by asmo917
I had about 30 games I wanted to include on this list, so narrowing it down to 10 was like choosing which family member I wanted to disappoint. Fortunately, I had some practice in that area...
Showing 1-10 of 10 items
I loved this game, the soundtrack, the story, the sense of discovery. More than any other game I played this year, Gone Home connected with me on a personal level by creating a definite sense of place that should be familiar, but also making you feel like just enough of an outsider or an interloper.
Probably the most fun I've had all year. The Crackdown sequel we wanted, but not the one we deserved until now. I initially had this much lower, until I realized that the sense of joy and fun I felt while playing this was completely unrivaled in 2013.
It may seem odd for someone with a desk job to consider a desk job simulator among the best games of the year, but Papers, Please mixed in enough variation in tasks and oppressive sense of impending doom that I had to see what the next day brought.
Nine months of backlash wasn't enough to convince me I didn't enjoy this. Combat wasn't perfect, but proved to only a minor hindrance to enjoying the story. The Luteces stand out as my favorite characters of the year, too.
This was too uneven to go any higher: writing went from sharp and funny to painfuly immature and tone deaf in the blink of an eye. The too-few heist missions were outstanding, and narrative arc of Trevor, Michael and Franklin made up for the low points.
If the soul-crushing drudgery of Papers, Please wasn't enough of a cubicle life simulator, The Stanley Parable opens with the promise of more of the same. It's not, as the adaptive narration and commentary on player choice and game design was a fun, playful break from heavier fare this year.
Good game, hopefully an even better platform for more content. One of multiple games to continue last year's tactical revival and it scratched a fantasy/cyberpunk itch I didn't know had been bugging me.
As someone who appreciates fighting games but doesn't have the history with them to do anything other than get bodied when I try to play, Divekick was refreshing. Ignoring the in-jokes leaves you with a competent two-button fighting game that intrinsically teaches concepts like spacing, control, aggression, and how they fit in the broader fighting game world. The game's sense of humor is a nice cherry on top.
I couldn't think of 10 better games than this. Joking aside, this was a great experience with a really good story and powerful end. the control scheme and how it fits with the narrative and story-telling is simply ingenious.
A late addition, this bumps off Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag since I haven't had a chance to finish the later. Gameplay is relatively simple, but the sense of disappointment I felt when making a decision to let my son or daughter down was surprisingly affecting. I couldn't place this higher because I get the feeling that I got a good ending by balancing who I sided with, disappointed, and compromised with, but I'm loathe to replay it to test my hypothesis. I feel like, for now, my first playthrough needs to stand as my definite story, bad decisions and all.