CCIV: Game of the Year 2012 - Round IV

[Neon Ignition]

We're ploughing into the mid section of the years releases, a lower number of big name titles so far but to be fair the apocalypse was unfolding at the time...





Which of the listed games are among the best 2012 and why?

[Finsbury Girl]

I'm probably one of the very few peeps who liked MOH:Warfighter. Yeah not as good as the reboot but I still enjoyed it

[Neon Ignition]

Just ME3 for me on this list, ME2 was stronger but the blowout abotu ME3 at the time was laughable

[Wools]

Just ME3 for me on this list, ME2 was stronger but the blowout abotu ME3 at the time was laughable

Agreed. Some people may be unaware of just how bad the reaction to ME3 was but to put it in context; I adored ME1 and re-played it multiple times on 360 and it remains one of my favourite RPG's of all time. ME2 was stunning, I booked the day off work for it and completed it multiple times across 360 and PS3. When ME3 was launched the hate was so strong (Although Edge Magazine gave it a respectable 7 / 10 I believe?) that as a dyed in the wool fan of the series and so excited to see how Bioware will end it, I eventually thought I won't put myself through it, and didn't pick it up.

Around 10 years later, I picked up the trilogy on PS4 to play on PS5 and decided I wanted to revisit the trilogy, so started from the beginning. Mass Effect is still such an amazingly well told story with brilliant characters that I love, with a world, music and moments I don't think we'll see in gaming again. Mass Effect 2 is ****ing brilliant, with a far better polished game and Dark Knight feeling entry in the series.

Then about 1 month later after being absorbed in ME2, I got stuck into ME3. Honestly, I adored it. The setup is really haunting with the story of the end of Earth well told and built, characters that resonate and some moments that really stayed with me. The issues are clear; The ending gets really big and high concept, which considering how the OG game setup the Reapers and the end of humanity, takes some real doing, like Japanese RPG level ****! But I feel the ending doesn't land and without spoiling it, I didn't feel satisfied. But for me, that doesn't take away from the highpoint of the game, the series or the characters. If you can't get behind the ending and tie up, I totally get why you would hate it. But as someone who adored ME1 and ME2, the progression of the story, characters, the real improvement to combat and AI, level design and beautiful skyboxes, it all just connected up into a beautiful culmination of the best space opera / RPG / shooter / space ****ing simulator I've always wanted.

God speed Bioware, god speed.

[egparadigm]

space ****ing simulator I've always wanted.

I didn’t know that aspect was a gaming sub-genre, but we need more of them for sure! 🥰

[Wools]

I didn’t know that aspect was a gaming sub-genre, but we need more of them for sure! 🥰

Search for Mass Errect on Reddit and... Well... It's the fan fiction I never expected.

Dirty boys.

[QualityChimp]

Another bunch of games here I probably should have played, but never did.

However, I played and loved Max Payne 3.

It'll always remind me of the time Colin posted a picture of himself cooking and everyone looked like Max and I imagined his monologue:

I can imagine Colin using a Max-style monologue whilst he's cooking:
"So I guess I'd become what they wanted me to be, a cook. Some rent-a-clown with a whisk who puts toads in the hole. Well that's what they had paid for, so in the end that's what they got. Say what you want about Scots but we understand capitalism. You buy yourself a product and you get what you pay for, and these chumps had paid for some angry gringo without the sensibilities to know right from wrong. Here I was about to marinade this poor bastard like some dime store angel of death and I realized they were correct, I wouldn't know right from wrong if one of them was helping the poor and the other was banging my sister..."