[typing]
Well, Christmas is over, 2012 is ending,
2013 is beginning,
and people are making lists!
I'm making a list.
This is a list
of the Top 17 Best Games of 2012
according to me and me only.
Yes, this is not your list. This is mine.
Please treat it as such.
First up is #17: Sniper Elite V2.
Though it's essentially a remake of Rebellion's first Sniper Elite,
V2 here takes you on a different journey through the Battle of Berlin in 1945.
This time you're sniping the heads and balls off of dudes
in charge of the V2 rocket program.
And it's a little bit more than your average third-person shooter,
especially if you crank the difficulty and realism settings all the way up.
You need to employ smart, stealthy tactics,
account for wind and bullet drop,
and create the most efficient plan of attack possible.
Or you can just say "screw all that" and shoot dudes in the face all day
and watch them burst in slow motion.
either through online co-op with a friend through the entire campaign
or even a bunch of crappy competitive multiplayer mode that nobody liked.
#16: XCOM: Enemy Unknown
And while this is normally not my kind of game,
I can't deny how excellent Enemy Unknown turned out to be,
for Axis have pulled off what was once thought impossible.
They've made a proper modern XCOM game
and it's freakin' awesome.
It's pretty much the same story as the 1994 original.
In the near future, an alien invasion is happening, and Earth is kind of screwed!
It's up to you, the commander of the elite military organization XCOM,
to put a stop to these invasions
by playing dress-up with your custom characters,
researching new technology,
and turning those friggin' aliens into a paste
with ever-increasing firepower.
And oh yeah, there's no pressure or anything,
but you'll need to employ some really clever tactics each turn
or you'll end up vaporized with an Earth with no humans.
#15: Assassin's Creed III
Now let me just go ahead and say that as a fan of the Assassin's Creed series since the beginning,
I thought this was the weakest entry in the series
since the original.
But, while it felt like a step back for the overall series for me,
it was still crazy what Ubisoft Montreal was able to pull off here.
The American Revolution is pretty unique to gaming.
The wilderness to explore is very Red Dead Redemption and very awesome.
And the naval battles were surprisingly one of the most enjoyable
and memorable gaming experiences this year.
It's too bad the main protagonist was an unlikable bore,
the story just wasn't as engaging as previous games,
the game itself was riddled with bugs and glitches,
and the "real world" ending for the entire trilogy was garbage,
or else this would have been placed higher on my list.
#14: Farming Simulator 2013
[laughs] And no, I'm not kidding.
If you've seen many of my videos, you'll know I'm a huge fan of the sim genre,
and often the more mundane the simulation, the better.
I don't know what it is about this game that's not a game at all,
but it had me hooked
from the moment I hopped onto my first tractor
and plowed my first wheat field.
While I think it could use some more things to do,
Farming Simulator 2013 is still the best of its kind that I've played,
and with one of the best communities I've had the pleasure of talking to recently.
But the best part to me is that it's like SimFarm
meets third-person open-world sandbox
and I think that's excellent.
#13: Crusader Kings II
A bit like "Game of Thrones" meets Sid Meier's Civilization,
but without the deviation
from historical accuracy
and experiencing thousands of years of humanity.
You play the years 1066 to 1453,
where the whole goal is to build a dynasty and keep it in your power
while expanding your empire.
Or not.
Because it's a sandbox game with no set goals,
only your own objectives.
The depth of this game is astounding,
and as a result, it's extremely hard to get into if you haven't played
other grand strategy games by Paradox.
But once you get past that learning cliff,
the game becomes incredibly addictive.
There really is no reason that managing vassals, bishops,
marriages, council members, succession laws, and methodical warfare
should be this enjoyable, but yet here it is.
#12: Tokyo Jungle
This PSN downloadable from Sony
lets you pit house cats and lap dogs
against freaking grizzly bears and dinosaurs.
If that's not enough of a selling point for you, then consider this:
It's a survival action role-playing game with some rogue-like elements,
and crap-tons of unlockable animals, loot,
and missions taking place in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo.
A bit like the future part of "12 Monkeys" where you play the part of the animals
instead of a plastic-coated Bruce Willis.
It's unique and quirky as balls, doesn't cost much and is crazy fun.
What more could you want?!
Besides maybe randomly-generated levels
and some more animal customization, not much!
#11: Forza Horizon
While at first I was hesitant to see an arcadey racer with the Forza name,
thankfully Playground Games and Turn 10 have come up with something fantastic here.
Mix up Test Drive Unlimited, Need for Speed: Shift and Forza 4,
and you pretty much have Forza Horizon.
It may play more like an arcade racer than anything,
but it's got that awesome physics engine and deep car customization
of the main Forza games,
and it really does feel like Test Drive Unlimited with its open world,
junk car collecting and ways of getting races.
Plus, it's the first game in the series with a full day and night cycle
matte paint options and actual traffic.
So I found it to be a nice intermediary diversion before Forza 5 comes out.
#10: Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Like Transformers: War for Cybertron, but better in every way,
except the lack of co-op.
Seriously, that's...that's all you really need to know.
But if you didn't play the first one, just know that High Moon Studios
have done the Transformers brand justice
in a way I never thought I'd see.
It's like a love letter to the fans of the series,
hitting most all the right notes
and truly feeling like a G1 Transformers story,
while also having its own identity and storyline.
Plus, it's just a darned enjoyable third-person shooter
with no cumbersome cover mechanics,
just balls-to-the-wall action with an awesome story
and plenty of variation in gameplay every other level.
#9: Torchlight 2
Diablo 3 was one of my biggest disappointments of the year.
Yet Torchlight 2 was the game that got me to completely
forget about Blizzard's DRM-riddled letdown.
Yes, Runic Games have developed a freaking hack-and-slash masterpiece, if you ask me.
It's a rather obvious Diablo clone,
but it's one of the few clones out there that I think manages
to surpass the game it's cloning.
Take all the greatness of Diablo,
take out most of the annoying parts,
drop in a ton of fantastic sweetness,
and you've got Torchlight 2.
Whether you're playing single-player or with a party of up to six people
over a LAN or online,
or whether you're just playing the vanilla game or modding the crap out of it,
this one is sure to please action-RPG aficionados.
#8: Journey
I'm not entirely sure how to describe this one.
If you've played other games by That Game Company
like Cloud, Flow, and Flower,
then you'll know their games aren't exactly traditional games.
And I mean that in the best way possible.
They're more of an experience,
and Journey is easily the best thing they've done.
Journey tells you one of the most interesting and emotional stories
I've seen in a game this year,
without saying a single word.
You're just some thing wandering through some place,
but, holy crap, is it good!
Amazing visuals, amazing soundtrack,
amazing and unique use of co-op multiplayer.
It's just amazing, and even though it's only about an hour and a half long,
it's easily worth it.
#7: The Walking Dead
Speaking of games that are more of an experience than anything,
well, here's...another one.
At its heart, it's another adventure game by Telltale Games,
but it's a bit more story-driven and certainly a lot more mature
than most of their previous games,
both in content and the way you have to handle situations.
As far as stories go, this is easily the best of the year for me.
Based on the comic book series of the same name,
The Walking Dead takes what you'd expect to be a basic zombie survival situation
and turns into one of the single-most engaging pieces of interactive fiction I've played.
And it's separated into five distinct episodes
that more or less stand on their own.
So it's easy to take it in bite-size chunks
and just enjoy each one on their own merits.
#6: Hotline Miami
Sometimes, you just want a game to kill you, brutally
and endlessly in a variety of ways.
And as long as it's done in such a manner
that you feel like it's your own dumb fault,
that can be tons of fun.
And even better if it's done with tons of style
and trippy awesomeness.
And Hotline Miami by Dennaton Games
pulls this off beautifully.
Of course, on a base level, it's pretty simple stuff–
just kill or be killed.
But, man, there's something about this one that just grabbed me from the start
and never let go.
From the atmosphere and excellent soundtrack reminiscent of the movie "Drive,"
to the beautiful executions and satisfying weaponry,
to the narrative that dips its toes into different territory than you'd expect,
I loved every minute of this one.
#5: Borderlands 2
I thought the first Borderlands was freakin' fantastic, flaws and all,
as it was pretty much first-person Diablo with guns.
And for the sequel, fans like me got exactly what we wanted.
Bigger, better Borderlands.
Take everything that was good about the first one,
make it funnier, more polished, more engaging,
and there you go.
Not to mention Gearbox Software managed to craft
one of the most unexpectedly memorable stories of the year for me.
It also happened to be one of the best PC ports I've seen in a long time,
which is a huge plus.
Whether you're playing alone or with friends,
Borderlands 2 is just good solid fun.
#4: Mark of the Ninja
Another downloadable game that turned out to be amazing,
Mark of the Ninja is probably the game I have the absolute least complaints about this year.
Shank and N+ developer Clay Entertainment
have created a stealth game masterstroke.
Somehow they've managed to take the stuff that made games like Thief
and earlier Splinter Cell titles awesome,
made it 2D,
and kept it both accessible and deep at the same time.
For the seven hours or so it takes to complete,
I was in stealth gaming heaven.
Once I emptied its bag of tricks, though,
there wasn't a ton of reason for me to go back and continue playing,
which is pretty much the only reason it wasn't higher on the list.
#3: Dishonored
Speaking of stealth gaming done right,
balls yeah, Dishonored is crazy good stuff!
Well, stealth gaming done right if you want to play stealthily,
as the game really is all about making your own choices
and playing how you want to.
If you want to go through this as a gun-wielding superman
who thinks stealth is a dirty word, go right ahead.
There are consequences and rewards for every play style,
but it really does reward stealth and pacifism over all other options.
Additionally, it has that incredible art style of Viktor Antonov's
and a very similar vibe to Arcane Studio's previous game, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.
And I loved that game, so it was an absolute pleasure to play Dishonored
and find it was just as good
and way better.
#2: Sleeping Dogs
Though this was at one point a new entry to the True Crime series,
United Front Games' Sleeping Dogs
far surpasses the amount of fun I ever had with those games.
You can kind of think of it as the movies "Big Trouble in Little China"
meets "Infernal Affairs,"
meets the games Bully and Grand Theft Auto
and that still doesn't quite do it justice.
You explore a fictionalized Hong Kong
as an undercover cop infiltrating the Triads,
with all the expected twists and turns you'd expect from playing both sides,
as well as plenty of other developments that aren't so obvious.
It's the open-world crime game genre at its finest
with a melee combat system that I've never seen in such a game,
and it works awesomely and I really hope Rockstar were paying attention,
because they could learn a few things from this one.
Not to say that it's better than GTA,
but it's different enough that it really stands on its own
and was a welcome change from the typical GTA clone.
And #1: Far Cry 3.
While I could easily put any of the past five or six games or so at the top of this list,
there really is no question in my mind
as to what game I had the most outright fun with this year.
And that is this one, Ubisoft Montreal's most excellent Far Cry 3,
which thankfully is a far cry from the awesome yet flawed Far Cry 2.
Open-world first-person games are becoming more common all the time,
but I have yet to see one pull it off as well as this one.
Crap-tons of stuff to do, an incredible story,
one of the best villains I've ever seen,
superb sound design, bright and colorful graphics,
a real sense of progression,
no heavy-handed, ridiculous DRM in the PC version,
and on and on.
It's not a perfect game by any means, don't get me wrong,
and see my full review of it for my list of complaints.
But it's still the most solid and enjoyable all-around gaming experience I've had all year.
I'd recommend Far Cry 3 to any gamer, any time, and that's that.
And that's it for the Top 17 Best Games of 2012, according to me.
On the other hand, I do have five others that I would like to mention.
Honorable mentions, I suppose, because they're, uh...
they're honorably mentionable.
Now why didn't I just make this a Top 22 list?
Well that's because I'm weird
and like to hold to 17 because...it's a number.
Anyway, the first one up is FTL: Faster Than Light.
This one I really much enjoyed, it just felt a little more, uh...
like it was out to get me rather than it was out to allow me to enjoy it.
I don't know. There's that element of randomness and luck that I just couldn't get and
didn't have the greatest time with.
Max Payne 3.
Awesome gunplay. Awesome soundtrack.
Awesome Rockstar-iness.
Except for the absolute *excess* of unskippable cutscenes.
And yes, I know they were there to mask the loading screens,
but it was still no less annoying,
especially as jarring as they were visually.
It was just like, ugh, my goodness!
Also have Gas Guzzlers
a really cool, independent car combat racing game.
Unfortunately, the difficulty spike, especially at the beginning,
is pretty much just insane.
[chuckles]
Although, I did voice the Duke Nukem character in there,
so, uh, yeah, that's cool.
Next up is Spec Ops: The Line,
which, holy crap, what a friggin' awesome narrative
and does some really unique stuff with that.
Except the gameplay is...nothing...good...at all.
I don't know, it's just typical third-person cover-shooter crap
and it wasn't that enjoyable.
And finally, two that I'm lumping together
because they're both left off the list for the same reason.
But I would have loved to include them,
but couldn't really because they were mods,
and that is Day Z and Black Mesa.
Both absolutely excellent and probably–
well, no, definitely would have made it into the Top 10
of the list if they were actually full games, but at this point,
they're still just mods.
And this is a list of full games, not mods.
So...maybe next year.
Alright, well that is the entire list for 2012.
Thanks for watching and, uh...
thanks for watching.
Stay tuned for 2013,
because it's a year.
[electronic music]