Really solid year for me.
Far Cry 3 was not what I wanted, given how much inferior in many aspects it was to Far Cry 2, but I did enjoy it quite a bit.
Darksiders II I liked a lot, the setting was much better for me than the first part, but "lootathon" addition was somewhat distracting.
Dragon's Dogma, another Japanese WRPG, was quite a pleasant surprise for me (can't wait for incoming sequel).
Dishonored was not what I hoped from Arkane (I still find their Arx Fatalis to be their best game), but I quite enjoyed and liked it (sequel not so much).
Kingdom of Amalur was nice, but suffered somewhat from offline MMORPG design.
Risen 2 was enjoyable, but with the switch to pirate theme, it lost the charm of Risen's Gothic alike feel.
Borderlands 2 is something I only started and played a bit, and still have to actually sit and play, but I liked what I've seen.
Legend of Grimrock was a great homage to dungeon crawlers of the old - such a lovely and clever game.
Mark of the Ninja was one of my favourites from that year, a fantastic side scrolling stealth platformer.
The Walking Dead had a well fleshed out story and characters and was very enjoyable for what it was, a sort of funnelled "choose your own adventure" type of game.
Sleeping Dogs is the first of my two favourites from that year - the only GTA I really love is GTA: San Andreas, and I generally find a lot of other games that "copy" GTA formula more enjoyable for me (like Red Faction: Guerilla, The Saboteur and even Scarface) - Sleeping Dogs is one of them. What started as a True Crime sequel and then changed publisher and title, it puts you in the shoes of an undercover cop in a beautiful rendition of Hong Kong, with a lot of martial arts fighting and parkour action. Loved it.
The other favourite of mine from that year is Primordia - I don't tend to put point & click adventure games in my posts (otherwise there will be no end to them), but this one really stood out for me (like Machinarium a few years before). In the world where humans are but a myth, you are on a journey through a crumbling world of robots and machines. Truly mesmerizing game with great retro hand-painted art style and clever puzzles.
But one that gets my vote for this year is Journey with its captivating art style, world and clever co-op design. I could give it to a few other games, but this one really stood out as something really fresh and different that year.
