So, 2023.
Great year for games married with the worst fate for the folks who made them. A polarizing year where on one hand, we celebrate the games that have been marvelous and eye-opening toward other genres.
While on the other, the big corporations are squandering studios to make numbers go from red to green in time for the new quarter. It’s fickle that this sort of stuff is happening to even the big winners. Like cutting off studios that had made YOUR games is a low-blow. And I reckon it’s going downhill after this.
But really, it’s funny talking about this sort of stuff in a GOTY list after years of rapid-firing it previously, but this year, it is better to self-reflect than ignore the issues that’s happening within not only our industry, but also the bigger picture that’s out there, which perhaps many have chosen to ignore it out of either ignorance or terrible stance within politics. All at the cost of people who could have been our teammates, partners, or favorite game developers in a better world.
Thus, the picks for this year’s personal Game of The Year list aren’t that special, perhaps it might be a bit weird and unusual to see some titles here but hey, variety is the spice of life, and having comfort games is nice too.
Starfield (Bethesda Games Studio)
Starfield is an interesting quirk in the video games lineup of 2023. Being a Bethesda game first and foremost, its many systems that are rigid from 25 years of development funnels through it’s veins for better or worse, so it’s current bad press is understandable considering how lackluster it feels when compared to the others on this list, but I don’t mind.
Starfield clicks for me due to them being hard-headed enough to not really stray from the formula, even with the additions of Space battles, a fun but convoluted New Game+ system and barren planets that doesn’t seem to do much for that exploration bit. What it does remind me of, is my first time playing Fallout 3, freshed eyes into the unknown, trying to uncover what the heck is Fallout. Stumbling around it until now, where I somehow get to review its successor a full decade later. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s alright.
Dead Island 2 (Deep Silver Dambuster Studios)
A game that’s been ridicule by their own sister companies, only to be the one to flourish within their own right, not only as a competent open-world romp but as a testament to that one fake Miyamoto quote, “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad”. It may have taken Dead Island 2 a decade to come out, but what it gives us is the epitome of what I feel is missing in the current gen, and that is being a PS3-esque game that’s just a joy to play, looks be damned.
Nothing screams campy than going around LA discovering a conspiracy, mowing down hordes of zombies and more. A sort of game you wouldn’t expect anything out of and come out rather satisfied in how it actually turns out.
Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty Expansion (CD Projekt RED)
My love for this title isn’t exactly a trade secret at this point. This expansion was, to me, the best swansong to something that had gripped my life for the last three years at this point. The spy motive of the whole thing, the storyline diverging into one of the best horror segments or space opera parts depending on what choices you made and the ending that just fits right with the Cyberpunk name, through and through.
At this point, I’ll keep replaying it until Orion comes in then.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review
Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
The one that burns the brightest still, months after its launch. The game many RPG devs wished it became, the immersive sim that its fans welcomed with open arms. Baldur’s Gate 3 is the one game that you would sell to people who would want to dip their toes into video games, period. It’s amazingly robust in its mechanics, easy to pick up and learn, and a story that engages the players even after hours of playtime in one or even more playthroughs.
There isn’t much I could say more about this one that’s not talking to the big void that is the compliments BG3 has accrued since its launch. But all I can say without spoiling much is that if you want to be truly evil, do the Dark Urges playthrough. One of the best writing in any Evil/Renegade games that I’ve experienced, EVER.
Alan Wake 2 (Remedy Entertainment)
A storyteller being trapped in their own fiction should have a bombastic sequel that improves everything that made the first one memorable, and indeed it has happened twice now, both in books and now, in video games with the creatives in Remedy making one incredible piece of art that blends art into something that is a spectacle to experience.
Another one in the “you have to play it to avoid spoilers” pile, it’s one of the games that I am excited to see what the DLC entails. So until then, I shall keep replaying “Herald of Darkness” like it’s a cassette tape on repeat.
Honorable Mentions
The Space For The Unbound (Mojiken) – “I could never cry to a story about some kids in 90s Indonesia”. Me before the prologue of this marvelous game.
Immortals Of Aveum (Ascendant Studios) – In a better timeline, we could have been rejoicing in a Magicka shooter that feels as campy as this one. I could see it being a hidden underrated game as generations pass.
Holocure: Save The Fans (Kayanimate) – the Ultimate 15 minutes killer in the Reverse Bullet Hell genre that gets how it should be. Couldn’t help it gets the approval of Hololive talents and their hail of fans too.
2024?
So that’s it for 2023. Wrapped into a neat bow tie as we kick things off into 2024 with just another character build for Baldur’s Gate 3. I am not addicted to it, nope (Skill Check: Failure).
What awaits us in the far beyonds of the year? Better treatment of people who make games, I hope. Or pray the video game industry doesn’t crash before GTA 6. So roll on the video games™.