Played in 2012

Writeups on games I played this year. By writeups, I mean one sentence.

FTL My emotional attachment to its little pixel people rivals the original XCOM.

Max Payne 3 Very pretty.

Dishonored Tight-as-a-drum sequel to Thief in all but name.

XCOM (2012) Constantly makes you make the kind of decisions that give you premature grey hair.

Mark of the Ninja Expect to see all future stealth games pick and choose from Mark of the Ninja’s clever set of mechanics.

Syndicate (2012) Its “They Live”-esque vision mode is a great bit.

Skyrim Skyrim truly shines when you pretend its fast-travel doesn’t exist.

Silent Storm If you enjoyed XCOM, then for chrissakes play Silent Storm.

Brogue Makes bold and very welcome changes to the roguelike formula.

The Walking Dead Choosing between right and wrong is what most games do; choosing between wrong and wrong is what The Walking Dead relishes.

Spelunky Co-op + roguelike + smart design = one of the best games of 2012.

Spec Ops: The Line I like it when games are critical.

Far Cry 3 Is absolutely fantastic when the game embraces its open-world environment.

Borderlands 2 Has great humor from start to finish, which is particularly impressive because the game is jumbo sized.

Day Z This is the future of games, folks.

Batman Arkham City I felt like Batman, which is probably the best compliment in the world.