This year I played a few more new games than I did last year. I also found myself playing most of those games on a borrowed PS3 and I am suddenly wondering in dismay why I never got one for myself. Having said that, here are my picks for favorite games of 2013.
BIOSHOCK INFINITE - 30 Points
When I first read about Bioshock Infinite, I was really not convinced I was going to buy it. While the first Bioshock is still one of my favorite games of all time, I found the second game to be slightly disappointing in both gameplay and length. I was really kind of turned off that 2K/Irrational moved the setting from the underwater art deco gallery of decay in Rapture to a literal heavenly setting but I was surprised to be proven catastrophically wrong. The Jingoist-run, above-the-clouds city of Columbia turned out to be the kind of thunderbolt the series deserved and added a whole new level of exciting gameplay mechanics with the SkyHook. The ending was an almost Kubrickian mindfuck that stuck with me long after I shut off my Xbox and I was sure I was going to be writing this one in as my favorite game of 2013 until I played....
THE LAST OF US - 40 Points
The Last Of Us did something to me that I never thought any game would ever do: It made me stop for relatively-long stretches of time to enjoy, you know, just life in general. This wasn't because it was a bad game, though. In fact, the polar opposite is true here. This game's grimly-wonderful story and far-above-great acting has already been written about by countless publications to an almost nauseating degree, but it remains one of the best stories ever written for any video game in recent history. Heartbreak after heartbreak, whether it was from a character’s death* or from finding a hopelessly-despairing note left by a survivor who had probably long ago turned, I found myself often longing for contact from… shit… from
anyone! I would text or call my girlfriend just to know she was on the other end of the conversation or text my sister to shoot the shit. Books have done that to me;
never a video game. The soundtrack (My favorite gaming soundtrack now, second only to Grim Fandango) was also pitch perfect and didn't rely on tense, shock value moments but instead served to accentuate—not overpower—every dramatical aspect of the story. There’s definitely something wonderful to a storytelling experience that’s so immersive, that you yourself begin to feel emotionally affected as a result of being a part of it. The gameplay did, to be fair, begin to get a little repetitive at about the 70% completion mark, but it was a solidly-built combat system from the ground up regardless and I know I was definitely a different person by the time I finished it all. It was my favorite game this year.
(POSSIBLE SPOILER: *Seriously. I outright ragequit a session one weekend afternoon out of sheer anger that one character who I grew to like a little too much simply ragequit themselves. If it had been my PS3 controller, I'm sure I would have thrown it at a wall before peacing the fuck out for a simmer-down drink and to sulk in despair.)
GUACAMELEE! - 20 Points
The protagonist's name is "Juan" and the artwork is fluid, bold & colorful, which was enough of a hook for the straight up beaner in me. It was also way too short. Despite that, this side-scrolling beat-em-up was a great downloadable surprise that filled the void that side scrollers like Super Meat Boy and FEZ left. Mexico is reimagined here as a Cartoon Network-esque version of the 60's and 70's Mexican luchador films that now have a really faithful cult following (myself included) and, much like those films and thanks to its almost kitschy character design, the story and action never once take a serious turn in favor of the ridiculous humor and clever use of multidimensional dynamics. Its fun, fast-paced, over-the-top, luchador antics and fantastic contemporary/Mariachi soundtrack were an almost perfect blend of all mediums involved. If you haven't played it,
it's only $15 on the Playstation Store and you owe it to yourself to download it.
THE ROOM - 10 Points
Much like with any Humble Bundle I buy, I really only buy it for one or two games. When I bought the first Humble Mobile Bundle to have shit to play on my tablet, I was only thinking of scoring a cheap copy of Plants vs. Zombies (Which I already had on iOS on my girlfriend's iPod and on the DS, so FUCK YOU I'LL SPEND MY MONEY ANY WAY I DAMN PLEASE.) Much to my delight, I stumbled into The Room and was totally engulfed in a slickly-built puzzle game that took advantage of every touch and motion control my Nexus 7 could handle. Its innovative puzzles in a steampunk-ish package basically sucked me in for the 4 hours or so it took me to beat it. Then I did it all over again. I know that this was out for the iOS in late 2012, but I played it on my Android tablet for which it was released for this last year. I hope I can still include this, because it was too awesome not to do so.
How ya doing, buddy?
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