Assessing Game Of The Year 2013 So Far

Use the past six months of video gaming to hint at what we might discuss in the run-up to our Game Of The Year 2013 award reveal!
As ever, with the video gaming industry always daring to be so different from its entertainment competitors, it's little surprise that how we deal with the status of the Game of the Year 2013 Award so far is different to how we investigated the equivalent awards for the film and television industries.

The reason for this difference? To be quite frank, the number of video games released so far this year has not been massive, with only a few major highlights to speak of during the first six months of 2013. Nevertheless, we will still look at what has arrived and make use of this to perhaps predict which titles might rank in our overall Top Ten at the end of the year.
Q1/Q2 RETROSPECTIVE
February was the first month to feature a proper video game release, in the form of Hitman HD Trilogy. This reprisal of three classic Agent 42 titles from IO Interactive earned an 8/10 at On-Screen, due to its visuals leaving something to be desired but the classic gameplay holding up quite well. It's a shame that January and February were so sparse for releases, considering money is often more available during the post-Christmas sales period. Crysis 3 was the other big release of February, but warranting a mere 6/10 score here, don't expect to see that in our ultimate Top Ten. Nor will Aliens: Colonial Marines, which gained our lowest score yet at just 2/10!

Meanwhile, March brought with it Tomb Raider and Gears of War: Judgement. Both of these titles had minor flaws, causing them to earn 9/10s rather than full 10 scores, but all the same they were still impressive gameplay experiences which will no doubt still warrant high merit come the end of 2013. Of most praise in March was undoubtedly BioShock Infinite, the personal Game Of The Year 2013 so far for this reviewer. Irrational's breathtaking shooter boasted the most intelligent video game narrative of recent times and fantastic FPS gameplay, rightfully earning its place at the top of the pack.

After March, though, things became deathly quiet, with Injustice: Gods Among Us and Remember Us coming and passing with very little ruckus. Similarly, Deadpool doesn't look to be anything revolutionary, although we'll provide a review of that in the next few weeks to definitively confirm or deny such a statement of quality.
Q3/Q4 PREVIEW
Thankfully, what with the impending arrival of Xbox One and PlayStation 4, things are going to get altogether more busy in the second half of 2013 for the video gaming industry. First up, here's a list of pretty much all of the big games releasing between July and December: Pikmin 3, Disney Infinity, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Grand Theft Auto V, Pokemon X & Y, Batman: Arkham Origins, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Battlefield 4, LEGO Marvel Superheroes, Call Of Duty: Ghosts, Need For Speed: Rivals, Watch Dogs, Forza Motorsport 5, Scribblenauts Unmasked, Sonic: Lost World, South Park: The Stick of Truth, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Super Mario 3D Land.

Out of that impressive roster, I personally reckon that GTA V, Batman, AC IV, LEGO Marvel, Watch Dogs and Forza could all perform brilliantly. As ever, though, it's all a matter of the waiting game, so here's hoping that the next generation is worth the wait when it arrives this November...