Game of the Year of 2013
I had about 30 games I wanted to include on this list, so narrowing it down to 10 was like choosing which family member I wanted to disappoint. Fortunately, I had some practice in that area...
List items
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I loved this game, the soundtrack, the story, the sense of discovery. More than any other game I played this year, Gone Home connected with me on a personal level by creating a definite sense of place that should be familiar, but also making you feel like just enough of an outsider or an interloper.
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Probably the most fun I've had all year. The Crackdown sequel we wanted, but not the one we deserved until now. I initially had this much lower, until I realized that the sense of joy and fun I felt while playing this was completely unrivaled in 2013.
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It may seem odd for someone with a desk job to consider a desk job simulator among the best games of the year, but Papers, Please mixed in enough variation in tasks and oppressive sense of impending doom that I had to see what the next day brought.
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Nine months of backlash wasn't enough to convince me I didn't enjoy this. Combat wasn't perfect, but proved to only a minor hindrance to enjoying the story. The Luteces stand out as my favorite characters of the year, too.
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This was too uneven to go any higher: writing went from sharp and funny to painfuly immature and tone deaf in the blink of an eye. The too-few heist missions were outstanding, and narrative arc of Trevor, Michael and Franklin made up for the low points.
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If the soul-crushing drudgery of Papers, Please wasn't enough of a cubicle life simulator, The Stanley Parable opens with the promise of more of the same. It's not, as the adaptive narration and commentary on player choice and game design was a fun, playful break from heavier fare this year.
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Good game, hopefully an even better platform for more content. One of multiple games to continue last year's tactical revival and it scratched a fantasy/cyberpunk itch I didn't know had been bugging me.
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As someone who appreciates fighting games but doesn't have the history with them to do anything other than get bodied when I try to play, Divekick was refreshing. Ignoring the in-jokes leaves you with a competent two-button fighting game that intrinsically teaches concepts like spacing, control, aggression, and how they fit in the broader fighting game world. The game's sense of humor is a nice cherry on top.
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I couldn't think of 10 better games than this. Joking aside, this was a great experience with a really good story and powerful end. the control scheme and how it fits with the narrative and story-telling is simply ingenious.
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A late addition, this bumps off Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag since I haven't had a chance to finish the later. Gameplay is relatively simple, but the sense of disappointment I felt when making a decision to let my son or daughter down was surprisingly affecting. I couldn't place this higher because I get the feeling that I got a good ending by balancing who I sided with, disappointed, and compromised with, but I'm loathe to replay it to test my hypothesis. I feel like, for now, my first playthrough needs to stand as my definite story, bad decisions and all.
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