Great Games of 2013, My choice of 5 games.

Well, this is my take on my choice of 5 games, in no particular order because to be completely honest, I like em' all. And let's just face it folks, no game is perfect. But some games get real mention as my choice of my 5 games, whether it being a big or a small title. Don't judge me on my sort of game repertoire because face it, we don't have money to buy an entire library of games. All of these games have scored Gold endorsements here but there's a reason to be in my Top 5. The placing depends on content, replay value, Computer hardware requirements. Just FYI I use 2 systems to generally have some runs and most times I run on 1080p. In future I'm gonna see the viability of playing in 5760 x 1080.

1. Desktop
Core i7 2600K OC 4.4GHz
16GB RAM
1920 x 1080 Resolution
3GB nVidia GTX 780 GHz Edition

2. Laptop / LAN Party Machine
Core i7 3630QM Stock
8GB RAM
1366 x 768 Native Resolution; but test on 1920 x 1080
2GB nVidia GT 650M


My Choice of 5 games:

1.  Path of Exile - My Personal Top Pick
Grinding Gear Games
Windows
Free to Play

Now you may look at it as a Diablo III Clone. But the game has already been around in Closed BETA in 2011. Though I actually started playing around that time in 2011, it's only very recently this year that I start to clock WAY lot more hours into this. This was my very first game that I tried in a Closed BETA after hearing about it from TotalHalibut. Then POE went Open Beta long before D3 was launched and it has proven itself as surprisingly an excellent, polished alternative to Diablo III, for one; it is completely free to play. You have to give credit to GGG, and what's more, it's a freaking INDIE GAME!

Content and events for even a F2P game is pretty fucking crazy. Now the environment is you compare between Torchlight (also a dirt cheap and good title) and Diablo III is that it is set in a much Darker Environmental setting. The levelling system is VERY close to that of a sphere grid from Final Fantasy X. It you want to think of a scary levelling system, these 2 grids are the scariest bits of all.

It's not that the levelling system is bad though, and in all honestly actually this grid is perfect. This allows for HUGE customization for your characters that it's not even funny at all. So it's very flexible. And unlike Diablo III, you can create and hold as many characters to your account as possible. So you can play to your hearts content and experiment with different builds.

Users can live by with Intel Integrated Graphics and a low end CPU like a Pentium 4 with HT or a dual core Pentium D. Most of today's low-end video cards like the GT 620, GT 630 and somewhere along those lines are massively overqualified. Think MineCraft in requirements. The game has support for extreme resolution and when in Windowed mode, you can basically enlarge your window as to how big you want, so Ultra HD and 3 screen displays for nVidia Surround and AMD Eyefinity can be set for play. Just be prepared to look at all your screens to monitor your health and MP because each Meter is like from the extreme corners all the way across your left and right screens. My 11.6' laptop GT 650M has no problems running on 1080p on max settings, even going windowed at nearly 3840 x 1080 (Half a 4K Resolution) is still playable, albeit needing to turn the settings down slightly.

It's available as an official platform and also via a Client from Garena. I have both of the games, just PM me at paul.musichaven@gmail.com when you want to join me.

A Completely Free-to-play version of Diablo III, more accessible to entry hardware, and less prone to screwing up by developers. Big big thumbs up and a Value-For-Money nod from me! And content and F2P is the reason why I also pick it as my Top Favorite.

2. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
Blizzard Entertainment
Windows / Macintosh OSX

The long awaited sequel of the StarCraft II series, and even though the game has been launched 3 years ago, there is still a tonne of replay value to it, and it's no wonder many tournaments are still held Worldwide. Heart of the Swarm further amplifies it, and new units and upgrades and adjustments opened up a big field of versatility in your gameplay. Single Player missions amount are also pretty damn extensive. And the sorta RPG customization program-ish for your units makes the game a bit more tactical.

In terms of playability, the requirements for the game will meet even Intel HD 3000+ graphics. For Low settings, that GPU is massively overqualified enough to clock 100+ FPS for 1024 x 768 on Low. Even running on HD 4000 allows further room to crank settings to Medium and HD 4600 cranking settings to High at most Laptop's native 1366 x 768 displays. Cranking the system to maximum quality makes the graphics quality drool. But when it comes to multiplayer, if responsiveness of the system is what affects your win-rate in your matches, you may still want to turn down the settings a bit even for a high end video card no matter what resolution you're running the game at. This game doesn't have support from Triple Monitor Resolutions, which is fine for an RTS and something I don't need and I don't find natural while playing.

If Single Player is good, Multiplayer is great. Enough Said if you've been playing StarCraft II for 3 years like me, a testament to how long StarCraft in General is gonna last. And primarily it's the multiplayer games is the reason why Tournaments are still strong in the land of StarCraft since the first Installment.

3. Crysis 3
Electronic Arts
Windows, XBox 360, PS3

You play as the character Major Lawrence AKA Prophet, a Character somehow returning to life after commiting suicide in Crysis 2 and then his soul was assimilated to the suit to integrate with Pte. Alcatraz. As to how this sorta came about I have no idea. But let's cut the storyline and go straight to gameplay.

Like the last title, you're given a choice to go either stealthy or aggressive in your play. Your suit is your weapon; your strength, your armor, and your agility. So if you've played all the titles you'll know exactly what I mean.

This is a game that is heavily GPU bound and will bring many high end systems right to their knees. Gameplay is beautiful. To get the most out of the pretty epic storyline, my recommendation is to play all these Crysis Titles in Order whether you buy em', torrent em' you name it. Crysis 1, Crysis WarHead, Crysis 2, and then Crysis 3. The entire series even Crysis 1 is flipping notorious of even stressing even cards like the GTX 680 and GTX 770 even though the game is like several years old. Even for low settings at 720p you'll be needing a pretty good GT 640 to run it.

However, even at minimum settings, Crysis 3 still looks beautiful considering, in fact looks better visually than Battlefield 3/4 at High Settings.

The reason why this game remains popular is because this game is meant to be used as a platform to benchmark many systems. And of all the 5 titles in this line up, Crysis 3 takes the crown as being the most hardware demanding title. There were more GPU intensive titles like Company of Heroes 2, but Crysis 3 formed the basis of heavily intensive games on the market today; Performance Demon Endorsement.

4. Bioshock Infinite
Windows, OSX, PS3, XBox 360

This is totally spin-off from the original series of Bioshock and set in Columbia. You play as the Protagonist Booker Dewitt

Now basic requirements for a single screen gaming are very basic. As long your graphics is better than a HD 4000, even 4600 is fine for low, you can run this game on 1024 x 768 at low to medium settings. Most high end graphics card like the GTX 680 and GTX 780 and R9 280X and R9 290 can crank the settings up a bit at surround and Eyefinity modes. nVidia however has a lot of driver support for this game in general, even lower end GPUs like the GTX 660, or the GTX 650 Ti or even the GTX 560 can still allow HD 1080 resolutions and Ultra settings to be tuned to the game.

As to the cost of the game, I can't judge because I had a spare copy of Heart of the Swarm lying around so I swapped out for Bioshock Infinite.

5. Plants vs Zombies 2: It's about Time
Electronic Arts / PopCap Games
iOS, Android
Free-To-Play

Plain to say, the PvZ series is a fantastic Tower Defense-somewhat platform game. The first installment was great and widely available to all sorts of gaming platforms (PC, iOS, Android) and for the cheap price you pay, it was undisputed winner in its own right. Now few years later, EA collab-ed with PopCap and published the sequel in August 2013. And the new patch for the game has made it gone a LOT tougher, and a lot more challenging. The gameplay is more for tablets and smartphones with some of the new tweaks and powerups applied, which is the reason I understood why it's not released for the PC. Because Gameplay is a lot faster and a lot meaner than PvZ 1.

Great thing about this title as compared with PvZ 1 is that is totally free to play. You can complete all the challenges without paying additional money needed for some plants. Plants like the Squash and the Imitator are unlocked by buying for a small amount of real cash but these guys are definitely game changers which to me totally justifies the cost. However the Free-to-play content is already extensive enough and warrants my Value-For-Money Endorsement.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

1. Battlefield 4
Electronic Arts

This game receives an honorable mention instead of being of a top 5 because the game is plagued with tonnes of bugs and problems be it either from the game or from the server. And EA support for server repairs and patching systems is practically non-existent. If technical support is a TONNE more on the ball all around the clock and if the game was a lot more stable, this would have definitely be in my top 5 because the gameplay itself is really dynamic, and really damn good.

Adding much more vertical height battles really mixes things around and make fights and engagements a lot more matching to reality. And the reason that Battlefield 4 holds a soft spot in my heart because of this general gameplay look and feel and storyline.

Hardware requirements aren't too much of a change compared to Battlefield 3. Even my Aftershock X11's GT 650M within a 1366 x 768 11-Inch screen can still turn the settings to medium high with Textures at Ultra and still be playable with reasonable frame rates. This game benefits more with Intel and AMD Quad-core CPUs  but an older non-K one (e.g. i5 2500 and i7 920) paired with a GPU like a GTX 780 can still perform great at Ultra. Furthermore, it's been proven that the difference of using an i5 2500K compared to something like a 4960X is way too small to be noticed at all.

There are reason why FPSes normally appear at my top few but never my Top Pick:

Because in Multiplayer,........IT'S TOO FUCKING HARD!

If only Electronic Arts can do something about all these problems... the game would have otherwise be perfect for all I know. We'll have to wait and see, with nVidia G-Sync already here and AMD Mantle coming soon, I sure hope that things improve from there. So for now, an honorable mention.

2. Defense of the Ancients 2 (DoTA 2)
Valve / STEAM
Windows via STEAM
Free to Play

Now this choice is hard because of Bioshock Infinite 2 and Path Of Exile that is about as good as this. And having played DOTA 2 for quite a while is a testament of how good the initial thought process from IceFrog for the First DOTA in WarCraft III was. Because of DotA, a new genre of games is born. MOBA (Massive Online Battle Arena) AKA Action RTS.

Now the community is great too. Now as to why it receives an Honorable Mention is that I've been playing this in April 2012 even before 2013. This would have gotten a Top 5 if I started playing this year and I clocked a lot of hours in it and I always die however which is sad. Moreover, I like RPGs and FPSes more than MOBAs even though I spent a lot of time in this. It still receives my Value-For-Money endorsement because it's free to play and quite fairly enjoyable.

People with Basic Intel HD 4000 graphics and GPUs will be more than able to run DoTA 2. You can view the benchmarks here.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dota-2-performance-benchmark,3481.html