TSA Game Of The Year 2013 – Overall Winner

This is it. This is the big one. The winner of our TSA Overall Game of the Year 2013 is the video game we consider to be the most enjoyable, interesting and arresting example of this impossibly varied medium we love so much.

Anything that cropped up in another category was considered eligible to be overall winner, meaning that we chose from almost 100 different games. 18 of those games were mentioned in each staff members’ top three of the year and, as such, they are awarded a position on our chart.

The games mentioned range from massive, huge budget games to tiny indie games that just struck a chord with someone on staff. All are very deserving of their place in a Game of the Year discussion and all are worth your time, if you’re building a nice backlog to play through in the coming months.

In third place was a game that didn’t win its category, perhaps because it was genuinely a much better narrative-fuelled experience than it was a shooter. BioShock Infinite had some great elements but Elizabeth’s presence was perhaps one of the most interesting. The game could be considered as basically one long escort mission – something that is traditionally the worst part of any shooter. The twist was that Elizabeth wasn’t some easily perforated, fragile bauble to be protected. In many ways, she was escorting you and you were the vulnerable one.

It also had a narrative that was interesting enough to keep us engaged to the last moment and a final twist that was perhaps not entirely surprising but certainly imaginative and well executed.

In second place was the biggest game of the year. Grand Theft Auto V was a game that lent itself to hyperbolic superlatives as easily as it lent itself to misguided attempts to claim controversy. In truth, GTA V was an exceptionally confident work of satire that poked fun at  itself, and those of us who play it, as much as any other group.

It created a huge world to play in, with air, sea, road and rail travel available and a cast of characters that were as strong and expertly performed as any videogame could ever hope for.

And so we come to the winner. The game that the staff of TSA think is the best example of videogames in 2013. This game elevated the medium to a new level of character-building and forced a supremely empathetic response to our pixelated pals.

TheSixthAxis’ 2013 Game of the Year is The Last of Us.

16 Comments

  1. Well and truly deserved. May not have the best game play but as an emotional experience it’s unrivalled in gaming.

  2. There really was very little else to compete with The Last of Us this year. One of the best games ever made and proof positive that video games have evolved beyond interactive toys into a medium that can deliver experiences of genuine and resonating emotional impact. Congratulations to Naughty Dog.

  3. Well deserved winner, i actually wasn’t sure if the gameplay would suit me but once i started playing it i loved it. I’m looking forward to savouring a second playthrough in another few months.

  4. it was good but not game of the year material..
    i think i’m one of very few people that didn’t gel with the last of us.
    there has been a few good games out this year which for me were better..

    • I didn’t either. Found it a real slog to be honest. My personal GotY from an enjoyment standpoint would unquestionably be Tomb Raider.

      • TR was very ‘meh’ for me. Had it released about 4 or 5 yeara ago, I’d have been very impressed, but arriving when it did, it felt to me like entire sections had been lifted entirely from the various Uncharted games.

    • Name one besides GTA & bioshock

      • got to go with aerobes and tombraider.
        that was a proper reboot and a breath of fresh air..
        dishonored was another great game..and not to many peoples taste beyond two souls..

  5. TLOU changed gaming for me. A well deserved GOTY and my game of the geberation. It will be a while before it is matched in terms of the art of story telling, let alone while managing to maintain solid gameplay.

  6. Probably one of the only people that isnt a massive fan of Naughty Dog. GTA V has to be my game of the year.

  7. The Last of Us definitely deserved that award.

    I still don’t get the love for GTA.

    Three tired stereotypes for main characters (compare them to Elizabeth, or Ellie & Joel), same old mechanics (drive for a few minutes to point A, then back across the city to point B, steal/shoot something, repeat) and when one of the best things about your game is referencing other works, you haven’t made a good game.

    As for satire… What exactly is it satirising anymore? It feels like it’s on the level of the Scary Movie series, which isn’t good. Satire is usually funny, and good satire is insightful. What insights does GTAV offer?

    Finally… Could somebody please explain to me what is so bad about the shooting mechanics in Bioshock? They work fine as far as I can tell. The game is set in the 19th century, the weapons are going to be a bit slower than other games.

  8. The Last Of Us is the best game of the decade :D

  9. Gameplay, graphics, mechanics, characters, plot, dialect, emotion, twists and turns, originality and above all else out of the blue.

    I’m a huge playstation fan. Have been since day one and Metal Gear Solid on PS1 was a game changer. The Last of Us brought the same level of awe. Truly a worthy winner and should be labelled game of the generation.

    Naughty Dog have raised the bar and will be the ones to watch this gen.

  10. Inevitable as it was that this would be TSA’s GOTY I still have to go with GTA.
    Don’t get me wrong. As you say TLOU is a great game,but to me GTA is an exceptional one.
    This is probably a very cliched statement now,but I just can’t look anywhere past the amount of scope and detail that’s been put into it.
    Not saying that Naughty Dog hasn’t put loads of effort into TLOU as they obviously have. But it’s still no more than a linear effort to me.
    If it wasn’t for GTA V being released in September I’d say it would be a deserved whitewash on Naughty Dog’s part,but with the masterpiece that Rockstar have come up with I just can’t look past it.

Comments are now closed for this post.