GOTY 2013

I give up on best overall game...think that that category's stupid anyway...no perfect pasta sauce only perfect pasta sauces and all that...

• Best Story and Writing: Papers, Please
• Best Gameplay: Europa Universalis IV...or XCOM Enemy Within
• Best Visual: Metro: Last Light
• Best Soundtrack: X Rebirth
• 2014 Game with Most Potential: ...hard to say, though I'll go with Divinity: Original Sin

edited 17th Dec '13 4:53:29 AM by onyhow

Best Overall Game: The Stanley Parable

Best Story: The Last Of Us

Best Writing: The Stanley Parable

Best Gameplay: Papers Please

Best Visuals (Graphics): The Last Of Us

Best Visuals (Aesthetic): Killer Is Dead

Best Soundtrack: Electronic Super Joy

Best Voice Acting: The Stanley Parable

Most Potential Award: Dark Souls II

Worst Game of 2013: Infestation Survivor Stories

edited 23rd Dec '13 1:53:32 PM by Jinxmenow

Best Overall Game: Bioshock Infinite

Best Story and Writing: Bioshock Infinite, TLOU is a close second

Best Gameplay: Europa Universalis IV

Best Visuals (Technical): Probably Ryse (shitty game though it is), but I really have no clue

Best Visuals (Aesthetic): Grand Theft Auto V

Best Soundtrack: Bioshock Infinite (Haven't played Metal Gear Rising)

Best Voice Acting: The Last of Us

Greatest Potential for 2014: Probably The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

edited 17th Dec '13 6:32:14 PM by stripes-the-zebra

GOTY? Saints Row IV, no question.

This was a really good year.

edited 17th Dec '13 6:35:03 PM by stripes-the-zebra

This.

2013 is a goddamned beautiful last hurrah for the seventh generation.

edited 17th Dec '13 7:04:12 PM by TheAirman

Limiting it to the games that I've actually played:

• Best Graphics: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies
• Best Soundtrack: Fire Emblem Awakening
  • Runner Up: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies
• Best Art Direction: Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
• Best Gameplay: Fire Emblem Awakening
  • Runner Up: Shin Megami Tensei IV
• Most Hilarious: Winnie the Pooh's Home Run Derby

You're a handheld gamer, eh?

I'd have to say the most hilarious game this year was The Stanley Parable. Broom closets, overly pretentious art games, and Crossover Punchline were never as funny as they are in this game.

Yep

edited 18th Dec '13 11:22:08 AM by Jinxmenow

Going by what I've played, most hilarious has to go to Metal Gear Rising Revengeance. If you've played it, you know exactly which scene brings me to this conclusion.

Let's add a new category then:

Funniest Game

Why don't we add random, fun categories? I like the usual categories, but why not have some personal categories? So that every game gets a prize, good or bad.

I'd personally go with:

Best Overall Game: Grand Theft Auto V

Best Story and Writing: Bioshock Infinite

Best Gameplay: Grand Theft Auto V and Rayman Legends (it's too close)

Best Visuals: Some Gen VIII game for technical, Rayman Legends and The Wolf Among Us for artistic (how do you split episodic games, anyway?)

Best Voice Acting: Saints Row IV

2014 Game with Most Potential: Dragon Age Inquisition (yes, I am an optimist)

Best DLC: The Brigmore Witches (Video Game/Dishonored), Citadel (Mass Effect 3) and Enemy Within (XCOM Enemy Unknown)

And for the more jokey awards:

The 'America, Fuck Yeah!' Award: Splinter Cell : Blacklist (unironic), Saints Row IV (ironic)

The Anno-Hudson Memorial Awards for Most Mind Screw Ending: Enter The Dominatrix (Saints Row IV)

The Stellar Stone Award for Gaming Quality Control: Ride To Hell Retribution

Best Game People Really Hated: Dm C Devil May Cry

The 'Sudden Sequel System Requirements Spike' Award: Assassins Creed IV Black Flag

Game Best Experienced with French Voice Acting: Remember Me

If someone can think up trope-tacular award names, those'd be awesome too.

edited 19th Dec '13 11:38:24 PM by arcanephoenix

Tag, I'm it.

Best Overall Game: Grand Theft Auto V. The Last of Us is in a close second.

Best Story and Writing: Bioshock Infinite. Tomoki Kyoda and Seth McFarlane, take notes. This is how you write a fictional story with alternate-dimensions/multiverse/time-travel in play. The incredible dialogue between Booker and Elizabeth as well as the hilarious commentary from the Luteces seal the deal.

Best Gameplay: Grand Theft Auto V takes the cake with its vast open-world, extremely addicting mini-games (golf or tennis, anyone?), wide selection of vehicles, and just plain fun-to-use weapons. Being a sociopath in an open-world game never felt so good...

Best Visuals (Aesthetics and Graphics): TIE between Bioshock Infinite and Rayman Legends. By now, you would probably know me for being more of an aesthetics/art-style type of guy rather than an uber-realistic graphics type. And both games really smack the aesthetics out of the park, with their creative, colorful, and just plain gorgeous choices for visuals.

Best Soundtrack: Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. Although the game is a colossal disappointment in the gameplay front, the soundtrack from Jessica Curry is amazing. I'm dead serious. Just listen to the music listed in the Awesome Music entry in its YMMV page.

Best Voice Acting: Tough one... but I think I'm gonna give it to The Last of Us. Gotta say though, 2013 has been a very, very good year for Troy Baker.

2014 Game with Most Potential: TIE between The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Child of Light. For the former, if CD Projekt can pull off their ambitious plans, then Witcher 3 could easily overthrow Skyrim as the western RPG to look up to. As for the latter, the game could put Square Enix's recent efforts to shame with its visual aesthetics and the JRPG-style gameplay. Given that Child is being produced by the same developing team as Far Cry 3, I am confident that they will pull this game off.

edited 20th Dec '13 3:15:33 AM by sanfranman91

Alright, vote. What game was worse? Ride To Hell Retribution or The War Z, also known as Infestation Survival Stories? I choose The War Z, purely because its company set out with the express intent to rip people off.

Can't do a worst category, since that would quickly turn this into a complaint thread.

Now that I look back on it, I'm changing my vote for Best Music to Electronic Super Joy. My god, my god how much effort went into ESJ.

I had to look up a list of games released in 2013 to remember which ones I've played. That list isn't quite as short as I figured it would be, but it's still nowhere near large. My out-of-left-field votes (subject to change) are:

Best overall game: I'll leave this spot empty. There's nothing I feel like putting in this one just yet.

Best Story and Writing: Soul Hackers. From the parts of the game I've played, Nemissa's character puts all the other writing into her backpack and carries it to greatness, but the rest of the writing is still pretty good too.

Best Gameplay: Hotline Miami. Where's this little game come from and how do the developers kick so much ass?

Best Visuals: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. I hate hate HATED the rest of the game for reasons of my own, but I can't deny that it looked fantastic and very stylized even on my non-HD TV. The animation and whatnot was great; the developers knew what they wanted to convey and exactly how to make it look.

Best Soundtrack: Soul Hackers. In fact, Soul Hackers is the only game this year whose music I can even remember. The music for battles starting out quiet and ominous, then shifting to hectic when fighting broke out really sold the feeling of negotiating with demons.

Hooray for odd tastes!

Best Strategy Game: Fire Emblem: Awakening

Best Platformer: (tie) Super Mario 3D World, Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus

Best Open-World Game: Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Best Fighting Game: Divekick

Best Fighting Game With Superheroes: Injustice: Gods Among Us

Best Town-Building Game: Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Best Dress-Up Game: Pokemon X and Y

Best Heist Game: Monaco

Best Zombie Post-Apocalypse Game: The Last of Us

Best Luchadore Game: Guacamelee!

Best Castlevania Game: Rogue Legacy

Best Rougelike-esue-ish-like: Risk of Rain

Best Typing Game: The Typing of the Dead: Overkill

Best Studio Ghibli Work: Ni no Kuni

Most Improved Sequel: Assassin's Creed IV

Most Deserved Sequel: Rayman Legends

Best Game That Finally Came Out: BattleBlock Theater

Best Remake: Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl

Best Port: Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D

Best Expansion: XCOM: Enemy Within

Best Franchise Revival: Killer Instinct

"Welcome Back" Award: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies

Best Personality Test: Doki Doki Universe

Best Narrator: The Stanley Parable

Best Mind Screw: Antichamber

Best Hacking: Gunpoint

Most Mouthful of a Title: Bit.Trip Presents Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien

Best Use of Aerosmith: Saints Row IV

Best Control: Bird flipping button, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Craziest Ending: BioShock Infinite

"Holy Crap, We Actually Got This" Award: Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F

"Holy Crap, We Actually Got This" Award (runner-up): Project X Zone

edited 27th Dec '13 12:31:26 PM by AzureSeas

I'm bored, let's do it.

""Best Voice Performance"": Kevin Brighting as The Narrator in The Stanley Parable. The Narrator is such a wonderfully complex character. Sometimes, he's your arch nemesis, sometimes he's your only friend, and often, he's both. Brighting nails every one of these moods and more, he makes what's essentially a disembodied voice richer and more human then most characters in gaming.

""Best Soundtrack"": Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. STAAAANDING HEEEEERE I REALIIIIZE YOU WERE JUST LIKE MEEEEEEE TRYING TO MAKE HISTORY

Best Party Members: The Shepherds in Fire Emblem: Awakening. I love each and every one of these fuckers, and the game goes out of it's way to make you feel like a true team. The support system, the hilarious (and sometimes heartwarming) interactions and the constant threat of perma-death insure you remain attached to them.

Best Platformer: Rayman Legends

Best Fighting Game: Divekick. What an ingenious concept! Lots of players (myself included) already use the "jump around and sometimes kick" method in fighters, so why not build an entire game around it? Having every battle be decided by one hit makes everything amazingly tense too.

Best Strategy Game: Fire Emblem: Awakening

Best Metroidvania Guacamelee!

Best Fire Person Shooter Call of Juarez: Gunslinger Like almost no one talks about this game and that is a tragedy. Considering Techland's previous games have been terrible and racist, this is a HUGE 180. Really fun, acradey style shooting, with a surprisingly good story attached to it.

Best Prologue: The Last of Us. I haven't even finished the game, but the prologue, just a perfect, gut wrenching opening that sets the tone perfectly. Describing more would ruin the impact, but I didn't expect that at all. This is how you open a game.

edited 30th Dec '13 11:57:58 PM by Firestorm

• The Charlie Kaufman Award For Cleverness: The Stanley Parable

• Most shameless Cash in: Infestation Survivor Stories formally The War Z.

• J.S. Steinman's Award For Best Face Lift Of A long-Running Franchise: Pokemon X And Y and The Legend Of Zelda A Link Between Worlds.

• The Actually Trying Award For Best Next Gen Release: No valid entries.

• The Better Late Then Never Award For Most Delay Game To Come Out Half Decent:The Bureau XCOM Declassified

• Best Flawed Masterpiece:Bioshock Infinite

• Best New Tomb Raider Game:Dragons Crown

• Most overlooked: Divinity Dragon Commander

• Best Mobile Game:Ridiculous Fishing

• Biggest Time Killer: Card Hunter

• Most Charming Gimmicky Game:Octodad

• Most Gimmicky Charming Game: Brothers A Tale Of Two Sons

• Best Video Game Hero: The Dog in Call Of Duty Ghosts[1]◊

• Best Game Villain: EA In Sim City.

edited 1st Jan '14 2:43:07 AM by joeyjojo

2012's 2013 Game of the Year: Dishonored