My Top 5 Video Games of 2013

#5: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

MGR:R is easily this year’s best hack and slash game and comes in at a solid #5 on my top 5 list. The game presents a spin-off story starring Raiden, the infamous cyborg ninja from Metal Gear Solid 4. It has excellent graphics, challenge and an amazing soundtrack that bears listening even when not playing the game. On top of all that, you just have to give bonus points to a game that uses it’s own made-up word in the title.

#4: The Last of Us

Is it supposed to be Ellen Page or isn’t it? Who cares, because the real star of this game is the intense survival action. The Last of Us has successfully captured the magic that the Resident Evil series has been trying to rekindle for years now, and does it while presenting a story that is legitimately engaging and heart-wrenching. This game mixes 3rd person shooter gameplay with challenging stealth sequences that will have you on the edge of your seat. One of my favorite aspects of this game is that it really doesn’t feel like a game when you are playing it. The areas and sections of the game are so seamlessly blended with the gameplay that’s its super easy to become engrossed while playing. This is a game that will continually be referenced in the ever-ongoing “Games vs. Art” debate for years to come.

#3: Bioshock Infinite

Another highly artistic yet undeniably addictive game, Bioshock Infinite brings all the high quality FPS action you’d expect from the Bioshock series and sets the game in a truly unique world environment. The game presents a fair amount of challenge but it’s the story’s constant twists and turns that are going to keep you glued to the game, all of which culminates to one of the most satisfying, thought-provoking endings in game history. This is another one to reference the next time you are debating your friends if video games are works of art. I feel like this game is generally on par with The Last of Us in terms of quality, but I had to rank Bioshock Infinite higher simply because I enjoyed the gameplay more.

#2: Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

For RPG lovers, Ni No Kuni is a breath of fresh air in a console generation that has generally been lacking in Japanese-style RPGs. This game was developed as a joint venture between Level-5 and Studio Ghibli. If you’re not aware of these companies, crawl out of the rock you’ve been living under and just know that they represent the absolute best in their respective fields. This game has amazing anime-style graphics, a heart-warming story to tell and is overall just plain fun. It reminds me a lot of Dragon Quest VIII, another of my favorite RPGs. One of my favorite aspects of the game are the familiars, who are your characters’ counterparts in battle in the same vein as Pokemon. All of this combined with a rather long quest and post-game content makes for one of my favorite games of 2013.

#1: Grand Theft Auto V

Is this a surprise to anyone? I suspect that Grand Theft Auto V will be at the top of many gamers’ lists because it is simply that good of a game. GTAV takes everything you love about GTA and just gives you more. This game, set in fictional Los Santos, is massive and full of activities, random encounters and missions to complete. I literally don’t believe that any game has as much varied content to offer gamers as Grand Theft Auto V does. I feel that the story missions and heists were especially well done and had a good amount of variety to them, which is something I think has been a weakness in the GTA series in the past. The ability to play as 3 different characters is, surprisingly to me, very well done and keeps the game from getting too stale. The story is very interesting and has some real humanity to it which also surprised me. Basically, this game is flippin’ sweet and IMO is the best game released in 2013 (and I haven’t even talked about the extremely robust and fun online mode)!

Honorable Mentions:

DMC: Devil May Cry

I’ve already said a lot about this game here, but I wanted to mention it again because it really is one of the stand-out titles in 2013. In my mind it was a battle between this and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance for the #5 spot on this list, but I had to give it to MGR:R due to the engaging challenges that game presented. DMC is a game that faced criticism from both fans and non-fans alike, but I think that this game showed that it can and will carry the Devil May Cry pedigree in 2013 and beyond.

Dragon’s Crown

Dragon’s Crown is an under-appreciated gem of a game lost in a sea of FPS rehashes. It harkens back to a time where side-scrolling beat ’em up games were king and is effectively a love letter to the genre. It has beautifully hand-drawn graphics and sprites, engaging gameplay and a killer online co-op mode spread across a deceptively long quest. The playable characters represent different play-styles and strategies and really serve to add variety to this game. If you’re a beat ’em up fan this game is sure to be a hit with you.

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Thanks for checking out my top 5 video games in 2013 list. Do you agree with my picks? What games did I miss? Be sure to let me know in the comments.

‘Dragonborn Debt Consolidation’ reaches 10,000 views!

‘Dragonborn Debt Consolidation (Skyrim prank call)’ is my first YouTube video to reach 10,000 views, mainly due to the popularity of Skyrim itself. This video was a big milestone for me because it represents the marriage of two of my favorite hobbies: video games and prank calls! Since this video I have carried on the tradition of video game-themed prank calls, highlighting such games as Borderlands 2, DmC and Little Nemo the Dream Master.

‘Dragon’s Dogma’ In-Depth Video Review

Platinum Update

It dawned on me that I haven’t gotten around to posting about a couple platinum trophies I got recently: Red Dead Redemption and Demon’s Souls! Here are some thoughts.

Red Dead Redemption is a great game. The single player mode has a great story, a huge world to explore and an immersive atmosphere that really pulls you into the game. I am not even really a fan of cowboys/Westerns and I really liked this game. I liked it so much that once I had finished the story I decided I wanted to platinum the game. The single player trophies were very manageable if not easy but then I jumped into multiplayer mode. I found the multiplayer modes to be fun but many of the trophies themselves are very time-consuming to get. For example, grinding your character up to experience level 50 takes way too much time, so much so that I got completely sick of the game and stopped playing entirely. Months later, I found myself monitoring Rockstar’s Twitter account looking for triple XP announcements and thanks to that I was finally able to to grind my character up to level 50. All in all, this is a great game and the online component is very fun, especially with all the newly added online modes. Just be prepared for a grind if you are looking for that platinum trophy.

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Demon’s Souls is a game that I was unsure of when I first bought it but quickly became my favorite PS3 game. Seriously, there are so many awesome things about this game. It is one of the most atmospheric games I’ve ever played and because of that there are some very tense moments. At times, this game had me screaming obscenities at my TV in anger, but I loved every minute of it. It’s difficult to describe, but Demon’s Souls is a really satisfying experience. It’s an old-school type of game in that memorization and trial and error are pretty much required to make it through. It wasn’t easy but I am very proud to finally have this platinum after many, many playthroughs. See you on Dark Souls!

Oblivion and the ‘leveling problem’

In preparation for Skyrim, I’m doing a new playthrough of Oblivion. I really like this game but hate its broken-ass leveling system. If you’ve played Oblivion before you know what I’m talking about. The game’s enemies and treasures level up as your character does, which sounds like a great idea in theory but it’s entirely possible to screw up your character to the point where you are ‘behind the curve’ of the game and the enemies all own you. To figure out why this happens we have to analyze how the leveling system works.

When you create your character, you’re asked to choose 7 major skills that basically define your character’s abilities and also determine when you level-up. These skills have their own independent skill levels that are raised as you use those skills in the game. When you have a total of 10 skill levels across your major skills you level up. If you are playing as a warrior, for example, you might want to choose ‘Blade’ and ‘Heavy Armor’ for major skills in the interest of improving your character’s fighting ability. This would most likely be fine because with these skills you should be able to handle the stronger enemies as the game progresses.

The problem arises when you decide to try a more interesting character build, like say a thief. As a good thief, you will most likely want to choose a major skill like ‘Sneak’. What good is a thief that can’t sneak? Just imagine yourself in a dungeon, shrouded in darkness, bow and arrow in hand, just ready for that sneak attack on an enemy guarding a treasure you so desire. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Here’s the problem: choosing a major skill like ‘Sneak’ for a thief could actually hurt your character. You will sneak pretty much constantly and your character could level up too fast, causing enemies to become too powerful for you to defeat. What you will end up having to do is stop using ‘Sneak’ and the other major skills you chose in the interest of not leveling up. That’s right, in this game you want to avoid leveling up. This is inherently flawed because as an RPG gamer your sensibilities are to choose the skills that your character is going to use most, but some skills level up so quickly through normal play and don’t really contribute to your characters ability to stay alive that they end up hindering you more than helping you.

So what’s the solution to this problem? What I am going to try for my new playthrough is the following: I’m going to pick major skills that I can generally avoid using in the game, things like ‘Hand to Hand’, ‘Heavy Armor’ and ‘Conjuration’. Basically my strategy will be to have all my good skills as minor skills, level them up until I’m satisfied (gaining minor skill levels does not cause your character/game to level up) and then level up a throw-away major skill 10 times to trigger the character level up. How ass backwards is that? This will be my first time trying this strategy but I think it will result in the best character for me. The beginning of the game might be harder due to the fact that I will not be getting the initial stat bonuses from choosing such skills as ‘Sneak’ and ‘Marksman’ as major skills for my thief character, but I think in the long run it will make my character better and the game more fun.

I’ve purposely been avoiding looking up Skyrim info to avoid things getting spoiled, but I’m very happy to say that Skyrim will be adopting the (much better) leveling system from the Fallout series.

TLDR version: To make the best character in this game, choose major skills that you don’t actually want to use.