What's Your Game of the Year for 2013?

[FoggyFishburne]

What's Your Game of the Year for 2013?

Fellow witchers and witcheresses! Hear ye, hear ye!

I'm hoping everyone's having a jolly good Christmas and hopefully most of y'all are on your winter vacation and enjoying life! It may be a bit early but I wanna wish all of you beautiful sons of bitches a merry Christmas (or happy holidays if you're a politically correct kind of dude/dudette) and a Happy New Year!

I was thinking, let's take some time to enjoy each others company and recollect what games this year kicked some serious ass. Let's warm ourselves with the glow of awesome games in these chilly times. What games inspired you? What games engaged you? What games challenged you, both in terms of gameplay and narrative-wise? In other words, what's Your Game of the Year for 2013?!(cue posh and bombastic trumpet sounds).

Here's a short list of suggestions just to get your juices flowing. I know all too well that it could be a bit hard to think of a game when there's so many good ones out there. Also, sometimes you forget what game was released what year! It's anarchy man, total anarchy! Also, feel free to post a video along with your pick. It could be your favourite scene, music track or simply the trailer! Share the wealth broskis!

Remember, this is just an arbitrary compilation of a bunch of different games to remind you of what's out there. You don't HAVE to pick anything on here. Also, here's an amazingly chill song that can play in the background while you reflect.

Alright, here's the list of some of the awesome games that were released in 2013.

Spoiler

DmC: Devil May Cry
Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Antichamber
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Crysis 3
Tomb Raider
God of War: Ascension
BioShock Infinite
Papo & Yo
Metro: Last Light
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Dust: An Elysian Tail
The Last of Us
Muramasa Rebirth
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Grand Theft Auto V
Shadowrun Returns
Beyond: Two Souls
Batman: Arkham Origins
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Papers, Please

Hoookay, so I said it was gonna be a short list but what can I say, I lied!

Now remember, no wishy washy. You gotta pick ONE game that stands out from the rest for you. There can only be one highla... I mean Game of the Year. But feel free to mention as many games as you want that you feel were awesomesauce.

Alright, I guess I better go first, so I don't seem like an indecisive piece of shit. Hm. Personally, it's a tie between Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. Ubisoft really surprised me this year, by releasing two incredible games in their own right. Not perfect but they have that umph.

Reasoning:

Spoiler

Gunslinger was a short but oh so sweet fps experience that had superb presentation, solid fun gameplay and a serviceable story made epic by a fantastic cast of voice actors.

Black Flag however is an AssCreed game and I've never had anything but contempt for them. Well okay, that's melodramatic and an exaggeration but they're pretty bad in aspects that it really should be winning. Game design wise, they're lacking. A lot. They're really shit in that regard but Black Flag saw immense improvements that not only made the game playable, but fun as well! Level and story mission design has also seen some massive improvements. Voice actors, phenomenal. And the main plot regarding Edward Jamie Kenway actually had me really immersed in the story and I actually almost shed some tears at certain points in the game.

Okay, I said there wasn't gonna be any wishy washy so Imma pick one. Ugh, this hurts man! But I've got to go with Black Flag. It really blew me away. I could write an entire essay or article about it but I won't. Goes to show when Ubisoft is let loose, and is allowed to be creative and free to do what they're passionate about, they're a force to be reckon with. They're not perfect games, by any means, but they have a spark in them. And that spark matters, a lot.

So yeah, my pick for Game of the Year is Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. And no one's more surprised about that than me!

Spoiler

Here's the Accolades trailer and the moment that solidified it as my Game of the Year. Spoiler warning for the second video! If you haven't played the game but want to, then beware mate!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQmhmGm7m_A[/media]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns4Hy27kwfE[/media]

I do recommend the following games to people, Papers, Please, Papa & Yo, Antichamber. I haven't played these myself but I've heard nothing but good things about them so I figured I'd mention them if anyone needs a Game for the Year.

Oh man, this turned out to be far too long a post. Sorry about that. Once I start man. Anyway, your turn guys! Hopefully we can get some awesome (friendly) discussions going about our favourites, why they're our favourites, what could be better, best aspect of it etc.

Much love lads and ladies!

 

[vivaxardas2015]

Well, I do not play too many games, so I got only four contenders. They are AC4BF, The Last of Us, Beyond Two Souls, and Tomb Raider. Very different games, and I like them for different reasons, but if to rank them, it will be:

1st place: The Last of Us
2nd place: AC4BF
3rd place: Tomb Raider
4th place: BTS

 

[goopit]

the only thing I liked in that list is Metro Last Light and GTAV(which I have't played but I like all the GTA's)

It's been a shitty year for gaming for me, unless I'm forgetting a good title..

 

[cmdr_silverbolt]

Man in a Maze; it's fun to play, and made me smile more than once, so it's a total winner as far as I am concerned.

 

[Garrison72]

Shadow Warrior. Tomb Raider is second.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

Awesome post! Thanks Bro, you too!
gta v/ and tomb raider so far.

 

[eskiMoe]

Bioshock Infinite
Metro: Last Light
Tomb Raider

I also liked Arkham Origins and Splinter Cell: Blacklist quite a bit.

 

[Maerd.298]

Why are you picking out of action games only?

Europa Universalis IV. It's amazing historical strategy game done with amazing attention to details.

 

[TemerianGirl]

Didn't played any game of 2013, but I saw how my brother plays in AC4. Battle with unique ships looks impressive, so maybe AC is deserve it.
And I watched a let's play of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, very like it.

 

[Sirnaq]

1 Metro last light
2 Shadow warrior

 

[Cs__sz__r]

Europa Universalis IV.

My bro!

Unfortunately strategy games don't get a whole lot of attention.

For me:
1. EU IV
2. Bioshock Infinite
3. The Last of Us.
4. GTA V

Spoiler

I guess 5. would be Killer is Dead. Had a lot of potential, that turned into a barely garbled story that even huge fans probably don't truly understand. Pretty decent gameplay though

 

[cani.851]

Tough decision. Three games stood out more than others for me in 2013:
- Tomb Raider: Absolutely loved the reboot, Lara was made as a more realistic character, the story was awesome, and the gameplay was fantastic (best 3rd person I have ever experienced).
- Bioshock Infinite: One incredible story, but really lackluster shooter mechanics.
- The Last Of Us: Haven't played it myself, only experienced the story through a Lets Play on youtube, but what a story

I guess I would rate them as:
1) Tomb Raider
2) The Last of Us
3) Bioshock Infinite

Not a full game, but an expansion, but I really enjoyed the latest Civ5 expansion as well.

 

[fchopin]

The only game I liked for 2013 is Tomb Raider.

 

[Vigilance.492]

VERY disappointing year (Or maybe I'm just getting older & more cynical).

Black Flag could have been a GOAT Pirate Game, but being attached to AssCreed fucked it hard. Sure roaming the seas, crew singing shanties, exploring the Islands, taking on multiple Man 'O War's etc... That felt fantastic ... But the combat was just woeful, the missions were typical asscreed shit "Trail X" "Eavesdrop on X", "Press Shift to Auto-Parkour" just felt out of place, Modern segments were annoying as normal ETC.

Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon was Atmospheric as fuck, INCREDIBLE Music, Just insanely well executed in just about every aspect... But the God Damn combat, it was still the same easy, casual rubbish from FC3.

Arkham Origins was extremely mediocre & clunky in just about every aspect compared to the Rocksteady Titles.

GTA V was fun, like really fun, but it was extremely temporary. Unlike Red Dead Redemption the Atmosphere in the game is non-existent, which for me gives little reason to run around after completion (RDR's Atmosphere, Locations & Tight Riding Mechanics made me want to search every crack & crevice of the world). I can equate it to a whole lot of nothing. The world is huge, but it's just filled with nothing to do, unless you like just driving around for hours & hours.

Bioshock Infinite was mediocre as hell. Sure, the original Bioshock was essentially a dumbed down version of System Shock 2, but it was still tense, atmospheric, intriguing & actually contained some interesting Gameplay elements like: Gun Upgrades visually changing your weapons, Different Ammo Types, Sparseness of Ammo, Eve Restrictions, diverse plasmids all with different upgrade effects... Everything about Infinite was worse compared to the Bioshock 1, not only that but even as a game on its own it wasn't anything special, extremely over-praised.

The Last of Us was again, mediocre. Horrid AI, QTE's, boring story, meh characters, simplistic Gameplay, Puzzles that equated to positioning a ladder or moving a dumpster... Like Infinite, incredibly over-rated.

Tomb Raider, pretty but shit. Generic Gameplay, Fucking terrible Characters/Story, Shaky Voice Acting on Lara (Switched constantly between Australian & British), Tomb Raider game with like 5 fucking Tombs, White Paint to make sure the COD Kids didn't get lost trying to platform, Jokingly easy puzzles (Felt like I lost brain cells solving them), QTE's God Damn everywhere. So much potential wasted, I would love nothing more then a great Puzzling/Platforming/Survival/Action Tomb Raider game.

Metro Last Light was alright. Had more charm then most of the other titles this year, but much of it just felt really bland. Shooting was average, Stealth was Average, Horror/Scare aspects were barely even there. Just felt really rushed (Which I think it definitely was).

I have MGR:R but have yet to get around to playing it.

TLR
There's my rant :S Pretty much every major title this year has had Gameplay ranging from rubbish to Average, so of them all my GOTY would have to go to FC3: Blood Dragon, simply because everything else in the game was just so fucking good. Terrible, Terrible year IMO, here's to hoping 2014 is much better, considering TW3 is in there plus stuff like Torment, Divinity, X, Dark Souls 2, South Park, MGSV, Hotline Miami 2 ETC.

 

[Alpha8Wolf]

1. AC IV
2. Metro: Last Light
3. Tomb Raider

I think I'm missing something... Anyways these are my top games Waiting for GTA V to come to PC.

 

[gregski]

Shadow Warrior.

 

[Geralt_and_Ciri]

1- The last of Us (characters, story)
2- Ni no kuni (game play, story)
3- Bioshock Infinite (story and gameplay)
4- Baldur Gates 2 (the remake) (all)


Maybe this was a little bad year for games, but 2014 is comming with a lot of GREATS GAMES, my TOP for the next year on hype:

1- Witcher 3

2- Dark Souls 2

3- The Division

4- Dragon Age 3

5- South Park RPG ( i will love it)

/> FALLOUT 4, Final Fantasy XV , KH 3 />

 

[username_3628145]

From this year games, I played only Assassin's Creed IV (and I didn't even finish it yet - I'm sort of a completionist, when they added synchronisation in Brotherhood, I got 90+% in all of those titles) and it is definately the best AC game realeased. I've never had this much fun just exploring and collecting stuff. In each other AC game it was just tedious and boring - here it's amazing.
I'd love to play some of the other titles, but I still didn't finish Arkham City, Far Cry 3, Dead Space series and some other games. Being an engineering student doesn't give me as much time for gaming as I would like .
Also, some of this games (GTA V, Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls are console exclusives, and I only own a PC)

 

[eskiMoe]

Shadow Warrior.

I can understand why a lot of Polish gamers choose this game..

 

[Aver]

Fire Emblem: Awaking - RPG with permadeath like XCOM, but with a twist: There are ~20 characters and all of them have unique personality, story etc. just like in normal team based RPGs (like for example Mass Effect 2). It makes perma death, so much more exciting, but sometimes it's really depressing when see your favorite character die.