You're not going to see a lot of big-name titles on here, due to the fact that I'm waiting for most of them to drop in price and/or wait to finish some more of my backlog on Steam. So among games that I legitimately played that were released in 2013, here are the top 5 I enjoyed.
Glory to Arstotzka! Death to Kolechia! A game that makes you feel the misery and suffering of working in a governmental bureaucracy and pass judgment all those who come before you, to the point where I couldn't play too much in one sitting before stopping and wondering what I was being asked to do. Papers, Please accomplished that feeling, and I'm not sure I like it, but it is a very good game to move me emotionally at all.
Technically it was released in 2012 as "Max Anarchy" but it only came to US shores in 2013 so I'm counting Anarchy Reigns in my list. Almost no advertising outside word of mouth and Platinum Games' own reputation, and no local multiplayer options mostly killed what could have been the next Smash Bros for those of us who don't own a Nintendo system. But despite all that baggage, this game was incredibly fun to play, with a wide cast of characters carrying a variety of weapon styles and swinging wildly while hoping to come out on top, and the Death Ball mode alone was pretty addictive. Ah, what could have been...
A very simple heist game designed around various specialized thieves, yet fun to play as you use each one to track different approaches and a soundtrack that seems to deviate depending on the situation you find yourself in. Just don't let Joseph have the crossbow, that dick will shoot you with it every chance he gets.
It was very short, the story was corny in that Kojima-esque manner, and the stealth action was spotty, but damn if Platinum Games didn't make a great hack-and-slash title. The parry system was a stroke of genius, the boss battles were properly challenging (though the final boss nearly made me break my controller in two until I found out how to cheese part of it) and Jetstream Sam was an interesting figure! Whoever can figure out a way to mod Sam into the upcoming Steam version of Revengeance will earn the thanks of a greatful internet.
I think I played with the pen-and-paper version once, so I was interested to see what the hubbub for this game was about. The idea of a cyberpunk story intrigued me. This game is less about the story mode (which is pretty barebones) and more about the fact that it comes with a mission creator so you can make your own. Maybe I'll even make one at some point in the undetermined future. Oh god my list is so thin.
