Best of 2013
This is a list of every 2013 that I would give a full recommendation for. It's ordered, the top 10 making up my Game of the Year list.
List items
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TO BE WRITTEN
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DmC is my favourite "character action" game ever. The combat is just about perfect, and it encourages you to use every weapon in your arsenal by allowing you to switch between any of them during combat, without pause. New Dante is so much better than Old Dante, I really like his look and attitude, and the whole feel of the game, from music to visual style, is spot on. DmC was top of my list from it's release until late summer, and I would highly recommend it to just about anyone.
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I really liked 2010's Conviction, it was a faster and more aggressive Splinter Cell. Blacklist retains that agility but took me back to the early days of high-tech cool, co-operative play and a dirty, scrappy atmosphere. I really enjoyed how operations took place from out of the Paladin, and the dedicated co-op missions were great fun.
Splinter Cell is amongst my top 5 series ever, and this may just be the most complete, certainly the best since Chaos Theory.
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TO BE WRITTEN
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At the time of writing, I've yet to play enough of Zelda to understand what's so special about it for myself, but it rounds out this list based on the passion expressed by Vinny and the rest of the crew, and I cannot wait to properly dive into it.
UPDATE: Just finished the game having dumped hours into it over the break. Fantastic game and the first Zelda game I've really gotten into.
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I really enjoyed Beyond, it made simplifications on some of the more hit-and-miss controls that affected Heavy Rain, and despite a couple of aggravating moments I enjoyed controlling Jodie and Aiden from start to finish with my iPad. I liked the way in which the story was presented out of sorts, and how it unfolded over time. Yes, it gets crazy and definitely isn't flawless, but I really enjoyed the journey.
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When you think of launch games, you think of rushed projects that try to showcase what the new platform has to offer, and for Dead Rising 3 and the Xbox One that's cramming hundreds of zombies onscreen at the same time, then letting you dispatch them in whatever manner you see fit. I particularly enjoyed mowing through them with the RollerHawg, or dropping an LMG-toting Freedom Bear into the crowd before spinning into them with a Guan Dao whilst wearing a mexican wrestler outfit.
Dead Rising 3 isn't just about the spectacle that this new wave of platforms can provide, it's a fantastic game in its own right that had me shouting excitedly at the screen as I barrelled through a group of zombies on my way to my next objective, which usually involved dealing a completely ridiculous and thoroughly insane NPC.
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This was the farthest I've ever gotten through a JRPG, and what kept my girlfriend and I going was the charming visual style, the real-time cutscenes, the fantastic character design all created by Studio Ghibli, with the addition of a tremendous voiceover localisation. This is not to talk lightly of the quality of the gameplay itself, which is really good, playing similarly to Final Fantasy XII from what I can remember of it. I haven't yet completed the final section as it requires some grinding on my part, but has kept my interest for tens of hours already.
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Late this year, I finally took the time to learn to play bass guitar. Rocksmith 2014 was a brilliant supplement to my practice sessions, and is a well-constructed game in its own right. My Top 10 lists each year are of the games that defined my habits over the year or elicited the biggest emotions responses, and Rocksmith hosted a fair share of both those elements.
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Most played multiplayer game this year, and I spent tens of hours playing it across PS3, PS4 and Xbox One. From the large scale vehicle combat, to sneaking through the streets of Shanghai, to the ridiculously explosive, 64-man corridor fights in the snow-top prison map, it's always a blast.
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I've heard this game hits much harder if you have nostalgia for the era it's riffing on. In any case, I really loved my time in the slightly unsettled yet oddly charming family home. I poked and prodded at everything in every room, uncovering stories about the characters from every corner. I'm glad games like Gone Home exist, this one in particular is so powerful. It does so much within such a small space, it doesn't waste an inch of this digital homestead.
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This game's tight! My favourite session with this game was with a couple of buddies, turning it into a pass-and-play experience that had us cheering each other on, laughing at the horrible room layouts that awaited and celebrating when we scraped through an intense room on top. This is my favourite type of 'roguelike', as although you might fail to make any progress in the traditional sense, you'll usually get enough money together to upgrade your health or pick up a new weapon.
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AC4 could have ended up within my Top 10, but at this time I haven't played enough so it's sitting at the bottom. In fact, Assassin's Creed hasn't breached any of my GOTY lists over the previous 3 years that I've published to my Giant Bomb profile, but this is definitely the most exciting game in the series to date. I'm looking forward to getting stuck in.
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3D World is a great game, it really is. There's such imagination at work, each level does something different, it plays with a unique idea for a bit and then you never see it again. I have a really tough time with depth perception and it has me failing jumps, stumbling into enemies and generally getting into more trouble than I do with better controlling games, like Rayman and Rogue Legacy.
Still, I appreciate how colourful and unpredictable the journey through it is, which I guess is a funny thing to say when talking about probably one of the most predicable series ever.
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Rayman Legends is really damn good, and the musical levels that close out each world are a thrill. My problem with it is that I feel like I'm playing the same game again, and except for the unique use of the Wii U GamePad and the aforementioned musical stages, I just can't fall in love with it. That said, if you haven't played Origins, I'd recommend it as one of the best platformers in recent history.
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Tomb Raider is the best Uncharted game from this year. But seriously, it was great fun and goes in some weird directions. It is without a doubt my favourite Tomb Raider game, though the series never really struck a chord with me. If you're itching for a good adventure game, this comes highly recommended.
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A cute little game that does a better job of displaying what's unique about the Vita better than any mini-game collection ever could. Making your own creations and then seeing them appear throughout the game-world can only be described as delightful, or really stupid depending on what you choose to do when given the option to record your voice, take a photo etcetera. It weighs in as a great little downloadable game that also happened to get a physical release, and I'd recommend it to any owner of the handheld.
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