Salvador's Top 7: Games of 2012

This is my Sheppard. There are many like her, but she KICKS ASS.

Welcome to 2013's first post! And with that, let's start off with a look at my personal favorite games of 2012.

2012 was quite the interesting time for me gaming wise: I didn't nearly have the amount of free time I used to have to play, nor income to buy all the games I wanted to, but I did make sure to save my money for the ones I wanted and for the most part they didn't disappoint.

So keep in mind that it is just me and I am only going off of games I have personally played. There are a lot of games I've missed out on this year like The Walking Dead, Far Cry 3, and Mark of the Ninja that I just couldn't get around to but hopefully will at some point.

So without any further ado, let's get to the list!


Machinarium

Technically this came out in 2009 on PC, but it just came out on PS3 this past fall so it counts!

Machinarium is an old school point and click adventure/puzzle game very similar to the Monkey Island series. While to many current gamers a point and click adventure might seem almost archaic, this game seems simple on the surface but had some of the hardest puzzles I've had to solve in a long time.

You play a robot name Josef who's goal is to rescue his robot girlfriend and stop the Black Cap Brotherhood robots, nothing story wise Mario hasn't covered before, minus the entire robot thing of course. But the beauty of this games lie in the puzzles, interesting character design, lack of dialogue, and gorgeous visuals.

Seriously, you could take a screenshot at almost any point in the game and have it framed.

Besides that, the game just has this definite indie charm going for it. And the characters you meet are just good fun to interact with. Like the big hulking officer robot looking for his toy doll, the AC unit that you have to piss off so you can continue the story, even the robotic animals have plenty of personality to keep you entertained.


Recommended for: Point and click adventure gamers or just puzzle gamers in general.
Favorite moment: Helping the street musicians. Man those guys can jam.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

I love Counter-Strike. It was one of my first forays into competitive first person shooters and even though I sucked at it, I was hooked. As I am not a PC gamer, the closest thing I could get to it on console was the original Xbox port. But with Xbox Live for that system gone, so was the draw of Counter-Strike online.

I mean playing with bots is alright, but Counter-Strike has always been about playing against other people in quick, fast-paced, tense, action filled gunfights, kind of like Call of Duty.

Except faster and always playing on hardcore barebones mode where you only were allowed better guns if you played well.

So when Counter-Strike: GO finally dropped, I played the demo till my time ran out on 360, downloaded it on PS3 and then ate up the trial time on that as well. At which point I finally buckled and bought it on 360 and proceeded to play to my hearts content.

The new molotov cocktail is a great tactical weapon to block off points and do some gradual damage to enemies. The new Arms Race mode is pretty similar to the gun game mode in COD and Demolition rewards new and better weapons with each kill to the familiar Defuse mode.

Oh, and it has and Offline vs Bots mode. If a downloadable title can do it, there's no reason Halo, Call of Duty, and Battlefield  couldn't.

All in all, it's still Counter-Strike, just prettier with some new modes and weapons to remind all the new kids in town how it's done.

Recommended for: FPS fans that want a fast-paced competitive game that rewards skill.
Favorite Moment: Finally having enough money to buy a sniper rifle.

Mass Effect 3

Let's get this out of the way, I have yet to finish Mass Effect 3 so I have no input into the end of the game. So why then is this game on my list? For starters, I've had my FemShep (pictured above) since the first Mass  Effect, so when Mass Effect 3 goes  out of it's way to make a nod to several side missions completed throughout the entire series, it had me hell of impressed.

Granted, I found the main story lacking overall, I still played a good thirty or so hours before my save file was mysteriously deleted.

Why it really makes the list though, was the outstanding multiplayer that came out of left field. Checking my Raptr profile, I sank 131 hours into Mass Effect 3, which means that almost 100 of those were the multiplayer. It was a great mix of Mass Effect characters and gameplay, Call of Duty style leveling up, and a Battlefield class system, it's now a no brainer that the multiplayer was destined to succeed.

With the added bonus of new and free updates that added new characters, classes, weapons, and maps, Bioware managed to make a single player focused title one of the must play co-op experiences of the year.

Recommended For: Sci-fi fans and people looking for a good co-op game.
Favorite Moment: Cleaning up with the Widow Sniper and Carnifex Pistol and making the Vanguard useless.

Fez

I remember reading about Fez almost four years ago. It's a platforming game with one interesting mechaninc to it: you can rotate your 2-D world for a completely new perspective and to help you solve puzzles. After seeing that, I couldn't wait till it came out.

Though there were times that it felt like Fez would go the way of vaporware, we were all proven wrong when it released this past summer during XBLA Summer of Arcade promotion.

The basic story is you play a little guy named Gomez, who needs to bring the pieces of the Hexahedron (cube) back together to keep the world from falling apart. Then you realize this is more Metroid and Castlevania than Mario.

At first Fez is deceptively easy. Jump, collect a cube bit, jump some more, collect more bits, complete part of the cube. Then, you get to the main hub and realize that there are different worlds to explore and tons of collectibles to find: cube bits, cubes, anti-cubes, maps, keys, treasure chests, invisible chests, and some other stuff I'll let you find on your own.

There's even a secret language to decipher!

Fez evokes memories of sitting in the magazine aisles of supermarkets, reading the cheat magazines hoping to find the answer to a certain puzzle or the location of the final item. Those days where you couldn't wait to see you friends the next day at school so you can discuss the secrets that you both had found. A time when you wrote down notes to refer to as you played through the game.

Prepare for an amazing trip down nostalgia lane when playing Fez.

Recommended For: If you grew up on an NES with Mario, Tetris, Zelda, and Samus, do yourself a favor and buy this for you and a friend. Also, Metroidvania styel game fans.
Favorite Moment: Figuring out the Tetris code. Talk about a 'Eureka' moment!

Bonus: Check out Indie Game: The Movie if you haven't. As you play Fez you realize that this is one big love letter and ode to video games, and the film shows just how much the creator, Phil Fish, put into this which makes you appreciate it even more.

Forza Horizon

If Forza 4 celebrates the cars and tracks of the automotive world, Forza Horizon celebrates the key component shared between them: driving. 
The simplest way to explain Forza Horizon, is take Burnout Paradise and give it Forza 4's cars and game engine.

There are signs to find and destroy (that give up discounts on car upgrades), speed cameras to set ridiculous high speed records on, rival racers to race for pinks, themed races on asphalt and dirt, Forza's amazing livery editor, car clubs to join (and share cars with), and all with the love and care you are used to in a Forza title.

Easily the best part about this is the fact that everything you do on the singleplayer side will show up on your friends list and vice versa so you can constantly compete within your friends to be the top of the leaderboards. It's very similar to Need for Speed's Autolog system, and is a fantastic addition to Forza.

Though, I did find myself just driving around the festival enjoying the scenery, cars, and driving more than I did the actual races. The graphics are just that good, especially with the day and night cycles going on.

Recommended For: Forza, Burnout, and Need for Speed fans. Also, those fans of the hijinks of the show Top Gear.
Favorite Moment: The showcase events. Racing a '70 Mustang Boss against a World War II Mustang plane in the canyon is just as awesome as a race in the city with a bunch of Mini Coopers (Italian job anyone?).

Halo 4

If there was any game I had my doubts about last year, it was Halo 4. With Bungie no longer at the helm, and a brand new studio taking the reigns of one of the biggest gaming franchises, I was worried. And the more I saw about what 343 Industries was changing, the more my doubts grew.

A class system like Call of Duty? Ugh. New Spartans? They don't look like Spartans to me. Chief and Cortana look different? You're nuts 343.

Then I took it home and played it. I played it for almost three days straight. The campaign was no longer just about killing aliens, Cortana's rampancy and Chief's urgency to help her gave it heart, the graphics made you forget that you were playing on a console that came out in 2005, and the multiplayer took ideas from other shooters and made them genuinely Halo.

All I have to say is good job 343 Industries, you washed away any doubts I had. Let's hope you keep the steam going with the next two entries in the game.

Recommended For: Halo fans and FPS fans.
Favorite Moment: Beating it solo on Legendary.

Journey

Journey is unequivocally my game of the year and easily one of the best games I've ever played. It was named PS3 game of the year by the Spike VGA's and it's soundtrack was nominated for a Grammy, a first for a video game soundtrack.

This game is what it is to play a video game, an experience that you partake in, that you actively shape.

All you need to know about Journey is that you are shown a mountain, and then the title of the game comes up and tells you the only goal you need to know, journey to the mountain.

After that, what your journey will entail, everything that you will experience, will be uniquely yours.

Just make sure your volume is turned up, the music and sounds are that good.
Recommended for: Everyone
Favorite Moment: Playing it again, and then again. And I don't play games multiple times through.

What were your favorite games of 2012? Feel free to let us know in the comments.

Honorable Mentions:

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (3DS)
Katawa Shoujo (PC)
Hybrid (Xbox 360)
Dust: An Elysian Tale (Xbox 360)
Dead or Alive 5 (PS3/Xbox 360)
FIFA 13 (PS3/Xbox 360)
Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition (Xbox 360)