Announcing the 2012 Game of the Year Awards from First Hour!

Day Two features Guilty Pleasure, Best Surprise, Worst Surprise, and Shame of the Year Awards!

I first became aware of Dear Esther on the day it was released, as news passed that it recouped its Indie Fund investment in a mere six hours.  Somehow, I entirely missed word of the game prior to that, but as I read more, I knew I had to play it.  While it will take multiple playthroughs to obtain the game's full experience (due to semi-randomized dialogue), I came away a bit underwhelmed by the game.  I normally eat up intentionally vague/confusing dialogue-based stories, but this story seems a bit more pedestrian than most (even if the vagueness fully makes sense within the story).  But this in no way takes away from the game's other draw; its relentlessly gorgeous handcrafted visuals, with each frame packed in detail.