For just over a week, we’ve been asking you to vote for the best games of 2012. It’s been a pretty good year for gaming and coming up with a shortlist of games in each category was incredibly difficult, but you’ve gone through those shortlists with a fine-toothed comb and picked out your favourites, and we’ve now got the results. Without further ado, the winners of each category:
Best Adventure Game 2012
Winner: Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller
Phoenix Online Studios’ dark point-and-click thriller, following FBI agent Erica Reed as she hunts a serial killer across Boston with the help of a handy postcognition ability, was your adventure of choice for 2012. If you’re one of those champing at the bit for more, you don’t have long to wait: the second episode, titled The Wise Monkey, is due out at the end of January.
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Best Free-to-Play 2012
Winner: Planetside 2
Sony Online Entertainment’s reboot of the original massively multiplayer shooter seems to have been a big hit with you lot. The team aimed to create a top-notch FPS experience on a massive scale and not only succeeded, but managed to add a few extra twists and features as well as some of the most sumptuous visuals of the year. Planetside 2 is your choice for the best free-to-play game of 2012. Haven’t tried it? Then perhaps you should. It’s free, after all.
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Best Indie Game 2012
Winner: Legend of Grimrock
This wonderful first-person dungeon crawler not only appealed to fans of classics like Eye of the Beholder and Dungeon Master, but also captured the hearts of anyone looking for an old-school RPG at a reasonable price. With the addition of a simple-to-use editor to add further longevity, it’s not entirely surprising that the rather excellent Legend of Grimrock topped the list as your best indie game of the year.
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Best MMO 2012
Winner Guild Wars 2
It was a long time coming, but Guild Wars 2 somehow managed to live up to the frankly ludicrous hype that’s been building since it was announced back in 2007. Some unique touches across the board helped it stand out from the crowd, but unique touches only go so far… so it’s probably for the best that the core PvE and PvP elements were also polished so much they shone, then. All of these elements came together into one superb product, making Guild Wars 2 your choice for best MMO of 2012.
More information:
- Official website
- Guild Wars: IncGamers
Best RPG 2012
Winner: Torchlight 2
There were two hot contenders in this category but you picked Runic Games’ Torchlight 2, which impressed action-RPG fans with its fast and addictive gameplay, as well as some rather good itemisation. All of this, plus an absurdly low price point? It’s not that hard to see why so many of you made it your choice for best RPG in 2012.
More information:
- Official Website
- Torchlight: IncGamers
Best Shooter 2012
Winner: Borderlands 2
Some call it an RPG, but at its core this is a quality shooter. This was a packed category with a number of top-notch contenders but Borderlands 2 won thanks to its superb gameplay, a “gazillion” guns, a fantastic sense of humour, and a world that’s just incredibly fun to play around in. A great choice to win this category, we think.
More information:
- Official Website
- IncGamers Review
Best Sport 2012
Winner: FIFA 13
Alright, so the PC isn’t necessarily the platform of choice for the hardcore sports game consumer, but there’ve nonetheless been some great titles this year. Still, it’s no huge surprise that FIFA 13 won – EA’s franchise goes from strength to strength every year and remains immensely popular because of it, and you accoladed it accordingly.
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Best Strategy Game 2012
Winner: XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Firaxis Games’ fantastic reboot did the original games proud. XCOM: Enemy Unknown not only managed to capture the essence of what made the 90s titles so tense, so addictive, and so fun, but they added in some lovely little touches of their own, and even made it accessible enough that anyone can experience the joy of losing six soldiers through a single stupid move. A good choice from the readers with this one.
More information:
- Official Website
- IncGamers Review
Best Action Game 2012
Winner: Sleeping Dogs
True Crime: Hong Kong may not have made it as a release when it was an
nounced way back in 2009, but Square Enix thought the concept deserved a shot and rebranded as United Front Games’ Sleeping Dogs. The Hong Kong-based open world brawler pulled no punches as it threw you into the chaotic world of an undercover cop embedded in the Triads, and was voted by you as the best action title of 2012.
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Congratulations to all the winners and a huge thanks to all our readers for selecting their favourite games.
Tomorrow Peter, Tim and Paul will be sharing their top games of 2012 so make sure you check back to see what got us all excited in 2012.
