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Zaxex

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Top 10 GOTY 2013 -unfin

Honorable mentions:

The Walking Dead Season Two: Loved Season One, only one episode of S2 was released in 2013.

The Wolf Among Us: Another impressive TellTale adventure game - only one episode in 2013.

Beyond: Two Souls: I've played through a lot of the game twice, when I decided to play through it with my girlfriend. We still haven't finished it.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch: Again, playing with my girlfriend, but we've barely scratched the surface - after 9 months...

Animal Crossing: New Leaf: My first AC game. It was a novel experience playing something that encouraged daily visits and dissuades marathon sessions. I also played a lot of it with some friends. It fell off the list after Pokemon did everything it did and more - and I played that 5-10 times longer than AC.

Rogue Legacy: The finest Rogue-like I played this year. Some quirky platforming and questionable balance soured my enjoyment of the game somewhat.

Games that I couldn't play in 2013:

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag: I'm really excited to play this after hearing of its quality, especially in contrast to the disappointing AC III. Alas, I'm getting it for Christmas and may not have time to finish it before the year ends. It'll be a bit of a showcase, with the PS4 version and my new Astro A40s.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: This was going to be a gift (I choose my own - it's easier). It kind of fell through the cracks and I ended up getting it for myself on the 23rd of December. It seems a bit weird not to just leave it until Christmas for whatever reason, so I doubt I'll finish this and AC IV this year.

Super Mario 3D World: I feel as though I'm missing out not playing this, especially as I loved Super Mario 3D Land. I just can't justify getting a Wii U yet. It'll be the top of pile of games I get when I finally get the system.

Bravely Default: Christmas present - even I can't finish so many games so quickly. A perfect GOTY list would include all of these games if their quality justifies - but no list would ever be finished.

List items

  • The original BioShock may be my favourite ever game. The world was amazing, the systems were interesting and the story was great. BioShock Infinite is much more a BioShock sequel than Bioshock 2 was.

    Infinite gives you a fantastical new world to explore, an alternate history with a lot of future technology, a mysterious and convoluted story to decipher and has a lot of the same flavors despite varying degrees of difference. Infinite delivers on the same premise as the original - like seeing Rapture for the first time and drinking it all in. Bioshock 2 was just more of a good thing, it lacks the impact of the rest of its series.

    Mechanically it's an improvement, yet the gunplay still isn't why you'd come to BioShock. Even from a technological standpoint, the game feels a little dated - you can see the seams even through the great art. This probably owes something to the delays it saw through development, delays that I was completely fine with - I'll always take a better game 6 months late over a lesser game now.

    So as a successor to my favourite game, it did everything I'd ask of it. It had a unique setting, an interesting place in time, an ambitious and entertaining story and some truly memorable characters.

    After thinking it over, when playing through the game, and again now - I probably do still prefer the original, but it's damn impressive to have to ask myself that in 2013.

  • I've always loved Pokemon - since playing Red and Blue, watching the cartoon and collecting the trading cards in the late nineties. So there's a lot of nostalgia there. Pokemon X and Y did better than only appealing to that nostalgia though (though it does that in spades).

    When Pokemon X and Y were revealed, I was relatively excited - they had finally made good on my wishes as a child. Which were to have a fully-realized 3D Pokemon game. The idea was there since Pokemon Stadium came out, but never did 3D polygonal Pokemon and world meet with the adventuring gameplay of the series, until these games.

    That excitement waned closer to release, I realized I hadn't played the last couple of generations of the games, and besides aesthetics, what was really different? I don't know exactly what's different in every regard - having missed some games, but there's a lot of interesting mechanics in this game hiding under the surface.

    I got the game to appease some friends, and was hooked instantly. For weeks most of what I, and we all did - was play Pokemon. There was the race to the Elite 4, learning the game together, seeing all the new and old Pokemon designs, and it was great.

    Not only are X and Y, good Pokemon games - but in my eyes, they may be superior to the originals, even accounting for their respective places in time.

    I got so deep into this game, messing with mechanics I'd never even thought about in previous games. I learned and utilized EVs, IVs, breeding, shiny hunting, player battle tactics and more. All of those systems have been improved too, certainly streamlined.

    I've never used any online capabilities in a Pokemon game before this one. I rarely even used the link cable, or N64 attachments. I used online features to death in this game. The Wonder Trade is an excellent, and exciting new feature. The battles work wonderfully locally and were competitive and fun. The Friend Safari gave me a reason to amass friends on the system - and some of its mechanics are inspired. It all worked excellently too, you could trust it to work constantly, even on its (worldwide) launch day, something which can't be said for most games.

    In closing, I was just thoroughly impressed with what Pokemon has become - and found myself immersed in it for months. There's a lot more to it than just brand appeal. I also wrote too much.

  • Grand Theft Auto V had a lot of expectations to deliver on. It was one of the most anticipated games, and one of the last hurrahs of a console generation.

    There's a lot to GTA V, and Rockstar Games certainly don't shy away from being ambitious.

    The core story is interesting, the three-character conceit works well and I'd say it's the most playable GTA game to date. Shooting and driving are a lot easier to enjoy without caveats. Neither surpass particularly strong examples of either in different genres, but delivering solid examples of both in a GTA world is spectacular.

    Primarily it's impressive how Rockstar can have so many moving parts work together as well as they do. There's the same fun to be had as in previous GTA games, but improved in most respects. It's all the more laudable for being on the same platforms as GTA IV.

    When I played GTA V, it had been a while since I'd dived so heavily into a game, playing it exclusively for weeks. I even had a lot of fun with the online - with the improved driving and shooting, simple race and deathmatch modes were great fun.

    It'll probably be too long before GTA Online does everything I want it to, and well - so I doubt I'll get particularly invested in it, but the game itself was great, and I'm stoked it did as well as it did. I can't wait for another GTA game, be it in 5 years of whenever Rockstar can utilize the new systems.

  • I really liked the settings, characters, story, voice acting and general atmosphere of The Last of Us.

    It would be higher on the list, but I had my somewhat frequent issue with the story - which is, when the feeling of control goes away replaced by "I'm watching a story unfold, and playing through the character's choices".

    Linear stories, without player choices - have the opportunity to be better than those trying to cater to every possible contingency. It's just hard to reconcile playing for an objective you don't agree with. It feels more like a film in that respect, and far from ruining a fantastic game, it's a relatively minor gripe.

    I did have issues with the gameplay as well, finding it lacking in the stealth department. Good, well-balanced stealth gameplay seems like one of the hardest development challenged. Clickers for instance, annoyed the hell out of me - it's either instant death if you aren't well equipped, or a tedious, likely futile fight that results in a restart or 5.

    All in all, I thought it was phenomenal. My few problems kept it behind the somewhat more consistent experiences I had with GTA V and Pokemon X - and I struggle to see it as the best game of the year because of them.
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