Friday Five Best and Worst of 2012

Welcome to the Friday Five. Each week we help you get acquainted with our writers with the help of a top five list. This week we list our top five best and top five worst things to come out of 2012!

Whelp. . . We have another year behind us. A ton of awesome things went down this year, but it was equally balanced out with some terrible tragedies. We’re here to commemorate the year, for better or worse. Read on, and don’t forget to let us know what your top five best and worst of 2012 is in the comments below.

I also want to take a moment and thank everyone involved with One-Quest for their work, dedication, criticisms, and most of all readership. Without any of you this site wouldn’t be here, and I wouldn’t be typing this up today. Nope. Instead, I’d be playing Borderlands 2, and having a good time. But I’m stuck doing this crap for the umpteenth time. Thanks.

No, really. Thank you, and we all look forward to 2013 being even better! Not just for One-Quest, but for everyone!

Happy New Year everyone!

-Eric and the rest of the One-Quest crew

Chris

The Bad
1. Shahed – He’s just too awesome
2. Haters – People hating stuff like the Wii U for no reason other than to hate it.
3. NHL Lockout – This is ridiculous
4. Finding out How I Met Your Mother got renewed for another season – Now we probably won’t find out who the mother is until 2014. . .
5. Delays – So many things got pushed back this year, games, movies, shows etc. It’s been the year of delays. Hopefully 2013 will finally see them, things like Tomb Raider, Bioshock, Man of Steel, and even G.I. Joe.

The Good
1. The Avengers – This was the best movie I saw this year, I know Batman got a lot of credit and stuff and while it was good, The Avengers were just too close to perfect
2. Roger Waters Concert – Back in July I got to see Roger Waters perform The Wall and it was one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen. I would gladly pay to see it again.
3. The Wii U – This is the first system I ever got a launch, and I was not even slightly disappointed with it. A lot of people hate on it but Nintendo knows what they’re doing and this thing is only going to get better.
4. Disney’s Star Wars – Star Wars is great, even the sequels aren’t as bad as everyone makes them out to be, but the one thing that will make the series better is a juggernaut like Disney owning the franchise and doing whatever they hell they want. Look at the Marvel movies. Disney owns them and those movies have been fantastic!
5. Comic Books – This has been an awesome year for comic books in general, some great books like Saga and Hawkeye started. Some long runs came to an end like Hickman on Fantastic Four and Bendis on Avengers and just so many great stories. . .Hopefully 2013 can keep it up!

*special mention* I’m going to also say One-Quest has been an awesome part of 2012 and has opened up a lot of things for us that wouldn’t have been possible without it. Here’s hoping 2013 gets even better.

Shannon

I want to start off by saying my husband is a dick, now here’s my list.

The Bad
1. Debt – We kind of dug ourselves into a hole, just with basic expenses, but we should get enough back from taxes to help a little.
2. All the tragedies of the year – I have to group this all together because there have been so many horrible events this past year.
3. Still in this apartment – and we probably will be for at least another year.
4. Dental work – although getting a root canal wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be, that and all the dental work that Rob got done added a lot to our debt.
5. Not enough us/me time – Having two kids is a lot, especially when you have to stay up until past 3 am with one and then get woken up at 7 by the other. I wish Rob and I had gotten more date nights or I had more time to just relax and get things done for me.

The Good
1. The birth of my daughter – painful, of course, but so worth it.
2. Getting married – after being together for 5 years and having two kids we finally gave in and threw our dreams of a nice wedding out the window.
3. New furniture – Our tax return from last year got me some new living room furniture as well as a new computer. Our old furniture was hand me down and took a beating from having a small child.
4. Awesome movies – The Avengers, Wreck It Ralph, Dark Knight and many more.
5. Rob registering for classes – it’s official, my husband is back in school starting next month. That’s one step closer to a more stable life.

Eric

2012 has been a great year. We launched our website, slacked a whole lot on the webcomics, and finally have a solid plan for a game. But there were plenty of upsets too. . .

The Bad
1. BioShock Infinite delay(s) – Multiple delays! Some have compared this title to Duke Nukem Forever because of it’s numerous postponements. I laugh at those people, then cry at night because I still have another 3 months to wait for BioShock Infinite.
2. Tomb Raider delay – Pushed from 3rd quarter 2012 to March 2013. Not much different than BioShock Infinite’s delay, but I was really looking forward to this one.
3. Diablo III – I’m not saying it’s bad. I’m not saying I hate it. But after playing Torchlight II, I now see where Blizzard went wrong. They’ve spent a ton of time trying to fix it, and they’ve made some great enhancements. It just needs to be. . . more open. Less restrictive. And the action needs to be faster.
4. Amazing Spider-Man 700 – No spoilers, but I’m not stoked about the outcome. It was an awesome arc to read, and a really great send off for the series. But I can’t help being upset for our hero. I’m still looking forward to what comes next, if only to see when what was done in this story is reversed.
5. Assassin’s Creed III – A huge let down. It was fun, sometimes. It was awesome, sometimes. It was downright awful most of the time. I still loved it, but I’m disappointed in it as well. There’s no reason something this high budget, with as big of a team working on it, should have been this. . . mediocre.

The Good
1. THE AVENGERS – Seriously, This was everything I was hoping it’d be and more! If there’s a bad thing about this movie, it’s that I only saw it 4 times during the opening weekend.
2. Diablo III – Despite it being in my bad list for being too limited, it also earns a spot in my good list for advancing the genre beyond its traditional “If you get this wrong, you’re screwed” mentality. I love that I can change my entire skill loadout whenever I want without the need to start over from the beginning of the game. If they don’t work out, I can just swap them back.
3. Wii U – I love the system. Is it a little rough around the edges? Sure. But what console launch isn’t? Let’s face it, PS3 and 360 aren’t perfect either, and they’re coming up on 6 years old. What I can say is that everytime I turn the Wii U on my friends and I have a blast! And the GamePad is an awesome addition to my living room. It is my Universal TV remote control. My only problem with the system is that there’s no optical audio out, so I can’t connect it to my surround sound setup. Oh well, it’s still awesome!
4. My Wedding – My wife and I were married on October 11, 2012 or 10/11/12. It was an awesome time, and the only complaint I heard from anyone was that there was too much food. On top of that we left for Disney World the day after for our honeymoon and we got to experience some of the additions to New Fantasyland before they were announced open to the public!
5. Saga – Literally the best series I have read this year, and quite possibly one of my favorites of all time. Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples make this world (universe?) come to life on the pages before you. Do not miss the one!

Drootin

It’s hard to narrow down a year’s worth of stuff into 2 little top 5 lists, but I will do my best. It’s also hard for me to pick 5 things I hated because I do my best to not torture myself with things I’m pretty sure I’m not going to like. So that said here are my top 5 favorite and 5 most hated things in the past year.

The Bad
1. The Wii U hype: Ok, so the WiiU kinda appears in my hated list, but it’s nothing to do with the system itself. What I hated was all the hype around the console and all the Nintendo fanboyism that couldn’t accept that the system is very flawed and in a very bad position.
2. The NHL Lockout: For the second time in eight years the NHL has locked out the players causing a lengthy delay in the start of the season. This delay was made all the more aggravating considering how awful the Eagles have been this season.
3. The Eagles 2012 season: It’s been awful, but fortunately it means Andy Reid will likely be fired at the end of this dreadful season.
4. THQ Bankruptcy: I may not have been the biggest THQ fan but to have one of the oldest publishers file for bankruptcy at the end of this year kinda sucks. The future of games like South Park: The Stick of Truth, Metro: Last Light, and Company of Heroes 2, among others now is in question along with the futures of all the development studios under the THQ Umbrella.
5. Diablo III Haters: Honestly, this may have been one of the more infuriating things for me this entire year. I don’t understand why some people hated on Diablo III so much and it’s mainly the reasons they hated it that pissed me off. People were complaining about its lack of an “end game” DIABLO II HAS NO END GAME EITHER! Like, seriously, all you did was replay the game on the next difficulty or replay the same difficulty to grind for gear, and guess what, that’s what you do in Diablo III. But you all loved doing the same thing over and over and being stuck in your skill trees in Diablo II, but apparently having all the skills available to you to swap in and out at any time made Diablo III awful.

The Good
1. Diablo III: I wasn’t writing for the site yet when the “Top 5 Anticipated Things for 2012” was posted, but this would have easily been my #1 and it did not disappoint. I loved everything that Blizzard did with this game and I’m looking forward to more.
2. The Avengers: It was a friggin awesome movie and sucks that we have to wait until 2015 for the sequel. On the bright side, between then and now we will get Iron Man 3, Captain America 2, and Thor 2 to hold us over until then.
3. The Dark Knight Rises: Great end to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. One has to wonder if his original vision was to have The Joker return for this movie or if it was always supposed to be Bane as the main villain of the movie.
4. Borderlands 2: I loved the first one and have been really enjoying the second. Tiny Tina is one of the most amusing NPC’s ever. The Mecromancer is a little overpowered but makes it pretty fun.
5. Diekembe Mutombo’s 4 ½ Weeks to Save the World: This flash game came out of nowhere thanks to Old Spice in late November and was just a very pleasant surprise. It’s just so very silly that it’s amazing.

Shahid

The Bad
1. I don’t think I’d like to mention them individually, but there have been a lot of tragedies this year. Lots of people who can’t reflect on what they did this year, it’s quite sad.
2. Drootin – You ass tickler, you have no reason to hate the Wii U other than the sake of hating it g-dammit! Here’s hoping you stop hating it and just accept the fact that it exists. You don’t have to like it or play it, ignore that shit. Everything all developers do is absolutely amazing, you know how difficult shit is to make? They spent years on it and develop good/decent products and then people just hate on it for the sake of hating without legitimate reason. GOD! You’re a hypocrite if you’re gonna come at the people who hate Diablo III. People hating just to hate!
3. Cobb – Fck you Cobb. 😀

The Good
1. Wii U – I was pleasantly surprised by the system. Not that I was expecting it to be terrible, but I had lots of enjoyment playing it and can’t wait to see what games the next year has to offer.
2. Fall Semester Ending – Probably the worst semester of my life…and I’m doing one more in Spring. I am not excited at all…but glad it’s over.
3. All The Bacon and Jack day – Much needed gaming and drinkage after the semester ended.
4. Interning at NASA – I’ve definitely enjoyed my time in Mountain View in the summer and am glad I’ve been able to continue my work while going to school. It has been an amazing experience and I have learned tons.
5. Great movies this year! – Dark Knight, Avengers, Brave, Hobbit, I’ve had a good time watching ‘em.

This year has been great! Can’t wait to see what next year brings.

Anthony

The Bad
1. I’ll take a page out of Drootin’s book and talk sports for a second. Without a doubt the most disappointing thing for me in 2012 was the NHL Lockout, shame on those rich assholes.
2. Also, the Eagles
3. And the Phillies
4. Presidential Election – Not because Obama won, but because it exists. I hate politics and I can’t stand all the people that come out of the woodwork to talk, and get in heated debates about all the shit they don’t pay any attention to normally. I’m talking, no interest whatsoever for the better part of half a decade. All of a sudden, OMG PRESIDENT!!!! BLAH BLAH!!! AND DID YOU KNOW?BLAH BLAH BLAH! AND HE’S GONNA BLAH BLAH!!!! If you are one of these people, I hope you can feel the middle finger I’m extending your way, I don’t look forward to dealing with you again in 4 years.
5. Last but not least, The most expensive left turn I’ve ever taken. I took an improper left turn at like 3AM one day because I just wanted to get home and sleep. Oops, Smokey got me and the State/Town took all my money right before Christmas.

The Good
1. Trip to Disney World – This was my third time going, first since the mid-90s, and it was my girlfriends first time there since she was a baby. It was awesome! We’re going back next year, so expect to see this again on my 2013 list.
2. New Car – I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you’d be hard pressed to find a person with worse car luck than me. No need to go into detail, but feel free to challenge me on it through email if you’d like. In any event, I now have a 2012 Honda Civic, which, aside from people crashing into me, which has already happened once with this new car, I should have no mechanical problems for awhile… *fingers crossed*
3. TV Shows – It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Dexter, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead.
4. Movies – The Avengers, Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-man, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Wreck-It-Ralph, Brave, Dredd, The Hobbit.
5. Games – Borderlands 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Nintendoland, God of War Saga Collection (All 5 games in one)

Walnuts

The Bad
1. The Senseless shootings – Yet again another crazy person does another senseless shooting, and it leads the media suggesting that the person did the terrible act because they either played video games, or is trying to reference a character in a part of geek culture. Followed by the onslaught of gun control arguments all over every form of media. It’s all BS and needs to stop, can’t we all just get along?!?!
2. Philadelphia Sports Teams- Both the Eagles and the Phillies should have been top caliber, champion teams but just couldn’t perform.
3. Spoiler Wars – We all understand the concept that a spoiler is a spoiler whether intentional or not, but honestly not everyone can have a full understanding on all other aspects of someone (everyone) else’s life. If you wish to keep a spoiler away from you, keep in mind to not use the primary medium of the fans of said event. I.E. If I were to not want to find out the winner of the Super Bowl until after I watch it the day later, I know to keep away from Newspapers, News Shows, Sports Shows, and the internet.
4. All of the Haters – Haters gonna hate, but for what reason? Haters that don’t have a proper reason to hate drive me the most crazy. If you cant explain your stance and why you feel such hatred, you have no reason to hate.
5. 2012 – Overall 2012 was a major let down. There were few redeeming events that happened this year, and they were far and few between. With the constant financial hardships, fighting/arguing, and just flat out disappointment I can not wait to see 2012 go and 2013 come. 2013 you don’t have much to live up to please come in with a bang.

The Good
1. Diekembe Mutombo’s 4 ½ Weeks to Save the World – From the beginning flute solo to the end song this game is all of the epic. All the pop culture references, and adding 15 months to the worlds timeline.
2. The Blockbuster movies – The Dark Knight Rises, Wreck-it Ralph, The Hobbit, and The Avengers. There are more that deserve to be in here that I didn’t mention, either because I didn’t see them or I’m afraid no one else liked them, but this year was the year of movies.
3. Winning A Free iPad – I’ve only been at my new job for 3 months and I won a free 32GB iPad Mini at my office Holiday party.
4. Paintball – Nearing the end of the year I have gotten into Paintball. It’s pretty great.
5. Honestly thats about it, like I said 2012 was quite lame for me, so bring it on 2013!

Vogel

Although years are relatively long, I have an equally short memory. A lot of shit happened this year, but I probably don’t remember half of it. Here it goes:

The Bad
1. Mists of Pandaria: That being said, there were a lot of things that made me leave the game for the umpteenth time. Dailies. Oh my god, fucking dailies. They removed the 25 per day cap on dailies and made it pretty much necessary to do upwards to 50+ dailies a day to get gear tokens to become “Raid Ready.”
2. My Wife: She gets upset when the toaster burns her toast and that I didn’t put her in my top 5 best things list.
3. Kids, They cost so much goddamned money.
4. My job: The landlord of our building decided to sell the building from under us (we were renting on a month to month lease.) So as of December 30th, I will be unemployed. On the plus side this will give me more time to focus on school so I can get a real job.
5. Hurricane Sandy: We lost power for 3 days and cable/internet for 4. We spent pretty much that whole week in Jersey with family because they had power, even though they didn’t have heat. It was Halloween week so Trick-or-Treating was thrown off and I was driving back and forth from Jersey for work and whatnot.

The Good
1. Andraia: My daughter. She was born early May, and I had to leave a raid early (SWTOR) to take my wife (then fiancée) to the hospital. It was a long ass day, but in the end it was totally worth it.
2. School: I finally kicked myself in the lazy ass and got my shit together and registered for school. MC3 made it increasingly difficult to get everything I needed to register for classes, but I did it. I also placed college level in English and Reading which I didn’t do out of Highschool so I’m super proud of myself. No remedial courses for me.
3. Movies: Having kids I don’t really have the money to see every movie we’d like to, but we try and make it to the “Super Hero” movies. They’re usually worth the theatre price for the sounds and picture and whatnot. We made it to Dark Knight Rises and the Avengers. We were able to sneak Wreck it Ralph in there too which was an awesome bonus.
4. Coffee: I got a Keurig Vue. I drink more than a gallon a day of coffee, so getting the vue was pretty cool. We had the deluxe version of the base model of the standard Keurig, so the Vue was a major upgrade.
5. Mists of Pandaria: I know anybody on this list would disagree, but I was really happy with this xpac. The Pandaren race and Monk class were very well done, and the lore behind them was flawless. Pandaria was fun to explore and I took my time through it to enjoy the scenery and characters along the way.

Chris talks a bunch on PodQuest each week. He's also been known to write about stuff from time to time. You can Email Chris or follow Chris on Twitter @Just_Cobb or Facebook

3 responses to “Friday Five Best and Worst of 2012”

1. Eric Sweeten says:

   December 28, 2012 at 3:09 pm

   Ok. . . This is frustrating. Drootin, what the fuck? Do me a favor and explain to me what makes the Wii U “very flawed.” I’d also love to know how the Wii U is in a “very bad position.”

   Here’s some sales data, showing how “bad” of a position Nintendo is in with it’s Wii U sales. http://caps.fool.com/Blogs/wii-u-sales-data-some-good/783765

   Worst part about this shit, I know you’re just dropping those lines in for a good trolling. Well, I’m in the mood to feed one. So, have at thee!

   • Drootin Heacock says:

     December 28, 2012 at 5:17 pm

     Ok flawed may not be the best word, but you can’t say its perfect. Apps are slow to load, their online service is better (no friend codes) but still cumbersome (if you don’t add friends in one specific way they don’t get notified that they have a friend request), and that GamePad could be WAY better than it is (higher res screen, multitouch, capacitive screen, better battery life) And sure great, its selling now, but you can’t tell me that the future isn’t very murky for the WiiU. The next wave of game engines will not run on the WiiU and its already not being fully supported by devs/pubs as is (I.e. no FarCry 3, no Crysis 3). Let’s then add in that PS4 and Xbox 3 will be out in 2013 and will be more similar to eachother than they will be to what the WiiU is leaving the WiiU back in shitty port hell with solid 1st party games

2. John Richard Scott says:

   December 28, 2012 at 6:58 pm

   Also, what does Water World have to do with anything? Is that a tragedy?