The 2013 Vidya Gaem Awards

It's hard to top the dark, gloomy beauty of Rapture, but Columbia makes a damn fine challenge. The gently floating city featured a cohesive and unique visual aesthetic that blended Americana with an off-settling social twist, providing one of the most beautiful settings of 2013.

It's Crysis? Does it really need an explanation? Realistic graphics, amazing physics, and water that will cause you to cream yourself, it's really not a surprise a CryEngine game made it in here.

With hand-painted sprites with an art style that seems to be its own spectrum, Dragon's Crown gives hope to the side scrolling beat-em-up genre both gameplay-wise and artistically. Coupled with George Kamitani's fantastic art and concepts, the PS3 and Vita acquired a very unique title this year. Now to decide who is sexier: Sorceress or Dwarf?

VHS tracking, neon blur, and other excesses of Neo 80s styling make Blood Dragon a game as hilariously fun to look at it as it is to play.

Guacamelee! was a recent game that follows a very strict theme: Mexico. And damn does it show. With stylized graphics inspired by Huichol art, and an alternate world with an undead calaca theme to it, the game looks like one giant world from Mexican history. Or Mucha Lucha. Or a tattoo.

Killer Is Dead has Suda's trademarked hyper stylized visuals and bright, striking look with realistic character models combined in stark contrast with high contrast cel shaded art.

Metro: Last Light came out of nowhere this year, surprising everyone with a surprisingly really good title that really makes you feel as if you're in an abandoned subway, fending for survival. With realistic graphics, dark environments that make use of the scenery, and probably the best modeled boobs in video games, Metro stands out with its visuals.

A Studio Ghibli game that looks as if it's straight out of a Miyazaki film, Ni No Kuni gave jRPG fans a title unlike anything they've played in recent years. With its cel-shaded graphics and beautiful art style, the visuals in Ni No Kuni stick out amongst a sea of jRPG titles.

Making excellent use of dated hardware, Pikmin 3 shows that the Wii U is capable of pumping out some beautiful games. With great framerate, wonderful detailing on environments and fruits that make you hungry just looking at them, Pikmin 3 is the sequel we all wanted.

Ubisoft once again creates a vibrant and colourful game filled with character and charm. By subtly mixing 2D art elements with 3D, the levels in Rayman Legends are an optical treat to run through.

Rock-solid, no hiccups, not a single frame missing 60 FPS. SM3DW is one of the few next-gen games to accomplish this technical feat while still delivering incredible graphics and a beautiful visual aesthetic. Sorry, folks - you're going to have to blame that humiliating fall solely on your lack of skills.

Inspired by doodles and papercraft, Tearaway is a visual delight, and stands on its own in a world of hyper realism with its own world of bright and textured cuts of paper.