Home Gaming The Lazygamer Gaming Awards of 2013

The Lazygamer Gaming Awards of 2013

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GOTY

Hello and welcome to the 69th annual Lazygamer Awards! We’ve got a great show for you tonight, filled with laughs, tears and games! Now let’s get straight to the main event and start this party with a bang!

Best Xbox 360 Game – GTA V

gta v 1It wasn’t the year of Xbox exclusives in 2013, with efforts now clearly being spent on establishing such a library on the Xbox One console. Still, if there was one game that you had to have on your 360, it had to be GTA V, which consumed many hours with a great single-player campaign, and many more in the online modes.

 

Best PlayStation 3 Game – The Last of Us

thelastofus

We’ve already said so much about The Last of Us. Whether it was raving about the graphics, the story, the characters or the gameplay, there was a lot to love when it came to The Last of Us. At the very least, it’s made us rule out snorting spores as our next Lazygamer challenge. If you have a PS3 and haven’t played The Last of Us, there really is no excuse. If you don’t have a PS3, go buy one – it’s worth it to experience this game.

Best Wii U Game – Super Mario 3D World

super mario

The Wii U isn’t doing too well and really needs new games. You could argue that Nintendo’s relying too much on established franchises – and you’d be right, but it’s hard to be upset with that when they put out games as good as Super Mario 3D World. Tight controls, excellent gameplay and the best level design in just about any platform game ever and Mario is a shoe in.

Best PC Game – Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm

Swarm

The highly anticipated expansion on Wings of Liberty is also one the best in the acclaimed RTS. The expansion adds 20 new single player missions as well as various tweaks and new units to the game’s 3 playable races, Terran, Zerg and Protoss. Its diverse campaign and great online makes it the best traditional RTS of the year.

 

Best Handheld Game – Fire Emblem: Awakening

2424580-fe_awakening

2013 has to be one of the best years on record for handheld gaming. Whether it was iPad or PS Vita, there was a game to suit every taste, and at a smaller price point to boot.

But Fire Emblem: Awakening was the best of the bunch this year, on the 3DS platform. Imagine Advance Wars with a medieval flair, but with an emphasis on tactics, growth and relationships. Think of all that in the palm of your hand, and you’d have our handheld title of the year.

Best Downloadable Game – Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Far-Cry-3-Blood-Dragon-3

How does a game which happens to be more 1980s than a Duran Duran hairstyle manage to sneak into this list? By being the kind of game that it’s parent engine should have been. Brutally efficient, uncompromisingly set in the ways of the old school action title and just far too much fun to play, Far Cry : Blood Dragon is one of the biggest and best surprises of the year.

It’s old school action with a new school finish, and the game that everyone needs to play at least once in their lifetime."

Best Action Game – Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag

ac4

Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag will make you love being a gamer. From inside jokes about Ubisoft to running around and stabbing people, to setting sail and living the pirate’s life there is so much to love about Black Flag. At the end of a long year of gaming, it made us excited to hold that controller and play – what more could we ask for?

 

Best RPG – Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

NiNoKuni1

When people talk about RPGs, we often hear about epic games like Final Fantasy, Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Ni No Kuni was a surprising treat of an RPG that was truly a joy to play. The characters were charming and the story engaging, with plenty of mission and side quests to keep you occupied. Ni No Kuni is delight of an RPG filled with all kinds of emotions.

Best Racing – Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

SonicRacing_hero

Hah! who says that the best racing game has to be one that’s all realistic, with perfectly modelled cars and moon buggies? No, all it has to be is fun as hell, and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed was just that. With fantastic tracks and sublime, hard-as-nails kart racing, our award goes to a Kart racer that even gives Mario Kart a run for its money.

Best Indie Game – Papers Please

papers-please

Can you believe a spot-the-difference game using bureaucracy and immigration could be so emotional and fun? Papers Please manages to tell a well crafted story, make us worry over difficult moral decisions, and find triumph in the small victories. This indie proves that story-telling, characters and great game play can come in the strangest packages.

Best Fighting Game – Injustice: Gods Among Us

INJUSTICE_11

Ever wondered what would happen if Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat did something nasty, waited nine months and then raised the result on Saturday morning cartoons?

Injustice: Gods Among Us is pretty much that idea in fighting game form, as it debuted this year with solid fighting game mechanics, fantastic visuals and something else that most games in the genre lacked. A thrilling story.

Best Shooter – ?

you-get-nothing-o

To be honest, there was no shooter game this year we deemed worthy of receiving a prize. Bioshock Infinite weaved a great tale, but had archaic and clumsy gameplay. Call of Duty: Ghosts was pretty much a great multiplayer game and little else, while Battlefield 4 followed in those footstep with completely broken gameplay. Metro: Last Light looked great, but the gameplay actually took a step backwards.

It hasn’t been a great year for the FPS genre, and frankly, gamers expect better. Which is why this year, nobody wins.

Best Sports Game – FIFA 14

FIFA14_X360_UK_PrecisionMovement_WM

EA Sports once again raised the bar this year with the latest iteration of FIFA especially on the new generation of consoles.

The generation Ignite Engine pushed the very best football game from the previous generation to new heights while still ensuring it is just as playable and full of depth as ever before.

Best Multiplayer Game – DOTA 2

Dota-2Judging by forums and community posts, almost everyone has played Dota 2. Also, the world’s population consists of trolls. Be that as it may, Dota 2 was officially released into the wild this year, coming out of its "closed" beta. It has captured the hearts and minds of eSports fans and severed friendships. Play with friends, or maybe it’s better if you play with enemies – either way, Dota 2 is about playing with others and destroying all hope in humanity.

Best Graphics – Crysis 3

crysis

Many games aim to look like a promotional cut-scene, but most of them fail. If you had the budget of a small nation however, chances are that you could have played the one game that lived up the the visual hype.

Crysis 3 looks face-meltingly phenomenal, and that was before it launched. A couple of months down the line and it looks even more gorgeous now, thanks to constant updates and fan mods that pushed the game to the bleeding edge of high definition graphics.

Best New IP – The Last Of Us

the-last-of-us-shot-oneThat’s right, The Last of Us again. You haven’t seen the last of The Last of Us? A fantastic new IP, I’m sure we’ll be seeing movies, new games, spin offs, comics and who knows what else. For now, let’s be glad that we got our hands on this game in 2013. Even if Clickers have caused too many nightmares.

 

Game Of The Year – GTA V

gta v 2Though it wasn’t unanimous, by any means, the game that got the most votes for this year’s top game was GTA V. It might be sexist, it might be bawdy and rambunctious, but dammit, it’s fun – and that’s what games are about.

Last Updated: December 20, 2013

41 Comments

  1. AndriyP

    December 20, 2013 at 15:34

    *said in the voice of the great Yoda
    Hmmmm redeem yourself this year you have…or scared to cod you were?

    Reply

  2. Lego Witcher of the Squirrels

    December 20, 2013 at 15:38

    Hi, I’m a squirrel in a man’s body and I approve of these awards!

    Reply

  3. Lego Witcher of the Squirrels

    December 20, 2013 at 15:45

    69th annual? I guess that’s just Geoff or Brenda (Frodo) being wishful

    Reply

  4. Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

    December 20, 2013 at 15:46

    Twas a great year for all the non FPS games. A gaming year I actually really enjoyed. Great awards.

    Reply

  5. Umar of The Rebellion

    December 20, 2013 at 15:47

    Poor Xbox 360 ….. GTA V is the best game on the system …..Was always one of the thing I didn’t like about MS

    Reply

    • Lego Witcher of the Squirrels

      December 20, 2013 at 15:48

      Yeah us Xbox 360 owners had a rough year… the exclusives (bwahahahaha) were a bit of a joke too

      Reply

      • Umar of The Rebellion

        December 20, 2013 at 15:49

        Don’t really know how GTA V can be the best for a specific console. It’s multi plat, so that’s cheating

        Reply

        • Lego Witcher of the Squirrels

          December 20, 2013 at 15:53

          Well it was best on the 360 for me… as I only own a 360 and I’ve spent somewhere in the region of 9 days (accumulated playing time) on online and SP.

          Reply

          • Umar of The Rebellion

            December 20, 2013 at 15:55

            Nothing against GTA though. But I just view a BEST game for a console should be exclusive to that console, as you can’t play it on any other system

          • Lego Witcher of the Squirrels

            December 20, 2013 at 15:56

            Too true… I didn’t play any exclusives this year though lol

          • Umar of The Rebellion

            December 20, 2013 at 15:57

            Lol exactly, hence my pity. But Gta is still a fine choice 🙂

          • Lego Witcher of the Squirrels

            December 20, 2013 at 16:00

            Well, I think they’d only have had one choice for that anyway… being Gears of War Judgement… so I’m quite happy having GTA there lol

            http://www.lazygamer.net/xbox-360/the-xbox-360-has-just-one-exclusive-for-2013/

          • Gavin Mannion

            December 20, 2013 at 17:57

            We had a long discussion about this and what we came to was that if you only had one console then what is the best game to play on it?

            I think it does show what a bad year 2013 was for the Xbox that it had no exclusives in the running

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      December 20, 2013 at 19:28

      I think Brothers and State of Decay were exclusives for Xbox 360 this year, but yeah… pretty dismal showing from the green team.

      Reply

      • RinceGivesRspectsToMadiba

        December 21, 2013 at 16:33

        I still think that LG were avoiding the apocalypse that they almost started last year by not choosing a best shooter…

        Reply

  6. Umar of The Rebellion

    December 20, 2013 at 15:48

    Fantastic list!

    Reply

  7. LAblak22

    December 20, 2013 at 15:55

    HA! “69.”

    Reply

  8. Lardus-Resident Perve

    December 20, 2013 at 15:55

    Probably never played NBA 2K14…then again I never played FIFA hehe

    Reply

  9. Gareth L (That Guy)

    December 20, 2013 at 16:00

    No “Best Strategy / RTS Game”?

    Reply

  10. Hammersteyn

    December 20, 2013 at 16:32

    I would have given best shooter to Far Cry Blood Dragon. Best DLC standalone game ever and fully deserving of it’s own franchise. Nobody out there can’t say that it wasn’t a ton of fun with the 80’s quips and the Rocky music near the end. Michael Biehn was awesome.

    Reply

    • RinceGivesRspectsToMadiba

      December 21, 2013 at 16:34

      Agreed.

      Reply

  11. JustAnotherGamer

    December 20, 2013 at 16:42

    Redemption achieved!

    Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      December 21, 2013 at 14:12

      Mmm… maybe! LOL 😛

      Reply

  12. Sageville

    December 20, 2013 at 17:31

    Sage agrees with this list on all points, you may proceed with further list making and other gaming analysis….

    Reply

  13. hairyknees

    December 20, 2013 at 17:36

    YES! Dota 2 won something 😛

    Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      December 20, 2013 at 18:57

      It wouldnt be a complete list if they didnt mention, atleast once, how shit they think the players in the dota community are.

      Reply

  14. Gustav Willem Diedericks

    December 20, 2013 at 17:41

    This list makes far better sense than the other lists out there. Guess integrity was a factor here? 🙂

    Reply

  15. Rags

    December 20, 2013 at 18:26

    Hmm, not the greatest year of gaming I suppose. Thought Ryse Son of Rome was by far the most glorious game to look at, but other than that no complaints 🙂

    http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129228
    Just look at those visuals!

    Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      December 21, 2013 at 14:09

      Killzone SF is pure eye-candy. It’s visual porn that readily blows Ryse out of the water. The difference betweem 1080p (60fps) vs ~720p (>30fps) is extremely noticeable.

      Reply

      • Rags

        December 21, 2013 at 22:53

        True forgot about Killzone!
        The art assets of Ryse and facial animation is still quite outstanding.

        Reply

        • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

          December 22, 2013 at 15:11

          Yeah, I was impressed with the facial animation for Ryse, and the setting is pure awesome. There should be more games featuring Roman history or Roman mythology. Next to the Greeks and the Aztecs, they’re extremely fascinating.

          Reply

  16. Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

    December 20, 2013 at 19:27

    I can’t fault this year’s awards (even though I disagree in parts – but so it goes with gaming). By the way, I’m surprised Metro: Last Light wasn’t a contender for FPS of the year.

    Reply

    • Brenz

      December 20, 2013 at 21:23

      I was rather unimpressed with metro personally. Potential was there but was never a wow moment, i believe the correct term for my emotions is meh.

      Reply

  17. Brenz

    December 20, 2013 at 21:31

    Good list, I concur with the choices.
    If I had to choose a fps I would have said Bioshock, I really enjoyed it, even with its faults, I came to like Elizabeth quite a lot during it, to the point I really wanted to save her, I wasnt just doing it because that was the point of the game. If a game gets their character development done so well to the point I really connect with them then they deserve a top spot as far as my opinion goes.

    Reply

  18. Weanerdog

    December 21, 2013 at 11:24

    Decent awards, but my 2c about GTA 5 as best xbox game, if it was the best xbox game but not the best PS4 game where it was also released then why is Last of us not game of the year. I think for meaningful list the Game of the year either needs to be excluded from all the categories or it needs to win all the categories that it qualifies for say best action game as well. I understand that the Xbox had few exclusives none that were worthy to win but then so did the FPS category so if the xbox category is solely for exclusives then nothing should have won.

    Reply

  19. Jonah Cash

    December 21, 2013 at 14:38

    I have only played one of the games on this list……. That makes me sad!!! (And I won’t even mention it’s name or say what I think of it on PS3…. I believe it is time to move on…. Oh and it works on PS4, I am up to 499 on the leader board…)

    Reply

  20. RinceGivesRspectsToMadiba

    December 21, 2013 at 16:32

    Mmm,. no best shooter, I call cop out! 😉

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      December 21, 2013 at 17:21

      I agree, they’re copping out with their FPS out.

      Reply

  21. Rags

    December 21, 2013 at 22:51

    What exactly is best downloadable game? What is it for?

    Reply

  22. azhar

    December 23, 2013 at 16:31

    why aint there no survival horror on this list?

    Reply

  23. Yuubi

    December 27, 2013 at 16:11

    Thank you for the Award for Fire Emblem: Awakening! That game is great and i really ask myself why not other sites give it a award! The sound is great, i love “Return Id” & “Purpose Id” Soundtrack at the end of the game… a great game, the best FE game i ever played.

    Reply

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