I’m compiling my favorite video games from the 20-10’s. Luckily, I made it easy for myself over the years. Most years, I’ve created a Game of the Year list on Giant Bomb (see my 2012 list, here). I will choose games to go to Round 2, where I will the create my LIST OF THE DECADE!

If you haven’t seen my 2010 list or 2011 list, check them out, first!

My 2012 ranking is as follows (from Giant Bomb):

2012:

1. Sleeping Dogs
2. Diablo III
3. Journey
4. The Walking Dead
5. SSX
6. Syndicate
7. Spec Ops: The Line
8. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Solider
9. Call of Duty: Black Ops II
10. Hotline Miami

Games that stand out for me include:

Sleeping Dogs

My All-Time Favorite Ryan Davis Moment. RIP Ryan <3
I bought this poster in 2012.

I can’t believe it’s been this long since I’ve played this game. Sleeping Dogs is an open world game that I’ll describe as: Grand Theft Auto in Hong Kong, with elements of Yakuza.

Sleeping Dogs really was a game that stuck with me. It had a great story that could be the basis of a movie, but it is also VERY video game-y (you can hijack moving cars by jumping out of your current car and onto the next one!).

The combat is extremely satisfying with depth, (which is where my Yakuza influence comes from) At the time, this is what I wished GTA games played like.

I have always meant to replay it with the Definitive Edition on current gen consoles…I think it’s about time to do that.

Diablo III

Diablo III is a game that gets a lot of hate, but I have never had a problem with it. I actually own 4 copies of it (PC, PS3, PS4 & Switch). I’m referencing the initial release on PC here.

I actually forgot how much fun I had with D3. I was constantly playing with 3 friends and it was just a blast playing through the campaign: leveling up, finding items and hanging out on Skype and talking. I’ll take that any day.

Journey

I used a Journey wallpaper for a very long time.

Journey is a special game. It’s the only game that I’ve ever played 3 times back-to-back-to-back. Yes, I played this game 3 times in a row. It really was an experience playing it with everyone. Asynchronous multiplayer, the look, the feel, the music of this game. All amazing.

Thatgamecompany’s masterpiece is yet another game I need to replay on PS4 this year.

Syndicate

Syndicate is awesome. I remember thoroughly enjoying the campaign. You play a cyborg agent thrown into a story of corporate espionage. Being an cyborg, you can hack environmental objects, weapons and other cyborgs themselves. This gives the game depth compare to other run and gun style FPS games (abilities have limits/cooldowns, of course).

Enter The Matrix?

The real fun of Syndicate is in the co-op multiplayer.

Really made around for 4-player co-op, players take on co-op missions (depending on the level); attacking and defending, boss fights, etc. As you complete missions, you receive experience to level up your character with different abilities.

Syndicate multiplayer was just one of the most fun video game multiplayer experiences I remember having.

Years later, my friend and I started playing Syndicate again. There weren’t any other people playing online so we actually considered buying our 2 friends Xbox 360’s so they could play with us (they are PS3/PS4 guys).

I doubt it would ever happen (the game only sold 150,000 copies), but I would love a remaster of this game.

The Walking Dead

Telltale’s The Walking Dead I found to be more of an experience than a game. I yearned to see how Lee Everett and Clementine’s story played out, especially looking to see how my choices effected the story. I felt real, genuine emotion at the conclusion of the final chapter, which is why I had it so high on my original 2012 list.

There are a couple of reasons why it’s not making to the second round:

  1. I didn’t have that much “fun” playing it. The controls are pretty bad; it’s less a video game and more of an interactive story.
  2. I remember needed some time away from the game once each chapter was finished. Maybe the experience would have been different if I was playing as each chapter came out, but I played it all at once.

Honorable Mentions:

SSX – I loved the PS2 SSX games and was really looking forward to the new snowboarding game. I had a lot of fun with this game: it looked great, it played great and had an amazing soundtrack.

My issues with SSX were with the multiplayer.

  1. Players don’t actually race other people in real-time, but attempt to beat leaderboard scores; kinda meh.
  2. Level-specific items had to be used to progress the campaign (wing-suit, thermal pack, flashlight, etc.). Some of these challenges really made advancing difficult. I really wanted to be able to just jump into snowboard races or events like the previous games.

I do think about this game from time to time.

Spec Ops: The Line – A game that I would like to replay at some point, since I don’t remember too much. A decent, generic 3rd person shooter with an surprisingly deep story. I remember enjoying it enough to recommend it to a friend back in 2012.

Wow, quite a few games from 2012 move onto the final round.

On To Round 2:

Diablo III
Journey
Sleeping Dogs
Syndicate

Current List of The Decade:

Dark Souls
Diablo III
Final Fantasy XIII
Heavy Rain
Journey
Mass Effect 2
Mortal Kombat
Sleeping Dogs
Syndicate

2013 is up next!

Have you played any of these video games from 2012? Let’s talk about it.