2012 has been a bit of a mixed bag. We did get a few good releases for the Wii, and the system sold pretty well too, and there were no real setbacks to speak of. But it wasn’t the Wii we were focusing on these past few months. Even though the Wii U released only a few weeks back, it has been the focal point of the year, as far as Nintendo is concerned.

But to keep this article from getting too incoherent and messy, let’s talk about them one-by-0ne.

Wii

You haven’t forgotten about this little console, have you?

Surprisingly, despite being in what is clearly the last year of its life cycle, the Wii received a decent number of great games. After its much awaited European release in 2011, Xenoblade Chronicles finally saw the light of the day in North America this year.

The other two Wii titles that people wanted to see released on the west got launched as well. The Last Story was an absolutely delightful RPG, with a great story and addictive gameplay that reminded us just how wonderfil Japanese Role Playing Games can be. The game was almost as good as Xenoblade Chronicles, in some respects, and in many ways, the highlight of the Wii’s year.

Pandora’s Tower, on the other hand, was a tad bit disappointing. While we appreciated its story and the emotional connection it could have with its players, we called Pandora’s Tower a “a clunky, uninspired generic dungeon crawler that shows on occasion a flicker of genius.” Well, two for three, Nintendo, not bad.

Rhythm Heaven Fever was a pleasant surprise. Anyone who played the DS game knew what to expect- an extremely enjoyable music games with an abundance of variety in mini-games. And that is exactly what we got.

Other titles like Mario Party 9, Just Dance 4 and Skylanders Giants kept the system going for the rest of the year. It didn’t exactly had the best year, and there weren’t a whole bunch of major releases to speak of, but there were a few great launches, and anyone who owns a Wii cannot really say they had a bad year in video games.

However, needless to say, 2013 looks bleak for the Nintendo Wii. There’s absolutely no future for this system now- this much can be said without any reservations. The next gen Nintendo console is out now and will be entering full gear soon, and Nintendo and the third parties- the ones that are supporting the system- will be focusing completely on the Wii U now.

Sure, we will get to see a few forgettable, shovelware, casual releases on the Wii in 2013, but there’s nothing for serious gamers to look forward to starting January 1st. Actually, starting now.

Overall Performance: B-

Wii U

The Wii U received a crapload of hype throughout the year, and a lot was expected of it, but when it finally got launched, things didn’t go quite as Nintendo had planned. There was a shortage of stocks, there were tons of technical issues and glitches found in the console, it was being reported that the system was technically crippled and that it delivered titles with poor graphics. Some people are going as far as saying that the Wii U is not even a next gen system. Now that particular statement is something Nintendo should be used to, but still, that’s harsh.

Not all went wrong though. The Wii U received a few great games on launch, and three of those were especially awesome. ZombiU was a hugely anticipated titles, and we can gladly say that it delivered on our front. Not only did it get a highly positive review from us, it also won our Wii/Wii U Game of the Year award. ZombiU was an excellent game in an excellent, bleak setting, with incredibly challenging difficulty and truly spooky, creepy moments that stick with you for a long time.

On the brighter side of the things (visually), New Super Mario Bros. U was an excellent title, as is always expected of New Super Mario Bros. games. It was a typically hilarious, enjoyable and incredulously addictive title that spearheaded the Wii U launch lineup and showed us all why Mario games are still great in side scrolling 2D format.

Nintendo Land also grabbed our attention. We didn’t expect it to be good at all when it was announced back at E3 in the awful Nintendo conference. And while it may not have been to the Wii U what Wii Sports was to the Wii, it was still a hell of a game, enough to provide countless hours of joy while showing off many of the Wii U’s capabilities.

There were other remarkable titles as well- Batman: Arkham City: Armoured Edition,Assassin’s Creed III, Darksiders II, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Scribblenauts Unlimited and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, which was surprisingly good. It was certainly much better than the original, crappy version of Ninja Gaiden 3.

So 2012 seems to have given the Wii U as reasonably good start, since the system does have games to go on, is selling well and has plenty of features to back its price. But 2013 looks to be a much better year for it.

The new home console has got games like Aliens: Colonial Marines, Rayman Legends, Injustice, LEGO City Undercover, Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 and so much more coming our way, and we can all safely assume that Nintendo will be making a lot of huge announcements. Hopefully we’ll be hearing about the next Mario, Zelda and Metroid games soon, and maybe all new F-Zero and Star Fox titles (one can always hope).

So the future does look good for Nintendo’s new console. Will our prediction be accurate, though? Only time will tell.

Overall Performance: B

We will be posting out official Game of the Year awards pretty soon too, so stay tuned.

Tell us which games were your favourites in the comments section below.

Rashid Sayed

Hitman: Absolution (Read our review)

For me, Hitman Absolution is the second next generation game after Battlefield 3. I am sure many of the veteran Hitman followers wouldn’t have appreciated the changes that IO Interactive has made to the formula, but some of the gameplay mechanics just dazzle and stand out. The AI is revolutionary, the visuals are amazing, the story is breathtaking, the characters are interesting, the disguise system is next to perfect and I can probably go on for a day or two and still the list of good things about Hitman Absolution will continue.

Moreover, the game gives you an element of choice. Be the silent killer or just go crazy, all guns blazing. IO Interactive, the developers behind the controversial and critically bashed Kane and Lynch series, are back, and boy, are they back with a bang

Kirk Mckeand

Far Cry 3 (Read our review)

This year was a strange one, because in October I was sure that my GOTY would be Dishonored; nobody could match the quality of Arkane’s masterpiece before the end of the year, could they? And then Far Cry 3 came along. Complaints about ludicrous narrative dissonance aside, the game was an absolute joy to play. The environments sucked you into the experience, the skills were deadly and so was the island. The antagonist, Vaas is one of the most convincing sociopaths we have ever seen in a game, his menacing presence stalking you throughout, always a step ahead. I’ve never played a game that allows me to unleash a stampede of giant-chicken-looking-things (technical term) onto an unsuspecting convoy of militia. Never before have I hunted buffalos with landmines. If we are voting purely on merit as a game, Far Cry 3 leads the way with its emergent gameplay and beautifully crafted everything. Just don’t read too much into the story; Spec Ops it ain’t.

Shubhankar Parijat

Mass Effect 3 (Read our review)

A lot’s been said of Mass Effect 3 and BioWare this year, and plenty of it has been bad- the ending’s bad, the DLC sucks, BioWare and EA are fooling people into paying money, blah blah blah. Well, that doesn’t stop Mass Effect 3 from being the best game to have been released this year and one of my personal favourite games of all time. Mass Effect 3 provides a riveting, exciting and thrilling thirty hour campaign that has everything you’d want in a game- great, tense combat, a great storyline, emotional moments, memorable characters, an epic soundtrack and an overall quality to itself that you’d find in few games these days. I agree that the endgame isn’t exactly the best one out there, but the last 15 minutes didn’t really affect me much, because no matter how bad they are, nothing can ruin the 30 hours of excellence Mass Effect 3 delivers before it reaches its conclusion.

Only three games have managed to impress me this year- Mass Effect 3 (of course), Kid Icarus: Uprising and The Walking Dead. But still, 2012 hasn’t been a bad year in gaming- for me. Because those three games by themselves- and Mass Effect 3 especially- are enough to lift even the crappiest 12 months to an entirely new level of awesomeness.

George Reith

The Walking Dead (Read our impressions)

As always, it is the things we least expect that bring us the most joy. Though Telltale have been hammering out awesome episodic adventure games since their Sam and Max series showed up in 2006, their take on the Walking Dead series seemed to come out with little or no fanfare. Initially confusing it with the upcoming Activision FPS, I missed Telltale’s Walking Dead series for its initial release. After hearing some good things about its writing, I waded in to find the hype was well deserved. With so many games wrongly given the title of “well written,” I expected to be let down by The Walking Dead, but it is a series of deep characters, interesting plot twists and incredible pacing. It’s not likely to change the way you view the world, but it’s certainly the most engaging story to be told in gaming this year, and shows off just how successful episodic game structures can be. In an industry so focused on increasingly polished action games, it’s fantastic to see a developer committing to the more emotional elements of the increasingly overused zombie apocalypse setting.

Pramath Parijat

Kid Icarus: Uprising (Read our review)

Going into Kid Icarus: Uprising’s release, there was no reason to believe it would turn out as well as it did. It had been delayed multiple times (always an ominous sign), the controls were reported to be awful (to the extent that Nintendo was bundling a stand with the game as a concession to the fact), and it seemed to be a nightmarish miss mash of an on-rails shooter and a third person action game.

Happily for everyone, Kid Icarus: Uprising came through, as not only a great game in its own right, but arguably as  the best game of 2012. The stunning visuals, incredible soundtrack, witty and charming dialog that was self aware and genuinely funny, and perhaps most importantly, the gameplay all made Kid Icarus: Uprising a unique game unlike any other. The game’s massive single player campaign, complemented by its fun multiplayer modes, gave it lasting value beyond belief. People like to say that Nintendo does not take risks with its software, that it falls back on the tried and tested formula again and again. Generally speaking, that might be true. With Kid Icarus, it wasn’t, and as a result, we got the best Nintendo game in quite a while, and the best game of 2012.

Kartik Mudgal

Dragon’s Dogma (Read our review)

Many people might disagree with this choice, because Dragon’s Dogma does have its flaws- yes, I know that. It’s got tedious backtracking, some clunky mechanics, bizarre glitches and a few other hiccups along the way, but in the larger scheme of things, those issues ultimately amount to very little. Because the pros of Dragon’s Dogma far outweigh the cons. Not only is Dragon’s Dogma one of the most wonderfully complex and deep RPGs in recent years, it also has an incredible, believable and atmospheric game world and a visceral combat system that pumps adrenaline into you like water running from a tap.

Then there’s the fact that Dragon’s Dogma probably has one of the best decision making systems ever that leads to a truly unforgettable and satisfying conclusion that does perfect justice to the intriguing, riveting storyline. All in all, Dragon’s Dogma may not be the most perfect game of 2012, but it certainly is the best. 

Bojeeva

Syndicate (Read our review)

For me, the best game this year is undoubtedly Syndicate… the long-awaited reboot of the 1993 isometric classic, which finally made it to our screens in February. I must admit I was among those cribbing about its radical overhaul at first but while it looks and feels different from its predecessors – with Starbreeze transforming it into a first person shooter – it still retains the style and substance of the original. The campaign is fantastic fun but brief – and it isn’t until you get a few friends together for some multiplayer co-op action that it becomes a truly exceptional game. An awesome array of weaponry, the new Breach hacking mechanic, the awesomeness of the DART overlay, and the lengthy missions make this a game that shouldn’t be missed. Its lack of sales was a travesty… but on the plus side, you might be able to pick it up at a bargain price!

Cameron Foster

Mass Effect 3 (Read our review)

Finally being able to finish Shepard’s epic galaxy-spanning fight to save the world was the gaming highlight for me this year. Yes, the ending riled a lot of people up and definitely left me wanting more too. But overall, the experience was exhilarating, exciting, tense and downright terrifying at times. I’ve grown attached to these characters over the years and saying goodbye to the ones who survived at the end of their quest- and the ones who sadly didn’t make it- was definitely emotional. Goodbye Shepard.

Ravi Sinha

Far Cry 3 (Read our review)

It’s not so often that a truly open-world, stealth mechanics, involving story-telling, memorable characters, action-packed missions, beautiful visuals and hot-as-fuck voice acting and dialogues come together. It’s even less often that a game carries that “It” factor to tie it all together, and that immersiveness to convince you that you part of this world rather than playing it. Far Cry 3 does all this and so much more, packing so much into such a humble package without forgetting to be fun. It also features a completely separate co-op experience and solid multiplayer. Take note, Capcom: This is how you over-do a game for the better.

Tell us which games were your personal favourites this year in the comments section below!

Why? Don’t ask that. Ask, why not? Who loves sub-20 fps framerates anyway? While consoles may have some good exclusives, ultimately some people care more about games running at a good visual fidelity and having solid performance.

This year has been good for PC gaming. We saw a lot of MMOs, and quality ones at that, like Planetside 2 and Guild Wars 2. These MMOs provided hours and hours of excellent gameplay and were easily comparable to big budget AAA games.

Let’s talk a bit about the PC exclusives that were released earlier this year–Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2–both these games are quite similar in their approach and design, one has a higher production value while the other provides a lot more content and is less ambitious when you think about the overall budget. They are priced appropriately too, however, Diablo 3 underwent a lot of criticsm from everyone due to its always-online nature even to play the single-player portion.

It was a good game but certainly not comparable to its illustrious predecessors which are still being played today, well, at least Diablo 2. If you want to know more about the problems that plagued Diablo 2’s launch you can read our editorial here, which was quite vitriolic in nature and written by yours truly.

While most third-party games are available on the PC, some of them like Dragon’s Dogma do not make it, and there was a rumor recently that the PC version was on the cards but was proved wrong. However, we have plenty of games like Resident Evil 6 and Borderlands 2 which made a mark on the platform offering great graphics, while the former bombed, the latter made it as one of the most critically and commercially successful games of all time.

There were also indie games that made their mark this year, and we personally loved like Of Orcs and Men, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, Sine Mora, Awesomenauts and much more. There were also games like Dark Souls which finally made to the platform after a long time, and it’s something people were also clamouring for. The port was poor but the PC wizards did their magic on it and made it one of the best ever, with high resolution, framerates and much more.

There were also games like Sleeping Dogs which received a high resolution texture pack on PC and also games like Assassin’s Creed 3 which really shined on the platform. We loved both the games and scored them really highly. Overall it was the year of MMOs and unique games on Steam that not only dazzled gamers but also made them excited as to what’s to come next year on the platform.

In 2013, there will be a lot of games like Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite, which will no doubt look and run the best on PC, and we will also have games that will be exclusive to the platform, which not only includes new MMOs but the ones from Kickstarter as well.

There’s a lot to look forward to on the PC next year, but one thing is for certain, when the next generation consoles do get announced including their specs showcased, the PC will be ready for them with its GTX 680 and quad core CPUs, to handle whatever third-party games the developers have to throw at it. Maybe, the consoles could blow it away, which would make next generation a highly competitive one.

Overall Performance: B+

However, when the system came out in February there was a lot of hype considering it’s a Sony product and it’s also something that looks absolutely stunning with the 5 inch OLED screen making games look much better than they are.

However, only a few games really took advantage of the hardware and some of them looked great simply due to the art design. We reviewed the system extensively during launch covering the hardware to games and also plenty of editorials and stuff.

The hardware itself was quite amazing as reviewed by yours truly. I gave the hardware an 8.5/10 and mentioned that it had a lot of potential.

“The PlayStation Vita is an amazing hardware. You will actually be surprised when you hold the thing, and get immersed in that beautiful OLED screen. The Vita is a must own system, if you like portable console experiences on the go with great network features.”

So let’s talk about the games, shall we, the weak point in the system’s arsenal. There is a growing concern that third-parties are going to ditch the system due to its low sales and that’s a perfectly acceptable concern because it’s even selling poorly in the Japanese market.

Two of the notable games we’ve had for the system in 2012 were Gravity Daze and Persona 4 Golden which is sort of an enhanced version of an old game with jazzed up visuals and extra content. Gravity Daze was an awesome game and we praised it a lot in our review.

“Gravity Rush is a killer app for the Vita; one that not only oozes a lot of charm and creativity, but also provides some much-needed diversion for people who own the system,” I wrote. It does seem like it has been a long time since I have written that considering I hardly pick up the system anymore.

Here are the great Vita games we’ve reviewed on GamingBolt so far. Uncharted: Golden Abyss was a solid title from Sony Bend but what was Naughty Dog doing instead of supporting the system? Bend did a great job but the game was inconsistent as a whole with some input lag in the analogue sticks.

Here are the other launch titles for the system so far, and most of them were pretty average games. The sad part was that good games like Assassin’s Creed: Liberation didn’t get much exposure due to the low sales and a great third party effort like that should have been rewarded by people. Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified turned out to be a pretty bad game when you look at the reviews but we didn’t review it.

There were other games like Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Everybody’s Golf, ModNation Racers: Road Trip, Little Deviants, WipEout 2048, and while the last game was great, the launch line-up was pretty poor overall when it comes to quality.

So what else? We also had Unit 13 which was a great game but a bit generic too considering its Zipper we are talking about here. It was fun to play but could have been much better considering the foundation was solid.

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection was something that was a really quality title for the system, with tons of replaybility and value for money. Metal Gear Solid 3 looks as awesome as ever and runs quite great too.

There are a lot of itsy bitsy titles, including a massive one in Persona 4 Golden but we didn’t get a chance to review that yet. Overall it was a forgettable year for the Vita owner but hopefully we can see great games released in 2013.

Soul Sacrifice from Keiji Inafune looks pretty great and considering the recent Monster Hunter delay in Japan, we can’t quite understand whether Capcom is giving this game a chance to perform well commercially or not.

It is really vital for Sony to turn the ship around considering plenty of developers are shunning the Vita and it is also vital for them to drop the price of the system and bring it down to mass market price point because people have shown that they simply don’t care about dedicated hardware consoles any more and to tempt then a price drop is a must.

It worked for the 3DS and it could work for the Vita before, people forget about the whole handheld, oh and games are required too.

Overall Performance: C-

The third parties have delivered as usual and the quality of all their ports have been fantastic, too, except Black Ops 2 maybe… but that’s not the point here; it looks like Sony has been trying out a different strategy this year by appealing to the casual market instead of the core that they usually do.

Did it work out for them? Not really. The sales of Playstation All-Stars and Wonderbook in the Europe have been abysmal, and as you can see by clicking on the links, our reviews have been middling at best, although, we found some potential in Wonderbook. The entire year was a pretty drab affair for the PS3, with first-party games like Starhawk and Twisted Metal underperforming sales-wise.

Starhawk is far from the amazing game that was Warhawk. Twisted Metal, I believe, was released too late in the system’s lifecycle where car combat games have become something of an extinct species like Dodo. We had one from India too called Smash n Survive.

Mass Effect 3’s appearance on the PS3 earlier this year was something refreshing considering how big of a franchise it is. The biggest gem for the system in the entire year was no doubt Journey, a game that has won numerous GOTYs worldwide and is also one of the best games on the PS3.

The third parties have chugged along releasing underrated games like Asura’s Wrath, Syndicate and Dragon’s Dogma. The latter, while ran great on the PS3, did not reach its potential due to horrible design decisions and is something that I personally loved very much due to how absorbing and fun it was to actually kill enemies. Asura’s Wrath was one giant cutscene while Syndicate provided a lot of fun but fell short.

PSN provided some great games like the Unfinished Swan and Journey, but Xbox Live trumped it in this department with the release of Fez and other exclusives. However, the presence of the stellar PSN + balanced it out in style with a lot of free games and great discounts.

Early in the year we had some decent games like Final Fantasy XIII-2, which didn’t really set the year on fire because it was a safe sequel. Our review described it as: “Final Fantasy XIII-2 comes with its fair share of problems, but it is an excellent game that represents a tentative step into modernity for its genre.”

There were a bunch of games released in May including Max Payne 3 and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which we thought would do really well. They were good games especially Max Payne 3 but the latter disappointed in a lot of areas.

One of the bright spots of the year was undoubtedly Telltale’s Walking Dead. We scored all the five episodes really highly and also produced an editorial that proved to be really successful. It’s one of the best series to have been released on the PS3 with fantastic writing and characterization and is something that really deserves your money.

This year also brought a lot of new IPs like Sleeping Dogs, Dishonored, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and as you can see by clicking on the links they are all pretty spectacular games scoring highly and each of them providing a really unique experience to gamers.

Dishonored, especially was something really well made, except the ending. We wrote about it extensively in our PC review, which described it as “Dishonored is a plot-driven game offering you a lot of freedom to do things in a way you want. Not only does it look stunning but plays well, too. People sometimes say “Beauty with no brains” to describe a shallow thing. That wouldn’t apply to this game, though. It has both.”

Assassin’s Creed 3 turned out to be great along with Borderlands, FIFA 13, Darksiders 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 followed in November which was a poor port on the PS3 like its predecessor Black Ops, and it seems like Treyarch prioritizes the Xbox 360 a lot more than the PS3 for some reason. There were duds like  Resident Evil 6, Medal of Honor: Warfighter and 007 Legends as well.

While the PS3 missed some great first part games like the Xbox 360, Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale proved to be horrible in both scope and execution and was a weak effort by first timers Superbot.

There were also games like Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Hitman: Absolution, the latter which I enjoyed a lot but it proved to be a flawed game based on our review. The game that took us by surprise was Far Cry 3, which we wouldn’t have suspected because of how poorly Far Cry 2 turned out to be. The game was a winner in all departments except the story maybe, and received a perfect score on our site. We don’t really throw that around a lot, mind you.

This year was a bit weak for the PS3 when it comes to first party support, but next year seems really promising because of two spectacular games like The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls from Naughty Dog and Quantic Dream respectively. There are also a lot of third party games like GTA 5 and others which will make a good year no doubt.

Sony may reveal the PS4 next year, but a Naughty Dog game for the PS3 will keep the interest high as we look forward to its successor to bring the goods.

Overall Performance: B-

And it did- it did have a pretty good year, receiving some really, really good titles, with devs also announcing other huge games for the system to be released in the near future.

But what exactly were the highlights of the year for the 3DS? Let’s take a look.

One of the most anticipated games for the system, and maybe ever in Nintendo’s history as a company, started off the 3DS’ strong year in March. Kid Icarus: Uprising had been a long time coming, and by the end, none of us really expected it to be even remotely good. But when it did come out, it blew us all away with its addictive, exciting gameplay and witty, intelligent writing. It became one of the only three games to receive a 10/10 from us this year, and our reviewer even called it the greatest handheld ever, which it arguably is.

Another game that everyone had been really looking forward to for a long time that came a few weeks before Kid Icarus did was Resident Evil: Revelations, an excellent survival horror game that got unjustly swept under the run due to the hype that its console brethren were generating. It’s pretty odd, because Revelations was a hundred times better and scarier than Operation Raccoon City and Resident Evil 6 were put together.

“Sorry to keep you waiting!” It’s quite alright, Pit. 

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance also impressed early on with its impressive visuals and an excellent and varied combat system. It wasn’t Kingdom Hearts 3, but it was a damn good addition to the franchise nonetheless.

Metal Gear Solid 3D and Tales of the Abyss were two more games that everyone had been looking forward to for some time, and when they came, they did not disappoint. Though both weren’t really new games, rather remakes/re-releases of old classics, we all had an immense amount of fun with them.

There were other notable releases for the system throughout the year than kept the library going- Rayman Origins, Heroes of Ruin, Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy, Rhythm Thief. And then there were eShop titles such as Mutant Mudds, Crush 3D, Crashmo and others.

Then came the big titles- first, there was New Super Mario Bros. 2. It was a 2D side-scrolling Mario platformer with an excellent premise, and it couldn’t really go wrong. And it did not. While certainly not as good as the DS or Wii NSMB games, it was still a blast to play through, and the perfect Mario dosage for the 3DS. For the time being.

It’s-a me- Mario with a golden brick for his head!

Then there was Pokemon Black/White 2. Sure, it’s actually a DS game, but the system didn’t get enough games to do an entire separate article for it. Black/White 2, while really good games, failed to offer the change up to the formula that we all wanted, and also failed to live up to the excellent titles that were Black and White. We all want a real, 3D Pokemon game, and Black and White 2 just served the purpose of a stopgap.

Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward turned out to be a surprisingly good game. None of us was really expecting this game to serve any kind of impact, but it turned out to be one of the better games to have been released on any system in recent memory and one of the best RPGs to have been released in 2012.

There were a few other notable releases too- Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Scribblenauts Unlimited.

Heading into 2013, we’ve got even more stuff to be excited about. Nintendo’s announced games such as Fire Emblem: Awakening, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow- Mirror of Fate heading our way right at the beginning of the year.

Other heavyweights such as Animal Crossing: New Leaf, LEGO City Undercover, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon have been confirmed too, and it’s only safe to assume that we’ll also be getting another annual Professor Layton installment.

Not the best game in the series, but still pretty darn good.

Nintendo has also confirmed that Pokemon Myster Dungeon: Gates to Infinity will also be releasing in the US next year in March after its 3DS exclusive release in Japan this year. And there’s also been talks of an entirely new Zelda game- that Nintendo has confirmed to be in development- also releasing this year. Or possibly a Majora’s Mask remake, which has been going around the rumour mill for months now. Or maybe both. Hopefully!

All in all, it looks like the 3DS has a bright future, and that it’s getting only stronger and stronger with each new year. 2011 served to be the building year for the 3DS, and we got treated to plenty of great titles this year. And now it looks like this trend will continue for next year too. Let’s see if Nintendo performs as strongly in the handheld market as it always has.

Overall Performance: A-

And then, of course, there’s the third party games. Try telling anyone who had an Xbox 360 this year that they didn’t have a very good year in videogames, and they’d probably be laughing in your face.

But just what were the highlights for Xbox 360 owners this year? Let’s break it down. Just to be clear, this isn’t chronological.

Right at the beginning of the year, the Xbox 360 got pretty big titles- Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Soul Calibur V (you can read our reviews through the hyperlinks). Although great games in their own rights, none of them really kicked off the game the way it should have been, and the two titles turned out to be so disappointing that most of us forgot they’d even been released this year.

No matter what the haters say, Mass Effect 3 was a truly unforgettable experience. 

More unremarkable games kept coming our way in Asura’s Wrath, Syndicate and a few others, but it wasn’t really until March that the year, and the Xbox 360 with it, got its first truly remarkable title.

I am, of course, talking about Mass Effect 3. The ending debacle and controversy aside, there’s no denying that Mass Effect 3 was a truly wonderful experience that kept sending memorable and thrilling moments our way, punctuating the incessant action with poignant personal moments perfectly. Our reviewer (yours truly) called it “a perfect conclusion to the perfect trilogy.”

And then we hit the drought, with even titles that seemed like sure shot successes failing to hit the mark, including the likes of Silent Hill: Downpour  (not so bad, though) and Ninja Gaiden 3.

However, things started looking brighter when Xbox Live Arcade came to the rescue, as always. Fez, Trials Evolution and Mark of the Ninja are not only some of the best downloadable titles for the Xbox 360 this year, they’re some of the best games this year, period.

You know a game is awesome when it impressed you as much as it did when it was released a year back.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings- Enhanced Edition, while a port of the excellent PC title from last year, turned out to be a great addition to the X360’s library. In our overly-excited review, we gave the game a solid, completely deserved 9.5/10 and called it “undoubtedly the best RPG to ever have appeared on a console.” In retrospect that may seem like hyperbole, but if we ever got down to talking about it, there’d be plenty of arguments to be made in The Witcher 2’s favour.

Other highly anticipated titles such as Max Payne 3 and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, came and went, impressing a few but making no real mark. The real surprise hit of the year, though, came in the form of a little downloadable title known as The Walking Dead. We didn’t review the entire game as a whole, but we did write a pretty extensive editorial about it, and the reviews are linked in it, so you should give it a read.

No one really expected this game to be any good, much less live up to the high standards of the comic book or even the television show, for that matter, which, to be honest, wasn’t exactly at its best at that time. But the game just surprised people at every turn, telling a story like none other. We, along with countless other people, have gone as far as claiming that it “perfects the art of telling stories in video games a hundred times over and sets an example for games in the future to look up to.”

The years always end with some great games, and this year was no different. We were treated to games such as Halo 4, Assassin’s Creed 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. On the flipside, though, we had to suffer the atrocities that were the likes of Resident Evil 6, Medal of Honor: Warfighter and 007 Legends.

Do you know the definition of insa- YES, I’M NOT STUPID, JEEZ.

But let’s look at the bright side instead- Borderlands 2. Dishonored. FIFA 13. Darksiders 2. XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Fable: The Journey. Sleeping Dogs. Hitman: Absolution. Forza Horizon. Dragon’s Dogma. And so many others. Seriously, who the hell has been saying this hasn’t been a good year for gaming?

And the real bright spot, one of the best games to have hit the Xbox 360 in a long time- Far Cry 3. This became the second Xbox 360 title to receive a perfect score from us, and our reviewer was so impressed with it, he said it was “the best game of the year, if not the generation.”

And now we’re moving into 2013, and things, as always, look decent when it comes to the exclusive lineup. With games like Gears of War: Judgement and- logically speaking- a new Forza title coming out next year (yes, there will be a next year after all), things look okay for those who want exclusives on their 360s. It’s not like the PS3, which is getting a shitton of exclusives, but it’s still worth taking note of.

But when it comes to multiplatform titles, things look as good as ever, with DmC, Dead Space 3, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Metro: Metro Last Light, Tomb Raider, BioShock: Infinite and many others coming our way in just the first three months of the year themselves.

Hopefully, we’ll have a pretty good 2013 with the Xbox 360.

The generation is coming to and end, and despite being a year of transition, 2012 has manged to impress us time and again. The Xbox 360 has had a good year, and here’s hoping it will have a better one in 2013. With the Xbox 720 possibly coming out by December next year (yes, it’s not announced yet, but come on, we all know it’s coming), Microsoft will start shifting focus and start looking to the future. But still, considering how much resources they have invested in the 360, we can safely assume that we’re going to have a good 12 months ahead of us.

Overall Performance: B+

Now, I’m not the kind of person who starts hating on a game and denounces it as “disappointing” or “mediocre.” In my view, it’s more about the journey than the destination. A bad ending that takes up 15 minutes of my time cannot overrule the countless hours of enjoyment I got out of a game till that point. But I do want a good ending. So while AC3’s ending didn’t contribute all that much to the game being a disappointment, it was a disappointment in itself, as an ending.

And that got me to thinking about other games that have let me down with their finales this year, which is when I realized that 2012 has been a really bad year when it comes to endgames.

Halo 4, too got bashed for its ending recently. The script itself ended in a very emotional, thrilling scene, but the final mission was a disaster from a gameplay perspective. There was no climactic encounter between Chief and The Didact, and it all just ended too fast, as if it was rushed through by 343. Master Chief’s return deserved a much better finish, instead it just felt like a generic game ending.

And let’s not forget about the big daddy of controversial endings this year- the Lost of video games, Mass Effect 3. We all know just how big a backlash the ending got, but let’s do a recap for those who don’t know/might have forgotten- Mass Effect 3 was released and met with unanimous praise, including us. Then, fans started bitching about the ending. Then, they started a petition, which resulted in BioWare releasing an extended, modified ending for the game for free. This backlash also made the BioWare founders leave the industry altogether.

Now, I personally don’t have many qualms with the ending of Mass Effect 3, and as you can see through the link above, I awarded it a 10/10 in my review and even said I thought the ending was emotionally moving. But then again, I can see why so many fans were mad about it- the ending does leave a lot of loose ends, a lot of questions unanswered, and I can see why people call the entire sequence with the Catalyst a cop out.

Then there’s Dishonored. Now, a disappointing ending isn’t really a big deal here, since the game is more about gameplay, stealth and the element of choice in how you tackle you objectives, and the game does that very well. It’s an excellent game. But the game had the potential to have a really good story, a potential that was largely wasted, and even the ending was a major letdown. It felt as if, in the end, it didn’t matter what you did all throughout the game. Whether you play in a lethal or non-lethal fashion, the ending remains the same.

Even Final Fantasy XIII-2, a game most of us have forgotten even got released this year, had a very, very infuriating ending. It ended in a frustrating cliffhanger, but it wasn’t even that suspenseful- it just stopped. It didn’t end. A lot like Assassin’s Creed 3, in this respect. And what’s worse is that the game itself, while great in its own rights, wasn’t even all that memorable.

It’s been a recurring theme throughout the year. So many games have come and gone, and while most of them have been excellent in general, their finales have been letdowns.

But I’d like to raise another topic, about something I said a few hundred words ago- can endings really be bad enough to ruin an entire game? If you talk to the average gamer on the forums, they will tell you that Mass Effect 3 and/or Assassin’s Creed 3 are absolutely horrible games because of how stupid their endings are. But isn’t that unfair. Mass Effect 3 and Assassin’s Creed 3 are both great games that offer well over 20 hours of gameplay, and are excellent right up until the end.

Sure, the endings were less than satisfactory, but why exactly do we play games? To be provided with countless hours of enjoyment, or
to see excellent, brilliantly written finales? Obviously, I’d prefer my games to have both of them. But if I had to choose between the two, I’d choose countless hours of entertainment any day.

But then again, developers need to start taking the final moments of their games seriously. People say they don’t want to see all the time they’ve invested into the games- franchises, even- go to waste because of an ending that disregards everything and just does its own thing. And I can understand that. I can even agree with that.

So here’s hoping that next year won’t be as bad for endings in video games as this year has been. We’re not asking for the brilliance of Mass Effect 2 and Batman: Arkham City. No. But please don’t give us the mediocre endings we have gotten for the most part this year.

Square Enix has revealed its GamesCom line-up and it features a lot of games that you have already heard about. Interesting to see that they will also reveal Final Fantasy 7 at the conference. This version is specifically enhanced for the PC and will be only available via the Square Enix store.

“Gamescom is the biggest European games show and it’s great to be there with such a strong and diverse lineup of interactive experiences. This year we have a mix of some of the industry’s most identifiable characters and a host of highly original content – it’s going to be a great show,” said Phil Rogers, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix Europe.

You can check out the full line-up below.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn – Set in the realm of Eorzea, after the devastating attacks from the Garlean Empire, FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn presents an adventure for players around the world to undertake epic quests and battle with familiar FINAL FANTASY monsters as they work together to help forge the fate of Eorzea.

HITMAN: ABSOLUTION– HITMAN: ABSOLUTION follows The Original Assassin undertaking his most personal contract to date. Betrayed by the Agency and hunted by the police, Agent 47 finds himself pursuing redemption in a corrupt and twisted world.

TOMB RAIDER – Tomb Raider explores the intense and gritty origin story of Lara Croft and her ascent from a frightened young woman to a hardened survivor. Armed only with raw instincts and the ability to push beyond the limits of human endurance, Lara must fight to unravel the dark history of a forgotten island to escape its relentless hold.

Sleeping Dogs– SLEEPING DOGS is a gritty and visceral open world cop drama set in the vibrant city of Hong Kong. Taking the role of undercover cop Wei Shen, players are tasked with taking down one of the city’s most fearsome Triad gangs. Every street corner, market stall, harbour dock or city skyscraper can become an opportunity for intense shoot-outs, adrenaline-fuelled street races and intense, brutal martial arts combat. Players perform bone-crunching kicks and combos, vicious counters and cinematic environmental takedowns, making use of real-world items from circular saws to phone booths, incinerators to refrigerator doors.

Quantum Conundrum – From the mind of PORTAL co-creator Kim Swift, Quantum Conundrum features engaging puzzle gameplay with the introduction of the Inter-Dimensional Shift Device (IDS), an invention that gives players the ability to shift to and from various dimensions, manipulating the world around them in order to solve puzzles of ever-increasing difficulty.

Final Fantasy VII – Initially released in 1997, FINAL FANTASY VII was critically acclaimed as the title that redefined the standard for role-playing games. This new downloadable version includes a range of new features such as a Character Booster that enables players to fully power up their characters, cloud saves, and in-game achievements to encourage players to explore various facets of the game.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Ubisoft has announced its GamesCom line-up for 2012 and it’s what you expect, and no, there’s no Watch Dogs here. They will reveal new free-to-play titles and also discuss Ubisoft’s strategy for online.

“The total number of players and the resulting opportunities for our industry continue to multiply as new types of gaming take hold,” said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft.

“After a successful E3, we’re looking forward to bringing a strong lineup to Gamescom so that customers can experience many of our hotly anticipated titles first hand.”

Ubisoft’s press conference will take place at 3 p.m. on August 15^th in the Konrad-Adenauer-Saal, Congress-Centrum North.

Gamescom Public Booth:

Starting August 16, Gamescom attendees can visit Ubisoft’s booth inside hall 7 to try many of Ubisoft’s upcoming games, including:

• Assassin’s Creed III: the next installment in the acclaimed Assassin’s Creed franchise where gamers will play as Connor, fighting for justice during the American Revolution.
• Assassin’s Creed III Liberation: a full Assassin’s Creed experience exclusive to PS Vita, Liberation introduces Aveline, the first female protagonist fighting for freedom in Louisiana during the American Revolution.
• Far Cry 3: the massive action adventure where players fight to survive an island of insanity.
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online: the competitive Free-To-Play FPS taking place in the Tom Clancy’s universe.
• Shootmania: Storm: a fast paced, pure, FPS made for online competition.

 By visiting the Ubisoft booth gamers also can try the following games on Nintendo’s Wii U system:

• Rabbids Land: the Wii U exclusive party-game where the wacky Rabbids take control of an amusement park.
• Rayman Legends: the beautiful and unique new social platformer featuring Ubisoft’s limbless hero.
• Sports Connection: the Wii U exclusive collection of interactive sports.
• Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2013: a connected fitness world that helps to set and achieve players’ goals in an engaging and entertaining way.
• ZombiU: a fear-fueled zombie Survival Horror First Person Shooter.