PixlBit

I remember that year you blogged about the horrible rash you got from those caterpillars; it sounded awful. I really hope you can avoid all of that this year if possible!

lol

Tales of Zesteria looks pretty good, I saw that on sale and considered it.

I ended up picking up Civilization 5 Complete edition ($12 total for everything). I also got SOMA for $15, the Metro Redux bundle of both games ($7), and the platformer Electronic Super Joy (was only 70 cents!)

Chrono Crossing 2011 is really tough. I'll pick one, but my shortlist was Skyrim, Arkham City, Dark Souls, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Portal 2, and MGS HD Collection.

My Chrono Crossing for 2011 is Dark Souls. Dark Souls made me totally rethink how games could respect the intelligence of players and demand more learning and proficiency from them in order to progress. Another reason Dark Souls is a big deal is because it encouraged me to play games I never would've tried otherwise, and helped me develop skills to finish games I had thought were too overwhelming. After years of giving up on the Resident Evil 1 remake I finally finished it and loved it because of lessons I learned in Dark Souls; namely patience, cautious exploration, and perseverance when things don't go my way. And finally, I would've never tried Spelunky without being informed by Dark Souls first. And what would life be without Spelunky?!

I have Inquisition on 360 which is a pretty inferior way to play it, but it's playable. I created an archer character and I enjoyed the combat and exploration, and the lore of Dragon Age games is amazing so I was invested into the world. I ended up spending 60 hours in Ferelden exploring all the regions before I even step foot in Orlais to progress the story. By the time I got to Orlais I was burnt out and needed to take a break. I haven't gone back to the game since then and I'm considering just getting it on PC and starting over maybe.

I'm really good at stealth games. I have the patience for it and I'm methodical and willing to lurk around in shadows, fail, reload a save, and learn from mistakes. Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, Deus Ex, Theif, Dishonored, and I even use stealth extensively in Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Crysis, and Far Cry whenever possible.

I really loved Dust: And Elysian Tail! It's extra impressive that it was made by one guy. He's working on more games now but I don't think we have any details or release dates yet.

I'm all about shooter campaigns so Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty Infinite Warfare look like a lot of fun. CoD is going whole hog on sci-fi shooting, jetting around between space battle debris, having a grappling hook, and all kinds of fun stuff I can get into. The new Battlefield is set in World War 1 and looks really epic with zepplins falling out of the sky and such. It's clearly not trying to realistically depict WW1, which was a very slow trench war mostly, but I'm fine with it just being huge Battlefield action in the skin of WW1. If ever there was a realistic WW1 shooter we would just be battlefield fodder, 20k would die in a day pointlessly charging out of the trenchs on the whims of a commander sipping brandy, and players would all be clinically depressed by the end of the game.

I was super surprised by Resident Evil 7. I'm totally on board if they're making a 1st person game. The past few years the RE series has been a trash heap to a lot of people and Silent Hills was on the cutting edge of horror despite being a teaser. Now I think it's fascinating that Silent Hills won't ever be happening and suddenly RE has the opportunity to lead the way and do something way different than people are use to.

Deus Ex and Dishonored look great, but stealth is my favorite genre and I was going to play those anyways so I don't have much to say.

I made the switch to PC gaming this year and I don't miss consoles very much. Weirdly enough consoles seem like the one that are more of a hassle. Expensive, inferior library, less diversity and choice, sales aren't nearly as good, and slow.

You don't even have to have a monster rig either; I only have a mid-range laptop at best and the graphics, performance, ease of use, and speed are already way better than anything the PS4 puts out, and PS4 is suppose to be the most powerful console out there. I can speak from personal experience being a console gamer my whole life till now that you don't really know how much more convenient PC gaming is until you really try it.

It seems like Spelunky and Dishonored might already get shout-outs for Chrono Crossing 2012. Either of those would be my choice, but since I'm pretty sure they'll get their due I'll try to pick something that won't get mentioned.

My choice for 2012 is Far Cry 3. The game was suprisingly good at stealth. Each outpost was a 10-20 minute solo-infiltration mission to sabotage the alarm in the heart of the camp without being spotted, and then take out the guards one by one or lure wildlife to do the job for you. The best part about Far Cry was that all the most exciting moments happened while you were traveling from point A to point B and not expecting anything to happen. It's a testament to the systems they programmed allowing for chaotic emergent combat to happen in the middle of nowhere at any time.