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Best of 2013

by lamp

yes okay fine

i should keep track fine

what's like rateyourmusic for games

giantbomb's list thing fine

GAMES IN MY FUTURE: XCOM, Octodad

gta5 is never going to be on here, i dont like it

also teleglitch is a 2012 game so whoops

Showing 1-10 of 23 items

Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine

1. Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine

The most fun I've had with one video game this year, running through with a full party of four. Perfect ending, too.

Gone Home

2. Gone Home

Where most "story-driven games" are games with a story thread connecting them, Gone Home is a game where the mechanics inform how the story plays out, and the story informs the mechanics equally. This consideration, plus the fact that I ended up being moved by how the story plays out, makes Gone Home the best story-driven game I've seen all year.

Gunpoint

3. Gunpoint

An excellently written, mechanically tight but non-sadistic stealth game with an ending that doesn't suck. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it can also provide clean renewable energy in addition to all its other thin-air miracles.

Shadow Warrior

4. Shadow Warrior

Conflicted about this one. It'll do three things right and then one thing wrong. Even with that unreliability, Shadow Warrior is still mechanically excellent. It's a pretty coherent revival of the old FPS format, which was a style of game I wasn't done with.

Receiver

5. Receiver

Absolute minimalism appeals to me, and so Reciever does. Easy to have a long, tense time or a short burst while waiting for something to finish, which is something that most PC games and FPS games specifically don't pay much heed to.

Divekick

6. Divekick

Speaking of minimalism, Divekick! Razor sharp mechanically, unhinged in absurdity, but clear in its focus that it all works well together. I wish it didn't die down so quickly.

Papers, Please

7. Papers, Please

Horrifying. Not just in how quickly it can remove the human element of what's happening to these people, but how quickly the players can separate themselves from any trace of humanity. All the stories my friends told me about this game related to how well they did their jobs, and how glad they were to reject any and all edge cases pleading for help. Horrifying.

Volgarr the Viking

8. Volgarr the Viking

My favorite kind of platformer is where there's deliberate pacing and a possible "perfect" run with limited variables, and Volgarr The Viking is a game that punishes you for not knowing/using that path. It's a great way to test your ability to learn pattern recognition. Also a great way to break your controller.

Antichamber

9. Antichamber

haha fuck perception anyways am i right? hold on I need to go unfold this microwave into a cataclysmic abyss so I can walk across my own bridge

The Stanley Parable

10. The Stanley Parable

When I start to play a game, I spend time pushing against games while I play them, trying to see where it breaks. The Stanley Parable is a game where every time I've pushed against it, the game has directly pushed back. It stresses me out a lot, even though the story is light and comedic. At its best though it's a strong critique of the Ten Hour Movie game development trends which is something that needs to exist right about now.

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