My Top 5 Games of 2012

Happy New Year dear readers, I hope you all had a wonderful night and here's to a fantastic 2013!

For those interested (HA!) here's my top 5 games of 2012, Yippee!


5. Spec Ops: The Line



Yager Development this year showed that shooters can be more than just power fantasies with "badass" patriots gunning down foreign threats and making it home with just enough characterization for the Medal of Honor or whatever. Spec Ops is a fairly inoffensive 3rd person shooter at heart but where it excels it's writing; being a gripping "war is hell" drama, exploring mature themes and going against what we've all come to expect is breath of fresh air that we all needed. Well done Walt Williams, well done Sir!



4. Mark of the Ninja



Klei Entertainment are rapidly becoming one of my favorites and they really hit a home run for me here, combining some of my favorite gameplay elements with a wonderful art style and some frankly brilliant animation. The writing and story aren't going to win any awards any time soon and sometimes the controlling/mechanics take a dive but sometimes it's good just to have something genuinely fun to play and nice to look at.

2D Sidescroller? - I love it
Ninjas? - I love it
Stealthing missions? - I love it!



3. Borderlands 2



What is there to be said about Borderlands 2 that hasn't been said already. It's genuinely funny, plays well, has some retardedly brilliant characters, looks an absolute dream and is better than it's predecessor. I had a lot of fun with the original Borderlands and like a truly good sequel, Borderlands 2 has improved in almost every way and for that I love it, if Borderlands 3 keeps the trend going I may well end up in a fun induced coma.



2. Dishonored



Bethesda take a bow, their ludicrously wonderful fantasy adventure Skyrim was easily my Game of the Year 2011 and this year they are the publisher of Dishonored. Beautifully stylized, very well written and with some genuinely brilliant characters and moments within the game Dishonored really captured my imagination and damn near stole my heart. If they'd included a way of switching to third person for the platforming/free-running sections a la AssCreed this game would be perfect. Arkane Studios now has my undivided attention.



1. The Walking Dead



Because really what else could it have been?

When I picked up Dishonored I was 100% sure it was my game of the year, until I got into The Walking Dead.This game is beautiful in every sense, every character is well defined and has their own special place in my heart. I'm sure everyone who's play TWD will agree that it is truly a force to be reckoned with and is a new benchmark for the videogame industry and art in general.

I'm really struggling for ways to describe the brilliance of this game, The Walking Dead is beyond words, all I can say is that if you haven't played it yet, do it, now. Telltale Games, you did well kid.


Thanks for reading, Happy 2013 x