Why The Walking Dead Is One Of The Best Games Of 2012

In this video feature, Game Informer editors Andrew Reiner, Kim Wallace, Tim Turi, and Ben Reeves talk about their experience with Telltale's The Walking Dead.

[Walker]

Because this year was disappointing for videogames !

[showtimefolks]

Walker007

i don't know why you go so many disagrees when you are actually stating facts, 2012 has been a very slow year blockbuster games wise

now psn/xblive has flourished with great small titles and there is nothing wrong with that

Q1-Q2 of 2013 will have more AAA games than all of 2012

tomb raider
bioshock infinite
last of us
beyond 2 souls
gears of war
god of war
gta 5
castlevania lords of shadow 2

and that's not counting smaller titles like

sly 4
devil may cry
dead space 3
army of 2
MGR

and that's not counting anything that's been announced or yet to be announced for Fall of 2013 along with next COD and Battlefield 4

no one in their right mind could say 2012 was a good year for gaming, and slower sales have proven that too all year.

2010-2011 set such a high standard that 2012 was a year in between.

[jeeves86]

You guys are leaving out a lot of games from 2012, big games. You also happen to be overlooking the fact that The Walking Dead: The Game is actually...you know, a good game.

[showtimefolks]

jeeves86

i don't think anyone can deny that walking dead isn't a good game but if it had come out in 2013 would it even be up for GOTY?

its a old school point/click adventure game, i love it and i am so glad games like walking dead and journey are getting some spotlight but if either AC3,orMe3 had lived up to the hype i believe either of those games would have taken GOTY

also let's not forget one of the top 3 games of 2012 wasn't even in the List Farcry3.

i also hopefully somehow journey wins the music award, that would be huge for gaming

deep_fried_bum_cake

true maybe its just a few of us but maybe its a lot of us on different gaming sites saying the same thing that 2012 was a slow year for games, not taking anything away from walking dead i believe that it was between journey/walking dead for GOTY and i am glad a digital game won it.

GOTY shouldn't be about only big games if a smaller game is just as good than it should get the spotlight it deserves,

i am speaking for myself only compare to 201-2011 for me personally 2012 was a huge let down,

also dishonored sols quite well and got a lot of praises from critics but is it only because in a industry filled with sequels a new IP was given more credit than it deserved? IMO it did and we shouldn't take anything away from a sequel when its a great game like Halo 4 for example

i guess to end it to each his own some may have loved the game in 2012 but for me it wasn't a lot to look forward too

[davyaryel]

You dont understand because, unlike you and the first poster, apparently gaming is evolving in new directions and getting, you know, mature.

So you think that only "blockbusters" games deserve to win awards? I have no words to describe how incredibly narrow this viewpoint is. An award is not about what game had the biggest budget. It is more like, say, an *artistic* thing, you know?

And your opinion about the so called AAA games is very, very subjective and tendentious. 2012 had a lot of games that were well kown (being AAA or not at all).

Some that come to mind:

Halo 4
Max Payne 3
Guild Wars 2
Dishonored
Mass Effect 3
Assassin's Creed 3
Diablo III
Darksiders II
Borderlands 2
Far Cry 3
CoD B Ops 2
Hitman Absolution
Planetside 2
Resident Evil Revelations
Epic Mickey
Dragon's Dogma
WoW Mists of Pandaria
Kingdoms of Amalur
Xcom: Enenmy Unknown
Torchlight II
Need For Speed Most Wanted
Sleeping Dogs

Lots of these can be said to be AAA games, like the (few) ones you mentioned. And we have to see if these games in your list will get past the "AAA" hype and actually be something worthy.

[RufustheKing]

I have to agree walker007, anyone who has played just one episode of walking dead will tell you it's a great game but if mass effect 3 was any good or AC3 then they would have won. it was a bad year for gamers full stop.

[deep_fried_bum_cake]

A bad year for gamers because some good games didn't win GOTY because of a better game?

That's some good logic. Look forward to a bad year for gamers next year when *insert game here* beats all other games to become GOTY.

This year had some great games, maybe you just didn't play them.

[Belking]

BS. This year was full of great games. Just because most of them aren't exclusive doesn't make them bad. Halo4, farcry 3, Hitman, dishonored, borderlands 2, forza horizon, diablo 3, Walking dead,binary domain, Mass effect 3,Resident evil, dragon's dogma, prototype 2, max payne 3, and that's just off the top of my head. There were plenty more so knock off that nonsense about this being a disappointing year.

[Jason143]

is not even a game. more of an interactive novel.

[Thatguy-310]

Just love seeing comments like yours. Wonder if you would have been a gamer when gaming had taken off in the beginning seeing how games didn't look or play as the ones we have today. A lot of people seem to forget how gaming started. Journey and the walking dead episodes just go to show that simple game play can be pulled off when it adds more depth to the narrative. Games that offer a great experience is what they are.

[Amplitude]

NO DBOY IT ISNT A SHOOTER SO ITS NOT A GAME I HATE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

[TekoIie]

"A lot of people seem to forget how gaming started."

Yes Dboy and the standards also change. Oh and I love how you compare Journey and TWD. No Journey is a game that was worthy of GOTY. TWD is a "play it once and you've played it 100 times" sort of game which means your not really playing; your watching a tv show with a button which activates the next scene.

It can have an unlimited amount of incredible characters and a story rich in depth but if its gameplay is dog crap its not a good game.

[Jason143]

Pekolie nailed it. TWD Reminded me of daedalus encounter. Not for me. Yeah I bought the first atari upon release so Im entitled to an opinion in your little world dboy :)

[RufustheKing]

i got addicted to a browser game awhile back. it had sh*t graphics, no sound, i had to pay money to get the good stuff and play it 24/7 to be good. no skill needed. yet it was a brillant game. I never liked FPS until i played CoD4, i never like games like tomb raider until i played Uncharted. Walking dead the game is great end of.

When the world ends and the zombies rise up from their graves, you will wish you had played Walking dead the game :)

[davyaryel]

Reply is to Pekolie actuallly:

And I can have and unlimited amount of good "gameplay" whatever that word truly means but if the story and characters are not compelling to me I just stop playing because i can't give a thing about a game with retarded plot and chars.

Just a throwaway thought: IMO a FPS, for example, is just a sort of game where one repetitively kill the same enemies over and over and over... Is this "gameplay"? For me it isn't. But if one like feeling like a robot doing the sae repetitive thing over and over to "have fun", well, then have fun.

To each his own, I guess.

[jeeves86]

The Walking Dead really isn't a game for everyone. You have to have an open mind going into it and understand that it's a game that has zombies in it, but it's not a zombie game. If you go into it thinking that you're going to run and gun your way through every decision, you're simply not going to have a good time.

If anything, TWD winning GOTY gives me a renewed hope in gamers. It means that they're looking for a little more than the same old same old when it comes to video game narratives. We need more games with deep storylines and complex character development. I'm tired of bland space shooters and gritty zombie games that are all action and no substance.

[davyaryel]

Very well said. It's past time gaming starts to evolve beyond this "I hava to shoot things" most gamers have.

[Hicken]

"Open mind" and "gamer" don't go together well this generation. Just look at all the opinions about downloadable titles even being in the running for GOTY. Both The Walking Dead AND Journey have been criticized, called "interactive movies" and "flash games" by close-minded folk.

Unfortunately, the people that would really choose such games on the merit of their quality(not to say The Walking Dead isn't good, but I'm certain a lot of its popularity has to do with its other media iterations) aren't nearly as numerous as they should be.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Lots of great games from 2012 !

Mass Effect 3
Dishonored
Far Cry 3
The Darkness II
Lollipop Chainsaw
Borderlands 2
Syndicate
The Walking Dead
Zone of the Enders HD Collection
Spec Ops: The Line
Resistance Collection
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Doom 3: BFG Edition
Inversion
Killzone Trilogy
Resident Evil 6
Silent Hill: Downpour
Silent Hill HD Collection
Mass Effect Trilogy

[Hydralysk]

Oh god do not bring up ME3, let alone twice. If anything TWDs good writing was this years karmic balance to ME3s catastrophic narrative breaking ending.

Also it doesn't help your case that half of those are bundles of older games...

[Nes_Daze]

The Walking Dead game was awesome, a breath of fresh air compared to the same dull games this year like Black Ops. I actually felt like finishing the Walking Dead, same can't be said for Black Ops or AC3.

[gamern4g]

2012 was so poor.

[andrew171994]

walkin dead is a joke, its the same as the back to the future game but with zombies. the only reason it won because everyone likes the show.

honestly dishonored should have won.. the game was fresh i really havnt seen anything like it,