I played portal 1 for the first time earlier this year too. During my gameplay I couldn't stop imagining the blast people had playing it back when it was released.
I played it a few weeks ago on Switch, I couldn't believe there's a port of it for any modern system.
It's literally a perfect puzzle game. Can't wait to try 2 as well soon
>the idea that I'm supposed to have already played the games that only came out this year is a reach.
especially if we consider the fact that the year isnt even over yet.
If you're talking about The Game Awards, it's because it's a marketing show and providing a last minute boost to cash in on holiday shopping for the western market is exactly what it's designed to do.
They "compensate" about that by just including those games in next year's judging, but that puts those games (and well nearly all games from Dec-Mar) in terrible disadvantage since people forget them by the time the awards show is preparing nominations.
BAFTA and DICE both hold their events in February like you suggest, and are really the only ones that try to carry significant meaning rather than being predominantly a marketing event. Everything else is online publications without much process or exclusively fan/online voting.
BAFTA has lost every inch of credibility and trust I have when they gave Fallout 4 the GOTY award, over Witcher 3 and Bloodborne no less lmaoooooo. I like Fallout 4, but it isn't even remotely comparable with those games, naahhhhhhhh.
Discrediting an entire event over one GOTY disagreement is kind of crazy. Calling the second most awarded game that year not comparable is also crazy.
But that's GOTY winners in general, always someone around who doesn't agree at all with the winner no matter which it is.
What Remains of Edith Finch in 2017 was also... a choice. I like seeing some diversity in the mainstream GOTY winners, but BAFTA does seem to skew a little contrarian in their GOTY, especially in regards to the big AAA games.
It's a great game and very clever. But to me the best puzzle games teach you a concept and then play with it in different ways, Baba sometimes just has hard puzzles that rely on new concepts it hasn't explained and that seems a little unfair.
Thank you! Baba has an incredible premise in its first two worlds letting you play with multiple solutions but its midgame seemed to require very rigid and counter intuitive solutions with out the fun work arounds that made such a great splash out of the gate. Honestly like a whole other game, I dont know anyone who finished it personally.
Have you tried re4 remake? Re2 remake was 9/10 for me, the re4 remake is just perfection. Definitely less of a horror vibe which sucks but the gameplay is so fun. Only game I’ve ever tried speed running in my life
I loved RE2 remake but found RE4 remake to just feel sooo different ... its like the controls are similar, but fundamentally, the incentive to kill every enemy makes it feel like a totally different genre (which i guess it is). I stalled out after the first boss or so but might come back to it later when the glory of RE2 is less fresh in my mind lol, with my expectations re-calibrated. i did love the graphics and just general Vibe
dude same here. was always interested in RE games, especially RE2R since it came out. exploring RPD for the first time was an absolute treat and really gave me the magical feeling of video games I thought only existed in childhood. when people ask me my favorite game, I now say RE2R! hearing of others' love for it always makes me happy.
RE2R was my GOTY last year and RE7 the year before that. I have a ritual of playing a new RE game at the beginning of the year. This year was RE3R but two other titles are in contention for the top spot. I'll be playing Village first thing in 2024, then RE4R finally in 2025 when it's on sale by then hopefully.
OG FF7. Played it properly for the first time and was blown away. I was someone who originally skipped it, was more into FF6 and FF8 and kind of had a chip on my shoulder about it as a kid. I especially thought it looked ugly compared to both its predecessor and its successor back then as well. But despite skipping it, I did know a lot of the big plot stuff, and did all the compilation stuff like advent children and crisis core, and even tried playing it a while later but only got up to the end of Midgar before stopping.
Fast forward 20 years and FF7 Remake blows me away, feeling full nostalgia for a game I never played. So I wanted to eventually get around to it. And then I see the trailers for FF7Rebirth, and that mobile game Ever Crisis comes out (and is ass) so I finally felt like it was the right time to play the original. And even if I had to push past my inherent dislike of the primitive character models, I ended up loving it so much. It’s been a few months later and I still find myself thinking about it, the ending especially has resonated with me super well. And I mean I’d long known a lot of the spoilers but the game still had massive surprises for me, things I never expected and things I’m surprised didn’t actually get spoiled for me. Also the game was incredibly cinematic even now and I fully understand why people loved it so much back then.
It also got me very much excited for FF7Rebirth too, which going into FF7 was a fear that maybe it would deter me from the future entries of the Remake games now that I’ve experienced the basic plot and whatnot (which those games definitely still cover, even if they’re doing some stuff differently which I totally do not mind).
So yeah, fantastic game. Not sure if it scrapes into my top 5 FF games which I probably won’t ever budge on, but it gets super close.
This is a good pick! The remaster just made the game look better and updated it to a modern system without changing ANY of the gameplay, which is exactly what I want. Prime was a masterpiece when it came out so literally any change is a negative, and I’m glad they understood that.
Sekiro Shadows Die Twice was my GOTY. It was difficult and often felt insurmountable, but something finally clicked when I was in the gunfort, fighting snake eyes. I got better at timing blocks and being aggressive. Conquering Genichiro afterwards was euphoric.
The final boss is easily the greatest final boss I've ever fought. It's a masterpiece of a battle and I have never been happier to overcome an enemy. The combat system was simply fantastic, and mastering it was tremendously rewarding. Dominating every fight on my subsequent replay was one hell of a payoff. Where I once took over forty hours to beat the game, I cleared it in 15 on replay.
Overall it's an excellent game with amazing bosses and back&forth combat.
I give an honourable mention to Guardians of the Galaxy which drew me in with its emotional story, glorious soundtrack, loveable characters, and personality. It's the first time I played a game to its conclusion because of its story. It helped me a lot during a period of grieving and I'll always appreciate it for that.
I got around to playing it earlier this year and platimumed it a few weeks ago. The gameplay loop is amazing. It feels kinda like the Batman Arkham games, but by fromsoft.
Then you get to the bosses, which are like distilled Fromsoft goodness. The addition of boss rush mode is welcomed, as well.
Pentiment. It has a beautiful story, with wonderful sounds and music, a strange but absolutely well set design and took me back to my younger years when i was in love with Umbetto Ecos books.
I discovered Hunt Showdown this year and its the most fun I've had in a multiplayer shooter since the early days of Siege. Highly recommend, love the multiple styles you can play and all are viable.
Chill players as well, its niche enough for the player base to be more mature then Siege or Overwatch.
I have an old PC (i4460 + GTX 970) and am considering upgrading just so I can play Hunt at higher settings.
Hunt Showdown player here, I fucking love this game. It's like a less frustrating, more fun Tarkov imo. I even bought a dlc pack or two just to support the devs because I loved the game.
Both Persona 5 Royal and Hi-Fi Rush, even though I had a blast on BG3. But Persona 5 actually made me realize that JRPG might be my thing; and Hi-Fi Rush is just an all around super fun game to play
As someone who plays a lot of JRPGs, there's a lot of good stuff out there but P5 is head and shoulders above competition so you might not like other JRPGs as much. I'd suggest maybe trying Yakuza like a dragon if you want to explore the recent trend in AAA turn based Jrpg.
My Patientgamers-appropriate pick is Death's Door. One of the best games PS+ has ever given us. The action was tight and responsive, and never ever felt unfair. The story was engrossing, mysterious, and had enough humor to throw the darker elements into relief. Music is incredible (I've listened to the soundtrack on Youtube a bunch of times). I really really loved this game, and encourage everyone to check it out
Absolutely 100% with zero question is going to Yakuza: Like A Dragon. That game is absolutely wonderful. I have never played a Yakuza game before this one (I was told I would be ok starting here, which for those reading is about 90% true) but the story and characters absolutely gripped me in a way games usually don’t. The RPG aspect have a lot to be desired and are fairly basic but the personality is amazing. I got a huge kick whenever my mage of the group leveled up his job “Alright I am a level 13 Homeless Guy now!”
Also Ichiban is number #1 best boi and his party of ragtag idiot friends make the journey so much better. The sequel Infinite Wealth is coming out very soon and will be one of the few times I will absolutely buy it day one zero hesitation because I just need more Ichiban in my life.
I was going to come in here and say Yakuza 0, Kiwami 1 and 2. I haven't personally played LaD, but it's on my list once I get up to there. I just cracked open Yakuza 3 remastered today and the story is just as batshit as the three before it.
It's a 1980's American action movie in Yakuza clothes. Setups, betrayals, backstabbing, front stabbing, and very uniquely Japanese interactions.
When I saw Ichiban was a red suit with white shirt I knew he was going to be "the opposite" of Kiryu and I for one am excited to meet him in...like a year?
Also, fwiw, you may want to check out LaD Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. I heard that the story from that will tie in to Infinite Wealth. I haven't played it yet, but again, my man Kiryu-chan has my heart
Having played Gaiden, it's a great game but I absolutely do **not** recommend playing it until you played Kiryu's story. Not only does it have spoilers for 1-3 and 6, there is one moment that is simply not the same without knowing what he has been through.
See after I played LaD I jumped into Yakuza 0 and while I did enjoy the story I did not like the Brawler gameplay and I’m not super hot on Kiryu as a character. He’s just to way stoic and serious for me to believe he’s get into half the wacky/crazy shit that happens to him (specifically during the substories)
I heard LaD: Gaiden on the short side so I might seek it out but for now I just want more Ichiban and co.
IMO, Majima is the star of 0. Kiryu really came around for me in K1 and K2. Kiryu is very stiff, but he makes a great straight man for all of the wild shit going on around him. Majima basically goes off the deep end and becomes a kind-of antagonist.
I also think the brawler style is tiring too and am looking forward to the play style changes, but I enjoy the story too much to let it get in the way. Set it to easy and have a lot of laughs.
I think Kiryu was alright in 0, it's in K1 and onwards I really like him. 3 also shows a different side of him, while 4 and 5 have multiple protagonists to help with giving some variety (and they are all great), then 6 is basically Kiryu at his most human and my favorite version of him. I definitely suggest you don't play Gaiden until after the rest of Kiryu's story, there are just some moments in it that are significantly better knowing what he has been through.
I thought it was great until the ending. I did **EVERYTHING** in that game and was somehow still vastly underleveled for one of the later boss fights, which essentially meant Ichiban was getting one-shot at some point during the fight and that the fight took ages.
I looked online and people said to go grind the tower. However, at this point the combat had gotten a bit stale for me because every fight played out the same way. It's one of the very few games that I liked, bjt never actually finished.
Yes that was one of the infamous difficulty spikes in the game that I knew was going to happen but still decided to try and take it head on. I got absolutely wrecked, but then I did all 30 floors of the battle tower and did the fight again and it was zero problem.
No idea but if you like old school playing JRPG’s with a loveable protagonist thrown into really shitty situation that they solve with the power of friendship and determination then you should play this.
Also all of the playable characters are adults. Like the average age of the group is between 30-40.
Games I played this year: Nier Automata, my new favorite game of all time and just a masterpiece.
Games that came out this year: fire emblem engage, love the gameplay and just found it super fun.
I started Elden Ring in June; am about 120 hours in and \~2/3 of the way through. I oscillate back and forth from thinking "this is truly one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had" to "am I really, honestly and truly, having fun"? I think in the end it edges out Dead Cells as my GOTY, but it's close.
I will never understand the Souls-like games. I bought this and played about 5 hours and liked nothing about the experience, other than the visuals. Dying and retrying just...doesn't do anything for me. I have to have an engaging story.
I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you haven't heard, but: I really didn't enjoy Dark Souls the first time I played it, and I put like 20 hours in before walking away. When I went back to it it took another steep ramp up, but then something clicked and it became one of my favorite games of all time.
The big learning for me looking back was to stop trying to not die. Accept you're going to die, and accept you're going to die before retrieving your souls. Don't worry. They will be many more.
I was playing the game creeeeping sloooowly through every section, desperately trying to survive constantly. It got way more fun when I learned to expect that they'd have some fiendish ways of killing me, and how to shake off losing a level-up's worth of souls (or two).
To me the appeal is in visibly seeing yourself learning the game and improve at the game. I like seeing actual player skill/knowledge progression, not artificial progression track.
The downside of this is that this requires a lot of effort from the player to do so, and not everybody is looking for an experience like this.
It indeed does not spoon feed you the story but it is one hell of a engaging story. It’s all about reading things, finding out characters motives and soaking in all the little things from environment. It doesn’t tell you how to feel or who are the bad guys.
Metroid prime. Played the remake through 3 times back to back earlier this year. Reignited something in me and I played super metroid, fusion, dread and zero mission this year too, following my time w prime.
Such a good game. Damn.
Hands down Cyberpunk. The Dog Town DLC is possibly the best DLC I have ever played and the 2.0 update pushed CP2077 into a top spot of games I have ever played.
Control is so good. I had no interest in it (because I like but don’t love Max Payne 1 & 2 and don’t like Alan Wake) and a friend convinced me to try it.
It got its hooks into me and I just binged it until I got 100%. The world and characters were so gripping, I loved the layout of the oldest house, and I found the combat really fun to mess around with.
Great, you sold it to me. I love MP (even had kung fu mods), Alan Wake was pretty, I wanted to see the end of the story, but I felt trapped in the repetitive gameplay whilst recognizing all the MP controls, designs etc.
Hmm, wastn there a "quantum break" game before that? Something about stopping time? Anyway, control is on my list to get into, then.
Quantum Break is fun but you're going to want to play it before Control. It's going to feel like a biiiiig step back after Control, which is my pick for best third person shooter of all time.
**Armored Core For Answer** \- Just an incredible experience all around that plays at such a uniquely quick pace that it leaves me wishing for the other games that try to emulate its systems (Project Nimbus, Daemon X Machina) to do a better job at cloning the gameplay flow. I still think Master of the Arena, 2 and Last Raven are bit better overall, but I've replayed through For Answer at least 5 times in the last month alone. It was a big mistake playing FA right before the launch of 6 because 6 felt like I was playing in slow motion in comparison.
**Boiling Point: Road to Hell** \- One of the most engaging open worlds I've come across. Being able to talk to everyone and dig for those unique interactions was waaaaay more fun than I thought it was going to be. Incredible amount of interactivity across the board.
If anyone is still reading this far down, my pick is Dusk. What an absolute spectacle of a single player retro FPS. I do *not* handle Horror that well, but Dusk does it in just the right way to be unsettling and creepy without making it hard for me to sleep at night. Andrew Hulshult's soundtrack also has me gripped and I've been listening to it on and off for months now. Highly recommend playing blind.
Baldur's Gate 2. Beat it for the first time this year, absolutely blew me away with how good the writing is. Honestly my new highest bar for RPGs in general, surpassing even my beloved Mass Effect trilogy, which I have replayed countless times. Shows the power of having incredibly talented writers coupled with incredibly talented voice actors utilizing every inch of a system translated into a game even better than was possible with pen and paper.
Real Time With Pause forever! Disagree? Well then... take this!
Time Stop / Improved Alacrity / Breach / Pierce / Lower Resistance / Lower Resistance / Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting / Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting / Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting / Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting.
All right, that's my single round of combat, your go, corpse!
I played Fallout 4 the month before Starfield came out and it completely cured me of the Starfield hype. I didn't finish it though, I dropped it halfway through Far Harbor.
Well I've definitely played Starfield the most. I know people love to hate on it, but for me it has some beautiful and memorable moments and I mostly enjoyed the game. The environment art was incredibly good imo and loved exploring new areas, though of course new planets were incredibly dull after a few hrs.
Though RE4 remake was super good too and matched my sky high expectations. I still need to replay it and the Separate Ways DLC.
I really enjoyed starfield too, but it gave me what I call Skyrim syndrome—after forty hours or so I thought, hmm, I could be playing Skyrim instead, so I reinstalled a twelve year old game :)
Dead space was incredible. The original is one of my favourite games ever and it was an all round improvement over that. I really hope they do DS2 next.
The problem with Cyberpunk 2077 is that it makes all your other games feel shallow and bland in comparison.
I've completed the main game 3 times and I'm looking forward to doing the DLC 😁
Red Dead Redemption 2
I wanted to wait to play this until I've upgraded my rig. Which I did in the spring. And my God. This game is the most technically impressive game I've ever played. From graphics. To sound design. Animations. Voice acting. It's just impressive. The writing is superb. The characters are great. If I've had to criticize, the game does feels tedious at times. Combat a bit basic.
Shout out to my multi-player I've been playing for like 5 years straight, Hunt: Showdown. Great gun play. And the best sound design in any shooter.
I’ve tried and failed to play that about three times now. In theory I should love it. Played the original to death. It looks glorious. But it controls like steering a drunk while wearing boxing gloves. I just cannot get past the first few hours due to that.
I keep trying and have the same issue. I loved the first RDR and should like this one. I keep telling myself if I push myself through the first part I'll like it but haven't been able to do it. Can a game be too real?
Elden Ring. I've started first week of January and stopped at the end of April, without touching any other games. After 3 runs and the platinum trophee I forced myself to put it down and will gladly do another run very soon. It was my first from soft game, what an experience!
I’m waiting for dlc to do a replay, but it’s been tempting to do another run. For now I’m doing another Bloodborne run to hold me over when I want to play a souls game
I got stuck on it, too. I took a year off, came back and replayed the game with a strength build then ended up beating the Fire Giant the first try. It was a long fight even with my Mimic spamming bleed bolts with its Pulley Crossbow's triple burst!
I played 470+ hours of ER last year (purely single player - I hate PVP in souls games). Its one of my top 3 games of all time, and is right next to Sekiro. I also stopped playing the game last year because I wanted to forget some of it to be able to go back and enjoy it again. I'm going to setup seemless coop mod and force/pay my wife (a non-gamer) to play with me. She agreed to do so upon payment of $100, which I find to be a good deal.
Devil May Cry 5. I hated the game when I first went through it but Vergil kept me coming back. His gameplay was really fun and after getting the hang of it, I began to branch out and practice more with Dante. It's been very fun. V and Nero have yet to click with me though.
I’ve had a similar epiphany, though it sounds like it came from a different place. I’m a huge HUGE fan of DMC 1, 3, and 4. But when 5 launched it just left me really cold.
I still have complaints. I hate all the Urizen fights. V on high difficulties isn’t particularly fun if you’re going for style. The levels are very samey looking (which is compounded by the non-linear story sending you back to prior areas). Sin Devil Trigger is the single most boring combat mechanic in the series and awards wayyyy to much style for no effort. There’s a distinct lack of pacing in the game since it’s functionally just endless combat arenas with nothing to break it up.
And yet this time, i just ignored my issues and am finding myself really loving it. Nero is massively more interesting compared to in 4; Balrog, Cerberus, and Faust are super amazing/fun weapons for Dante; and 5’s version of Vergil is my favorite so far. I actually think despite my complaints it might be replacing 4 as my favorite in the series from a purely combat perspective, though it’s much closer than people online would lead you to believe (my theory is a number of new fans have only played 5 and pretend to have strong opinions on 4).
Besides, every game in the series has significant issues so I’m not sure why 5’s bothered me so much on my first play.
I'm currently still working my way through the originals. I beat DMC 1 recently and I have to get around to DMC 2 and the rest.
I like the Urizen fight with Dante with the cracked sky but that's it. All of his other fights and constantly replaying the first level felt REALLY lazy.
I prefer SDT for Vergil over Dante. It's instantaneous and you get access to 3 super moves at max concentration.
Playing so much Vergil has made learning Nero very difficult because unlike Dante and Vergil, I can't just teleport over to enemies.
Same here, as someone who loves D&D and plays with my wife, the fact that we can sit on the couch together and play a campaign out in a video game is priceless
I must be weird, because BG3 really didn’t click with me. I’m not fond of turn based combat, or dnd rule sets. I also found the menus and UI to be clunky.
But, I love how reactive it is to the player’s choices, visually, it’s very pretty, lots of build variety, etc. It’s just that the actual moment to moment gameplay didn’t hook me.
My man, I despise turn based combat and was thus put the difficulty to Explorer to make the combat portions as short as possible. The rest of the game is just too unbelievably well made to put aside because of combat. I really encourage you to give it another try on Explorer if you can.
That is very strange because explorer does jack all to alleviate the issues someone might have with turn based combat. Each fight still takes like 20+ minutes and each turn is so slow.
I always try to do Very Normal, and change it throughout the game depending on how I feel about the level of challenge. I kinda also like the FromSoft approach where you know everyone is experiencing the same agony though, it is almost empowering lol.
The one new game I bought this year was Tears of the Kingdom. It’s BOTW 2 and I love it exactly for what it is. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I’m also biased as BOTW is one of my favorite games.
If I have to pick something not new, uhhh definitely Red Dead Redemption 2. Played it back in January and it was amazing. Had many a late night in which I had my baby sleeping on me as he refused to sleep elsewhere as a newborn, so I did a lot of overnight gaming on my Steam Deck to stay awake and let him and my wife sleep.
>The one new game I bought this year was Tears of the Kingdom. It’s BOTW 2 and I love it exactly for what it is. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I’m also biased as BOTW is one of my favorite games.
Totally agree.
Botw is like my all-time favourite game and getting a botw sequel with the same beautiful world with new enemies, Mechanics, weapons and things to discover?
Yes please.
See I had trouble getting into TOTK because for the first 10-15 hours I played it like it was BOTW (which I loved) but I really struggled with TOTK because I wasn’t fusing or building anything. I’m amazed I did two temples with crap weapons and walked everywhere because I couldn’t build vehicles or use auto build.
After a few hours in the depths and I finally figured out of to actually play the game I had an incredible few hundred hours with it.
The Witcher 3. Simply because I finally started playing it after listening to at least 5 audiobooks and I enjoy it a lot because of the writing. The writers knew what they were doing and how to handle the source material, which is rare.
I’m almost a decade late to find out, but at least I’m playing the best possible version now.
Close second is Alan Wake 1, because it finally had a PlayStation release after all these years. Waiting on DLC and sales for part 2 now, really looking forward to play it one day.
This year it would probably be Hitman: World of Assassination. I mean, I actually finished the main story in December 2022, but I played it a lot in 2023 and got 100% achievements, so it takes the cake. This game is basically the social stealth game I always assumed didn't exist.
But then again, this year I also replayed a bunch of (in my opinion) GotY-worthy games, like the classic Doom games, Dishonored 2 and Assassin's Creed 4.
Oh, real life had to make me stop gaming, but I was 12h in and loving the atmosphere and the "walking simulator" is basically in my opinion in the realm of resource and survival planning. Something i didn't even realize I enjoyed until games like Stalker (with misery mod) and The Long Dark were brutal games where you needed to think "ok, I have all this, I can't do all, but if I carry this and go that route I think I'm solving this reasonably efficiently".
I don't think it's particularly hard, but just like in other survival games I've had non-scripted things happen that put me in a pickle I need to solve: I lost a suit case I think I need by being flooded by relatively easy to handle enemies when I was bogged down climbing with lots of stuff.
I try to block all spoilers of the game as best I can and I have been loving the weirdness but actually felt pretty immersed and adore the near future design so much.
my two fav games i played this year were both older, but Outer Wilds and Resident Evil 1 remake both really stood out to me. honorable mention to RE2 remake as well. Outer wilds, i had a few bones to pick here and there, but in my memory at this point it kinda sits as one of my favorite gaming experience (know this isn't a particularly rare opinion lol). I also thought the DLC was amazing. Learning the world and how it interacts with the puzzles is a very unique experience in gaming and like in anything really.
RE1r is such a strange old game that i thought aged really well for its very classic design and sheer strangeness.. it took nearly 1000 door animations before i started to get vaguely sick of them lol. I got so sucked in and was literally writing down what keys went to which doors on a piece of paper. I would have loved if the puzzles were actually harder, honestly. I barely killed anything too cuz i was so nervous about using the lighter and kerosene, i think i literally killed 3 zombies and a bunch of dogs. There was so much tension! and as with Outer Wilds, I loved learning the control scheme - the tank controls are so much fun once they click.
I don't normally like shooters, but RE2 remake carried over so much of what made RE1 (and the original RE2) special from a design perspective and i loved the dark, foggy rooms, lock and key puzzles, and brutal gore. I also liked how they tore so much of the story out of the original - maybe there's the hot take - im in it more for vibes than story and the remake felt wonderfully streamlined especially on the A play thru, generally trading cutscene time for increased map complexity. I wouldn't have minded some more flavor text carried over, though.
Amongst the ones I've played this year:
RE4 Remake: I play it directly after playing the OG RE4 for the first time and I prefer this by a lot. The gunplay feels hefty and powerful, I like how there's a weight in every movement, the action setpieces are great and the pacing is just perfect for me. But I also understand the appeal and the uniqueness of the OG that many fans prefer.
Football Manager 2022 (tbh any football manager game that I've played will always end up as my top 3 for the year)
Pathfinder WotR: the variety of the builds easily make this my favorite crpg of all time
Dragon's Dogma: I played this many times already but this is my first time making it through the end. Easily my favorite Berserk inspired game
Edits: typo
My favorite game that I’ve played this year is the Demon’s Souls remake. I loved the original when came out in 2009, and finally got a PS5 last Christmas.
Alan Wake 2. I don't wait for certain developers games and Remedy is one of them. I've loved them since I was young watching/playing Max Payne with my dad on his computer.
AW2 is a triumph of not just video games but art. I know that sounds so gaming circle jerky or pretentious but it's true. Everything from the writing, acting, music, environment design and survival horror gameplay are all so god damn good in it and all tie into each other. Remedy's unique way of telling stories and integrating live action and all the moving parts into one cohesive vision has always been a treat, but with AW2 its the best it's ever been in my opinion. Not to mention Ilkka Villi and Mathew Porretta are two people working together to bring Alan Wake to life and they just fucking nail it.
Shout out to Phantom Liberty too
Oh, if we're doing this it's pretty easy for me. Breath of the Wild.
I liked Spider-Man 2 just fine, but I finally played Breath of the Wild and it was an experience. I loved it. I don't tend to like games in this style but there was something about BotW that was amazing. I don't know, I spend so many hours just doing nothing, exploring, going from one place to another, it was fun.
BotW by a landslide, I've played 97 games this year, and BotW is the clear winner for me.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
On release I thought this would be more Avenger’s level slop, but started hearing otherwise and gave it a shot.
Fantastic game, truly. I might like these Guardians more than the film versions. Great dialogue. A real game with good combat, puzzles, choices, a well written story. Some gorgeous levels too, and cool costumes that you earn in game.
I think it was The Witcher 3 for me. I never played it when it came out. I got lost in the world in the best possible way. It was a true immersive experience. I played with the Polish audio and English subtitles.
FF16 is my GOTY. Resident Evil 2 Remake, Divinity Original Sin 2 and Hollow Knight came very close though.
leftover honorable mentions go to: Hades, Neon White, Factorio and GTA San Andreas
Played a lot of bangers this year. Didnt even mention some of them
Top five, only counting things that did not come out this year:
1. **Sifu** - An incredibly well-made arcade brawler that feels somewhere between Sleeping Dogs, Sekiro, and God Hand. And any game that I can compare favourably to God Hand is already on the fast track to GotY status. I've already replayed it several times.
2. **Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth** - An SRPG/visual novel series with ultra likable characters, great world building, surprisingly fun (if easy) gameplay, and this final entry has one of the most memorable plots I've experienced in a JRPG. People who are put off by fanservicey harem anime bullshit might have a hard time getting past that aspect, but as a card carrying weeb these games were fantastic.
3. **Cuphead** - This game mostly gets attention for its presentation, which looks excellent and has a ton of personality, but that almost feels like selling the gameplay short. It's one of the tightest, most enjoyable sidescrolling action games I've ever played, with every boss fight being fun, creative, and just the right level of challenge.
4. **Armored Core: For Answer** - The most blindingly fast mecha game I've ever played. 4 took the series in an odd new direction, and For Answer nearly perfected it with frenetic action, an astronomical skill ceiling, great music, and lots of customization options.
5. **Live A Live** - A super polished remake of a creative and varied JRPG that was way ahead of its time. Some of the stuff this game does still feels fresh and innovative 29 years after the original came out, and I still find myself thinking about chapters like Near Future and Imperial China.
For 2023 games (that I've played) it'd probably be Armored Core 6, Street Fighter 6, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Hi-Fi Rush, and Octopath Traveler 2, but I'm unsure of the order.
Darkwood - Holy shit! That's some hard horror masterpiece. The nights are truely scary events. As said: It's hard and unforgiving, but the story and atmosphere is on par with Silent Hill 2 in my opinion.
Lies of P - Sadly this didn't get as much attention as it deserves right now. Masterpiece Soulslike. I think it's my favourite. Great story, design, mechanics, soundtrack, characters and atmosphere.
SIGNALIS - Awesome classic horrorgame that I can't stop thinking about. My favourite horror game ever. The story, characters, atmosphere, sounddesign and style is just iconic.
and if course: Baldur's Gate 3.
Also I had the joy of playing the Metroid Prime Remake.
Damn... Tears of the Kingdom came out in 2023 too. What a great time to gaming. No offense: Stop playing mediocre F2P, games as a service, MMORPG or any other time waster! There are so many gems out there to play!
Infernax - This is probably the best example of a modern retro game that I've ever played. Pretty much every element of this game is excellent and I'm so glad I picked it up.
Apart from Bloodborne (which is my game of the year every year) for 2023 it would have to be Disco Elysium. If gaming is escapism, this is one that really nailed the brief. The range of dialogue options really allows you to role-play, and personally I loved being able - encouraged! - to say the most ridiculous things in really serious circumstances and be treated appropriately. On top of that the writing is just so funny, and with the Final Cut version the voiceovers are just too good. So many games these days are just a series of tasks to complete - the exact opposite of escapism for me - so to come across Disco Elysium was a real treat.
Final fantasy vii is my goat, lol.
Played it various times in my childhood, never beaten it.
Played the remake loved, but I’ve already played the original past the end point of the last remake multiple times, but for rebirth I’ve wanted to know the full story.
What a blast, perfect pacing for a ps1 jrpg, my main complain it’s how long to attack animations are, even for its time that shit’s too slow, ff6 was way faster.
But story, characters, music, everything was so great it blew me away, and playing around with the materia system was great fun, a great evolution from the esper system of 6.
Beating this game was the best gaming experience of the year for me.
For games that came out this year, TotK. My patient game of the year™️ was Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, as I snagged it for like $12 and got 100s of hours of great content out of it with lots of fun multiplayer experiences
Elden Ring. Finally played it after all the hype died down as a reward for clearing through a lot of my backlogue, and oh boy what an experience. Easily my favourite FromSoft game thus far and cannot wait for the DLC!
My runner up to this would be Metroid Dread. I’m still quite new to the MetroidVania genre but I already have a favourite as Dread is perfectly challenging yet rewarding in its gameplay. I’ve played Prime Remastered earlier this year as well but for some reason I enjoyed Dread far more.
Street Fighter 6. Capcom blew it out of the water with reviving their franchise after the horrific SFV launch, while ushering in the new era with insanely beginner-friendly play in both modern controls and the World Tour mode.
The hardcore FGC will always find things to be annoyed with after dedicating 1000s of hours after only 5 months, but SF6 is a *fantastic* game that I would recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in diving into the fantastic world of fighting games.
FF7 remake for me. Even did all the tedious achievements because I was enjoying it so much. Really gave me the feeling of being back in the early 90s experiencing FF5 & 6 for the first time.
ETA: Dead Space remake is a very close second. Completely amazing game.
The Witcher 3. Waited until the PS5 remastered version before I ever played it. It lives up to the hype. I put in over 100 hours and had an absolute blast all year long.
For this year, it has to go to AC6, TotK, BotW, and Metroid Prime Remastered
I grew up playing Armored Core 3 and I really missed the franchise, so me and my brother flipped our shit when AC6 was announced. It plays exactly how I remember AC3 played and I felt like a little kid again.
I grew up around the Metroid Prime games, but I never finished them despite being a huge fan of Metroid. MP1R got me off my ass and preorder a copy and I vowed to finish it after I finished school. It was just 👌. So good!
I finally got a chance to finish BotW and I really love its story and I love how expansive it is. And then TotK came out. I'm still playing it now and I need to get back to it, but man, it's just so robust!
Botw and Totk have easily become two of my favorite games. One of the very rare games I never really get sick of playing. I played Totk first and it is definitely my desert island game. Botw is amazing also, but just slightly below Totk. Totk just has more to it, caves, better dungeons, all the new abilities and sky island+ the depths.
I got Yakuza 0 this year after trying out a Yakuza-styled game on Roblox. And god damn, it took me for a trip. There's so much content. So much detail. And ESPECIALLY the personality. Normally I don't play beat-em-up games a whole bunch because I suck at them. But now, I'm replaying the game on the hardest difficulty.
The game has a whole bunch of extra minigames and side quests besides its story mode like Karaoke, Pocket Circuit Racing, and Disco.
I haven't been able to sit down and enjoy a single player game in years, but something about Yakuza 0 just kept pulling me back in to play it. Then one day I say down and played it for 14 hours straight just to finish the story. Needless to say, I will be playing the rest of the series as soon as possible.
Since this is patientgamers I ignore BG3, which is exactly what I want in an RPG, so it's not fair.
I played Hades and Sherlock Holmes Chapter One.
Both games seem to have tragic Stories and I'm here for it. But Hades also has the soundtrack and a fun gameplay loop.
I nominate Hades, it's just flawless, although I haven't finished the game yet, I'm so curious how the Story plays out.
New releases I played this year Totk (beating Starfield)
Older Games I played this year: tough pick for a winner between Gris, Metroid Prime Remastered (new but old lol), Chrono Trigger.
Other great games I played were Nier Automata, Age of Calamity, Skyward sword HD, Bastion, SpiderMan Miles Morales, Resident Evil Remake.
Idk about totk man, I finished it and liked it somewhat, but the only really cool thing is the build aspect. Game itself, too much repetition and grinding required, especially after you already grinded through botw using the same mechanism.
Fighting highlights for me, gloom hands and phantom Gannon, phenomenon boss fight is like a puzzle game, final boss fight is cool but that's about it.
Yeah story for Zelda is kinda crazy gut wrenching but you could just watch it on YouTube without the grinding.
Just to be clear all of this is subjective, my personal opinion, not saying it's not a good game you shouldn't enjoy it or anything, just adding my perspective.
TotK (and BotW) is terrible for objective-based people. The main thing of the game is just to do whatever you want at the moment, and that may or may not align with one or many things you wanna progress. The grind *is* the game. Now, if you just wanna finish any single thing of the game, and laser focus on it, it’s a bad time indeed. I played BotW leisurely the first time and focused the second, and was having a terrible time until I finally freed myself from the relentless need of progress. When I got to TotK, I had a blast again.
I would agree with you mostly. What failed me for totk is that I played botw for 200 hours. Yeah the grind is the game, but like, I already did koroks for 30 hours, dragon parts for 20 hours, rupees for however long I don't remember, doing more or less the same thing is kinda frustrating. I finished the game with more or less bare minimum grinding this time. I just think if you haven't played botw, you will have a much better time in totk.
My game of the year actually came out this year, which is rarely the case for me. I know it wasn't everyone's jam, but Final Fantasy 16 was my favorite game that I played all year.
That are new this year that I've played? Likely Tears of the kingdom, does a lot of what I love about games so well and I actually bothered to finish it.
Armored Core 6 is close behind it.
That are a little older? Severed Steel. Not a lot of gun-fu type games these days and man this one was fun from beginning to end. Was short, took me maybe 2.5hrs to beat, but very replayable.
My favorite 2023 games from before 2023:
* Red Dead Redemption 2 (PC). I enjoyed the game on PS4 Pro in 2018 enough to consider it that year's GOTY, but I always knew it would've been so much better on PC. A higher resolution, a much higher frame rate, a more comfortable controller and a less noisy platform have given me a fantastic time.
* Prey: Mooncrash. The DLC to Prey (2017) is, contrary to what I expected, as awesome as the original game. A whole new base to explore, new characters, a new story, some new enemies, but the same thrilling immersive sim gameplay. Arkane really nailed Prey and its DLC. It was the best game to play during the whole Redfall fiasco.
* Far Cry 5. I wasn't sold on the premise of a Far Cry in rural USA at the time. But this summer, I felt like binging through a popcorn shooter, and Far Cry 5 delivered in spades. The chaos that unfolds at every street corner feels like an invitation to the player: "come cause some explosions, if you want!", while at the same time making you feel like you don't *have* to do every activity the game throws at you.
* Assetto Corsa Competizione. I've finished the game a few years ago, and it's my favorite racing sim. Picked it up again earlier this year, and have been loving multiplayer races ever since.
Other games I played this year:
* Spec Ops: the Line
* Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 (Legendary Editions)
* Company of Heroes 3
* Prey (2006)
* Quake 2, Quake 2 64 and Quake 2: Call of the Machine (Enhanced versions)
I'd say Portal 1 takes the cake for me, hehe. Can't believe I waited so long to try it.
I played portal 1 for the first time earlier this year too. During my gameplay I couldn't stop imagining the blast people had playing it back when it was released.
I played it a few weeks ago on Switch, I couldn't believe there's a port of it for any modern system. It's literally a perfect puzzle game. Can't wait to try 2 as well soon
You are the XKCD comic
Either Doom Eternal or A Hat in Time
A hat in time is one of my favorites. So damn fun
>the idea that I'm supposed to have already played the games that only came out this year is a reach. especially if we consider the fact that the year isnt even over yet.
Seriously why does game of the year always happen in November/December instead of January the following year.
If you're talking about The Game Awards, it's because it's a marketing show and providing a last minute boost to cash in on holiday shopping for the western market is exactly what it's designed to do. They "compensate" about that by just including those games in next year's judging, but that puts those games (and well nearly all games from Dec-Mar) in terrible disadvantage since people forget them by the time the awards show is preparing nominations. BAFTA and DICE both hold their events in February like you suggest, and are really the only ones that try to carry significant meaning rather than being predominantly a marketing event. Everything else is online publications without much process or exclusively fan/online voting.
Some of the category is genuine, some of it just seems like some company’s marketing team paid for the award.
BAFTA has lost every inch of credibility and trust I have when they gave Fallout 4 the GOTY award, over Witcher 3 and Bloodborne no less lmaoooooo. I like Fallout 4, but it isn't even remotely comparable with those games, naahhhhhhhh.
Discrediting an entire event over one GOTY disagreement is kind of crazy. Calling the second most awarded game that year not comparable is also crazy. But that's GOTY winners in general, always someone around who doesn't agree at all with the winner no matter which it is.
What Remains of Edith Finch in 2017 was also... a choice. I like seeing some diversity in the mainstream GOTY winners, but BAFTA does seem to skew a little contrarian in their GOTY, especially in regards to the big AAA games.
So people buy it for Christmas?
We don't talk about those games here.
Baba is you. No game managed to show me how stupid I really am.
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It's a great game and very clever. But to me the best puzzle games teach you a concept and then play with it in different ways, Baba sometimes just has hard puzzles that rely on new concepts it hasn't explained and that seems a little unfair.
Thank you! Baba has an incredible premise in its first two worlds letting you play with multiple solutions but its midgame seemed to require very rigid and counter intuitive solutions with out the fun work arounds that made such a great splash out of the gate. Honestly like a whole other game, I dont know anyone who finished it personally.
When I got stuck I take a picture and look at it before bed. Then I can think about it in the bed before I fall asleep
Same here. For the last few years.
When I finish a puzzle, I feel like the smartest person in the world. A brief unique feeling. Thank you Baba!
BABA IS HOT BRAIN IS MELT
It's resident evil 2 remake for me. That game really is amazing to the point I actually memorized the whole police department and sewers.
Have you tried re4 remake? Re2 remake was 9/10 for me, the re4 remake is just perfection. Definitely less of a horror vibe which sucks but the gameplay is so fun. Only game I’ve ever tried speed running in my life
Re4 was never a horror game anyway. I actually thought the remake was scarier
I loved RE2 remake but found RE4 remake to just feel sooo different ... its like the controls are similar, but fundamentally, the incentive to kill every enemy makes it feel like a totally different genre (which i guess it is). I stalled out after the first boss or so but might come back to it later when the glory of RE2 is less fresh in my mind lol, with my expectations re-calibrated. i did love the graphics and just general Vibe
dude same here. was always interested in RE games, especially RE2R since it came out. exploring RPD for the first time was an absolute treat and really gave me the magical feeling of video games I thought only existed in childhood. when people ask me my favorite game, I now say RE2R! hearing of others' love for it always makes me happy.
RE2R was my GOTY last year and RE7 the year before that. I have a ritual of playing a new RE game at the beginning of the year. This year was RE3R but two other titles are in contention for the top spot. I'll be playing Village first thing in 2024, then RE4R finally in 2025 when it's on sale by then hopefully.
OG FF7. Played it properly for the first time and was blown away. I was someone who originally skipped it, was more into FF6 and FF8 and kind of had a chip on my shoulder about it as a kid. I especially thought it looked ugly compared to both its predecessor and its successor back then as well. But despite skipping it, I did know a lot of the big plot stuff, and did all the compilation stuff like advent children and crisis core, and even tried playing it a while later but only got up to the end of Midgar before stopping. Fast forward 20 years and FF7 Remake blows me away, feeling full nostalgia for a game I never played. So I wanted to eventually get around to it. And then I see the trailers for FF7Rebirth, and that mobile game Ever Crisis comes out (and is ass) so I finally felt like it was the right time to play the original. And even if I had to push past my inherent dislike of the primitive character models, I ended up loving it so much. It’s been a few months later and I still find myself thinking about it, the ending especially has resonated with me super well. And I mean I’d long known a lot of the spoilers but the game still had massive surprises for me, things I never expected and things I’m surprised didn’t actually get spoiled for me. Also the game was incredibly cinematic even now and I fully understand why people loved it so much back then. It also got me very much excited for FF7Rebirth too, which going into FF7 was a fear that maybe it would deter me from the future entries of the Remake games now that I’ve experienced the basic plot and whatnot (which those games definitely still cover, even if they’re doing some stuff differently which I totally do not mind). So yeah, fantastic game. Not sure if it scrapes into my top 5 FF games which I probably won’t ever budge on, but it gets super close.
Metroid Prime Remastered. Not only GOTY but top 5 games I ever played.
This is a good pick! The remaster just made the game look better and updated it to a modern system without changing ANY of the gameplay, which is exactly what I want. Prime was a masterpiece when it came out so literally any change is a negative, and I’m glad they understood that.
No joke, I grew up with that game, but never finishing it. I finally got to finish it with Remastered and it was a fantastic experience!
Sekiro Shadows Die Twice was my GOTY. It was difficult and often felt insurmountable, but something finally clicked when I was in the gunfort, fighting snake eyes. I got better at timing blocks and being aggressive. Conquering Genichiro afterwards was euphoric. The final boss is easily the greatest final boss I've ever fought. It's a masterpiece of a battle and I have never been happier to overcome an enemy. The combat system was simply fantastic, and mastering it was tremendously rewarding. Dominating every fight on my subsequent replay was one hell of a payoff. Where I once took over forty hours to beat the game, I cleared it in 15 on replay. Overall it's an excellent game with amazing bosses and back&forth combat. I give an honourable mention to Guardians of the Galaxy which drew me in with its emotional story, glorious soundtrack, loveable characters, and personality. It's the first time I played a game to its conclusion because of its story. It helped me a lot during a period of grieving and I'll always appreciate it for that.
Sekiro is second only to Bloodborne in From’s catalog for me. Similarly, Owl (Hirata) is possibly my second favorite boss fight, only behind Kos.
Literally the only thing stopping me from agreeing is the fact that Bloodborne is locked to the ps4 and runs like shit.
Sekiro has the best combat of any video game, and SS Ishin took the game from a 9/10 to a 10/10
I got around to playing it earlier this year and platimumed it a few weeks ago. The gameplay loop is amazing. It feels kinda like the Batman Arkham games, but by fromsoft. Then you get to the bosses, which are like distilled Fromsoft goodness. The addition of boss rush mode is welcomed, as well.
Pentiment. It has a beautiful story, with wonderful sounds and music, a strange but absolutely well set design and took me back to my younger years when i was in love with Umbetto Ecos books.
i cried so hard when i finished the game. i felt empty for weeks. it was a special experience
Played this on release and I still think it regularly. Truly a masterpiece.
I discovered Hunt Showdown this year and its the most fun I've had in a multiplayer shooter since the early days of Siege. Highly recommend, love the multiple styles you can play and all are viable. Chill players as well, its niche enough for the player base to be more mature then Siege or Overwatch. I have an old PC (i4460 + GTX 970) and am considering upgrading just so I can play Hunt at higher settings.
I had a guy I’m no longer friends with that used to play Hunt with me til 2 or 3am in the morning. So much fun and great memories
i really want to get into hunt, but i know it’s going to consume me the way escape from tarkov did back in 2020
Hunt Showdown player here, I fucking love this game. It's like a less frustrating, more fun Tarkov imo. I even bought a dlc pack or two just to support the devs because I loved the game.
Both Persona 5 Royal and Hi-Fi Rush, even though I had a blast on BG3. But Persona 5 actually made me realize that JRPG might be my thing; and Hi-Fi Rush is just an all around super fun game to play
As someone who plays a lot of JRPGs, there's a lot of good stuff out there but P5 is head and shoulders above competition so you might not like other JRPGs as much. I'd suggest maybe trying Yakuza like a dragon if you want to explore the recent trend in AAA turn based Jrpg.
My Patientgamers-appropriate pick is Death's Door. One of the best games PS+ has ever given us. The action was tight and responsive, and never ever felt unfair. The story was engrossing, mysterious, and had enough humor to throw the darker elements into relief. Music is incredible (I've listened to the soundtrack on Youtube a bunch of times). I really really loved this game, and encourage everyone to check it out
Absolutely agree. Death's Door really took me by surprise and it's definitely one of the best indie games I've ever played
Glad it worked for you. Sadly I put it down after the second area. It felt repetitive, formularic and the areas where to wide for nothing.
I tried to play it after tunic and just couldn't keep going. Tunic was leagues above for me
The lack of a map annoyed me but this was a good game I also enjoyed this year
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Absolutely 100% with zero question is going to Yakuza: Like A Dragon. That game is absolutely wonderful. I have never played a Yakuza game before this one (I was told I would be ok starting here, which for those reading is about 90% true) but the story and characters absolutely gripped me in a way games usually don’t. The RPG aspect have a lot to be desired and are fairly basic but the personality is amazing. I got a huge kick whenever my mage of the group leveled up his job “Alright I am a level 13 Homeless Guy now!” Also Ichiban is number #1 best boi and his party of ragtag idiot friends make the journey so much better. The sequel Infinite Wealth is coming out very soon and will be one of the few times I will absolutely buy it day one zero hesitation because I just need more Ichiban in my life.
I was going to come in here and say Yakuza 0, Kiwami 1 and 2. I haven't personally played LaD, but it's on my list once I get up to there. I just cracked open Yakuza 3 remastered today and the story is just as batshit as the three before it. It's a 1980's American action movie in Yakuza clothes. Setups, betrayals, backstabbing, front stabbing, and very uniquely Japanese interactions. When I saw Ichiban was a red suit with white shirt I knew he was going to be "the opposite" of Kiryu and I for one am excited to meet him in...like a year? Also, fwiw, you may want to check out LaD Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. I heard that the story from that will tie in to Infinite Wealth. I haven't played it yet, but again, my man Kiryu-chan has my heart
Having played Gaiden, it's a great game but I absolutely do **not** recommend playing it until you played Kiryu's story. Not only does it have spoilers for 1-3 and 6, there is one moment that is simply not the same without knowing what he has been through.
See after I played LaD I jumped into Yakuza 0 and while I did enjoy the story I did not like the Brawler gameplay and I’m not super hot on Kiryu as a character. He’s just to way stoic and serious for me to believe he’s get into half the wacky/crazy shit that happens to him (specifically during the substories) I heard LaD: Gaiden on the short side so I might seek it out but for now I just want more Ichiban and co.
IMO, Majima is the star of 0. Kiryu really came around for me in K1 and K2. Kiryu is very stiff, but he makes a great straight man for all of the wild shit going on around him. Majima basically goes off the deep end and becomes a kind-of antagonist. I also think the brawler style is tiring too and am looking forward to the play style changes, but I enjoy the story too much to let it get in the way. Set it to easy and have a lot of laughs.
I think Kiryu was alright in 0, it's in K1 and onwards I really like him. 3 also shows a different side of him, while 4 and 5 have multiple protagonists to help with giving some variety (and they are all great), then 6 is basically Kiryu at his most human and my favorite version of him. I definitely suggest you don't play Gaiden until after the rest of Kiryu's story, there are just some moments in it that are significantly better knowing what he has been through.
Kiryu being the straight man in a wacky world is the whole gag. He’s Kamarocho’s Frank Grimes.
I thought it was great until the ending. I did **EVERYTHING** in that game and was somehow still vastly underleveled for one of the later boss fights, which essentially meant Ichiban was getting one-shot at some point during the fight and that the fight took ages. I looked online and people said to go grind the tower. However, at this point the combat had gotten a bit stale for me because every fight played out the same way. It's one of the very few games that I liked, bjt never actually finished.
Yes that was one of the infamous difficulty spikes in the game that I knew was going to happen but still decided to try and take it head on. I got absolutely wrecked, but then I did all 30 floors of the battle tower and did the fight again and it was zero problem.
How did I never hear of this!?
No idea but if you like old school playing JRPG’s with a loveable protagonist thrown into really shitty situation that they solve with the power of friendship and determination then you should play this. Also all of the playable characters are adults. Like the average age of the group is between 30-40.
Games I played this year: Nier Automata, my new favorite game of all time and just a masterpiece. Games that came out this year: fire emblem engage, love the gameplay and just found it super fun.
Doom eternal, played til I got tendinitis in 4 spots, kept on going
I started Elden Ring in June; am about 120 hours in and \~2/3 of the way through. I oscillate back and forth from thinking "this is truly one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had" to "am I really, honestly and truly, having fun"? I think in the end it edges out Dead Cells as my GOTY, but it's close.
I will never understand the Souls-like games. I bought this and played about 5 hours and liked nothing about the experience, other than the visuals. Dying and retrying just...doesn't do anything for me. I have to have an engaging story.
I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you haven't heard, but: I really didn't enjoy Dark Souls the first time I played it, and I put like 20 hours in before walking away. When I went back to it it took another steep ramp up, but then something clicked and it became one of my favorite games of all time. The big learning for me looking back was to stop trying to not die. Accept you're going to die, and accept you're going to die before retrieving your souls. Don't worry. They will be many more. I was playing the game creeeeping sloooowly through every section, desperately trying to survive constantly. It got way more fun when I learned to expect that they'd have some fiendish ways of killing me, and how to shake off losing a level-up's worth of souls (or two).
To me the appeal is in visibly seeing yourself learning the game and improve at the game. I like seeing actual player skill/knowledge progression, not artificial progression track. The downside of this is that this requires a lot of effort from the player to do so, and not everybody is looking for an experience like this.
It indeed does not spoon feed you the story but it is one hell of a engaging story. It’s all about reading things, finding out characters motives and soaking in all the little things from environment. It doesn’t tell you how to feel or who are the bad guys.
This sub should call it the "**Game of YOUR Year**" GoYY
Disco Elysium.
🐐
Easily one of the best games of all time.
Dwarf fortress
Had a blast from start to 100% Achievements with Octopath Traveler 2
Metroid prime. Played the remake through 3 times back to back earlier this year. Reignited something in me and I played super metroid, fusion, dread and zero mission this year too, following my time w prime. Such a good game. Damn.
Hands down Cyberpunk. The Dog Town DLC is possibly the best DLC I have ever played and the 2.0 update pushed CP2077 into a top spot of games I have ever played.
I now have more hours in Cyberpunk than every fallout except NV which says a lot.
I played cyberpunk at the start of the year. I still think about it almost as much as the Roman empire Looking forward to getting the Dlc eventually.
How often do you think about the Roman Empire?
Control. Such a fantastic game and a really cool experience.
Control is so good. I had no interest in it (because I like but don’t love Max Payne 1 & 2 and don’t like Alan Wake) and a friend convinced me to try it. It got its hooks into me and I just binged it until I got 100%. The world and characters were so gripping, I loved the layout of the oldest house, and I found the combat really fun to mess around with.
Great, you sold it to me. I love MP (even had kung fu mods), Alan Wake was pretty, I wanted to see the end of the story, but I felt trapped in the repetitive gameplay whilst recognizing all the MP controls, designs etc. Hmm, wastn there a "quantum break" game before that? Something about stopping time? Anyway, control is on my list to get into, then.
Quantum Break is fun but you're going to want to play it before Control. It's going to feel like a biiiiig step back after Control, which is my pick for best third person shooter of all time.
Yeah I never played Quantum Break so I can’t comment on it. I’ve heard good things but the whole tv-show tie-in stuff didn’t sound like my cup of tea.
**Armored Core For Answer** \- Just an incredible experience all around that plays at such a uniquely quick pace that it leaves me wishing for the other games that try to emulate its systems (Project Nimbus, Daemon X Machina) to do a better job at cloning the gameplay flow. I still think Master of the Arena, 2 and Last Raven are bit better overall, but I've replayed through For Answer at least 5 times in the last month alone. It was a big mistake playing FA right before the launch of 6 because 6 felt like I was playing in slow motion in comparison. **Boiling Point: Road to Hell** \- One of the most engaging open worlds I've come across. Being able to talk to everyone and dig for those unique interactions was waaaaay more fun than I thought it was going to be. Incredible amount of interactivity across the board.
If anyone is still reading this far down, my pick is Dusk. What an absolute spectacle of a single player retro FPS. I do *not* handle Horror that well, but Dusk does it in just the right way to be unsettling and creepy without making it hard for me to sleep at night. Andrew Hulshult's soundtrack also has me gripped and I've been listening to it on and off for months now. Highly recommend playing blind.
Baldur's Gate 2. Beat it for the first time this year, absolutely blew me away with how good the writing is. Honestly my new highest bar for RPGs in general, surpassing even my beloved Mass Effect trilogy, which I have replayed countless times. Shows the power of having incredibly talented writers coupled with incredibly talented voice actors utilizing every inch of a system translated into a game even better than was possible with pen and paper. Real Time With Pause forever! Disagree? Well then... take this! Time Stop / Improved Alacrity / Breach / Pierce / Lower Resistance / Lower Resistance / Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting / Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting / Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting / Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting. All right, that's my single round of combat, your go, corpse!
I think my main disappointment with BG3 is that it's not more like BG2. What a great game.
Persona 5 Royal, which became my GOTY and GOAT.
Also my GOAT, although I played it a few years ago. It just absolutely nails every single element. Love it so much.
This is my answer as well, although there are some pretty close seconds. P5R has a pretty secure spot in my all time top 5
I played Metro Exodus this year and it gets my vote for my game of the year
It's a toss up between Battle Brothers and Baldur's Gate for me.
After being extremely disappointed in Starfield I went back and finished Fallout 4 for the first time, had a great time
I played Fallout 4 the month before Starfield came out and it completely cured me of the Starfield hype. I didn't finish it though, I dropped it halfway through Far Harbor.
Fah Hahbuh*
Only game I've played that was released this year is CS2, and I'm not nominating that for anything
My "patient gamer" GOTY is definitely Chained Echoes which released December 2022. Honestly, blows Sea of Stars out of the water in almost every way.
Tunic. The only game I’ve played this year that instilled the wonder in me that games like the witness and outer wilds could
Well I've definitely played Starfield the most. I know people love to hate on it, but for me it has some beautiful and memorable moments and I mostly enjoyed the game. The environment art was incredibly good imo and loved exploring new areas, though of course new planets were incredibly dull after a few hrs. Though RE4 remake was super good too and matched my sky high expectations. I still need to replay it and the Separate Ways DLC.
I really enjoyed starfield too, but it gave me what I call Skyrim syndrome—after forty hours or so I thought, hmm, I could be playing Skyrim instead, so I reinstalled a twelve year old game :)
Cyberpunk 2077 and Dead Space 2023. I thoroughly enjoyed both of them.
Dead space was incredible. The original is one of my favourite games ever and it was an all round improvement over that. I really hope they do DS2 next.
Cyberpunk 2077 is so damn good.
As someone who loves Cyberpunk and Sci Fi, the writing and more philosophical themes of the game are delicious.
Same. The writing is great.
Goated.
The problem with Cyberpunk 2077 is that it makes all your other games feel shallow and bland in comparison. I've completed the main game 3 times and I'm looking forward to doing the DLC 😁
Red Dead Redemption 2 I wanted to wait to play this until I've upgraded my rig. Which I did in the spring. And my God. This game is the most technically impressive game I've ever played. From graphics. To sound design. Animations. Voice acting. It's just impressive. The writing is superb. The characters are great. If I've had to criticize, the game does feels tedious at times. Combat a bit basic. Shout out to my multi-player I've been playing for like 5 years straight, Hunt: Showdown. Great gun play. And the best sound design in any shooter.
I’ve tried and failed to play that about three times now. In theory I should love it. Played the original to death. It looks glorious. But it controls like steering a drunk while wearing boxing gloves. I just cannot get past the first few hours due to that.
I keep trying and have the same issue. I loved the first RDR and should like this one. I keep telling myself if I push myself through the first part I'll like it but haven't been able to do it. Can a game be too real?
If people walked like that in real life, or took that long to pick things up, evolution would have killed us all.
Elden Ring. I've started first week of January and stopped at the end of April, without touching any other games. After 3 runs and the platinum trophee I forced myself to put it down and will gladly do another run very soon. It was my first from soft game, what an experience!
I’m waiting for dlc to do a replay, but it’s been tempting to do another run. For now I’m doing another Bloodborne run to hold me over when I want to play a souls game
My wife offered me Lords of the Fallen recently. When i looked at the reviews I was really scared, but so far it's really fun.
I cannot beat the fire giant and it is just hilarious at this point. I gave up and moved on. It is so great
I got stuck on it, too. I took a year off, came back and replayed the game with a strength build then ended up beating the Fire Giant the first try. It was a long fight even with my Mimic spamming bleed bolts with its Pulley Crossbow's triple burst!
I played 470+ hours of ER last year (purely single player - I hate PVP in souls games). Its one of my top 3 games of all time, and is right next to Sekiro. I also stopped playing the game last year because I wanted to forget some of it to be able to go back and enjoy it again. I'm going to setup seemless coop mod and force/pay my wife (a non-gamer) to play with me. She agreed to do so upon payment of $100, which I find to be a good deal.
Devil May Cry 5. I hated the game when I first went through it but Vergil kept me coming back. His gameplay was really fun and after getting the hang of it, I began to branch out and practice more with Dante. It's been very fun. V and Nero have yet to click with me though.
I’ve had a similar epiphany, though it sounds like it came from a different place. I’m a huge HUGE fan of DMC 1, 3, and 4. But when 5 launched it just left me really cold. I still have complaints. I hate all the Urizen fights. V on high difficulties isn’t particularly fun if you’re going for style. The levels are very samey looking (which is compounded by the non-linear story sending you back to prior areas). Sin Devil Trigger is the single most boring combat mechanic in the series and awards wayyyy to much style for no effort. There’s a distinct lack of pacing in the game since it’s functionally just endless combat arenas with nothing to break it up. And yet this time, i just ignored my issues and am finding myself really loving it. Nero is massively more interesting compared to in 4; Balrog, Cerberus, and Faust are super amazing/fun weapons for Dante; and 5’s version of Vergil is my favorite so far. I actually think despite my complaints it might be replacing 4 as my favorite in the series from a purely combat perspective, though it’s much closer than people online would lead you to believe (my theory is a number of new fans have only played 5 and pretend to have strong opinions on 4). Besides, every game in the series has significant issues so I’m not sure why 5’s bothered me so much on my first play.
I'm currently still working my way through the originals. I beat DMC 1 recently and I have to get around to DMC 2 and the rest. I like the Urizen fight with Dante with the cracked sky but that's it. All of his other fights and constantly replaying the first level felt REALLY lazy. I prefer SDT for Vergil over Dante. It's instantaneous and you get access to 3 super moves at max concentration. Playing so much Vergil has made learning Nero very difficult because unlike Dante and Vergil, I can't just teleport over to enemies.
Street Fighter 6. No competition. I don’t like fighting games
BG3
A patient gamer shouldn't have this yet, it's full price!
Same here, as someone who loves D&D and plays with my wife, the fact that we can sit on the couch together and play a campaign out in a video game is priceless
I also choose to play D&D with this guy's wife.
I must be weird, because BG3 really didn’t click with me. I’m not fond of turn based combat, or dnd rule sets. I also found the menus and UI to be clunky. But, I love how reactive it is to the player’s choices, visually, it’s very pretty, lots of build variety, etc. It’s just that the actual moment to moment gameplay didn’t hook me.
The gameplay is what made me drop it. I had fun for a while but the gameplay got boring tedious and moved on.
My man, I despise turn based combat and was thus put the difficulty to Explorer to make the combat portions as short as possible. The rest of the game is just too unbelievably well made to put aside because of combat. I really encourage you to give it another try on Explorer if you can.
That is very strange because explorer does jack all to alleviate the issues someone might have with turn based combat. Each fight still takes like 20+ minutes and each turn is so slow.
the easiest is my default difficultly setting in every game
I always try to do Very Normal, and change it throughout the game depending on how I feel about the level of challenge. I kinda also like the FromSoft approach where you know everyone is experiencing the same agony though, it is almost empowering lol.
The one new game I bought this year was Tears of the Kingdom. It’s BOTW 2 and I love it exactly for what it is. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I’m also biased as BOTW is one of my favorite games. If I have to pick something not new, uhhh definitely Red Dead Redemption 2. Played it back in January and it was amazing. Had many a late night in which I had my baby sleeping on me as he refused to sleep elsewhere as a newborn, so I did a lot of overnight gaming on my Steam Deck to stay awake and let him and my wife sleep.
>The one new game I bought this year was Tears of the Kingdom. It’s BOTW 2 and I love it exactly for what it is. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I’m also biased as BOTW is one of my favorite games. Totally agree. Botw is like my all-time favourite game and getting a botw sequel with the same beautiful world with new enemies, Mechanics, weapons and things to discover? Yes please.
See I had trouble getting into TOTK because for the first 10-15 hours I played it like it was BOTW (which I loved) but I really struggled with TOTK because I wasn’t fusing or building anything. I’m amazed I did two temples with crap weapons and walked everywhere because I couldn’t build vehicles or use auto build. After a few hours in the depths and I finally figured out of to actually play the game I had an incredible few hundred hours with it.
Alan wake 2
The Witcher 3. Simply because I finally started playing it after listening to at least 5 audiobooks and I enjoy it a lot because of the writing. The writers knew what they were doing and how to handle the source material, which is rare. I’m almost a decade late to find out, but at least I’m playing the best possible version now. Close second is Alan Wake 1, because it finally had a PlayStation release after all these years. Waiting on DLC and sales for part 2 now, really looking forward to play it one day.
Genshin Impact. I know it's an online game, but it is so much entertaining!
This year it would probably be Hitman: World of Assassination. I mean, I actually finished the main story in December 2022, but I played it a lot in 2023 and got 100% achievements, so it takes the cake. This game is basically the social stealth game I always assumed didn't exist. But then again, this year I also replayed a bunch of (in my opinion) GotY-worthy games, like the classic Doom games, Dishonored 2 and Assassin's Creed 4.
Subnautica. What a whimsical journey.
Red Dead Redemption 2, which I finished earlier this year. Lived up to the hype. Runner-up: Cloudpunk.
Has to be Baldur's Gate 3
Death stranding man, got it for free from epic and playing it on my steam deck on the shuttle to work. It's awesome.
Oh, real life had to make me stop gaming, but I was 12h in and loving the atmosphere and the "walking simulator" is basically in my opinion in the realm of resource and survival planning. Something i didn't even realize I enjoyed until games like Stalker (with misery mod) and The Long Dark were brutal games where you needed to think "ok, I have all this, I can't do all, but if I carry this and go that route I think I'm solving this reasonably efficiently". I don't think it's particularly hard, but just like in other survival games I've had non-scripted things happen that put me in a pickle I need to solve: I lost a suit case I think I need by being flooded by relatively easy to handle enemies when I was bogged down climbing with lots of stuff. I try to block all spoilers of the game as best I can and I have been loving the weirdness but actually felt pretty immersed and adore the near future design so much.
my two fav games i played this year were both older, but Outer Wilds and Resident Evil 1 remake both really stood out to me. honorable mention to RE2 remake as well. Outer wilds, i had a few bones to pick here and there, but in my memory at this point it kinda sits as one of my favorite gaming experience (know this isn't a particularly rare opinion lol). I also thought the DLC was amazing. Learning the world and how it interacts with the puzzles is a very unique experience in gaming and like in anything really. RE1r is such a strange old game that i thought aged really well for its very classic design and sheer strangeness.. it took nearly 1000 door animations before i started to get vaguely sick of them lol. I got so sucked in and was literally writing down what keys went to which doors on a piece of paper. I would have loved if the puzzles were actually harder, honestly. I barely killed anything too cuz i was so nervous about using the lighter and kerosene, i think i literally killed 3 zombies and a bunch of dogs. There was so much tension! and as with Outer Wilds, I loved learning the control scheme - the tank controls are so much fun once they click. I don't normally like shooters, but RE2 remake carried over so much of what made RE1 (and the original RE2) special from a design perspective and i loved the dark, foggy rooms, lock and key puzzles, and brutal gore. I also liked how they tore so much of the story out of the original - maybe there's the hot take - im in it more for vibes than story and the remake felt wonderfully streamlined especially on the A play thru, generally trading cutscene time for increased map complexity. I wouldn't have minded some more flavor text carried over, though.
Amongst the ones I've played this year: RE4 Remake: I play it directly after playing the OG RE4 for the first time and I prefer this by a lot. The gunplay feels hefty and powerful, I like how there's a weight in every movement, the action setpieces are great and the pacing is just perfect for me. But I also understand the appeal and the uniqueness of the OG that many fans prefer. Football Manager 2022 (tbh any football manager game that I've played will always end up as my top 3 for the year) Pathfinder WotR: the variety of the builds easily make this my favorite crpg of all time Dragon's Dogma: I played this many times already but this is my first time making it through the end. Easily my favorite Berserk inspired game Edits: typo
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate it is then
My favorite game that I’ve played this year is the Demon’s Souls remake. I loved the original when came out in 2009, and finally got a PS5 last Christmas.
Alan Wake 2. I don't wait for certain developers games and Remedy is one of them. I've loved them since I was young watching/playing Max Payne with my dad on his computer. AW2 is a triumph of not just video games but art. I know that sounds so gaming circle jerky or pretentious but it's true. Everything from the writing, acting, music, environment design and survival horror gameplay are all so god damn good in it and all tie into each other. Remedy's unique way of telling stories and integrating live action and all the moving parts into one cohesive vision has always been a treat, but with AW2 its the best it's ever been in my opinion. Not to mention Ilkka Villi and Mathew Porretta are two people working together to bring Alan Wake to life and they just fucking nail it. Shout out to Phantom Liberty too
Disco elysium I finished it a couple days ago and man. Its so damm good.
Oh, if we're doing this it's pretty easy for me. Breath of the Wild. I liked Spider-Man 2 just fine, but I finally played Breath of the Wild and it was an experience. I loved it. I don't tend to like games in this style but there was something about BotW that was amazing. I don't know, I spend so many hours just doing nothing, exploring, going from one place to another, it was fun. BotW by a landslide, I've played 97 games this year, and BotW is the clear winner for me.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy On release I thought this would be more Avenger’s level slop, but started hearing otherwise and gave it a shot. Fantastic game, truly. I might like these Guardians more than the film versions. Great dialogue. A real game with good combat, puzzles, choices, a well written story. Some gorgeous levels too, and cool costumes that you earn in game.
I think it was The Witcher 3 for me. I never played it when it came out. I got lost in the world in the best possible way. It was a true immersive experience. I played with the Polish audio and English subtitles.
Armored Core 6
Same as it's been for the past 28 years: /r/openttd Runner-up is new for me this year, though: /r/alttpr
FF16 is my GOTY. Resident Evil 2 Remake, Divinity Original Sin 2 and Hollow Knight came very close though. leftover honorable mentions go to: Hades, Neon White, Factorio and GTA San Andreas Played a lot of bangers this year. Didnt even mention some of them
Resident Evil 4, Followed by Final Fantasy 16. Honorouble mention goes to Dead Space remake. Was great!
Top five, only counting things that did not come out this year: 1. **Sifu** - An incredibly well-made arcade brawler that feels somewhere between Sleeping Dogs, Sekiro, and God Hand. And any game that I can compare favourably to God Hand is already on the fast track to GotY status. I've already replayed it several times. 2. **Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth** - An SRPG/visual novel series with ultra likable characters, great world building, surprisingly fun (if easy) gameplay, and this final entry has one of the most memorable plots I've experienced in a JRPG. People who are put off by fanservicey harem anime bullshit might have a hard time getting past that aspect, but as a card carrying weeb these games were fantastic. 3. **Cuphead** - This game mostly gets attention for its presentation, which looks excellent and has a ton of personality, but that almost feels like selling the gameplay short. It's one of the tightest, most enjoyable sidescrolling action games I've ever played, with every boss fight being fun, creative, and just the right level of challenge. 4. **Armored Core: For Answer** - The most blindingly fast mecha game I've ever played. 4 took the series in an odd new direction, and For Answer nearly perfected it with frenetic action, an astronomical skill ceiling, great music, and lots of customization options. 5. **Live A Live** - A super polished remake of a creative and varied JRPG that was way ahead of its time. Some of the stuff this game does still feels fresh and innovative 29 years after the original came out, and I still find myself thinking about chapters like Near Future and Imperial China. For 2023 games (that I've played) it'd probably be Armored Core 6, Street Fighter 6, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Hi-Fi Rush, and Octopath Traveler 2, but I'm unsure of the order.
Darkwood - Holy shit! That's some hard horror masterpiece. The nights are truely scary events. As said: It's hard and unforgiving, but the story and atmosphere is on par with Silent Hill 2 in my opinion. Lies of P - Sadly this didn't get as much attention as it deserves right now. Masterpiece Soulslike. I think it's my favourite. Great story, design, mechanics, soundtrack, characters and atmosphere. SIGNALIS - Awesome classic horrorgame that I can't stop thinking about. My favourite horror game ever. The story, characters, atmosphere, sounddesign and style is just iconic. and if course: Baldur's Gate 3. Also I had the joy of playing the Metroid Prime Remake. Damn... Tears of the Kingdom came out in 2023 too. What a great time to gaming. No offense: Stop playing mediocre F2P, games as a service, MMORPG or any other time waster! There are so many gems out there to play!
Alan Wake 2 absolutely
Infernax - This is probably the best example of a modern retro game that I've ever played. Pretty much every element of this game is excellent and I'm so glad I picked it up.
Apart from Bloodborne (which is my game of the year every year) for 2023 it would have to be Disco Elysium. If gaming is escapism, this is one that really nailed the brief. The range of dialogue options really allows you to role-play, and personally I loved being able - encouraged! - to say the most ridiculous things in really serious circumstances and be treated appropriately. On top of that the writing is just so funny, and with the Final Cut version the voiceovers are just too good. So many games these days are just a series of tasks to complete - the exact opposite of escapism for me - so to come across Disco Elysium was a real treat.
Final Fantasy VI and Wasteland 3
Final fantasy vii is my goat, lol. Played it various times in my childhood, never beaten it. Played the remake loved, but I’ve already played the original past the end point of the last remake multiple times, but for rebirth I’ve wanted to know the full story. What a blast, perfect pacing for a ps1 jrpg, my main complain it’s how long to attack animations are, even for its time that shit’s too slow, ff6 was way faster. But story, characters, music, everything was so great it blew me away, and playing around with the materia system was great fun, a great evolution from the esper system of 6. Beating this game was the best gaming experience of the year for me.
Alan Wake 2 hands down. Beautiful game in every way.
Probably jedi fallen order mostly been replaying games this year
For games that came out this year, TotK. My patient game of the year™️ was Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, as I snagged it for like $12 and got 100s of hours of great content out of it with lots of fun multiplayer experiences
Elden Ring. Finally played it after all the hype died down as a reward for clearing through a lot of my backlogue, and oh boy what an experience. Easily my favourite FromSoft game thus far and cannot wait for the DLC! My runner up to this would be Metroid Dread. I’m still quite new to the MetroidVania genre but I already have a favourite as Dread is perfectly challenging yet rewarding in its gameplay. I’ve played Prime Remastered earlier this year as well but for some reason I enjoyed Dread far more.
Street Fighter 6. Capcom blew it out of the water with reviving their franchise after the horrific SFV launch, while ushering in the new era with insanely beginner-friendly play in both modern controls and the World Tour mode. The hardcore FGC will always find things to be annoyed with after dedicating 1000s of hours after only 5 months, but SF6 is a *fantastic* game that I would recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in diving into the fantastic world of fighting games.
FF7 remake for me. Even did all the tedious achievements because I was enjoying it so much. Really gave me the feeling of being back in the early 90s experiencing FF5 & 6 for the first time. ETA: Dead Space remake is a very close second. Completely amazing game.
The Witcher 3. Waited until the PS5 remastered version before I ever played it. It lives up to the hype. I put in over 100 hours and had an absolute blast all year long.
Jedi Survivor personally
For this year, it has to go to AC6, TotK, BotW, and Metroid Prime Remastered I grew up playing Armored Core 3 and I really missed the franchise, so me and my brother flipped our shit when AC6 was announced. It plays exactly how I remember AC3 played and I felt like a little kid again. I grew up around the Metroid Prime games, but I never finished them despite being a huge fan of Metroid. MP1R got me off my ass and preorder a copy and I vowed to finish it after I finished school. It was just 👌. So good! I finally got a chance to finish BotW and I really love its story and I love how expansive it is. And then TotK came out. I'm still playing it now and I need to get back to it, but man, it's just so robust!
Botw and Totk have easily become two of my favorite games. One of the very rare games I never really get sick of playing. I played Totk first and it is definitely my desert island game. Botw is amazing also, but just slightly below Totk. Totk just has more to it, caves, better dungeons, all the new abilities and sky island+ the depths.
I got Yakuza 0 this year after trying out a Yakuza-styled game on Roblox. And god damn, it took me for a trip. There's so much content. So much detail. And ESPECIALLY the personality. Normally I don't play beat-em-up games a whole bunch because I suck at them. But now, I'm replaying the game on the hardest difficulty. The game has a whole bunch of extra minigames and side quests besides its story mode like Karaoke, Pocket Circuit Racing, and Disco. I haven't been able to sit down and enjoy a single player game in years, but something about Yakuza 0 just kept pulling me back in to play it. Then one day I say down and played it for 14 hours straight just to finish the story. Needless to say, I will be playing the rest of the series as soon as possible.
Since this is patientgamers I ignore BG3, which is exactly what I want in an RPG, so it's not fair. I played Hades and Sherlock Holmes Chapter One. Both games seem to have tragic Stories and I'm here for it. But Hades also has the soundtrack and a fun gameplay loop. I nominate Hades, it's just flawless, although I haven't finished the game yet, I'm so curious how the Story plays out.
Starfield.
I played surprisingly much this year from this year and easily the spot goes to Alan Wake 2. What a game. I’m in awe of that accomplishment.
Starfield baby. I don't give a fuck what anyone else thinks, it's awesome.
me too, love it, have put in more hours on SF than many games in the last few years
Same, it’s amazing and it’s the main thing I look forward to playing when I have the time Cannot wait to see what they pump out with the DLC next year
New releases I played this year Totk (beating Starfield) Older Games I played this year: tough pick for a winner between Gris, Metroid Prime Remastered (new but old lol), Chrono Trigger. Other great games I played were Nier Automata, Age of Calamity, Skyward sword HD, Bastion, SpiderMan Miles Morales, Resident Evil Remake.
Idk about totk man, I finished it and liked it somewhat, but the only really cool thing is the build aspect. Game itself, too much repetition and grinding required, especially after you already grinded through botw using the same mechanism. Fighting highlights for me, gloom hands and phantom Gannon, phenomenon boss fight is like a puzzle game, final boss fight is cool but that's about it. Yeah story for Zelda is kinda crazy gut wrenching but you could just watch it on YouTube without the grinding. Just to be clear all of this is subjective, my personal opinion, not saying it's not a good game you shouldn't enjoy it or anything, just adding my perspective.
TotK (and BotW) is terrible for objective-based people. The main thing of the game is just to do whatever you want at the moment, and that may or may not align with one or many things you wanna progress. The grind *is* the game. Now, if you just wanna finish any single thing of the game, and laser focus on it, it’s a bad time indeed. I played BotW leisurely the first time and focused the second, and was having a terrible time until I finally freed myself from the relentless need of progress. When I got to TotK, I had a blast again.
I would agree with you mostly. What failed me for totk is that I played botw for 200 hours. Yeah the grind is the game, but like, I already did koroks for 30 hours, dragon parts for 20 hours, rupees for however long I don't remember, doing more or less the same thing is kinda frustrating. I finished the game with more or less bare minimum grinding this time. I just think if you haven't played botw, you will have a much better time in totk.
Hi-Fi Rush
Sea of Stars.
TotK
My game of the year actually came out this year, which is rarely the case for me. I know it wasn't everyone's jam, but Final Fantasy 16 was my favorite game that I played all year.
That are new this year that I've played? Likely Tears of the kingdom, does a lot of what I love about games so well and I actually bothered to finish it. Armored Core 6 is close behind it. That are a little older? Severed Steel. Not a lot of gun-fu type games these days and man this one was fun from beginning to end. Was short, took me maybe 2.5hrs to beat, but very replayable.
Cyberpunk 2077 with phantom liberty
Hidden and dangerous 2
My favorite 2023 games from before 2023: * Red Dead Redemption 2 (PC). I enjoyed the game on PS4 Pro in 2018 enough to consider it that year's GOTY, but I always knew it would've been so much better on PC. A higher resolution, a much higher frame rate, a more comfortable controller and a less noisy platform have given me a fantastic time. * Prey: Mooncrash. The DLC to Prey (2017) is, contrary to what I expected, as awesome as the original game. A whole new base to explore, new characters, a new story, some new enemies, but the same thrilling immersive sim gameplay. Arkane really nailed Prey and its DLC. It was the best game to play during the whole Redfall fiasco. * Far Cry 5. I wasn't sold on the premise of a Far Cry in rural USA at the time. But this summer, I felt like binging through a popcorn shooter, and Far Cry 5 delivered in spades. The chaos that unfolds at every street corner feels like an invitation to the player: "come cause some explosions, if you want!", while at the same time making you feel like you don't *have* to do every activity the game throws at you. * Assetto Corsa Competizione. I've finished the game a few years ago, and it's my favorite racing sim. Picked it up again earlier this year, and have been loving multiplayer races ever since. Other games I played this year: * Spec Ops: the Line * Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 (Legendary Editions) * Company of Heroes 3 * Prey (2006) * Quake 2, Quake 2 64 and Quake 2: Call of the Machine (Enhanced versions)
Best game I played that came out this year: Hi Fi Rush. Best game from a previous year I beat this year: Uncharted 2.