(33) My favorite games of 2013 (and the top ten games worth replaying in 2013)

It's that time of year, when anyone who has any kind of interest or hobby in anything that produces 10 items or more gets to reminisce about the ten best whatevers they did/played/listened/watched and choose what were the best for them.

I am one of those people who will also participate in one of these self serving events, because well, any excuse to talk about games on a blog about living and working in Korea is an endeavor worth taking.

This list is going to be a little different, as the amount of time and money I had this year really had an impact on the games that I played, meaning that this isn't exactly a comprehensive list but I like to think I was able to include a good mix of titles.

Also along with my top ten, I've included 10 games that I replayed this year, and still find excellent in terms of quality. Some of these games I have not played in over 8 years, and the fact that they still hold up well now deserves mention and in some cases, phrase.

TL:DR The 10 Best Games I Played in 2013 (and the 10 best games worth replaying in 2013)

10. Killer is Dead- Pure Suda 51 inspired weirdness with an anime veneer. Not his best but still a lot of fun with that dark and sinister anime vibe combined with excellent cell shaded visuals.

9. Grand Theft Auto V- Everything GTA IV should have been. Strong characters, huge world, tight controls, creative missions and a great soundtrack. Despite the online portion being flawed, the single player kept me playing for a very long time.

8. Battlefield 4- There are many, many issues with BF4, but even with its slew of problems, I find myself returning to this game more than any other this year. When it does work right, when everything clicks, there's simply no other modern FPS that can compete.

7. Fire Emblem: Awakening- Great turn based gameplay. An incredible story and tons of replay where generations of family are raised to fight on the battlefield. Fire Emblem is my favorite handheld game of the year and quite possibly one of the best strategy rpg's I've ever played.

6. Metal Gear Rising: Revengence- Super slick and frantic gameplay from the action masters at Platinum Games with the crazy military/sci fi settings of the Metal Gear universe. The best hack and slash title this year, performing leaps and bounds better than its rivals, DmC and Ninja Gaiden 3.

5. Papers Please- Not quite sure what genre this would fit in, but I do know Papers Please is one of the most compelling games I've played this year. Requiring memorization, repetition and moral choices without being forced, the game constantly keeps you on your toes by changing the rules and forcing you to weigh the heavy decisions of keeping your family alive and staying loyal to your job.

4. Bioshock Infinite- While I was slightly disappointed about the watered down combat, the two weapon limit and the lack of combat options from Elizabeth, once I put my expectations aside, Bioshock Infinite turned out to be incredible with one of the most ambitious stories and endings I've seen in a modern game. In the end this puts Infinite at number 4 and makes it one of the best games this generation.

3. Assassins Creed IV- While I was a big fan of Assassins Creed II, I skipped the other titles in the series due to a lack of interest. I'm glad I decided to check out the latest in the series because it turned out to be one of the best open world titles I've played in recent memory. An interesting world and setting with likable characters, incredible navel combat and a cool ARG style portion of the game where you play as an employee of Abestigos Entertainment helping to "make" the very game you are playing. Now that next gen is here, I cannot wait to see a truly next gen Assassins Creed.

2. The Last of Us- There is little to be said about this game that hasn't already been said but for the sake of being complete, The Last of Us was presented with high expectations and in my opinion, met all of them. Excellent stealth and survival gameplay where every single tool and item can be used effectively and smart enemies who flank, hide and scream out in pain. The world is a compelling zombie apocalypse setting that takes the tired old zombie trope and turns into something new and refreshing. The characters are complex, complicated individuals who aren't in the game to be cool or likable, but rather make you believe these individuals are bitter and tired people trying to survive in a world where everything wants you dead. Heck, even the visuals are fantastic, proving that the PS3 still has a few tricks up its sleeve. Without a doubt, I can say that this is Naughty Dog's masterpiece.

1. Tomb Raider- No other game surprised me with its overall quality than the Tomb Raider reboot. Taking everything that didn't work with the old series and giving it a fresh new coat of paint, this new Tomb Raider took my expectations and gave me one of the most exciting and compelling action titles I've ever played. This new Lara is a interesting character who's growth from scared survivor to unstoppable killing machine and skilled acrobatic was a non stop action journey from beginning to end. Despite some issues of narrative having a disconnect with gameplay in terms of emotion, the story was still a compelling tale of survival and serves as a fitting origin story for Lara. With word of a new title in development, I can only hope it expands further and gives us more to do, because as of right now, the game is near perfection and the reason why, without a doubt, is my favorite game of 2013.

Honorable Mentions: Ducktails Remastered, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Deadly Premonition (PC)

The Ten Games Still Worth Replaying in 2013

10. Castlevania-  Still difficult. Still has clunky controls. Still feels great to advance to the next level.

9. Amnesia: Dark Descent- Still one of the scariest and atmospheric horror games I've ever play. On my second playthrough, I'm still afraid of going into the dark.

8. Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando- To me, this is still the closest you can come to a quality action platformer without Mario in the name. The guns, the levels, even the Saturday Morning cartoon-esque story are still entertaining and hold up remarkably well today.

7. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped- It's amazing that a decade old PS1 platformer is still better than 90% of what is offered today. Tight controls and a great level design still make this a great game to play.

6. The Marvel/ Capcom Vs Series- After playing through MvC 1 and MvC 2 again with a better controller, I can now see the full potential of these games and love the frantic fighting combat combined with colorful 2D backgrounds and huger roster of characters.

5. Nights: Into Dreams- It's been a long time since playing Nights, and playing again is like jumping into a pool of ice cold water. You're not sure what to do, you awkwardly flail around for a bit, but finally you find your grounding and eventually have a blast. Nights still has some of the tightest controls, a memorable soundtrack and some of the best levels I have ever seen in a video game (including the best Christmas themed level ever). Even today, there is no other game like Nights.

4. Super Mario World- My go to game to play on long train rides to Seoul. SMW still impresses today with its incredibly tight and responsive controls along with great levels with a ton of secrets to discover. It often goes back and forth for my favorite Mario platformer with this and the next title.

3. Super Mario Brothers 3- Great levels, a cool world screen, awesome power ups and great music still make this one of the best Mario games ever, and one of the best platformers ever. When you have debates between Super Mario World and Mario Brothers 3 as the best Mario platformer ever, you know you've done something right with you franchise.

2. Duke Nukem 3D (with High Resolution Pack)- Trying to get away from all the gritty and multiplayer centric FPS titles of today, I found myself revisiting old gems on PC with the latest in visually enhancing mods. Despite being crass and stuck in the "tude" times of the 90's. Duke Nukem 3D still has some of the best levels and most satisfying weapons in any FPS ever. The new HR pack brings the old 2D sprites into full 3D, keeping the same fast paced gameplay with a new, shiny coat.

1. Brutal Doom - If Doom I and II were considered the best FPS's ever made. Brutal Doom takes it up to eleven in every singe way possible. Brutal gory combat. with full 3D movement and all new devastating weapons makes this more than worth it to go back and play through the old Doom titles in a whole new way.  I held the Doom series in high regard before, but the insanity of gameplay makes Brutal Doom, the best FPS mod I have ever played and quite possibly the best FPS ever.

Honorable Mentions: Chrono Trigger, Unreal Tournament  

That's All! It's been a good year for gaming and a reminder that my favorite hobby just keeps getting better and better ever year. Happy gaming everyone! Here's to great games in 2014.

E3 from Abroad: Conference Wrap Up: Microsoft

So much action. So much drama. So much excitement. This year's E3 has been one of the most exciting in recent memory. From big announcements, company wide goof ups and one of the biggest one sided thrashing I have ever seen from a company before, E3 2013 was one for the history books and helped to bring in all the excitement that a next generation  of games should.

Despite Nintendo not holding their own conference this year, Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft and EA held their own regular conferences with new games and some surprising announcements for new consoles. There's a lot on my mind to talk about, and as a gamer still intensely interested in what the industry can produce. So let's go in order, starting with...

Microsoft aka M$

Microsoft and the Xbox One already had the burden of heavy criticism from the gaming community for its strong anti consumer policies and stronger focus on a complete multimedia experience rather than a focus primarily on games. Combined with privacy concerns with their Kinect device and sense of vagueness surrounding many of their more controversial choices, most of which involved the use of registering your games, their promise to focus "just on games" for E3 was a wise choice.

Their conference started out strong with a preview of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and the confirmation that it would appear on a next generation console. Shortly afterwards, the one game people have been clamoring for from Rare made a short appearance. Killer Instinct was coming back and was going to be an exclusive on Xbox One. The conference was off to a strong start.

As for the rest of the conference, it was what I expected. There were quite a few games that grabbed my attention, however quite a few I admittedly already knew about. Max and the Curse of Brotherhood looked like a cute and cartoony Limbo-esque platformer. Short glimpses at titles like Quantum Break and D4 looked interesting and showed that Microsoft was trying hard not to make this a shooter and sports heavy console. Later on in the show, the late glimpses at Dead Rising 3 (which is allegedly a Xbox One exclusive), Crimson Dragon and The Witcher 3 also looked great to me. Even shooter games which allegedly the gaming community is burnt out on looked interesting. Take away my "hardcore" gaming card if you have to, but I still enjoy FPS's to an extent. I'm looking forward to playing Battlefield 4 both single and multiplayer and despite some issues I had with the previous game, a short glimpse at Halo 5 was welcome. I still like Halo. I still play the games primarily for the single player experience over multiplayer. If you're still reading by now, I'm sure your head just exploded.

The game that really stood out in my mind though was Titanfall. At first it looked like a typical COD style FPS. However once they showed that you could enter GIANT FREAKING MECHS and battle both soldiers and mechs my interest shot to eleven. As a life long fan of nearly anything mecha, a smooth playing FPS in which humans and mechs battle it out  brings back fond memories of PC game SHOGO and the mecha anime I watched as a kid, while Titanforce may scream COD rip off to many, to me it looked like the game I wanted since I was a little boy playing with his Transformers toys.

So overall, the conference to me wasn't that bad. It didn't exceed expectations. There were some surprises, the appearance of an Insomniac game was unexpected and well, I really didn't expect Killer Instinct to come back, but everything else was standard "Xbox audience" games, and to me that's ok. I never really fell into the camp of playing games only because they show off how "hardcore" you are. I follow the simple rule of playing what I like and enjoy. That's it. It's worked incredibly well for me so far.

So while I didn't have major issues with the Microsoft conference overall, I won't be buying an Xbox One anytime soon. It still comes back to their strong anti consumer policies and being restricted to how you play. For me, honestly, it would most likely not even affect me severely. I live in a location with fast internet and would most likely always have it connected. However, their discrimination on used games, the 24 hour certification policy and tying games to your account seems like more trouble than its worth. When a majority of games are available on other consoles that don't require you to jump through hoops to play, why even bother?

I would miss out on a few exclusives, but I'm not a teenager anymore. I've come to the point where I can live without playing a game for a great deal of time, if at all. Life and other things tend to get in the way of gaming and I'm ok with that. If anything, I can pick up the console a few years later when the price drops or an enticing bundle comes around.

There's a lot of hate on the Xbox One from pretty much everyone in the gaming community. I cannot recall the last time I saw people so viciously against a company. In some ways, this comes across as typical internet reaction where subtlety goes out the window in exchange for loud and obnoxious hate. In another way, I'm kind of happy to see this. It shows that consumers won't take these draconian policies lying down and are more than willing to voice their opinion when it comes to playing games and how much control they have over the product they buy and supposedly own.

However, I can't help but wonder if its too late for Microsoft to go back on some of their policies. To do some sort of damage control and try to regain some favor with the legions of gamers they have shunned.

I also can't help but wonder if their intended audience even cares or is aware that these policies exist. Does that fraternity brother who games with his bros even care that someone can't borrow his game as long as he can play what he likes? Does the middle age dad with an NFL pass who watches UFC on the weekends care that his Kinect will always be on and watching him? It seems like Microsoft is betting heavily that their target audience won't mind and in a way, that's a sad sign that the gamers who were there since the original Xbox (the real Xbox One) aren't the targeted audience.

If this is the case, the term "entertainment machine" is truly appropriate. Entertainment is all encompassing with games only being one part of that. Microsoft has to be aware of the backlash from the community, and the fact that they continue to stick to their guns proves that they are completely behind their ideas and if a majority of so called "hardcore" games buy a PS4 instead, it doesn't matter. Their core audience, the casual consumer will continue to support the brand they know well. Judging from the number of 360's in living rooms now, maybe they're right.

Either way, to me  Xbox One's policies are its biggest hurdles for me. even if their conference was stellar and had something for every kind of gamer under the sun, it would have made little difference. The ones who are aware and the ones who care know how restrictive and awful DRM is still wouldn't be swayed. When your entire console is built around this concept and two of your competitors offer less restrictions ( and arguably better game selections) once again, why bother?

The answer? They won't but Microsoft is banking on the fact that many will.Whether those will be enough to score a victory for them this generation will be the real spectacle to watch. It's all become a battle of gamers vs casuals. A fight that slowly started to form last generation and thanks to Microsoft should reach a fever point in the coming months prior to launch.