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GOTY Throwback Poll: 2012

Select up to 3

  • Journey

    Votes: 17 17.9%
  • The Walking Dead: Season 1

    Votes: 11 11.6%
  • XCOM: Enemy Unknown

    Votes: 10 10.5%
  • Sleeping Dogs

    Votes: 13 13.7%
  • Dishonored

    Votes: 13 13.7%
  • Mass Effect 3

    Votes: 7 7.4%
  • Borderlands 2

    Votes: 9 9.5%
  • Kid Icarus: Uprising

    Votes: 3 3.2%
  • Far Cry 3

    Votes: 11 11.6%
  • Hotline Miami

    Votes: 11 11.6%
  • Halo 4

    Votes: 11 11.6%
  • Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

    Votes: 2 2.1%
  • Persona 4: The Golden

    Votes: 16 16.8%
  • FTL: Faster Than Light

    Votes: 8 8.4%
  • Xenoblade Chronicles

    Votes: 13 13.7%
  • Mark of the Ninja

    Votes: 1 1.1%
  • Max Payne 3

    Votes: 13 13.7%
  • Dragon's Dogma

    Votes: 8 8.4%
  • Gravity Rush

    Votes: 9 9.5%
  • Spec Ops: The Line

    Votes: 4 4.2%
  • Diablo III

    Votes: 5 5.3%

  • Total voters
    95
YOU CAN CHOOSE UP TO 3 GAMES

2012 was one of those years where there wasn't any clear cut candidate for GOTY so I though it might be interesting to see if opinions have changed. Journey won the Neogaf 2012 GOTY. Will it win again? Will fan favorites like Xenoblade and Dragon's Dogma do better this time? I've included the top 20 games from the previous GOTY list plus Diablo III despite it placing 23rd last time as that game has changed a lot and probably deserves another chance.
 
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My vote goes to Journey. Simple, small and short game but it makes you feel real human emotions. Pure art in video game format.
 
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HotPocket69

Banned
Max Payne 3 hands down.

Still the best third person shooter ever and I’d give my right nut for a remaster.

The fact that it isn’t on PSNow or BC with XB1 sucks a fat fucking dick.
 

SCB3

Member
Tough choice between ME3, Borderlands 2 and Walking Dead Season 1

I've got to give it to the walking dead though, it revitalised that entire genre and was an incredible story that no other adventure game has matched yet
 

Kuranghi

Member
I voted Max Payne 3, Diablo 3 and Borderlands 2. Journey would be 4th or maybe Far Cry 3.

Has everyone here who has played & loved Journey played Abzu?

I really like Journey overall, but its underlying themes did not blow my mind in the way people seems to describe happening to them so I felt more of a connection with Abzu.

Abzu is a lot less epic in its underlying themes but I think visually and aurally it supersedes Journey, so what I'm saying is please give it a go if you love Journey and haven't played it.

If you have PC version issues (stuttering, terrible framerate, the v-sync SUCKS) PM me up and I'll help you out, I've probably spent as many hours getting it to work than I have playing it lol max settings (The "Fish" setting to Ultra is ESSENTIAL to experiencing this game fully, I played on Switch recently with my niece and there were like 5-10x less fish depending on the scene, which really took away from it, for me though, not her lol)
 
D

Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
Far Cry 3 was my 2012 game of the year.

Overall 2012 -

01. Far Cry 3 - 9.0/10
02. Sleeping Dogs - 9.0/10
03. Binary Domain - 9.0/10
04. Spec Ops: The Line - 8.5/10
05. Max Payne 3 - 8.5/10
06. Assassin's Creed III - 8.5/10
07. Mark of the Ninja - 8.5/10
08. Darksiders II - 8.0/10
09. Dishonored - 8.0/10
10. The Darkness II - 7.0/10
11. Hitman Absolution - 7.0/10
12. Deadlight - 7.0/10
 

Kuranghi

Member
Max Payne 3 hands down.

Still the best third person shooter ever and I’d give my right nut for a remaster.

The fact that it isn’t on PSNow or BC with XB1 sucks a fat fucking dick.

I just replayed it at 4K60 (kinda could do that on GTX 970 as well, but cutscenes had dips still) a few months ago and its still one of my favourite games, its funny to me that the biggest complaint (at the time, not sure about now) is that you can't skip the cutscenes and I've never actually wanted to, no matter how many times I play it. I love the voice acting and cinematography.

Its the closest Rockstar has actually come to making a Michael Mann film imo, which seems to be their ultimate goal. Although maybe thats not the goal anymore, as there currently isn't much room for the themes of "To Live & Die in L.A." or "Thief" in todays society.

Toxic Masculinity I think they call it, christ.
 
Everything I played from 2012 from best to worst

Max Payne 3
Far Cry 3
XCOM
Awesomenauts
Syndicate
Dishonored
Borderlands 2
Mass Effect 3
Spec Ops: The Line
Hotline Miami
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
The Darkness ll
Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning
Resident Evil 6
Sleeping Dogs
Call of Duty: Black Ops ll
Halo 4
Dragon's Dogma
Dust: An Elysian Tale
Binary Domain
Deadlight
Alan Wake's American Nightmare
FEZ
Guild Wars 2
Darksiders ll
Diablo lll
Spelunky
Skullgirls
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Assassin's Creed lll
McPixel
Sniper Elite V2
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
The Walking Dead
Hitman: Absolution
Street Fighter x Tekken
Planetside 2
Resident Evil: Revelations
I Am Alive
Blacklight: Retribution
ZombiU
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
 

HotPocket69

Banned
I just replayed it at 4K60 (kinda could do that on GTX 970 as well, but cutscenes had dips still) a few months ago and its still one of my favourite games, its funny to me that the biggest complaint (at the time, not sure about now) is that you can't skip the cutscenes and I've never actually wanted to, no matter how many times I play it. I love the voice acting and cinematography.

Its the closest Rockstar has actually come to making a Michael Mann film imo, which seems to be their ultimate goal. Although maybe thats not the goal anymore, as there currently isn't much room for the themes of "To Live & Die in L.A." or "Thief" in todays society.

Toxic Masculinity I think they call it, christ.

To Live And Die In LA. What a movie. One of the best car chases ever too. William Friedkin directed it but it definitely has the tone and atmosphere of a Mann film for sure. Awesome soundtrack as well.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Gravity Rush
Persona 4 Golden
Xenoblade Chronicles
Kid Icarus Uprisings
Virtue's Last Reward
Journey

I can’t choose!
tenor.gif
 

Mr Hyde

Member
Dragons Dogma obliterated everything that year. It still holds up incredibly well. Unfortunately, like most Japanese games during these dark days, it went mostly under the radar.
 

Goro Majima

Kitty Genovese Member
Persona 4 will probably run away with it.

I voted:

Persona 4
Mass Effect 3 (for the 98% that was good)
Borderlands 2
 
Everything I played from 2012 from best to worst

Max Payne 3
Far Cry 3
XCOM
Awesomenauts
Syndicate
Dishonored
Borderlands 2
Mass Effect 3
Spec Ops: The Line
Hotline Miami
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
The Darkness ll
Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning
Resident Evil 6
Sleeping Dogs
Call of Duty: Black Ops ll
Halo 4
Dragon's Dogma
Dust: An Elysian Tale
Binary Domain
Deadlight
Alan Wake's American Nightmare
FEZ
Guild Wars 2
Darksiders ll
Diablo lll
Spelunky
Skullgirls
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Assassin's Creed lll
McPixel
Sniper Elite V2
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
The Walking Dead
Hitman: Absolution
Street Fighter x Tekken
Planetside 2
Resident Evil: Revelations
I Am Alive
Blacklight: Retribution
ZombiU
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
The Walking Dead that low? The disrespect is real. 😉
 
P4G shouldn't be under consideration, it's a re-release/remaster.

Of all the games, the two standouts are Journey and Hotline Miami. I did toss in a third but feel it's a peg below the other two, and that's Sleeping Dogs.
 
way past PS3 graphics whoring, guess we can give a beautiful indie the GOTY it deserves

also voted for Dishonored and BL2, great games, sadly only 1 got ported to VR
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Journey is a fake game. i was very disappointed in it. Flower had more gameplay than Journey.

FC3 is my pick but i agree, it was a rather lame year.
 
The Walking Dead that low? The disrespect is real. 😉

It's not my kind of game, I specifically played it because I wanted my choices to matter, the story was only interesting to me insofar as the idea that I had control over it, as in, had it been a movie it'd have been just FINE to me. The part that ruined it for me, easily was
a specific character death that I couldn't avoid, it broke the illusion of choice built up through that point because I tried to change it to no avail, prior to it I believed my choices really did matter and this dispelled that illusion. Basically, in episode 1 there's a choice of two characters to save, I saved the female character and I liked her, but the thing is that HUGE choice doesn't matter because BOTH of them MUST DIE in a later episode, prior to the season ending. Really upset me.
 

Denton

Member
Sleeping Dogs, Dishonored and Mass Effect 3 (only played it with DLCs and extended cut and enjoyed it immensely). Love all three these games. Walking Dead S1 was also great.

Journey is overrated as fuck. It was nice, audiovisual treat, but GOTY? get the fuck outta here
 
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Codes 208

Member
Borderlands 2 for me, while halo 4 wasn’t terrible, it didn’t live up to Bungie’s games for me. And the rest just kinda sits between 5’s-7’s for me.
 

Naibel

Member
I'm surprised by how good 2012 was. I dunno, I felt it was a weak year, mainly because I didn't play much back then. 7th gen consoles were on their death rows, the Wii was all but completely gone, the Wii U's launch was bleh (I mean Nintendoland and Zombi U, whoopie fuckin doo...), and the main game I was hyped about that year, Assassin's Creed 3, ended up being a massive blunder.

But yeah, the indies and the handheld games ruled 2012 for sure. Hotline Miami, FEZ, TWD Season 1, FTL, Gravity Rush, Persona 4 Golden, Journey, Virtue's Last Reward, what a lineup ! Too bad I didn't have neither the Vita nor the 3DS back then. I caught up big time since but still. Well, maybe it's for the better, I would've failed at my senior high exams if I did !

Xenoblade is a GOTG contender, but it is not a 2012 game for me because in Europe the game was released a year earlier. Neither is Persona 4 Golden sadly, released in 2013 here. So my top 3 would be :

- Sleeping Dogs (why did I sleep on it for so long ? No pun intended.)
- Journey
- Dishonored

Honorable Mentions :
- Far Cry 3
- Hotline Miami
- The Walking Dead : Season 1
- Spec Ops The Line
- The FEZ soundtrack
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
Dishonored followed by max payne 3.

Hotline miami or fc3 or sleepy puppy in a very distant third place.
 
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