My Favorite Games of 2023.
Hi. Hello. Thanks ever so much for clicking on this page. Happy to have you.
First thing's first: I'm a little freak when it comes to video games. I don't feel the need to beat most games I play. From Software is one of my favorite studios in the industry and I've never finished a single one of their games. This means, fortunately, that I get to play a LOT more games than the average bear.
I've written up some blurbs about my top ten favorite games from 2023, but before that here's the list of every game I remember playing this year that left any sort of lasting impact on me (in no particular order):
Dead Space Remake
Resident Evil 4 Remake
F-Zero 99
Humanity
Dredge
Metroid Prime Remastered
Anemoiaplois
Alan Wake 2
Baldur’s Gate 3
LoZ Tears of the Kingdom
Counter Strike 2
Hunt Showdown
El Paso Elsewhere
Jusant
Slay the Princess|
Remnant II
The Finals
Street FIghter 6
Lethal Company
BattleBit Remastered
Don’t Scream
Homebody
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
Pizza Tower
World of Horror
Super Mario Wonder
Mr. Sun’s Hatbox
Fifa 23
Sea of Stars (Demo)
Half-Life (25th Anniversary Update)
And the games I played that were NOT released in 2023:
Unpacking
Persona 4 Golden
Picross 7
The Order 1886
Shovel Knight Dig
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX
Project Zomboid
Quake
LoZ The Minish Cap
Drill Dozer
Wario Land 4
Pokemon Pinball
Resident Evil Revelations
Summer of ‘58
Trackmania
TwinCop
We Were Here
Visage
Cursed Halo CE
Half-Life 2 (I probably play this once per year)
Witch Hunt
Red Dead Redemption 2
Cyberpunk 2077
Borderlands 3
Brutal Legend
Cultic
Slay the Spire
PUBG
Rez Infinite
Batman Arkham City
Alan Wake
Alan Wake: American Nightmare
Max Payne
LoZ: Majora’s Mask 3DS
Metroid Prime
Metroid Prime 2
Tunic
Everhood
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII Remake
GOODBYE WORLD
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Critters for Sale
Dome Keeper
Phasmophobia
Hades
Nintendo Switch Sports
Now that you understand the kind of freak you're dealing with…
Let's dive into my top ten favorite games from this objectively fucked up year.
10. El Paso Elsewhere
Developed by Texas indie studio Strange Scaffold, El Paso Elsewhere is a Max Payne-clone with vampires, an opinionated narrator, and lots and lots of bullet time. As a small studio punching well above their weight class, Strange Scaffold leans into abstract, PlayStation 1 minimalism when it comes to visuals and pairs them with a soundtrack that will make your hands sweat. The vibes are here and they're ready for the end of the world. I'm personally also a big fan of everything this studio stands for.
9. Mr. Sun's Hatbox
I want you to imagine Metal Gear Solid V. Now I want you to imagine that game as a 2D, level-based, slapstick platformer you can play with up to three friends. If you think that sounds stupid, you'd be right. And it's beautiful. As you build up a secret army of soldiers with various skills (and disorders), you'll start to develop *favorites*. This game constantly asks if you're willing to send those favorites on a harrowing mission and risk losing them forever… or if you'd rather send an idiot you recently captured who blinks constantly and can't kill anyone without fainting.
8. Dredge
Every year I feel like I find one game that falls into the “just one more round” category, and baby… Dredge was it for 2023. As a weary fisherman in strange waters, you'll make the most out of your 12 measly hours of sunlight only for your daily voyages to inevitably pull you into the darkness of night, and night is when things get weird. Rocks emerge from the fog that you swear weren't there before, your equipment malfunctions, and you're pretty sure you just saw something in the water… something big. Despite only containing a small collection of islands, the world of Dredge manages to feel vast - perhaps vast enough to swallow you whole.
7. Resident Evil 4 Remake
I was curious to see what sort of changes would be made to the timeless classic and father of modern 3rd person shooters, Resident Evil 4. I wasn't let down. RE4 Remake takes all the things that didn't age well about the original, tossed them out, and replaced them with only good things. And MORE things! It's campy, fun, and better than a game of bingo.
6. Jusant
I really feel like this one didn't get the recognition it deserves. Jusant is a rock climbing game that combines the quiet contemplation of Journey with the mechanical specificity of Death Stranding. Unlike Death Standing, though, there is very little story to interrupt your flow. There are plenty of collectible bits to find for those curious to learn more about what happened before the events of the game, but the environmental storytelling does most of the heavy lifting. For me, the joy of the game comes from how it feels. Right trigger controls your right hand grip, and left trigger controls left hand grip. Plan your route, manage your stamina, and climb high above the clouds in search of answers.
5. F-Zero 99
This. Shit. Slaps. I've never been a big F-Zero guy, but this MADE me one. The “battle royale”, 99 player format is the perfect fit for the ruthless, high octane world of the game. Races last about three minutes, and friend, they are the most intense, white-knuckled three minutes of your life. The decision to make your boost meter the same as your health meter started in F-Zero 64 (I believe), and it is so much more HARROWING in this game when another player could side-swipe you mere meters from the finish line and blow you to bits. Sadly it's only playable via Switch Online, but it made me cheer, laugh, and scream enough this year to earn a spot in my top 5.
4. Alan Wake 2
Remedy makes weird games that also manage to exist in the AAA space and for that I will forever love them. Although Alan Wake 2 resembles a 3rd person shooter survival horror, I'd honestly say it's more of a narrative game than anything else. There's sidequests, there's puzzles, there's upgradeable skills, but at the end of the day the characters, world, and story are what kept me playing. If you haven't checked them out recently, you should definitely watch a story recap of the original games before diving into this sequel, but the wild swings for the fences this game takes are well worth that small price of admission. There's a god damn musical number, for Christ's sake.
3. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
I've really got nothing to say about this game that most people don't already know. It's incredible. The fact that Nintendo made a game that redefined an entire genre and then made a SEQUEL to it that ups the ante is remarkable. To be honest, I've only cleared the Rito, Zora, and Goron cities. I got a bit tired of exploring the depths and guiding Koroks to their friends, but I can't deny the sheer level of complexity and polish on display here. I saw someone on TikTok build a functioning Mecha Godzilla in this game. Good God. I've heard that the ending of this game is one of the best in the franchise, and if I'd seen it this year then it may have wound up higher on my list, but for the time being I'll continue picking up this masterpiece from time to time, chipping away at it until the day comes that I can finally smack the tits off thicc Ganondorf.
2. Half-Life (25th Anniversary Update)
I know I'm gonna get shit for this, but I don't care. This year was the 25th anniversary of Half-Life and Valve released an update that made playing it (and it's online Death Match) much more accessible. I threw it on my Steam Deck out of curiosity, expecting to play for 20 minutes. I could not put it down. It is unbelievable how modern this game still feels. I simply had so much fun sprinting through the corridors of Black Mesa with a dozen weapons strapped to my back, blasting aliens and military Spec-Op chumps as a 24(?!) year old theoretical physicist.
1. Baldur's Gate III
This game is fucked up, man. The sheer amount of writing in this game scares me. We can all talk about how BIG this game is, it deserves it, but the thing BG3 does better than any other role playing game I have ever experienced is actually encourage roleplaying. I've played through Act I four times now, with four different groups of friends, and it has felt fresh every time. I have seen the same events play out in so many different ways that it boggles the mind, but in every one of those play sessions I see players asking themselves “What would my lil guy do here?” rather than "what is the best thing to do here?" The game rewards players constantly for just trying shit and the D&D 5e rule set means playing like the character you said you were from the start leads to frequent Points of Inspiration. Maybe one day I'll see the end of this story (probably not), but I don't have to in order to feel a connection with BG3's world, characters, and most impressively, the characters I made myself.
Honorable Mentions for 2023
5. Dave the Diver
4. Homebody
3. Sea of Stars
2. Humanity
1. Super Mario Wonder
Top 5 Favorites NOT from 2023
5. Metroid Prime
4. Final Fantasy VII Remake
3. Cursed Halo (Halo CE Mod)
2. Red Dead Redemption 2
1. Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (3DS)
Games I didn't have a chance to play from 2023 but still want to when I find more time...
Viewfinder
Venba
Chants of Sennaar
Thirsty Suitors
Hi-Fi Rush
Moonring
Armored Core VI
Laika Aged Through Blood
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
OKAY THANKS BYE!
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