2012 Review Team Game of the Year Awards: Overall Game of the Year 2012

[Nagflar]

As 2012 comes to a close the Review Team took a look back at all the great games of 2012 and decided to bring PS3Trophies.com our selection for:

Best Overall Game of 2012

This award looks at the overall package a game presents to the player, as well as the overall impact the game had on the gaming community. Each member of the RT voted on a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place game and the results below were based on the results of each members' votes. Eligible titles were released between 12/1/2011 and 12/1/2012.

This year, we decided to add a "Legacy Vote", which consists of asking previous note-worthy RT members to have a say in these awards, with the purpose of trying to take into account a bigger list of games than those only 6 of us played.

Dishonored

Dishonored

Dishonored is an absolute gem. It takes all of the best elements from some of the best games in recent years (BioShock, Assassin's Creed, Deus Ex et al) and synthesizes something incredibly fun from the results. Yes, it's not wholly unique, but it's still a blast to play and a large enough variation from the status quo to make a serious impression on many gamers this year.

Second Place

Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2 is a game that might feel very similar to the original, but that ultimately manages to separate itself enough and offer one of the most entertaining experiences of the year. Enjoying a good story, great and fluid gameplay, a colorful cast of characters and one of the best co-op modes ever, Borderlands 2 proves why it's been such a huge success through it's own merits. Truly a game everyyone should try.

Third Place

Assassin's Creed 3

The definitive Assassin's Creed experience, Assassin's Creed III brings to the table a solid, historically relevant singleplayer campaign with immensely satisfying gameplay and loads to do in its open world. With the addition of an exceptional multiplayer experience, ACIII is a full-package game that is great on all fronts.

Fourth Place

Journey

Yeah, thats right... A few hour game released by some indie company is my second. You know why? It has more originality in 3 hours and more emotional impact in a story told only through visuals than the average blockbuster has across 4 sequels. The game is unique and really sucks you into its experience in all its glory. It serves as a reminder of that, even now, games can still take you off guard and uniqueness and creativity are still very alive in gaming.

[ferretbusiness]

kinda suprised that dishonored took first place, definitely agree with it though, that game needs a sequel that expands on everything they did in the first game

[DaveyHasselhoff]

way too much fanboyism in these votes for Dishonored IMO....it was an OK game but not even close to a better overall game compared to Borderlands 2 or even The Walking Dead....Just my thoughts

[Nagflar]

way too much fanboyism in these votes for Dishonored IMO....it was an OK game but not even close to a better overall game compared to Borderlands 2 or even The Walking Dead....Just my thoughts

Blame the first place votes for that. Borderlands 2 got a few more nominations, but Dishonored had more 1st place ones, so it finished up winning by a few points. If it was up to me, Borderlands 2 would be 1st place and Journey second.

[Kerwan_Ratchet]

way too much fanboyism in these votes for Dishonored IMO....it was an OK game but not even close to a better overall game compared to Borderlands 2 or even The Walking Dead....Just my thoughts

For once I agree completely with you. Dishonored is overrated, and doesn't even compare to The Walking Dead.

[finchmiester1]

TWD far cry 3 and sleeping dogs for me, dishonoured was good but wouldn't get in my top 5

[Curb]

My picks went Dishonored, ME3, and Broderlands 2 in that order. Although I'd have been fine with them being in any order, honestly, I went Dishonored for my top pick because I really enjoyed the quirky universe more than anything. People who have played it know that the gameplay isn't anything new, and it's a short and rather uninspired/predictable story, but it's just so weird that I love it.

Mass Effect 3 actually made my list for the multiplayer, as did Broderlands 2. I've spent many, many, many hours in both games playing co-op with my buddies, and considering the overall package for both games made them easy GotY contenders for me.

[TerminalPhoenix]

way too much fanboyism in these votes for Dishonored IMO....it was an OK game but not even close to a better overall game compared to Borderlands 2 or even The Walking Dead....Just my thoughts

For once I agree completely with you. Dishonored is overrated, and doesn't even compare to The Walking Dead.

Look, Walking Dead was an incredible experience; the story was great and it made me care for the characters a lot more than most games. There is an emotional connection that very few games do well and the Walking Dead does that VERY WELL. But to consider the Walking Dead infinitely superior to Dishonored is a slap in the face to all of the people that worked on it. The graphics, the gameplay mechanics, the UI etc. is far superior to that of The Walking Dead. It's not Telltale's fault, they didn't set out to build that kind of game, but I feel everybody is giving The Walking Dead far too much credit. If you were to objectively compare a game vs the Walking Dead you would find that the majority of the nominations have much better frame rates, less glitches, equal story/characters, perhaps a lower emotional connection, but they steal the show when it comes to graphical superiority and choices in gameplay that far exceed answering a question in a different manner. We're talking about dozens of different paths to do one thing (in Dishonored) which the Walking Dead simply does not do. The Walking Dead gives you the false sense that there is a lot of choice and consequence, but most of us play the same game with the same main character, it just so happened that we didn't have so-and-so near us when we did it. I'm basing that on 3 playthroughs of the full Walking Dead game whereby I made the conscious decision to choose differently and while I found myself in a different group and having slightly different conversations, the game played itself out in a very similar fashion.

I think Borderlands 2 is the solid choice for Game of the Year; it's unfortunate it didn't get as many votes. Good story, good writing, good acting, a lot of character/charm/charisma, solid graphics, gameplay, very few to no glitches (in my experience) and a scope and size that dwarfs the Walking Dead.

[cengizbobengiz]

Meh, Dishonored and Borderlands 2 are overrated in my opinion. Haven't started Journey yet, it's waiting for me. AC III was my GOTY, soat least that is on here.

[UNCLEPAULIE]

Dishonored would not be my first choice , I would have given it to Mass Effect 3 but I am sure this would not be the popular choice for most , IMO it was an epic end to a fantastic series and deserves some recognition , Dishonored was class no doubt but very very short , Boarderlands 2 would be my number 2 choice and ACIII would not even make it onto the list , third place for me would be Dishonored LOL

[Luckay]

way too much fanboyism in these votes for Dishonored IMO....it was an OK game but not even close to a better overall game compared to Borderlands 2 or even The Walking Dead....Just my thoughts

What's weird is I didn't even vote for these, so seeing Dishonored win is odd to me as well (though I still would've picked it).

[Denaratuck]

I guess when I said:

This seems to be the worst list of the review team categories in my opinion. No ME3 or The Walking Dead, tut tut tut...

in the best singleplayer game of the year thread I was wrong. This list now takes it place. Dishonored coming in first, Borderlands in second, ACIII even making the list and leaving Journey in fourth. I don't even know what to think.

[jooakim]

This must be the first list I see that haven't given the award to Journey

[Waystedyou]

Was far cry 3 up for this? surprised dishonoured beat borderlands 2 and AC:III also.

[goldberg_malta]

Journey is beeing mentioned quite alot, think i have to buy that

[abhinandhan22]

I love Dishonored and it would have been my GOTY but i am playing Mass effect 3 now and its freaking amazing and i still havent played Fc3 or the walking dead so i cant decide but i think dishonored definitely deserves it. Even though i am a big ac fanboy i dont think Ac3 deserves GOTY

[abhinandhan22]

Journey is beeing mentioned quite alot, think i have to buy that

Yup same here it won GOTY from ign

[Shuklar]

I find with a lot of GotY type nominations, a new IP seems to go a long ways with a lot of people.

I'm just curious if Far Cry 3 was considered, or was too late to the party.

[glogantn]

Dishonored was an awesome game love seeing it get the respect!

[Rubicant81]

I find with a lot of GotY type nominations, a new IP seems to go a long ways with a lot of people.

I'm just curious if Far Cry 3 was considered, or was too late to the party.

Well, there are a few NA people on the review team. The December 4th release date for the US would put it outside of the window for a lot of them, so it's probably why it missed out on some votes.

---

Extremely little variation between the categories this year. It looks like people couldn't put their own individual preferences aside, or didn't even bother to play enough new titles throughout the year in order to come up with an educated enough opinion on the subject.

It's always been my beef with the review team here in general, that they seem to review titles that they have already deemed were worthy of their own individual buck before hand, and that in itself, often disqualifies a lot of individual objectivity or expectations about titles before hand. When you see that somebody is bashing a game in it's trophy list or in a trailer post, and then see a piss poor review score that walks too far on the negative side, it looks bad. The same can be said with people who sport avatars, signatures, or post all kinds of hype for a title and then go off and pop the title with an extremely high number. There is just too much individual bias for any of the reviews to be taken as serious on a regular basis, and not enough variation among the titles review (this site's reviews has a ridiculous bias towards shooters, for example).

Having people who specialize more in individual genres and actually go out of their way to purchase or play 10-15 new titles a year, would alleviate a lot of this copy paste type voting, and make it so that a bit more variation would make it across the lists and in turn, a lot more variation in the types of genres that get covered as a whole.

I personally, don't feel that this year had only 6-8 titles worth playing, and that everything else is inferior, but these lists would give you another perspective. Every other "Game of the Year" award lists has a wider area of variation, and doesn't need to repeat the same few titles over and over to show how limited the site's "official" perspective is. None of the games listed in any of these titles were faultless either, and for those faults, should have had a bit more variation in the overall voting.

Pretty disappointed in the choices, because it doesn't make it feel like the reviewers on this site exactly play enough games outside of their individual comfort zone, and the reflected product in an end of awards announcement comes off so. But hey, this is your people's opinion, it just isn't a strong enough one, for me, to feel "official" or "unbiased" in any way.