I have always loved lists and keeping stats of things. So when the start of 2013 rolled around I told myself that this would be the year that I finally kept a list of games I bought and beat. I want to have them around so that in years to come I can look back and have a reminder of what I did that year and what I thought about it. I'm lucky if I can remember what I did yesterday let alone years ago, so having it written down somewhere will be super useful.

2013: Games I Completed

• I beat 21 games this year.
• 18 of them were PC games, 1 Was a 3DS, 1 was a PS3 and 1 was a Wii game.
• August was my busiest month with 5 games being beaten. December was a close second with 4.
• Eleven games got 3/5 while seven games I gave a 4/5 score after playing. Nothing got a 5/5 from me this year and several games got a 2/5.
• Out of the games I beat, I think Saints Row IV was the most fun I had playing by myself as it was always fun to just run around in and play in that world. That said, I think I had the most fun overall playing Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken. I had never heard of this game and have no idea how myself and a friend came into owning them but it was amazing. The online in that game is a broken buggy mess, but I don't remember the last time I had so much fun playing a game with my friend then I did with that. It was laggy, the controls were unresponsive, and things kept glitching it, but it was always in a super fun way and we never went more then a few minuets without laughing our asses off.
• My surprise of the year was Thomas Was Alone. Like Rokcetbirds I have no idea how I came to own it, but once I started playing it I couldn't put it down. The game itself had some simple platforming and puzzles, but the characters and story is what kept me going and wanting to see how it ended. Which is saying something considering the games characters are just solid coloured squares and rectangles. It was the first game I completed of 2013, and ended up being one of the best.
• The game I beat but had the least fun with was Scribblenauts Unlimited. Nothing about that game was fun for me. As with all of these games, once you get through the first few zones it becomes apparent quickly that you just do the same thing over and over again until you win. Which is a shame for a game that is supposed to be about being creative and original, but it felt like every time I tried to do that to solve the games puzzles it just said no.
• The most disappointing game for me this year that I gave up on and never finished was Total War: Rome 2. I recently was able to wrap my head around these games with the Shogun 2 game and as someone who adores and consumes anything he can set in Roman times I was really looking forward to it. I can't really articulate why this game was so disappointing to me other then to say it all just felt lack luster, dry, and boring. On top of that the AI was terrible and when they started selling blood effects as DLC I just threw up my hands with this game and gave up. Which is sad because it was one of the few games I bought at full price. Which for me is a metric on how much I was looking forward to a game as I don't do that often. Now that Sega owns Relic I hope this is not a sign of things to come with how they treat their games.
• There are some games that don't really have a end state, but that I still point a ton of time into this year as well. Stuff like Civilization 5 and all of it's expansion, Team Fortress 2, and Blood Bowl. My god Blood Bowl. Wish I understood how to play this complex game sooner because once I learned how to play it became one of my favourite games of all time. Which is funny, because I don't even like football as a sport, but once you add in Warhammer races killing each while playing it in a strategic turn based manner it's perfection for me. Praise Nuffle I finally figure out how to play this. I could not imagine 2013 without this game in my life and the endless nights a friend and I spent playing game after gaming trying to build up our teams and think up strategies.

2013: Money I Spent On Gaming

While the above list is of games I beat, that doesn't mean that those are the only games I played. In fact I bought a lot of games this year. To be a little more precise I bought 55 games this year.

• 45 were PC
• 4 were PS3
• 4 were 3DS
• 2 were Vita
• 1 was Wii
• And I bought one system. A 3DS XL.

I spent roughly $1231.63 on video games this year. This does not include taxes, or shipping fees on the few physical games I bought. So it's probably a little closer to $1300-$1400 if I'm to be honest. Thank the gods I'm a PC guy and most of my games were bought on the cheap, because I would hate to see that number if I had to buy them at console prices.

So that was 2013 gaming for me in a nutshell. Weird year. I plan to keep this up for 2014 as I would like to compare the lists once I do this for a few years and see if there are any trends.

Looking back nothing really set my world on fire this year outside of finally learning to play Bloodbowl. Everything else just seemed to kind of happen. Here's hoping 2014 is a more interesting year. I already have my eye on a few games coming down the pipe that I will be interested in seeing how they turn out.

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