GotY 2013

2013 has been a good year for most platforms; despite the release of new hardware, the old generation held strong, and handheld gaming - for all the doubts expressed regarding its future - has seen many strong releases. There've been so many good games that several you could swear were released last year or earlier, it feels so long and we've seen so much since their release. Did you know Dead Space 3 came out this year? How crazy is that?

The list below is comprised of those I've played (and that saw an EU release this year). I may add to it as time goes on!

List items

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  1. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

  If there's any one thing 2013 has not been good for, it's action games. Were you big on disappointment, you may have been well-served: Capcom finally despaired of the possibility of getting a competent sequel and sent DmC out to die; God of War: Ascension was, in Kuchera-speak, a real "fart in the wind"; Ninja Gaiden continued to be rehashed.

  Metal Gear Rising was the lone stand-out, the one reminder that we can actually still have good action titles. Bayonetta 2 - still cooking - is the only other real hope we have for the genre. And that's kind of sad.

  There isn't much you really need to say about Revengeance: it's gloriously silly, the action is tight, the boss battles are light years ahead of every other game this year, and the soundtrack is so good you'd actually pay for it. Few rushed games are really any good, and none until now were this good.

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  2. The Last of Us

  Naughty Dog talked a helluva game between the release of Uncharted 3 and The Last of Us. Going after the low quality of writing in games is a bit like, well, going after Dead or Alive for objectification. It's easy. We all know. But people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones; The Last of Us shows that Naughty Dog is on their way to throwing them in a shack of corrugated iron or something. Real strides towards improving the quality in the narrative of linear, cinematic games were shown here.

  In terms of gameplay, it never quite got where it needed to be, but it held together well enough, and there were enough unique approaches to each different combat scenario to allow a reasonable variety of playstyles. None of it was quite the fare we were sold, of hard decisions and desperate struggles, but it got close at times. And that merits some respect in an age where publishers are scared to challenge people.

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  3. Grand Theft Auto V

  At some point, consensus was reached (amongst gamers if not amongst games writers) that Grand Theft Auto IV was not very good. It's easy to see the arguments, too. The driving was poor, shooting was clumsy, a conversation about ludonarrative dissonance started then refused to ever stop, Roman wanted you to share his love of big Americans teetees...but it was never really that bad. I enjoyed GTAIV, though not for the reasons I enjoyed Vice City or San Andreas. It was early in the generation for me, and there were genuinely cool moments you could have through the way the systems in the game interacted. GTAV is just IV with the refinements of Red Dead Redemption, cars that don't suck, and an acknowledgement that actually, we probably don't want our protagonist to been seen as heroic.

  Too bad about the radio stations, really.

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  4. Bravely Default: Flying Fairy

  It's nice to get games earlier than the States sometimes. Happens but rarely. The limited time I've gotten to spend with Bravely Default so far have raised it very high in my estimation - there's a genuine charm here, and the building blocks of old Final Fantasy show through. I can't fathom Square-Enix's reluctance to release it themselves, except their abiding hatred of money and wholehearted buy-in of the dominant "everything is phones!" narrative we have going on over here. Nevertheless, Nintendo have ensured that we don't miss out on brilliance (this time, at least). You'll love it, guys. Really.

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  5. Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers

  Sometimes we also get games later than the States. It might have started life on the Saturn, but damn if Soul Hackers isn't quality. Much as with Bravely Default, archaic elements like random encounters wear far, far less on the patience when you're on a handheld. I don't know why. Nemissa is fun, the combat is serviceable if not excellent, and the atmosphere puts many other 2013 games to shame. I hate negotiation far less in this game than I did in Persona 2, and the interface doesn't make you resent entering combat.

  You can even enjoy (what appears to be) low-rent Saturn era FMV.