We covered the best games of the year yesterday. Now we dig deeper. With a year this rich in video game media, it's a disservice to not look at the great work that goes into video games.

Best Story

The Last of Us (PS3)

Zombies are nothing new in video games. The Last of Us didn't focus on them. It focused on a really fantastic story about a last ditch effort to stop the zombie apocalypse from a totally living perspective. A young girl named Ellie was attacked by zombies but didn't transform at all. A group of revolutionaries ask Joel, a smuggler, to bring the girl to their research facilities so they can develop a possible cure.

That's the premise. The story is much more expansive, moving, and thrilling than that. It would be a disservice to the gaming experience to say anymore. I did play this through to the end (months of gameplay because of my eyesight/depth perception issues) and it was worth it.

Get The Last of Us.

Gone Home (PC, Mac, Linux)

When a game is defined by interactive storytelling (rather than by action or clear objectives), the story needs to be rock solid. Gone Home is. The story of a young woman coming home and finding out what has happened since she left for college is note perfect. It's a great mystery pulled together with beautiful visuals and world design.

The mid-90s aesthetic is perfect. So's the dark and stormy night. You're set up to expect the absolute worst--constant references to a murder house, bullying, and the emptiness of the house--and that draws you in further. The setting forces you to pay more attention to the world, which in turn leads you to the story elements you need to know to get the full experience of the game.

Get Gone Home on Steam.

The Stanley Parable (PC, Mac)

The Stanley Parable doesn't just tell one story; it tells many. As you guide Stanley through the newly abandoned office complex, your every choice takes you on a different path through the story of Stanley's life in the office.

When you reach the end of that story, the game resets back to his office with some knowledge of the choices you already made. Some stories even depend on you realizing that the narrator describing your every move remembers every choice you've made and reacts to it. Hang out in the broom closet for a few minutes and see how the story changes.

Read more about The Stanley Parable. Get The Stanley Parable on Steam.

Best Mechanics

Antichamber (PC)

Antichamber is a mind-bending maze game inspired by optical illusions and modern art. You have 90 minutes to wander through the various halls of the testing facility, reacting to color, light, sound, and platforming puzzles that will change the way you think about gaming.

Early on, you'll reach a point where the previous main objective is declared a red herring. You're not trying to reach the exit; you're trying to see everything. Aside from the genius puzzles (there are optical illusions, for example, where you look at the room one way and reach a dead end, but look another and it opens up a new chunk of the map), the reset mechanic is fantastic. When you admit defeat, you are returned to the starting point where there is now a map. It shows you everywhere you were. You can choose to return to any of those room and try to find a new way around whatever obstacle held you up. It's a really clever tactic to get you to dive back in and try again. After all, hitting the 90 minute mark means you start again from scratch. You need to make the most of the time you have.

Get Antichamber at My GameFanShop.

Pokemon X/Y (3DS)

I cannot stress enough how much the new gameplay mechanics change the Pokemon experience. Not everything works, no (some wacky camera changes are annoying while traveling in certain cities), but what does work is revolutionary. Just being able to move in any direction is a huge difference.

For the first time in generations, the balance between types has been tweaked as well as the balance between the Pokemon themselves. It makes it a brand new experience. The new Fairy type means having to change the dynamics to account for all the new possible interactions between types. Mega Evolutions--a temporary in-battle step beyond a third evolution in certain Pokemon--add even more variety and strategy to the game. Game Freak threw everything into the first 3DS Pokemon game and opened up a new world of possibilities for the series.

Get Pokémon X or Pokémon Y.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS)

You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes, a new mechanic and a tweak are enough. A Link Between Worlds, the closest we've come to A Link to the Past sequel, adds the wall art mechanic. You can transform into a piece of 2D art and travel on walls. Genius.

It's also nice to play a Zelda game that doesn't punish you for not doing everything in the right order. You can choose to go the "wrong" way and still be fine. That's the tweak. I always choose the wrong path for Link (where having one object from another path will let you breeze through) and I didn't feel like that was a real issue this time.

Get The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Click through for voice acting and multiplayer honorees.

Best Voice Acting

BioShock Infinite (PC, Mac, PS3, XBOX360)

You can create a beautiful, expansive world and have a totally lifeless game. BioShock Infinite comes alive because of the voice acting. From the various characters discussing current events on the voxphones to the private conversations you can eavesdrop on, the voice acting is top notch.

The standouts, quite obviously, are Troy Baker as Booker DeWitt and Courtnee Draper as Elizabeth. Their chemistry is perfect. Draper, especially, brings out a lot of nuance regarding the ethics of Columbia and Booker. She breaks your heart.

Get BioShock Infinite for PC or Console.

The Stanley Parable (PC, Mac)

The one narrator, voiced by Kevan Brighting, makes The Stanley Parable accessible. It is a mind-bending game that sets out to play tricks on you. It exists as an exercise in narrative creation versus narrative expectation and that is a lot to take in.

Brighting opens up the world. His narrator comes alive. There is one ending, in particular, where the narrator opens up his heart hoping you'll just play along so he can be happy and it's heartbreaking. Then you reset and the game sends you into a storyline where the narrator is the voice of your nightmares. Brighting is the voice of The Stanley Parable and he forces you through his performance to care about the various outcomes.

Beyond: Two Souls (PS3)

I had a lot of problems with Beyond: Two Souls. I hit a lot of glitches on my first and only playthrough and struggled to understand what to do with the Aiden mechanics.

The voice acting, though, is top notch. Ellen Page is mesmerizing as Jodie, a young woman who can control a temporal spirit named Aiden with the power to manipulate objects. She is so committed to the role that you'll play through more of the game than you would otherwise want to with an interface so buggy and confusing. Willem Dafoe is no slouch, either, as the researcher who basically acted as Jodie's father while she grew up. There's a presence to the voice acting in the game that makes even the more mundane Quantic Dream quick time event moments seem significant.

Get Beyond: Two Souls.

Best Multiplayer

Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS)

Though the original GameCube version of Animal Crossing had multiplayer options, it really was a solo experience. Not anymore with Animal Crossing: New Leaf. The built in wi-fi on the 3DS opens up the social sim to an easy to use multiplayer interface that makes the game dangerously addicting.

Not only can you visit your friends or have your friends visit you, you can play minigames with them in town. You can send mail and packages. You can interact with their townspeople. You can set up a time to meet to trade resources so you both meet timed festival goals without issue. It is just the perfect distillation of what non-competitive multiplayer games should be like.

Get Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

The Last of Us (PS3)

There are two levels to the multiplayer experience in The Last of Us. The first is the various combat modes. You team up with other people to try and survive the battle, capture the flag, or other familiar objectives. The online interface works and the maps are well-designed.

I'm more interested in the solo aspect of this multiplayer experience. When you log into multiplayer, you visit your own personal settlement. You grow the population, seek out supplies, and make your own compound thrive or die by your gameplay. You have objectives to complete to win a multiplayer match and objectives you need to complete to keep your little group alive. It's a very simple addition that makes you want to keep jumping back into the multiplayer that, on its own, is nowhere near as compelling as the story mode.

Monaco: What's Yours is Mine (PC, Mac, Linux, XBox 360)

Do you want to know why Monaco wasn't on my game of the year list? I prefer single player campaigns. While you can play Monaco by yourself, it was designed with multiplayer in mind.

You can team up with three other players to tackle every level in this stealth/heist game as a team. That means having multiple experts--locksmiths, pickpockets, hackers, etc.--taking care of the various character type-specific objectives at the same time. Convenient. It also means four times as many chances to trigger the guards and enemies to come out guns blazing for combat your character is not very adept at. Frustrating and hilarious in the best way possible. Get some friends together and play Monaco. You won't regret it.

Get Monaco: What's Yours is Mine on Steam.

So those are the rest of my video game awards for 2013. What do you think? What games would you single out for more attention from 2013? Sound off below in the comments.