GAME OF THE YEAR AND THINGS

Since it is now the last day of the year I thought I'd look at my steam games list and what games came out this year that I've played a lot and loved.

I wrote down five games that stuck out. Which probably means I could make a Top5 Games of the Year list out of that. Right? So here goes:

1. Crusader Kings 2
A game combining RPG and grand strategy in a way not seen since... well Sengoku and Crusader Kings 1 I suppose. Some of my love for this game might be just the hype and me wanting to love it. But the fact is I've been playing as about three dynasties and not played through the games with any of them (though I would say I've still spent 50+ hours in the game. Since my version is non-steam I don't have a count) but in those only three I've had so many nice stories to tell.

Everyone who plays Crusader Kings have got these stories so I won't repeat them again. But that's really the magic of this game and what puts it on top of my game of the year list. Great games don't tell stories, they create them.

2. The Walking Dead
And just as I said great games don't tell stories I find myself faced with a great storytelling game. So I guess great games can tell stories too. I'm not yet quite sick of zombies. And I am a semi-fan of The Walking Dead. I had heard many great things about The Walking Dead game and upon finally getting myself one of those xbox controllers I got myself this game.

The controls are pretty much abysmal in this game. And more than once I got myself killed because of the shittiness of the controls. Fortunately the checkpoints were frequent enough that I didn't have to think about it. This game shines in the storytelling department. You get to be the main character and interact with others and things change subtly depending on it.

Of course this is all an illusion and thus I don't really recommend anyone playing this game more than once. But within the illusion and when you play it through the one time this game has all the things that are needed for an excellent experience.

And unlike certain other games the writing is also very good. So if games do want to tell stories. They need to make sure they know how to write them.

3. Awesomenauts
This was a huge surprise for me. It's a multiplayer platformer game that is apparently similar to MOBAs. Now I've never played a moba because all I've heard about them is that they're hardcore and that whenever newbies come around everyone hates them. Kinda like the RM community but apparently even worse.

But me and a bunch of friends got this game and played privately for a bit and combined with my newly acquired xbox controller (it has brought me joy!) it was just loads of fun to play.

For me it's actually mainly that the controls are really damn tight in this game. I haven't played 2d action platformers since my NES days basically but this game fit right into my hands. Even though there's a huge amount of characters to choose from each one with their slightly different quirks and controls (mostly they all jump different heights, which makes a huge impact) I never feel like I can blame the controls when I'm bad (unlike The Walking Dead...).

A strong point of comparison I can make is that I tried out Super Meat Boy recently too (now that I have a controller, I can play all the platformers I've got in bundles) and that is a game all about timing jumps and whatnot but the controls felt a lot less responsive in that game than in Awesomenauts. And all I've heard is that Super Meat Boy is all about "perfect controls holy shit". It might be something I should just get used to I suppose, but the difference was distinct for me.

Awesomenauts is a great casual online experience. Sometimes I load up the game, play a quick online match and when it's over I quit. A match rarely takes more than fifteen minutes to finish and it's drop-in drop-out multiplayer so basically it's quite simple to just leave if you're busy too. (though that might be rude. I don't know)

4. FTL - Faster than Light
FTL is one of those Kickstarter games. One that I didn't back, but basically bought it the day it came out. It is a load of fun in its randomness and occasional frantic pace. It's not a perfect game but I've spent a lot of time with it and it's fairly addictive.

And I still don't think I've managed to get very far on normal mode. Instead I just make my superships on easy mode and get blown up by the final boss. (though occasionally I beat it too) This too is a game that creates stories, though not quite in the same way as Crusader Kings 2. But still there are those moments when everything's on fire and you just want to push the jumpdrive button and then you jump into an asteroid belts with no shields left and everything on fire and oh there were boarders here too...

It's brutal. But it's also short enough that it doesn't matter. Sometimes losing is fun.

5. Mass Effect 3
I really wanted to hate this game. I had followed all the controversy, read all the spoilers and I was hugely critical of Mass Effect 2 as well. At least storywise. It was fun to play. But I was always detached from the action because so many characters were complete morons. But some of the charm was there also. I played the games in the hopes of seeing many morons die.

So in Mass Effect 3 I finally got to see some of them die. There was one scene that apparently was really touching. With the music and people being sympathetic and whatnot. But I had hated this character from the moment I laid my eyes on her (or him, but yeah it was a her) so when the renegade interrupt appeared that let me shoot her I just jumped up from my chair and shouted "YES!". The death scene was all emotional but I kinda didn't notice because I was dancing happily around the room.

So I guess as a series Mass Effect did deliver. Deliver the kind of emotions you can only get over a series of three games. And on some counts it does deliver. Two storylines are brought to their natural conclusion in a very satisfying way and the ending is pure shite. And anything introduced in the second and third game are pure shite. (well not everything. Mostly... The Illusive Man. I just wish I could have killed him more and in some graphic and brutal ways. But it was not to be)

But the fact is I binge-played this over two weeks or so and although it felt shorter than the previous games it was a decent experience and has a place in my top5 games of the year.



So that's my GOTY list of games that I played that came out in 2012.

And here's a quick list of games that I played for the first time in 2012 and really enjoyed even though they are not 2012 games:
Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Mount & Blade: Warband, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Bastion, Limbo and The Ship.

There's probably others but sometimes I just don't remember if I already played some games last year or not.


And finally here's the list of games of 2012 I wish I had played: XCOM.