Best PS3 Game of 2013: Tomb Raider

I consider myself a casual gamer.  Yes, I went through the phase of wild-eyed, up all night, play until you can’t see the screen gaming, but I’ve mellowed in my middle years (or as my kids would say, “Old man times.”)

In the old days I gamed on the PC.  I started out with MS DOS based games and worked my way into the early Windows games, but kinda bogged down when Windows XP came around.  I basically got tired of having to upgrade my machine to play the latest games.  It can get expensive.

Nowadays I play on a PS3.  I switched to console gaming a few years ago so I could keep the same computer for more than a couple of years.  Of course, now the PS4 is out, but I’m waiting until Christmas next year when they have more games and the prices drop.

I’m a casual and frugal gamer.  So I don’t play every new game that comes out and I like to play the whole game, not just sprint through the main storyline to see how fast I can beat it.  Also, I wait until the prices drop, so I might be playing a game that the hard-core gamers played six months ago.  That being said, I played some pretty good games in 2013 but by far my favorite was Tomb Raider.

I’ve never played a Lara Croft game before.  I’m typically an open world RPG game player.  I like games such as the Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, and Kingdoms of Amatur.   I do like shooter games that have a more open world as well.  I liked Fallout, Bioshock and Mass Effects.  I typically don’t like games that send you down a predetermined path, especially ones where you have to hit buttons in a particular order to get through a scene like God of War or Castlevania. 

I was a bit skeptical of Tomb Raider but to my surprise it was a very fun game to play.  Yes, you follow a determined path through the game, but each area allows you the freedom to move about and you can go back to previous areas if you missed something.  Also, there are scenes where you have to hit particular buttons, but it wasn’t outside my skill area.  The storyline was engaging, the weapons upgrades were doable, and the action was challenging enough but not too hard for this casual gamer.  All-in-all I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game.  It was just the right amount of action, puzzles, and storyline for my game tastes.

I am surprised I enjoyed this game more than Bioshock Infinite.  I enjoy the Bioshock games and I expected it to be the best of the year, especially with all the hype, but it was just a bit too hectic for me.  Of course, right now I’m playing The Last of Us, and I think it would have taken the title if I had played it sooner.