GotY - Best PS3 Exclusive of 2013

This may have been the last year that Sony's current-gen console would have the limelight to itself, but with a packed 2014 and beyond it sure doesn't feel like it. The highly-anticipated Persona 5 was just announced for next year, and with a steady stream of exclusives still releasing on the PS3, 2013 felt in many ways like just another solid year for the console that just keeps adding value. 

There's still no denying that the PS4 will take up most of Sony's attention over the next few years, though, and this made the PS3's 2013 releases feel in a way like swan songs for the aging platform. With Naughty Dog's The Last of Us garnering Game of the Year nods left and right, and last week's Gran Turismo 6 showing up its next-gen competition, there are certainly worse ways for a console to go out.

So here, without further ado, are the three best PS3 games of 2013.

3. God of War: Ascension

God of War: Ascension

Sony's God of War series had might as well be the definition of diminishing returns, with four console titles, two handheld titles, and even a mobile title all having hit since the PS2 original launched in 2005. While the first three console games were each masterpieces in their own right, this year's God of War: Ascension marked the first time that a new GoW game wasn't all-around better than the last. Still, the worst game in a near-perfect series is still a fantastic play in its own right, and players who stepped yet again into the blustery loincloth of Kratos found another great character action title with memorable setpiece moments and graphics better than a lot of the stuff we've been seeing on next-gen. 

However, the biggest addition to this year's game was a weirdly addictive multiplayer mode reminiscent of the Dreamcast classic Power Stone. Multiplayer God of War sounded like an awful idea to just about everyone, but Sony Santa Monica proved us all wrong with an addictive, skill-based combat system and dynamic, ever-changing maps.

2. Gran Turismo 6

Gran Turismo 6

Gran Turismo 6 reclaims the realistic racing crown for the GT series after 2010's sterile GT5 made it feel all too much like an interactive showroom floor. The default controls feel super weird in the age of "R2 to accelerate," but they can be changed in the menus. Everything else about the latest in the famed driving series is deadly on-point and, more importantly, alive. From the peppy soundtrack to the colorful and realistic visuals, the experience is more fun top-to-bottom than the last GT, or even the last Forza. With a gold medal performance like this on the PS3, we can't wait to see what Polyphony Digital can do with next-gen tech. 

And The Winner Is...

The Last of Us

Big surprise, right?

Well, maybe it should be. Controversial statement incoming: If you look at video games as merely a series of interactive mechanics executed with the end goal of being fun, then both God of War and Gran Turismo 6 are better games than The Last of Us. No contest. Our review pointed out how frustrating and downright broken the game's stealth segments, lousy gunplay, and frequent insta-kills could be, and six months later all of that is still true. 

But games are quickly becoming about more than just the mechanics, and in the face of story and characters this well executed, it's hard to deny that we'll all remember The Last of Us for far longer than any of the other games on this list. Never has a game's story hit so true so consistently as it did here. From the tearjerking opening act to the final line of dialogue, The Last of Us is pure, storytelling genius that never stunts an opportunity for character growth or world-building, no matter how dangerous those choices turn out to be. And that is why The Last of Us will go down as the best PS3 game of 2013.


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