Every year ends up the same really, people wrap up their lives into handy little blogposts – like presents, under a WordPress tree – for you to pick at and disagree with. So why break from tradition? As per normal, these are games I played this year, not necessarily games that came out this year. If you want to know why, well then you clearly don’t listen to my podcast! If you consider yourself more cultured and would like to read my explanation, then my Games of the Year 2021 post explains the state of play.
Now, I always wonder in which order to go about this because in essence, it’s just one big list. And most people (read: fans) will scroll the bottom rights away to see my Game of the Year, just to get the jump on downloading it while they peruse the rest of my list. Or I could order it the same way we do it on the podcast, but then I split the fan base between readers and listeners, and we can’t have that, now can we? My word, so much deliberation for a game of the year list!
I will begin by saying that 2023 was probably one of the best years for games since forever. More fantastic games came out than you could shake a stick at. I mean, Game Pass alone added over $9,000 worth of games in 2023! It makes me worried (read: excited) when Xbox studios – all 35 of them – get into their cadence and we’re met with 4 or 5 triple A games a year, in addition to all the other bangers they put out. Truely, this is a fantastic first world problem to have and I am glad that Baby J is going to grow up having access to more games than I ever played in all my ~20 years of gaming…
So, without further ado, here are my personal GotY picks for 2023.
The Game of the Year 2023
Bucking the trend and leading with the best one! What a bold move Cotton, let’s see how it pays off!
Resident Evil 2 Remaster / Remake
Resident Evil has been rebuilt for the modern audience with all the new we’ve come to love and expect, but while playing this game, I was transported back to 1998 or 1999, playing on my friend’s PS1, or the Video Store’s PS2 rental.
Everything about this game has been done with love and respect for the original and it shows. Even the way you have to watch your bullets, because now you’re surrounded by zombie dogs, and you spent all your bullets in that last boss fight, and oh dear, it’s time to run, or reload the last save. The game is as unforgiving as the original and I love that. In an age with quick saves and enemies dropping ammo like no tomorrow, it’s good to see a new game hang onto what some would call an outdated game mechanic.
The graphics are amazing, the controls fantastic and it’s just as scary as the first time. RE2 was so good, I then bought Resident Evil 3 Remake, Resident Evil 7 and I have Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6 Remakes on my wish list. Capcom have done a stunning job with this game and given me hope that remakes don’t have to be The Lion King 2021. These remakes have certainly come back from the dead! It also helped that it got a Series X update in 2021 that added ray tracing and 120Hz support…
The Runner Ups
These games came so close to being my GotY 2023, that you may as well give them that trophy as well.
Starfield
Bethesda’s newest IP in like 25 years, and it doesn’t disappoint – if you’re a space nerd and Bethesda fan that is. A game that has Bethesda written all over it, but in the best way possible. And they have taken the fact that real life exists as a direct insult here. It’s shown in the way the spacesuits and the guns are designed. You won’t find traditionally pretty armour or weapons here, but you will find a fantastic atheistic called NASA-punk. And it’s wonderful.
This game is deep! You can build your ship, you can build your base, you can build your armour and weapons, you can even create your own food. Add to the fact that the backdrop is a section of the milky way with over 1,000 planets, and you have a game that will keep digital explorers busy for many a year.
We wanted Skyrim in space, we got that and much more. Starfield is a testament to what a company can do when given enough time and enough space (ha ha – get it?) to work their magic. Not to say it’s perfect – it still has all the Bethesda on it – like doors that take you to a loading screen and the weird zoom-in-to-my-face-when-I’m-speaking-to-you thing, but overlook those and you’ll find me playing this game for years to come. I mean some people already have 800+ hours in it already.
No Mans Sky
Is it really a Kyle’s Game of the Year list without No Man’s Sky? In fact, I suspect that until Hello Games actually shut the servers down, you’ll be looking at this yearly staple of space sim gushing.
We all know the story – released in 2016 to rather lacklustre reviews, Hello Games has taken every single criticism thrown their way – fairly or unfairly – and run with it. And this year was no different. Two content expansions this year alone, in addition to all the patches and quality of life updates have kept this game super fresh and exciting.
I spent many hours in this game while waiting for Starfield, and if it wasn’t for Bethesda’s entry into the space sim series, I suspect my time with NMS would not have been cut short at all. I can’t say enough good things about this game, so I won’t. I’ll just tell you to play it. Because it’s great and wonderful and impressive and totally worth your time!
Hello Games, you have turned me into a lifelong fan for sure.
Hi-Fi Rush
Shadow dropped at the beginning of this year; this game shows just how much creative control game studios under the Xbox umbrella retain. After all, this came from a studio known for doing The Evil Within series. A series that happens to be some of the best in the horror genre (according to fans slash critics slash masochists). But Hi-Fi Rush is as far from a horror game as one can be.
Bright colours, cell shaded art style, and everything timed to the music makes this a super fun and engaging rhythm action game. The premise is simple – evil corp wants to do evil things. Our hero signs up for an experiment and gets his iPod embedded in his chest. Suddenly he can control the beat, or music or something. Also, his arm becomes a guitar to smash people of the head with. Que the action and the fantastic puns!
Everything in this game happens to the beat – attacks, blocks, counterattacks, jumps. And the soundtrack is 100% original – created just for this game! If this game came from anywhere other than Xbox Studios, it would have been put up in lights as one of the best games in 2023. But we all know how the game industry works, and who pays for the reviews, so sadly it has been quite overlooked in most places.
Quake II
Yet another Bethesda studio and their shadow drops! Quake II appeared with 4K textures, updated multiplayer, remastered sound and immediately catapulted everyone back into 1998.
Without a doubt, one of the best game soundtracks ever created lives on, thanks to this remaster, and shows yet again the benefits of being under the Xbox umbrella.
If you have never played Quake II, now is your chance. Let me know – I’ll join and we can run through the levels together!
Atomic Heart
Do you like Bioshock and wish there were more? Do you like alternative history and wonder what life would have been like if Russia discovered nuclear fusion (or something)? Well wonder no more!
Atomic Heart is here to show exactly what would happen! Robots coming to life and killing everyone is what. Spoiler alert. I suppose it’s trying to warn us about the dangers of A.I. or sexy robots, or maybe even if Russians invented sexy A.I. robots, but all you need to know is that this game has a level of jank that is lovely to play. It reminds you of a time when games were simpler and not perfect and not high budget explosionfests. But the game itself is still fun and exciting.
Gorgeous graphics, amazing alternative history, Bioshock-like – Atomic Heart is a fun, yet janky, take on the Bioshock genre. I don’t know what else to call games that are like Bioshock, because, and let’s be honest, there is nothing quite like Bioshock… And Bioshock Infinite is probably one of the best games ever made (fight me)!
Dyson Sphere Program
Another year that this game finds itself on my list, and for much the same reason it was on my list last year. While trying to cure myself of my Satisfactory addiction, I was then asked by work to go visit a real-life factory. There I learnt a bunch of factory science I immediately wanted to apply to Satisfactory. But being the responsible adult that I am, I decided to use my newfound knowledge in DSP instead.
And well. that was enough for me to add around 80 or so hours to my playtime this year alone. So, it must either be very good, or I may have a problem… Anyways, this is a great game if Factorio is getting stale and you want something same same but different.
As of writing this blog post, the developers have just added base defence elements and enemies to the game… So, it may be time to restart my playthrough? Another 80 hours, here we come!
Satisfactory
Remember how I mentioned my Satisfactory addiction? Well, I might have asked for a day to play Satisfactory for my birthday, back in October, and well…
Fred got right down to it – setting up a server in the cloud so all the progress we made was not on anyone’s computer. Then we all got together one Saturday for a good ole fashioned LAN party and spent about 16 hours playing Satisfactory. The goal was to rush to Nuclear power, but we never got there.
What we did get is a crippling addition to playing before and after work for the next month or so. The server playtime only counts up when people are in the server and doing things, but the benefit is that the game world never sleeps, so we can build a factory and have it produce stuff while we’re asleep. As of today, the server playtime is sitting on 106 hours… That’s how much time we have collectively put into this game since one fateful weekend in November.
And we’re not even done yet! We’re so close to nuclear power that we can’t stop now. We have to keep going! Fred – keep that server up boi – I am logging in now!
The Worst
Yes, I do play some terrible games. Normally, this only happens in April, thanks to the April Achievement Challenge. But this year, the winner of the worst is an exception to the rule. You see, the podcast ran a new event called Patron Puzzling Picks. The idea was simple – our Patron’s pick a game for us to play single player, and multiplayer, and then they do a Secret Santa with the games and pick games for each other.
This year, they chose to pick a terrible multiplayer game for us. Drumroll for the worst please….
ExoPrimal
My word. What a load of absolute tosh. You’d think a game about using mechs or iron man suits to fight hordes of dinosaurs would be fun. And in theory, it should be right? I mean, you’re Iron Man, with big guns, and thousands of dinosaurs all fall out the sky and attack you. It should be fun, it should be exciting, it should be stupid action, turn brain off, shoot big gun.
And it is all that. Minus the fun part. This game is what happens when its designed by committee. You have to have a battle pass. You have to have a PVP element. You have to have a story with voice acting. You have to have to a grind, so people spend money on the battle pass. You have to do what game A is doing, and what game B is doing, and then add some form of live service to the game. You have to, you have to, you have to.
But whatever you do, do not make it fun. We can’t have our players having a good time, now can we?
But to be fair, the most fun we had in this game was laughing at the stupid, bonkers, and idiotic decisions this game takes at every chance. If I put any money towards this game, I would be demanding a refund.
The Bad-But-Not-As-Bad
Because not all games can be ExoPrimal, but some sure are trying. These games are bad for other reasons.
Fatum Betula
Do not play this game. it’s not worth the 1000G gamer score. It’s terrible, its bad, it’s downright a waste of time. And it doesn’t help that looks straight out the early 90s…
The reason this game is here is a way to show just how bad ExoPrimal is. No other reason. Seriously, look up a walkthrough of this game. It’s about 10 minutes from start to finish.
See what I had to suffer through during April. And shed some sympathy tears for me…
Looking Ahead
This is a new category for my blog. And it’s because this year i am super excited for one game in particular. If you recall – last year, Persona 5 made it into my Great List, and now this is a new IP, made by the same people, and stylized very similarly to Persona 5, but built from the group up to take advantage of the Xbox Series X!
Presenting…
Metaphor: ReFantazio
I have such a soft spot for JRPG’s. And I love the ones that are absolutely insane, where you have no idea what’s going on until the credits roll. And even then, you aren’t sure… All I know is that it’s made by the same people who did the Persona series, so it’s going to be off the wall in the best way possible.
And taking advantage of the new hardware, it means it will look fantastic too! I love how stylised the menus are for example!
Wrap Up
This was an odd year of gaming. I added 1/3rd to my total Gamer Score and then I also stopped playing entirely when I welcomed my firstborn into the world. So, it’s both the most i have played and the least! I got back into Satisfactory with friends, I learnt about factories in real life, I explored space and found myself back in the late 90s more often than I expected.
Next year I have a different gaming goal. What that is, well, you’ll just have to wait to find out…
(And for those that care – here are my Xbox stats for 2023 too)
