Danny O'Dwyer, Video Journalist Follow

Hotline Miami

In a year where I struggled to want to complete games, I finished off Hotline Miami twice in a single evening. Sometimes a game just clicks and you find it impossible to put it down. In many ways it reminds me of Super Meat Boy. It's unique and challenging, the controls are responsive, and the game rewards determination. To top it all off, it looks and sounds absolutely fantastic. The levels sway and pulsate in response to your character's actions in a really satisfying way, and the soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission. Hotline Miami an intoxicating experience, and one I've returned to several times since its release. So if a crazed murderer burst into my house and put a gun to my head, I'd have to say Hotline Miami is my favourite game of 2012.

Far Cry 3

I adore first person shooters but 2012 was the year that broke me--I just can't be bothered to invest time into Call of Duty or Halo anymore. I find them boring, repetitive and uninspired. To me, even the lauded Dishonored felt like a well executed, but ultimately old, idea. So what a wonderful surprise Far Cry 3 was. A solid shooter, with gameplay variety, dynamic environments, an unpredictable storyline, interesting characters and emergent gameplay coming out of its ears. It's an open world game with an emphasis on shooting over role playing, one where you change as a player alongside your vocal protagonist. It's a game where you can set tigers on fire, take psychotropic drugs and squirrel dive off of mountains. If that doesn't get you excited about the future of first person shooters, I don't know what will. Master Chief can't even jump properly.

F1 2012

The third F1 game from Codemasters Racing is the best F1 game I've ever played--Crammond included. I'm not a petrol head by any stretch of the imagination, but I love the sport and F1 2012 enables me to extend that passion past race weekends. This year's edition made critical improvements to the artificial intelligence and driving model and is a much better game for it. Some sections of the sport's fans may cry foul about various less-than-realistic elements, but if you take F1 2012 on its own merits, it's a truly great game. It's an experience that delivers satisfying competition and all the highs and lows associated with it, and a game worthy of the best F1 season in recent memory.

Waking Mars

Waking Mars is a game about planting alien flora in caves beneath the surface of Mars. I don't like gardening, I don't even have a garden, and I don't usually stay up until four in the morning to finish this type of game. But Waking Mars' atmosphere and addictive gameplay encouraged me to complete it in a single seven-hour sitting. You play as a scientist who must use the environmental effects of plants to unlock and explore deeper caverns which hold secrets of Mars' past. The environments are believable and striking, while the story and constantly evolving gameplay keep you intrigued throughout. I played it on iPad myself but it's since been released for PC with updated voice acting and HD graphics. Just make sure you don't have work the next morning.

Max Payne 3

Brevity is something I've come to appreciate this year. Though Max Payne 3 isn't short, it was one of the few third-person games that managed to hold my attention until the end. The shooting is brutal and satisfying, Max's monologues are clever as hell and the cinematic dressings are enjoyable throughout. Most impressively, the story helped tie this chapter by a different developer into the existing narrative in a way that didn't make it feel like a reboot. In fact, it felt like the final chapter of a trilogy. Suicide missions pop up in games pretty frequently, but there's little doubt the protagonist will somehow make it out in the end. In Max Payne 3 you really feel like you're watching the last act of a dead man walking. Perhaps the biggest compliment I can pay the game is that not only is in one of my favourites of 2012, but it's also my favourite Max Payne game. Rockstar Vancouver may have died, but at least they went out in a blaze of glory.

FTL: Faster Than Light

Permadeath is such a great mechanic. It forces you to obsess over every tiny decision like it's the difference between life and death. Meanwhile, short games encourage you to experiment. Faster Than Light gives you a spaceship and a goal, and dumps you into an unforgiving universe. What happens from there is up to you and the God of dice-rolls, but every short adventure is memorable. Even with a full crew and a well-armed ship, a single bad decision can lead to catastrophe - and usually a hilarious story to tell your friends. FTL was among the first Kickstarter success stories. If crowdfunding produces more games like it, we're in for a treat.

Journey

Journey is a really pretty game, which is just as well because its graphics are just about the only part of the game you can talk about without sounding like a pompous drama student. The rolling sands, melting sun, and pure white glaciers are a joy to behold. As it happens, I was in Dubai the week after I played it, and despite being surrounded by the real stuff, it was the digital sand of Journey that plagued my mind. I couldn't stop thinking about it. The day I returned home I recorded a bunch of gameplay and edited a short music video about how it made me feel. A game with no words has to work very hard to reach you on that sort of level. It's also really pretty.

Best Game of 2012 that isn't from 2012: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

Yeah, I know it came out in 2010, but it would be criminal not to mention my love of Starcraft II this year. A group of us in the UK office decided to try it out so we could better understand pro gaming and the video coverage surrounding it. Two months later we were still spending our lunch breaks trading blows and discussing tactics. I now frequently tune into Live On Three and spend weekends flicking through random matches on Twitch. I probably enjoyed it that bit more because I didn't have much experience with real-time strategy going into it. Perhaps my disillusionment with the first-person genre contributed in some way. In any case, I look forward to playing even more next year when Heart of the Swarm finally comes out. Perhaps it'll make it into my top ten of 2013.

Honourable Mentions: XCOM: Enemy Unknown and The Walking Dead

Two games I played this year would probably get into my top ten if it wasn't for crippling technical issues that halted my progress. As a fan of the original games, XCOM was among my most anticipated games of the year, and I played it immediately on release. But an interface bug that trapped me in the menus after every mission put a stop to my game about a quarter of the way through. The other is The Walking Dead, the first chapter of which I've completed twice only to have chapter two load with no graphics. Both are games I adored right up until the point at which I couldn't play them anymore. So XCOM and The Walking Dead are my final two entries: My favourite games of the year that I never completed. Something to look forward to finishing next year.