My games of 2012

[fruckert]

I bought a bunch of games last year that I've only begun to have the option of playing.

Legend of Grimrock is a ton of fun. It's very classic, and I appreciate that.

Binding of Isaac is exceptionally fun, if extremely twisted. The tone might put a lot of people off, but whatever. It's a very good, challenging game.

Torchlight II is ****ing amazing, 'nuff said.

Dungeon Defenders is fun, but boring single player.

Faster Than Light is an amazing game, and you should go buy it. It's a ton of content for not very much.

I also played Ultima Underworld, which is a very good game that hasn't really aged well. It's age makes it a bit difficult to control.

Closure is extremely interesting, and absolutely gorgeous. It kind of chugs on my computer, though.

ed:
I also played both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, and both are exceptional games. Arkham City is the better of the two, though.
I got Borderlands 2 and it's ****ing fantastic. Extremely good game, highly recommend.

I can't think of anything else.

[Archem]

I also played both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, and both are exceptional games. Arkham City is the better of the two, though.

I'm not sure as to whether or not this counts as a "duh" statement.

And Legend of Grimrock is, indeed, the ****.

[zuhane]

Yeah, for me, game of the year has to be Far Cry 3.

Some amazing games alongside them include Arkham City, Hotline Miami, Dustforce, Dead Space 2 and Black Mesa: Source (All on PC)

[Archem]

Oooooooooh shits, I forgot about Black Mesa! That mod is a ****ing game of the year!

[Meiscool]

I dislike far cry 3. The idea of it and the gameplay are good, yeah, but Jason and his friends have got to be the worst group of 'heroes' I've ever seen. So corny and unrealistic overall. I've yet to reach the end (though I know what choice I am making), but I feel I can already come to a conclusion as to how I feel about this one.

[SaiKar]

Goin' down my Steam list (and any non-Steam I can think of) and commenting on anything I added this year:

Anno 2070
One of the most beautiful games I've ever played, Anno focuses on setting up civilizations on chains of islands in earth's near future when water levels have raised and resources are short. An economic game at its core with enough combat to keep things fresh and tense. Building massive cities is utterly addicting - I picked this up in June or so and sunk 330 hours into it and its expansion since then. Has a fully unnecessarily good soundtrack. Worth full price, but skip the packages, as the good parts of the DLC can be won in-game through scenarios.

Bastion:
A hack-and-slash game where you pick your weapons and run around stabbing stuff. Saved from being generic by an usually strong story and absolutely bichin' chocolate voice narration. Up there with Portal as one of those good games that you should really play at least once. Unfortunately, also like Portal, it's very short. Fifteen bucks is far too much for the only a couple of hours of gameplay - get it 50%+ off on a Steam sale.

Castle Crashers:
Good fun with friends while drunk (or even not when drunk, but the booze helps)); kind of tedious in single player. Leveling up and customizing your characters is neat, but never being at the same level as people you want to multiplay with (unless you literally only play with them) makes it hard to balance the fun. Pick it up if you have friends to play with; skip otherwise.

Diablo 3
I dunno, man. It kept me satisfied until I beat normal mode, then I just lost interest. Requiring a constant internet connection and there being an auction house kind of takes the fun out of dungeon delving. It doesn't help that the game is just Diablo 2's Act 1 > Act 2 > Act 5 > Act 4 reskinned with barely any other changes. Are there seriously only like 5 environments you can put a game in? Plus, as is Blizzard's ****ing fetish, the story is full of needless pain. I honestly can't recommend it.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
This isn't new, but I picked it up over Christmas and it's totally consumed my life. Already 64 hours into it in less than two weeks. People bitch a lot about Skyrim, but honestly I don't get the majority of their complains. It's a fantasy RPG that doesn't tell you want to do, or where to go, or how to fight. There are a million quests but you can do them or ignore them at your leisure. Mostly I'm just impressed at how BIG this game dared to dream. No part is flawless, but complaining about it feels sort of like looking up at the pyramids and saying a few stones are out of place. People always say quality is greater than quantity, but Skyrim proves that a really big game that is consistently decently good can give a lot more enjoyment than an extremely short game that's very well done but you'll finish in only an hour or two. Also has a huge modding community, which I refuse to really get into until I beat it legit, but seems to have every type of mod available from graphics to difficulty to just screwing around. Buy if it you want to kiss your free time goodbye for a few weeks.

FTL: Faster Than Light
An absolutely merciless space game that features random galaxies, random events, and permadeath! The majority of the game involves tactical use of your ship's crew, weapons, and other subsystems to fight enemy ships in one-on-one battles. Lots of valid tactics keep gameplay fresh: strain the enemy's shields with multilaser barrages; transport bombs onto their decks that start fires; teleport your crew to the enemy ship to fight them hand-to-hand; and a lot of others. Unlockable ships with different starting packages add to the replayability, which is huge, though individual games can be very short. The focus is on randomization of the environment which, despite occasionally being cruel, never feels totally unfair. Worth full price.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
Unless you absolutely need another copy of OoT, skip this. They've changed nothing other than unlocking the master quest when you beat it, and the master quest just has really ugly (if notably harder) dungeons. I feel slightly ripped off here that they added so little to this port. A slight graphics upgrade (it's still not that pretty) and 3D effect isn't enough for me.

Mario Kart 7
Another excellent Mario Kart game. Flying is cool, being underwater is cool, customizing your kart is cool, Rosalina apparently being a permanent driver is cool. Needing utterly ridiculous coins to unlock the final stuff is less cool, but I'm not worried about missing them. As usual, the new courses are tight, and the retro ones are some of the best, especially the last one in the final cup. Not a game you can play for hours at a time without end, but the kind of game I have no idea picking up and playing a cup or two on just for the fun of it, and I don't see that ending any time soon.

Portal 2
It's like Portal 1, but longer and notably more difficult. Expect loads of complicated puzzles and snarky dialogue. 20 bucks full price is fair.

Torchlight II
A bit of a disappointment. It's like Diablo 2, but better in nearly every way. Since Diablo 2 was great (unlike, say, Diablo 3) and this is greater, you'd think that would be amazing. But it's not. Maybe I just Diablo 2'd myself out. For some reason Torchlight just never really gripped me. I don't understand the story and combat is just so tiringly boring and all the dungeons look the same. And why the **** does every one of these games have to start in a forest and then move on to a desert? Diablo 2, 3, AND Torchlight did this and I'm tired of it. Can't they at least TRY to hide the fact that it's a clone? Anyway, I didn't like it, but it might just be me getting tired of rolling the random item generation game and it telling me I didn't get a stone of jordan good item.

[Archem]

I got the Killzone trilogy for Xmas. I've been playing them sequentially. I figure that since I got it at the ***-end of 2012, it counts.

As it happens, I'm quite good at the game.

[Prpl_Mage]

How is it even possible that you get 47 kills, where 34 are headshots when you only fired 23 shots?

[Archem]

I AM JUST ****ing GOOD OK??

Honestly, I have no clue. I did the same thing on the very next level.

[fruckert]

...splash damage?
That conveniently sprayed shrapnel into enemies' brains?

[Archem]

Nope, I did a knife-only run. Before you ask, no, I didn't manage to do any double-slash action. It was all on a person-to-person basis.

[Prpl_Mage]

Oh right, stabbing doesn't count as a shot fired. Still, impressive with 100% accuracy and all.

[Archem]

No, it does. Knife-only run. 23 shots fired. If I only used the knife, and knife attacks didn't count, how could I have 23 shots fired?

[Almeidaboo]

2012 I got: Guild Wars 2 (great), The Witcher 2 (near perfect), Borderlands (also near perfect) and some others.

I got married, and that means my gaming time got cut in half. Don't do it kids, it's a freedom killer.

[Archem]

Congratulations on losing your freedom!