Top 5 Video Games of 2013

#5 - Pokemon X and Y: The Pokemon franchise ventures forth into a bold new realm of full 3D character models, environments, and dynamic battle animations. At its core, this is the same Pokemon experience you’ve known for years, but the addition of a new Fairy type spices up the routine more than the highly-touted mega evolutions. The new Pokemon feel largely an extension of those introduced in Black and White, and that’s very much a good thing, as the typing combinations, movesets, and designs are wonderful. The post game is, unfortunately, almost nonexistent, and the fact that the game provides more than enough in the way of acquiring experience points means that X and Y will be easier than previous entries into Game Freak’s long-running series. Still, it’s a promising sign of things to come and prove a truly impressive feat for the hardware.

#4 - Metroid Fusion: Following hot on the heels of my playthrough of Super Metroid, Fusion was a game that, despite my high hopes for, I did not expect to come close to the quality of the SNES classic. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, while I still regarded Super Metroid as the best 2D entry in the series, that Fusion was a dang close runner-up, thanks in no small part to the extra push of the horror thematic and decent challenge factor. Fusion is certainly a more direct Metroid title, as story comes first and foremost and the exploration factor is downscaled from other entries in the series. But the experience is handled masterfully, and stands as one of the best Gameboy Advance titles I’ve had a chance to experience.

#3 - Mass Effect 2/Mass Effect 3: Building upon the foundation of the first Mass Effect, these two sequels run incredibly close in terms of quality due to the different approaches they take in executing both story and gameplay. Mass Effect 2’s emphasis on gunplay is generally less exciting or tactical than ME3’s more varied and highly specialized squad members, but ME2 does offer a longer, more open-ended adventure as Shepard and company are free to explore alien worlds and derelict vessels without the pressure of fighting back against the impending Reaper invasion of the Milky Way. At the end of the day, however, it is genuinely impressive to discover all the ways in which BioWare chose to tie the titles together, with cameos by allies past and echoes of Shepard’s many important decisions as a Spectre, an agent of Cerberus, and a soldier serving under the Alliance carrying through from beginning to end. It’s a genuinely emotional ride from start to finish, considering all the characters you will become invested in, and serves as one of the most important video game series of the seventh generation.

#2 - ZombiU: Sometime during the years that followed the success of Resident Evil 4, the definition of what ‘survival horror’ meant was lost to the oncoming march of the more highly-marketable, easier to replicate action-horror genre. ZombiU is survival horror in every sense of the word, and is both a phenomenal throwback to games of days gone by when resource management drew a fine line between in-game life or death, and a bold launch title for a whole new generation of consoles. It dares to be intense, terrifying, and just unforgiving enough, carrying a Metroid-tier difficulty to it. Every tiny detail, from dust particles gathering on your gamepad’s screen to the litter lining the London streets, as well as the bevy of unique environment assets, make this a must-play title for any fan of the genre, as it renews faith that survival horror can be done in a most phenomenal manner, under the right development team.

#1 - Killer is Dead: Possibly the single smoothest-playing action game I’ve ever had the pleasure of indulging in, Killer is Dead is a near total inversion of the pop culture references and zany humor of No More Heroes. And yet, I wouldn’t have it any other way. The classic Japanese symbolism, classical-meets-industrial soundtrack, and insanely gorgeous visuals perpetuate a one-of-a-kind atmosphere that is more serious and single-minded in its focus than other Suda51 titles, but also brings to the table one of the most memorable Suda51 villains. The boss battles are wonderfully varied and intense, Mondo’s abilities dynamic and interesting, and the bonus missions aplenty. The clumsy gigolo missions hold this title back from reaching perfection, but I’ll be damned if the final hours of this game didn’t constitute one of the most consistent and satisfying finales of any Suda game I’ve played yet, especially considering the number of big-name 2013 releases that fell apart somewhere during their second halves.

Top five video games and anime of 2013 - Spring/Summer contenders

As we are now well into the month of July, I thought it an appropriate time to preview the contenders for my end of year ‘top five’ anime and video game lists. These are, of course, contenders that I feel currently have a strong shot at making said top five lists, but are not necessarily confirmed, as other anime I view and games I play later this year could oust them from their current positions (I think this weighs more heavily on the video game portion of my blog, as most of the 2013 releases I am most looking forward to – Pikmin 3, Watch Dogs, The Wonderful 101, Killer is Dead, and Pokemon X & Y - will be coming out between late summer and mid-autumn).

- Video games -

Mass Effect 2/Mass Effect 3 – Both games have different strengths and weaknesses, but they do well to build off the groundwork laid out by the original Mass Effect (and by extension, Knights of the Old Republic) to create one of the most interesting and lively contemporary science fiction universes. Learning about the Collectors, the Cerberus loyalists, the Krogan genophage, and the Asari lifecycle is equally entertaining as shooting up enemies as you venture through the ruins of Tuchanka or the undercity of Omega. The relationships you build between Shepard and his/her crew members as well as the decisions you make regarding the outcome of various subplots will echo across the grander storyline, making the experience a truly engaging and rewarding one.

ZombiU - A surprisingly well-designed survival-horror game, ZombiU really set the standard for third-party developers on Nintendo’s new console. It requires you to be careful, tactical, and smart, limiting the number of item slots in your backpack but also offering multiple paths and strategies in defending yourself against (or avoiding, if you so choose) the rather durable infected that now roam the streets of London. Each area visited is packed with unique assets, and clever additions like a thin layer of fog and occasional specks of dust that show up on the gamepad screen show that the developers put a ton of time and care into creating a real, believable post-apocalyptic London. ZombiU may not be consistently terrifying, but the atmosphere is always spooky and the limited range on your radar will make for a tense experience. To that end, it is one of the most masterfully handled survival-horror games released for any console in a long while.

Persona 4 - While I still have a decent ways to go before completing this JRPG, I will say that what I’ve experienced so far has been a welcome break from conventions of the genre. Though the process of repeating portions of each dungeon is a bit unusual, it is not as tedious as I initially expected, as there are only a handful of dungeons to begin with. The game places just as much emphasis on traditional dungeon crawling and turn-based combat as it does on building relationships with classmates, friends, and relatives to further enhance your abilities in fusing personas and developing combat strategies. Though Persona 4 was released after the PS3 had effectively taken over the PS2’s role as Sony’s main console, it is a game that still looks and sounds great on the hardware.

- Anime -

Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo - The third entry in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy, You Can (Not) Redo takes us down a path both similar and different from End of Evangelion. 3.0 carries arguably the darkest tone the films have seen since End of Evangelion, and with good reason – the world has largely been reduced to a state of ruin. With former allies now enemies and his friends failing to provide him with any answers as to what happened since the Near-Third Impact that occurred at the end of Evangelion 2.0, Shinji Ikari finds the only person he can truly depend on is Kaworu Nagisa. Evangelion 3.0 has a much slower pace than its predecessors, with most of its runtime spent on exploring what happened since the events of Evangelion 2.0. That said, when the Eva units start duking it out, the action is intense and exciting, and the animation (somehow) looks even better than before.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - A satire of all things mecha, Gurren Lagann is a series that knows little about subtlety. Every Gunmen mech is colorful and displays fighting poise that is over-the-top, while the character designs are highly stylized and the dialogue all about standing up for what you believe in and making the impossible possible, no matter how much the odds are stacked against you. There are two story arcs, each simultaneously taking jabs at and drawing inspirartion from both old-school and new-school mecha anime. The first story arc is understandably longer, as it devotes plenty of time to introducing the world and characters and developing them to set the stage for the second story arc. That said, the second arc (known as the Anti-Spiral War) does seem to take its sweet time in setting the stage for the last major conflicts, and probably could have been expanded to run nearly as long as the Beastman War arc, as the final few episodes do feel as though they are sort of rushing to reach the series’ conclusion. Regardless, Gurren Lagann is just plain fun to watch, and is action-packed from start to finish.

Steins;Gate - A story about the ramifications of time travel, Steins;Gate is grounded primarily in real-world theory, despite the means of time-travel being quite different from Doc Brown’s DeLorean or the Doctor’s TARDIS (both of which are poked fun at in the series’ English dub). Instead of physically moving backwards and forwards, protagonist Rintarou Okabe – a daring scientist who, despite truly caring for the well-being of his friends, fashions himself a mad scientist alter ego named Hououin Kyouma – sends text messages to the past via the frequencies emitted by his custom-rigged microwave, which in turn move him sideways onto timelines that diverge off the original one he started on. It’s a complex web, and the series – while genuinely funny throughout – does take a turn into dark territory near the halfway point. It’s a great balance of science fiction and comedy, and does exceptionally well at grounding itself in real scientific applications, despite how odd the devices used to achieve the jumps from one world line to another are.

Wii U review: ZombiU

ZombiU is survival-horror in the most literal sense. You are dropped into post-zombie outbreak London with little more than a cricket bat to bash in the skulls of the infected, a flashlight with a slowly draining battery that must take a few seconds to recharge after it hits zero, and a single pistol. While you can find submachine guns, shotguns, a crossbow, and a sniper rifle out in the various locales you’ll visit, the ammunition for any of these is extremely limited, and aiming at any part of a zombie’s body that isn’t the head won’t do you much good. You’re going to have to be tactical and conservative if you want to stay alive, and the game does provide you with quite a few options, be it the slow-and-steady routine of taking out one zombie at a time, or being gutsy and using yourself as bait to lure a group of zombies into a tunnel or other confined area before tossing a grenade or moltov cocktail into their ranks. ZombiU hones in on the story of the survivor and the narrating/instructing character known as the Prepper, and thus does not lose itself in trying to explain a larger world beyond the plague that hit London.

There are two single-player variants you can choose from. The more challenging mode gives you one shot to make it to the end of the game without being killed. If you are taken down by the infected, that’s all she wrote - you will have to start over from the beginning, regardless of how far into the campaign you made it. The standard settings are a bit more forgiving, putting you in the boots of a new survivor in the event that your current character becomes one of the infected. However, ZombiU still gives you something of a slap on the wrist - all the weapons, ammo, and health items you were carrying at the time of your unfortunate demise are still being carried by your previous character. To retrieve them (which is highly recommended), you will need to trek back through previously explored territory and kill the now-infected survivor. Any zombies you managed to kill before your previous character joined their ranks will stay dead, but your former self will put up more of a fight than any run-of-the-mill zombie.

As you progress through the game, you will be able to upgrade the pad that acts as both your radar and ranged hacking tool, and can eventually use it to pick up secret codes written on walls and decipher archaic messages left by the Ravens of Dee. Dispatching stronger zombies that emit red fumes from their body will reward you with one of four upgrades to your weapons, which can then be applied to whichever weapon you see fit at a workbench located in one of the safehouses. The gamepad can also be used as a scope for long-range weapons, and can zoom in to 2x and 4x distances. Occasionally, the game will also import other ZombiU players or individuals from your friends list as zombies that can reward you with a decent trove of supplies.

There are a little over a half dozen locales you’ll visit as you scour London for the CCV boxes, Letters of Dee, and so on. Each is quite wonderfully realized, though some are significantly smaller than others, due to their context in the plot. One of ZombiU’s greatest strengths is the presentation of places like Buckingham Palace, the Brick Lane Flats, and the Tower of London, due to the unique assets found within each. One flat includes a bathroom and bedroom with one body reclined in a bathtub, another individual lying on the floor next to the toilet, and three more figures piled onto a single bed, providing some insight into how others might have spent their last moments before the plague hit. The one-time use of objects like marble statues, a nursery playhouse, and a single accessible boat docked in the river really help define the experience and identify these areas as unique. The fact that few environmental objects are recycled shows that the ZombiU development team put a lot of love and care into the final product.

ZombiU may not be terrifying 24/7, but is spooky and tense throughout. That said, when the game wants to make you jump, it will do things like force you into incredibly tight quarters or have some outside factor cause your radar to drop out completely and be replaced with loud, nerve-wracking static. Traveling through areas like old city sewers, will cause dust to gather at the corners of your screen, and bright sources of light can obstruct your field of vision, a couple of nice additional touches on the part of the development team. Curiously, a brief Metroid-style segment wherein you are temporarily stripped of nearly all your gear is easily the game’s weakest point, and follows almost immediately after one of the game’s most challenging and brilliantly-executed segments. ZombiU does not have many low points, thankfully, and the aforementioned segment is but one blight on an otherwise exceptional eight-to-ten hour experience.

My rating: 9 (out of 10)

ZombiU journal - entry two

Now that I’ve gotten through scouring Buckingham Palace, I have to say I am even more impressed with the environment designs in ZombiU. While I won’t spoil any of the plot, I will say that there is part not long after the quest in Buckingham Palace that requires you to visit an apartment complex. While some rooms are blocked off or barricaded, the ones that you are allowed to enter are strikingly different in their layout and décor.

One such apartment handles this masterfully, the trash and bodies left behind offering a glimpse into the actions of what others were doing when the plague hit – specifically, there are disco lights dancing off the walls, trance music breaking the eerie near-silence otherwise perpetuated throughout the game, one body reclining in a bathtub, three piled on to the same bed, and one zombie left crawling on the bathroom floor. While that last one was likely the developers having fun with the idea of a zombie mimicking some guy drunk off his ass, the other bits are great little additions that the ZombiU team didn’t have to put in the game, but they did anyways and it made the experience all the more engaging.

Another aspect of the game that I absolutely love is the random imports of other players and people from your friends list as zombies. I was minding my own business earlier this afternoon, exploring Buckingham Palace, when I noticed the online moniker a friend of mine uses displayed above the head of one of the infected. While it took a few extra swings of my cricket bat to bash his head in, the rewards made it well worth it. Each of these uniquely identified zombies that I’ve encountered has carried with him/her a random assortment of ammo, food, health kits, and barricade materials that allowed me to stock up quite nicely before taking on the now-rather-sizeable hordes of infected. I may be getting to explore larger, more detailed (and by association, more exciting) locales now, but the game certainly isn’t apologetic in keeping the challenge up.

ZombiU journal - entry one

So it took me a little while to really get into the mood to play ZombiU, but now that I’ve actually made a bit of progress with the campaign, I can say that it’s classic survival horror in the most literal sense. It’s been quite linear so far, sure, but there’s a tense atmosphere about it, thanks to a number of factors. First off, you cannot save wherever/whenever you like. You have to find a sleeping bag, your main save location being the subway safe house you will return to after each mission. However, in Metroid fashion, you can also locate small safe houses set a little out of the way in the otherwise zombie-filled streets of London. Saving at these spots can save you a solid chunk of time that would otherwise be spent performing the trial-and-error process of retracing your steps through zombie territory.

The limited number of slots in your backpack and the fact that you have to pause the game in order to swap out items in your immediate inventory add to the tension. You’ll need to smack each zombie a few times with the cricket bat before they are dead, making it more ideal for one-on-one encounters than fighting off a group. While you can scavenge for ammo, grenades, and moltov cocktails, these are few and far between and you’ll want to reserve them for large groups.

The game looks quite good overall, too. Some of the textures aren’t great and certain in-game objects don’t appear to have a significant step-up on games from last generation’s consoles. But the environments are fantastic in both scope and presentation. Whether it’s specks of dust obscuring your vision ever so slightly, moonlight shining down through grates into London’s old sewers, or a downpour streaming off the sides of industrial crates, ZombiU’s various areas are both interesting to take in and highly successful at immersing you in this contemporary apocalypse. It certainly doesn’t hurt that there are unique assets in abandoned apartments and grocery stores to help set them apart from traditional barricaded areas, abandoned vehicles, broken fences, etc. The controls really aid the immersion as well, and I’m glad to see that developers other than Nintendo are doing great things with the gamepad so early on in the Wii U’s life cycle.

ZombiU E3 trailer

Looks like Ubisoft has been cooking up a new game for the Wii U. It is titled ZombiU, and is set in London where (you guessed it) a zombie breakout has occurred. While no actual gameplay has been shown yet, this trailer does a great job of showing just how impressive the graphics will look on Nintendo's new system. Despite the overall vibe of the trailer ringing very close to that of Dead Island's teaser, I think the fact that every scene is presented as a still shot is the best choice possible, since it allows us to better view the ridiculous amount of detail worked into everything.