Feature

PSU’s Game of the Year 2013

2013 has just about wrapped, and it’s that time of year again when the staff and community at PSU.com cast a reflective glance back at the last 12 months of gaming goodness. Yep, it’s our annual Game of the Year awards, where we scrutinize titles across a broad range of genres in order to determine the cream of the crop of titles from 2013. Whether it’s RPGs, action/adventure, racing, beat-’em-up or the coveted Game of the Year award itself, you have been voting in your dozens over the past week or so, and the results are now in.

This is the big one, folks — your Game of the Year 2013.

2013 has been a massive year for Sony, not least because of the release of the PS4. However, PS3 and PS Vita have also seen some huge titles released, with the like of Beyond: Two Souls, Ni no Kuni, Tomb Raider, BioShock: Infinite, The Last of Us, Persona 4 (in Europe), Tearaway and Killzone: Mercenary all competing for your hard-earned cash. Quite frankly, we’ve been spoilt for choice. Still, despite the influx of triple-A titles, the result was a landslide victory for one particular first-party title that will probably be of no surprise.

And the winner is…

The Last of Us

Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic adventure was always going to be a show-stopper, and it did not disappoint. Featuring unequivocally some of the most impressive graphics seen to date on the PS3, The Last of Us not only looks the business, but it plays spectacularly too.  The gameplay is punctuated by slower, atmospheric segments and action-packed gun battles as Joel and Ellie attempt to survive across the fungal-ravaged United States, fighting off infected foes and human adversaries. The gritty storyline is the very antithesis of Uncharted’s more humorous proceedings, featuring a superb cast of characters and hard-hitting dialogue. If the cinematic campaign isn’t enough to satisfy you, then the game’s multiplayer is also worth a shot, featuring plenty of strategy as teams of survivors fight for valuable consumables and safe houses amidst the dilapidated cities.