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.