This year was pretty darned great for bideogamesu. Here are some of the highlights.

Crusader Kings 2 - Yes I would like to play Paradox's best game to date, be a ruthless bastard trying to gain power, marrying my gifted loli daughter to a fat lech with syphilis for political reasons, murdering my own sons/brothers/uncles/everyone, and fighting off both the Golden Horde and the god damn Aztec Empire because Paradox went Full Ahistory and it is glorious as Quetzalcoatl's coat of rainbow feathers and as radiant as the face of Huitzilopochtli.

Mass Effect 3 - The first and last half-hours were both trout. Everything in between was smurfing amazing.

Trials Evolution - This game will break controllers and make you come back for more. It is astonishingly frustrating and addictive, and has a seriously old-school feel to it.

Max Payne 3 - This is How To Shooter 2012 edition. God damn the gunplay in this game is good. God damn.

Sleeping Dogs - When I first heard about True Crime 3: Hong Kong I wasn't at all interested. When it had development troubles I was even less interested. Then it came out and everything I saw said it was awesome. And you know what? It smurfing well is. Probably the second-best game this year in my opinion.

FTL: Faster Than Light - This little indie darling was worth every penny and it's still something I fire up for regular playthroughs despite having seem much of it. It really is a brilliant little thing, and the sole fault I can find is that there's not a lot more of it.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria - After the catastrophe that was Cataclysm I wasn't excited for MoP but ended up getting it out of a misguided sense of loyalty and gambler's fallacy to the game. Holy crap was I wrong, this expansion is as good as The Burning Crusade, and it might honestly be the best WoW has ever been.

Dishonored - This game is so good oh my god, there is SO MUCH to love here. The design, the tools you can use, the different ways you can approach things, it's great.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown - "Yeah right, they're going to make a worthy successor to the original in this day and age." I thought. Only they did. Get this game. Third best of the year and there's not a lot of ground between this and Sleeping Dogs.

Fallen Enchantress - A tremendous improvement over the last Elemental game, this is engaging, fun, and really sucks you in. It's not perfect and it needs work, but between this and Endless Space it's been a good year for 4x games.

Endless Space - It's been a long long time since I've seen a game with this much sheer polish to it. The game is not perfect, and it's not quite a Civ IV/SMAC/MoO2, but it comes closer than anything else has in a loooong time.

Assassin's Creed III - THOSE NAVAL BATTLES HOLY troutTING CHRIST

The Walking Dead - Game Of The Year. No question or doubt. This is How To Videogames 101 and aside from some technical issues everything about this thing is smurfing amazing go and buy it right now you clods why aren't you playing it

Not yet played but mite b cool: Drox Operative, UFC 3, Hotline Miami.