Well, I usually don't buy newest games, so I will respond "the best games I played in 2012", and it's Commandos series so far.

Best: The walking dead, hotline miami,FTL,Mark of the ninja, Spec ops the line,Primordia,Legend of Grimrock, Day Z, Resonance,Dragon Dogma,Dark Souls (pc version)



Worst: Black ops 2, Mass effect 3. Diablo 3, War Z, Painkiller HD

Didn't play many new games, so I'll list what I did play.

Best:
Warlock Master of the Arcane (keeps getting better with updates and DLC)
Alan Wake and American Nightmare (not much horror, but cool storytelling and loved the Twilight Zone inspired expansion)
Trine 2 (simply charming and lighthearted)

Worst:
Diablo III (an utter disappointment, can't be redeemed)

Honorable mention XCOM - really had fun with it, but it's hard to overlook that it could have been an instant classic were it not oversimplified and striped down in some segments. It also lacks random maps as they start repeating very fast. For now the latest DLC is a pure cash grab.

Potential GOTY for 2013 - King's Bounty Warriors of the North, I just hope they stuck with the winning formula.

Best: So many good games to choose, I'll just be controversial and say Deponia 2.

Worst: I know that here's worse out there, but from the ones I've played I'd say Toy Soldiers, it looked really cool from the trailers, but in the end it's just another mediocre tower defense game.

Best: Tribes Ascend
Worst: most of AAA... ok lets say ... hmm Planetside 2

Best: Spec Ops (game of the decade)


A lot of really good games, including those hated by the hipsters, like ME 3. Biggest surprise certainly was Black Ops 2 (although I only played a few missions).

Worst: Well, hard to say. Dark Souls without the fix, Deadlight, Waking Mars, couple of indies I had high hopes for and failed badly. But in general this isn't 1998 anymore, so really bad games are hard to come by.

Oh, Sniper 2. Utter disaster.

Best: AC III
Worst: CoD: BO II

Best: Book of Unwritten Tales, Dishonored

Worst: Diablo 3 (it was not about "disappointment", for me it's just bad designed game)

But this 3 was basicly only 2012 games that I played this year :)

Best game I played this year for the first time: Batman: Arkham City

Best games released this year that I actually got around to play: Quantum Conundrum, Black Mesa, Hotline Miami, Alan Wake, FTL

Games that would probably have made my best list if I would have had time to play them: Dark Souls, Retro City Rampage

Honerable mention: XCOM will be pretty great when the worst bugs will (hopefully) be patched.


Worst "game": Dear Esther

What is Crusader Kings 2? I've seen it on Steam but it never looked all that interesting to me.
Also congratulations for not playing bad games all year :)

Best - Resonance. I haven't been stuck in my computer chair like that in a long time. One of my favorite adventure games ever.

Worst - Torchlight 2. Don't get me wrong, I love Torchlight 2. I've clocked about 100 hours, and enjoyed every single one of those hours. But... I've only played 3 games that were released this year. And I had to choose one to be the worst.

Honorable mention (the only other game that I played) - FTL. It's great. Play it.

I didn't play much else, because this was the year that I discovered Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Those have eaten up massive amounts of time. Great time.

This^


The game actually came out in 1999, but that is irrelevant.

Think of it as a ruler simulator. You play as a king (or a count or somebody else), and you administrate your domain. IT's a mix of RPG and RTS game. You get married, have children, pass laws, and of course, you declare and fight wars.

King simulator is the best genre description imho. Pretty addictive.

Keeveek's description is pretty spot on, but I'd hesitate calling it an RTS in any way, because those tend to be focused on warfare, while here the focus is diplomacy and the combat mechanisms are really simplified.