My 13 Favorite Games of 2013

I feel like this past year didn't turn out as many fantastic games as I've grown accustomed to these past few years. Instead we got a plethora of good or great games, and it ended up being really difficult to put these games in order. A lot of good games didn't fit into this list of 13 like for example Dead Rising 3 and Antichamber. There were also games I didn't really get to spend enough time with to render a complete judgement on like Papers Please and Resogun. And on top of that there are the games which I didn't play at all but which I'm looking forward to playing early next year like MGS: Revengeance and Brothers. All that being said here's a list of my favorites from the games I did spend a lot of time with and which to me defined this year of 2013 in gaming.

List items

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  1. The Last of Us

  The Last of Us was the only game to come out this year which I have very strong feelings about. It's not only the most important piece in this list, but would easily fit in the top bracket of all and any PlayStation 3 games. In fact the only gripe I had with the game were the graphical compromises which had to be made in order to fit the game onto an aging piece of hardware.

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  2. BioShock Infinite

  Like most of the games on this list I feel conflicted about BioShock Infinte. The story, the atmosphere and the visuals place it this high up the list even though I did have some gripes with the pacing and combat.

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  3. Saints Row IV

  Saints Row IV may have been the most FUN with capital letters that I had with game this year. Even though the game started to repeat itself a bit too much towards the end I still found myself hopping back into the world a few times after I'd finished the main story, which is something I do very very rarely.

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  4. Forza Motorsport 5

  Actually driving a car around a racetrack in Forza 5 is one of the best racing experiences I've had with any game ever. It's just too bad that the game was dragged down with a small list of tracks, an unbalanced economy and a gutted free-play mode. But perhaps my expectations were too high for a launch game.

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  5. Gone Home

  Gone Home was the freshest videogame experience I've had this year. I have similar feelings about the game as I did with The Walking Dead: Season One last year. Fantastic story and atmosphere with limited gameplay. One thing I truly am grateful for is that developers have the courage to make shorter games like this which I've started to prefer more and more.

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  6. DmC Devil May Cry

  I haven't played a game like DmC in a very long time and found myself enjoying it much more than I expected. Solid gameplay, some funky settings and great looks on the PC.

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  7. Proteus

  A very therapeutic experience which stayed in my mind for days after I'd played it.

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  8. Grand Theft Auto V

  The story dragged on for way too long and was so watered down towards the end that I didn't really care about any of the characters in the final missions. On the other hand a game of this size and complexity has never been achieved before and I did have a fantastic time with the game for the first 10 or so hours.

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  9. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

  A new formula for expansion packs which I'm definitely down with. Some truly stupid humor with a fitting atmosphere.

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  10. Divekick

  Divekick has become the new de facto multiplayer game among my friends. Easy to pick up by anyone and cheap enough to buy for anyone.

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  12. Tomb Raider

  I didn't expect to find myself caring for a Tomb Raider game ever again, but I had more fun with Tomb Raider than I did with Uncharted 3.

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  13. Thomas Was Alone

  A great puzzle game with a great story.