Just one game is really not enough to represent a year. Pick some games, as many as you want, that you think really exemplified 2013. What really represented the year for you? They don't have to be good games either. Bad games can also be quite evocative of a year.
Mine are:
Dead Space 3&Aliens Colonial Marines- Fuck these games, seriously (and I didn't even play ACM). These two games represent the really ugly and shitty side of game development and were pretty big stand outs that started 2013 off with some really huge piles of dogshit that never should have happened. Dead Space 3 wouldn't be the last of EA's massive fuck ups in 2013 either - Hi SimCity and lol BF4 bugs & crashes. Often the games industry just shits all over gamers and ruins IPs and EA & Gearbox really screwed the pooch with these franchises.
And now for some good stuff!
Ni no Kuni- My favorite RPG of the year. Sure, it has some Party AI problems, but those are just a tiny scuff on an amazingly beautiful game. It's an old school RPG with a full world map and lots of towns and something that Square said was impossible on the last generation of hardware (fuck them for that, seriously). Pretty much everything from the voice acting, visuals, sound track, story, characters, were fantastic.
Fire Emblem: Awakening- Sadly, I have not gotten to play this yet due to a backlog of games from picking up a 3DS late in the year. However, everyone who has played this has called this game nothing short of amazing. I really cannot wait to play it, as from everything that has been said it's easily one of the best games this year. Yes, I haven't even played it, but it's supposedly so good that I am listing it.
Atelier Ayesha,Time & Eternity,The Guided Fate Paradox,Disgaea D2,Ys: Memories of Celceta,Rune Factory 4,Etrian Odyssey IV,Etrian Odyssey Untold,Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate,Project X Zone,Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix,Soul Sacrifice,Pokemon X/Y,Shin Megami Tensei IV,Tales of Xillia, andDragon's Crown- these are all good/great RPGs of various sizes and cross-RPG genres that deserve some love. 2013 had a lot of releases from smaller developers on the RPG front and they really delivered for lovers of the genre.
It was a massive year for RPG fans,easilyone of the best years for the genre if not the best year for it. Amazingly enough, 2014 is also starting off with a huge bang for RPGs too. I am just immensely looking forward to the next year and February can't come soon enough.
DmC: Devil May Cry- My favorite Action Game of the year, though it's really tough to pick between this andMetal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Revegeancecompletelylived up to my expectations as an amazing Platinum Games game, though I think it's really underrated and definitely deserves mention. Go play it if you haven't. DmC, on the other hand,blew awaymy expectations and is a really fantastic reboot that deserves a lot of love. Yeah, I didn't like Dante's new look when it was first shown off, but the new character really grew on me and he deserves to be Dante.
Tomb Raider- Wow, this wasanotherhell of a reboot. The gameplay was great, the game was beautiful, the sound work was really good, and the story and new Lara were well done despite the obvious dissonance between her thoughts and your actions playing her.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag- Pirates. Ships. Huge Open World. Holy fuck, I loved sailing around in this so much. This was easily the best AC game for me so far and I didn't even care about the AC elements in it, though those were far better than AC3's. Yes Ubisoft, we do want a Pirate focused game with no AC elements. Please hurry the fuck up and make one that combines this game and the elements of Sid Meier's Pirates.
Grand Theft Auto V- I had pretty low expectations going into this and it floored me. I was astounded by the scale of what they pulled off on the X360 & PS3. The sheer size and scale of this game is impressive in its own right. It's also the only GTA besides Vice City that I really could get into. The characters were fun and the switching between 3 main characters mechanic was more than just some novel bullshit and turned out to be an incredibly well done system. The story was really fun, though I do wish there were more big heists, there really weren't enough of those. Online pretty much sucks and died and didn't live up to anyone's wishes, but that should not be a mark against an absolutely gargantuan single player experience.
Bioshock Infinite- The gameplay was theonlything that wasn't totally amazing about this game. The environment, atmosphere, story, characters, music, everything. I think anyone who says otherwise is full of shit. This did the Bioshock name proud, for the most part. Sure, the gunplay was janky and there not really being anything but "arena fights" was meh, but it was definitely not "bad." And the violence of it all was right in tune with what was going on. Bioshock Infinite is one hell of an experience.
The Last of Us- If I had to pick one game for Game of the Year, it would be this game. Bioshock Infinite is amazing as hell in every area except its gameplay and The Last of Us is amazing as hell in all of those areas *and* its gameplay. The Survival aspect of this game was just fantastic in both its story elements and its gameplay and everything fit like a perfect glove. And I'm really glad that it wasn't a "zombie game." It was definitely a story about surviving against people, who are far scarier and uglier than any zombie ever could be. Though the zombie aspect of it was done really well too. The Last of Us was definitely both the experienceandthe game of the year for me (though it was a tough pick between this and the new Zelda)
Zelda: A Link Between Worlds- This might be the best Zelda game ever made. For me, it's certainly the best Zelda game since A Link to the Past. There's no hand holding at all, not even the tiniest bit of it. The game just throws you into a Zelda world, just like LttP, and tells you to have at it. I wasn't sure I would be down with the whole "rental system" when I first heard about it, but it's actually incredibly well done when you actually play with it. The Freedom to do whatever you want in this game is great and there is so much to do. It's also definitely not just a retread of LttP, even though it looks like it on the surface. It is definitely a new game with a ton of new content and fantastic mechanics. The gameplay is perfect. If you don't have a 3DS yet - go buy oneright fucking nowand get this game.
Mine are:
Dead Space 3&Aliens Colonial Marines- Fuck these games, seriously (and I didn't even play ACM). These two games represent the really ugly and shitty side of game development and were pretty big stand outs that started 2013 off with some really huge piles of dogshit that never should have happened. Dead Space 3 wouldn't be the last of EA's massive fuck ups in 2013 either - Hi SimCity and lol BF4 bugs & crashes. Often the games industry just shits all over gamers and ruins IPs and EA & Gearbox really screwed the pooch with these franchises.
And now for some good stuff!
Ni no Kuni- My favorite RPG of the year. Sure, it has some Party AI problems, but those are just a tiny scuff on an amazingly beautiful game. It's an old school RPG with a full world map and lots of towns and something that Square said was impossible on the last generation of hardware (fuck them for that, seriously). Pretty much everything from the voice acting, visuals, sound track, story, characters, were fantastic.
Fire Emblem: Awakening- Sadly, I have not gotten to play this yet due to a backlog of games from picking up a 3DS late in the year. However, everyone who has played this has called this game nothing short of amazing. I really cannot wait to play it, as from everything that has been said it's easily one of the best games this year. Yes, I haven't even played it, but it's supposedly so good that I am listing it.
Atelier Ayesha,Time & Eternity,The Guided Fate Paradox,Disgaea D2,Ys: Memories of Celceta,Rune Factory 4,Etrian Odyssey IV,Etrian Odyssey Untold,Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate,Project X Zone,Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix,Soul Sacrifice,Pokemon X/Y,Shin Megami Tensei IV,Tales of Xillia, andDragon's Crown- these are all good/great RPGs of various sizes and cross-RPG genres that deserve some love. 2013 had a lot of releases from smaller developers on the RPG front and they really delivered for lovers of the genre.
It was a massive year for RPG fans,easilyone of the best years for the genre if not the best year for it. Amazingly enough, 2014 is also starting off with a huge bang for RPGs too. I am just immensely looking forward to the next year and February can't come soon enough.
DmC: Devil May Cry- My favorite Action Game of the year, though it's really tough to pick between this andMetal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Revegeancecompletelylived up to my expectations as an amazing Platinum Games game, though I think it's really underrated and definitely deserves mention. Go play it if you haven't. DmC, on the other hand,blew awaymy expectations and is a really fantastic reboot that deserves a lot of love. Yeah, I didn't like Dante's new look when it was first shown off, but the new character really grew on me and he deserves to be Dante.
Tomb Raider- Wow, this wasanotherhell of a reboot. The gameplay was great, the game was beautiful, the sound work was really good, and the story and new Lara were well done despite the obvious dissonance between her thoughts and your actions playing her.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag- Pirates. Ships. Huge Open World. Holy fuck, I loved sailing around in this so much. This was easily the best AC game for me so far and I didn't even care about the AC elements in it, though those were far better than AC3's. Yes Ubisoft, we do want a Pirate focused game with no AC elements. Please hurry the fuck up and make one that combines this game and the elements of Sid Meier's Pirates.
Grand Theft Auto V- I had pretty low expectations going into this and it floored me. I was astounded by the scale of what they pulled off on the X360 & PS3. The sheer size and scale of this game is impressive in its own right. It's also the only GTA besides Vice City that I really could get into. The characters were fun and the switching between 3 main characters mechanic was more than just some novel bullshit and turned out to be an incredibly well done system. The story was really fun, though I do wish there were more big heists, there really weren't enough of those. Online pretty much sucks and died and didn't live up to anyone's wishes, but that should not be a mark against an absolutely gargantuan single player experience.
Bioshock Infinite- The gameplay was theonlything that wasn't totally amazing about this game. The environment, atmosphere, story, characters, music, everything. I think anyone who says otherwise is full of shit. This did the Bioshock name proud, for the most part. Sure, the gunplay was janky and there not really being anything but "arena fights" was meh, but it was definitely not "bad." And the violence of it all was right in tune with what was going on. Bioshock Infinite is one hell of an experience.
The Last of Us- If I had to pick one game for Game of the Year, it would be this game. Bioshock Infinite is amazing as hell in every area except its gameplay and The Last of Us is amazing as hell in all of those areas *and* its gameplay. The Survival aspect of this game was just fantastic in both its story elements and its gameplay and everything fit like a perfect glove. And I'm really glad that it wasn't a "zombie game." It was definitely a story about surviving against people, who are far scarier and uglier than any zombie ever could be. Though the zombie aspect of it was done really well too. The Last of Us was definitely both the experienceandthe game of the year for me (though it was a tough pick between this and the new Zelda)
Zelda: A Link Between Worlds- This might be the best Zelda game ever made. For me, it's certainly the best Zelda game since A Link to the Past. There's no hand holding at all, not even the tiniest bit of it. The game just throws you into a Zelda world, just like LttP, and tells you to have at it. I wasn't sure I would be down with the whole "rental system" when I first heard about it, but it's actually incredibly well done when you actually play with it. The Freedom to do whatever you want in this game is great and there is so much to do. It's also definitely not just a retread of LttP, even though it looks like it on the surface. It is definitely a new game with a ton of new content and fantastic mechanics. The gameplay is perfect. If you don't have a 3DS yet - go buy oneright fucking nowand get this game.
