The Year in Gaming 2013: PS4, Xbox One, stratospheric highs, depressingly dismal

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Games By James Plafke Dec. 30, 2013 3:30 pm
As time goes on, video games become more prevalent in mainstream society and modern-day culture. This year was one of gaming’s biggest years in a long time — seeing the release of new consoles and platforms, the initial move over to an all-digital lifestyle, and sales records shattered with many prominent releases. While we’ve seen the release of some phenomenal games and new consoles — and the health of the gaming ecosystem has never been stronger — the impact of this year in gaming isn’t solely positive, as we’ve seen as many dismal lows as stratospheric heights.
[h=3]The games[/h]We’ve had some extremely high profile releases this year, and they didn’t fail to print money.*Grand Theft Auto V set records as if it were a machine sent back from the future with the express purpose of hunting down officials from Guinness World Records. With the release of Call of Duty: Ghosts,*Activision made enough money in a single day to stop worrying about its dwindling*World of Warcraft subscriptions for quite a while. Though Nintendo — like the old adage that states every other version of Windows will be poor — is currently on a downward swing with its flailing Wii U,*Pokémon X and*Y*sold ridiculously well despite the overall middling sales of the Nintendo 3DS.
It’s no surprise that*Grand Theft Auto,*Call of Duty, and*Pokémon would succeed, but 2013 likely won’t be remembered for these time-honored, obvious hits. Instead, it’ll be remembered for the indie scene, what is likely the first instance of video game literature, and a retooled*Bejeweled.

The indie scene grew so quickly this year that it became somewhat stale and repetitive. Everywhere you looked — mobile, PC, and consoles — there was a new craft-and-survive game, a “retro” puzzle-platformer, or some kind of pixelated roguelike-like, which quickly adopted the amusing term “rogue-lite.” Certain releases stood out from the deluge of sprite-alikes, such as*Papers, Please –*a game that somehow turned tedious, monotonous, mind-numbing, soul-crushing work into a stellar experience. Other releases remained under the radar, yet were some of the best experiences of the year, such as the mind-bending, amazingly atmospheric*Antichamber.

Games like*Gone Home*had an impact on the mainstream media, not only fueling the discussion of what makes a game a game, but informing the non-gamer populace what the rest of us have known for seemingly ever: games can be phenomenal, intelligent, mature experiences. In fact, 2013 was the year when a game has shown us this more than any other.*Naughty Dog’s*The Last of Us*was perhaps the first time a large swath of the gaming populace wondered if it just experienced the first-ever video game to be literature. Sure, you shot guys, beat them over the head with bricks, and stabbed them in the neck with shivs made out of broken scissors and tape, but it was arguably the most finely-tuned narrative ever to be delivered in a video game.
On the other side of the coin, everywhere you looked, someone was matching candy on their phone.*King’s*Candy Crush Saga somehow became more prevalent than the height of*Angry Birds or*Clash of Clans*– every single age and gender cursing the stages on which they’re stuck. Mobile gaming is more prevalent than ever thanks to smartphones, but the 2013 mobile market won’t be remembered for innovative gameplay or intriguing experiences — though there were many. Instead, it’ll be remembered for excessive use of questionable cash shop tactics and in-game energy or stamina severely hampering our ability to play a game without investing a small fortune.
Next page: New generations, and hopeful revolutions



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