[Question] The Gamingforce Game of the Year 2013: Heigh-ho it's off to Vote we go

Originally Posted by Tawnee Van Pelt

Too bad I can't vote since the only 2013 games I played were GTA V and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, I have yet to catch on The Last of Us, Tomb Raider and AC: Black Flag among others.

Originally Posted by OmagnusPrime

Erm, this means you absolutely can vote. If you think those games are worth some points, then give them some points. Even without the context of playing many other games from 2013 you will know if those are good games or not, and if you think they're just OK then don't throw them the full 40, throw them a smaller amount (e.g. 10 or 20).

The rules say you can't allocate more than 100 points, but I explicitly allow votes that add up to less than 100 for situations like this.

Well I guess I'll waste my time voting for and summarizing the THREE games released in 2013 that I played.

Pro Evolution Next Generation Football Simulation 2014 - 10 points
I know I'm probably the only person in this community who gives a shit about sports games anymore, but I still like trying new games and watching developers spin their wheels in the mud year-after-year. Still, I'll save us both the embarrassment by putting my review in spoiler tags.

Spoiler:

I keep hoping for the day that "next generation" sports games actually make the improvements of leaps and bounds that previous "next generation" games made, but for some reason developers keep making the same slow, incremental changes that belie the capabilities of the hardware that is out there. PES2014 is no exception; they improved texture resolution and physics at the cost of a less alert and responsive control scheme. Do those two things even relate to each other? I have no idea.

I realize the conundrum I experience with sports games, and it's one I need to consider more; that I simultaneously want a game with improved fidelity (I'm thinking of an NHL game with four officials on the ice at once; jerseys with textures that don't stretch unrealistically; crowds and stadiums that don't just exist, they live; etc.) but improves very little on an engine that has thus far been the best way to play a hockey game (NHL '94).

I know it's crazy for me to think I can have my cake and eat it too, but then we go from PES2013 (which I've been playing fairly non-stop in between Skyrim for the past few months) to PES2014 (which has tedious gameplay and no amount of community mods can unmake that) and it makes me remember that "the cake is a lie" and I should really stop paying attention to new releases because it'll never be the experience I yearn for.

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes - 5 points
Here's another game series that continues to grow from the LEGO Star Wars groundwork and get muddied in the process of growing into the next generation. I'm sorry, but how many hundreds of characters do you need that can make webs, crawl on walls, use data centers, or fly? I get that you can't have a license for a huge library of characters without making use of ALL of them, but it gets overwhelming and, again, tedious. For example, in the open world portion of the game, why do I have to find a computer in order to switch characters? Shouldn't I just be able to radio them to replace me, or even just call them? We can do this in Marvel vs. Capcom but not in this huge, "we're all in the same city helping each other anyway so just give me a buzz if you need me" New York City environment? Am I wrong to think this is absurd? Am I expecting too much again?

Bioshock Infinite - 20 points
At some point I may go back and get deeper into this game, but it's the only one of these three that didn't irritate me into stopping; I only stopped playing because Skyrim and PES2013 are easier for me to get into and out of quickly as I have less and less time to play new games these days.

Games I would like to have played from 2013
Grand Theft Auto V
The Last Of Us
Fez
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Pokemon X/Y
Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Games I'd like to play coming in 2014
Super Smash Bros. for WiiU
Watch Dogs
Next Car Game
...NHL 15 and PES2015

Jam it back in, in the dark.