[Jigsaw]

shit, max anarchy was this year too huh

man a year is too long, i can't remember squat


edit: what a tremendous top post

[remote]

[Talbain]

[Isfet]

weirdly enough, i can't remember a whole lot of what i played this year, but i know i played more games this past year than i have in a looooong time.

that said, for me, SMTIV was my GOTY. no, it wasn't Nocturne, but it was still one of the best RPGs i've played in years and i loved every second of it. enough to play through it twice. and maybe i'll even go another time, sometime in the future.

most of what (all?) i played was on 3DS; that system is really hitting all the right spots for me these days. my 360 isn't even hooked up, and the last time i used my PS3, it was for Monster World IV.

[remote]

i don't know if he looks at the forums but i'd love to see apol weigh in on ddogma

btw i played the first couple levels of back to saturn x last night and it is fresh to hell

raddest doom wad i've played in a while
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Kinto]

ACES WILD

I seriously think this is better than God Hand.
_________________

[Brooks]

Papers Please is weirdly gladdening for being so grim

People are actually starting to get the hang of mature games that don't suck

[remote]

bump, because why is everyone making other goty threads >:|
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Kitten ClanClan]

look i just came back and it was a long way to scroll down lol

also mine isn't a goty thread, i pretty much shit on everything i played
_________________

[remote]

fair enough, i guess

i'll read everyone else's posts once the threads are merged 8)
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Tulpa]

[Rud31]

#no2013threads2013
_________________
My Hawt Blog Vita Games

THERE ARE DEFINITELY WORSE VIDEO GAME PODCASTS

[Joachim]

can i vote dark souls because i mean,. i still played it this year

i havent played anything that came out this year

other than 14 minutes of rising
does that count?
i guess i have to vote rising now
_________________

[remote]

always dark souls

tulpa i'd like to know what you'd consider "important" because there's been a lot of good stuff mentioned here
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Tulpa]

I dunno obviously I'm being dismissive but like I can't really picture myself caring about any 2013 games a decade from now even in the way I care enough to retry fucking The Longest Journey in the year 2013 (and that's obviously a mistake on my part but still)

obviously I'm only talking about things I've played in 2013 but I'm also judging that I probably won't care too much about games like the last of us or even smt4

And like, Papers Please is pretty neat but it's in that genre of games that is better enjoyed as an essay describing the experience of playing it than actually playing it

Like, Perfect Stride is mechanically nice but are we really at the point where it's considered worth lauding a game for finally simplifying the trickjumping mechanics of quake 3 in a way that's still fun to play and mixing it liberally with hipstery pseudo-retro-3d?
_________________

[Felix]

I thought Papers Please was actually mechanically fun and interesting (but if you didn't I can see how that seals the whole land orca criticism).

[Brooks]

Papers is legit challenging in a way I am very relieved about

Am about to paste pen-on-paper lists of what region contains which issuing district etc. on my damn wall here because I am weak

Space management

Definitely not a land orca

I kind of have a problem with the insta-judgement of correct/incorrect processing, that would've been interesting and scary to postpone to the end-of-day assessment

[Schwere Viper]

Papers, Please - wonderful example of how to create a meaningful narrative through solid gameplay systems.
Metal Gear Rising - 'CAUSE VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE, BUT IN THE END IT'S MEANT TO BE THIS WAY.
Ys: Memories of Celceta - still the best RPG series nobody plays.
DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou - terrible moe bullshit regardless, it was great to play a DoDonPachi with a straight-forward scoring system again. oops this came out last year oops oops oops


~FUCK ALL Y'ALL SECTION~

3D SPACE HARRIER
3D GALAXY FORCE II
3D SUPER HANG-ON
3D SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
3D SHINOBI III
3D ECCO THE DOLPHIN
3D STREETS OF RAGE
3D ALTERED BEAST

ALL HAIL M2
_________________
HeavyViper@Twitter ~~~ HeavyViper@Soundcloud
Blog: Machines That Sing

[ChairTax]

Nah, SDOJ came out this year on 360 and that's gotta be considered the definitive version because the soundtrack on the PCB sounds like it's being piped out of a blown laptop speaker.

[remote]

tulpa, it may be true that we've reached a point where we aren't seeing as many landmark titles that will stand out the way a super mario bros or doom or shadow of the colossus do today, but instead we're seeing interesting refinements and reconfigurations of game types. whether it's the last of us, starseed pilgrim, the la-mulana remake, space harrier 3d (and the other m2 ports), dark arisen, or the back to saturn x doom wad, maybe it's fair to say that 2013 was about reiteration and/or simply tightening up a craft. papers, please may be one of the few things to come out this year trying to do something comparatively new, but i more or less agree about it being just as interesting on paper. so i guess i can see why you're getting bored with things, but i'm... not. i thought some of this was still very inspiring and fun to play.

schwere, one day i will have a vita and play that ys.
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Brooks]

A landmark title also kinda needs a context that's rather less busy to stand out from

I think this goes for all cultural produce now though

[remote]

right, exactly

doesn't mean there isn't cool stuff to be found imo
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Rud31]

[Bennett]

The best thing about Starseed Pilgrim is that you can't explain to people why it's amazing, and even if you do they won't get it and they'll be mad at you for recommending it.

Oh and it came out in 2012, so it's disqualified.

Having said that, Dark Souls is still game of the year, and it will be until the year someone makes something that knocks it off its perch.

[remote]

starseed came to steam in 2013 and besides i'm not strictly asking people to only mention/discuss games that came out this year
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Tulpa]

[username]

I'm currently picking away at Starseed Pilgrim and while it's not bad, I'm not sure that it's not more interesting as a concept than as an actual game. It seems that it's defining characteristic at the three and a half to four hour mark is that it is a game that doesn't tell you any of the rules it operates on, leaving you to figure that out on its own. While that is an interesting choice to make I'm torn if that really makes any difference in regards to the actual quality of the game once you get to the point where you start to understand it. If the game had a intro screen that told you the rules would it hold up, and if it didn't what would it say about the base game? I honestly don't know at this point, but I'm gonna continue to plug away at it and see.
_________________
http://www.audioatrocities.com/games/castlevania-sotn/clip1.mp3

[Bennett]

I have spoken to enough top-class designers and critics who hated Starseed Pilgrim to know that I can't sell it to anyone. I think it has one flaw in that, if it doesn't hook you in the first 15 minutes, it can never hook you. Jon Blow got pretty mad at people for not liking it, and at one level I sympathize with that, but on the other hand I eventually started to wonder if my enjoyment of the whole thing hinged on some ineffable moment that occurred just as I was getting started.

Games that have this characteristic of being mysterious and trying to pique your curiosity often are like this: they either pique it or they don't. I had a similar experience at Sleep No More, where for me it was this transcendental, incredible experience, and for the people I went with, it was just obtuse and totally failed to reveal itself.

Here's what I usually say about SP though: it's the only game I can think of where you create the game world from nothingness, not by dragging new items into a world from a drawer (a la SimCity) but by moving and playing inside the world as an inhabitant of it. It's an inversion of Minecraft... and at the end of the game, the payoff for that inversion is pretty mindblowing, at least to me.

[Tulpa]

I guess my problems playing Starseed Pilgrim stem from my not finding it mysterious at all? Not even that the mystery didn't interest me so much as I didn't get any sense of mystery at all.
_________________

[The Blueberry Hill]

[| BLUE | BLACK | PURPLE |]

This thread is better than the other thread. mostly because remote and bza know what's up

I liked this year in videogaming because nothing much happened and I appreciate that. In addition to cool things mentioned by remote and bza I also played some other things this year. Things I don't know the release dates for nor do I care! Those things were Candy Crush Saga (pretty good), Farm Heroes Saga (damn good), Minecraft Pocket Edition (phenomenal, can't believe it actually works)

So yeah, I am the enemy and I don't mind! I had fun.

[remote]

[Tulpa]

Yeah I don't mean to come across as like better than thou or anything in this thread I'm just trying to figure out why this game that works for so many people doesn't work for me. I certainly don't think I'm smarter than anyone
_________________

[radish]

Thinking about it now, I played more games than I remembered playing.

GOTYs in no order:
Metal Gear Rising
Pokemon Y
Kokuga
Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
Soul Hackers
(probably other things I can't remember were pretty good too)


Games that are I'm sure great and I need to get around to playing:
Rogue Legacy
Stanley Parable

[miaou]

Anarchy Reigns online multiplayer was good for a couple weeks until some people discovered infinite combos. I got one and a half playthroughs out of Revengeance before getting frustrated by its unfinished-ness, sewer levels in 2013, red-light-green-light boss fights, just a plethora of things that rubbed me the wrong way. A Bronze medal showing from Platinum this year. I want Vanquish 2.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen had me for a couple of months. I'm really divided on it. I explained in one of the ddogma threads how it hooked into minmax/questing-checklist tendencies that make me totally miserable. But it's also got a lot of great ideas and can be really tactically interesting and challenging until about level 20 - there are some real glowing moments in it. The Dark Arisen expansion stuff increases the density of great moments significantly over the open-world main game just by making them closer together, + reduces the amount of Skyrim-style 'questing', much to the games' benefit imo.

King Arthur's Gold is like drawings I used to make as a little miaou and I am really glad it exists.

Bioshock Infinite and its surrounding hype-storm convinced me that videogames & gamer culture were a lost cause. Because that game exists 2013 will persist in my mind as The Worst Year In Gaming. Playing Nier for the first time afterwards restored hope.

Completely agree with Tulpa re: Papers, Please being a game it is much more interesting to read about than to actually play. The Stanley Parable is similar, in that it is really more of an interactive essay itself, than a 'game you play'. Both of them are pretty tedious, honestly, in a moment-to-moment sense, but I've explored a lot more of The Stanley Parable just because it's less work. I think Papers, Please is laudable for being a 'mature game' with actual game mechanics + a play space, and that isn't a coat of paint and some words over a platformer or something, I just really can't enjoy engaging with those mechanics. The Stanley Parable's basic thesis on game narrative is something most people who have played a few story-driven games, or wondered why they couldn't use a phoenix down on Aerith, know already, but it has value as an artifact that clearly demonstrates these issues internally to itself, and it would not be the same if it were non-interactive.

I played Suda51 games this year encompassing Killer7, Shadows of the Damned and Lollipop Chainsaw + I have no idea how Suda51 ever got anyone to take him seriously in the first place.

GOTY all years is Dark Souls. That mod that makes all the enemies come find you from across the level was my Dark Souls 2.

[Glam Grimfire]

I will always be divided on Suda 51, mostly because I know his Dark Secret from working with a friend on an article for a website about him, which he had to abandon because we essentially found out that a lot of the things he's popular for he shouldn't actually be taking credit for.
If I had to append a list, now, reflecting on the year totally for my Games of The Year, In The Year Of Our Luigi 2013 it'd probably look close to this

Dark Souls for being so good and also affecting modern game design in such a way that it wins two years in a row.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds for being What it Is and an example that a certain type of design can still be done.
Metal Gear Rising for being The Most Fun I've had playing a videogame from start to finish, in one sitting, in years.
Anarchy Reigns for Itching That Itch for fighting games, and being easy enough to understand I could get my friends into them.
True Goddess Reincarnation IV: (that's SMT IV) for reminding me why I could never get into Pokemon after playing the original SMT with it's endless demon combinations, conversation options and fun 3D dungeons.
Blacklight Retribution for being the most fun and continually improved free FPS
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn for bringing back that wonderful feeling you get when you play your first MMO.

additional notes:

the combination of Fez and Bioshock Infinite for reminding me why i hate the indie game scene just about as much as I hate triple A gaming.
Endless Dungeons for being 'game i really want to play' and now 'game i really enjoy playing'
Hideki Kamiya's Twitter for being the most hyped thing in existence, 2013
_________________

##SKELETON PARTY (new article as of 04/26/14)Grim

[Baseballkappe]

[Glam Grimfire]

Essentially, in the early days of Grasshopper Manufacture (we were never able to find out if it extended as far as Killer 7) Suda 51 actually collaborated with someone else in the directorial role, on Flower, Sun and Rain, the Silver Casebook or w/e and a few other games.
That guy later went on to be a director on Contact on the DS

possibly putting Suda 51 in the category of people like Frank Miller and Jeph Loeb, as creators who require someone else to bounce ideas off of / keep them 'smart' while making something
_________________

##SKELETON PARTY (new article as of 04/26/14)Grim

[parker]

What does Suda actually have to do with Shadows of the Damned, Lolipop Chainsaw, Killer is Dead or any of these recent shitty Grasshopper games that people call Suda games and say are examples of him having "lost it" though.
_________________

[Glam Grimfire]

That's also another thing! afaik, the most important role he's had on a lot of those is as 'producer' and probably maybe mechanical oversight. i'd be more than willing to bed Suda's responsible for some of the little mechanical refinement those games had, and maybe a small bit of direction. I still love suda 51



Punks not dead!
_________________

##SKELETON PARTY (new article as of 04/26/14)Grim

[Guillotine]