Originally posted by SBFord

Originally posted by bliss14
Oooo I can't wait for the D3 reaction! 

Believe me, I know they'll show up but...cant' help what I like. *shrugs* :D

You can't fault someone for having an opinion about a game, only if they present it as fact, which you haven't.  I was dissapointed in D3 and TL2 was my game of choice, but I don't feel the need to have every person in the world agree with my choice.

Originally posted by strangiato2112
Suzie, you really need to give EQ2 credit where its due.  Rift's dimensions are clearly based off of it.  Yes, they did a remarkable job adapting it.  but its EQ2's sytem and any change to how MMOs approach housing would be credited to EQ2, because thats where Trion got the system from.

 

I agree, also EQ2 housing is far superior.

If housing is your thing, EQ2 is definitely the game for you. You don't even need to be a subscriber to get into the housing aspect. And with the coin limitation now gone you can easily farm enough money to deck out your house.

Could agree in all points of OP. With exception of swtor which is for me best game ever made, never in my life had so much fun for full 7 to 8 months. Even with wow I think after aprox. 5 months, maybe 6, needed a break. So swtor/wow is best duo ever for me. And both were released in 2012 or close enough.

On 3rd place now is Gw2, incredible game especially for not being sub based. But this does not take away anything.

What to say about Rift? With original game was solid 3rd for me. Not any longer and probably will not play again. When I first time stopped to play with original was because not enough players to close rifts so entire areas were so heavily infested with infasions that normal questing was completely impossible. I remember could not play for week, whenever I logged back and had hour or two of time, all npcs were dead to invasions, once respawned were again immediately killed. Nightmare. Then I purchased expansion and of course sub and ... left after maybe a week or two. Main problem: mobs level 50 in new areas have aprox 3 times more hp as level. 50 mobs in old world!! Are they crazy? Is really nobody disturbed by this that killing simple mobs lv. 50 take more time then taking out a lv. 50 ELITE in i.e. Mathosia or where ever? Just cheap was of keeping on sub for more time or some kind of forced grouping? Not that they can not be killed but it takes very loooooong. Terribly boring.

4th could be easily TSW if not for that silly 7 active buttons limit that spells literaly button mashing. And, yes, you NEED w7 specifically 64bit to play fluidly without any crashes.

As for ME3 ... still have to find time to play. :-)

Your list is probably the closest one to mine.  I really didn't play many games this past year though.

1. Diablo 3 - still has a long way to go to be worthy of the franchise.  But it gave me the most hours of gameplay this year and actually got me to permanently move to hardcore.

2. SWTOR - best leveling experience in my opinion.  Although the sheer number of voice overs was absurd.  At level 20 I started skipping them all except for the planet and class storylines.  Streamlining the voice overs could have improved the game immensley and would be a more feasible model to continue with.

3. WOW: MoP - I arrived late to the game but I found it far more enjoyable than GW2.  The main issue with GW2 is the limited number of active skills and the fact that five of them are locked due to your wepon type.  That's a system made for the incredibly dumb.  I've raided and done dungeons in games without addons, but I like seeing my DPS improve as I get better gear.  It's a very important aspect of character progression for me.

4. GW2 - The world design was amazing.  Leveling was more enjoyable than MoP, that's for sure.  But not as much fun as I would have hoped.  I really got bored with the combat and hated running dungeons.

I didn't play TSW and am in no rush to.  I get the impression I'd love the leveling but wouldn't care for much else.

Rifts art design doesn't appeal to me and if I'm going to pay a sub for a WOW clone, I'll just sub to WOW.  The housing addition sounds interesting but I'm more of an explorer in minecraft, not a builder.  and so it wouldn't really appeal to me.

Torchlight 2 was a pretty boring game after a few days.  It's really disappointing that Runic has such small ambitions for their games.  Torchlight and its sequel are very disposable games.  They definitey shouldn't have released without the modding tools being available.  By the time good mods come out everyone will be gone.

Originally posted by Kwintpod
THIS IS AN OUTRAGE

ahaha, just read this.  Well done. 

Originally posted by daltanious

4th could be easily TSW if not for that silly 7 active buttons limit that spells literaly button mashing. 

Did you have an issue with with the 500+ ability pool you can use to slot the 7 active /  7 passive equipped deck?  Did you understand that you can equip any weapon and ability in the game?  Not bashing, just curious.  You certainly aren't limited to 7 active abilities, only 7 *equipped* active abilities.

Originally posted by Ortwig

Originally posted by Rthuth434

Originally posted by mymmo

Originally posted by Rthuth434
i've played TSW off and on ultimately giving it up. everyone keeps saying how it's new and fresh, but i never saw how. mind explaining that? hopefully you're all not just talking about the setting.

The setting, the detective quests, the lore and the horizontel grinding :)

New stuff in other words :) 

the quests while not all new were my most obvious thing that was implemented somewhat  differently. the "grinding" is completely linear and standard. the zone progression is the same. you can only go where you gear permits really, and the gear determines your level. the character level is more "omitted" than non-existent. this aspect of TSW functions exactly the same as world of warcraft.

Missions that require you to use your head to figure out how to complete, without all the obvious pointers that are in most games.  (Yes you can google a spoiler site, but the innovation is that you are challenged to complete it without cheating).  Clues built throughout the game -- in the lore, in the cut scenes.  You need to pay attention in TSW.

 

Speaking of Google, actually integrating modern setting tools into the game -- actual websites that are woven into the storyline and clues of the game.  Needing to look up hieroglyphs or ciphers in order to solve a puzzle, but then actually and audaciously including a browser as part of the game.  And cell phones to turn in missions.

 

The pattern of missions is subtly different and follow more of breadcrumb rather than a hub/return pattern, leading you more serepitously through the map. 

 

Sabotage missions that don't have a stealth mode but that require you to sneak and remain out of sight and NOT engage in combat to complete.  Even the action missions require you to use your head.

 

The ability wheel, which allows a single character to play any role, equip any weapon and gather any ability.  You can play a tank, healer, dps and everything in-between.  The "horizontal proogression" is the ability to create multiple unique decks and find crazy synergies and combos, and make your character stand out as different.

 

Separating clothes from gear, giving players the freedom to create any look they like, independent of combat.  Complete freedom there.

 

No levels or classes.  See the ability wheel above.  Gear does play a role, but it is only part of the picture, and your deck plays a big part in how effective your character is.  You can be geared for a particular area in the game, but if your deck sucks, you will get your ass handed to you, even so.  Again, the more effort you put into an effective deck, the more effective you will be.

 

A move away from ez-mode.  The game challenges you, and the learning game is a bit more steep than many games.  It rewards thought and persistence, and respects your intelligence.  Combat and puzzles can be hard, but that's usually because you haven't thought things through.

 

Finally, a return to community.  The game has included an in-game theater, pubs and a club for RP.  Many tools for grouping, and a move away from dungeon finder tools that group with an anonymous speed runners.  People are actually talking to each other in this game, and I think it's due to conscious design decisions to give people reason to do things together.

Thank you for putting it out so much better than me :) 

Its a shame that many players, see the arguments from those that did disagree on the first page, seem to play tsw as the regular wow-clone... Run to end game. And then moan about a game beeing linear  and not finished :)

My tastes are a bit different from the OP. I just found D3 to be an over simplied version of D2. The challenge level was pretty low. I did like the story thou. I ended up preferring Torchlight 2 myself.

Mass Effect 3 was the game that surprised me the most. First, I found out that I really liked the coop mode. Second while the ending was disappointing, I had a lot of fun with the rest of the game.

As far as MMOs go, Rift is just an amazing game. I still enjoying playing SWToR, but mostly for the rest of my stories (plus some pvp with friends).   

Originally posted by Rthuth434
i've played TSW off and on ultimately giving it up. everyone keeps saying how it's new and fresh, but i never saw how. mind explaining that? hopefully you're all not just talking about the setting.

      I never got TSW either.....The settings and story did nothing for me.....I was really disappointed in Funcom on this one.