For the seventh straight year, I’m publishing a list of all the games I started playing in the past year and all the ones I finished.
My totals have dropped yet again. I started 139 games, finished 23 of them.
When I started keeping track of this, back in 2006, the idea of finishing games was more relevant to me. I always liked playing games. I love trying new ones. But the concept of finishing them—which I’ve always indicated means simply reaching the game’s storyline conclusion and/or the end of its standard levels—was something I cared more about. I have long preferred single-player games, and I’ve favored narrative or progression-based games over those that can be played more as a test of skill. I’ve preferred gaming’s books over its sports, as it were. I grew up on Nintendo and favored Metroid and Zelda over Mario Kart or Street Fighter II. It mattered to me to reach the ends of games, because I wanted to see what developers put there. I wanted to see games through.
These days, I care more about playing the best, and so finishing games has decreased in importance. Plus, life’s too short, right?
***
What follows is a list of all the games I started on various platforms this year. Some of the games that I started I only played for an hour. Others, like Far Cry 3 or The Walking Dead, I’m many, many hours into playing.
I bolded the games I finished. As always, I’ve excluded games I only played out at trade shows (i.e. the games I played while on the job). I play most of my games at home in my spare time or during commutes.
The numbers below confirm a number of notions I’ve had in my head about my habits this year: I’ve dabbled more with Facebook games, enjoyed the easy access to new games on iOS and diminished my playtime with the Xbox 360. I’ve also shifted to playing lots of the blockbuster games on PC instead of console. I could use a few more games to play on Wii U! And PS3 is still a platform where I like finishing games.
Enough set-up… on with the list!
My 2012 Games Played/Finished List
(Games I started listed below. Finished games are bolded)
3DS
(20 games played; 4 finished)
Aero Porter
Crashmo
Crosswords Plus
Dillon’s Rolling Western
Fluidity: Spin Cycle
Fractured Soul
Ketzal’s Corridors
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Liberation Maiden
Mario Tennis Open
New Super Mario Bros. 2
Mario & Sonic at the London Olympic Games
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (DS)
Resident Evil: Revelations
Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword
Spirit Camera
VVVVVV
Yoshi (Virtual Console)
(10 games played; 0 finished)
Bubble Safari
Chefville
CityVille
Farmville 2 (one of two games in this section that I played for several hours)
The Friend Game
JetSet Secrets
Outernauts
Ruby Blast
SimCity Social (this is the other one)
Zuma Blitz
iOS
(34 games played; 2 finished)
Amazing Alex
Angy Birds Space
Angry Birds Star Wars
Anomaly Korea
Bad Hotel
Beat Sneak Bandit
Beeing
Coco Loco
Count to a Billion
Crow
The Dark Knight Rises
Demon’s Score
Dynamite Jack
Fieldrunners 2
Fire and Dice
Flight Control Rocket
Gasketball
A Gay Dragon
Hax Attacks
Kingdom Rush HD
Letterpress
McPixel
PuzzleJuice
Spellwood
Super Hexagon
The Room
Run Roo Run
Tiny Tower
Triple Town
The Walking Dead
Waking Mars
Where’s My Water?
Words With Friends
Zombie Wonderland 2
Mac
(1 games played; 0 finished)
Diablo III
PC
(14 games played; 1 finished)
Borderlands 2
Botanicula
Crusader Kings II
Dishonored
Far Cry 3
FTL
Hotline Miami
Jamestown
Orcs Must Die 2
Perfect Distance
Sleeping Dogs
STAVKA-OKH
Torchlight II
X-COM: Enemy Unknown (Six hours of it and the world was destroyed; I don’t think that counts as finishing it.)
PS3
(16 games played; 7 finished)
Assassin’s Creed III
Closure
Dragon’s Dogma
Dyad
Journey
Lego Batman 2
LittleBigPlanet Karting
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Papo & Yo
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault
Resident Evil 6
Resistance 3
Sorcery
Syndicate
Tokyo Jungle
The Unfinished Swan
Vita
(15 games played; 1 finished)
Fuel Tiracas
Lumines: Electronic Symphony
Rayman: Origins
Rebel
Resistance: Burning Skies
Retro City Rampage
Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (preview copy of this 2013 game)
Sound Shapes
Super Crate Box
Super Stardust Delta
Touch My Katamari
Uncharted: Golden Abyss
Velocity
Wipeout: 2048
Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward
Wii
(1 played; 0 finished)
Rhythm Heaven Fever
Wii U
(9 played; 2 finished)
Chasing Aurora
Little Inferno
Madden NFL 13
Mighty Switch Force HD
Nano Assault Neo
New Super Mario Bros. U
Nintendo Land
Trine 2
Zombi U
Xbox 360
(19 played; 6 finished)
Asura’s Wrath
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Fable: The Journey
Fez
Gears of War 3
Halo 4
Hybrid
I Am Alive
Kinect: Star Wars
Lego Lord of the Rings
London 2012
Mark of the Ninja
Mass Effect 3
Max Payne 3
Spelunky
The Splatters
SSX
Trials Evolution
Warp
The final 2012 tally is: 139 games played; 23 finished
That compares to:
2010… 195 played; 52 finished
2009… 165 played; 48 finished
2008… 135 played; 37 finished
2007… 118 played; 35 finished
2006…102 games played; 21 finished
https://lastchance.cc/i-finished-these-28-video-games-in-2011-5873496%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
So… what did I miss this past year?
