Backwards and forwards (the traditional review and look ahead post)

As this year draws to a close, many will look back and tell you what their game of the year is and also includes a very long explanation of why this is. If I look back at my year, I've played loads of different games, but there wasn't really one I liked over everything else unlike last year (which was Xenoblade).

I did think before I started writing that Tokyo Jungle was probably the best but was it really? This year was also the first time I had played the Sly series of games and I loved those. Rayman Origins was also great and Journey was also good (bearing in mind that I had completed it over 2 sessions, the best session split by dinner). Oh, and Elevator Action Deluxe was huge fun playing with my sister. I don't recall laughing so much while playing a game in ages.

All great games that I enjoyed this year for various reasons. Picking one of them would include loads of mathematical calculations and banging my head against the wall. I won't do that here because then we'll all argue why I'm wrong and so forth (hey, even this post will do cause an argument if I don't pick one).

Looking back to February, and the Vita's launch. The console has since struggled in all regions in it's first year but I'm getting plenty of mileage from it, whether that's from Everybody's Golf or Smart As sessions each day, or fantastic games like Rayman Origins and Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack. I've also managed to get to the top of a leaderboard for the first time ever, thanks to FuturLab's Surge (a new take on the Match-3 genre).

In terms of disappointments, the first 2 games of the Jak & Daxter Trilogy have been a let-down. The first game due to not explaining things and the second game for trying to be too much like a possible GTA with slight better platforming sections but horrific checkpoints (my opinion of course). I expected more from a series like this with so much accolade, and one of the few real stand-out characters in Sony's roster.

Finally, I did quite well to kill off parts of my backlog at the beginning of the year but with no real target in sight (and some event called the Olympics), I'm basically in the same situation as I was before. A full list of completed games will be posted within the first week of next year but you can see the current list on the right hand side of the page (unless you're on the mobile version).

Now what?

The most anticipated (announced) titles for me in 2013 include the following:

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
Ni No Kuni: The Wrath of the White Witch
Persona 4: The Golden
KickBeat
Ragnarok Odyssey
Soul Sacrifice
Monster Hunter 3 (whatever the Wii U version is)
Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns (morbid curiosity)
Final Fantasy XIV v2 (same)
DJ Max Technika Tune (import or not)

There may well be more than this but if I can remember them, I want to play them :).

This year, I'm also looking to start working on my backlog of games and I have a list of games I'm aiming to finish (or start and finish) in 2013:

Valkyria Chronicles (yes, you can shoot me - still in wrapping)
Trails in the Sky (started but not finished)
Uncharted: Golden Abyss (not started)
Aquaria (at the last section - desperate to finish)
One of the 2 Ys games (always wanted to play one)
Bastion (keep starting but can't get right settings)
Rainbow Moon (hoping the Vita version might help)
Sequence (near the end)
Gravity Rush (err, yes, haven't finished this either...)

It's highly likely that I'll get distracted along the way but what I'll try to do is pick a game and try to update you via the blog as I'm playing. Maybe that'll force me to play the game (or force me to be even quieter than I have been of late). So, whatever I try to finish off, these are the games I aim to finish this year at least. Let's see how well I get on!

So, that's all from me. I hope everyone else has a great 2013, whether that's playing games I've mentioned here or games that I'd never touch. Hopefully I can clear my way through the backlog and start to recover from buyer's remorse :)