Top 10 Games of 2013 - Mike Gregory

In descending order:

10 - GTA 5

Not much to be said that you haven't already heard. Its GTA, if you like GTA, you will like GTA 5. Tons of variety in missions, stock market is fun to play with. I finished the story, then was pretty much done with the game, the online mode is pretty lame.

9 - Guacamelee 

An old school side scroller metroidvania game starring luchadors. Co-op mode makes it even more fun. Punch, suplex and drop kick your way through legions of enemies while gaining upgrades for your luchador to access new areas. Loved the other video game franchise refernces (Los Super Hermanos, Mega Hombre, Los Casa Crashers)

8 - Saints Row 4

Like GTA 5, only more fun and over the top, and its CO-OP. Not a better made game than GTA5, but definitely more fun, especially with a friend. The weapons and powers are a blast to play with. The super powers make the world traversal so much fun. Humour is very crass and lude, so if that bothers you, skip it.

7 - Tales of Xillia

Another great entry in the Tales series. Great combat mechanics that allow for a lot of variety and strategy in battle. Best JRPG I have played in a while.  Fun upgrade system for shops, farm for materials, upgrade the shops to get discounts and better loot.

6 - Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Beautiful RPG in the style of studio Ghibli. Looks and sounds amazing. Addictive collection mechanic where you are always trying to recruit and improve new minions.  Partner AI is extremely stupid at times which makes some fights harder than they should be

5 - Rogue Legacy

Side scroller action game where you constantly improve your character. Die in the dungeon, upgrade your character and re try.  Challenging and rewarding, and can be played in quick sessions, or for hours at a time if you feel like it.

4 - Card Hunter

Free to play browser based collectible card turn based battle game. Cards are tied to your equipment, find a new sword after a fight, equip it to earn the cards tied to it. Change your loadout to prepare for different enemies. There is a payment option tied to the game, but you can play the entire campaign without buying anything. Very addictive, and you can play anywhere, just log in to the site and continue your campaign. Have not tried the multiplayer, but the campaign is fantastic.

3 - Last of Us

Great story, great gameplay. Violent and engaging. I loved almost every minute of this game, there were a few parts where I was getting frustrated by the gameplay.

2 - The Legend of Zelda: Link between worlds

A sequel to my all time favourite Zelda game (A link to the past). Great old school zelda game.  Mixes up the gameplay from the usual zelda formula by allowing you to choose the order of dungeons you complete instead of the more linear path the games usually follow

1 - Tomb Raider

I've always been a tomb raider fan, and this has got to be my favourite. It looks gorgeous and plays great. In my opinion, this is better than any of the Uncharted games. The first game in ages that I 100% completed, finished the story, and found all collectibles.  There is a multiplayer mode which I did not even bother with, there is no need for it in a game like this. Some of the death scenes are brutal!

Honourable Mentions

Assassins Creed 4

The best in the Assassins Creed franchise. Open world pirate game, sail around, attack other ships, explore islands, hunt, craft, and assassinate. Tons of fun, but I have not put enough time in yet to put it on my top 10 list.

Battlefield 4

If it weren't for the bugs, crashes and general network bullshit, this game would be in my top 10. I have more time in this game than any other this year, but its a mess some times. When it works, its great, when it doesn't, you will wanna rip your hair out. Some times you will kill someone in 1 burst, other times you will empty 100 bullets into their back only for them to do a 180 and drop you with a pistol.

The Legend of Zelda - Wind Waker HD

HD remake of the older Gamecube zelda. Looks great in HD, and the Wii U tablet works really well with the game. Tons of fun just sailing around the ocean.

Letdowns 

Bioshock

This game is probably on several people's best of lists, but I really did not like it. It looks pretty, the story had a cool ending, but that's about the only positives I can think of. Boring repetitive gameplay, I ended up just using the same weapons and tonics through the majority of the game. Most of the combat just wasn't fun at all.

Killzone

Another game that looks pretty...and that's about it. The game has lost its dirty grimy feeling of the older entries in the series, it just feels like a generic sci fi shooter now. The story is bland, I'm struggling to finish it, I can play like 5 - 10 mins then get bored with it. The Multiplayer shows promise, but the user population is very low already (700 people online last time i checked). The Multi player ideas are great, I like the switching objectives, but I find it just does not work. Like Battlefield 4 only worse, it takes like 50 bullets to kill someone, and 1 bullet to die, just not fun

Call of Duty: Ghosts

Awful, just plain awful. I buy the new COD every year, they're always good for some brainless run and gun action. This one is just a mess. The maps are garbage, it looks like crap, it plays like crap. The campaign is boring and the online is the worse implementation the series has ever had. You'd think by making the same game every year they would be able to improve on it, but it seems like they just get worse and worse. Spawn system is far worse than it ever has been, if you manage to get the smallest kill streak going, the game will spawn several people directly behind you to stop that.

Arkham Origins

The first 2 batman games are fantastic. This one is pretty much the same, only more buggy. I had several crashes and freezes playing through the campaign. They decided to add a multiplayer option for some odd reason, really doesn't need to be there in a game like this.  The combat did not feel as precise to me as the older ones either, I felt like I was missing combos that I should have connected on. Sometimes Batman will just start punching thin air instead of targeting an enemy like you would want. The game was fun, it wasn't a bad game by any means, just more of the same, but with more bugs and problems.

Top 10 Movies of 2013 - Mike Gregory

In no particular Order

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

I didn't know anything about this movie besides Steve Coogan being in it, which is enough to get a watch from me. The movie hilarious, Coogan is brilliant as always, a must see movie

The Conjuring

Great creepy haunted house movie, doesn't rely on too many jump scares. Just a good atmosphere, story and characters.
 

Pacific Rim

Giant Monsters vs. Giant Robots, of course I loved it.  The story is nothing fantastic, its very cliched, and illogical at parts, but I had a blast watching it.

The Worlds End

Another great movie in the cornetto trilogy. It is probably my least favourite of the 3, but its still a fantastic movie. Great gags, lots of fun, lots of beer. Once the movie gets going, its non stop action, fun and laughs.

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

Such an improvement over The Hobbit part 1. Still drawn out too much, should have trimmed much of the fat down, but I was not pissed off watching this one. I was entertained through the entire movie, where the last one I just felt like every scene dragged on for too long. Lots of action, much better paced, looks and sounds amazing.

Oz The Great and Powerful

Colourful, Fun, and wonderful. The story and set pieces were fun, the effects were fantastic. The movie really felt like an older Sam Raimi movie to me, really enjoyed it.

Wolverine

I had low expectations before watching  but was pleasantly surprised with this one. The Japanese setting was a nice new take on the characters.  Yukio was a bad ass, and her pairing with wolverine was fun to watch. Great action scenes, not a perfect comic book movie, but it sure was fun to watch.

Warm Bodies

A charming, funny and clever.Zombie take on Romeo and Juliet. I really enjoyed hearing R's (Nicholas Hoult) inner dialogue, struggling to stay human in his zombie body.

Evil dead

Gory, Creepy, and different enough from the original to warrant a remake. Good remakes are hard to do, if its too close to the original, then whats the point of remaking it? If it deviates too much, then you piss off the original fans. I found this movie to land a perfect balance between the 2, the story and setting are the same as the original, but events unfold in differently. Do not watch if you are squeamish at all though, very gory!

Byzantium

A different, intelligent, well written vampire movie. I was thoroughly engaged and fascinated through the entire story.  Great performances by the 2 lead actresses Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan.
The movie has a similar feel to Interview with the Vampire (also directed by Neil Jordan), but I enjoyed Byzantium much more than Interview


Hopefully I haven't skipped over any movies that I really enjoyed this year. This list was made from memory

Letdowns of the year

Man of Steel

I'm not really a big super man fan at all, but this movie I just found boring. I like most of Zack Snyder's movies, and Christopher Nolan had some input on this one as well, but I just did not find this movie entertaining  at all.

Elysium

I loved District 9, this one...not so much. I had really high hopes for Elysium, and it just didn't live up. It had the same look and feel as D9, but just not nearly as fun.