The Winners of The Escapist Awards and Game of the Year Nominees

[Eevee]

You know it's been a miserable year for RPG's if effing Pokemon win, and a hack and slash gets a second place.

What so good happened in the new Pokemon game anyway? I have fond childhood memories of Red/Blue and Gold/Silver, but after they kept releasing another after another batch of sillier and sillier looking... things, and slim to none changes in the gameplay, I left the series in a bin, and never got back, to the point, where I purposefully ignored any preview or review of it. And now, everyone is salivating over it once again, so... What's so good about it (honest question, no hate)?

I honestly just bought a 3DS last week and got Pokemon X while I was at it. I don't see the salivating hype is true, that's most likely just some fans of the series. But here's what I like about it. With the main gameplay (As in Pokemon battles) you will find not much is new besides the new type, Fairy, being added into the mix. However, this is the first portable title with 3D animations, and I admit they look clean and really really good too. The added Mega Evolution mechanic also spurs things up; a select amount of Pokemon are able to "Mega" evolve into a new form (a form that changes their looks and makes them extremely powerful), but only lasts until the end of the battle. EV Training has been simplified with Minigames added to make EV training faster and much easier, and you are able to now see EV points on a bar instead of it being a mystery too, and then there's Pokemon Amie. Pokemon Amie is a little mechanic added on the side that lets you pick a Pokemon in your party and play with them, sort of like Nintendogs but with Pokemon. You can pet them (In certain places, you can't touch a Pichu's cheeks or you get shocked, and Absol doesn't take being touched on its scythe-like horn too kindly), feed them little desserts, and play one of three mini games with them too. Doing this increases one of three new stats on the Pokemon, though these don't effect in-game battles, except for Eevee's new evolution, Sylveon.

 

[Toadfish1]

Why the blue hell wasn't The Last Of Us in the horror section? It out horror'd every single one of them.

 

[TKretts3]

Civilization 5: Brave New World lost to X-Com? AW HELL NAW!
Also, Bioshock: Infinite is a shooter? Really? If anything it should be placed in the action-adventure category. If it is a shooter, then it really shouldn't be winning any awards for it.

 

[irishda]

"Stupid frat boys are ruining games by just spawning an endless series of sequels for machoism shit like Madden and Call of Duty that are really just the same game over and over again, but with a different roster or new maps. Publishers are just taking people for their money. Not me though, OH MY GOD, A NEW POKEMON GAME! IT HAS NEW POKEMON!"

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Thank god Papers Please isn't on this list! I mean between it on the user choice bracket and Yatzhee's list and just about every single other list, I was getting pretty worried I was the only sane gamer left. But this is refreshing, because at least some people are sane enough to realize a poorly optimized/written/executed game like that doesn't belong on a top anything list.

Personally, I'd go with Bioshock, although Pokemon is a contender simply because it saved the franchise.

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

Pokemon as best RPG? that's like saying Ride to Hell: Retribution was game of the year.. which if you haven't been paying attention.. both of those are wrong.. the real best RPG of 2013? Tales of Xillia. Meanwhile, Tomb Raider and Saints Row 4 were the best action adventure games this year...though Last of Us wasn't bad.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Loved Pokemon X&Y, currently just faffing about in it now, I felt something was missing in it, but it was also a fantastic leap to the 3DS.

Agreed, it's my second favorite game of the year, and I've put a huge amount of time into it. Yet, there isn't really much to do in the game once you beat it compared to past games. That's what I feel was missing from X and Y personally.

OT: I hate to sound like the "I like it so it deserves recognition" guy, but having two adventure related categories and no Link Between Worlds...a bit of a shame really. :/

Of course this isn't my list so I shouldn't fuss over it too much.

 

[Roxas1359]

Loved Pokemon X&Y, currently just faffing about in it now, I felt something was missing in it, but it was also a fantastic leap to the 3DS.

Agreed, it's my second favorite game of the year, and I've put a huge amount of time into it. Yet, there isn't really much to do in the game once you beat it compared to past games. That's what I feel was missing from X and Y personally.

I'm still waiting for another Gem like how Gen 2 did it, you can go to another region and then battle all those Gyms leaders as well. Made for some fun end game content for sure. Then Emerald's end game content with the Battle Frontier was absolutely great. But with Gen VI I'm not feeling it as much, although I will give it credit that I enjoy the end game content from Gen VI way more then Gen IV. Then again I'd enjoy many things over Gen IV. XD

 

[Hero of Lime]

I'm still waiting for another Gem like how Gen 2 did it, you can go to another region and then battle all those Gyms leaders as well. Made for some fun end game content for sure. Then Emerald's end game content with the Battle Frontier was absolutely great. But with Gen VI I'm not feeling it as much, although I will give it credit that I enjoy the end game content from Gen VI way more then Gen IV. Then again I'd enjoy many things over Gen IV. XD

For me, the Gen V games had the best post game content. Having a new, mysterious part of the region open up to explore was great for me. I remember running into Kyurem in its area for the the first time and feeling all fuzzy inside. XD

Exploring all of Kanto in the Gold and Silver games didn't really appeal to me for some reason. I guess I like the idea, but I prefer to keep games in just one region. That is just me, I know most fans would disagree since everyone else would like to have the two region mechanic come back.

 

[Greg Tito]

So, what makes The Last of Us an "Action Adventure" game, but Bioshock Infinite a "shooter"?

Both games involve plenty of shooting, and both involve story and adventure. I'm intrigued as to why these were put in separate categories, as the overall gameplay and feel of the games is quite similar.

I liked both, playing them both on launch, but The Last of Us was a more satisfying experience, and the multiplayer was even pretty good. Come to think of it, doesn't The Last of Us multiplayer make it more of a shooter than Bioshock Inifinite?

It almost seems as if these game categories are arbitrary and hastily arrived at.

We had to make a few concessions for genre categorizations. It's always hard to put games into compartments, but that's our job and I think we did a pretty good job overall. For the specific case you mentioned, BioShock Infinite's gameplay was solely about shooting and killing dudes, while The Last of Us had a lot more platforming, stealth and other elements in the mechanics to justify the "action-adventure" moniker.

Again, game genres aren't a perfect thing. The Escapist made an attempt at figuring all this stuff out with Russ Pitts' genre wheel (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_283/8400-Introducing-The-Escapists-Genre-Wheel) but it still ain't that simple.

Greg

 

[Clovus]

I was surprised to not see Ni No Kuni at least nominated for best RPG. It was released outside of Japan in 2013.

 

[Custrd]

To me this year has been a particularly good year for games. Some of my favorite games have come out this year and it is extremely difficult to choose between any of them. That being said, I am extremely disappointed that the Stanley Parable did not make it, I simply loved the game from start till end, in every direction. It made a statement about games that truly made me believe that games are an art, beyond a doubt.

 

[Greg Tito]

I was surprised to not see Ni No Kuni at least nominated for best RPG. It was released outside of Japan in 2013.

That was a tough one to leave out, but Ni No Kuni had the unfortunate circumstance of coming out at the very start of 2013 while being hyped mostly in 2012. Also, we didn't really think it was that fun compared to our nominees, even though it was probably the best game to come out on the Wii this year.

Greg

 

[Clovus]

I was surprised to not see Ni No Kuni at least nominated for best RPG. It was released outside of Japan in 2013.

That was a tough one to leave out, but Ni No Kuni had the unfortunate circumstance of coming out at the very start of 2013 while being hyped mostly in 2012. Also, we didn't really think it was that fun compared to our nominees, even though it was probably the best game to come out on the Wii this year.

Greg

That's cool. I think time has made the game worse in your mind though - that beautiful cartoon style would look pretty awful on a 480p Wii. It's a PS3 exclusive ;-)

But, yeah, its super-old-school JRPG mechanics could easily detract from the interesting (though kid friendly) world design. I wasn't able to handle the grind of the last Pokemon, but, for some reason, I keep chugging along in Ni No Kuni, even if that means trapsing back across the world slowly on foot to complete some side mission. Or fighting the same type of mob to finally collect the three someone needed.

 

[Greg Tito]

That's cool. I think time has made the game worse in your mind though - that beautiful cartoon style would look pretty awful on a 480p Wii. It's a PS3 exclusive ;-)

But, yeah, its super-old-school JRPG mechanics could easily detract from the interesting (though kid friendly) world design. I wasn't able to handle the grind of the last Pokemon, but, for some reason, I keep chugging along in Ni No Kuni, even if that means trapsing back across the world slowly on foot to complete some side mission. Or fighting the same type of mob to finally collect the three someone needed.

Derp. Yeah. Got mixed up with Last Story, which came out in 2012 anyways. Sigh.

Ni No Kuni certainly appealed to a specific player, but not everyone dug it as much as you did sadly. All that traipsing doesn't sound very fun.

Greg