Dan Chiappini, Editor Follow

I applaud innovation. While I’m mindful of the fact that not every attempt at something new can be a success--and now more than ever the entertainment industries are weighed down and measured against the reality of commercial viability--I feel that those who dare to try, even if they stumble, deserve to be celebrated. Many of the titles on my personal GOTY list earn their place not only because they took a risk, but because in doing so their contribution furthered what games are, and what they can be.

10. Diablo III

Dat loot chase. I knew before I started playing that I would fall down the Diablo rabbit hole again; and, sure enough, it happened right on cue. A strong emphasis on social play, and the abundance of gold and items with randomised properties to collect, hit the reward receptors of my brain. Sure, the game made you play the normal difficulty campaign as a glorified tutorial before you got to the meaty parts, and then smacked players in the face with Inferno and its gear-check and auction-house-dependent progression, but I had a blast in the Nightmare and Hell modes.

9. Sound Shapes

I’m not a musician. I can tap out a beat on a table, and I’ve always kept what I deem to be great music within arm’s reach, but I can’t play instruments that aren’t plastic, or follow notes that don’t scroll down or across a screen. But I can play the hell out of a platforming game. Navigating each level as I found myself immersed in the progressive construction of tunes was an absolute pleasure. Enemies moved in predictable ways in time with the bass, and because of this, a wayward jump or a mistimed manoeuvre was always my fault, and never a cheap death.

8. Papo & Yo

Child neglect and substance abuse typically aren’t the first ports of call for inspiration when you’re building something fun for people to play. Wild power fantasies where the character you control eats danger for breakfast and saves the day have become the status quo for games, so it’s a refreshing change of pace, and a sign of the medium’s flexibility and growing maturity, when developers reach beyond the low-hanging fruit for something with real meaning. As Carolyn put it so eloquently in her review, “Even adults need to see the world through a child's eyes once in a while.”

7. Hotline Miami

Quick to pick up, with room to become a master, and underpinned by a thumping soundtrack that drives you to take action, Hotline Miami is one my standout indie successes of 2012. Brutal, unforgiving, and quick to get you back into the action when you inevitably die, this builds on the hallmarks of great mobile games, and epitomises the “one more turn” hook. While the strategy and twitch gameplay will have you trying to perfect your approach to combat, the music alone is worth the game’s very reasonable price of admission.

6. Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Yeah, I know, I can hear the booing from the back of the stands. Gamers think it’s cool to point at Call of Duty as the poster child for industry stagnation and dead horse flogging, but this year's game deserves some props for stretching the mold. There’s a lot of diversity in the package, and whether you’re the lone wolf campaign player, online competitive shooter, eSports junkie, or just want to screw around with friends in the zombie mode (or any mix of the above), CODBLOPS2 has something for just about everybody. Strike Force missions were a great way to break up the campaign's pace, and while I’m not going so far as to suggest a dedicated game in the same style, it gave me hopes for something more than a continued vanilla, corridor shooter franchise.

5. Spec Ops: The Line

This was a tough one. Whether or not you think the sluggish character controls and hum-drum third-person shooting helped drive home the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder themes bubbling below, or resulted in a disconnect between creative vision and execution, Spec Ops is an aware and gripping experience. It’s an uphill slog with a heavy pack, and I don’t blame anyone that stops before the payoff, but the best parts of the narrative are drip fed through found intel, making what would have been an otherwise unremarkable military march into a twisted, surreal and poignant tale.

4. Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2, you’re literally dick and fart jokes, and you know what? I’m fine with that because you make it work. While you might get the impression from the other games on my list that I’m trying to strong-arm game makers into producing nothing but serious, mature video computer products, nothing could be further from the truth. Fun comes in many different shapes and sizes, and from Borderlands 2's laugh-out-loud exchanges with Claptrap to its gun-collecting, tight shooter controls, light role-playing elements, and co-operative multiplayer mode, this game scratched a lot of my metaphorical gamer itches.

3. DayZ

DayZ was the perfect storm. It hit at a time when PC gaming has seen a resurgence in popularity on the back of this console generation’s gradual wind down. It was a bit indie, cheap to pick up and offered players willing to learn the ropes a game with genuine challenge. But where its wonky AI, finicky inventory management system, and brutal learning curve should have scared people off, myself included, this became one of the most interesting and enjoyable games I’ve played in a long time.

Its simulation roots (combined with some weird physics) meant that every action needed to be carefully considered. Would falling even a short distance to the ground break my legs? Could I trust other players even when they appeared friendly? Most importantly, what would I be willing to do to stay alive when food and ammo were so scarce? DayZ is a microcosm of human existence amplified by extreme duress, and regardless of which role you adopt (bandit, tourist, saviour), you’re constantly kept on edge as you eke out basic supplies after starting with nothing, or fight desperately to defend the virtual empire you’ve amassed.

My favourite aspect of DayZ is the freedom it offers. Survival and gear acquisition is everything, and while character death is permanent regardless of whether you fall prey to an enterprising fellow player or are torn limb-from-limb by the ravenous hordes of undead, each new life adds one more knowledge feather to your cap, another rich spawn deposit to search for gear, and a fresh start to do it all over again without feeling like you’ve simply been treading water until the inevitable.

2. Journey

I wrote at length earlier this year about my feelings on Journey, and how and why it touched me so personally. It was an incredibly moving ride for me, and one of the high points of this hardware generation. More humbling was the number of people who contacted me directly afterwards to tell me about their experiences--not only their in-game experiences but the life struggles the game reminded them of. This itself was confirmation that such a simple premise for a game could elicit such powerful responses. It wasn’t long, it wasn’t difficult, it wasn’t penned by prize-winning authors, voiced by celebrity talent, or draped in marketing hyperbole. It was a simple, elegant, and unpretentious experience of introspection, and something I hope to see more game studios strive to produce in their own way.

1. The Walking Dead

I’d be lying if I said I thought The Walking Dead was a faultless game experience; it’s not. But even now, simply thinking about it makes my heart skip a beat and my stomach begin to knot because of what it was. Some have likened it more to an interactive novel than a game, with its sprinkling of basic adventure mechanics and hokey quick-time events. But like DayZ, in spite of all its unwieldy, gangly arms that swish and fight for your attention, or attempt to obscure your vision, it is the gem at its core that makes this my favourite game of 2012. The Walking Dead’s storytelling and the way it elicits player reaction play to our raw, primal need for self preservation; juxtaposed with the drive to act (or pangs of guilt for ambivalence), it holds a mirror up to the player at every turn.

This game works because we are free to choose our path, but in doing so we’re faced with the often tough repercussions of our actions. The series is brilliantly written, the voice acting (particularly by Lee and Clem) put human souls in their virtual husks, and it will be a long time before I’ll forget the harrowing conclusion of the season. All of the games on my list come with my recommendation, but if you’re looking for a place to begin, I can’t speak highly enough of The Walking Dead and its significance for storytelling in games.