Best Game/s of 2013

[Xanatos]

I do this every year, don't plan on breaking the tradition. Got to play only few games released this year, I was going mostly through my backlog, and did some catching up (Skyrim, most noticeably), thus I have only two games worth mentioning...

BioShock Infinite - my most anticipated game of 2013. Not was it just great, it managed to exceed my high expectations. There's a lot to love about Bioshock Infinite, though Elizabeth is by far its strongest point. She's charming, beautiful, though most importantly really helpful and intelligent, she can take care of her own which is quite rare in games with AI partners. Last but not least, the mind blowing end. Ken Levine is well known for these kinds of stunts, lets just say he more than delivered this time as well. Bioshock Infinite is all around a well made game, deserving of its praise, in a day and age of near indentical FPS's it's certainly a breath of fresh air.

Honorable Mention

Tomb Raider - a surprisingly well done reboot if I may say so. For the first time I was actually interested in Lara beyond her looks, she was well developed both via story and gameplay. The RPG elements were a nice touch. I do however mind lack of challenging puzzles.

[loaf]

Saints Row 4

It just destroys whatever they did in 3. 4 is just over the top like crazy, one of the best games I've played ever.

[C:/Dille.Run]

I voted for Bioshock Infinite, merely because its the best game I have played this year.

That being said, I still have Zelda, Mario, The Last of Us, and a couple other games to finish.

[Michael Swayne]

I only bought 3 games that were made in the year 2013. However, I can't rank them, because I like them all the same amount.

First, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. It has a great story. And the cinematics and music were paired very nicely. Plus, one of the characters is named Swaine, which is a big plus because my last name is a different spelling but the same pronunciation as that.

Second, Grand Theft Auto V. Although it is my second favorite story of the series (Grand Theft Auto IV takes the top spot there), I really liked how they connected the three mains together. Personally, I think they should have killed off Trevor at the very start and instead had the one guy that died in the first mission to be a playable character. Or better yet, not even have Trevor as a character at all. But that's just a personal thing with me, because Trevor and his "occupation" hits a bit too close to home. Anyway, the addition of Grand Theft Auto Online was really great as well. Plus, one of the main characters is named Michael, and my first name is Michael; so I identified with the character, but in name only.

Third, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMix. It is a great way for those who didn't have access to the PS2 and DS versions of the games to be able to play them. It is also a nice chance for people like me who still haven't finished 358/2 Days to be able to connect that game with the rest without having to actually play it. Plus, Sora has brown hair, and I have brown hair, so there's that.

[Sean]

From that list I've only played the horrible new Tomb Raider, Ni No Kuni, Last of Us, and GTA5.

The new Tomb Raider was awful. Lara's character was shit and the invincible superwoman got old damn fast. She begins her journey impaled, through and through, and shakes it off within a day. She could jump so far the game literally made her fly straight across, with no vertical downward movement, and covered it with camera angle changes. The amount of times I got stuck some place because I thought "there's not a damn chance she can make that jump" is ridiculous.

Last of Us was fun with decent stealth mechanics but some sections were punishingly annoying, even on easy. The characters were incredible, the story was meh, but at the end of the day it was just another zombie game.

Ni No Kuni's story was pretty mehtastic and the characters were forgettable, except Mr. Drippy. The gameplay was fun, though I played on easy. One of the few good console RPGs to exist in this entire generation IMO.

I really, really enjoyed GTA5. A lot. The character banter was fantastic. I was expecting it to be longer and include a lot more side things to do, so I was disappointed by the game's length. I was expecting a lot more in the heist department.

I'd probably have to vote GTA5 here.

[Dawezy]

From that list specifically? BioShock Infinite followed by Assassin's Creed IV. (keeping in mind that I haven't booted up Tomb Raider yet, so I have no opinion on it.)

On the Other vote though, as I just spotted the option. From 2013; Borderlands 2 and all its expansion packs are absolutely brilliant, along side Saint's Row IV which is a masterpiece (though SR4 should've been alot longer then it was.. story wise).

Waiting for Last of Us and GTA V to hit PC.. forever waiting ;_;

[Pete]

This is a tough one.

Bioshock Infinite was a simply incredible game. It was visually stunning, deep as hell and was loaded with tons of unforgettable gameplay. I loved the twists and the depth of the story, and how it connected to everything else.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the new Tomb Raider. I didn't mind so much that Lara's healing and jumping abilities were a wee bit unrealistic, because you have a bunch of much more unrealistic things going on. I really enjoyed how her character developed from essentially your average person, who couldn't handle killing a deer to survive, to becoming a badass capable of fending for herself. That's where I thought the story was it's strongest. I thought at times it was a little too easy, and difficult at the same time, if that makes any sense. Kinda like "You'll die if you try to fight through this section, no matter how much you try or level up, but just blow this door and sneak by." I would have preferred the options to be a little more forgiving and rewarding.

The Last of Us was also an incredible game. I loved the story and the voice acting, which were both some of the best I've seen in a while. I liked how you could upgrade your weapons and play the game the way you'd want to, choosing between stealth or just wreaking havoc. Some of the game was a little too hard, but I enjoyed the challenge and trying to change my approach.

I would have to say that GTAV was the game of the year. Bioshock was going to be my original winner, had this game not come out. I have to say though that everything about it wowed me, from how incredibly immersive it was, to the humor and the sheer brilliance of the story. I played this through for almost two solid months and I'm confident that I still haven't scratched the surface of all the wacky shit I could find and do

[Taco-Calamitous]

I think the only new games I played last year were Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Pokemon X & Y, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. I kinda wanted to play Bioshock Infinite, but to be honest I never completed Bioshock 2, so I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not (I hear now that a lot of people didn't like Bioshock 2, however.) I have Diablo 3 that I've yet to really play.

Out of the 3 I played last year... it's kinda hard to say, heh. THe new Zelda game was rather nostalgic and fun, with some fun characters/designs and cool puzzles, just like every Zelda game. Even though Pokemon was also nostalgic and fun, just like every Pokemon game (also much prettier than any previous installment.) And I put more time into Animal Crossing than any other game I recently played, except...

Come on, guys. Clearly the best game of last year was Cookie Clicker. You don't even have to play it to play it! You can just run it in the background!

(I didn't vote in the poll.)

[Incognitus]

I would like to vote for all of them (because it seems like I could), but I don't want to try and end up skewing the results. For science....?

...No.

For pseudoscience... no.

For the court of public opinion polls, I will refrain from skewing these most unscientific results.

Based on sales alone, it has to be Grand Theft Auto V. Doesn't wow me, personally, even though I play the online quite a bit... but Onety-Billion-Kajillion++ dollar$ can't be wrong, right? It's definitely a fun game. You can do so much with it outside the scope of the main missions to amuse yourself, too. You can rob stores, perform epic daredevil stunts (I like doing this) and cause general mayhem around a large virtual city. I have spent five times the amount of time spent on single-player story doing these things---and I am fine with it. I like the sandbox concept. It works for me.

So I guess my personal vote would be for GTAV, even though I own five other games on that list. Let's just pretend I voted for all of them and my write-in game for the Other category was Cookie Clicker (even though I haven't played it). For some reason I like idea of games playing themselves with little-to-no involvement from me. Minimal effort.

[Sean]

I also thoroughly enjoyed the new Tomb Raider. I didn't mind so much that Lara's healing and jumping abilities were a wee bit unrealistic, because you have a bunch of much more unrealistic things going on. I really enjoyed how her character developed from essentially your average person, who couldn't handle killing a deer to survive, to becoming a badass capable of fending for herself. That's where I thought the story was it's strongest.

See I would've liked that aspect had they actually made it feel meaningful. She starts off as this scared "COME SAVE ME OMG!!!!" woman with fairly believable reactions (sans the ****ing impaling) but after she kills her first person she instantaneously transforms into a ****ing psychopathic Rambo.

The transformation was literally instantaneous, and completely ruined any attempted narrative of her going from a useless sack of scared to a badass able to fend for herself in a cruel world. It wasn't even covered with a montage or just a perceived passage of days.

[Pete]

Well I always thought that the real change came after she was sexually abused/ raped/ whatever that scenario was. I could see someone making the decision to either give up and become a powerless "victim" or say **** it and go after all of them and make them pay. Kind of like a battered wife syndrome to the extreme. At least looking at it through that lens made it seem more plausible.

[Sean]

Well I always thought that the real change came after she was sexually abused/ raped/ whatever that scenario was. I could see someone making the decision to either give up and become a powerless "victim" or say **** it and go after all of them and make them pay. Kind of like a battered wife syndrome to the extreme. At least looking at it through that lens made it seem more plausible.

The dude was going to kill her with his bare hands. No rape, no sexual assault, just choked to death. I know, because of lag and poor timing windows I missed nearly every QTE in the damn game.

[AliexeilA]

I voted for Ni No Kuni, Tomb Raider, The Last of Us and "other" (FFXIV).

Ni No Kuni is so cute and I had so much fun playing it. It is a game I played a lot of hours and I still had fun. Someday I will play it again. First I thought it is a game for children but when I started playing, I recognized that it wasn't at all. It was the first time that I was crying at the beginning. It is very emotional and so I wanted to complete the game hoping for a good ending.

Tomb Raider was great. I started the game and I couldn't stop until it was over. There is so much action and when you thought it's over, another thing happened and everything got worse for Lara. It also was fun to search and find stuff to create new weapons.

I have not finished The Last of Us but it belongs to my favourite games. It is so scary and I remember that my neighbour moved some cupboards and I was conviced that a zombie was hiding and moving in my appartment But one thing is sure: I will never play it again when I'm alone at home.

I'm still playing FF XIV and I am surprised how much fun I have. It is a game that isn't over after a few hours but you can spend weeks with it. I already created some other characters and it is amazing to start the game again and again. To create a new character is like playing a new game.