14 DAY TRIAL // One of the questions that repeatedly get asked in the gaming world is what makes a great game: Is it pure gameplay? Is it story? The mix of the two? The amount of innovation delivered when compared to other in the same genre?
The question has no clear answer and it becomes especially important around this moment of the year, when players start to think about the best experiences they have had in the past 12 months and how they are able to rank them.
Game reviews might strive for objectivity and rational evaluation but they are, because of the simple fact that they are written by humans, subjective creations that can miss the greatness or one game or praise an experience that has clear flaws.
Game of the Year discussions benefit from hindsight, from the space that we put between us and the games we play once we finish them.
For my own decision process, I plan to rely on the emotion that titles triggered when I first encountered them and on their ability to remain in my list of currently played titles in the long term.
Emotion is important because it creates memories, which are hard to coalesce given how fast the world is moving around us and how many experiences we are exposed to each day.
And I value replayability because it shows how a combination of mechanics can deliver new experiences in the long term, allowing players to discover something new every time they engage with a title.
Expect to see Game of the Year awards for the likes of FIFA 14, BioShock Infinite, Total War: Rome II and more high-profile blockbusters and but also for more indie releases that surprised me during the summer months.
The full GOTY series debuts on Softpedia at the start of next week.