Best of 2012

Love them or hate them, shooters are one of the biggest sellers in the videogame industry. Despite the saturation of shooting games, 2012 saw a number of them that sought out to offer actual interesting stories. Plus, a number of them looked at giving players more features than what we’ve grown accustomed to from past iterations.

And the winner is …

Article image

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Developer Treyarch blew away expectations and raised the bar on what it means to be aCall of Dutygame. Literally every staple mode was overhauled in some way, on top of completely new features that were introduced.

Single-player saw improvements all around, most notably with the player choices that can be made that determine which of the handful of endings you will experience. Multiplayer now let’s player have full control over exactly what loadout they can bring into battle, even going so far as letting players just start with a knife.

The opening area of the Whisper mission, in a small grove.

Zombies has been made into a fully fleshed out mode, the new Strikeforce missions brings in some tower defense elements, and the ability to livestream and shoutcast multiplayer matches straight from within the game shows that Treyarch is a strong player in the eSports field.

The Divide in the Cosmodrome, where the Guardian was resurrected.

A holofoil Ribbontail, as seen in collections.

The Phoneutria Fera hand cannon, inspired by the Season of the Haunted armor set. It has a unique, galactic glow.

Three Fuses appear in a match of Apex Legends' Wild Card mode.

Mad Maggie opens a supply bin and an item with a symbol indicating infinite ammo appears.

Legends slide through a zipline in King’s Canyon in Apex Legends.

Article image

The Yeartide Apex tex Mechanica SMG with a Holofoil glow.