Best Games of 2013: Let battle commence

The biggest story of 2013 has to be the one-two punch of new consoles in recent weeks, with Xbox One and Playstation 4 duking it out for gamers' hearts, minds and cash.
These machines arrived to deserved fanfare but their real potential won't be realised for months, if not years. Tantalisingly, both Sony and Microsoft have made their machines more user-friendly to indie developers.
Every year, developers learn to do new things within a machine's parameters. In the months leading up to these new consoles, parameter-pushing games were emerging: The Last of Us was an instant classic, the Assassin's Creed and Battlefield franchises got prettier, and Grand Theft Auto was dependably controversial and lucrative.
Elsewhere, Tomb Raider reboot was underrated, Call of Duty's popularity took a slight wobble, and Wii U still struggled.
Numerous records were broken, most notably the first-day sales of both new consoles conquered those of previous generations, and Grand Theft Auto 5 became the fastest entertainment property in 2013 to cross the ¤1 billion mark.
Next year promises hundreds of new indie titles, a slew of huge-budget next-generation games, and, we're sure, an even greater game presence in world media. We wait with baited breath and twitchy thumbs.