The Clarion selects its favorite video games from the past year.
Nominees
The Last of Us:
This game took us on a wild ride through a dystopian zombie warzone and more importantly an interesting, somewhat warped father-daughter drama. The graphics showed off the power of the outgoing PlayStation 3 and the story was gripping.
Grand Theft Auto V:
The best GTA to date, V brought us the new Heist mode, three sociopathic protagonists as opposed to one, and a beautiful reimagining of sunny Los Angeles, in the region called Los Santos. If you like Grand Theft Auto, do yourself the service of playing this one.
Bioshock Infinite:
In the ultra-racist city in the skies of Columbia, religious fanatics, powerful robotics and the fearsome Songbird gave us a wonderful story, perplexing twists and frantic action. This came out in the spring of last year, but I still remember it for good reason.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag:
I usually don’t play Assassin’s Creed. AC IV however, deeply improved on the third installment with engaging environments, a good-enough story and complex, responsive gameplay. If you like pirates, you’ve already decided – this is the game for you.
Honorable Mentions
The Stanley Parable/Gone Home:
These enigmatic games told stories and showed games as art more than shoot-em-ups or beat-em-ups to trudge through. Whether you’re walking through your office or searching your house, you learn about the character, their life and thought processes in beautiful and surprising ways. The only reason these are honorable mentions is because they are just too short an experience.
And the Game of the Year is …
The Last of Us.
In a great year for gaming, there were so many choices, but the game to put together a story that got people arguing and debating, graphics that gripped players, gameplay that kept them tense and characters that made you laugh and cry, that was called The Last of Us. If I didn’t have a PS3, I just might’ve gotten one to play this game, it was that good. It was more than good enough to deserve the honors as Game of the Year for 2013.