system is one of the most clever mechanics in modern game design, solving literally everything that was wrong in Demon's, while enhancing the experience tenfold. The Souls series remains to be the most exciting thing to come out of this generation and like I said a million times before, developers, please copy the Souls' series design sensibilities!
2. Spec Ops: The Line ; Spec Ops: The Line is a very important game, like Dark Souls is for difficulty and sense of mystery and exploration in games, an exponent that AAA videogames are capable of tackling difficult subject matters and to do it with a great amount of ethics and confidence. It represents so much for games I just can't help but be marveled at it.
3. Hotline: Miami ; Just what an indie experience is supposed to be: smart, subversive, thought-provoking, insane. Soundtrack of the year, and a hell of an adrenaline-rush. RockPaperShotgun was right, Hotline: Miami makes you feel like a god.
4. Lone Survivor ; Twin Peaks meets Silent Hill, with a soundtrack to make Akira Yamaoka jealous. Just like Hotline: Miami, it gets all the indie requirements right, but it tumbles a bit on some annoying sections, and unlike Hotline: Miami, it just doesn't fully live up to its potential.
5. Alan Wake (PC) ; Twin Peaks meets Max Payne, again proving that like mayo, Twin Peaks goes with everything. In a year in which we actually saw Rockstar misunderstand everything about Max Payne and crash and burn it to the ground, I was relieved to find out that Max's spirit was still alive and well in Remedy's Alan Wake. The pacing is broken at spots, but it's bursting with personality and the story is super engaging.
6. Analogue: A Hate Story (PC) ; Can't believe it took me a whole year to get around playing this, having loved Digital to death. Once again, Christine Love writes really powerful, smart, touching, impressive stuff. Hate Plus, I dunno how I feel about that, but I continue to have high expectations for everything she pulls out.
7. X-COM: Enemy Unknown ; The gameplay loop worked in 1994, it still works in 2012. Streamlining did it more good than bad, but bugs, balance issues and inconsistency on its mechanics meant it's not really up there with the original. It's the best X-COM we could've gotten in this day and age, and hopefully a sign of things to come, specially in face of crimes against nature such as the Syndicate FPS.
8. Dishonored ; I'm unfortunately disappointed with Dishonored. I wanted to love it, I really did, but something about it didn't quite click with me. In any case, it's what passes for a modern incarnation of Thief, and that's reason enough to be commended. I just want to go through it again, and find out how to love it.
9. The Darkness II ; This game surprised me, big time. There's an actual sweet love story in between all the carnage and gore, and it's just so refreshing to watch, it completely made the game for me. But the carnage and gore do make for some fun, and the length is just fine, with a suiting ending, even if it's a cliffhanger. It's unfortunately a weird half-interesting half-banal affair, with systems that go nowhere (upgrading, co-op) and an overall scaling down from the original game. I have zero tolerance for sequels with crippled ambition.
10. Binary Domain ; Sheer dumb fun, listening to Big Bo cheese everything he says and does, and watching robots get torn to threads just triggers all my good endorphins. You exhaust it in a playthrough and that's about it, but it makes for a hell of a weekend.
x. Stacking ; I liked this game in paper more than I enjoyed its implementation. It's my favorite from Double Fine's downloadable extravaganza, but I feel it didn't encourage me to experiment enough, or that experimenting wasn't as fun as I hoped for. Also I just adore the aesthetic.
2011. To The Moon ; Sadly and to my surprise this came in 2011 instead of 2012, so as much as it pains me, no prize for Saint's Row: The Third. To The Moon is a beautiful game that deals with loss, regret, love, friendship, dreams, loneliness, autism, and it does it in just like two hours. And it's confident and manages to also be funny and have a terribly charming pair of protagonists, and it's made in freaking RPG Maker. Amazing.