Hey no fair! I accidentally clicked on the wrong bubble and can't undo my vote!

From the remaining options, I'd meant to vote for Journe,y but accidentally selected the bubble above it for Diablo III; a game that I never played. Sorry Liquid Laser, but could you mentally add another Journey vote onto whatever the final tally is if you can?

Well anyway, since we're on an "anything but X" kick, I'll chip in that, out of the remaining games here that I've played, ZombiU was my least favorite. This is one of the games I often hear offered as people's big sales pitch for why the Wii U's Game Pad controller needed to exist. It's not much of a case, people. The Game Pad was just Nintendo trying to bring their once-popular dual-screen fad to the home console market and them and others building a bunch of games around it. Sony made a comparable mistake with the PlayStation Vita. People were broadly exhausted with these gimmicks by that time, or at least with companies leaning so heavily on them. So was I. I'd rather something else win.

From this selection, Journey towers above. No need to change my vote, Journey is 2012 goty!

The WiiU game pad was very handy as a map/inventory screen while keeping the TV screen clutter free. I loved it in Lego City Undercover for how it used the gamepad. Use the touch screen on the gamepad to set a waypoint on the map, so much better than dragging a cursor around with analog controls. Also Super Mario Maker was brilliant to build levels on the gamepad then test them out on the tv. I miss that a lot on Switch.

It was a much more useful 'gimmick' than waggle controls :/ For example a second screen with touch screen controls would make a game like BG3 much more manageable on console. WiiU's marketing was a disaster though. Leaning on gimmicks (use it as a tv remote...) and failing to make clear that it was a new console, not a peripheral.

I've also used the WiiU gamepad for Wii Fit+ while watching TV. Yet never felt compelled to play ZombieU, did not look appealing at all.

Very pleased to see the love for Journey.
Someone I know got too freaked out by that game haha. Something about it just really unnerved them too much to play it.
I’ve felt that feeling in some games, but still amused that someone I know felt it with Journey.

Eh, to each their own, I guess. Personally (having never played any of the Lego games), I'd rather have just pressed a button to access maps and menus and whatnot on a more ergonomically-designed controller than have bend my head down. It didn't feel like a more efficient option to me.

I can’t vote in this runoff.

I forgot ZombiU was this year. I love that game, but Im still giving my vote to Diablo 3.

It's a practical reason for me nowadays since I can't read in game maps on TV anymore. TotK's map was useless to me, small yellow text on mostly yellow ish background. With the map in hand I can simply bring it up closer, drop and drag way points and write notes on the map. Inventory and weapon selection would also be much faster on the gamepad.

BG3 I can't make out the inventory descriptions from the couch. Having it in hand on a secondary screen would be a lot less trouble than moving the couch to 4ft from the tv or getting up all the time to read descriptions. Plus bending my head down regularly would also put less strain on my neck from sitting in the same position continuously staring at the tv.

Also play Lego City Undercover. It's not like any other lego game, it's basically GTA in Lego, filled with tons of movie references. And you can now play it on the Switch without secondary screen ;)

The 2012 Game of the Year is Journey and the runner up is Dragon's Dogma.

Dragon's Dogma seems like it is one of those games that slid under the radar of most reviewers in 2012.  It got a Metacritic score of 78/75 on the PS3/XBox 360 respectively.  And yet, I keep hearing good things about it from the people who have played it.  It looks like a game I need to check out soon.

Also, everything I've seen from Dragon's Dogma 2 so far makes me think it is going to be a breakout success in 2024, much like BG3 was this year and Elden Ring was the year before.  Often when there is a game that is something of a sleeper hit and/or has a cult following, then the next entry becomes this explosive success.  I've seen this before with Demon's Souls, Nier, and Persona 4.  All of these games did not get much attention when released, but there was a consistent buzz about them even months or years after their initial release.  Then the next game comes along and becomes a much bigger success.  I'm getting that same vibe from Dragon's Dogma, and I'm expecting Dragon's Dogma 2 to be a significant success right from launch next year.

I wasn’t paying attention enough to the years and missed two of my favourite games of all time.

My favourite game from 2012 was Crusader Kings 2.

To describe it in short. It’s a historical grand strategy that (with updates) eventually took place from the rise of Charlemagne in 769, all the way to the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

It’s a sandbox style game, you play one character, and unlike other strategy games, you can marry, have kids, you can duel, and you can die. If you die, it’s game over… but not the end of the game! You then play your heir, and continue in a world that continues on with your original character jow a part of history.

Your role may also be vastly different. Your smallest rank would be a Count ruling over a county, perhaps a few barons and mayors in your county who control castles and towns. You could be a Duke/Duchess who rules over a duchy filled with counties. You could be a Monarch who rules over a Kingdom with multiple duchies and dozens of counties: below you Dukes, duchesses, Counts, and Countesses. Or you could be an Emperor with the potential to rule the world - although world conquest isn’t the point of this game, just a possibility. The point of this game is roleplaying a part of the Middle Ages. 

There are also

jobs for your household, like Steward, Chaplain, Spymaster, etc… these roles can be filled by NPC characters living in your court (it may only be a few, but some powerful characters can have hundreds (and they can boot the ones they don’t want). In the game world, tens to hundreds of thousands of NPC characters will exist - most common, but many will be parts of dynasties, have claims on titles, and you can bring them to your court, and press those claims, gaining vassals, land, and influence.

The least fun I had with the game was playing the role of world conqueror. The most fun I had was playing tall and multiplayer across months - because this game is like 200+ hours, which I did a few times. We would start the game as Counts/Countesses in the same Kingdom, vassals to the same King, and then see where we could take the Kingdom without launching a coup and regime change. This would always fail to go long, because as your characters have children and dynasties grow, eventually one ambitious NPC relative would overthrow the crown, and then it wouldn’t be long until one of the players inherits the throne. Not game over, but a new era. Now we’re joining up with others of our religion, and working more in the politics of the world.

The core mechanics have the player invest in technology, military, and infrastructure. When marrying, it often does well to check for good inheritable traits… like gigantism and dwarfism (kidding). It’s fun organizing plots against other nobles - assassinations and such - or making strategic marriages or other deals to expand influence and secure allies to make demands of your superiors, or to go to war. But when playing tall, a focus on building up core counties becomes the major focus.

Emergent storytelling is another major factor. In short, bits of story designed to shape into larger narratives, and different people experiencing different personal narratives alongside those they share with each other. In the end, you’re writing the game world’s history across hundreds of years.

Crusades can happen to, characters join up with rulers of other states of the same religion? with knight orders, and launch a campaign of conquest on behalf of your religion (typically Roman Catholic or Islam, but you can form your own heretical faith, maybe even advance one of the many pagan faiths, and have your own crusading brand of religion). But crusades are actually only a small part of the game, some cultures/religions don’t do them at all. Crusader Kings is more a simulator of the Middle Ages in Europe and Western Asia, and equivalent periods in Africa and the rest of Asia (where China, Mongol stuff, and all sorts of stuff in India are happening… watch out for Mongols wherever you are… and sometimes the Aztecs too… they bring huge armies and syphilis).

Also, since I hinted at it, there are orders of knights you can join. There are also cults and Warrior guilds; you can challenge other warriors over rank and other disputes, and you can be any and all ranks in the order. Challenge warriors in other guilds, etc… You can lead cannibalistic demon worshipping cults… or be eaten by one.

Magic is a thing, too, with some expansions. I once had my penis cut off during an experimental medical procedure (I had the court physician executed, as I suspected it was part of a plot by my ex-wife’s family), but then a couple of years later my demon cult helped me grow it back!

That’s Crusader Kings 2, one of my favourite games of all time.