Game Of The Year

[talonmalon333]

Still, I don't see it topping the others for me.

Which others?

[Spark Of Spirit]

The ones I listed. It hasn't quite given me quite the same buzz or spark that they have.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, I personally like 3D Zelda better than Mario and Sonic (and I love Mario and Sonic; at least in 2D), so it'd probably be my GOTY if I actually had the opportunity to play it. That said, unfortunately I probably won't get to play any of those games except for Sonic Generations, which would probably be my GOTY by default if I get the chance to play it since the only other game that I've played from this year in Batman: Arkham City.

[Spark Of Spirit]

So coming to the end of it all, as we go into 2012, I'd have to say last year's champ remains Sonic Generations but Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 are right up there for me. I also give heavy kudos to other games like Kirby's Return To Dreamland, Shadow Wars, Shinobi 3DS, Aliens Infestation, Solatorobo, Sonic Generations 3DS, and 999.

As I said earlier, it was mostly about the portables to me. And am REALLY looking forward to Rhythm Thief, Luigi's Mansion 2, and Paper Mario 3DS coming this year as well as whatever E3 holds as usual.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, even though I only played the demo, I can already tell that I'd like Sonic Generations more than at least most games available this year, and that isn't to say that this was a bad year for gaming at all, as there were some strong titles out there, so that's just more of a compliment to how good Sonic Generations is to me. The only other game that I want more than that is Skyward Sword, which I sadly won't get since I don't have a Wii, but I'd be willing to be that it'd probably trump any other game this year, for me, even if it does just heavily stick to the tried and true Zelda formula but with a whole new motion control scheme.

At any rate, like always I've been missing out on a lot of games. There were only 2 games from 2011 that I played and completed and those were Arkham City and Gears 3, both of which are good games but neither of which stand out to be as being exceptionally great titles, in all honesty.

[Foggle]

Yeah, I was kind of disappointed by Arkham City to be honest. I liked Asylum more...

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Actually I think City is better than Asylum. I thought Asylum was overrated, to be honest. That said I also think that City is overrated as well, but it is a bigger game with some improvements and tweaks to the core gameplay. Well, IDK, but I always found these games to be good but never got what people thought was so great about them, except that they are relatively better than most other video games based on comic books which isn't really saying a lot given how low the competition level is in that genre.

[Spark Of Spirit]

So what did I miss this year, folks?

[Rosalinas Spare Wand]

Hotline Miami is clearly the runaway winner.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I actually didn't play any games from this year. In fact, as usual, I'm at least 2 years behind on gaming.

Well, I did pick up the DMC HD Collection recently, which was released this year, but its basically just an HD makeover of games from last-gen, and as usual that's where my main interests lie, as their wasn't a whole lot this year that caught my interest to begin with. From what I can tell, quite a few people seem to feel that 2012 was overall a kind of weak year for gaming, so I can't say that I feel like I really missed much.

[Daxdiv]

I LOVED The Walking Dead Video Game from TellTale Games. Probably their best episodic series yet. Can't wait for season 2.

[Rynnec]

I only played barely a handful of games from this year, and I really haven't gotten substantially far in any of them. So going over what I've played of them:

Kid Icarus Uprising: Excellent game. Must buy, etc etc. the writings pretty clever too.

Soul Calibur V:Good, but still very disappointing.

Persona 4 Arena: Great fighting game. I'd say it's fighting game of the year if I played any other fighters from this year (I'm not counting Continuum Shift Extend, since that's technically an updated version of a game from 2010, just with new content and stuff)

Darksiders II: Great game. I'm actually enjoying this more than I did Twilight Princess and what little I've played of Skyward Sword. Next Zelda Adventure should definitely take cues from this game.

Nintendo Land: Best casual Nintendo game yet.

Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge: Meh.

I also played Blazblue CSEX (yeah, I know) and the DMC and Zone of the Enders HD Collections. All great games (cept DMC 2 of course) but they're technically not "new".

[gunswordfist]

Spelunky is probably the only game from this year that I've played.

[Foggle]

quite a few people seem to feel that 2012 was overall a kind of weak year for gaming, so I can't say that I feel like I really missed much.

I would not agree with them. At all. The only real letdowns for me were Resident Evil 6 (as a whole), Mass Effect 3 (in terms of past choices mattering and the ending), and Hitman: Absolution (in that it isn't much of a Hitman game). Two of those three are still awesome in spite of their flaws and the other is more obscenely mediocre than bad. (There's also Diablo 3, but we don't talk about that shit.) There were still a lot of great titles this year.

The year's best game is either Borderlands 2 or Dishonored IMO. Both are masterpieces. Anarchy Reigns is at the top as well, but I guess I'll save that for next year when it actually comes out in NA/EU. Ys Origin's long-awaited English version doesn't disappoint, the new Sonic Racing game is the best in the genre, Spec Ops and The Darkness 2 both reach great heights in video game storytelling, Shank 2 is even better than the original, Max Payne 3 - while a bit overly padded and plagued with a couple stupid design quirks - is a worthy sequel, Resident Evil: Revelations is by far the best RE since 4, Dragon's Dogma is an awesome ARPG, Torchlight 2 is the sequel everyone wanted, and Black Mesa is one of the best remakes ever. Lollipop Chainsaw, Alan Wake's American Nightmare, and Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault are also pretty cool, though not really extraordinary. Halo 4 and ZombiU seem great as well, but I haven't played much of them. Plus, The Witcher 2 got its Enhanced Edition and was ported to the Xbox! And there were those new Pokemon games for fans of that series. And New Super Mario Bros. U, which I haven't played yet, but is probably excellent. Overall, it was a wonderful year for gaming.

[Avaitor]

I REALLY enjoyed what I played of Kid Icarus: Uprising, but I thought that was a 2011 game?

I guess not.