It’s now the final month of 2012 and it seems obligatory to use our platform in HBG Asks to get some feedback from you guys on what exactly you liked in 2012. Was it something crazy in Halo 4 recently? A clutch touchdown drive in Madden NFL 13? How about a classic chase or interaction on our San Andreas Multiplayer RP server?
No matter the case, there are always some moments that stick out when it comes to gaming. Each year, we have a few of those a-ha moments that just make you glad you chose the hobby over just watching TV and movies or listening to music (no disrespect to those that do but… come on, gaming is king). This week, we want your input on what exactly makes YOUR 2012 in gaming memorable. It doesn’t have to be just one moment, it could be your experience with an entire game’s campaign like Dishonored or even a DLC like Skyrim’s newest Dragonborn offering. Hell, it could even be something about the industry like that now infamous photo of Geoff Keighley sitting in front of a near pile of Doritos and Mountain Dew, or Max Scoville’s decision to eat those very two things like milk and cereal.
But enough giving you options. In the time you’ve taken to read this, you’ve probably already thought up a great moment. So let’s hear it. What is your favorite gaming moment of 2012? As always, we’ll show you ours, so the only fair option is for you to show us yours afterwards.
–
Christian:
This coming week, hopefully Monday, I’ll have a big post ready that details all of my absolute favorite moments of 2012, but I had to pinpoint one in particular that really showed off the potential of a certain video game that I believe is being overlooked this year because of its early release. That game would be Trials Evolution. Now, normally, you think Trials, and especially with RedLynx, you think riding your dirtbike of varied sizes over some of the most arduous territories the dirtbike has ever known in its existences as a transportation and recreational vehicle. My favorite moment with Trials Evolution, however, came when I was absolutely tickled to find the user-generated content was absolutely fantastic. Of course there were exciting levels where I’d fight things like various Batman enemies, but the breadth of the content still surprises me even today. For example, the other day, I was playing Paper Toss on Trials Evolution. If you’re familiar with the quite popular free iOS game, then you know what I mean. It was a full-on Paper Toss game, cleverly titled “Paper Throw.” I also have about four fully functional pinball tables as well as a Tetris clone. Hell, I even WALKED through a small fair, playing mini-games and riding the rides for points, as well as finding hidden objects for bonus points, all of which with full leaderboard support for my high scores. My discovery of the beautifully developed mini-games and popular game clones on Trials Evolution is easily one of my favorite gaming moments of 2012.
Davekraft:
It’s a tough one for me to answer as gaming this year hasn’t really been that great for me. I suppose the stand-out games for me this year have been Dragon’s Dogma, The Act (on iOS), Max Payne 3 and the release of Minecraft on the Xbox 360. For me it’s more of an optimistic viewpoint on how things will be, or how I hope they’ll be, when the next generation comes.
Dragon’s Dogma for it’s raw approach to the whole RPG adventure genre that big blockbusters such as Skyrim didn’t deliver on. Dragon’s Dogma was quite refreshing to me. The huge, Shadow of the Colossus type monsters that you stumbled across while out roaming were brilliant. The difficulty in the first 10 or so hours as you were forced to venture out into the pitch black darkness (literally pitch black) pleased me, games these days are just so easy. Hopefully more games come out in the next few years that are like that, it’s what gaming needs.
The Act for iOS is a stand-out moment for me as it was the first game in a long time that I truly felt did something different. It was brilliant. You may often criticize games for being cutscene heavy or too scripted but The Act used those cutscene to it’s advantage, by actually letting you fully control them. It was an interactive movie I guess, maybe just a one-off, fun experiment but I hope to see more of that for sure. Max Payne 3 was a game that was cutscene heavy as we all know, but the production value in those cutscenes made it stand out from anything Rockstar had previously done. There was nothing you could do during the cutscenes of course, but the fact that watching hours of them was pleasurable is something to be admirable of.
An odd one maybe but Minecraft: 360 Edition is also a big moment in gaming for me. It paves the way for more PC games making their way over to consoles. Hopefully games like DayZ follow suit and embark on the console journey. Personally, I would love to see that.
–
Alright, enough short-term nostalgia from us. How about you? What is YOUR favorite gaming moment of 2012? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll be back next week to discuss what games or experiences you loved most and ask you what you’re most looking forward to this new year.