It's been a huge year for gaming; how often do you have not one but two enormous console launches in the same year?
The expansion of mobile and social gaming has continued to blow up like nitro, but that's having no major effect on the console blockbusters which continue to keep the industry as healthy as ever.
We were treated to a huge number of great game releases in 2013 and as New Year's Eve looms near, it's time to decide upon the best of the best.
A few notes on the top 10 below. The Last of Us is my game of the year; Grand Theft Auto V and Tomb Raider would be the two runners up. The other seven, however, aren't in any order at all. I can't tell what would be my seventh favourite game of the year versus my eighth. Respect to critics that can.
To diehard Nintendo and PC fans - sorry there's no Mario, Papers Please, Zelda, Path of Exile, Gone Home or Pokemon on this list. They're either not up my alley or I didn't get a chance to play them, for whatever reason, and rather than lie and say I loved them as much as you did, I'll be honest about the games I really did dig instead.
With that housekeeping out of the way, here's my list of the 10 best games of 2013.
The Last of Us
Naughty Dog's masterpiece is an amazingly well-written story told exceptionally well with gameplay that is exceedingly fun. The Last of Us puts the player in control of Joel, an immediately interesting protagonist in a spectacularly well-realised post-apocalyptic world. He journeys across America with Ellie, an even more interesting character, in an unpredictable journey that is beautifully melancholic at times, jaw-droppingly shocking at others, and simply euphoric at others. This title represents a maturing on the videogame medium, and not as an obscure indie a few hundred people played on PC, but rather a major blockbuster hit that sold over 3 million copies in its first three weeks alone. For that, it's an easy pick as game of the year. Full review.
Grand Theft Auto V
Metal Gear Solid godfather Hideo Kojima tweeted that he was "depressed" by how amazing Rockstar's record-breaking juggernaut GTA V was. Kojima-sama shouldn't worry so much, but my oh my, GTA V is an incredible game. There was so much hype in the build-up to its release and it completely lived up to it, delivering gamers a deliciously over-the-top fantastical Los Angeles in which to enact all sorts of devilish activities. The characters were instantly iconic, the storyline thrilling, the music unthinkably cool, the humour consistently great and the endless distractions of Los Santos frustratingly fun. The multiplayer was somewhat of a disappointment, but the single-player campaign is everything we wanted it to be. GTA V deserved to make the US$1 billion it made in a matter of days, it's an absolutely brilliant game. Full review.
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Studio Ghibli is, for my money, the best animation house on Earth (sorry, Pixar). Putting the studio's gob-smackingly beautiful animation aesthetic to use in a game for the first time, then combining it with JRPG masters Level-5, resulted in this absolute joy. Although the game veers on the side of being a little too easy, it has the sense of magical wonder and aching cuteness about it that make films like Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro so loveable. Despite the game's frequent hand-holding, it still possesses addictive gameplay over a very long storyline. Good, clean, heart-warming fun. Full review.
Need for Speed: Rivals
The latest entry in the most popular racing game franchise in the world does what the series does best - deliver endless adrenaline-fuelled, high octane thrills. The emphasis is very squarely on maximizing fun and not worrying about realism, and Rivals combines a lot of the better elements from recent Need for Speed titles in an almost 'best-of' way. It looks gorgeous on the PlayStation 4 and innovatively integrates single and multiplayer. It's primo. Full review.
Ryse: Son of Rome
Easily the most violent launch title on either PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, I became a fan of this brutal Roman hack-and-slash as soon as I laid eyes on it. Playing it evokes a feeling akin to watching the battle sequences of 300, Gladiator and Spartacus edited to music by Amon Amarth and Manowar. As a next-gen launch title, it is certainly rough around the edges, but its tight focus on basic combat mechanics, gory executions and the almost oppressively military tone are highly endearing. The storyline is surprisingly good, helped along by stunning facial animation and solid performances, and there's a fairly fun co-operative multiplayer mode thrown in. Full review.
Tomb Raider
Rebooting this classic franchise as a dark, grindhouse-esque survival game was no mean feat, but the team at Crystal Dynamics pulled it off. Uncharted made the classic Tomb Raider games somewhat obsolete, but this fresh take on Lara Croft moves the franchise in a wonderful, hardcore direction, very different from the light-hearted fun Nathan Drake and co enjoy. The combat mechanics are superb, the exploration aspects are crazily addictive and the storyline knocks it out of the park. The greatest achievement is Lara herself; the rebirth this gaming icon was an audacious move by the developers, but she's now a far more captivating character that I eagerly look forward to seeing in sequels. Full review.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist
The last Splinter Cell game of the PS4 / 360 generation is my favourite of the franchise so far. Its supremely finessed stealth action gameplay puts you in charge of an awesome super-spy soldier with a vast range of amazing gadgets and lets you waste terrorists. It's not very innovative and is somewhat hampered by the dull personality of protagonist Sam Fisher and a ho-hum story, but there's a fantastic level of refinement gone into all of the elements that makes this franchise so beloved. A thoroughly satisfying game. Full review.
BioShock Infinite
The original BioShock was one of the highlights of the entire PS4 / 360 generation and while neither sequel has quite achieved its heights, this year's Infinite is still a spectacular game. The setting of Columbia, a mythical city in the clouds, is its strongest element, but the fascinating storyline and its complex themes, awesome combat and masterful score help make Infinite a bona fide modern classic. Full review.
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Even though this is one of the more disappointing major recent Call of Duty releases, it's still awesome. Battlefield 4 is a more impressive game in many ways - the 64-player action it offers can be particularly fun. But that release has been marred with pretty severe issues that are yet to be sorted out, while Ghosts is delivering the multiplayer first-person shooter thrills that have been such an enormous element of the 360 / PS3 generation. If COD is to continue its reign at the top, it's going to have to do better than Ghosts, but nonetheless I'm still racking up hour after hour in the Domination and Kill Confirmed modes, and look set to do so for at least the rest of summer. Full review.
Metro: Last Light
Like last year's Spec Ops: The Line, this title is a great example of a game that sets itself enormously ambitious goals and doesn't quite meet them, but comes beautifully close. A bleakly grim first-person shooter set in a post-apocalyptic Russia, the level of detail employed in constructing its dread-filled world is fantastic. The story was solid, the themes powerful, the atmosphere and graphics absolutely brilliant, but both the full-on gunfights and the stealth sequences could have been improved upon. Baring certain similarities to The Last of Us also worked against Last Light, but it's still a game that demands at least one play-through, and a position on this top ten games of 2013 list. Great fun and highly memorable. Full review.
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2014 is looking particularly exciting as developers start releasing their post-launch next-gen goodies. Watch Dogs, Titanfall, Destiny, The Division, Halo 5, The Elder Scrolls Online, Infamous: Second Son, The Evil Within and Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare all look particularly good, and with a new Uncharted to look forward to as well, these fresh new PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles have given but a mere glimpse at the joy they'll soon be bringing us.
As excited as I am about Uncharted 4 and the upcoming Last of Us DLC, however, I really can't wait to see what new IP Naughty Dog work on in the future. Just imagine if they put their skills to a completely original sci-fi project, or a crime drama, or... anything original.
In the meantime, I'll play through The Last of Us again on that punishing 'survivor' hardness level, take my tricked out Banshee for a drag down Vinewood Boulevard in Grand Theft Auto V a few times and feast my eyes on the upcoming PS4 version of Tomb Raider.
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