Home Featured Content

We Got This Covered’s Top 10 Video Games Of 2013

With new iterations in Grand Theft Auto, Pokémon and a rebooted Tomb Raider cramming up the figurative calendar, 2013 could well stand alongside 2007 as one of the most fruitful and indeed successful years in gaming history. What’s more, it will also go down as the year of Microsoft’s bold and abrupt u-turn back in June, which saw the company reverse all DRM facets of the Xbox One — including the mandatory Internet connection and game sharing — in the wake of a passionate backlash from the community.

[h2]9) Papers, Please[/h2]

Papers Please 1

Recommended Videos

Seeing as how my laptop runs on steam power and a couple of hamsters on a wheel, my experience with computer exclusives is lacking. Luckily, one of this year’s finest titles is minimalist enough to work on construction paper while still telling a more compelling story than most of its peers. Although it sounds boring in concept, Papers, Please is an utterly fantastic game that uses a simple idea to allow players to live out their own stories.

Standing in as one of Arstotzka’s immigration officers, you are tasked with deciding whether or not to allow immigrants into the nation. The catch is that you are faced with fines, bombings, or the death of one of your family members if you make a bad decision. If you take a bribe you can feed your family for a day, but your neighbors will report your sudden wealth and put you in deeper trouble. Let someone through with an obviously fake passport so they can see their family, and the fine you face might mean living in the cold for another night, potentially making your family sick.

There are predetermined stories told through the course of Papers, Please, but the most memorable are those in which you have a personal stake. A paperwork simulator has no right to be this compelling, but once you start playing, you’ll have an incredibly difficult time trying to stop.