1. Persona 4 Golden ; Though I have not finished the main story, at 70 hours in, I can tell that Persona 4 Golden is going to be my most memorable gaming experience of the year. The story showcases an impressive cast of characters dealing with their personal problems, while wrapped up in an intriguing murder mystery plot. This remake retains the fun battle system and the unique open-ended gameplay of the non-dungeon segments, while making a number of necessary improvements, such as fixing balancing problems that the original had and changing systems like the Shuffle Time and Fusion to offer more player choice and less randomness. New features, such as the Online integration, skill cards, and the bonus content in the form of "TV listings," are worthwhile additions to a game that's already jam-packed with content.
2. The Walking Dead ; I generally don't care much for zombie games, so it's a shocker to me to see a zombie-themed game place so highly on my list. The Walking Dead deserves the accolades, because it has one of the most impactful storylines around, due in large part to the major role that choice plays in the proceedings. True, its limitations are obvious if you look at a walkthrough and see how most of the choices wrap up to similar conclusions, but the game manages to keep the smoke and mirrors up long enough for you to still feel like your choices are having an effect on the characters, particularly when some characters bring up how you've been treating them during moments when you need their help with something.
3. Sleeping Dogs ; This is another shocker for me, as I only somewhat enjoyed the original True Crime, never played the sequel, and still remember hearing about the ill-boding development hell this title went through. As an open-world game, Sleeping Dogs succeeds in a variety of areas while surprisingly remaining technically sound. Of note is the focus on hand-to-hand combat - it's not as good as the Arkham games, but it works well enough, with a nice variety of moves and some hard-hitting environmental finishers. It also succeeds in providing a Hong Kong that feels alive, with plenty of activities, colorful designs, notable locations, and memorable vendors and NPCs (e.g. Minor NPCs who have conversation story arcs, "My Curry Fish-Balls will blow your mind!" "A man who never eats Pork Bun is never a whole man!"). It does have some issues that keep it from shining brighter, as the end-game tends to focus more on gunplay and dead-end subplots, and the simplistic Drug Busts activity (As Yahtzee said, "You pick the guy in the suit. Same guy, every time." Some detective work with the footage would have been nice). As a bonus, the game looks gorgeous on the PC with the high-resolution texture pack and runs smoothly, even on modest hardware.
4. XCOM: Enemy Unknown ; Firaxis actually managed to do it, they were able to revive X-COM as a turn-based strategy game. Yes, it is a different type of strategy - instead of hiding, there's a focus on finding cover, flanking enemies, and avoiding being flanked by an enemy - but this new strategy system still works well at encouraging squad tactics, smart use of powers, and careful movement, as your troops are very fragile. Outside of the missions, it's closer classic X-COM, with researching, engineering, facility-building, monitoring, and intercepting, though it's been streamlined so that, for example, you monitor other continents through satellites, instead of building more bases. It was also somewhat annoying that you couldn't freely recruit scientists and engineers, as you can now only get more through mission rewards and building the appropriate facilities. In a nutshell, although this reboot makes some compromises for streamlining purposes, it captures the spirit of the original, and manages to make it comprehensible and fun to a newer audience.
5. La-Mulana ; If the original La-Mulana was a Metroidvania tribute to MSX games, then this remake is like a 16-bit era version of those games. While the original was famed for its punishing difficulty, this one rebalances it somewhat to make it a bit more palatable to newcomers (e.g. adding new characters to give more hints, changing a few puzzles to take advantage of the improved graphics, and reworking the cartridge system to remove the tedium from that part). Make no mistake, the game is still a big challenge, but it's a more palatable challenge than the original. The improved graphics, with well-animated large sprites for the bosses and SNES-style effects like scaling, are wonderful, and the redone music manages to maintain the spirit of the original's great soundtrack.
6. Ys Origin ; At first, the idea of a Zelda-esque RPG that takes place entirely in one big multi-themed dungeon was off-putting. Yet, Ys Origin manages to overcome that little disadvantage with thrilling fast-paced gameplay, a great storyline that changes depending on which of the 3 characters you play as, and an excellent soundtrack. As you tear through enemies and bosses, the seemingly disadvantageous concept actually works well by eliminating a lot of unnecessary filler, as it swiftly gets you back into the action.
7. Binary Domain ; This game will probably go down as one of the worst first-impressions of all-time, namely with that incredibly silly first trailer. That's why it was such a surprise when the game's story turned out to be an entertaining mix of 80s action movie dialogue and some interesting philosophical concepts. However, the real star of the show is the gameplay, which enhances the standard cover-based shooting fare by throwing in comprehensive voice commands, dialogue choices that influence how squadmates react to you and how developed they are as characters by the end, and most notably, a damage system that focuses on individual limbs. In other games, headshots are just used as a way to conserve ammo. In Binary Domain, headshots are an essential part of your strategy, as it causes the enemy robot to fire on its robot associates and become a priority target for said associates. As for the game's true ending, let's just say that it's definitely good enough to make it worth increasing the relationships with your squadmates to the required levels.
8. Spec Ops: The Line ; Another surprise of a shooter, as this one actively tries to subvert the tropes established by other shooters. The story is the main attraction here. It deals men who start off with good intentions, but eventually descend into madness after making major errors. That descent is handled with extremely well, with the characters becoming visibly desperate and less formal in their dialogue. It's a game that takes issues like the consequences of violence, inflated egos, and PTSD very seriously, and some of the choices that you have to make in the later parts enhance that experience tremendously.
9. Hotline Miami ; From its main gameplay activity, a murder "puzzle" game, to its thumping soundtrack and trippy Acid-filtered retro artstyle, this game will leave an impression on you in many ways. It's up to you to decide which order to take the rooms of mobsters out, utilizing fists, melee weapons that you find on-site, guns that enemies may carry around, and even doors. It's also up to you to find the best timing to attack each room, as being even a mere second off could mean the difference between taking out the three guys patrolling the room and taking a pipe/shotgun blast/dog to the head. You'll need to restart frequently, but the fast-moving action makes this very palatable, and the randomness of the enemy reactions means that you'll always be on your toes. If anything, this game is slightly held back by the sometimes-poor hit-detection and some noticeable bugs.
10. Prototype 2 ; This probably won't appear on many lists, but to hell with that, I had a blast playing it. Then again, I enjoyed the first game back when it was released, as despite its noticeable flaws (unlikeable hero, confusing sub-plots, some poor storyline missions), it still succeeded at making your character feel like a super-powered badass who could run up buildings, slice through tanks, and disguise himself whenever he needed to be stealthy. To Prototype 2's benefit, your character still feels like a superpowered badass, albeit with better-balanced powers, so the Whipfist doesn't dominate again. Heller is also a bit more sympathetic than Mercer, since he at least has a clearer quest in mind than just "I WANT VENGEANCE!" and actually shows some concern over preventing possible civilian casualties. Admittedly, it does feel a lot like a "safe" sequel to Prototype, with improved visuals, a reworked upgrade system, and a few new powers (Tendrils and Bio-bomb are awesome to use due to their effects on the surrounding environment). Still, it came across as a fun experience that I would recommend trying if you can snag it for a good price.
x. The Last Story ; Sakaguchi's latest epic has been quite divisive - it seems like one side loves it very much and the other completely abhors it. As you can guess from its placement in this list, I'm in the former camp. The gameplay is a blast, as it looks at its real-time battles with a puzzle-solving attitude. It gives you a chance to plan out your strategy, scout out the environment for potential effects or enemy weaknesses, sometimes it allows you to draw out enemies and stealthily take them out, and most importantly it gives you a unique "Gathering" power that enables you to easily tank enemies to give your fragile spellcasters enough time to hit their weak element and/or provide support. Eventually, the game even provides the "Gathering" power with even more abilities like a command view, and a "burst" that causes various effects on enemies. The equipment system is another high point, as the game has you constantly thinking about which weapons to bring into the situation, since each weapon has different elements and different bonus effects on certain actions.
x. FTL: Faster Than Light ; As a fan of other space-based rogue-likes such as Flotilla, this has been an exciting experience so far. I've quite enjoyed the battle system, as its focus on targeting rooms/systems of ships has led to an incredible variety of potential strategies for you and your enemy. Much like in Flotilla, the randomness of the events is both a blessing and a curse, as sometimes it feels like you'll only win if you get the right sequence of events to give you the best ship, systems, and/or crew, but at the same time, it adds tension and excitement to the choices that you must make. Should I help the disease-infested colony? Help the stranded potential crew member? Buy the teleporter or a bigger missile? The randomness makes it so that the answer depends on your ship's situation, which really does make every trip feel different, even when the ship is the same.
x. Assassin's Creed 3 ; After all of the hype, this was quite a disappointment. It was ridden with bugs and issues, though I was fortunate enough not to experience some of the worst bugs. It also had some annoying filler segments (The ship in sequence 1, the whole prison segment) that either add nothing to or detract from the game's flow. Some of the income-generating side activities (e.g. crafting, trade routes) were overly confusing and/or poorly implemented compared to the passive method used in past games. The much-hyped focus on fighting through large-scale battles to reach an enemy general was the Da Vinci Flying Machine of this game, meaning that it only happens once and is never used again. And yet, despite all of these flaws, I still had plenty of enjoyment with this game. Unlike last year's AC: Revelations, this one actually feels like they made some major changes, took some risks - they expanded on the core gameplay with some interesting ideas that need work in execution. I enjoyed the new moves, particularly the running assassinations and the Tree-climbing mechanics (though they really should have made it less linear by letting Connor climb up any tree rather than only certain ones). I spent a lot of time with the hunting, since each hunting trip felt like a bunch of mini-assassinations - you lure your target over to your tree, then pounce when they get close. The hunting was great, but the real star activities were the naval battles, which felt tight, controlled simply, and generally fun. The reworking of the contract and courier activities into general quests was a nice step by eliminating the trudge back after each delivery, though it would have been better if they took a page out of Saints Row The Third's book and had you identify or lure out the targets once you reached the target area. As for the story, it has some big flaws, especially at the end, but it is worth noting they did manage to bring back something good from the original: villains who are not simple maniacal tyrants. In other words, ACIII's Templars seem more nuanced than the Templars from the Ezio trilogy. Much like the first game, they have reasons behind their actions, they clearly believe that they are doing the right thing for the world, and most importantly, they have some part of their plan that shows that said belief has grounding. When they announced first showed off ACIII, I expected that it would be at the top of the list, instead, due to its array of problems, it has to stay at the honorable mentions part of this list, saved by the fun hunting and naval battle segments.
x. The Darkness 2 ; It's short, but at the same time, a fun romp. There's nothing quite like "quad-wielding" guns and Darkness powers in a colorful comic book-style world, using said powers to affect the environment or take out henchmen. It also helps that the story is intriguing, focusing on Jackie dealing with the death of his girlfriend and his status as head of a crime family, while questioning his sanity (thanks to The Darkness). Give it a try, if you're looking for an FPS with a unique "flavor" to it.
x. Analogue: A Hate Story ; Another short one, but if you're a fan of Christine Love's games, then you know that there's a powerful story here, possibly among the most memorable storylines of the year. The overarching setting deals with you finding out about what went wrong on a lost spaceship, by reading through the crew logs with the help of the ship's AI companions. The main plot, however, involves the crew, who from their logs, regressed into an extremely patriarchal and superstitious society. One perspective involves a "fish out of water" character who lived during that time, and was forced to conform to that society's rules. You start to realize that although the crew believed that they were "civilized" compared to their ancestors, there were serious problems underneath the surface that contributed to their end.
x. Uncharted: Golden Abyss ; It might not be from Naughty Dog and its setpieces are not as high-impact as its mainline brethren, but it's still an enjoyable adventure. Despite being a launch title, it's by far the best-looking handheld game around, pushing out console-caliber graphics at a surprisingly smooth framerate. It has tacked-on "hardware feature" elements - they're annoying at times, especially the woefully overused charcoal rubbings, but to the developers' credit, the tacked-on elements at least work as intended, without causing very many headaches.
2011. Super Mario 3D Land ; Since I didn't get a 3DSXL until this year, I didn't get a chance to play it when it first released. What a shame that was, because this is probably the best Mario platformer in a long time, and a fine showcase for the system's 3D features. I particularly liked the seemingly-random level themes. Some would call it a disorganized level order, but it's a refreshing break from the stale "Now here's the Fire World, now here's the Desert World, etc." formula that has plagued the "New" series - I found myself excited to see what surprises the next level would hold. What is perhaps the most exciting aspect comes much later, after you beat the game the first time, a sort of "Second Quest" is unlocked. This second set of levels tweaks the existing levels in either minor or major ways - one level may have a new condition, similar to the Comets from Galaxy, while another level might be completely redesigned. This unlock manages to surprise you all over again.
