Top 10 Best Games of 2012: The Critic’s Choice

One: XCOM

Sid Meier, designer of Civilization and founder of Firaxis (the company that remade XCOM), has a philosophy: a game is a series of interesting choices. This concept bleeds through every part of XCOM. What exists in the 2012 XCOM is much of the greatness of the original 1994 X-COM, but with much of the extraneous time-wasting stuff filtered out. You will be bombarded with choices. Shoot or run. Advance or hide. Research defense or weapons. Pick Snap Shot or Team Shot as your Sniper’s skill. Fight a UFO using outmoded guns or let it go. Save St. Petersburg or Kinshasa. Shoot or run. Shoot or run. For some people, this is stressful. For me, it’s strangely relaxing to be confronted with a game that consistently prevents me from going through the simple motions of the most effective tactic or two. Playing XCOM, at the proper difficulty, with a decent understanding of the game’s systems, is one of the finest experiences I’ve had with any game. 

Sadly Un(der)played: Hotline Miami, Mark Of The Ninja, Sleeping Dogs, Halo 4, Fez, Wargame: European Escalation, Spec Ops: The Line, Tokyo Jungle, Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning, I Am Alive, Endless Space, or anything on iOS, 3DS or Vita. So in a year, this list could look very different.