The Escapist Awards - Game of the Year 2013

[The Escapist Staff]

The Escapist Awards - Game of the Year 2013

The Escapist Award for Game of the Year 2013 goes to ...

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[Legion]

No disagreement from me, it was my favourite game of last year as well. Kind of a shame it's an exclusive, it's the kind of game I think a lot of people ought to play (assuming they like that kind of game).

I am surprised Enemy Within got so far. It was an enjoyable expansion pack, but I feel that having played the game several times beforehand, it wasn't enough to get me to do more than one new play through. It added some excellent features, but not enough to feel like a complete one.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Meh, I would say I'm surprised, but what should we come to expect from the Escapist? I mean if throwing pandas was an Olympic sport, well the Escapist wouldn't attend because that's so mainstream and conformist of them. They don't play by your rules, man! But rest assured, IF they were to attend, they would talk home the gold

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Well the people spoke and the game was chosen. Meanwhile all those spambot users championing Papers Please are nowhere to be found.

 

[Arslan Aladeen]

Meh, I would say I'm surprised, but what should we come to expect from the Escapist? I mean if throwing pandas was an Olympic sport, well the Escapist wouldn't attend because that's so mainstream and conformist of them. They don't play by your rules, man! But rest assured, IF they were to attend, they would talk home the gold

How is the Last of Us a non-conformist, anti-mainstream choice for them? You go to nearly any website, GOTY is pretty much a 3 way race b/w Last of Us, GTAV, and Bioshock Infinite, with Last of Us usually being the winner. Not necessarily my choice picks, but whatever.

 

[Lightknight]

I absolutely agree with the decision. I liked all of those games (haven't played AC yet) but The Last of Us is the one that stuck with me. I'm really happy it won.

Meh, I would say I'm surprised, but what should we come to expect from the Escapist? I mean if throwing pandas was an Olympic sport, well the Escapist wouldn't attend because that's so mainstream and conformist of them. They don't play by your rules, man! But rest assured, IF they were to attend, they would talk home the gold

How is the Last of Us a non-conformist, anti-mainstream choice for them? You go to nearly any website, GOTY is pretty much a 3 way race b/w Last of Us, GTAV, and Bioshock Infinite, with Last of Us usually being the winner. Not necessarily my choice picks, but whatever.

Yeah, I was wondering how picking one of the most awarded games as GOTY could possible be considered contra-mainstream?

In fact, a cursory look at the GOTY awards from a list of sites shows TLOU to be the most awarded game in this area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_of_the_Year_awards

So... non-conformist? Nope. It was just a damn good game.

 

[BlindChance]

Well the people spoke and the game was chosen. Meanwhile all those spambot users championing Papers Please are nowhere to be found.

I'm right here. Glory to Arstotska!

I'm in a weird place here, actually. The best game of the year to my mind wasn't nominated (Papers, Please). The game they chose as GotY I was kind of underwhelmed by... wonderful writing and story, but gameplay wise I found it lacklustre. The runner up is from a franchise I've never enjoyed and thus haven't played.

That said, if it must be one of those five, yeah, I'd go with The Last of Us.

 

[t850terminator]

I liked TLoU... its my choice for GOTY...
Okay, TLoU won....so...what now?
Well, time to wait for another Jimquistion and ZP now...

 

[Weaver]

TLOU feels like the game equivalent of "oscar bait".

It's a linear as hell third person shooter (cause we can never get enough of those) with survival mechanics in a "totally not zombie" apocalypse with fucking bad controls and an alright story.

Game of the year.

Also, Ni No Kuni wasn't on the list but Enemy Within was? Really?
I mean it's an expansion, does it even count?

My game of the year? Rogue Legacy.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

... while delivering the fantastically refined stealth-action mechanics Ubisoft has perfected over the years.

Wait, what?

I am enjoying Ass Creed IV, and the pirate stuff is great, but to say the action-stealth mechanics have been "perfected" is just bizarre. You mean, the same mechanics where you're either walking around at a snail's pace, or jumping onto everything in sight like a crack monkey who has had too many coffees?

It doesn't seem possible in this game to jog or even walk briskly. If you hit the "run" button, you're not merely running, but launching yourself randomly at whatever objects are nearby, and it can be difficult to get off them, unless you want to launch yourself at another object.

 

[Greg Tito]

... while delivering the fantastically refined stealth-action mechanics Ubisoft has perfected over the years.

Wait, what?

I am enjoying Ass Creed IV, and the pirate stuff is great, but to say the action-stealth mechanics have been "perfected" is just bizarre. You mean, the same mechanics where you're either walking around at a snail's pace, or jumping around onto everything in sight like a crack monkey who has had too many coffees?

It doesn't seem possible in this game to jog or even walk briskly. If you hit the "run" button, you're not merely running, but launching yourself randomly at whatever objects are nearby, and it can be difficult to get off them, unless you want to launch yourself at another object.

"Stealth-Action". Not stealth. I think AC4 does a great job of letting you play as either running/climbing, as you say, or stealthy walking.

Greg

 

[Aardvaarkman]

"Stealth-Action". Not stealth. I think AC4 does a great job of letting you play as either running/climbing, as you say, or stealthy walking.

I guess we'll have to disagree on this one, as I think the running/climbing thing barely works in this game. Sometimes the controls are almost random - do I have to press "jump" while pressing forward to climb this object, or just press forward? Who knows? Sometimes pressing jump will launch you right off the object into a bunch of enemies; other times, you can't climb further without pressing jump.

It's crazily inconsistent and buggy as hell.

The sections where you have to play in towns or do stealth missions often make me stop playing the game and wish for a section that will get me back out to the high seas.

 

[Evonisia]

Can't say I'm all that surprised. The Last of Us was the overwhelmingly critically praised game of the year and I was not expecting The Escapist to not jump on that bandwagon.

As for AssCreed IV, well from what I've played (and what I've seen of my Dad playing it) it's reasonably well put together and I understand why people do love it so. It didn't really grip me and I put it down in boredom at around the third mission, meh. Assassin's Creed's never had my interest anyway.

 

[Barbas]

I suppose it's still Skyrim for me, because after all this fury has died down, I will return there and still be playing and loving it years from now. Strange that Enemy Within was there, though, it's only an expansion.

 

[nyankaty]

TLoU was not without problems, but the sum of its parts, including its music (especially its music, it was stunning), environments, rendering, voice acting, character development, plot, etc, added up to a really beautiful package. Taking it for its mechanics and gameplay alone is unfair; I can admit that those did have their own issues.

I can't say I've yet played AssCreed4. Waiting for it to get a little cheaper, then I'll be all over it.

 

[RJ 17]

Black Flag singlehandedly fucked up my entire bracket. Just another reason for me to hate the AC series.

 

[JackWestJr]

Very happy for the game to have won, is my personal GOTY as well Amazing experience, all you haters, carry on being hipsters.

 

[Caius]

Well the people spoke and the game was chosen. Meanwhile all those spambot users championing Papers Please are nowhere to be found.

Weird. I'm still here. But i'm not seeing the spambots from The Last of Us...

Also, i think it's a little sad that no mention to the amazing acomplishment of Papers, Please. TLoU won by less than 20 votes...

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Well the people spoke and the game was chosen. Meanwhile all those spambot users championing Papers Please are nowhere to be found.

Weird. I'm still here. But i'm not seeing the spambots from The Last of Us...

Also, i think it's a little sad that no mention to the amazing acomplishment of Papers, Please. TLoU won by less than 20 votes...

Well, you have a 2011 inception date. Not last-minute spambot material.
The Last of Us won by exactly 9 votes, and the article stresses a lot how back-to-back the home stretch was.