The Cat Lady, hands down. It made me give therapy, to deal with my depression and other mental issues, another try. What other game can you say this about?

Grim Fandango wins my game of the year every year since 1998.

Speaking of games released this year, I'd have to say definitely The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and, even though it was released in December 2012, The Cat Lady.

That's a tough question for me haha, I havn't played allot of 2013 games due to college but... I'm going to have to unpopular with this one and say SimCity 2013.

Yeah, small maps, sure EA blah blah blah, point is, in 2 weeks I put in 50 hours playing it, it's a good game and keeps to the formula quite well. and by applying logic to the game, you can understand why the maps are small... A: Because the game/computer would crash with big cities due to the simulations, and B: Because cities are supposed to work together, not independently.

anyways that's my choice, SimCity.

I'll list this year's games only. Europa Univsersalis IV for singleplayer. Payday 2 for coop mp, been playing with 4-5 friends and stealthing successfully is so gratifying.

Worse letdown game of the year:
X-Rebirth.

My personal game of the year? Boy, that's a tough one...

The nominees are:

Outlast for, despite being let down by a crap ending, being shit-your-pants-type scary.
Shadow Warrior for having the best damn melee combat EVAR.
Hotline Miami for the brilliant combination of seizure-inducing visuals and one of the best video game soundtracks I'm aware of.
Papers, Please for being so completely different, yet so compelling.
Overlord since I enjoyed it immensely, despite my flat out hatred towards fantasy RPGs (particularly of the elves & orks variety).
System Shock 2 for having made such a magnificent comeback this year (and of course for being hands down the best game ever made).

The only new game I have played this year is Wasteland 2 Beta, but I really couldn't call that one the best since it is not ready for the primetime.
So, I guess System Shock 2 since it got released earlier this year.

I was late for the party as well and played The Walking Dead only this year. Surprisingly, it is not my game of the year because of a jarring breakdown of willing suspension of disbelief and because of what I perceived as too restricting linearity. Instead, my PGOTY award goes to... Divinity: Dragon Commander. Sometimes the mix of genres doesn't work as seamlessly as I would like, and yes, various aspects of the game lack depth, but Dragon Commander is an enjoyable and replayable experience that is just so unashamedly, outrageously freestyle that I applaud Larian as hard as I can for pulling it off. The first game that I have paid over 20 euros for in damn nearly three years. I regret nothing.

Honorable mention to Euro Truck Simulator 2. I'm not kidding. Studies really did my head in this year, and ETS2 was a great way to vent some of that pressure: sometimes you just want a relaxing game with no story to concern yourself with over the course of several days or weeks.

My game of the year would be Dust: An Elysian Tail.

In my opinion the acquisition of this game should be enforced by law.

And it's not like you can just get it and put it away, no way. you will have to play and enjoy it.

And you WILL enjoy this game.

Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed: challenging and fun gameplay

My entry for classic game(s) that I only just got around to playing would be Wizardry VI-VIII. After importing a party throughout the entire series you really do grow attached to them.

As for games "released" in 2013, I absolutely have to go with Starbound. I've clocked in 90 hours in less than two weeks, completely ignoring my backlog and anything resembling a social life and it's only in the first stage of beta. By the time everything has been implemented, I can imagine having many, many more times this amount in this game. And after that, there is still the mod community to keep the game alive.

Beyond: Two Souls with such a big margin that it's not even funny.

Terraria.

The Witcha 2

Dmc: Devil May cry.