What is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear their lamentation over their headset. Here are the best competitive multiplayer games of 2012.

Runners Up:

Black Ops 2 (by Gustavo Ramirez) – Black Ops 2’s multiplayer is another tweak-filled iteration of the Call of Duty multiplayer formula. Its still fun but not revolutionary enough. The inclusion of League Play, Scorestreaks and the Pick 10 system stand out but only the hardcore will notice any other tweaks.

Ghost Recon Future Soldier (by Kyle Orr) – Unique third person action, seemingly limitless weapon customization and unique gameplay modes made Future Soldier a solid entry into the military multiplayer arena.

Assassin’s Creed 3 (by Addam Kearney) – When Assasssin’s Creed added multiplayer, it seemed like a shakey idea, but it turned out to be a unique blend of stealth and traditional death match styles of multiplayer. Assassin’s Creed 3 adds some new modes as well as various hooks into the single-player story.

Starhawk (by Gustavo Ramirez) – The ability to build fortresses or call down vehicles from the sky to help in your attack is key to Starhawk multiplayer. With thirty-two players with this ability at once, mutilplayer matches are always intense and full of chaos. This creates one of the best multiplayer experiences on the PS3.

AND THE WINNER IS:

Halo 4 (by Kyle Orr) – This franchise needed a kick in the pants and Halo 4 happily delivers. It is able to incorporate more depth to the multiplayer through loadouts, modifiers and expanded armor abilities. It also creates a nice change by including ordinance drops to spread power weapons out. Most impressive is that 343 makes these changes while still retaining the classic feeling of playing Halo multiplayer.