Mario and Rayman, this list is A-okay to me.

Eleven games? Fucking Alex.

You're probably the best writer at Giant Bomb! Thank you and well done. Hopefully I'll see you around Queens one of these days.

Really great write-up Alex. Well done

Fantastic list and explanations Alex.

While I sort of grew up in the 90s (I was born in '87) I was never a girl, have not had to deal with being gay and have no one I know personally that has and most of the cultural touchstones in the game are foreign to me. Yes I did own a SNES, but I really wasn't into games at that time like I was later in my life, I never read magazines at al let alone Nintendo Power (which seems more in line with my gamer friends early gaming lives).

At most I knew what that eye crossing thingy was, and I know what the x-files is, though I never really watched that either.

All in all I think while I COULD have had a lot of those moments based on my age I didn't.... the characters and just straight up raw empathy that they beg the player to have kinda makes those things moot.

If anyone says that those cultural things 'make' Gone Home what it is... they are missing the entire point in all fairness and doing disservice to the abilities of themselves and of others to empathize with human emotion across any petty barriers like era or age or anything. Those things merely color what is at it's core a very moving experience.

Man after reading these lists its sure easy to tell that Alex is the only "true" writer in the group. Fantastic write up.

Alex is the best writer on this site. Very compelling read!

From a gameplay perspective I cannot think of a more aggressively average game this year than Bioshock Infinite. The gameplay boiled down to a generic Call of Duty style corridor shooter with some rather boring powers stapled on top. I loved the world and experiencing the story and discussing it with friends and the internet was a lot of fun, but playing the damn thing almost ruined the experience for me because it was so uninteresting mechanically. Bad gameplay would have been better because I would have had something to be mad at and overcome. Bioshock Infinity stands with Resistance 2 as an overall enjoyable game that drags itself down by having some of the most depressingly generic gameplay I have seen in a shooter.

ARRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Infinite didn't have the greatest gameplay but it was a huge improvement over the horrible gameplay in Bioshock.

you dun goof'd, son.

also GB is blessed to have a writer of your caliber, @alex. a real pleasure to read, and some damn fine choices too!

*meow*

I've heard this a lot, and it rubs me the wrong way for many reasons. There's the fact that all of the above translates very neatly to the original Bioshock as well, which never got any crap for it. In fact, Bioshock had severe design limitations at the time that we seem to have forgotten (crucially, plasmids could not be equipped at the same time as weapons).

There's also the weird inconsistency of saying "it boiled down to a generic Call of Duty corridor shooter" and then having to backtrack towards "well, it had these weird powers that you can use, but those weren't good, I guess?"

That's a dumb argument on two whole levels. First, it assumes that Call of Duty is a bad game, which is not something one can say undisputed as an article of faith. Specifically, Call of Duty's main weakness has never been its gameplay or design. It lives on the strength of its combat, even as its setting and narrative tropes are generic as hell. Second, this is clearly not true of Bioshock. You may like what it's doing or not, but the vigors, the tears, Elisabeth's role in providing ammo and health and the skyhook are all distinct mechanics that change the shooting and make it different.

That doesn't make the shooting good by itself, mind you. If you want to make a case that the shooting in Bioshock Infinite is bad, you are welcome to go ahead and do that. I will disagree, but that's besides the point. What does piss me off is invoking Call of Duty as an example of mediocrity and ignoring all the things Bioshock Infinite does uniquely for a cheap, half-baked, me-too cynical online argument. If you're going to criticise the game, at least do so from a position that makes sense.

bioshock 4: now with dogs innit

Good list, Great write up, thanks Alex.

@noizy said:

Pretty sure it was far worse for Bioshock 2, a game that actually plays vastly better than both the others :P

Alex appreciates the quality of Rayman Legends so he will always be the favourite in my book.

Great write up, Alex. Thanks for the words and all of your work this year. Cheers! :)

I've been playing me some Mario 3D world and while it wouldn't take my top ten list it's pretty good. I'm also not far enough in to AC IV to understand why people are digging it. Honestly AC has become such a bore to me I'm having a hard time keeping going until it gets "good". Dead Rising 3 isn't striking as a DR game but from what I heard I need to keep going until the awesome happens. Hrmm. And Bioshock. Holy Christ I loved Bioshock. One of the defining games of the generation. But man, couldn't even complete Bioshock Infinite before getting bored with it. What's happening? Have I reached game saturation to the point I can't feel strongly about any game at all? I did like Zelda but not enough to make it a game of the year contender. Music is awesome. Great. Dungeons are not great to look at. Boo.

I dunno. I'll keep playing Mario for now as I haven't unlocked all the levels yet. The best game experience I've had all year involves a game that came out in 2011. It involves things such as "souls" and "humanities".

I have yet to play animal crossing. Maybe it's about time since I've never played an animal crossing game before. And screw Pokémon. I've played Pokémon and I'm done playing Pokémon games.

I thought BioShock Infinite was tons of fun to play, it just sucks you don't get all of the powers until so late and there's no New Game Plus like in BioShock 1. To me it is like Ratchet & Clank mixed with Half-Life and I guess people just have different tastes than me. It was almost always a blast for me or at least decent, especially in the skyline-centric arenas.

excellent list and write up... and props for Bombing the AM too. It has been one of the best additions to the bomb this year.

Thoroughly agree with this.

Also, I had played the original BioShock again mere weeks before Infinite's release and my position on that game remains the same as it was when that game came out: severely overrated. That game had very weird gameplay design. If you think Infinite had poor gameplay, then BioShock is without a doubt the worst playing game of all time. The plasmids are so ridiculously overpowered compared to the number of enemies and resistance they give, that the gameplay in that game is by definition a joke. You can shock a guy and shoot him for... all of the game. I tried it in Infinite, it won't work for long.

I'd be more interested in "dunking my skull in a deep fryer to find out if I'll drown or scald to death first."

Congraulations Alex on winning snarky comment of the year! I knew you could do it!

Great list, Alex.

I will always love your writing, Alex. OwwwooooOOOOO!!!!!!!

That was a fantastic list, Alex.

Wow Alex! What a great list and even better write up. Thank you!

If only there was a website that could test something like that...

Have yet to comment on any of these list Alex, but I really enjoyed your write up! Thanks.

Great list, Alex; and its well written as always. You're one of the few whose Gone Home choice made sense. I still think the experience was overrated, but I respect your genuine opinion of the product. In fact, I'd say your list is closer to what the official GB list should have been, though I would've moved Bioshock Infinite in the Top 3.

I don't know if it has been a good year if everyone's top 10 is pretty much the same.

I thought this year was great. I've had no less than 3 must-play games to justify my purchase of a 3DS and also got some nice games that I played/want to play on the Vita.

Both of those systems didn't really have a compelling line up of games before this year.

Ironic or no, I also finally have a game worthy to own my PS3 for and although I do not own one yet, the games that have come out this year for the Wii U tells me as soon as a price drop occurs I will own one of those.

Solid justification to own multiple systems is a great year on its own. Besides that, I often only struggle putting my top 10 games of the year in order, but this year I actually struggled deciding what made the list.

Great year for me.

I get alex's sense of humour and I also have very similar tastes in games. This was almost the same as mine

Good stuff Alex.

You should totally bring Guns of Navarro back next year. I could always use more of your writing in my life.

This list looks solid.

Just read this, finally. I haven't played Brothers, but the remaining 4 of his top 5 are my top 4 games of the year, in the exact same order. Kudos, my man. You have the best taste in games in Giant Bomb.

Great list, and also the most compelling for me in terms of describing why I should check in on the top 10 entries here that I missed in 2013. Awesome job!