The Speakys have spoken, and it's a unified Game of the Year championship belt for The Last of Us—Game of the Year (Kotaku), Game of the Year (Kotaku readers' choice) and now Game of the Year (Speakys/Kotaku Talk Amongst Yourselves).

For the eighth consecutive year, I've counted the number of games I finished in the last 12 months. The number has gone up, even as I played fewer games.

In case you're asleep when it hits, almost every day here on Kotaku I run a feature called Fine Art. It's a chance to showcase the work of artists who spend most of their time out of the spotlight, yet who also play a vital role in shaping the way we identify - and fall in love - with our favourite series.

How is this [video game] news?

2013's pretty much over and, boy, was it ever a great year for comics. Here's what I and other Kotaku staffers loved reading over the last twelve months.

We have a winner, as voted on by Kotaku’s staff: The Last of Us — Kotaku’s Game of the Year.

Don't Forget To Vote! Voting for our Reader's Choice Award will be open until Midnight Eastern this Sunday night. If you haven't yet voted, be sure to. We'll be publishing the results early next week.

What did we get from this year of next-gen press conferences, console launches, Nintendo Directs, and huge open-world games? Some good times. And some amazing animated GIFs.

We spend a lot of time talking about the future. What's on the horizon, what's coming, what's the next big thing. Between the hype-laden developer diaries and the publisher-approved preview events, you'd be forgiven for thinking there's no room left for surprises in video-game land. But of course, you'd be wrong.

Over this past year, I've shown you my picks for the anime you should be watching for the spring, summer, and fall seasons. You've even had the chance to weigh in on your favorites. So without further ado, here are Kotaku's picks for the best anime of 2013.

Here at Kotaku East, we're all about stories. Whether it's amazing, cool, weird, or hilarously stupid, if our Eastern friends have a story to share, we make sure to tell you all about it. And this year certainly had more than enough tales of all four types.

This year I turned 40 and, looking back, my gaming habits appear to have aged as well. In 2013, I probably acquired more titles and played fewer of them, overall, than in any other year. My pile of shame is so large it might spontaneously combust.

And so 2013 draws to a close. We've seen a ton of amazing cosplay in our weekly Fancy Pants feature, but what you're about to see is the very best of it.

In twenty thirteen, it was a very good year. It was a very good year for video games, with zombies and dames, killing monsters with flames... oh the things we've seen... in twenty thirteen.