I've been away for a while, playing video games of course.  Here is my list of the best strategy games of 2012.

Best Co-op: Orcs Must Die 2

Best Indie: FTL

Best Epic Strategy: Europa Universalis IV

Europa Universalis IV has returned with everything Europa Universalis III had and then some.  For those craving world domination in a historical context there isn't any better game to get your hands on than this title.  

Best Turn-Based Strategy: XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Most Innovative: Endless Space

Most Anticipated: Europa Universalis IV

Honorable Mentions:

Tropico 4

Dishonorable Mentions:

X-Rebirth

People often complain about bugs on release for big PC titles.  For example see Battlefield 4 and Diablo.  However bugs on release are to be expected and when you are programming for PC it's complex.  The amount of hardware out there is beyond comprehension.  A few bugs should be expected.  However with X-Rebirth it's a sad story.  X-Rebirth was supposed to be the next in line of the great X series.  Complex trade simulation with epic spaces battles were supposed to be front and center.  Instead the game is not only riddled with bugs the game seems absolutely unfinished.  The fact that it's still up for sales on Steam for $49.99 is absolutely incredible.  I dare say they don't put on sale because they are actually afraid of more people buying it.

I've put about 10 hours into the game which was more than enough to realize that the game simply wasn't finished.  You still can't play the campaign mode without modifying your save file.  You'll be asked to ferry people to non-existent stations.  You will find ships out there literally going in circles with no clear idea.  The game looks quite nice and the concept it was supposed to carry out looks like it could have been great.  Except none of it works.  There are features entirely missing like the ability to build ships.  Engineers even initially never repaired ships, though this supposedly fixed now.

Simulations are notoriously extremely difficult to program and optimized.  I give them full credit for trying but no credit for releasing it in it's current state.  Release of the game clearly should have been delayed.  A total of 21 patches have been released since the game came out little more than a month ago.  The developers clearly understand the game is not working correctly.  I really wanted to fully jump in to this game and experience a new streamlined X Series.  I hope there is still salvation for this game as the X series is really the only series that has been able to give the single player 4x space RPG the attention it truly deserves.  For now it appears the bit off more than they could chew.