I have just spent a half-hour planning the perfect heist. I'm going in smart, knocking out the guards and the staff behind the delicate jewellery counters of the store with a carefully placed smoke bomb, and smashing into each cabinet with the butt of a semi-automatic rifle before making my escape...

Stunning visuals; The excellent first-person mode makes for a very different experience; The best writing and voice acting you'll see in a video game; Los Santos is the ideal virtual playground for anarchy; Thrilling heist missions

Some frame rate drops during busier moments; First-person doesn't work so well for vehicles

Last year was an interesting year for me. It was the first year I transitioned from doing industry-specific news to doing all of the features, previews, and reviews that come with writing for USgamer.

Set in the sprawling city of Los Santos and the surrounding area, Grand Theft Auto V delivers a world of unprecedented scale and detail bursting with life, from mountaintops to the depths of the ocean.

As always Grand Theft Auto's narrative is an expansive satirical look at American culture, and involve it's characters chasing the American dream, in the most ridiculous way possible.

Great Story; Well-developed open world; Great amount of content

First-person controls don't really work for certain gameplay elements; Faulty matchmaking; Missing features online from the campaign

Now, before I start talking about what new toys and features this release has, it needs to be said that a great deal of the content found on the PS4 version of GTAV is exactly the same as it was on the PS3 version .

First-Person mode changes the gameplay; High resolution textures; Same great game - a must play; Lots of new content

First-Person view limits visibility; Only a year away from original release; Mild pop-in

You have to hand it to Rockstar. With every release the Grand Theft Auto franchise just gets better and better. To the point where the brand is a house hold name and a pop culture phenomenon.

Define the games in 2014 and it will likely include the word ‘remastered' somewhere in that definition. Love it or hate it, publishers made lots of money via the re-release concept and now Rockstar have jumped on the bandwagon to rake in their fair share of the loot that's still on offer.

Speaker use on the PS4 controller | Graphics look better than ever | 30 Player online

First-Person is not that great | Lightbar effects feel gimicky

It was inevitable. Critically acclaimed titles released towards the end of a console's life cycle are bound to get some sort of update when the next generation arrives. It's not an unwelcome trend, of course, but these things are almost a given at this point.

Whether you like it or not, 2014 has been the year of the remastered video game. Sure, we've seen a number of impressive original titles released this year, but so many of the major games have been last-generation ports with next generation visuals .

Wait, you haven't played Grand Theft Auto V? Seriously? I obviously haven't done my job if you missed this review and the top pick on this list of my favorite games of 2013. But if you've got Playstation 4 or Xbox One, your timing is impeccable.