My list is awful, because my backlog is beyond backlogged. I played a lot of NHL12, FIFA12 and Battlefield 3 all year and haven't gotten around to playing a lot of games that are being nominated by GAF. Here are the only 2012 releases that I've been able to put enough time into this year to feel good about nominating:
1. The Walking Dead ; Wow... I pretty much ignored this game/series until I started seeing it on a lot of GAF ballots. Never had any interest in the TV show despite hearing praise for it and I never bothering checking these games out as it didn't seem like GAF were singing the praises of these episodes as they were being released. but I decided to pick up the retail disc and was simply been blown away. The story and characters are just like nothing else, the attention to detail in the facial animations, body language and voice acting is really impressive for a game without a ginormous budget. Developers, please take notes this is how you handle dialogue with choice options. The decisions most of the time are difficult with no clear right choices and everything is amplified and made more intense by the time limit you have to respond. Saw GAF's own Gary Whitta in the credits too for some of the writing, great job dude you knocked it out of the park. Kudos to TellTale Games for crafting a masterpiece.
2. Dishonored ; I had high hopes for this game as it looked like something different and promised some interesting gameplay and it ended up exceeding all of my expectations. Somehow Arkane found a way to create a FPS game that nails combat, stealth and platforming all while giving you a lot of freedom in choosing how to play the game. I've only played through the game once, and played pretty much non-lethal all the way through and got the Low Chaos ending which was great, but it's pretty clear that I only scratched the surface as far as how you can approach a lot of situations. Besides one mission/level (Flooded Zone) all of the rest are fun and memorable. The atmosphere, unique world, artstyle and attention to detail all ooze quality, and Arkane is now on my radar for whatever they do next. Some people on GAF seem to have an issue with the story or lack of it, but I just don't see it that way at all. I think a lot of people are unaware of the solid amount of story content that isn't forced on you like eavesdropping on conversations, reading books/notes and listening to the audiographs (or whatever they were called...) which all flesh out the story more than the simple tale it appears to be on the surface. This was an awesome game that I had a ton of fun with.
3. FIFA 13 ; Easily the best soccer/football game I've ever played and probably my favorite sports game of all-time. Each of the past 3 or 4 years, EA Canada has managed to raise the bar with the FIFA series and they managed to out-do themselves this year in what was initially thought to be an off year for the series. The visuals have been significantly improved, most of the "jank" from the rollout of the physics engine last year has been cleaned up and the animations are impressive in their quality and quantity. The Skill Games are a great addition as a fun distraction and timesink. All of the modes have seen a lot of improvement from Manager Mode to Pro Clubs to VS Mode Seasons to HUT making for a pretty impressive package for what is essentially a pretty simple sport. The Matchday stuff is well done as player ratings/form are constantly being updated and this info along with team standings and real player stats adds some variety and immersion to the commentary as well. This is my go-to game for relaxing after a long day, and also a great multiplayer experience whether I am playing with my buddies locally or online.
4. Mark of the Ninja ; Klei knocked this one out of the park putting together the great visual style of Shank, and tight mechanics and challenging gameplay of N+ and then took it to the next level and some. The mechanics are pretty simple, but you are given some fun tools and let loose to play as stealthily as you want. The real highlight of the gameplay is how information is provided to you visually, from the vision cones, to the sound reverb cues, to how you have limited awareness of stuff on the other side of solid walls/doors is all handled masterfully. The difficulty I thought was just right and ramped up at a perfect pace with some really tricky situations late in the game and the checkpoint system was near flawless as even when you died, it put you right back into the action in a fair spot which made the game really enjoyable rather than an exercise in frustration. The replay value is up there with any XBLA game I've come across as the story mode had a pretty good length, the New Game + was well thought out. Each mission also has a bunch of optional challenges, secret collectables and cool hidden puzzle rooms. Combine that with all the gadgets, abilities and styles you can tinker with to change how you approach situations and this simple looking game is quite a quality package. The thing that really puts this over the top as how well thought out the level design is and the fact that the devs allow you to attempt to play through each level in true non-lethal fashion not forcing you to kill anyone and even further than that, they make it possible for "ghost" runs where if you are good enough you can complete entire levels without anyone even detecting you. The animated cutscenes and little story which turned out more interesting than I had hoped were all just icing on the cake.
5. Spelunky ; This game is brilliant. I knew nothing about the original PC game and checked this out kind of by accident and became hooked. I've never played anything like it: A rogue-like platformer with randomly generated levels so that everytime you play the game its almost a completely new experience and challenge. It seems so simple, just avoid the "obstacles" and make your way down to the bottom of the level without dying... but the craziness that usually happens on almost each try is enough to make you pull your hair out all while grinning from ear to ear. I hope more people give this a try as it's criminally underrated.
6. Journey ; Can't be described better than a breath of fresh air. This game seems likely to end up as a timeless classic and was truly needed this year as refreshment from the industry starving for real creativity. The interesting part for me is that I picked this up off strictly of word of mouth knowing nothing about it, and didn't even realize that your companion was another human player until far too late in the game on my first playthrough. This was simply a joy to play through.
7. NHL 13 ; This is the game I've probably spent the most time with out of all the games released this year and the reason my backlog is at a standstill. I play this almost daily in EASHL mode with other gaffers and we usually have a really good time. EA has done a good job continuing to improve gameplay, with only really checking/hitting still a problem area, otherwise most of the other areas are pretty solid now including goalies for a change. The new skating engine is a "gamechanger" that really forces this closer to sim-like play than ever before. A bunch of other "small details" additions this year add up to a really solid alternative to wasting time waiting for the NHL lockout to end.
8. Mass Effect 3 ; Mass Effect hands down has been my favorite new franchise of this generation and this was a worthy concluding entry to the trilogy despite it's shortcomings. The ending has been debated to death, and I'm with the majority of people who were not satisfied, but it still doesn't fully diminish what an enjoyable experience it was playing through this. Love the characters and for the most part I thought most of their story arcs in my "universe" had memorable conclusions. I thought the combat was much improved which made the overall experience more enjoyable as to me it was holding back the game in the 1st two games a bit. Hold ME2 in higher esteem, but still came away satisified with BioWare's effort here.
9. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (360) ; Was looking forward to this port as I never got a chance to play the 1st game and people seemed pretty happy with how the original version of The Witcher 2 turned out on the PC. I really dug the story and it's complexity. Only played though it once, as I do for most games and was amazed to hear how different the game all the way can play out with regards to your choices in dealing with Roche and Iorvath who were both really cool memorable characters. Lethos was a badass villain who like most of the game had a lot of depth to him, breaking the usual mold for RPG/Adventure game antagonists. The game has just the right amount of freedom vs linearity and despite the final act kind of losing steam compared to the first half of the game which I thought was mighty impressive it was a great game that I'm greatful got ported to 360.
2011. Batman: Arkham City ; This was the one big game I wasn't able to finish before last year's deadline and as I predicted it probably would have placed very high in my list. Unsurprisingly, this turned out to be of the same razor sharp quality as Arkham Asylum. I missed the "Metroidvania" aspects from Asylum, and usually am not a big fan of open world games, but Rocksteady put together a quality package with a pretty overwhelming amount of content when you take the into account the lengthy main story along with the Catwoman stuff, side missions and challenges that pushed all the right buttons for me. They also did a nice job evolving all the already standout combat engine, and creating some unique situations that forced you to use different tactics so it didn't grow stale really at all. Can't wait to see what Rocksteady have in store for us next-gen.
