1. Video game:
For me it is a really tough choice, quite a few games came out this year (or I got this year) that I enjoy, Guild Wars 2, Skyrim, Diablo 3..but the winner of this would have to be Kingdoms of Amalur. Mostly because I expected the former 3 to get a lot of play time out of me (and each has over 100 hours so far) but I didn't expect KoA to get over 50 hours and it has..and is up to 67 hours and I still got quite a bit to do. It was a pleasant surprise because it's actually quite fun.
2. Best movie purchase and/or cinema ticket purchase:
Best movie purchase was the LOTR Extended Edition Blu-Ray box set. I paid full price for bit but I really enjoy it. Best movie ticket purchase would be The Hobbit if it wasn't for a certain person I had with me during The Expendables 2, so that would have to be my best ticket purchase, not because the movie was overly good..but because of the company I had with me that made it a memorable experience.
3. Best musical purchase (whether it be an album or an instrument..or both)
For me the best albums I purchased all year would probably be Dragonland's Under The Grey Banner and a Led Zeppelin's greatest hits. Those were the two albums that invoked the most emotional feel good feeling out of me when listening to them.
4. Best electronic purchase:
Since this is a gaming forum I figure this category would do well here. I didn't buy a lot of electronics this year, but my best would probably be my cellphone. A motorola droid Razr. It's been good to me all year and quite useful in a lot of situations, I love it.
5. Best practical/most useful purchases (like a car, stuff around the house, something you use daily..etc..basically throw anything here I might of left out)
Since this could be such a wide array of things I thought I'd make it a multiple answer question.. My best purchase of the year I think, and something that has helped me get out of a rough time and brought some joy into my life is my car. It happened kind of on a whim and I never saw myself getting it when 2012 started out.
So yeah got quite a few things that I am happy with..and some I was not so happy with but overall I got what I expected ( and sometimes more) out of everything I purchased. How about you guys?!