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Dixavd

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Dixavd's GOTY List for 2013 (of games I actually played in 2013)

Well here it is. The time has come to finalize this list. First my condolences to the games I have yet to play but I know will exceed many of these in my adoration, yet I promised I'd stick to the titles I actually played some of this year. Anyway my list of the casualties:

  • Fire Emblem Awakening - It's in the mail as we speak.
  • Pokemon X - Waiting on this as well.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds - While mine is on its way, I can sit here fuming as I watch my sister play hers (It's infuriating how amazing this looks - and I hate top-down Zelda games for the most part). I know some find this to be a return to form of the series, but for me Skyward Sword was my GOTY in 2011 and as such is in my top 3 games of all time - so if it can just touch the highs of that game, it'll run away with the top spot.
  • The Stanley Parable - Passed me by, I'll get to it on sale and call myself a fool for not paying more for it earlier.
  • Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - I can't play it until I've played AC3, a disappointing game or not, I have to know what happens to Desmond before I can move on (and enjoy myself?)
  • Bravely Default - I don't feel so bad knowing it only comes out in the US next year. It's going to be interesting to try and compare Lightning Returns and this, here's to this time next year.
  • Super Mario 3D World - I've played about 20 minutes, I just can't say anything about it.
  • The Last of Us - I guess I'm going to have to borrow a copy off of my Dad. A game by Naughty Dog that doesn't feature Nathan Drake; if anything is going to make me fall in love with one of their games it's this!
  • Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX - I love the original game and actually haven't played Re:Chain of Memories before so of course I was going to get this. Got it for my birthday in early December and played a little. I'm very impressed with how they brought over the story of 358/2 Days - it makes for a fabulous Anime, who knew? But I just haven't played enough of it to not feel bad for knocking something else of this list. Still, guess what? Destiny Islands is one of the best opening settings of any game ever, and it holds up better than ever in HD.

Nevertheless, here we go into a list of games that made this year such a blast. Though, I should say I've play less games than ever this year, and spent most of my summer playing older games to get away from reality. For a couple weeks after Ryan's passing, I just couldn't face modern games and rushed back to titles like Final Fantasy XII (which deserves way more credit than it ever gets) in the hope of comfort. Those that ended up on this list have given me have touched me in a way I'll cherish for a long time - despite the relative minutiae of time with which I have played some of them.

List items

  • I didn't 'get' this game's appeal leading up to its release. The furore during 2012's E3 was bewildering to me. It looked like it was falsely trying to put itself off as a game that could do everything, without much proof to back up that it could truly deliver anything of importance. Those that liked the idea of its combat were sadly disappointed. I, however, was transfixed. This game isn't perfect, and there are points that it continues to push through this false idea of unparalleled greatness in a way that just feels sad. Yet, none of that can make up for the moments where this game shines. The moments where you master the Vigours and perform an attack that surpass anything seen in the trailers is an exhilaration I longed for most of the year since. While I question that this game was a truly timeless and masterful story [SPOILER: can I just say that the part where Elizabeth disappears and ages a couple decades through audio-logues and one scene in the space of about an hour of Play Time felt completely out of tine with the rest of the game, and completely unnecessary only for the aim of closing the loop of the scene right at the start]; it's still one I kept coming back to in my mind and taunted me so much that I just to go and get the lost two voxophones I had missed throughout the game [SPOILERS: Turns out the only one of not I missed was the one about where the music came from - it's a lovely little tit-bit but I do think the game works wonderfully without that explanation]. Problems aside, this game is still fantastic. As I played through the game, I disagreed with the abundance of praise like many others did. Yet, once I finished it and succumbed to the revelatory ending, I couldn't help but fall in love with it. And unlike most, my adoration for it has only grown as time went on. I was first decrying those shouting how great this were to be prior to its launch, and now I decry those who describe it as tripe. I guess the sad reality is that many of those are the same people.

  • Truth be told, I had to be reminded that this came out this year. Still, when I was, it brought back a tiny snapshot of time that knocked me back with nostalgia. Here that, nostalgia for a game I'd played only a few months previously. This game is truly incredible. I think it took hold of me the same way others felt of the original Portal. It's beautifully simple, with mechanics gradually winding up, and there's always this constant aura of 'something else' off in the distance... somewhere. Yet, the way the mechanics grow to the point of making you feel like a full-on God by the end in comparison (other games look out - that feeling doesn't require bloodshed) is so incredibly well thought out that, to me, it stands above Portal in a way that no other game has dared to come close.

  • [I know it was originally released in 2012, but I played it when it was released in May 2013 on PC] Have I unlocked every door and filled out the map? No. Do I plan to? Maybe. Do I need to know what all those secrets actually mean? No. Does it still haunt me that they're there and I haven't figured them out yet? Fuck, YES!

  • I loved some of the early Tomb Raider games but fell off after a time. But I never got the feeling that the franchise was stale, just that I had moved on. It was with that in mind that this snuck up on me. I tended to ignore it up until release, and then something happened that got me to buy it. I don't quite remember why now, but I'm so glad I did. It was the first game that made me feel good about building my Gaming PC last Christmas. It has a beauty that straddles the line between hyper-realistic and clearly aiming for a 'style'. While I wish the story had been less conservatively touch-and-go [SPOILERS: If it was going to throw that ending at us, there should have been a little more supernatural elements earlier - and Sam should have been developed more as a character first], I think overall it was better than most. I think they nailed Lara as a character especially, putting on screen traits previously left to inference. Hopefully a sequel could lean more into the whole Tomb Raiding part, and maybe they could quell my better judgement and bring out of me a GOTY top-spot award for Square Enix game not made primarily in Japan.

  • I got my Wii U on Christmas Day, so maybe I'm jumping in early. But I truly have loved every moment I've spent with this game since. Currently I am on about Day 26 having just reunited with all three captains and I'm eager to find out what this third squad-leader will allow me to do. My biggest compliment to this game is its sheer cuteness. The world looks like it's made of cake icing and the characters look like they're made of bubble-gum. It's a visual feast that makes it easily my favourite game to look at all year. Add to that a game that continues the idea of exploration from Pikmin 1 without the intensely overpowering time limit of its ancestor without resorting to being overly laid-back like Pikmin 2; it's all of my favourite parts of the series in one. If there was one game that sold me on the Wii U it was this.

  • I may think it is fairly over-hyped, but that doesn't stop it being one of my favourite games of the year. While I found the ending totally predictable and thus, less-than-effective (seriously, I guessed the ending within 2 minutes into the intro sequence). That said, nothing in this game feels out of place [SPOILERS: Except for the suddenness of the Spider reveal - but that's less of it not making sense and more me not expecting it to happen so early]. And there are individual moments that could rival some of my favourites of the past. And if there's anything this game did, it made me treasure my memories of ICO just that little more.

  • A Devil May Cry game that I am not totally horrendous at? Ludicrous. It also pisses off many of the lovers of the previous games difficulty... That makes a lot more sense. This may not be a typical game in the series, but I don't care about that. The animation and level deformation is mesmerising at times. The villains are deplorable in the best ways possible, and Dante seems like a real person for the first time. Ninja Theory may have sealed the deal as one of my favourite developers with the turn-out of this game. Speaking of which, if you haven't played Enslaved, fuck you. It's now out on PC so no excuses.

  • Eventually Patrick's repetition got to me and I picked it up. I'm not very far into it and am yet to hit the point where the story takes over from the puzzles. Still, based only on the early puzzles, the fluidity of the mechanics, the intriguing story references, the lovely art, and the truly phenomenal sound (the atmosphere is built on ten-fold due solely from the amazing use of sound - and that main menu song, damn.)... wait, I should remove that 'only'; what I've seen easily lands it on this list.

  • It may still be in BETA but I've loved this game since I got into the BETA. Scratch that, I've loved this game since Let's Plays showing it prior to me induction into the BETA. I tend to be hard to please on Card Games. A huge chunk of my time was spent collecting Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon cards, but I never delved that far into the game that want to own particular cards. I've always found, making do with what I was given was a joy in itself. That's why that Arena option in Hearthstone is such a joy for me. I can easily rack up enough gold through the normal Play mode to play Arena two or three times a week, without requiring any money. And I've yet to feel tired of it. So congratulations, here's a Warcraft game I don't feel sick looking at. May its launch bring ever-growing playability. At which point I'll say, here's to next year!
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