Best: FTL: Faster Than Light

Worst: Guild Wars 2

Best - there's a lot to choose from here, but Botanicula would be on any list of mine. I also like Qasir al-Wasat and Waking Mars. I have Crusader Kings II, Grimrock and FTL, but I haven't yet played them much, so any of those could be on my "best of 2012" list at some point.

Worst - nothing I've played so far that was made in 2012 has been bad. I was disappointed by Eufloria, which came out in 2011, because I find the taking over planets thing to be dull and slightly stressful at the same time, which is a pity.

Best game I've played in 2012, irrespective of release date, would probably be Startopia.

Thomas Was Alone is on my shopping list - it looks really neat.

We should add a Most Surprising. And also a Most Disappointing game (not necessarily the worst, but a game the didn't meet expectations ie X-Com Enemy Unknown or Diablo III etc..)

Best: Defender's Quest, SpaceChem

Worst: I don't know. I try just to play games that I'm in the mood for and so complete disappointments are very rare for me.

Sounds interesting, maybe I'll look into that.
Also I forgot to mention FTL in my "best from 2012" category.

Best - The Walking Dead
Worst - Assassin's Creed III

You should try this one, everybody should. It's much more user friendly than Crusader Kings 1, and it's the most complex ruling simulator ever created.

Take note: even though this game has a shitload of DLCs, none of them is really needed if you're not a fan of the game. Maybe Sword of the Islam and Legacy of Rome, but ONLY if you want to play as a muslim / byzantine empire.

And it has an amazing Game of Thrones mod, too! :D

It is a "Grand RTS", and those can be about so much more than warfare. When people hear RTS, then they often think of games such as Command & Conquer, StarCraft and Close Combat, but the genre can offer so much more. The Caesar series and Paradox's in house games are per definition RTSs.

But yea, Ruler Simulator is a good description. Instead of playing a nation, you play as the head of a noble family, and you try to get yourself into a better position through political marriages, warfare, court intrigues, assassinations and other fun things.


As for best game of the year?
Tie between Legend of Grimrock and Crusader Kings 2.

I have only played one 2012 game this year, and that is The Walking Dead. However, even if I had played more 2012 games, TWD would most likely still be my favorite. You become very invested in the characters, and you actually care about how your choices affect them. It's well worth your time and money if you want games with strong, emotionally engaging stories.
I've only played one 2012 game because I figured I should get through my backlog instead of adding to it for once, so I have also finished The Witcher, and I am currently playing Dead Island with my buddy. The Witcher is a really good game with a few logistical flaws and a somewhat buggy quest system, but I still enjoyed it, particularly the atmosphere.



Dead Island is probably the least interesting game I have played this year. I don't think it's horrible - I'll finish it and I enjoy playing it with my buddy - but I think it's too much about mashing zombie brains and too little about the story (which is rather weak anyway). The characters are flat and stereotypical, and the menu system sucks. A few examples:

- Weapons you pick up are auto-equipped if there are free slots in your weapons inventory. Sometimes this weapon is auto-equipped as your main weapon as well. This is annoying if you have an electrical katana (lots of damage) and accidentally pick up a plank (very little damage) or something.

- Alcohol is considered a weapon. With the aforementioned problem this is REALLY F*CKING ANNOYING because you click to hit a zombie but wind up drunk instead while under attack. Alcohol can be used to create molotov cocktails, so you're also wasting a bottle you could have used to create weapons instead.

- Medpacks are also in the "weapons" category, and while they don't auto-equip like alcohol does, they still take up a weapons slot. (They are limited.)

- Quests and the map are under two different tabs. You have to switch back and forth to see where you're going, which is really annoying when you have 10-15 quests.



I'll finish Dead Island because I enjoy playing with my buddy, but I probably wouldn't have bothered if I had played it alone or with people I don't know.
Other than this I plan on getting through Beyond Good and Evil and Dead Space before Christmas break is over.

EDIT:
Cleaned up to make it a bit easier to read.

I haven't played Spec Ops (nor any Call of Duty after CoD2, back in WWII), but I'm working through some issues with that game, probably for the same reason that people have issues have the Call of Duty franchise. Although Spec Ops is an important game (one that needed to be made in light of all the CoD games), I feel like - from what I've gathered- it's trying to break down the complex issues of war into a 6-hour game, and seems to give ammo to those who like to point at the military and say that doing a tour will automatically turn you into a PSTD-ridden psychopath. (I think Yahtzee's video - and his anti-American leanings - have made me uncomfortable and biased again the game, too. One of the Escapist's comments that stood out to me was, "A game where you shoot American soldiers? Sold!")

I think personally I can be more "friendly" towards the game if you can tell me that there are positive (or at least reasonable, human) portrayals of American soldiers, or some form of "balance". I suppose almost all video games have to boil down complex issues, but even without playing it, this one struck a difficult feeling in me. I think that's a GOOD thing in some ways, but I also get the feeling this won't get resolved.

(By the way, although I do try to be balanced, I also have right-leaning views, whereas I'm guessing most people here have left-leaning views.)

Best: Spec Ops: The Line. By far margin.

Worst: No one mentioned Revelations 2012?

Yes, indeed, it's both real time and strategy, but even Paradox prefers the term "Grand Strategy" to describe their games, and it sounds way better to me too. There's absolutely no point arguing about this, though. :D

You are honestly expecting that I discuss a game with you that you haven't even played?

Hard to say, even if I could remember all of them off the top of my head. I don't think I've played a lot of games released in 2012 yet, and definitely no AAA titles. But since this is personal, of the ones I've played and currently recall it could be those:

BEST - Botanicula (artistically consistent, nice visuals, great soundtrack, lots of fun and variety despite the simplistic gameplay; honorable mentions: Fortune Summoners and Escape Goat, both quite unique and enjoyable in their own way; and Ben Chandler P.I., lol)

WORST - Home (although, in its defense I have to admit that I played it before a save function was patched into it; I felt that despite being relatively short it was a waste of my time and that the concept behind it is not as original and interesting as it's made out to be, and apart from that the execution of the concept didn't convince me; I might be a bit unfair towards it, but I didn't play any other games that I didn't like long enough to criticize them)

What?

I really liked that game. Nothing spectacular, but some solid cranial fun.