This is where a lot of the magic happened this year.

Writing this list each year is one of my favorite things to do at the end of the year. It forces some perspective on what I played and coheres my thoughts on the experiences this year. I spent less time with video games this year, to the tune of 19 fewer games played. 2013 heralded a shift toward portable games for me thanks to a rapidly maturing 3DS library and a nice, new phone.

JANUARY

Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward – If you thought 999 had the coolest story in video games, you’ve clearly never gotten around to spending enough time with VLR. The advantage of being a one-system game gives 999 a slight advantage in its huge twist moment, but VLR‘s meditations on quantum theory and its further exploration of the morphic resonance forces tons of interesting thought experiments. It’s a narrative gut punch that unravels with a brilliant pace.

The Cave – Ron Gilbert made himself a neat, interesting meditation on obsession and enlightenment, except he also mad ea game with ridiculous padding that required too much repetition of the same puzzles. It’s funny, but, sadly, I wasn’t ever able to motivate myself to go for all the endings.

FEBRUARY

Professional Baseball Spirits 2013 – I absolutely love these games, but I don’t know if I should keep getting them for a few years. I just don’t have the time to finish whole seasons any more. Maybe I should just get the last PS3 one and wait a while for the PS4 ones to get good?

Fire Emblem: Awakening – Allowing players to grind for levels was a weird decision. I think I got too distracted with grinding and lost momentum and motivation to finish the game. Still got a ways to go…It’s a strong SRPG, but I’m so distracted with other portable games that I haven’t gone back to it yet.

MARCH

Tomb Raider – Remember when I beat this game on my channel? It was pretty good. I didn’t have high expectations for Tomb Raider remade to be Uncharted, but it actually held its own pretty well. If it had a better handle on its narrative it might have ended up one of the best games of this year, but you just can’t hide significant story details in found audio or text logs…

Sim City – What a shitshow. Seriously. EA really dropped the ball on this one with the overloaded servers and poor handling of their PR. To top it off, city simulation managed to feel simpler and less deep than Sim City 3000 which, I’ll remind you, was released about 14 years ago…

Bioshock Infinite – Remember how I said that audio logs are stupid? That’s the bread and butter of this series and it’s overdone. The shooting lacked a little impact, but the skyhook was pretty fun. Supposedly this game has a cool ending and a neat story, but I’ve had trouble motivating myself to come back to this to finish my series on it.

Dead Space 3 – Played this all the way through with David. Co-op = fun and awesome. Game itself…not so much. Just a laughably bad story, but we had a good time playing it together.

Harmoknight – Tiny little rhythm game by Game Freak. I ended up not loving the timing of the button presses, but I did like the relaxed plot and creative arrangements.

APRIL

Digital: A Love Story – I don’t really remember why I ended up deciding to explore Christine Love’s oeuvre, but the fact that her first two larger releases were free probably contributed. Digital covers a time period that is slightly before my internet days (one where BBS was king) and the love story is, ultimately, not quite convincing enough, but it was interesting and it tangentially ties into Analogue

don’t take it personally, babe, it just ain’t your story – I rant to all kinds of people about how privacy in the modern era is an illusion. don’t take it personally goes and makes the argument for me. It also highlights how those of us in charge and legislating now still don’t really get it (and probably never will). Never have I seen a game do a better job at illustrating the generational gap and give both fairly substantial and even weight. The only thing I didn’t like was the kind of gross romance subplot…

Poker Night 2 – Remember the first Poker Night? It’s a little more advanced than that, but I like Ash and CL4P-TP less…

Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine – There was a fantastic couple of days where Min, David, and I just rocked most of the Monaco campaign and its prestige mode. Man, what a ridiculously fun co-op game. Especially with the way that David plays with his burrowing through every wall…

MAY

Rayman Legends – Better than Origins in some ways. Murfy is interesting too, but I have yet to play a level as cool as the treasure chase levels…

JUNE

Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Slow and leisurely. The feel-good, laid back game of the year. Animal Crossing might be low on action, but it’s so overwhelmingly nice and welcoming that it feels like the kind of world I’d want to live in. It’s just too bad that the guilt factor of being away for too long keeps me away.

The Last of Us – Yet another game I played to completion on my challenge. The chief problem with The Last of Us is that it’s just not fun to play. There’s nothing fun about the ugly violence committed by and against Joel and Ellie. It’s a brutal, depressing game that beats you down and ends with an unreasonably selfish decision that makes for a uniquely interesting ending and experience.

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future – Didn’t quite finish this one. It’s more Layton. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not gonna set anything on fire with its innovative ways.

JULY

Analogue: A Hate Story – The summer sale allowed me to finally pick up a game I’d heard such intriguing things about. Like Christine Love’s other games, Analogue is about a spaceship society that went kind of…weird. It was heavily modeled on an Joseon society that actually existed and it was a little horrifying. The way it all plays out is a little voyeuristic, but also super interesting and fun. I can’t wait to play Hate Plus to learn how the ship developed in this way.

Shin Megami Tensei IV – This is not Persona. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s odd that the two don’t borrow from each other a whole lot more. SMT IV still does things that feel so old-fashioned while Persona feels so progressive and fun. Definitely the best old-school JRPG that I’ve played in a while.

Evoland – It’s all kind of a joke, really, and not a very fun one, unfortunately.

Thomas Was Alone – You play as these little shapes! They’re so cute! There’s a really fun story! British accents!

AUGUST

Pikmin 3 – I was surprised by how much I loved this game. Allowing the player to split attention between three avatars was a brilliant move for efficient play. I’m more surprised that I haven’t yet gone back to finish it because it’s ridiculously fun.

Rogue Legacy – Sharp, tight controls. Super fun conceit with the progression of heirs. Go play it. It’s the Metroidvania/Roguelike-like of the year.

Papers, Please – Have you ever wanted to run a depressing, Soviet-style border checkpoint? Yeah…that’s this. It sounds dreary and boring and it kind of is, but that’s the secret genius of the game. The mundane tasks infect your morality and you actually start trying to game the system in a lot of insidious and awful ways. It’s kind of gross, but also very powerful.

SEPTEMBER

Didn’t start any new games in Sept!

OCTOBER

Plants vs. Zombies 2 – I don’t like playing this on my phone. It’s a silly complaint, but the game just isn’t good on that small a space. I’ll come back to it on PC.

Pokemon Y – The revolution we were all waiting for. 3D pokemon is awesome. Less awesome: the still asinine/mediocre story. I just wish Nintendo would step up the level of interest in the story if they are going to continue to try to force more and more complicated stories on the games. Other than that, the perfect pokemon evolution. Seriously awesome.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies – So it’s not the best Ace Attorney game out there. It’s lacking the influence of Shu Takami and that has a bigger impact than I would have expected. The game is more anime-y, if that makes sense, and a little less cohesive, but it’s still the best ridiculous, non-real world law simulator out there. Good times.

Hometown Story – Not good times. It’s by the Harvest Moon guy, but it feels half done and not too put together. I only gave it an hour, but I didn’t like what I played so far.

NOVEMBER

Ridiculous Fishing – Avoid the fish on the way down, hit them on the way up. Slick Disasterpeace music, neat art design, a weird story. Pretty fun way to kill time on your phone.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds – The music in this game is so…good. It’s a must to play this with headphones. The way the game handles the 3D graphics is also super fresh and vital. I wish I’d played more, but I’m saving it for after Pokemon and Phoenix Wright.

Super Mario 3D World – The most brilliant execution of game mechanics released this year. That final boss…holy cow! It’s even fun for four players, unlike some of the NSMB games. Perfection. Get a Wii U and play it.

XCOM: Enemy Within – You’d think that the new additions would be incremental and not all that game-changing, but the MEC stuff and the difficulty curve tweaks for Classic have made this game way different and way tougher, but also…more fun. Those robot suits are badass.

DECEMBER

Super Mario 3D Land – 3D World made me insanely curious about Land, another game people rave about. Holy eff. The way the system makes use of its 3D engine is super cool. This game is so full of brilliant platforming that feels more rewarding than anything else. It’s less ambitious than 3D World by necessity, but this game (so far) is just a wee bit better realized on its platform.

NES Remix – Less fun than I was hoping it would be. Making it more Wario-esque would have been better, I think. Still kind of neat and only $15.

Project X Zone – I think I’d need a little more time to have a definitive verdict on this, but it’s reasonably fun. I just want to play as Rockman. Right now.

The Walking Dead 400 Days – Five (very) short stories. Five (very) smartly told stories. I really do love how the vignettes say something about each person in the camp and about each person who plays the game. I only wish they hadn’t tied an achievement to the Paper, Rock, Scissors part.

The Walking Dead Season 2 – Just as polished and well put together as S1, in my opinion. I have no idea why some people haven’t liked the first episode as much. It’s tragic and brutal and just as insane.

Risk of Rain – Played a few rounds with Min and Lee. Brilliant co-op, but it feels just a touch half-done in its menus and interface. Worth continuing to investigate in 2014.

The awesome cast of Orange is the New Black (Photo by missmegsblogcontent)

Lots of talk on the internets about how Orange is the New Black was a fantastic show not worth missing. After checking it out, I’ve got to say everyone’s really right.

Movies

Nope, but probably this week!

TV

The Bridge – Demian Bichir is doing fine, fine work on this show, but the serial killer stuff seems fairly fantastical and he’s almost omnipotent in his power.

Orange is the New Black – Netflix seems to have finally found its killer show. Extremely high quality and an intriguing watch. Definitely check it out.

Music

I’m not sure I actually like Regina Spektor’s new(ish) single (too much rock, not enough piano), but it’s worth hearing

Books

Not this week.

Video Games

Shin Megami Tensei IV – Got a bunch more time in this weekend while rendering episodes for my channel. Getting better. The battles are, without a doubt, rather tough, and the story’s gotten intriguing as I’ve left the first area. Not sure if it’ll continue to be awesome, but we’ll see.

EarthBound – Finally booted up Shigesato Itoi’s SNES epic to play the intro while Min watched this weekend and it still totally holds up. Just super sharp dialogue and an endearing level of charm.

Rayman Legends – Super quick challenge levels this week. Min and I need to unlock Awesomeness lvl 2.

Spelunky – Played the XBLA version one last time before I signed off forever thanks to the release of the PC version. Didn’t get past the jungle due to some dumb play. It’s really easy to fall out of practice with Spelunky.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf – I really thought I’d be able to bring fruit home with me from the dream suite. Kind of lame that you can’t.

The Last of Us – They try and pretend all the time that you can pick how you want to approach encounters. Stealth or fighting, etc. It sounds good in theory, but instead they have all these required confrontations. The latest one involved two bloaters, two clickers, and two runners and it was just a pain. Kind of disappointing…

Pikmin 3 – These games are so charming and SO fun. I love Pikmin games. Clever writing/localization and a fun combat mechanic makes for the first real reason to turn on my Wii U in a long time.

Giant mechs and giant monsters. I’m all in. (Photo courtesy Domenico)

You know how the saying goes, right? When the cat’s away, go see a kaiju homage movie. It was silly stupid fun and it was awesome.

Movies

Tokyo Godfathers – Min and I were looking for something to watch during dinner and I finally convinced him to check out Satoshi Kon’s fairy tale/holiday story. I love how happy this movie is and ends. Very few mind games for a Satoshi Kon flick too.

Pacific Rim – Giant robots, somewhat hammy acting, and great special effects make Dan a happy man. Go into it with your expectations properly in place and you’ll dig it too.

TV

Mad Men – Peggy’s phone conversation with the pastor is pretty awesome/hilarious. Really the only episode of the latest season I’ve seen was the premiere, but it was fantastic and I’m excited for the rest of the season that’s just hanging out on my dvr. Just gotta find the time.

Music

I don’t really have anything for you today. Maybe next week?

Books

Not this week.

Video Games

Donkey Kong ’94 – The Game Boy remake/sequel to the arcade game is so awesome I knew I had to get it from Club Nintendo. Seriously one of the best games I’ve ever played and I’m loving getting through it again.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf – I bought so many turnips…I hope I get a good price.

Professional Baseball Spirits 2013 – My Hiroshima Carp are having a surprisingly solid April. The bottom third of the lineup is an out magnet, but I’ll hopefully be able to shore it up with free agents or a trade.

The Last of Us – I thought I was in the last section of the game, but it appears that another few hours are left. Almost there…

It’s my first time experiencing a Shakespearian comedy (Picture courtesy Pinay New Yorker)

Sure, it’s not like watching live theater for real or anything, but this was my first tie experiencing one of Shakespeare’s comedies (not counting liberal adaptations like 10 Things I Hate About You) and I absolutely loved it. More below.

Movies

This is the End – I wish I could say that I had more fun watching this movie, but it just wasn’t all that funny. Then there’s the fact that I’ll be forever embarrassed by jumping and shouting “AH!” during a jump scare.

Much Ado About Nothing – The proto-romantic comedy. I was almost deceived by how similar to modern rom-coms this adaptation was. Whedon filmed a straight dialogue adaptation of the play and I was shocked by how funny and sharp it was. Not being familiar with Shakespearian comedies also upped the tension for me since I didn’t know what was going to happen once the conflict between Claudio and Hero was introduced.

TV

Homeland – Pretty much watched the entire second season with Katie as she caught up on the exciteent and tension of one of the dumbest, but more entertaining shows on tv. Good times, but less fun the second time around.

Music

Paul Dateh’s violin cover of Kanye West’s “New Slaves” is pretty baller.

Books

The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First – It was fun to learn the history of Tampa Bay’s many attempts to get a baseball team in the area. Too bad they don’t hit the ballpark with as much fervor

Video Games

The Last of Us – Nearly done. There’s a gameplay twist that I don’t want to spoil that made things a lot harder. It’s an interesting way to circumvent the increasing power issue of Naughty Dog games without adding blue guys.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf – I mostly play every day to get Nintendo gear, but this game still captures my interest. I just wish I had more free time on a given day.

This has nothing to do with what I did this past couple of weeks, but I love this tea. Actually, I did drink a lot of it over the past few weeks…

Whoa, whoops! I forgot to get this up on time! I forgot to even post this yesterday! Been too busy, but we’re back now!

Movies

Brick – I’ve seen the movie before, but I figured I’d watch it as I fell asleep last Saturday. Made it through about half while conscious, but drifted off soon after. It definitely feels like a freshman effort. Hard to believe that Looper is only Rian Johnson’s third film.

Pitch Perfect – Love this movie. It’s so ridiculous, but I dig the music. It was on to fall asleep this past Saturday, but I couldn’t stop watching it to snooze.

TV

Psych – Katie and I were looking for something to just watch one night and we ended up catching the Clue homage and the radio murder one. The show’s a little silly and not very good, but it’s enjoyable enough tv.

Veep – The show’s not as biting or funny to me in its sophomore year, but we’re also not quite done with it. We’ll see how everything manages to come together in the end.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Finally managed to push through the Incan mummy episode. It was…not good. Now I can finally move on!

Music

Two songs. The first is a summer jam: “Collard Greens” by Schoolboy Q feat. Kendrick Lamar. Good times.

Numero dos is “Man” by Neko Case. Another great track.

Books

The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First – Jonah Keri’s profile on the Tampa Bay Rays has been interesting so far, but I’ve still got a ways to go. It was weird how the forward was written by Mark Cuban, considering that he’s, you know, a billionaire and his team is run with plenty of cash.

Video Games

Animal Crossing: New Leaf – My town is doing rather well. We’ve got two new bridges and a new nightclub. Tons of fun!

The Last of Us – Pretty much down to the home stretch of sorts for this game. It’s been brutal and sometimes not very fun, but I’ve really been enjoying how well it tells a story.

Rayman Legends – The challenges remain fun, but I’m ready for the full game to finally come out

Mega Man X – Picked it up on VC because of Nintendo credit Eric gave me. It’s still a solid game, but I end up missing the maneuverability of Zero in his GBA games.

Professional Yakyu Spirits 2013 – Finally got my Carp season underway. I’m doing really well, but the AI is still adjusting to my skill. Can’t wait to get more games in. This version has way better animations than 2012. There was this one diving play at short that had a sweet semi-shovel to second. Very cool stuff.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box – Game…COMPLETE! Finished off the story. Pretty silly and somewhat dumb, but enjoyable enough.

Was there a Franklin gag that I just missed? (Picture by Tom Trager)

I went to three baseball games this week, one graduation party, and one father’s day dinner. There wasn’t much time for anything, but I still got some gaming in.

Movies

Nope.

TV

Arrested Development – Partway through S4 I realized that this season was just a giant puzzle box meant to be deciphered as you went along. Either you like to do that or you don’t. Either you like the season or you don’t. Also, I’m not the only one who thinks Arrested Development is like One Hundred Years of Solitude!

For the record: I really enjoyed it, but I would rank it either equal with or below S3 depending on how I’m feeling on a given day. While we’re talking about S3, I can’t believe more people think Charlize Theron was the thing that worked out the least. Graft vs. Host is the reason why I can’t stand the season at times.

Music

Sweet Valley has another weird album called Jenova. As always, it’s completely free. Check it out.

Books

Does thinking about One Hundred Years of Solitude and Arrested Development‘s connections count?

Video Games

Animal Crossing: New Leaf – I won the Bug Off! Also a weird space octopus moved into my town. Cool stuff.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask – Just a few more short puzzles

The Last of Us – My LP started today and I’m really digging this game. It’s got a way more serious and grim tone that’s just fascinating to play.

Rayman Legends – Min and I may have gotten a gold cup on one! Lots of fun.

It’s the mash-up nobody knew they wanted until today! I mean, this is pure insanity, but it’s also super awesome. Rock vs. Ryu?! BRILLIANT! Can’t wait for that free download.

Uncharted 3 may have been lacking that je ne sais quoi that its predecessors have, but that’s probably because the big guns were working on this sucker. What a fine looking game it is too. Can’t wait to see how this pans out because it looks astounding.

File this one under, “Less intrigued than I used to be.” After seeing the insanely good The Last of Us trailer I thought that the acting in Tomb Raider seemed flat in comparison. There’s also that weird disconnect where Lara kills for the first time early in this game, but by the end (and from the looks of it), she gets comfortable with it real quick. Still, it looks interesting.

The Last of Us tops my most wanted list for sure. Cannot wait for this thing to finally drop in 2013.

Holy cow, is there another studio out there even approaching the natural and real-seeming performances that Naughty Dog is putting out? This looks fantastic.

E3 is sure showcasing a lot of hyper-violent games this year. The Last of Us gets props from me for making it all look ugly and brutal, but it sure makes it hard to watch. Can’t wait to see how this game turns out for Naughty Dog.