TOP 10 GAMES YOU MUST PLAY IN 2013-2014





The latter half of 2013 has been creating quite a buzz in the gaming world. Top game developers have released games that have taken the gaming industry by a storm and have been extremely successful in minting money and breaking all previous records! Others plan to release their games in the coming months and over the next year. With a plethora of games being launched and scheduled to launch soon, which ones are worth killing (literally)? Let’s get right into it!




Call of Duty – Ghosts





TYPE: First Person Shooter (FPS).

This game is the 10th in series for the Call of Duty franchise. Apparently, after a nuclear like strike, USA is no longer a super power. It has left the economy and infrastructure crippled, reducing the country to a vulnerable developing nation. 10 years on, the federation of super powers which includes South American countries invades USA and captures many states. However, Special Forces from each and every part of the country join hands to free themselves from the clutches of the Army Forces of these so called nations with super powers.

The game includes a main character as always but this time around the story also includes an Alsatian (German shepherd) dog as a playable character that comes in handy during stealth based operations. This is quite reminiscent of Will Smith’s I Am Legend.


RELEASE DATE: All over the month of November 2013 for all major platforms.



Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - Blacklist





TYPE: Third Person Shooter.

Splinter Cell’s iconic character Sam Fischer find himself fighting the enemies of the United States of America. Military base in Guam, where Sam and his old friend Victor Coste are posted is destroyed by a terrorist group that call themselves ‘The Engineers’. However, Sam and a few others are able to escape these attacks. According to this terrorist group, the attack on the military base is the first of many deadly attacks that have been planned and the entire list is called, of course, the ‘Blacklist’.

The president orders them all the people who escaped from the base at Guam to form the ‘Fourth Echelon’ and respond to these threats.

This time around, the game features a new gameplay mechanic by the name of Killing in Motion, where Sam, the main character, can mark a group of targets that he would want to kill. Once marked, Sam moves into action, quickly killing all the marked enemies. Also, if you play this game with the Xbox 360’s Kinect peripheral, you can even make noise by speaking and distracting the enemies and then eventually gun down the targets.


RELEASE DATE: All over the month of August 2013 and 1st week of September 2013 for all major platforms.



GTA V





TYPE: Open world action adventure.

Well, who hasn’t been waiting for this game? One of Rockstar’s most awaited game of the year was launched recently and was received a lot of love which is quite evident from the sale record that the game broke. It was able to earn $800 Million in the first 24 hours after the game was released and a whooping $1 Billion within three days, making it the fastest selling game in the history. Previously, this record was held by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 franchise that managed to hit the $1 Billion mark in two weeks after the game was launched.

The latest GTA features 3 playable characters that go by the name of Michael, Franklin and Trevor. However, protagonists in a GTA are not what gamers care for while playing an open world game like the GTA. All they care is the open world that they can play in. The city, the roads, the traffic, the public, the cars, the shops and the things they can do in a free roam mode. And boy does the GTA V provide all of that and a bit more! This time around, Rockstar has gone berserk with the level of detail that they’ve put into this generation of GTA. The beautiful, jaw-dropping picturesque landscapes is like a perfectly baked cake and the ability to go scuba diving, mountain biking or base jumping is like an icing on that cake.


RELEASE DATE: The Game was launched on 17th September 2013 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and there have been rumors that the PC version of GTA V will be released sometime earlier next year.



Tom Clancy’s The Division





TYPE: Third Person Shooter (Largely Multiplayer).

Ubisoft has again come up with a story line that sounds similar to the Splinter Cell franchise. The story revolves around a disease that was spread supposedly on a ‘Black Friday’ and causes the US government to shut down within 5 days. A Strategic Homeland Division (SHD), also known as ‘The Division’ is employed to save whatever remains from the aftermath of the disease.

The game’s major feature remains multiplayer gaming where groups can team up against each other.


RELEASE DATE: The game will be launched somewhere in the fourth quarter of 2014 and will be available for Windows and the freshly introduced Xbox One and PlayStation 4.



The Last of Us





TYPE: Third Person Shooter.

This is another game that revolves around the theme of a science experiment gone wrong in the United States of America. Joel, the game’s main character is a single father to a twelve year old daughter named Sarah. In the wee hours of his birthday, a fungal pandemic breaks out in USA and starts taking lives. In an effort to escape to safer grounds, Joel loses Sarah.

Twenty years later, the nation is still struggling to cope up with the massive destruction and loss of life. Joel, who now lives with Tess and makes a living by smuggling life saving drugs and weapons and ammunition for safety is caught in a sticky situation when they find a 14 year old girl named Ellie who is immune to the harmful radiation must be ‘smuggled’ to a research centre where doctors can conduct tests to study her immunity pattern and on that basis, create immunization drugs.

The game is set across various seasons (winter, summer, spring and autumn) and each season has been beautifully crafted. Detailing is immaculate and gives a deep insight into how one can survive on basic necessities in difficult situations.

Sales figures speak volumes of how well the game has been received by the gaming community. The plethora of awards that the game has won in such a short span only adds to the case as to why one must play this game.


RELEASE DATE: The game was released worldwide on 14 June, 2013 with an exception being Japan where the game was released almost a week later, i.e. on 20 June, 2013.



Murdered: Soul Suspect





TYPE: Third Person Action Adventure/Super Natural Detective Thriller.

This by far has been the most interesting story that a game can ever have. Murdered: Soul suspect is a detective investigating his own death. Sounds weird yet interesting at the same time, doesn’t it? The game creators kill the lead character of the game, detective Ronan O’Connor within the first five minutes of the game. However, he rises from the ashes like a phoenix to investigate the story behind his killing. He has no interaction with the real world but as a ghost, he does possess a lot of super natural powers that can be used to fight demons along the way and gather information.

The game draws similarity from Rockstar’s detective thriller LA Noire that featured Ryan Gosling as the game’s main protagonist, but that is where the similarity ends. The game is creative director Yosuke Shiokawa take on Bruce Willis’s Die Hard and the whole team at Airtight Games has done a brilliant job of making his vision a reality.


RELEASE DATE: The game is rumored to launch somewhere in early 2014 for all major platforms.



Ryse: The Son of Rome





TYPE: Third Person Action Adventure.

Ryse takes us back in time to the Roman era and a gladiator type setting where we, the game’s main character that goes by the name of Marcus Titus, is a Roman infantry’s commander. Since a child, Marcus has only dreamt of being a chief of the Roman Army. The tagline of the game describes the story as, ‘an epic tale of revenge spanning an entire lifetime’.

The game features over 100 assassination moves and a superior level of difficulty with each passing mission. The graphics from the trailers suggest that a lot they have been given a lot of attention and the smallest of details have been taken care of. While the story is not based on any real events, developers have tried to draw a lot of inspiration from actual Roman war era.

The only downside to this game is that since this game is published by Microsoft Studios, it will be an Xbox One exclusive and game play will be enhanced by adding Kinect support.


RELEASE DATE: The Game is scheduled to launch on 22 November, 2013 on Xbox One only.



Assassin’s creed 4: Black Flag





TYPE: Third Person Action Adventure.

This game has carved out a great niche for itself over the years. The latest version of the game offers a perfect intake into the life of a pirate. You roam around the Caribbean islands (Havana, Kingston, Nissau and Bahamas to be precise) exploring and looting goods.

The developers have promised a 60:40 ratio or Land to Sea exploration. The trailers and gameplay videos suggest beautiful landscapes and beaches and ‘unique’ places to explore. The action sequences during fights are a treat to play and the developers, Ubisoft have done a brilliant job of bringing realism to the game.

As for the new features, players will now be able to captain a ship named Jackdaw that will transport the player and his battalion from one place to another. The Jackdaw will be upgradable throughout the game and can be easily accessed whenever required. As a captain of a ship, it is only fair to monitor threats and this time around, you are also given a spyglass to keep an eye on distant enemy pirate ships. Apart from these new features, you can also hunt sea animals for food and even get tipsy when you drink a lot while merry making.


RELEASE DATE: The game is scheduled to launch in the last week of October starting with Wii U, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and all over the month of November on all other major platforms.



Watch Dogs





TYPE: Third Person Shooter

This is probably the most anticipated game of the year. And why shouldn’t it be? It’s backed by a brilliant story line that is exciting and makes you want to be in Aiden Pearce, the game’s lead character.

Ubisoft has been busy churning out some the most scintillating games this year around. I wrote about Watch Dogs earlier this year as it seemed to be the most exciting game for 2013. So far it has lived up to the reputation as the release date closes in.

Watch Dogs is all about how technology is a boon and a bane at the same time. Aiden engages in data warfare and hacks into the city’s central operating system (ctOS) that is linked to each and every resident of the city and contains all their personal information. Using this, Aiden can hack into their lives if need be and solve the objectives.

Examples of advantages of hacking into ctOS include transferring funds, jamming radio signals, tracking movements of people far away by hacking public cameras, blocking traffic by engaging roadblocks or even tweaking traffic signals to create pileups. Bottom line being, while technology makes our work easier, it makes each and every person’s life so vulnerable.

The plot is so good, Ubisoft has even considered making a movie based on the game that will see Ubisoft collaborating with Columbia Pictures and New Regency for production of the game while Sony and Fox Studios will handle distribution in US and Worldwide respectively.


RELEASE DATE: The game will be releasing all over the month of November, 2013 and will be available on all major platforms.



NFS: Rivals




TYPE: Racing

Who is not familiar with the NFS franchise? But that seems to be the problem this time around. Electronic arts announced Rivals that seems to be draw similarity from their 2010 game, NFS: Hot Pursuit. However, that is no reason not to play the latest version of the Need for Speed franchise. It still has a lot to offer and the most exciting being the return of Ferrari after 11 long years.

As for the game, you can play as the bad guy and a cop engaging in high speed chases. Both modes of the game (as a racer and a cop) have their own set of challenges, risks and rewards and this is precisely what the entire game revolves around. There are 11 gadgets that you can upgrade in a car that range from EMPs, Shockwaves and the ability to call in a roadblock. The game features a whole new level of weather dynamics that give you sense of reality and makes the environment more alive.


RELEASE DATE: Rivals releases on all major platforms all over the month of November, 2013.

There are a lot of games that I wish I could include in this list but unfortunately they don’t excite me enough. I just want to buy these games and play them all day long till my hands tire or my consoles burn!

What games are you looking forward to playing this year and the next? Let me know in the comments section if you would like to add any game to this list or any must have game that I might have missed.