After a pretty good 2011, 2012 had a lot less to my liking.

Borderlands 2 I played on PSVR, still didn't keep me going with it. It even supported the AIM controller, but VR doesn't make everything amazing. After 130 hours in VR on Skyrim, Borderlands 2 fell flat for me.

Mass Effect 3 I was already turned off by the combat in the demo. Then the ending controversy came out, skipped.

Diablo 3 was OK, felt very grindy though and I can't remember whether I finished it. Probably not.

Halo 4 I did enjoy. The campaign that is, played through it twice. The first Halo I actually finished :)

Far Cry 3 was good, actually my favorite in the series with the over the top story. Great map with plenty little things to find. And watching fire spread was pretty cool.

Max Payne 3 also delivered with its whacky story. Great gameplay still intact, very enjoyable.

Assasin's Creed 3 was hit and miss. Some good stuff, some bad. At least they turned the good stuff into Black Flag, my favorite AC game.

Dishonered was the star of the AAA games for 2011. It has some rough edges but damn do I wish to play a game like that in VR. Sneaking around felt great, peeking though key holes, stealth take downs. The game was meant for VR. The blink mechanic alone says enough ;)


Yet 2012's best games were indies.

TWD felt fresh, original and at least on the first play-through it held up the illusion of choice very well.

Of course on a repeat play-through it turned out most of the choices don't really matter, but it was still nice to see the small alternative outcomes.

Fez made it to my top 50 games, what a great puzzle game.

Great soundtrack, so many nostalgia vibes. And it got me into taking notes again to figure out the language and other puzzles.

My nr 1 for 2012 and also in my top 50, Journey!

Amazing soundtrack, and the best co-op experiences ever. I played through the game over 20 times, each time different with different players. Helping out new players or exploring hidden areas with seasoned veterans, keeping each other in the air with well timed 'pings'. From speed runs to hours of exploring areas you shouldn't be able to reach or skipping steps by working together. Journey is a small piece of perfection.

I'm torn between Fire Emblem and ZombiU. Awakening is my favourite Fire Emblem by a good bit but there's been so many since, while ZombiU is 1 of a kind.
I think I have to give my vote to ZombiU.

The sequel is superior, but XCOM is still an excellent game in its own right.

1. XCOM
2. The Walking Dead
3. Far Cry 3
4. Diablo III
5. Assassin's Creed 3
6. The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav
7. Borderlands 2
8. Deadlight
9. Botanicula
10. Miasmata

Journey, Fire Emblem and Fez all look interesting so I’m hoping to play them evetually.

Voted for Journey, that is a game that gave me a truly unique experience unlile any other named here. Some other good ones were Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which is one of the stronger entries in that series. Resident Evil Revelations, which is somewhat underrated. And nothing is as badass as Max Payne 3, which I am playing through at the moment.

Other - Spec Ops: The Line. Among the top 3rd-person shooters of that era for its potent mixtures with design and narrative.

Also, Halo 4/10 shouldn't be shortlisted. I know it netted several GOTY awards (I bought the GOTY Edition back then), so I'm not casting any blame. Just wanted to state for the record. :)

Terrible year from my perspective

Yeah, this year's list of games seemed kind of "meh" to me, especially after the really amazing list of games from 2011.  There were 5 games from the 2011 poll that didn't make the cut to the runoff round.  I suspect that if I had put these 5 "reject" games in a poll against the top 5 games from 2012, that a 2011 game would end up winning.  Hell, Uncharted 3 just barely got one vote near the end and it might end up winning single-handedly against these games, lol.

There aren't many games I still return to. This is one of them:

FTL

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.