The Best of 2013

My Top Ten Games of 2013

#1 - The Last of Us

#2 - Grand Theft Auto V

#3 - BioShock Infinite

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Saints Row IV

Gone Home

Dead Rising 3

Splinter Cell: Blacklist

The Stanley Parable

Beyond: Two Souls

Everything after BioShock Infinite above isn't officially ordered. Below are the rest of the 2013 releases I beat until February 2016. They are also not officially ordered:

Call of Duty: Ghosts
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Gunpoint
Papers, Please
Ryse: Son of Rome
DmC Devil May Cry
Knack
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death

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Criteria: 

1. It had to come out in 2013.
2. I had to beat it. 

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2013: In Memoriam

Back in 2013, I had intended to do a full "Best of" blowout like I did in 2012, but I never got around to it except for a few:

Best Unlockable Achievement
Best 2012 Game
Fluffiest Booty
Favorite Concept Art


Below are the notes I took as I was planning them. I haven't edited this since, so some stuff may be missing, and some stuff maybe shouldn't be there. These are just ideas I was working on along with some nominees for the rest of the categories:

Best Ending: The Last of Us; BioShock Infinite; Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Best Ending Credits: Saints Row IV; Knack

Best Writing: The Last of Us; BioShock Infinite; Grand Theft Auto V; The Stanley Parable; Gone Home

Best Music: BioShock Infinite; The Last of Us; Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons; Gone Home

Best Graphics: The Last of Us; Grand Theft Auto V; Super Mario 3D World; Beyond: Two Souls; Dead Rising 3; Ryse: Son of Rome

Best Use of Cussing/Foul Language: The Last of Us; Grand Theft Auto V; Saints Row IV

Worst Ending: Killzone: Shadow Fall; Call of Duty: Ghosts

Best Narration: The Stanley Parable; Call of Juarez: Gunslinger

Best Male Performance: Troy Baker as Joel (The Last of Us); Nolan North as David (The Last of Us); Gerald "Slink" Johnson as Lamar Davis (Grand Theft Auto V); Steven Ogg as Trevor (Grand Theft Auto V); Ned Luke as Michael (Grand Theft Auto V)

Best Female Performance: Ashley Johnson as Ellie (The Last of Us); Courtnee Draper as Elizabeth (BioShock Infinite); Annie Wersching as Tess (The Last of Us); Sarah Grayson as Sam (Gone Home)

Best Art Direction: BioShock Infinite; Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons; The Last of Us; Papers, Please

Best Gameplay Sequence: Burying your brother in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Best Theme Song: Papers, Please

Best Non-Playable Character: Jorji (Papers, Please); Lamar Davis (Grand Theft Auto V)

Best Game of Glory to Arstotzka: Papers, Please

Best Textures: Gone Home; Killzone: Shadow Fall

Best Achievements: The Stanley Parable

Best Love Story: Gone Home

Best Use of Nudity: Papers, Please; Saints Row IV

Best Boss Battle of 2013: Bob Bargas, DmC Devil May Cry; David, The Last of Us

Best Pores: Dead Rising 3; Ryse: Son of Rome

Best Twist: Rapture, BioShock Infinite; Annie being Chuck Greene's daughter, Dead Rising 3

Best Co-op: Dead Rising 3; Splinter Cell: Blacklist

Best Late Title Card: Call of Duty: Ghosts

Game I died the most in: Knack

Best Use of Physics: Knack

Best Reflections: Knack

Man Crush - Troy Baker

Best DLC - Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep (Borderlands 2)

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2012
2011
2010

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Oculus Rift DK1: One-Year Anniversary

It was one year ago today that I received my Oculus Rift Development Kit. It was also the day that the passing of Ryan Davis was made public, so I waited until the 9th to actually start covering the device. Wait, that's wrong. I missed delivery of my Oculus Rift on the 8th due to Ryan's death and had to wait until the next day for UPS to try again. I even put a sign on the door the next morning. (This post was already made public before I realized my error.)

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In my year of having it, I only made nine videos, covering seven different demos. The motion sickness I would experience would sometimes be so severe that I wouldn't feel normal until a couple of days later. I have ordered the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 and am hoping it resolves such problems. I hear that it has and expect delivery of my unit soon, barring any production issues. In the mean time, I'm going to do what I physically can to cover as many DK1 demos as possible. Not only to feel justified in my purchase of the device in the first place, but also so I can better appreciate the improvements of the DK2. Videos can be easily accessed through my dedicated Oculus Rift page.

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Oh, one more thing. The fake project name I created to access the Oculus Rift Developer Center was "Attack on Fluffy Booty". It was the first thing that came to mind. I was reading a lot of hype about Attack on Titan at the time.

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"Please don't attack my fluffy booty."

Five Guys: Burgers and Hedgehogs

In May 2011 I spotted Mega Man on the drawings board at a Five Guys in Fayetteville, NC. Two years later I returned to the same restaurant and saw that Sonic the Hedgehog had taken his place. 

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Sonic says, "I'll chose 5 guys over any restrant." If only he was eating a chili dog.

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Here's a bonus Captain America that was on the same board.

One of my Favorite Modeling Photos

I went to Charlotte, North Carolina on December 20th, 2013, to hang out with a friend one last time before she moved to California. We were at the SouthPark mall doing some clothes shopping when I saw this at the Gap:

 The man on the left is Waris Ahluwalia, an actor and designer. The woman on the right is Quentin Jones, who describes herself as an "animator, director, illustrator... with a boy's name." on her Twitter profile. The photo is for Gap's "Make Love" campaign.

I rarely go to malls and hadn't read about the controversy that popped up around the photo back in November, but it immediately caught my attention and I took the above picture with my phone. The full version is below:

Favorite Concept Art of 2013

 DmC: Devil May Cry

Fluffiest Booty of 2013

White Fluffy Kitty

What White Fluffy Kitty looks like when she becomes too fluffy.

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Fluffiest Booty of 2012

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Best 2012 Game of 2013

Winner

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Runners-up

Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d you steal our garbage?!!

Uncharted: Golden Abyss

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Criteria:

1. It had to come out in 2012.
2. I had to beat it in 2013.

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Best Unlockable Achievement of 2013

 Winner

"Click on door 430 five times."
The Stanley Parable

 

 Runner-up

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 Gunpoint

2013: In Memoriam

Ryan Thomas Davis
(June 4, 1979 - July 3, 2013)

 

Kitty Ratliff
(XXXX - December 17, 2013)

Xbox One Acquired: Setting it up for the very first time (Day One Edition)

Exactly one week had passed since the launch of the PlayStation 4, and once again I was at my local UPS Customer Center to pick up my Xbox One, a trick I had learned on reddit that would net me the console several hours earlier than if I waited for delivery to my home. I had just dropped off Kitty and White Fluffy Kitty at the vet for boarding, as my brother and I were leaving the next day to visit my mom in Kansas for her birthday and Thanksgiving, returning on November 30th. Eight years ago to the day - November 22nd, 2005 - I was picking up my Xbox 360 from GameStop on my way to Indiana to visit with family and wouldn't get the chance to properly play the console until I got back home and hooked it up to my very first HDTV. Perhaps the next time Microsoft releases a console I'll actually be home to play it!

I did manage to capture myself messing around with the user interface a bit before having to get ready for our flight, along with strapping a GoPro to my forehead beforehand as I drove to UPS and unboxed the console. I wanted to release this on the 22nd but didn't have enough time before leaving for Kansas, though I had managed to livestream my first Xbox Fitness workout. I had ten people watching me exercise. Weird!

Now we're back and I finally play some games!

Here's the video I made, along with relevant timestamps:

2:22 - Unboxing the Xbox One

12:37 - Turning it on for the first time

14:00 - Initial setup

24:18 - After the update

24:38 - Kinect setup

28:45 - Setup Complete. Intro video.

30:00 - Home screen

30:30 - "Let us show you around". Xbox One tour.

33:11 - Speech Tutorial

42:19 - Friends

43:07 - Gamerpics

44:37 - Posing for Gamerpic with Avatar

45:58 - Friends continued

47:22 - Jeff Gerstmann's "KI Dance" Game Clip

49:03 - Achievements

53:20 - Brad Shoemaker's "Ryse: Son of Rome" Game Clip

56:28 - Internet Explorer

58:10 - Watching a YouTube video via Internet Explorer

1:01:24 - Totally topical Charlie Sheen jokes by the Xbox One tutorial narrator. Who thought that was a good idea?

1:07:21 - Privacy settings

1:08:16 - Settings

1:16:20 - Customizing Avatar

1:21:00 - "Xbox, Bing Killer Instinct"

1:23:15 - "Xbox, Use a Code" - Scanning Day One Achievement

1:24:06 - Xbox Music

1:28:09 - Xbox Movies & TV

1:29:22 - My appearance as a strip club patron in the We're the Millers trailer

1:32:27 - My games & apps

1:33:27 - Apps

1:36:30 - "Xbox, Snap"

1:39:12 - Twitch

1:40:55 - Trying to Snap Netflix while watching Twitch

1:41:44 - Netflix

1:43:45 - Xbox Fitness

1:49:25 - Snapping Twitch while using Xbox Fitness

1:51:48 - Hulu Plus