Game of my Year: 2013

I've been reading articles and listening to podcasts this week summarizing the best games of 2013 and found it to be a surprisingly rich topic. More than ever, the quantity and quality of video games were matched by the variety in the past year. The influx of "indie" games and widespread adoption of atypical gaming platforms (read: tablets) has lead to a sea change in the types of games that are produced. As in any other form of entertainment, improving variety increases competition and results in improved experiences for the consumer.

For this post, I will focus on my favorite games of the year, denoting my preferred game for each platform as well. As I have not played any Nintendo Wii/U/DS or PS3 games this year, I'm not trying to a "best games" list; I'll leave that to the professionals at Joystiq.com and others. Sadly, exactly zero Xbox 360 games made this list, though some of these games are available on that platform. I originally planned on doing a top ten, but there were only nine that I can recommend without reservation. I also handed out some winners in best visual art, best sound, best story, and achievement in visual which should be self-explanatory.

 Here are the nine games of my year:

9. BioShock Infinite (PC)

A good enough story, a good enough shooter, and some new enough mechanics, Bioshock Infinite ended up feeling somewhat disappointing given the glowing reviews. The memorable city in the clouds and fun-with-physics ideas left a strong positive impression overall. 

8. Tomb Raider (PC)

I appreciate the decision to make the iconic Lara Croft character 1000% more interesting and believable (both physically and emotionally), and the exploration and combat felt right. I didn't like the gameplay balance though: way too much killing faceless badguys not enough exploration and climbing/navigation puzzles. The crafting and leveling-up system felt tacked on and unnecessary. The short of it is I was enormously impressed by the game but didn't find myself coming back to it and lost interest about half-way through. That coincided with the PS4 launch, so there's a good chance I'll go back and finish it later.

7. Dragon's Crown (Vita)

The idea is simple: make a 2D beat-em-up game with enough variety and RPG elements to make a highly re-playable game. In this regard, Dragon's Crown is a huge success. I dropped a dumb amount of time into this game. It's far from perfect, especially the frame rate on Vita, the general same-ness of most the enemies, and the unpleasantly large breasts of two of the character classes, but those didn't stop me from playing it over and over again.

6. Rayman Origins (Vita)

This game debuted in 2011 for Xbox 360 and PS3, but I first played the Vita version which was released in 2013. It's a classic 2D platformer with exquisite art, plenty of variety, and a pitch perfect difficulty curve. It got pretty darned hard in the final stages, but I appreciated the old-school-ness of them and felt genuine accomplishment getting through all the stages. Rayman Legends also came out this year, a well-received sequel that I haven't played. I recommend Origins first, it will be cheaper and a very similar game.

5. XCom: Enemy Unknown (iPad Game of my Year)

XCom is another game which debuted years ago but was re-released for a new platform this year. I deeply enjoyed the PC version, and was a little shocked that they were porting the whole thing over to the iPad. Getting to play a game of this quality and magnitude on a tablet was a real treat. While not an original, XCom is easily my favorite iOS game of all time.

4. Guacamelee! (Vita Game of my Year) WINNER: BEST VISUAL ART

Games like Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night are amazing classics that prove you don't need realistic 3D world to have a great time exploring. I'm surprised there aren't more games of this genre (which doesn't even have a name, other than the lame portmanteau "Metroid-vania"), but luckily Guacamelee! burst onto the scene this year delivered an absolutely fantastic experience. The game is dripping with character, the graphics are genuinely beautiful, and the gameplay evolves at a great pace. The only knock on this game is that it is fairly short. I think I played it through in 4-5 hours and haven't played since.

3. Gone Home (PC Game of my Year) WINNER: BEST USE OF SOUND & BEST STORY

This is a hipster pick, I get it. So sue me. I was totally enthralled for the 2 hour experience this game provided. I came in with very few expectations other than the exceptional critical reviews, which I think helped. Some may argue it doesn't have a hugely creative story, but that's beside the point. Getting drunk and going to a bullfight doesn't sound all that compelling either, unless its being told by Hemingway. The storytelling in Gone Home is above and beyond anything I've ever seen in interactive entertainment and is on par with literature quality short fiction. I have it ahead of Tomb Raider as PC game of my year because it was so original and well executed.

2. NBA 2K14 (PS4) WINNER: ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUALS

I always love NBA2k, but the last two years have been treading water without any competition. The off-court aspects of this game (MyPlayer and MyGM etc.) feel unfinished; I haven't played them much, though I like the direction they're heading. This is a top game for me because the on court action. The game is a significant leap forward in graphical fidelity. To me, while the faces and expressions are pretty impressive, the improved body movement engine allows for much smoother and varied animations. That combined with the detail put into recreating real players movements makes for an amazing experience.

1. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (PS4 and Overall Game of my Year)

This game is fantastic. It's legitimately thrilling to explore the sand, surf, and seas of the piratical Caribbean. I was terribly disappointed with AC3, a mess of poor story-telling, awful pacing, and laborious central missions. I wanted to love that game for its setting, but nothing ever felt right. With AC4, the magic is back in the series. There are still plenty of silly tropes and cringe moments, but they are minor and off to the side. The main attraction of exploration, sneaking, and fighting is balanced really well. I'd love to see a deeper combat system requiring precise timing and combos (Arkham City is my game of the decade so far), but I've enjoyed swashing and buckling for hours on end.

Almost made the cut:

Killzone: Shadow Fall (PS4) and Killzone: Mercenaries (PS Vita)

The single player campaign for Shadow Fall a gorgeous mess. And I don't really mean that in a loving way. The graphics are spectacular, but the attention to detail in storytelling and world design doesn't come close to comparing with that of the visuals. Example: in one early mission, the game designers appear to have mistaken air pressure for gravity; going into an airlock should not drop me out of zero gravity! That kind of ridiculousness is absolutely everywhere in the single player campaign for Killzone. Are you ready for the "however"? However, the multiplayer is pretty bad ass. I don't usually go for online shooters, but I've sunk a silly amount of time into this game (mostly on team deathmatch; the "Warzone" tactical games are rarely well balanced and end up being frustrating). One the opposite end, the campaign for Mercenaries was really fun and is definitely the best FPS I've played on a portable. I never really got into multiplayer though.

A comment about GTAV

Grand Theft Auto V came out this year, if you hadn't noticed. I did play it on Xbox 360, and I was hugely impressed with the love that went into recreating my home town LA. Dozens of real life places, from the famous Santa Monica Pier to a pretty old building near my office that is now a Verizon store, are immediately recognizable to me, highlighting that I've lived here for almost a decade now. I have two huge problems with this game: first, the sophomoric "humor" has been pathetically unfunny for several games now, I can't believe they are still relying on the double-lowest-common-denominator (toilet puns). And second, the gameplay isn't actually any fun. Drive around with meh controls. Shoot zillions of cops with meh controls. I just don't get how they haven't gotten better at this yet. Maybe there's just no teen-aged boy in me anymore!