Your 2012 Year in Review

[Trash]

Excellent thread there, Wyrmlord. Well, apart from showing a lot of promise for the future with a slew of exciting projects seeing the light through crowdfunding, 2012 was utterly meh. Out of all the games I played I would call maybe one or two genuinly great with the rest being mostly okay. Which is okay but not, you know, great. So, which games did grab me?

Hotline Miami was like an ultra-violent bad trip on overdrive. The game presented you with a mysterious premises and then let you slaughter all the way through it. The bloodletting together with your own frialty made for a frantic and often hysterious game. To me this is arcade done at its best. Fast, difficult, hallocugenic and frantic it kept me playing through the levels seeing if I could do better. Easily my game of the year. Only bad thing? Solving the mystery. A story is better when you keep your listeners in the dark. Good thing about it? You really have to work hard to learn the whole story.

The Walking Dead was glitchy, based on a comic I grew tired off quickly, way more railroaded than anticipated and barely had any real interesting puzzles. What it did have was setting you as the player up with the protection of a kid who for once was not an annoying hindrance. The game played on your emotions and that, frankly, was both fresh and very surprising to me. To me it felt like gaming finally matured enough to explore new avenues of interaction and player immersion. In the end however it was too unbalanced to become truly the best game of the year. Amazing parts interspaced with lame set-pieces or sub-par direction. Still, a fascinating take on those 'play your own adventure' books of yore and a story with some interesting characters you'll genuinly start to care for.


Honorable mention: Eador: Genesis is a 2006 Russkie fantasy turn-based strategy title. I've played it for three or four weeks now and am addicted. It's a bit too quick to call this the best game of the year for me but it certainly fits within the list. It's difficult, will force you to improvise your approach and is fun. Will have to see if it keeps its attraction the way games like MoM did but I'm hopefull.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Well, by the third page, the mentions for Hotline Miami and Walking Dead have made me consider grabbing them now.

I mean, I read about these games every day in the Codex, but seeing that after twelve months, these names still stick with people - that means they must be something special.

 

[Trash]

Hotline Miami is fun if you don't mind dying countless times, don't get epileptic seizures from flickering screens and love to run around like crazy trying to butcher them as neatly possible without them even hitting you once. If you do, you'll love this. Oldskool arcade action is closest what it comes to.

 

[Humppaleka]

I giev Max Payne 3 11/10 GOTY of 2012.

Seriously, had great fun with it. Of course it is decline compared to the predecessors but I think MP 3 is rock-solid on it's own. Mandatory: I am now a true gamer for beating it.

 

[DalekFlay]

I spent the entire year overseas on a job without my gaming PC. So... I replayed Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment and the first half of Baldur's Gate. Holy fuck is Baldur's Gate boring now (always?). Started Icewind Dale and Realms of Arkania but they trailed off as work escalated.

On the not RPG front I played a ton of adventure games old and new. Full Throttle has insanely stupid puzzle design but Day of the Tentacle is still amazing. Gemini Rue and Resonance are both great. Machinarium is pretty style over substance. Sam and Max Hit the Road is still my favorite of all time.

During a summer vacation I played some modern games. Mass Effect 3 continued the decline of a promising series. Max Payne 3 was fun but got monotonous, plus I found it's mouse control a little off. The Darkness 2 was fun shooting mayhem and better than most console port shooters. Skyrim with an archer is fun.

Can't wait to get home and play Dishonored, Far Cry 3, Risen 2 and scattered others.

THE YEAR IN REVIEW.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS THIS YESR INDIES AND SMALLVERT GAMES AND SHIT ALL THE WAY THIS YEAR

EVEN THOSR I GET IN BUNDLES USUALLY SO I DON'T PLAY THEM WHEN THEY COME OUT BUT I LOVED HOTLINE MIAMI

BINDING OF ISAAC SPAZ AND MB WARBAND TOOK UP MOST OF MY GAMING TIME ALTHOUGH I SPENT UNHEALTHY AMOUNTE OF TIME OF THE AGE OF DECADENCE DEMOS

 

[Blaine]

GAME OF THE YEAR

 

[DwarvenFood]

Can't even remember a single RPG released this year, what a shame. The genre is dead even at mainstream, IGN-y levels.

2013 if there wouldn't be any delays would look as follows:
The Banner Saga (February 2013), South Park: The Stick of Truth (March 2013), Divinity: Original Sin (May 2013), Shadowrun Returns (June 2013), Grim Dawn (August 2013), Wasteland 2 (October 2013), Age of Decadence (October 2013) , Dead State (December 2013)

2013 should become pretty awesome, add to that list
Chaos Chronicles, Underrail and Dragon Commander

 

[Captain Shrek]

Can't even remember a single RPG released this year, what a shame. The genre is dead even at mainstream, IGN-y levels.

2013 if there wouldn't be any delays would look as follows:
The Banner Saga (February 2013), South Park: The Stick of Truth (March 2013), Divinity: Original Sin (May 2013), Shadowrun Returns (June 2013), Grim Dawn (August 2013), Wasteland 2 (October 2013), Age of Decadence (October 2013) , Dead State (December 2013)

2013 should become pretty awesome, add to that list
Chaos Chronicles, Underrail and Dragon Commander

Eisenwald!

 

[Rhalle]

Mass Effect 3 -- Giant disappointment. Exciting to see the returning characters; some of the new ones were good, too. Bioware blew it.

Torchlight II -- Played through it 1 1/2 times. Something about it just isn't as fun as the first, and itemization is far more de rigeur. Not as inspired as TL1. Probably has too many pieces of MMO in its DNA, also.

Planetside II -- Hideous. By-the-numbers 3-faction MMOFPS. BF wannabe. Soulless.

Dishonored, Dark Souls and Guild Wars 2 look interesting. I'd also maybe like to play Max Payne 3, but I love Max Payne 2 so much that I can't bring myself to be disappointed by it.

What's sad is that when I think about the most fun I've had after just picking up a title and playing it, I still have to go back to 2008 and Mount and Blade. More recently, I rather enjoyed a vanilla-WoW private server I was on for several months at the beginning of 2012, as well as another private server for the greatest MMORPG of all time: Lineage I. And there's still a 100% playthrough of FO:NV-- total completion, all DLCs-- that I've bogged down in and will likely never complete. Been a pretty crappy year.

 

[Jasede]

"It sucked"

 

[octavius]

I haven't played a new game since HoMM V or Dark Messiah (still haven't tried Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Civ 5), but for the first time in over a decade I think the development of PC gaming has gone in the right direction, mostly thanks to Kickstarter allowing developers to make games for a niche market and GOG for providing a DRM free alternative to many games.

 

[Aeschylus]

Um... 2012... let's see... Didn't play many games released this year.

I played Risen 2, which varied from average to highly mediocre. Showed some flashes of potential but was mostly done in by terrible design decisions.
I got gifted Botanicula on Steam, which was actually kind of fun. Super easy, but worth the price (free).
I enjoyed Chaos on Deponia more than any other adventure game out of Germany, so that's something.
The Civ V expansion was putting lipstick on a pig.
King's Bounty: Warriors of the North was exactly the same as all the previous recent KB games, and I stopped a few hours in as I didn't feel like playing the exact same game again.

And that's it, I think. Hopefully 2013 is more fruitful, particularly for RPGs.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Diablo 3, STO and World of tanks are the only games i played with any regularity this year.

 

[Jasede]

What's STO?

Edit: Google is my friend.

 

[Gozma]

Personal GotY is XCOM. Played through end to end multiple times. Ultimately degenerate and stupid like all one-player games but I was not reminded of this grim fact of reality as fast as in many other games

Played The Witcher for the first time due to Steam sale. Seemed a mediocre Gothic-like, don't care about Potato Dritzt Durban

Played Betrayal at Krondor again early in the year to my traditional stopping point where it is too boring to keep playing, the wyvern forest. PLEASE CONTEXTUALIZE RIDDLES IN LOOT MECHANICS I LOVE IT, no sarc

In meta-game news Kickstarter blew up, which I would have considered the most retardedly slim hope imaginable for midbudget game production a half year previous to it happening

 

[Jick Magger]

Biggest disappointment of the year for me would have to be Diablo 3, followed very close behind by Mass Effect 3. Both represent decline in the most pure way possible.
Max Payne 3 was a surprise for me. Story was terrible and style, while interesting, went completely against everything MP1 and 2 set up, but the combat was incredibly fluid, fast paced, and satisfying, only really being let down in a handful of areas where the openness of the maps discouraged shoot-dodging.
Far Cry 3 was also a surprise. Wasn't expecting too much after the shithouse that was Far Cry 2, this one improved on it in virtually every single way as well as expanding upon it with shit like crafting and hunting.
Enjoyed Faster than Light alot
Hotline Miami is definitely my game of the year, fast paced, frenetic action oozing with atmosphere and a neo-eighties soundtrack, game's great from beginning to end.
Borderlands 2 was essentially just a retread of Borderlands 1 with a slightly more balanced difficulty and LOL SO FUNNEH MAYMAYS, got bored quickly.
Played Fall of the Samurai, liked it alot, vastly superior to Rise of the Samurai, put some hope that Rome 2 might not be a complete decline.
Played XCOM about once, feel mixed. Beginning is too railroaded for my liking and there really isn't much depth.
Had Deadly Premonitions on backlog and decided to give it a go. Game is very charming. Atrocious from a technical standpoint, but story and characters are quirky enough for me to stick with it.
Replayed System Shock 2 when that french guy made a patch for it after finding its source code or something. Game still stands up today, loved every minute of it.

 

[Crooked Bee]

My GOTY is Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone. Best of Carpe Fulgur's releases thus far, and generally one of the best games I've ever played.

Dark Souls too, of course, although technically it isn't a 2012 game.

Game of Thrones RPG had a very satisfying story. The combat was pretty meh, though.

I'm also halfway through Primordia, and so far it's a really great adventure game.

Haven't played Endless Space, XCOM or Hotline Miami yet, but they are on my to-play list.

 

[Ulminati]

You can skip XCOM, Crooked Bee. It's pretty underwhelming. Not bad enough to generate trainwreck lulz, just so decidedly mediocre and uninspired you end up feeling a bit sad for it.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I'll cut you Ulminati!

 

[Keshik]

Game I sunk/wasted most time in was BL2 with friends, co-op was pretty fun. Haven't given any of the DLCs a look, will probably end up nabbing them on the inevitable appearance they'll make on a Steam sale.

Else on the 'good' list for me was XCOM (although it does get 'meh'), Dishonored, Sleeping Dogs. Diablo 3 was so-so, again got the most fun in co-op with friends. Fair amount of letdowns though, ME3, GW2, MWO.

 

[Gozma]

The big payoff I got from XCOM was starting my first game on classic ironman and it being just hard enough for someone pretty familiar with squad tactics style games to keep me under threat, yet not to the point I had to do shit like restart over and over or memorize things, even with harsh mechanics like permadeaths.

Later on I was scraping the barrel, interest-wise, to play it on impossible ironman which really shows off every bad or cheap decision they made. But I did play it so it was still competitive with replaying some old game or w/e

 

[Black]

Abort everything, my buddy's found a GOTY.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0thrxkDeqA&feature=youtu.be

 

[RRRrrr]

GOTY: Probably Game of Thrones: The RPG. I liked it a lot for some reason, despite growing to dislike the TV series (didn't even finish season 2) and the books (didn't even read 5).

Dishonored was meh. It was just bland. I don't remember anything from it, but it was tolerable. Wouldn't have bothered if it was not for all the hype.

Mass Effect 3 was meh, never cared for any of the characters, I have no idea why I even played the series. I still cringe when I remember the running animations. And the story.

Far Cry 3 was surprisingly good, mostly because I had no expectations about it whatsoever. The graphics were disappointing (long distance view were just shitty, it is beyond me how they even put such shitty blurred mountains. Even Crysis 1 looked better.) It had a lot of potential, but I expected very little. It has no replayability value whatsoever, though. Oh, and it was not challenging in any way.

Every year I play the Call of Duty that comes out and find it entertaining. Until last year when I didn't even finish it (modern warfare 3 or something). This year I didn't even bother downloading it, let alone playing it.

Never bothered with any of the Assasin's Creeds as well. There was a new one this year. Never liked Hitman, so I didn't play the new one as well.


Alan Wake was way too boring and repetitive. Didn't finish it because I couldn't bring myself to play it anymore. It would have been much better off if they didn't try that hard to make it a shooter and had more focus on the horror. Meaning having any scary part whatsoever, because it didn't.

Tried Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning for half an hour and I felt disgusted by, don't know why, probably because it was completely uninspiring and boring. Like I feel towards Skyrim now.

I will proably try Max Payne 3 soon so as to have something to play on Christmas. I always finish some game in this time of the year.

And I guess those are all the games of 2012 I played this year. I wish Alpha Polaris had come out in 2012 so I could say it is my GOTY.

2012 was just bland, not unlike 2011, 2010 etc. I seem not to like video games anymore, just like music. And everything else. Fuck it.

I look forward to Bioshock Infinite, but it will probably have shitty gunplay/gameplay. I wish they did something better with the setting, or at least they didn't focus so much on being a shitty shooter.

And I guess that's that.
There is almost nothing to discuss about games nowadays. They are not bad but not good either. Just mediocre.
Everything is there-they have a story, gameplay, sound and all the components that make a game-it is just that they are all bland and not memorable. There are some attempts at originality but they are just overwhelmed by the generic stuff that seems to be have been always the norm.


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By the way, I finished Planescape Torment this year. Never played it before. I guess I am the very definition of an outsider without prior experience who can give a somewhat more "objective" opinion on it. It was probably the most important game-related thing that happened to me this year.
And it was not special.
It was just a game, probably a lot better than average, but nothing more. There was something lacking in it that most of the Codexers seem to fill using their imagination. This is probably the proper way to play games, but I don't think we are capable of doing it anymore. We are too old for this. It doesn't really matter what the objective qualities of the games you played when you were 12-16 are (or at any happy period of your life that you associate with a video game). You will always be fond of them. Same goes with books, music, films. After that, nothing will be as special.

I wish I could still enjoy video games, though. I still read some forums and follow new releases, occasionally trying something. But there is no magic anymore.



So, I stopped playing games for about 4 months. A lot of things happened in that period. Actually, 2012 changed me more than any other year, yet it was probably the least eventful.

And since GD is gone and Surf Solar's thread is retardoed, this is where I give my real life year in a review.
My year was just as shitty as the games that came out and my future is as bleak as that of BioWare.

How was your year, Codex?

 

[Kashmir Slippers]

(Not that any of you care about my opinions, but)

There has been a disappointing lack of CK 2 in this thread. I know that this is RPGCodex, and all, but it is by far the most satisfying game that I have played that came out this year (though admittance that is not many). I have been playing CK 2 consistently since it launched in February and it is the first game that I have played in a long time where I didn't feel somewhat disappointed about buying a week/month/year after I made the purchase. Quality game.

 

[Minttunator]

My personal GotY has to be The Secret World, by far the best MMO released in the last several years. Legend of Grimrock definitely also deserves a mention.

Not a bad year overall and I'm still to play some of the games mentioned in this thread which I'm guessing might like, such as CK2 or Dishonored. 2013 is looking pretty nice as well, with Path of Exile launching in January, Divinity: Original Sin hopefully coming out, and maybe we'll even get Grimoire and Age of Decadence at last.