Wow, just thinking about it is a bit depressing, isn't it?
It's been a pretty bland first half...
Games I've played:
Dragon's Dogma - I'll preface this by saying I'm not usually that into open world RPGs and I thought this game would potentially change that from playing the demo and seeing the combat system. And... well... it fell short for me. It was awfully hard, and I liked that but sometimes the challenge came in the wrong ways. Buggy teammate AI in the pawn system, the inability to force pawns to eat food to heal themselves (I can't express how annoying this was, I'd give them berries while they were at half health and they'd just stare at me before we went into a huge boss fight and they died instantly), the awful screen tearing on 360 (screen tearing has never really bothered me before but it's in practically every frame in the 360 version of DD), the brutally long travel times, and the lackluster story all left me wanting more. I praise Capcom for trying to change up the formula for the future of open-world combat and I think they've blazed a trail for future development but in the end DD isn't a GotY contender for me.
Journey - If a GotY is allowed to be only 2 1/2 hours long than this is it so far for me. Bastion was my GotY 2011 (if I have to have one) and it was only six or so hours long. The thing about Journey is for me it's provided a lot of replay-ability in those 2 1/2 hours... Every time you play the game your partner changes your experience. The game is a work of art, plain and simple. It elevates itself to the level of the paintings of Van Gogh and the symphonies of Schumann without being too pretentious like several of the other artsy indie games out there. Can't wait to see what That Games Company throws at us next!
Honorable mention: Legends of Grimrock
Waiting to play: GW2, Darksiders 2, Quantum Conundrum, Borderlands 2, Epic Mickey 2
