If you're dumb enough to read my yearly ramblings about my favourite video games, you'll probably still not remembered that last year I said that this generation hadn't really hit its stride yet.
This year is the complete opposite.
It's been absolutely relentless for video games
this year. All absolutely amazing, most of the games on this list would be easy
game of the year winners in previous years. But the bar was set so high this
year. There's a bunch of games that are easily game of the year contenders that
I've barely touched. The covid game lag all hit this year, and it's been great.
Early next year is looking fairly stacked for me as a JRPG fan but I'm hoping
we get back to a steady release of games going forward.
Video games continue to be great, every so often they really push the medium forward and are leaps and bounds ahead of anything that tv or film can do. One game on this list in particular did that, but we'll get into that later.
Before we get into it here's a handful of games, I never got to that I think would probably shake my list up:
- Cyberpunk phantom liberty
- Fort Solis
- Octopath Traveller 2
One last thing, since writing this I've put nearly another 30 hours into Baldur’s gate 3, so it should be way higher on this list (probably 2), but I couldn't be arsed to mess around with it, but just know it's verrrrrrrrrryyy goood!
Diablo 4 felt great when it released, it was a
fever dream for anyone who grew up playing diablo 2 for hours on end in their
teens (That's me). Diablo 4 tells a really interesting story with great
characters and locations. The connected world feels great to explore and its
insanely fun when your character build is in full swing. Disappointingly the
end game just really didn't hit, the seasons content just didn't land for me,
I'd much rather hit a max level cap and have the grind for gear to get stronger
rather than start all over again. Out the box it's still a great package.
9. Starfield
It's a controversial one and I get it, prerelease
people thought it was going to be something it wasn't. The opening of the game
doesn't really land its mark, and there's a reason for that. The big oh shit
moment comes a few main quests into the game. It's a really cool moment, but
I'd played 40 hours before getting to it, and it kind of didn't hit it's mark.
I assume majority of people don't even know there's a whole system of abilities
in that game. Taking that aside I think starfield is Bethesda’s best game. I
really enjoyed the world, the missions and the stories. Some wild side missions
like the alien Easter egg or landing on a planet and meeting Genghis Khan, Roosevelt
and Cleopatra trying to build a society. The whole multiversal stuff really hit
for me and I loved to see a glimpse of it all at the end.
8. Resident Evil 4 Remake
RE4 Remake is a perfect video game, right up to the
point you visit the island and its full of military dudes. It kind of redeems itself
later on, but I sort of wish they'd ended the game with the castle. Its great
though, the action feels amazing, it looks stunningly scary and that mission
with Ashley in the dark was haunting!
Dead space remake landed in January, and it was
perfect for dark winter nights. The sound design in the game is unreal! It was
great revisiting the ship and I loved the side quests they've added. Survival
horror really feels like it's back in a big way and better than ever! Hope they
remake 2 because I want more dead space.
6. Star Wars Jedi Survivor
Jedi survivor is soooo very good. I love Star Wars,
and this game is the best thing they've done with the franchise in years. Some
sections of this game are absolutely wild! Combat is super fun, and the story
it tells kept me glued throughout. They've made a lot of improvements over the
first game, and I cannot wait to see what they do next!
5. Baldur’s Gate 3
When I first started playing Baldur’s gate 3 I
loved it, I then got very stuck and kept dying. Stopped playing and moved on. It’s
since won game of the year so I've decided to go back to it. Turns out I just
needed a long rest... I got passed the part I was stuck on, and I've fallen in
love with it. Tabletop d&d is so much fun, and that game represents it
brilliantly! Very excited to see where my characters end up. I'd love to play
this 4 player coop I think would be a perfect alternative to a d&d night.
4. Final Fantasy 16
Final fantasy 16 blow me away this year. I adore
final fantasy games and I loved what they did with this. Brilliant cast of
characters particularly Clive played by the actor Ben Starr. Turns out he's a
massive gamer and final fantasy fan himself and you can tell in his
performance. He puts his heart and soul into every scene. There's some really
stand out moments in the game, it very much inspired by game of thrones and
takes you through the twists and turns of the politics in their world. The
premise that each nation has a nuclear weapon in the form of someone turning
into a massive beast! Things turn south and the nations end up at war, you play
a bloke called Clive who gets caught up in it all. You basically figure out
that the crystals that are basically representing oils are destroy the planet
when they're used/mined for resources. So, you go out to destroy all the
crystals to save the planet. The game has some of the best boss battles I've
ever experienced in a video game.
3. Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom (ToTK)
ToTK made me feel like a kid again, it's the same
wonder I felt at like 8 playing ocarina of time for the first time. Breath of
the wild never hit for me, but ToTK absolutely did. I loved exploring the
world, meeting old friends, build wild mad devices to get around. The story was
incredible, one of the best stories in a Zelda game. The side quests were fun
and engaging. A huge part of my love for this game was that I played a whole
bunch of it with my son. Seeing his wonder and amazement was incredible to
experience. He saw most of the major story beats and followed it right through
until the final encounter. I've got a lot of happy memories from playing this
with my son.
2. Spider-man 2
Spider-man 2 is the biggest dopamine hit of 2023.
Literally everything you do hits you with dopamine. I could not put the game
down. The action was insanely fun, swinging around New York is incredible, not
only to actually swing but just the graphics it's an incredible experience just
exploring. The story is unreal. As someone who's been a big spider-man since I
was a kid and got a lot of memories watching the old cartoons, and a love for
the modern films, I absolutely adore what they've done with this spider-man universe and the story they're telling. Insomniac set up a bunch of stuff and I
cannot wait to see what they do next.
1. Alan Wake 2
Every so often a game comes along and sets a new
bar for narrative video games. Back in 2013 we got BioShock infinite and last
of us. Both of these games set the new bar and games have been following those
standards ever since. Alan wake 2, has set a new bar. Remedy have applied
everything they've learned over the years from the original max Payne games, Alan
wake 1, quantum break, and control, all leading to this culmination. Everything
in Alan wake 2 is intricate to the story it tells, from gameplay, to music
tracks record specifically for the game, live action, cutscenes, voice acting.
I'm going to talk about specifics, some of these could be classed as spoilers for the game, but nothing here is story spoiler.
A chapter of Alan wake 2, turns the game into a full blow musical, with a set of songs, which tell a story, live action dancing and acting all while you play out the events of a story of the game. It's absolutely wild, I've never experienced anything like it.
If you're unaware, Alan wake 2 is a full-blown survival horror game, which I quiet often forget when I tell people to play the game. It's not because the survival horror aspects are bad, they're actually some of the best I've ever experienced. Parts of the game gave been full blown anxiety levels of which I haven't experienced since resident evil 7 in VR. Alan wake 2 is so very good at survival horror, from the resource management, almost every encounter felt tight, like I just scraped by, by the skin of my teeth. Creeping around the world is insanely atmospheric, there's jump scares and plenty of them, sometimes you're expecting them, but one got me right in a safe room which I wasn't expecting. There are great creepy enemy encounters, and they rarely overstay their welcome. Huge sections of the game there's no combat, but it constantly makes you think there is going to be, it strings you along and then when you least expect it, you're attacked.
The cast of characters are insanely well acted and performed, from their in game parts to their live action sections. Every character is interesting and adds value to the story. Its top tier stuff, think breaking bad levels of quality.
Alan wake 2 is part of the shared remedy universe, they're kind of doing their marvel avengers thing, but across control (their 2019 game) and Alan wake, and although not officially confirmed there's a boat load of nods and references to quantum break (Tim breaker - Quantum break). I cannot wait to see what they do with this universe and these characters next.
Alan wake 2 is without a doubt the best game I played in 2023, not only has it set a new industry standard for video games, but there's ALOT TV and Cinema could learn from this. If you pick any game to play off this list, please play this, the horror aspects of the game are intense, but play it with the lights on and man up.
