2012 Game of the Year Nominations Thread

1. FTL
2. XCOM: Enemy Unknown
3. Frog Fractions

I probably would have nominated Mass Effect 3 if I had actually played it; I expect I'll get around to it sometime next year. The same goes for Torchlight 2 and Mark of the Ninja, which I'm sure are excellent, but which I haven't played yet.

1. Eador: Genesis (released in Russian in 2009, released in English this year)
2. XCOM: Enemy Unknown
3. FTL

NOMINATIONS WILL CLOSE ON DECEMBER 25TH, 2012

Oh, and if you're going to make changes, make them in your original post.

sinnick and Hanzii - what the hell is Ascension?

The iPhone/iPad app?

It's a terrific deck-building game for iOS. The Storm of Souls expansion came out in 2012, but it functions as a full standalone game too, which is why I didn't feel bad about picking it.

I'm surprised more people didn't have it on their list. I know Tyjenks probably would, if he hit this thread, and lots of others here have been playing it too.

Yep. I have not gotten around to this yet, but Ascension- Storm of Souls would be my Game of the Year. I have played Ascension daily since April when I picked up the original.

1. Ascension - Storm of Souls: Expansion to possibly the most engaging game of any type I have ever played on a consistent basis. Going on 8 months of near daily play with no signs of stopping.

2. Diablo III - Yep, all those faults people ramble about are there, but some magic formula is in there that made me keep coming back. I played it 100 times more than the 1st or 2nd. I played every character I have high and mid level characters. Explaining what the game does takes 15 seconds, but the combat and mechanics align perfectly with what I want to do with my time.

3. XCOM - I love it. It is different and some choices were not my favorite, but the feel of the boardgameyish movements and actions works for me. I have played through twice and could do it all over again regardless of the similarities of maps and the way scenarios play out.

1. Borderlands 2
2. Diablo 3
3. Kingdoms of Amalur

Time to Vote!

1. Borderlands 2:

I've debated over this, compared this to others within the same timespan, thought about it, weighed and found it winning. There was few other games this year that I just plainly enjoyed playing all the way through 4 times. Sure, it has its flaws, but sometimes, I just love shooting. More importantly, the writing, the story and the characters surprised me by being so memorable, so hilarious in parts, and sad in others. This is my game of the year, the rest came close, but this is my GOTY.

2. The Walking Dead

I'm not a fan of the comic book as much, and I barely watch the TV show after the first season and a few eps of the second. Those always seem too mired in the bleak sentiment of human failing with story shocks overriding actual humane ideals as story progression. The game on the hand, wisely rooted the central story relationship between two characters you could feel for, but still provide plenty of great moral decisions for every other character. It also helps that I like a lot more of the characters here, than in the comics or the show. This was a fantastic story I had a part in, not something I had to bare.

3. FTL

My biggest surprise of the year, since I'm neither a roguelike sort of gamer, nor do I share even a fraction of Rubin's love for spaceships. So imagine my surprise that, on a whim to keep myself occupied on a trip, I downloaded, installed this, and proceeded to burn quite a fair bit of my vacation trying to beat the Rebel Flagship and unlock every other ship. What a fine distillation of gameplay decisions that still manage to add up a narrative of space survival. What a great example of what Kickstarter can produce for gamers.

Almost made it:

Far Cry 3. - The game peters out for me around the 2nd island. The story isn't as great as Charles made it seem to be, and the gameplay can get a little repetitive. Maybe I just enjoy the ludicrous shooting of Borderlands 2 to the overly gamey tactical shootouts of Far Cry 3. If Far Cry 3 had been more immersive with UI fixes, harder combat situations and a more likable protagonist, perhaps it might be in the top 3.

Dishonored. - I really wanted to like this game. I had really hoped that this was the rebirth of thief type games. Simulationist worlds of storytelling, great level design and gameplay mechanics, and premises. For the most part, Dishonored was, but then the levels seemed a little small, the story a little trite, and the mechanics far too loose. It was a great world, but more could have been done with it, I think. I hope there's a dishonored 2 and that makes all the difference. It took thief 2 games as well.

Dark Souls - I voted for it last year, and this year, I have yet to play the DLC. But I voted for it last year. Only last year we were still dealing with the Exodus and I don't think Talisker ever got around to tallying the votes. If Dark Souls wins this year, I'm ok with that, but that shouldn't exclude the massive amounts of great games that came out this year, just because a masterpiece keeps getting re-released.

Gosh, y'know, when I look at the release calendars and other best-of lists, I think about the only games that were released in 2012 that I've actually played so far are Dishonored and Sleeping Dogs, and I haven't gotten very far into either.

Nay, this year saw me still in the grasp of Skryim and Just Cause 2, for the most part.

I have a graph somewhere of number of updates to Penguin LP against reliability of hardware.

1. XCOM: Enemy Unknown

2. Eador: Genesis

3. Kingdoms of Amalur

As of this moment in time.

We're getting down to the wire, I guess. I regret that I have not yet played Dishonored. That may well have made my list, since it is very much my kind of game. But I can only vote for stuff that I've played, so...

1. Planetside 2. A great follow-up to what was previously my favorite online shooter of all time.

2. Eador: Genesis. This game came out of left field and charmed the hell out of me with it's dulcet shades of Dominions, MoM, and HoMM. The sequel now occupies the top spot on my "most anticipated" list.

3. Legend of Grimrock. A pitch-perfect modern revival of a style of game that I really miss.


Runners-up:

XCOM. Despite some issues, this really is a fantastic game. That it's not in my top three is a testament to what a great year this has been for PC gaming.

Guild Wars 2. Probably the best MMORPG that I've played. There are so many things that I love about this game.

FTL: The best rogue-like that I have played in years.

1. Crusader Kings 2 - I still suck pretty hard at it even after spending an insane amount of time with it, but I've loved every minute. It also has a side effect of opening the door to the best damn Game of Thrones game out there. (And it's a mod!)
2. The Walking Dead - It did two things that haven't happened in years: significantly evolved the adventure genre, and actually moved me to tea-- I mean stoic, manly feelings of sadness.
3. XCOM: Enemy Unknown - There are some issues with the game that make the "impossible" difficulty level a bit too arbitrary for my taste, but at normal and classic I've had a ton of fun recruiting my friends and then watching them die.

Honorable Mention: Borderlands 2.

1. The Walking Dead
2. Far Cry 3
3. Frog Fractions

Honorable mention to Forza: Horizon, Sleeping Dogs, and XCOM.

ONE WEEK LEFT TO ENTER/CHANGE YOUR NOMINATIONS

(assuming the world doesn't end Friday)

Come on, we all know it's going to end on Friday.

1. XCOM. There are a ton of things I don't like about it, and it's bitterly disappointing that their first DLC does nothing to address those problems and instead adds a new problem. All that being said, though, I spent a heap of time playing it, I love many parts of the design, and it seems like an excellent base for mods / expansions to create a "dream game".

2. Brogue. A genuinely innovative roguelike, that looks beautiful, has learned the usability lessons of Stone Soup, and is actually winnable by an adult human with a job? Is such a thing possible? Apparently so. It also has the "small number of simple elements that interact in complex ways" thing that I love in any game design. If you like roguelikes at all, you really should check it out:
https://sites.google.com/site/broguegame/

3. FTL. The way the endgame funnels you towards certain choices feels needlessly limiting, but I love the design, I love the way the theme and mechanics tie together perfectly, and I love the way that the various strategies you can try are all just a bit different to each other and require a bit of re-thinking of how to play. A sequel that was a bit more open-ended would hook me like nothing else, I reckon.

Honourable Mentions:
Hotline Miami. Fantastic gameplay, but the sickening ultra-violence disturbed me just a little too much. Eador: Genesis. Great idea and pretty good design, but rather grindier than I really like these days. Crusader Kings 2. I enjoyed it a lot in the part of the year when I was unemployed, but it's the kind of game that you really need big blocks of time to sink into. Waking Mars. Love the idea, kinda like the execution, haven't really gotten into it or I may have rated it more highly. CivV: Gods and Kings. I basically agreed with Tom's assessment of the original Civ V, although I ended up spending a ton of time with it anyway. Somewhere along the way, with the updates and patches and expansions and whatnot, I think things actually changed. The AI can now play the game well enough to make me feel like I have a real opponent. Score! I still have quibbles but I can now unambiguously say I like the game.

DARK SOULS

1. The Walking Dead
2. Borderlands 2
3. FTL

1) The Walking Dead

- Being episodic actually helped the game, I don't think I would have wanted to play the entire set of 5 in a row. Never saw the show, or read the manga, but didn't feel like that was a hindrance at all. (Also completed this game)

2) X-Com

- Took a few tries to figure out early game hurdles, but manged to complete the game on ironman normal. Very enjoyable, and captured the core enjoyment of the original x-com games.

3) Journey

- Just a grand enjoyable experience, also really showed that on line play with random people can be very enjoyable. Odd how it works best when you can't communicate...

Honorable Mentions: The dozens of games I bought but never got to play...

Are people still playing Journey online? I was worried the servers would be barren after a couple weeks, but it seems to have had more staying power than that.

Almost forgot The Pinball Arcade was this year, updated my list.

1: Borderlands 2: genuinely made me laugh and with enough variety and intelligence that it's far from just shooting and shooting and shooting
2: Torchlight 2: hack slash loot with a fantastic skill tree and pretty pretty lights
3: Gnomoria: I've sunk SO MUCH of my time into this game and I keep going back and back and back. Not sure if it really counts since it's still updating every week, I think it's still in "beta"

1. Crusader Kings 2.
2. X-Com
3. Mass Effect 3

1. Borderlands 2
2. The Walking Dead
3. Torchlight 2

Runners Up:

FTL: If only this game had a little bit more it would have edged out one of the big ones. Brilliant little game though, I expect mods to make a lot out of it.

XCOM: In the exact same boat as FTL, I'm hoping mods will alleviate the few complaints I had with it. Although that being said, I himmed/hawed between this and TL2 for a long time.

Eador Genesis: I only managed to play a little bit of this. Enough to know it'd probably take TL2's space given more time but not enough to actually give it the spot.

Special mention to Mass Effect 3 for making me the most aggravated I've been by video game writing and story in a long time.

In alphabetical order because I otherwise can't decide:

1. Analogue: A Hate Story
2. Wargame: European Escalation
3. XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Honourable mentions:

• Crusader Kings II
• Journey
• Spec Ops: The Line

They definitely are. I only got around to the game earlier this month, and there was no shortage of folks to play with. :)

My list exactly!

1. Crusader Kings 2.
2. X-Com
3. Mass Effect 3

Last day to get in your nominations!

I didn't really play many new releases this year, which is sad. But I guess I'm not quite as into gaming as I have been in the past. Here's my list:

1. Diablo 3 - Yeah, it's got problems. Yeah, the game at launch was a mess. But six months later, a lot of the problems are gone and it is a fantastic game.
2. Mass Effect 3 - I think I'm one of two people that didn't hate the ending. I thought it was fine, but then I went into this expecting a "videogame ending", so that may have tempered my expectations somewhat. The three DLC packs really flesh out the game, but even on it's own I thought it was a stellar game.
3. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria - Pandaland is the best WoW has ever been. But forces have conspired to keep me from playing this too much. I'm also feeling a bit of WoW burnout, which kinda sucks as I really want to keep playing this but never do.

Honourable Mentions:

1. Basiton - Was released for iOS this year.
2. Civ 5: Gods and Kings - Hooray for Civ! Civ5 didn't suck me in and destroy my life like prior games in the series, which is surprisingly a knock against it.
3. XCOM & Dishonored - ONLY because I haven't actually played either yet.

edit: didn't see that I was a day too late! D'oh!