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The best platformer usually has a wonderful art style, solid jumping mechanics, fun puzzles, and gives off a feeling of even nostalgia.

Sound Shapes

Sound Shapes is a really underrated game, but there were a lot of great platformers this year. Tales from Space and Fez came in a close second. Sound Shapes has some great modes and the soundtrack is superb as well as solid jumping mechanics. This is just one awesome platformer.

Runner-Ups

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack

New Super Mario Bros. U

Fez

LittleBigPlanet PS Vita

2012 Game of the Year Awards — Genre Awards — Best Driving Game

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/10/2012

Posted in: 2012, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2012, all stars racing transformed, awards, driving, f1, forza horizon, game of the year, Microsoft, most wanted, need for speed, pc, playstation, ps3, race, racer, racing, sonic, Sony, steam, trials evolution, Xbox 360. Leave a comment

What makes a good driving game? The best visuals, physics, modes, and fun cars to drive. It is all like a synchronized dance and all has to flow together.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

Criterion are geniuses for a reason. The masterminds behind the Burnout franchise, EA game them the keys to Need for Speed and have made two great games already. Most Wanted is just slick, fast, and streamlined. The game is so much fun that you will never feel bored. There are a lot of fun modes and Autolog can’t be topped. The game also looks fantastic on Vita and PC. Transformed came in a close second, but just doesn’t feel as slick as Most Wanted.

Runner-Ups

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

F1 2012

Forza Horizon

Trials Evolution

Action games are usually full of explosions, running, jumping, shooting, and mayhem. This genre is usually the most popular and has some of the highest budgets. There were a lot of excellent action games this year, it was very hard to narrow it down. These were the best.

Assassin’s Creed III

AC3 and Dishonored were hard to choose between, but AC3 came out on top due to the excellent production values and overall feeling of the game. Using a setting that is rarely, if ever used in a game is something else. There were so much care and dedication put into this game. The multiplayer is as addictive as ever, the game is just nearly flawless.

Runner-Ups

Dishonored

Sleeping Dogs

Hitman: Absolution

Mark of the Ninja

2012 Game of the Year Awards — Achievements — Best Downloadable Game

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/10/2012

Posted in: 2012, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2012, awards, dlc, downloadable, fez, game of the year, journey, mark of the ninja, Microsoft, pc, playstation, playstation 3, ps3, Sony, steam, the walking dead, trials evolution, Xbox 360, zombie, zombies. Leave a comment

The best downloadable game goes to a game that you can only download via a service such as Xbox LIVE Arcade or Steam. Usually, this is download only with no disc-based version available. This category is slowly getting phased out because almost every PC game, and most console and handheld games, are becoming download only. This category usually only applies to downloadable console games, but PC ones get thrown in every so often.

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead mainly gets the award because it is not only gripping and thrilling, but I anticipated every single episode throughout the entire year. Telltale really made people watch their calendar because they wanted the next piece of the story to this amazing adventure game. If you can make players chomping at the bit for an entire year for each episode, you were successful. The other games were great, but nothing captures the atmosphere and heart-wrenching tale of TWD.

Runner-Ups

Trials Evolution

Mark of the Ninja

Fez

Journey

Best multiplayer usually goes to a game that can bring something new to the table or just is done so well that you can’t stop playing. There were a lot of great multiplayer games, both competitive and co-op, but mostly they were all the same stuff we have played before. I personally had the most fun with Assassin’s Creed III this year, and the shooters were just more of the same. PlanetSide 2 was a serious contender due to its continent-sized maps and epic battles, but the enormous amounts of bugs and glitches and the fact that there’s no direction hampered it a lot.

Assassin’s Creed III

AC3 is just so addictive because of the cat and mouse aspect. Hunting your target while trying not to be hunted just keeps you on edge through the match. You don’t know who’s who, and anyone can jump out and kill you. I wound up going back to AC3 more than any other multiplayer game this year. The customization is very deep, but that addictive on-the-edge-of-your-seat feeling you get can’t be found in any of these other games. Sure they are tense, but they feel the same. It is also nice to have a fun multiplayer game that isn’t a shooter.

Runner-Ups

Borderlands 2

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

PlanetSide 2

Halo 4

This isn’t an achievement a game wants to get. This award usually goes to highly anticipated games or hyped up games, that was just terrible and highly disappointing when they came out. There was quite a few this year, but which one was the most disappointing?

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

Oh boy, this game looked so good during development, a third-person squad-based shooter set in the RE universe. What could have gone wrong? Well, a lot. The aiming was bad, the story was bad, the characters were bad, the graphics were bad, and it just didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel like RE at all, but a low budget third-person shooter. The game tried to make ammo scarce to make it feel survivor horror-like, but you can’t do that when you make your game completely shooter based. It feels like the developers had never played a shooter or a survival horror before. Good idea, but a completely flawed execution.

Runner-Ups

Ninja Gaiden 3

Game of Thrones

NeverDead

Amy

2012 Game of the Year Awards — Achievements — Best New Character

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/09/2012

Posted in: 2012, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2012, ac3, assassin's creed 3, assassin's creed iii, awards, borderlands 2, character, clementine, far cry 3, game of the year, haytham kenway, journey, Microsoft, pc, playstation, playstation 3, ps3, Sony, steam, the walking dead, tiny tina, traveler, vaas, Xbox 360, zombie. Leave a comment

What determines the best new character? Someone who is memorable not just in looks but personality. Usually, someone who strays away from stereotypes, someone who is ruthless, conniving, sarcastic, beautiful, or just downright cool. This year had some great new characters, but only one comes out at the top.

Vaas – Far Cry 3

Vaas is a psychopath that is bi-polar and just doesn’t care about anyone or anything. His strange feelings toward Jason are what make you really love this character. His delivery and voice actor are just superb and Vaas is the only memorable character in the Far Cry series. We don’t have enough psychopaths in games, but ones that act human and can treat a fellow human being so poorly with such hate and feral feelings. Vaas is a character to be remembered.

Runner-Ups

Clementine – The Walking Dead

Haytham Kenway – Assassin’s Creed III

Tiny Tina – Borderlands 2

The Traveler – Journey

The technical category skirts art and pushes you to console to the max. Games that use DirectX 11 on PC, or really push consoles to their ultimate processing get this award. They also have to do it right and use a lot of advanced techniques, or brand new techniques. Since the consoles are 7 years old they usually don’t win this category anymore, but it doesn’t mean they don’t look fantastic.

Far Cry 3

Yes, all these games have their PC versions nominated, and yes they all use DirectX 11. Far Cry 3 uses it the best this year with fantastic lighting effects, amazing textures, and an astounding draw distance. The lighting looks so real you almost start looking for sunglasses! This game will also push your PC to its max and suck out the power of the latest PC gaming technology. It was hard to choose between these 5, but that draw distance and amazing light effects really put this on top, but just barely.

Runner-Ups

Hitman: Absolution

Assassin’s Creed III

Max Payne 3

Sleeping Dogs

This looks like the same thing as Best Graphics, Technical but it isn’t! I swear it is a coincidence! Best voice acting consists of professional actors that can carry across a personality and deliver the character so you believe it. There were many games this year that had great voice acting and I couldn’t slide them all in. Honorable mentions go to Max Payne 3, Mass Effect 3, Dishonored, Borderlands 2, and Halo 4. This was one of the toughest categories this year because of TOO many choices instead of not enough.

Hitman: Absolution

Hitman’s voice acting is so great because of the way the characters deliver it on screen. Each one is completely different from the other and they are all evil bastards that you want to punch in the face. The lip-synching is amazing and spot on and the facial expressions really bring out the voices. This was tough among many other games, my second choice was Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 3, but something about Absolution’s voice acting just sucks you into this experience.

Runner-Ups

The Walking Dead

Assassin’s Creed III

Far Cry 3

Sleeping Dogs

2012 Game of the Year Awards — Genre Awards — Best Indie Game

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/09/2012

Posted in: 2012, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2012, awards, fez, game of the year, hotline miami, indie, journey, mark of the ninja, Microsoft, pc, playstation, playstation 3, ps3, psvita, retro city rampage, Sony, steam, vita, Xbox 360. Leave a comment

This has probably been the strongest indie game year yet. Many have even beat out AAA high budget titles so that says a lot. There were so many amazing indie games this year it was really hard to pick just 5. These were the best of the bunch.

Journey

thatgamecompany has really proven to be an extremely talented indie developer. From their last game Flower to this, I can’t wait to see what’s next. Hotline Miami came in a close second, but the soundtrack, art style, and just overall beauty of the game really won it over.