[remote]

My fellow Gamers, once again we have the best year ever in videogames. Let us reminisce and discuss our very favorites. Only serious Gamers need apply. Now, if you are true and loyal to our most cherished artform... Welcome. Game On.

• dragon's dogma: dark arisen - this one goes on my list because of the expansion, which was released as and essentially stands up as its own game, just with the original from last year attached. dark arisen is way more aesthetically inspired by dark souls, but also completely exemplifies and improves upon the strengths of ddogma's action and dungeon exploring. i feel like it's been grossly overlooked by the sb crowd, but as apol would attest it's sort of a dream game for anyone into this sort of swords n sorcery descent into darkness. he and i shared pawns as we played (i'm still playing it, actually) and... yeah! rad game, even with the main quest's absurd storyline (cuz who cares (even though it's even more blatantly berserk: the videogame than dsouls)), and pretty much my favorite of the year. if you really want to have some fun, look up youtuber vegeta311's bitterblack challenge and give it a shot.
  
  
• the last of us - enough has been said, but i'll just add that it was the first AAA game in years to draw my attention and impress me this much. despite being another zombie apocalypse game at a glance, it offers far more depth and heart than most games of this kind nowadays. i'd count it among the ps3's handful of unique essentials. my only real regret is that its survival mode is not unlocked from the start, and that's where the game really shines.
  
  
• starseed pilgrim - existential kubrickian tetris gardening. that barely says anything, i guess. you have to play it to see, and i loved this game before i understood how to play it as much as i did once i began to make discoveries. such a thoughtful and neatly crafted game. thanks, droqen.
  
  
• hammerwatch - placing this a bit higher on my list than i might have otherwise simply because i've had some excellent times playing this online with lofi, offal, lenox/cactusfriend, and smithee. lots of drunk voice chat, linkin park midis (w/ lenox vox), piiissss!!! and dat fuckin coffee. uh, nevermind about all that. it's basically a gauntletlike with some bullet hell qualities and it's not a perfect game, but with a group of buddies it's fun as all heck. and it looks really nice, too.
  
  
• space harrier 3d - if you own a 3ds and you don't have this, what the HECK are you doing with your life.
  
  
• papers, please - this game probably deserves attention more than any other this year.
  
  
• yume nikki 3d - i don't know whether i prefer this game in 2d or 3d, but it's so perfectly suited to a version in this style. even if you've never played yume nikki, just go for it and play this.
  
  
• the stanley parable - despair in a box. (honestly, don't read any more of this until you've at least played the demo, and maybe some of the game.) it's often playfully funny, but ultimately provides the experience of a kafkaesque nightmare that loops inescapably, toying with you and your illusions of choice all the while. every click of your mouse elicits the sound of clacking keys, reminding you that you are never truly transported, never gaining any grand fulfillment even when the game teases or mocks you with illusions — still, in reality, sitting at your desk while the game plays you.
  
  
• teleglitch - overhead sorta hotline miamiesque doom/quake/halflifelike roguelikelike, silent hill vibes, etc.
  
  
• la-mulana - it took long enough to make it to steam, but here it is. you probably already know it's great. if you don't, think of it as a platforming adventure in the vein of castlevania or super ghouls 'n ghosts, with a bit of metroid and super mario bros. 3 sprinkled in. also, difficulty that draws comparisons to dark souls. it's a treasure; one of my favorite games to come out in the last few years.

games i feel mixed about:

• shin megami tensei 4 - don't get me wrong: i like this game a lot, and i especially like its music, but for as much of its atmosphere and presentation i feel is so good, it's also horribly marred by inconsistent art direction and a storytelling style that is a lot cheesier than the perfectly sublime nocturne. it's really cool as a mix of that game's feel and the 2d battles of the super famicom games, but it feels slightly off and it is just a hair away from being something i'd place higher up in a goty list. still, i'm glad i played it and it's one of the coolest 3ds games.
  
  
• pokemon x - less mixed and more just lukewarm. it's such a pleasant little game with so many loving touches, but it also feels kinda... "so what?" it's earthbound without anything that makes earthbound interesting. it's really cute, though! it was also my first pokemon game ever.
  
  
• warframe - uuuugh. i want to love this game for its nihei-style biomechanical sci-fi aesthetics and john woo parkour ninja action, but it's a constantly mutating mess of a f2p grind-machine and it just doesn't have the focus to be as great as i want it to be.

and just listing some cool games i'd like to play more of, or at all:

• doom wads: hadephobia and back to saturn x
  
• crypt worlds (and i kinda hope somebody can talk about this one)
  
• starbound
  
• king arthur's gold
  
• path of exile
  
• armored core: verdict day (maybe...)
  
• deadly premonition on pc
  
• ys: memories of celceta
  
• soul hackers (i just got this one in the mail today, 10 bucks via amazon flash sale aw yeah)
  
• etrian odyssey 4
  
• fire emblem: awakening
  
• kokuga
  
• hiversaires
  
• monaco
  
• perfect stride
  
• gunpoint
  
• the swapper
  
• knock-knock
  
• outlast

maybe a little mention for the dark souls 2 network test, which was a bit of an event and a huge tease.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[boojiboy7]

There is a doom .wad named after a sorta-lost GbV album? That is kinda wonderful.

[Loki Laufeyson]

space harrier 3d - see above (and presumably, below). game of the year 1985 and 2013

farcry 3: blood dragon - i enjoyed this a lot, it's a fun game with a great aesthetic and cool music.

saints row iv - another game i love. taken with the second and third game, forms a trilogy recounting the redemption of a criminal sociopath who becomes the savior of mankind via the prism of friendship.

armed seven - a simple and relatively easy shooter, but still a lot of fun, and it doesn't feel as easy as it actually is, if that makes sense?
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http://lunaticobscurity.blogspot.com/ - newest post: Snezhaja Koroleva (Arcade)
http://lunargarbagehell.blogspot.com/ - newest post: Batman: Digital Justice

[Felix]

I had pretty mainstream tastes this year

Saints Row IV is probably close to tops for me (in part because it is tonally so close to 15 year old me's idea of perfection and because its success is largely due to open-world things I don't typically like very much), Sanic Kart 2 is one of the most polished and fun and challenging games I played this year but I guess the console version technically came out in 2012, ditto Trials Evolution

Diablo 3 console and Anarchy Reigns were both good stupid fun

I skipped Hammerwatch because I can only do so many Gauntletlikes without three other people telling me to PLAY WITH THEM BECAUSE THE GROUP IS ALL READY, and you seem to play more land orcas than I do, but I've definitely been meaning to get around to Papers Please

[remote]

truuuue, sonic kart 2 should be on my list for the pc version as well. so good, even though i fail miserably when racing online...
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Brooks]

The only things I can actually recall playing this year are Gone Home and JJASB so those are my Games of the Year

[Jigsaw]

Dragon's Crown
Volgarr the Viking
Injustice


... are three games from this year I can recall having played.

:|

[Ronnoc]

This was a pretty weak year, in retrospect :/
Dis what I got

Metro: Last Light
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Rayman Legends
Company of Heroes 2
Anarchy Reigns

[Brooks]

This was also the year of more Kickstarter/WIP vaguely interesting but far off and so instantly forgotten small studio projects popping up in my RSS client than ever before

Embarrassment of options on the one hand and yet nothing instantly shrieked PLAY ME; life after monoculture; sense of possibility rises and so apparently do my demands

[Mikey]

A Dark Room y'all - one of the best text-based games I've played in ages. http://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/

[secret character]

The Wonderful 101 might've been GoTY, but I don't have a Wii U or know anyone with one, so Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was definitely it for me. Platinum wins, in either case.

I wish Warframe could have been it, because it has tons of potential (even just the game that exists in it, and not the things everyone comes into it thinking it will/should be) but wow does it have problems.
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[Ronk]

if i had a Wii-U, i'd probably say Super Mario 3D World, but sadly i don't.

Gone Home, Papers, Please and The Last of Us were all games i enjoyed and spent a lot of time telling other people to play, but personally i spent way more time with my 3DS this year, obsessing over Animal Crossing: New Leaf and, more recently, 3D Super-Hang On.
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[remote]

yeahhh i really want to play super mario 3d world

3d super hang-on should probably be on my list, too!
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Rokkan]

[Persona mobile]

My year of games:
- Super Hang-On
- Pokemon X
- Shin Megami Tensei IV
- Etrian Odyssey IV
- Soul Hackers
- Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
- Fire Emblem as soon as I start it


Surprisingly didn't care about Animal Crossing. This has been a fucking great year for 3DS games though. Why did I buy this piece of shit at launch?

Oh also Tim's Vita game:
- ten by eight

Great puzzle game. Only reason I turned on my Vita this year.
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[Guillotine]

My favourite game this year has to be Jojo ASB, the fighting game for old people that is not scared to pull off a couple of patches in a few months with enough content to keep a serious game afloat for a couple of iterations.

Honorable mention to Anarchy Reigns, the could-have-been the most fun multiplayer brawler and the next big thing if only Sega cared a tiny tiny bit.

[Talbain]

I enjoyed The Stanley Parable.
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[nothingxs]

[bza]

Here are the games either released in full this year or reaching open beta that I played ~

Path of Exile - I've said it before but it's basically what I wanted from Diablo III. A bleak dungeon crawl through a fallen empire full of monsters with a ridiculous amount of character customization, loot, and actual difficulty. The skill gem and passive tree are straight up bonkers regarding the amount of permutations, but you will probably always focus on a few powerful skills regardless of build. It's also the only F2P game I've played where I didn't feel like I was missing out by not paying.

Starbound - A new early-access "beta" game in the vein of Minecraft and Terraria but with an unimaginable number of planets to explore rather than a generated map or infinite plane. Currently there is quite a lot to explore even in its unfinished state, I've had enough fun already to justify my pre-order and they've already updated it twice. Downsides include dumb enemy AI and janky combat, but both are being overhauled so I'm staying hopeful. Terraria fans froth freely!

Knock-Knock - Ice-Pick Lodge's (Pathologic, The Void) latest experiment, supposedly made according to a series of strange letters and photographs the studio received from a fan. You play as a wild-haired bug-eyed insomniac living alone in the middle of the woods in a chaotic house full of strange things and must survive until morning every night. Can you trust his mad gibbering or the voices you hear? Who's that girl in the woods I keep seeing... Anyways, it's an obtuse but engaging side scrolling hide and seek nightmare simulator, and if that sounds interesting to you I'd definitely recommend.

FFXIV - Kind of a surprise here since I've become so cynical about MMOs in general, FFXIV was actually very refreshing. A quick and not-as-tedious leveling flow through various zones that feel more real than most fantasy games, simple multi-class system, and fairly grounded clothing/armor design kept me interested enough to play for the month that came with the (heavily discounted) game. When I have more time to play I'll be picking it back up again for some casual dungeoning.

SMTIV - I'm only about halfway through the game and I've lost interest a few times, but it's definitely an SMT game. At first I hated the fact that enemies will straight up OHKO your demons when you enter a new area, but then I got more into fusion and started to appreciate the fact that random encounters are actually dangerous. Starting to think my patience for turn based RPGs has worn out, however.

Papers, Please - Play the demo and if you like it buy the game, it's one of the most unique I've played in recent memory and a salve for the constant stream of rehashes that is modern gaming. You take the role of a citizen of a communist country forced into a border crossing job where you must process as many people as you can every day to provide for your family's needs. The tricky part is when you need to point out inconsistencies in their documents while balancing speed so you and your family don't starve/freeze/lack medical care. It's morally ambiguous and very interesting!

Gone Home - I have trouble comparing Gone Home to other games because you can't really win or lose but explore the house until certain things happen. VGX putting it in the same list as BF4 got me thinking about this again and I didn't really come to any sort of conclusion other than we need a better vocabulary. It's a short but interesting experience! Like looking through an interactive window into other people's memories. I felt it was really expensive for what you get but others probably feel differently.

Outlast - Outlast was interesting because it felt like a high-budget title but was self published by a small studio. Very polished with a strong feeling of being in an actual body rather than being a floating camera- your character will place his hands on walls or door frames to steady himself and movement feels heavy. The bad news is when things break the flow and suddenly it becomes very clear in your head how the enemies work. I also ran into a few points where it was visually unclear where I could actually go while my face got pounded in.

ArmA 3 - I haven't played the first part of the campaign yet but Bohemia has once again provided a huge amount of realistic terrain and urban environments for players to... do whatever they want basically. I can't think of any other game series like it, and ArmA 3 takes everything from the previous games and then adds a much smoother control scheme to it. Infantry combat feels like a solid modern FPS now rather than a struggle with the awkward controls and animations, and engine improvements mean that if you can play ArmA 2 you can play 3 despite the fancy new graphics. The night lighting is some of the best I've seen, and the volumetric clouds/weather are something I wish every game had.

Pokémon X/Y - Yeah yeah, how could such a long running series hold the modern adult gamer's attention? Oh right, by being adorable and adding lots of optional silly things to do on top of the old formula. X/Y changed it up just enough to keep me going, and the fact that every pogey is in glorious 3d was just icing. I was really impressed with the multiplayer functions too, as you play with Wi-Fi enabled you see a constant stream of other players and can give/receive buffs as well as trade or battle with them!

Warframe - Saved this one for last as I'm rather mixed on it. On one hand it's fun to sprint around shooting crazy weapons at enemies but on the other it's incredibly obtuse for new players to get into and the developers don't seem to realize this. Each update brings new bosses, weapons, enemies, and level sets but fails to address core issues with the game. I'm hopeful they'll get around to it but until then I can't really recommend Warframe unless you play with someone here who can walk you through the lack of cues/tooltips/whatever for new players.

[nothingxs]

maybe i'm playing path of exile wrong but i can't get excited for it

maybe diablo 3 soured me on this kind of game forever?
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select button
i've gotta let go. i've gotta get straight. why'd you have to make it so hard? let me get away.
3DSFC 1736-1476-0518

[bza]

It starts off really slow and dull but seriously picks up steam in the second and third acts. That's probably my biggest problem with it, nothing is really dangerous or interesting until you get a ways in. I forgot to mention the ladders and events they've added since I first played, they have some fun timed events!
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[nothingxs]

i beat it once already and i'm in the next difficulty and ... well it's still kind of boring anyways
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select button
i've gotta let go. i've gotta get straight. why'd you have to make it so hard? let me get away.
3DSFC 1736-1476-0518

[Gironika]

Games I've bought this year - Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider, Remember Me, Tokyo Jungle, Journey Collect. Ed., Sotc+Ico(PS3), Star Ocean 4(PS3), Killer is Dead, Armored Core VD, GTAV, GT6, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon.
Games I've played this year - Epic Mickey2, Sleeping Dogs, Driver:SF, Remember Me, Armored Core VD, Persona4Arena, GTAV, GT6.
Games I have to play, but won't make it until end of year: Last of Us, Killer is Dead, Blood Dragon (hell YEAH), Tokyo Jungle and AC:VD.
Games I've sold this year - Epic Mickey 2.
Games I've finished this year - Sleeping Dogs, Remember Me.

And if I'm honest, it is a close call between Sleeping Dogs and Remember Me. Both are by no means great games (as in: contenders w/ Last of Us for GOTY-glory), but they managed to stand out among the long list of games I've played so far. SD has been the better GTA and managed to pull me in better than V does, even though GTAV is more polished, nicer-to-play and easier-to-like. Remember Me on the other hand managed to do that magic trick where, at one point in the game, you suddenly understand how it's supposed to be played. During a boss-battle, everything fell in place and I "got" it, I felt like this was exactly how the dev/designer wanted a player to play this, it just felt natural. Add to that: an excellent setting, excellent soundtrack, wonderful 2084 SciFi-stuff, and icing on the cake - visiting Paris for the first time during my playthrough of the game.

So without further ado, my GOTY2013 nominee is
~~~Remember Me~~~


+ bonus content:

<3 Remember Me
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[a pair of gators]

don't have much to add other than seconding Dark Arisen. i enjoyed the original Dragon's Dogma, flaws and all. i don't feel like it's as Dark Souls influenced as most people as the structure of Bitterblack Isle is more akin to Wizardry where you're making slow, incremental progress deeper in a single sprawling dungeon, punctuated by hasty retreats to the surface. if being hilariously outmatched as you fight through a dungeon that's constantly doing things like drenching you in water to extinguish your lantern mid-fight and making you fight 3 cyclopes the size of buildings at the same time is your idea of fun there's not much better.

also i may just have low standards but Diablo 3 is a much better console couch co-op brawler than a PC dungeon hack & the gf & i have had a ball playing it lately.

[remote]

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

as far as I can tell, the only games I played that were released in 2013:
-roughly a dozen free roguelikes for Windows, most of which were barely there and also barely played
-the demo for Gunpoint (I like the shot of the protagonist in his apartment that shows the apartment above him more clearly)
-the demo for Ghost93
-A Dark Room

GOTY would be divided up between A Dark Room and Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead 0.8, I guess.
Pixel Dungeon latest.release represents the first (and only) game I played on the Android platform. Pretty neat adaptation of Brogue.

I guess I also "played" Cookie Clicker. And Candy whatsit, if that debuted in 2013.

[OffalAl]

Samurai Gunn released on Steam today and it's got everything beat, I reckon.
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[wourme]

[remote]

[OffalAl]

no online mode tho
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[remote]

oh noooooo
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[username]

Jelly no Puzzle got its full release this year, so I have to give that a mention. I'm also an unabashed fanboy for Rockstar's openworld games so GTA V would make my personal list.
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http://www.audioatrocities.com/games/castlevania-sotn/clip1.mp3

[Ronk]

GTA V and Pokemon X/Y were two games i actively enjoyed playing but can't actually bring myself to finish for some reason
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[Toups]

this thread needs more link between worlds yo
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[Talbain]

[remote]

i don't quite understand anything you just said. there's resource management in the stamina bar and curative items. you repeat some things in bitterblack not because of said lack of resource management (which... huh?) but because it's a treacherous place and you're going to run up against walls in the form of giant monsters until you've leveled a bit and purified some better equipment. lastly, as a mystic knight i've used a wide range of attacks and i am now as an assassin as well, and i've never felt stuck on one or two moves. you sound like you're talking about a videogame, but it's not ddogma. i don't even know where you're pulling "tech demo" from unless it's just a buzzword for something else you're getting at. the one thing i agree with is that in the base game there's almost too much retracing your steps over the same territory since the game's world is surprisingly small. the effect isn't the same in bitterblack, which is an immense and knotted dungeon rather than an open field veined with ravines and familiar roads.

speaking of a link between worlds, i'm actually playing it, and after a few hours and a couple of dungeons i'd say it's an actually good zelda game, but it's a zelda game and it feels almost too brisk and tidy and... idk! playing it is like pushing buttons to watch a machine spin around and dazzle you, and i have yet to feel like it's going to cut me loose on a world i already find very familiar (and somehow smaller here). it's pretty charming, though, and i'm sure i'll play it to the end. it's just sort of funny to me that i have no real complaints about it other than that it's too "perfect," but i want to see more stuff in it that feels truly inspired and adventurous.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Talbain]

[boojiboy7]

So I think the 2013 release I played more than any other would be Dragon's Crown, so that might be my GOTY?

That's weird.

[Talbain]

[boojiboy7]

Except neither of those were 2013 releases, whereas Dragon's Crown was.

I mean, there are non-2013 releases I played more, but yeah, DC is the 2013 winner I guess.

[Talbain]