COMMANDERS... You have performed... admirably, considering the situation. You managed to beat competition from what should have been Game of the Year contenders this year, and did remarkably well. The odds were always stacked against you, and earning support from Gamers around the world was always going to be a challenge. Would hardcore fans offer their support, given how radically different Enemy Unknown is from the original UFO Defense? And what about the hyphen? More casual gamers may have struggled to see the appeal of a turn-based strategy game in 2012. "Why isn't this a FPS?," they might have proclaimed. Who could have known there was so much power hidden in this relic of a genre?

Read more: Why XCOM: Enemy Unknown made our Top 10 »

Like Flower before it, Journey is a deceptively simple game that belies its aspirational experience. The game begins inexplicably with a vast desert stretching out ahead, and no direction of what to do. It needs none; instincts kick in and the game immediately lives up to its title.

From beginning to end, Journey elicits a profound emotional response. Controls consist of nothing more than movement and jumping, but it does these with such grace, that never once does it feel like something is missing. Setting emotions aside for a moment, simply playing Journey provides many memories that capably stand on their mechanics alone. From effortlessly gliding over and above the shifting sands to platforming through visually spectacular environments Journey delivers a fantastic controller-in-my-hands game. This is not an art game for which one must make special accommodations to see its beauty.

Read more: Why Journey made our Top 10 »