Author's Note: This is essentially a re-post from my personal blog, but decided to post it here because I thought it would be more fitting. Also,Holy Shit. First C-Blog in nearly 3 years. Also, the entry for Diablo3/Torchlight 2 is probably going to be longer than everything else on the list because of me going in-depth on why I liked each of them for separate reasons like a crazy person. Here's to hoping it doesn't take too long to read through - Mo.

One of the things that I wanted to do with this blog was to get my thoughts on video games on paper, so to speak. Not to make a career out of it, just as a way of interpreting my thoughts and feelings on the medium that is so near and dear to me. Although to be honest, writing a list feels like a a weird thing for me to do, especially in regards to the whole "Game of The Year" thing. I generally consider the Game of The Year concept to be incredibly silly; this is due to my belief of different games meaning different thing to different people, and generally considering that each game can set out to do different things (if that makes any sense).

With that little caveat out of the way, the way this list works is that the entries are in no particular order because no one game is the best in my eyes. Except the original Mega Man X, as that is Primus' gift to Humanity. Now let's get this show started.


2012's Game of 2011: Dark Souls



A game from the year before on this list ? "Madness" you must be thinking. But I have a good reason for this: I don't have money in the back due to not having a job, and thus can't play everything I want when it comes out (plus I think most games aren't worth the full price of admission, but that's a post for another day). When Dark Souls came out, it was roughly around the time when my classes in college were starting to kick my ass, so I had to buckle down and skip it unfortunately. Being responsible as a student and strapped for cash can do that. The real reason I put Dark Souls above everything else I played in 2011 is because it's the one game that wasn't afraid to challenge everything I knew about how a game can be so soul-crushing in it's challenge level and depth of it's systems, yet be so incredibly rewarding. You must learn one thing if you have any hope of getting through it: It HATES your guts with a fiery passion. When this is understood, the journey will truly begin. There were times when it had me frustrated to the point of punching walls and saying all seven of the words you can't say on television at the top of my lungs. Sometimes simultaneously, but when I triumphed against a particularly annoying enemy, made it to the safety of a bonfire, or killed a tough boss; it was fucking euphoric. That is the reason why Dark Souls is my retroactive game of 2011


Diablo 3/Torchlight 2



These two games are probably less intertwined than I think they are, but they did the same thing: Kept me playing them until I looked at the clock and say "Oh Shit, I should probably go to sleep". While some say that Torchlight 2 has more in common with Diablo 2 than Diablo 3, I personally like to think that they are both differing permutations of the same ground work that Diablo 2 established back in 2000. Here's my reasoning in two separate parts:


Diablo 3: The way Diablo 3 does it in the ways that it's very aggressively geared towards keeping you playing the game for hours on end. Which is fucking diabolical in the best way possible (Pun fully intended). This is done through various ways, such as it putting the potion system on a cooldown timer and introduced health globes that drop from fallen foes. It also completely re-worked the skill system to allow an unprecedented amount of freedom in terms of skill builds and play styles, while also allowing for what as essentially free, unlimited respecs whenever you wished. Yeah, you read right: Free, unlimited respcecs whenever you wanted. The classes were the best part of the game as the four new classes all brought something unique to the table, while the old standby of the Barbarian got some new tricks to keep up with them whippersnappers so to speak (If you've seen the Male Barbarian, the you know what I'm talking about). Be it the Glass Cannon Demon Hunter, the Minion Master Witch Doctor, the Law of Equivalent Exchange ignoring Wizard or my personal favourite the Lightning Bruiser Monk; there was a style of play for every player .While I admit that the inclusion of the auction house kinda fucked the game over in my eyes in terms of loot progression, and that some of the difficulty balancing in the first month or so was pretty bullshit, it still didn't take away from the hundred and fifty or so hours of enjoyment I managed to get out of it.

Torchlight 2: The way Torchlight 2 does the whole "Kill Stuff, Loot ALL The Things" approach is by being a modern day interpretation of those forgotten days of demon slaying from the dawn of the 21st Century. The skill System for each of the game's 4 classes can be either really focused, Such as the Berserker's "Kill Everything" approach or be completely different things than intended like the Engineer's ability to be a Two-Handed Bruiser, Sword and Board Tank, Support, Dual Wielding Maniac or in my case all of those things rolled into one. When going through it, it felt like a world you wanted to explore in a weird sort of way (case in point the ghost ship side quest) and while I thought the realms of Sanctuary, Azmodan's corner of the Burning Hells and the High Heavens were nice and all, they sort of lost their appeal after a while. It also did what a good sequel should do: Take what worked about the first game and improve further while adding in new things. It's also got the neat Pet system that lets you haul stuff back to town while you keep killing and looting stuff. My pet's a ferret with an adorable little backpack and aviator helmet. With goggles.

Skylanders Giants



This one kind of came out of nowhere for me. I originally had my interests piqued by both listening about Jeff's growing obsession with Skylanders on the Giant Bombcast and the fact that the figures themselves actually looked pretty kick-ass. It's a combination of my two loves of both toys and games to make something pretty interesting (as well as a game that's pretty good too). The new thing in the game is the Giants, which not only serve as more toys to get but have some neat things introduced from a gameplay perspective. Since the giants are twice the size of regular Skylanders, they can get around barriers and other obstacles their smaller compatriots can't. This is also on the list because it's the first game that me and my kid sister ever co-oped from start to finish. Not only did we have a blast doing so, but we once spent 12 hours straight playing it. Yep. TWELVE HOURS. This convinced me that if more kids games were like Skylanders Giants than the world would be a better place. My only issue with the game is that it makes me want to get more of the little suckers, which conflicts with not having money. Well Played Activision. Well Played.

Journey



This is a game that I hold dear because it was one of the few games that makes me appreciate them as an artistic medium. When I played Dear Esther (the original Source mod) I thought "This is pretty interesting; not my cup of tea but interesting nonetheless". When I first played it, I wasn't really that into it. I then got to the sand slopes and met my first companion, from there we raced down the slopes and were cascading through the air every time we jumped. It was fucking incredible because it made me form this connection with a person I knew nothing about. With that said, it made me feel kind of sad when I lost said companion. It says something about a game that can make me feel this strongly about something, but back to why it's on the list. The reason it's here is because it's the only game that makes me feel like I was on an actual journey. I went through hardships in the form of losing companions, I overcame obstacles and felt like I had accomplished something in reaching the light at the mountain. Lastly, the soundtrack is flipping amazing. Go buy it on iTunes if it's there.

League of Legends



If you had asked me what any of the following in terms meant this time last year: Jungling, Laning, Solo Mid/Top, AD Carry, Support, Last Hitting, and the like, I would've assumed you were talking some kind of forgotten alien language and was giving a detailed explanation about your race's invasion plans. But after a series of attempts to try to get into it, everything clicked when I found a champion (playable character) that worked with me and my play style (said Champion was graves for those wondering). Since then I haven't looked back, and even as a free to play game; it feels balanced enough that you can not own any champions and still be competitive and as someone who not only can seen the potential for art in games, but also the potential nature of competitive play; competitive League of Legends can be thrilling to both as a spectator sport and as a means of competition. It's also the free to play game that I've spent the most money on. Ever. Don't judge me.

Borderlands 2



I like Borderlands 2 a lot. As in "Beat the game twice on two separate characters and buy the Season Pass" a lot. A lot of this has to do with what I mentioned in the Torchlight 2 part of the post: It takes what worked about the original and made it better, while at the same time adding some new features like a trading system (Thank You Based Gearbox). The stand out feature of the game would be the writing headed by "Hey Ash Watcha Playin' ?" co-creator Anthony Burch, which features a lot of Adult Swim style humour that aids in making the game more of an Affectionate Parody than anything done in the first game. He's also responsible for spawning my one of my favourite antagonists in a game since GLaDOS: Handsome Jack. He does the best thing a villain can do in my eyes: Be likeable in a way without making me feel bad about having to waste him when it's all over. His voice with an internet connection mentality made it so that I could see how much of a raving loon he was while at the same time making me want to kill him that much more. On the flip side: Constructors can eat a bag of dicks because they're the worst enemy in that game.


So there's my games of 2012. Weird list isn't
it ? There are some games that I left off of there because reasons: Mass Effect 3 because of me technically never finishing it and all of the DLC stuff for the single player striking me as "Hey, let's try to fix out story, guys", but it kind of hurts me a little. I left off the Walking Dead because at the time of writing it was still a technical mess (The save bug is the main thing keeping me from playing it). And lastly, I left off X-Com because I never played enough of it to talk about it proper. But with that out of the way, I say this: Bring on 2013.

SOURCES (All images found through Google Image Search)

- http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1633909/skylanders-giants-sidebar-bg.jpg

- http://financialpostbusiness.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/4-journey.jpg?w=620&h;=465

- http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/Bonfire

- http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/Weekend-Reading-Diablo-3-versus-Torchlight-2-Rivalry-Is-Great-for-Gamers-2.jpg/

- http://www.thealistdaily.com/news/exclusive-publisher-20-ndash-riot-and-the-rise-of-the-player-community/

Hello, Destructoid ! I would've posted a blog sooner, but what with the whole birthday love going around I'd figure I'd wait. As it turns out I was right. Also, HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY NIERO! Now that I got that out of the way, as the title of this blog entails, as I was browsing YouTube out of boredom an hour ago, I found the entire soundtrack for BlazBlue Continuum Shift and gave it a listen and its AWESOME. I (unfortunately) never played Calamity Trigger myself, but I plan on getting Continuum Shift ( read:not be an idiot ) Here's some of the music I found for your listening pleasure Enjoy




Sounds like something outta Guilty Gear XX





Classy, with a dash of Im'ma beat yo ass




Play this in the background, and your urge to troll will increase tenfold



Hope you liked it and Thank you for allowing me to waste your time !

Note: I know this is decidedly Hazama focused but can you blame me he seems badass !




Micheal Jackson would've been proud

Blastoise is like a TANK.





These are NOT my words, I swear


Tanks have armor, Blastoise's shell is like armor

Tanks are slow, but Blastoise is slow ON LAND

Tanks are feared for their raw,destructive power. Blastoise is feared for the fact that he's a

GIANT MOTHER-LOVING TURTLE

And to top it all off, THEY GOT CANNONS MOTHER EFFAS !
These reasons are why Blastoise is the best Pokemon ever. Do no dispute these facts, for they are SCIENCE !


To apologize for the Tank picture




P.S I'll set up a proper C-blog later to make up for this

Here's to one year, and many more

Sh!t, it has been a while since I did one of these, my last one was *checks last entry* Sweet Fudgemonkeys, in August. Oh well, better late than never I suppose. I haven't written a c-blog in such a long while because I haven't had anything smart, witty and/or funny say, and I'm still kind of anti-social. But As I've seen the site grow over the last year, I really didn't get involved until 2 months ago. Since I feel like I'm in a reminiscing mood, I could give you a recap assuming you haven't clicked on something else, so, WIGGLY SCREEN EFFECT ACTIVATE !

I found Destructoid through GameTrailers when they started to post Hey Ash Watcha Playin' on the front page. After seeing the episode on Left 4 Dead, I was sold on it and kept watching. I noticed the website's address at the bottom of the screen so I typed it in and the rest is history right ? Nope there's more to my origin story than that, and here it is. I originally used to frequent 1up.com because I freakin' loved the place and it will forever hold a special place in my gaming heart for one reason : Greenspeak made me care about video games again. I say this because I was at a point in my life that I was starting to grow away from the medium and was a little embarrassed to admit that I liked games. I was about to pack it in forever, but my brother showed me the Greenspeak article in either GFW or EGM ( can't remember which one), I don't remember the gist of it, but it was both hilarious and insightful.

It single handedly reignited my love of gaming and got to start frequenting their website until...The Day of Reckoning. It was around this time last year, and when I found out about UGO buying 1up, I kinda got scared, and rightly so. I learned of the layoffs and it meant no more 1up FM or 1up Show, which I was using to cope for the loss of GFW Radio ( which was awesome, and if you find a torrent I highly recommend you download it ). I'm still kinda hurtin' but *slaps self in the face with a trout* , okay starting to get a little emo, needless to say, I found Destructoid's Podcasts and while not as good as GFW Radio, were awesome in their own way. More on that later.



Good Night Sweet Prince


Now for a list of reasons as to why I stay here:

Friday Night Fights: This stretches back to the start of my stint here, hell this is how I got the bulk of my friends list on PSN. Now that I've graduated participant to host, shit is just even more fun. Funny little story from last night: I was playin' Modern Warfare 2 with the gents and Elsa, I was in a random fervor because Black Nexus wouldn't stop doing "Marco Polo" whenever he sniped me. When I finally killed him I said "You just got Falcon raped". Thankfully Y0j1mb0 wasn't there to hear it or he never would've let me live it down. They made fun of me for the rest of the night. Its stuff like that is why I love you guys.

Podcasts: As you've probably already figured out, I loved the old 1up podcasts and have been looking of a good replacement. Podtiod is good ( Especially 129 ), but Failcast is just awesome because they focus on the community...and bash Necros which is hilarious, same with 321GoCast, and please come back Retoforce GO! Sorry for not being in-depth, lost my train of thought

IRC: Is the shit, and you should all try to get in because some of the shit that goes down in there is awesome and Hilarious.

Well, as you can tell, I'm running out of shit to say, so I now leave you with some Queen




PS: Thank You for allowing me to waste your time !

What's Poppin' DToid ? For those who don't know I'm FalconReaper. For those that have been wondering where I've been, I'll get back to you guys. For those that don't care, why the heck are you reading this when you could be doing something more worthwhile with your time? Oh, right, reason why I've pretty much been invisible on the c-blogs for over a month, I failed 12th grade English. I pretty much fail for mentioning that, I mean how can you fail one of the easiest subjects in the school curriculum? Laziness on my part, also had to go to summer school, blah, blah, blah. OK, I'm getting sidetracked.

In the one month span between my last blog and now, a lot of shit went down. Namely, the release of Dtoid favorite BlazBlue, which is awesome and started something of a Renaissance for fighting games as of late, the impending release of Marvel vs Capcom 2 on PSN, and me having an epiphany about what I want to be doing for the rest of my life somewhere down the line with a movie worthy heartfelt moment with a family member crammed in for good measure. Also, my brother got a MacBook Pro and a free iPod Touch. And since he needs it for school, he let me have his computer for the next year. But I've also been playing a shit ton of games at that, and now that the random life update is over on to the more exciting gaming update.


What Games I've been Playing

Super Punch-Out!!



Three of the Toughest Bastards I've ever faced

I've never been much of a boxing fan myself ( mostly because when I tried to go against my brother, I typically wussed out), but you don't really need much knowledge of the sport to have a ton of fun with this game. It basically improves upon the formula, without changing what made it great in the first place. More crazy characters? Check. New Gameplay Elements? Check. Hard as Hell ? You'd bet your Lobster Milkshake on it, pal ! With a challenge popping up as early the 2nd half of the Minor Circuit, I was impressed and frustrated with the amount of patterns needed to topple the opponents and if you are lucky, this might happen



Owned.


Golden Sun

One Word: Epic.

I love this game. Its as simple as that. Its got every thing you want in a great RPG. It has a good story, good characters, an awesome battle system, great music and it looked great to boot. One of the best parts was the Djinn System. You see, the Djinn are these elemental spirits that give you all these sweet powers and could be mixed and matched to make different classes and magic. Short form : they're basically a cross between Pokemon and the Espers from Final Fantasy 6. I say this because they have to be found throughout the world and they also let you use summons, some of which are awesome like Thor. Yes, you can summon the frakking Norse God of Thunder to waste your enemies.

OK, I'm obviously playing much more than this but my memory is drawing a blank, so I'm stopping, hope you appreciated the read and Thank you for allowing me to waste you time.



Also, does anyone else think this sounds like Japanese Death Metal with English lyrics?

As a worthy opponent

Howdy. For those of you who have been keeping tabs on me (that would only be two or three of you), I've decided to forgo this week's Boss Files( My C-Blog Series) in favor of re-honing my skills ( or lack thereof ) in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix. In the past, I've battled both Haxan and Y0j1mb0 ( with limited success ), and now that I've got a few victories under my belt, I felt that it was high time to see what Destructoid has to offer. I'll be taking any and all challengers of all skill levels under a few conditions :

1. You need to have a PSN ID ( 360 red-ringed)

2. You gotta have the game ( obviously )

3. If you want to challenge me, send me a message through PSN. My PSN ID is FalconReaper ( spelled like this)

Those are the only conditions I've got for my challenge. I'll be available from 7-9 pm EST and all day on weekends for the month.

That's all for the challenge and I'll see you on the battlefields !


Pic unrelated, but awesome in my book

P.S Thank you for allowing me to waste your time !