Happy New Year! 2023 was a golden year for gaming, with some of the best games coming out in a very short span of time. However, the same cannot be said for game developers – this year marked huge layoffs, which made no sense considering how successful games were. Also, with subscription services such as Xbox Game Pass, Playstation Plus etc. there is more methods of monetization for games to succeed. With that said, let us look into what is our top 10 list for the year 2023.
10. Starfield
Starfield suffers from the weight of expectations. Coming from the family of heavyweights as the Fallout series or the Elder Scrolls series, it has big shoes to fill. Most people who criticize it do so for its shortcomings (empty planets, generic missions etc.) but what they fail to realize is that on its own, it is a decent game that attempts to shoot for the stars, and maybe reaches the moon.
9. Venba
An interesting indie game about an Indian-origin family in Canada. While the game is short – it is an emotional ride full of beautiful characters and a unique perspective.
Licensed games are hard to get right. Sometimes devs become lazy and hope to cash in on the IP, other times restrictions are imposed on the IP to the point where making a fun game becomes hard. RoboCop gets a lot right – you can see the love for the source material right down to the nitty gritty that they got from the movies. Getting the likenesses and all the small bits and pieces must have been a huge task – but they nailed it. Teyon has a redemption arc like Hello Games (No Man’s Sky) – they started with the Rambo game, went through Terminator:Resistance and now this.
7. ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON
Armored Core is back! And they prove once again – mechs are awesome no matter the console generation.
An IP based game set in the universe, but not actually driven by the movies’ protagonists? Sign me up! The best part is this game proves that Pottermania is still alive despite the amount of time that has passed since the movies and the mainline books.
For some reason Dave The Diver reminded me of the old school NES Jaws game. It is good fun, and is best played on a portable like the Steam Deck.
Can you have too much of a good thing? Spider-Man 2 attempts to answer that question – while the game is heavily steeped in the original, it also adds new mechanics (and characters) and gets rid of some of the bad parts of the old to satisfy. Would this game be considered if originality were a requirement on this list? No, but the game is still good enough to be here.
3. Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake 2 is trippy. With its unconventional gameplay (including a level best described as a music video), it is not everyone’s cup of tea. It does, however, broaden the medium.
2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Nintendo have outdone themselves with TOTK. Taking something great from BOTW and making it more awesome (including engineering puzzles) on Switch must have been challenging, but they prove why Nintendo has thrived for this long.
This game is a Tabletop game player’s dream. Making the dice rolls obvious (something many games abstract out), accomodating almost every conceivable way to solve and problem and awesome voice acting make this our choice for Game of the Year 2023!
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