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

Thanks for the heads-up OP!

I haven't play that many 2013 releases, so I'll just rate the games I played:


The Last of Us - 20
It's more of an interactive story rather than a game. The gameplay gets repetitive and a bit boring, but the story totally makes up for it. Although I'm not a big fan of zombies, this game's take on the zombie genre was really entertaining and the "shocking" moments in the game made the narrative a lot more gripping.



Tomb Raider - 30
I never really played any of the previous Tomb Raider games, and I've never played Uncharted prior to this. So it's an entirely new experience for me playing a new character and a new type of game. This was a really fun game, the adventure aspect is really rich, and although the enemies on each level just serve as a things for you to kill to make it to the next level, it doesn't take away the progression of the story. There could have been more puzzle solving and tomb raiding, but in the end it's still a fun experience.



Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - 25
I didn't like Raiden on MGS2, and when they announced this was going to be a hack n' slash game, I was a bit disappointed. But when I played it, oh my golly, this game! It's ridiculous how ridiculous this game is! I tried taking it seriously, but it's just so bonkers you'll just have to let go of everything you know and let the game take your hand and fly to fun land. This game was made for fun.



GTA V - 25
Another franchise that I had no interest for is GTA. I'm not a big fan of open world games. I never finished GTA 3. Vice City, and San Andreas. I never touched GTA IV. And I had no plans of playing GTA V. But I was intrigued! I was curious! They made this big sprawling city full of stuff to do, they had 3 protagonists you can switch to at any time, you can fly planes, cars, speedboats, submarines, and I actually think the story is interesting. The first few hours of the game is where I think it shone, I liked how the story leads you to each character and their own mini stories. But there comes a point later where you're left on your own to do what you want. I guess the point of the game is to dick around until you finish everything, but I really liked the story progression in the first few hours and would have liked it if it stayed like that throughout the whole game. Still, it's a really fun game. It's also one of the games where I had to explain to my wife what it is all about.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I should probably post something before Omagnus murders me in my sleep.

Xenob- Wait, it wasn't released anywhere else this year? Damn.

Gunpoint - 5 Points

I'd forgotten that this was a 2013 game until Qwarky gave it some points. It caught my interest because the guy who made Gunpoint also wrote a fantastic short story with the same humor in This Is How You Die. I would give Gunpoint more points if it was longer, but it does have some replay value to it and will have Steam Workshop functionality at some point for user created levels.

The writing doesn't disappoint one bit:

Er, maybe not the best example:

Rayman Legends - 10 Points

Just like Rayman Origins, this was an amazing platformer. They juiced up the Skull Tooth/endless runner-type levels by making them all different musical styles, followed by obscenely difficult 8-bit versions of all of them played with a rounded CRT image that flickers with static. It would have been a lot better if Ubisoft had released it 7 months sooner when it was finished, but at least we got nearly all of Rayman Origins put into it as a result. That's something.

Fire Emblem: Awakening - 10 Points

I could say something here, but honestly I just need to get back to playing this. I'm not too far in, and it's quite possibly the best Fire Emblem released outside of Japan. Other people here have already showered it with praise, so I won't bother.

The Last of Us - 15 Points

I kept delaying this post partially to play more of The Last of Us and say more about it, but that didn't pan out. Instead I spent the weekend in a delirious, half-asleep haze and accomplished nothing, but I can already tell from what little I've played that it's an incredible game. Sure, the immersion breaks down a bit when the AI starts bumping into the mutants I'm carefully sneaking around or teleports down a tunnel when she just said she couldn't swim and I'd need to find another way, but I love what I've played so far.

Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan - 15 Points

I'm a little torn on this one. It's definitely much easier than previous Etrian games, but also a huge step forward. The airship exploration is neat, and they opted to make each area 3 floors plus several small mini-dungeons instead of the usual straight up 5 floor sections. Even though it's easier it still has a degree of difficulty until the last stratum when the Imperial class becomes available which decimates everything in its path. It felt like a much shorter game than usual, but that was only because I played it non-stop straight through the 3rd stratum. I'd say the positives far outweighed the negatives here.

Bioshock Infinite - 20 Points

It's no secret that I love airships, so Infinite had me with its first trailer. Between the setting and the great job they did with Elizabeth this was a high contender for my #1 GOTY. This is where I'd post Elizabeth's version of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" since I've listened to it around 100 times since finishing the game, but Qwarky already took care of that. Fun fact: I've listened to it twice while typing this post.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds - 25 Points

It feels like I should be giving this and Bioshock more points, but I really wanted to include those other games. I was a little wary about the item rental system going in, but it really did work out. I could easily see that becoming the new standard for Zelda games with a few tweaks. I've been lamenting the lack of top-down Zelda games for years now (no, Phantom Hourglass and Choo-Choo Ghost Time don't count), and Nintendo made this one damn near perfect. The dungeon design, music, everything is perfect.

I saw an article yesterday where one of the devs said not to expect 60 FPS every time. They had only done it here to make the 3D really work. This is also the first and only 3DS game where I played almost exclusively in 3D, because it really did make the game look better. If 60 FPS was what made that happen then they should strive for that quality every time from now on.


Honorable Mentions Because Damn Did A Lot of Great Games Come Out This Year:

- Rune Factory 4 - Took everything RF3 did right and improved.
- Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - Best single player MMO.
- Rogue Legacy - Who doesn't love a game about inbreeding?
- Animal Crossing: New Leaf - This was tons of fun with nearly everyone at the Meet playing.
- GTA V - I've only gotten up to Trevor's first few missions, but really meeting Trevor is all you need to see how great this is. It's a nice return to the humor GTA had back with 3 and Vice City.
- DuckTales: Remastered - If it had been DuckTales 2: Remastered then it would have gotten some points. WHERE IS MY NIAGARA FALLS, WAYFORWARD?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The Wolf Among Us - 5 points

I haven't played Telltale games before, but I tried this title because I've been following the comic and was pleasantly surprised for what they put together. Looking forward to the next parts.

Bioshock Infinity - 10 points

I never cared much for the previous Bioshocks, but gave this a try anyway and it was a pretty fun ride.

DuckTales: Remastered - 20 points

It's been so long since I played the original and this brought back some memories. Good work on the remake, really.

XCOM: Enemy Within - 25 points

I liked Enemy Unknown, but I felt that it was somehow lacking. Enemy Within fills those gaps and brings more to the table. It kinda feels like this is what Enemy Unknown should have been from the get-go, but shit was cut and sold with all the intended features as a stand-alone again. Oh well, plenty enjoyable to run.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - 40 points

Holy balls, this game. That soundtrack. The action. All the silly shit and it still worked like a charm. Definitely the biggest surprise and most fun run for me from 2013.

In the end it has to be this way.



I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Since I can't just put 100 points into the Revegeance soundtrack, here's my listing. Waited until the last minute as I actually didn't play and beat some of these games until this month. Gonna be lazy and just copy/paste my top 10 and descriptions from my GiantBomb listing and just assign points that way. Sue me.

Metal Gear Rising: Revegeance - 25 points
NANOMACHINES SON. Seriously, the game is amazing. My only gripes are the camera (mostly getting screwed by offscreen RPGs + lockon camera is a little wonky at times) and it's reallllly short. Breezed through it (excluding 2 parts) on Hard in like 5 hours.

Fire Emblem: Awakening - 15 points
Aside from me apparently being terrible at the game (which I don't hold against it), my only real complaints were that the plot pacing seemed off; the game seemed to be over very quickly with a lot of time spent on some parts but not on others story-wise in kind of a weird way. With how it was unfolding I was expecting it to be much longer. Gameplay-wise I wasn't fond of how the entire goddamn map of enemies would usually start all moving in on you at the same time. Also still not a big fan of the staple FE trope of multiple waves of reinforcements that can easily fuck you if you don't already know where and when they're going to spawn. It's much worse in this game than I remember in the previous games. That said everything else is pretty stellar, and the characters and their interactions makes it for the most part.

The Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds - 10 points
Awesome game that is horribly blemished by the worst minigames of all time (namely octoball) that tie heart containers behind them. Also the game is reallllllly easy, like shockingly so. Not saying I want a balls-bustingly hard game, but come on.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon - 10 points
This game is fantastic; the ending sequence is top 5 of all time, it is fucking insanity. The environments graphically get pretty repetitive, and the humor is a bit hit or miss, but the game is short enough where it doesn't overstay it's welcome. I also fully support weird/crazy small spin-offs like this, especially from a major franchise.

The Last of Us - 10 points
I'm in the camp on this one where it was (for the most part) an amazing story and cast, but the actual act of playing the game was so-so. Wasn't bad or anything, but I've just never really gotten too into the gameplay/combat of any of the ND games. Also never got used to that weird motion blur effect they use a lot in the game with camera movement.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 10 points
Less a game and more of a simulator, I feel like this has to be on my list if nothing else because of the sheer amount of time I put into it (~200 hours). I'd probably still be playing it if there was some minor quality of life improvements implemented like being able to lock one or two villagers from being able to move, etc. In that regard the game suffers a lot from the typical Nintendo plodding pace and hand-holding; having to re-confirm dialogue for simple actions every single time you do them, menus, etc. Had a blast with it, but made myself stop playing when it felt like I was working a second job just to maintain upkeep on the town.

Tomb Raider (2013) - 5 points
While their pre-release talk about wanting to protect Lara and make her a strong origin story wound up being complete bullshit in-game, the game was a blast to play and it was fun just running around and exploring the world.

BioShock Infinite - 5 points
While I still had the same problem with this game as I did the first BioShock in that I didn't think the combat was super awesome, everything else is pretty top notch. While maybe not quite on the level of Rapture, it's great world that makes you want to explore everywhere, and while I think the plot jumped the shark a bit at the end it was still a pretty good reveal and interesting.

Grand Theft Auto V - 5 points
First GTA game I actually finished. Has weird pacing issues - Franklin is kind of ignored honestly, and the whole (required) quest chain with Michael at the end with the movie stuff was just kinda weird. It's an amazing world to mess around in though.

Also GTA Online is hot fucking garbage, hoooooly shit.

Dynasty Warriors 8 - 5 points
Lu Bu Something Something


Also the obligatory games that were released in 2013 that might have made my list but I didn't get to them in time:

Project X Zone
Shin Megami Tensei IV (will probably start this next)
Tales of Xillia
Saints Row IV
Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan
Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl
Deadly Premonition Director's Cut

Most amazing jew boots

Sadly, 2013 was a year of playing mostly 2012 or earlier releases. I did manage to try out a few, though, and this is what I thought of them:

Metal Gear Revengeance - 35
For starters, I have never played a Kojima game before, much less anything Metal Gear related. This was such a treat to play, and much love to Skills for getting it for me. The gameplay is slick and fun as all hell; the plot was thin, linear, and contrived, but self-consciously so; and finally it was quite challenging, but not infuriatingly or unreasonably so. (Except Monsoon. He can suck all the dicks.)
I'm docking 5 points because they really can't write women characters for shit(even compensating for the fact that they're all written as caricatures), and because of the needlessly slow UI and loading animation crap. For example, during VR Missions, you have to wait through all the dumb camera panning and zooming, HUD "boot-up" animations, and so forth, every time you restart the mission. (Because you screwed up somewhere. And you will screw up. Many many times.) This is frustratingly poor ui design. Surely a quick-restart key wouldn't be that computationally taxing, would it?

Saint's Row IV - 30
By the time of this write-up, I've only gotten through 75% of the story, but I think that's enough to get an idea of the game for a review.
A worthy successor in the series. Enjoyable gameplay, great voice-acting, and that dark humour I can't help but love.
However, the majority of the game just felt like a reskin of the Prototype games. They also reused the Steelport map from SR3. Hella lazy, dudes.

Fez - 35

Best puzzle platformer I've played in ages.
Though, god DAMN, that rising lava level.
My only lament is that it was too short.

Spoiler:

YouTube Video

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

25 Points - Papers, Please
Everything about this game is calculated to make you feel like a terrible human being, which makes it the most thematically and atmospherically successful game of the year.


25 Points - Monaco
Skills is the Gentleman. As the point man on this operation, he knows the layout of the gallery and the locations of the masterpieces we're after. As a master of disguise, he easily slips in and out of rooms, looting safes and patrons. This job is a cakewalk.

Tails is the Cleaner. As the muscle, he knocks out a guard from behind before they even know something's wrong. He then shoots the guard anyway, because he has two bullets and might as well use one of them now.

Diss is the Mole. He finds the concept of doors personally offensive: why should he bother having to operate a plank of wood when a hole in the wall would make his comings and goings that much more efficient? Diss tunnels way into the next room, where five guards have surrounded Tails and a corpse, summoned by the sound of a gunshot.

I am the Locksmith. Within the first five seconds of this operation, I have used my lockpicking gifts to hastily hide in a stairwell. From perfect safety, I watch as Tails and Diss are swiftly dispatched by the gallery's security force. Having gone through this same routine in the last six heists we pulled today, we have this down to a pattern: I quickly dash in, revive them, and return to safety for the next accident. Only this time, I fail to time a motion detector correctly and set off an alarm. I do not make it back to the stairwell.

Skills, carrying nine paintings at once, steals a car and leaves the gallery completely undetected. Our skeletons remain in the lobby forever, a grisly warning to those who would dare rob the Galerie D'Art.


20 Points - Rayman Legends
Most joyful platforming experience of the year. Also includes almost the entirety of Rayman Origins because why not.

YouTube Video

20 Points - Fire Emblem Awakening
Soundtrack of the year, RPG of the year, Gregor of the year.




5 Points - Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
Basically just more of the same from AlphaDream, and maybe not as good as Inside Story, but it's solid. Bros. Attacks get more and more intricate every game, and they admit that they're essentially minigames at this point by making minigames out of them. Giant battles are outstanding. Massifs are characters of the year.


5 Points - Room of 1000 Snakes
Best archaeological simulator since La-Mulana.

FELIPE NO

Voting closed. Results are in the works. Keep an eye out for the new thread appearing soon.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?