What's your 2013 Game of the Year?

[cha cha]

Noise- Nice write up man, thank you for making me not feel like I was all alone on the Tomb Raider short bus. The game was really great, and the first TR title I ever really liked.

Sad to see so many disappointed in Dragon's Crown, it really resonated with me... But I think that it helped that I had 5-7 guys willing to play 4p offline dungeon runs with me at any given time.

[ZenErik]

Noise- Nice write up man, thank you for making me not feel like I was all alone on the Tomb Raider short bus. The game was really great, and the first TR title I ever really liked.

Sad to see so many disappointed in Dragon's Crown, it really resonated with me... But I think that it helped that I had 5-7 guys willing to play 4p offline dungeon runs with me at any given time.

I found the offline local multiplayer a pretty annoying experience.. I think they fixed some of the issues like story progress. But when someone enters a shop it should split screen instead of making us do that stuff over and over.

Story was mailed in. Not that Muramasa has an amazing story but it has actual characters. The protags in DC have no personality. There are far too few dungeons. I was excited for a side scrolling Diablo, but I don't think Vanillaware quite pulled it off. Maybe next time. I think it would also benefit from being continuous and not having separate small rooms that require a quick load with progression. And the lack of being able to go back for any reason.. Just didn't seem right to me. I guess if you only consider it as a side scrolling beat em up then it is better than a lot of others, but I viewed it more like, as I said, a scrolling attempt at a Diablo-type game. Very loot oriented.

[Gamerforlife]

I guess the question I'd have would be: how many new games did you play much of from 2013 that didn't make your list?

that's a damn good question. Off the top of my head...

Divekick
DoDonPachi SDOJ (does this count as a 2013 game?)
Dragon's Crown
Duck Tales HD
Evoland
Final Fantasy XIV
Hammerwatch
Ketsui (does this count as 2013?)
Ni No Kuni
Project X Zone


Dragon's Crown, Ni No Kuni and Project X Zone were my big disappointments for the year. Three games I thought I was bound to love, and none of the them clicked with me at all.

Also I think the only game I'm truly disappointed I didn't get around to was Beyond Two Souls, but I just never saw it drop in price enough for me. Bummer that it (and Heavy Rain) never made it to PC considering both Nomad Soul and Indigo Prophecy did.

I'd like to also play Killer Is Dead and Deadpool at some point, though neither seemed so pressing.

I'd say play Deadpool first. I had a lot more fun with it than Killer is Dead and it gave me something much closer to the experience I actually wanted from Killer is Dead

I also really want to play Beyond Two Souls, just haven't found the time or money for it. I loved Heavy Rain

I also wish I had gotten around to playing The Swapper this year

It we're discussing 2013 disappointments, I'd say Killer is Dead, Tearaway, and Dragon's Crown for me. Neither one of them is a terrible game, they just didn't live up to my expectations, or maybe it's more accurate to say that they didn't deliver what I personally look for in a game. Dragon's Crown I felt is a little too repetitive and grindy and I hate that they keep changing the game significantly from patch to patch. I like consistency in my games, not constant change. Tearaway felt too gimmicky to me, and it's trying way too hard to be charming, which had the opposite effect of making it seem obnoxious to me. Also, after playing Puppeteer, a game that just seemed aimed at the same audience as Tearaway, I just found Tearaway less fun and interesting by comparison. Killer is Dead just isn't as fun as Lollipop Chainsaw for me. It feels much more like a by the numbers action game, with less of that wackiness and zaniness of LC. The story is boring, while LC's story was fun and more clever than it initially appeared. Also, Killer is Dead has such a limited combat system, with far less in the way of combat options than LC

[Nintendork666]

Super Mario 3D World makes me giddy. It def. has my vote for the year's best.

[AppleQueso]

Super Mario 3D World makes me giddy. It def. has my vote for the year's best.

Yeah this is what I want to mention, though to be fair I feel like it's a little empty considering I'm pretty sure it and Animal Crossing: New Leaf are the only 2013 games I've played.

3D World's pretty much everything I love about Mario as a franchise in an amazing package.

I love AC too, of course, but it feels really strange to put a game like that on a GOTY type list.

[Pulsar_t]

This the year that I finally stopped bothering about GOTY's at all, but since I replied to this topic I can only think of



To be fair I haven't played The Last of Us yet.

[Sload Soap]

I enjoyed Tomb Raider a lot. But GTAV beats out everything for me. I've always been a GTA fan and though it does have a few flaws and is crass, it just has that something that I keep coming back to. My friends have also found ways to enjoy the slightly lopsided multi-player by creating our own game like "Can you land it?", "Can you hook it?" and "Joe Blacking". And only one of those involves trolling other people.

[Gamerforlife]

So anyone going to nominate their 2013 Worst Game of the Year?

Mine is Knack, the PS 4's official mascot. Yeah, that's right. Look at the PS 4's instruction booklet and you'll see his face all over the pages. He's Sony's new mascot, which is sad and pathetic. The game is basically a beat 'em up with occasional moments of platforming. The combat is crap. Knack has a move set of two moves, both weak and pathetic. His attacks has practically no range. His dash evade also has pathetic range. His moves are all sluggish with massive recovery time. His health bar seems pointless given that most attacks in the game will kill him in one hit. Even in his larger forms he still takes hits like a girl. His only saving grace is his super moves, but it takes EONS to charge them up, unless you allow yourself to keep dying so you can collect crystals on every checkpoint respawn.

Enemies are all cheap. They're faster than you and attack in tandem, giving you almost no openings to attack them as the moment you do, someone hits you in the back. Most of them like to play keep away, attacking you from afar with some manner of long range attack, and dashing away whenever you get near them, making the process of hitting them with Knack's short, little arms even more annoying. Knack was designed by assholes and it's clear in every single combat encounter.

The story is garbage, clearly written for little kids, and even they can find far better fare in most TV cartoons. Seriously, even kids deserve better than this garbage. The bar has been raised over the past couple years for kids entertainment, but whoever wrote this game's story clearly didn't notice. Also, Knack is one of the most uncharismatic characters ever created, and he's the system's mascot. He talks like he's Shaft, and delivers cheesy one liners at every opportunity and always trying to sound tough even though in actual gameplay he's as weak as a little p***y.

The upgrade system is crap. You need so many parts to get an upgrade or unlock one of Knack's more powerful forms you likely won't even acquire one until you're near the end of the game. On top of that, upgrade components are all acquired randomly and the chances of getting the better ones are about as remote as winning the lottery. And even if you do, you'll still need like ten more to unlock anything. This makes even the most offensive RNG stuff from Japanese rpgs seem tame by comparison.

The graphics are bland, I don't care how many particle effects it has or how many individual parts make up Knack's form. It all amounts to nothing when the game's artistic direction is so lifeless and sterile. The character designs are uninspired and devoid of any true artistic expression.The music is just sort of there. It's not awful but nothing stays in your head. Everything about the game, including its very title screams GENERIC.

People who defend this game by comparing it to games like Crash Bandicoot or the Lego games need to actually go and PLAY those games, because it is NOTHING like them.

So I guess that's my review, given how long this post is I think I can call it that

[Pulsar_t]

Aliens:CM easily takes the cake for me

[isiolia]

tl;dr version: The Last of Us for GoTY

Longer version:

Since I haven’t really listed games in the “Games Beaten” thread, I figured I’d just compile thoughts on 2013 releases I played a good amount of here instead, to lend context. There were others I played a small amount of, and others I bought and have yet to play, and in turn have less of an opinion on.

The Last of Us
While not exactly an original pick, overall this was my game of the year. It won me over despite the setting, and that I didn’t find every aspect of it fun per se. However, in retrospect, I consider it an achievement of the game. I don’t want to traverse areas with the Infected, but that’s appropriate. In terms of gameplay, the stealth/combat versus humans was more in line with what I tend to enjoy. Even then, combat didn’t have the polished feel of some games, but I got the impression it wasn’t supposed to. It was tuned to give feelings of dread and desperation, and at least to a degree, it worked.

Overall, the gameplay, storytelling, and production all worked together well. Elements and themes that could (and did) define entire games were just parts of the whole here. That’s what elevates it to the top for 2013.

Tomb Raider
I haven’t played much of most of the Tomb Raider games, but the trailer and early footage of the reboot put it on my radar anyway. It helped that I’d played the Uncharted games by that point, and the promise of a similar experience was enticing (even if it wasn’t exactly like them after all).

Preloaded it on Steam (the only game I’ve purchased like that thus far), and was glad I did. It’s probably the best playing game of the style I’ve tried, and I had a lot of fun with it. The plot was decent at best, the supporting characters forgettable, but it was just fun to play. It served to turn a franchise I was meh about into something I’m looking forward to a new installment from.

Bioshock Infinite
One of my most anticipated releases this year, and one that really enjoyed. That said, I think that the shooter gameplay was not complementary to the narrative, (and even that seemed scaled back from the E3 demos and such). For some series, that’s par for the course, but the –shock games have historically done a better job tying things together.

While the game isn’t bad by any stretch, it just felt like what we got was what they settled on to get the game out the door on 7th gen consoles, not what the original vision was. The setting , story, and Elizabeth serve to prop up what is otherwise merely a “good” FPS.

Super Mario 3D World
I got a Wii U for Christmas, so this seemed a logical purchase. On the one hand, there’s basically nothing to fault. It’s the 3D Mario model polished to hell and back, with a lot of variety in level design, and a lot to master and unlock for those inclined.

On the other hand, it’s more or less the same kind of experience Nintendo has been offering since the N64 (not that there’s anything wrong with that, just, not exactly mind-blowing).

Gone Home
In a word: overrated. Not that it’s bad, but, given the sheer hype around it I expected more. It’s just the “collect journals for backstory” element that plenty of games have already used, just, no game. That isn’t a problem in and of itself, as it’s a way to tell a story…but I didn’t feel like the stories it tells were that great either.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
This year’s Journey. To say too much about the game itself could spoil it, but it’s well worth the couple hours or so it takes to play through.
It’s ultimately impressive in the degree to which it actually incorporates gameplay into telling the story.

Song of Saya (official US version in 2013)
Similar to Gone Home, I felt like this was overrated. It wasn’t all that interesting. Wasn’t all that (visually) graphic either. I mean, the implications yes, but on-screen…ehhh… (not that I was hoping for that, more that it was overstated)

Castlevania Lords of Shadow: Ultimate Edition (PC version in 2013)
I had originally tried playing this on PS3, for which I own the CE. I didn’t get too far before putting it aside and not getting back around to it.
It’s derivative, far as I can tell, though I haven’t really played most of what it’s copying (namely God of War, since I find Kratos utterly unappealing to play as). Outside of (frequent) QTEs though, it’s hard to argue with the elements it lifts from other games.
The pacing can also be disjointed, at least initially. While it does contribute to a sense of growth and progression…simply put, the latter 2/3 of the game are significantly better than the first chunk. Not that other games don’t do it – hell, the Last of Us did too, after the great intro – but it simply should not take 5-6 hours for a game like this to find its groove.
That said, as a whole, it’s a gorgeously produced game that is ultimately enjoyable when it finally gets rolling. It’s possibly underrated due to the slow start.

Final Fantasy XIV: ARR
I originally wasn’t super keen on playing this, but most of my friends from XI were intending to. Tried the beta and preordered it. SE has done a nice job of utilizing assets and deriving new ones to pull in Final Fantasy fans. It’s an easy enough game to get into on those merits, even if it’s extremely derivative. Past that, I think it depends on taste. Initial leveling and rising through the story is fun. Endgame is…not. Fight mechanics are interesting, though not for pickup groups, since once things get remotely difficult people need to know what they’re doing and execute. DF is not conducive to being nice. Gear/stats/skills are utterly boring. Most of the game systems are too inflexible to do much beyond spam whatever the most efficient dungeon runs are as quickly as possible.

Deactivated my account for lack of compelling content. Guild Wars 2 is a better, more varied game in most respects, and doesn’t have a fee.

Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin (most of what was in it at launch/before July)
Congratulations, SE, it took you a decade but you got the remaining members of my LS (including me) to quit. Objectively, it’ll probably all turn out decent after a year or two of updates, but the initial content/adjustments for SoA indicated to me a severe lack of planning. There have been times when the XI team was too conservative, but every other week we were getting announcements about going back to adjust something that had just been put in the game or make promises for other adjustments. Plus months of free stuff just for logging in or staying subscribed.

Typing of the Dead: Overkill
Half knew what to expect from this one, though I didn’t know about the grindhouse plot of Overkill. Not really my thing, but I bought the game to kill things with typing, and on that front it did not disappoint.

The Stanley Parable
I doubt I’ve seen all there is to see from this one, but I did hit several endings and credits. Interesting enough, but not so much so that I couldn’t put it down.

Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed (PC version in 2013)
Great overall kart racer, though it would be better if it stuck to karts instead of the jets and boats I think. Either way, it was my go-to relax and unwind game for a little while, long enough to hit the credits sequence/etc.