GTAV vs. AC4? Papers, Please vs StarCraft 2? Vote now in Round 2 of The Escapist‘s Reader’s Choice Game of the Year 2013 bracket!
Update: Story updated with new results as of 9pm EST on Tuesday, December 17th. Vote now!
Round 2 is shaping up to be just as eventful as the first. All this month, The Escapist readers will get the chance to vote in a single-elimination tournament bracket designed to choose the Game of the Year 2013! We started with 16 of the best games of the year such as Pokemon X & Y and placed them in head-to-head matchups in round one. There were some viciously close battles, such as Papers, Please beating out XCOM: Enemy Unknown but eventually 8 games came out on top. Now those 8 games are battling in round two. Voting for round 2 ends Tuesday December 17th at 11:59pm EST so head to the official bracket now and make your choices be known before it’s too late!
There’s a couple matchups which could go either way so I wanted to update you on the results so far and get you up to speed.
Grand Theft Auto V vs. Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag
Last week, AC4 barely made it out alive from its battle with Saints Row 4, and now has to go head-to-head with the cultural behemoth that is Grand Theft Auto V. Modern-day Los Santos sure ain’t paradise, but it is still fun to explore the area of San Andreas as one of the three protagonists in GTA V. The Caribbean Sea in teh Golden Age of Piracy ain’t paradise either, but the open seas of AC4 can be just as full of adventure as a drug-riddled urban landscape. Which open world should win? So far, you guys are split pretty much down the middle, with Assassin’s Creed 4 holding a slight edge. Will that edge last until voting closes?
The results as of publishing:
Grand Theft Auto V
44.6% (2819)
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag
55.4% (3507)
Talk about this battle at the forum thread here.
Pokemon X&Y vs. The Last of Us
Pokemon needs your help! The Escapist community has always had a soft spot in its black heart for the pet on pet action of the Pokemon series, but even Pikachu and company can’t hold back the narrative onslaught that is The Last of Us. Naughty Dog’s magnum opus, on the PS3 anyway, doesn’t do much other games don’t in terms of mechanics, but the characters and story were so memorable that it didn’t matter. Does the zombie-killing duo of Joel and Ellie outweigh the non-stop fun of min-maxing your team in Pokemon? So far, it seems it does, with The Last of Us winning by a 2 to 3 margin.
The Last of Us
68.1% (3885)
Pokemon X&Y
31.9% (1817)
Talk about this battle at the forum thread here.
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm vs. Papers, Please
Papers, Please is certainly the Cinderella story of this bracket. Initially chosen as the write-in vote from the members of our Publisher’s Club, the customs agent simulator faced a tough matchup against XCOM: Enemy Within in the first round before pulling out a miracle victory thanks in part to a Russian YouTuber. Now it’s facing Blizzard’s esports star, StarCraft 2: HotS, and doing pretty dang well, earning nearly two-thirds of the vote. Will Papers, Please win again to advance to the third round?
The results as of publishing:
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
37% (1938)
Papers, Please
62.9% (3294)
Talk about this battle at the forum thread here.
BioShock Infinite vs. Battlefield 4
There’s a bit of a blowout going on in the final matchup as BioShock: Infinite is destroying Battlefield 4. I think we all know how this one is going.
The results as of publishing:
BioShock Infinite
86.4% (4610)
Battlefield 4
13.6% (728)
Talk about this battle at the forum thread here.
And if any of these results seem off to you? Well, then head over to the official bracket and make your choices now! Voting closes at 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, December 17th!
