Runners-Up

Spider-Man 2

Votes: 5
Website | OpenCritic: 90 (97% recommend) | Playstation

#11

Lies of P

Votes: 5
Website | OpenCritic: 82 (88% recommend) | Discuss
Steam | Microsoft | Other Stores
Show 1 Reviews

#10

Reviews of Lies of P:

Kryzn, Knight of the Salt Mines

A surprisingly competent souls-like, that despite the Initial silly hook even has some pretty decent lore and story. Just enough innovation in the combat system to make it a bit new and interesting, and the boss fights are spectacular. Levels are not as good as DS, but the simplicity is helpful.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

Votes: 5
Website | OpenCritic: 89 (98% recommend) | Discuss
GOG | Steam | Other Stores

Slay the Spire Splay the Sire

Votes: 5
Website | OpenCritic: 89 (100% recommend) | Discuss
Steam | Humble
Show 1 Review

Reviews of Slay the Spire:

tjhowse

It's Slay the Spire.

Shadows of Doubt

Votes: 5
Website
Steam
Show 1 Review

Dredge

Votes: 5
Website | OpenCritic: 82 (90% recommend)
Steam | GOG

Reviews of Shadows of Doubt:

tjhowse

Janky as hell but deliciously ambitious. Best way to simulate hiding in a man's bathroom to scan fingerprints off his toilet.

Resident Evil 4 Resident Evil 4 (2023) Would You Prefer
Re-Resident Evil 4?

Votes: 6
Website | OpenCritic: 92 (98% recommend)
Steam | Xbox | Playstation
Show 1 Review

Cyberpunk 2077 Now It's Cyberpunk 2080

Votes: 6
Website | OpenCritic: 76 (63% recommend) | Discuss
GOG | Steam | Other Stores

Reviews of Resident Evil 4:

Fysi

Twas a great game on the GameCube, and Capcom have brought it out of the past while still retaining its soul and charm.

Vampire Survivors

Votes: 7
Website | OpenCritic: 87 (100% recommend)
Discuss
Steam
Show 1 Review

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Votes: 7
Website | OpenCritic: 91 (98% recommend)
Nintendo Store
Show 3 Reviews

Reviews of Vampire Survivors:

Fysi

If you've played it for more than 20 minutes, you know why this is here. If you've not played it for more than 20 minutes, what are you doing? Go play it! The most generous and best pound per hour of entertainment ever.

Reviews of Super Mario Bros. Wonder:

Noel

A wonderful gem of creative genius from the Nintendo team - it remained fresh and joyful during the whole time. Basically, this game feels like all the good ideas that were cut from the previous several milquetoast 2D Mario games.

megapenthes

Great 2d platforming, very tight. Fun psychedelic bits.

QuantumJump

It's rare that a mainline Mario game is less than stellar, and this game absolutely keeps that streak going. It's fun, it's polished, the controls are tight, the wonder mechanic is joyful, if weird. Another home run from Nintendo. 8/10

Dave the Diver Dave the Driver Drave the Diver Drave the Driver

Votes: 9
Website | OpenCritic: 90 (100% recommend)
Steam | Switch
Show 2 Reviews

Reviews of Dave the Diver:

Is it an indie tho? Maybe not, but this was a delightful smaller game between behemoth releases that wormed its way into my heart. Starts out as something that seems light and forgettable, but smartly layers systems and hooks until you end up with a surprisingly deep and quite special game.

veerserif

My maximalist joy of the summer, Dave The Diver is an incredibly silly game that never saw a minigame it didn't like. It absolutely revels in how much more it can pile on, and I have a soft spot for knowingly unserious games. Bancho is the greatest.

The Best Games of 2023

#10

Lethal Company

Game of the Year Votes: 1
Runner-Up Votes: 5
Reviews: 2
Official Discord Server
Steam

Morgan?!

The perfect "throw a bunch of problems into a pot and see what happens" experience. So many potential interactions and situations out of such a simple setup mean this game never gets old with the right group of friends.

megapenthes

I played a few times with scrub friends, then once with 2/3 scrub friends and 1/1 expert friend of scrub. I still treasure the moment when, because I was dead, I heard the expert say, exasperated "I can't believe this fucking crew". & the time I found a log on the company planet and proudly told him

Against the Storm

Game of the Year Votes: 1
Runner-Up Votes: 5
Reviews: 2
Website
OpenCritic: 92
Steam | Epic

Ringwraith

What if the most interesting part of city builders was the only part? The puzzle of constantly having to adapt to random conditions and even building selection. Extremely smartly designed how every system feeds into each other so you can pull off big comebacks. Then harder settings change one thing.

Kryzn, Knight of the Salt Mines

Randomized city building with rogue like elements means I get to play the fun bit of restarting a new colony over and over and over. The randomization makes it just different enough to always be interesting. Just wish I could remember all the possible production chains.

The Talos Principle 2

Game of the Year Votes: 2
Runner-Up Votes: 1
Reviews: 2
Website
OpenCritic: 89
Steam | Epic | Xbox | Playstation

Avagad

The Talos Principle games continue the great 3D puzzle legacy started by Portal. TP2 doesn't quite reach the same heights as TP1 but is still one of the best puzzle games of this year

The philosophy might have been lower-level, but it was carried through by endearing characters. Also the puzzles were pretty good.

Cocoon

Game of the Year Votes: 2
Runner-Up Votes: 8
Reviews: 2
Website
OpenCritic: 87
Steam

Of all the great indie puzzles I played last year, this was probably the best - it's an awesome, mind-bendy, trippy experience full of those great "I'm a genius!"moments. However I'll use this review to tell you to ALSO go play Chants of Sennaar, The Case of the Golden Idol, and Jusant! yay, indies!

An exceptionally smooth game that kept me going just to see what weird bio-wonders it would come up with next, and balanced the puzzles just right.

Remnant 2

Game of the Year Votes: 3
Runner-Up Votes: 1
Website
OpenCritic: 82
Steam | Epic | Playstation | Xbox

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew

Game of the Year Votes: 3
Runner-Up Votes: 2
Website
OpenCritic: 85
Official Store | Steam

Armored Core VI: Fires Of Rubicon Armoured Core VI: Fires Of Rubicon

Game of the Year Votes: 4
Runner-Up Votes: 9
Reviews: 4
Website
OpenCritic: 85
Steam | Other Platforms

FromSoft don't miss. I had no idea what to expect going in, and videos of other people playing looked completely incomprehensible - until I hopped in myself and found an incredible, fluid, dare I say intuitive action-shooting-fighty game. The Zimmerman is maybe my favourite gun in video games.

Ringwraith

Wrings incredible character out of a faceless cast who only exist as words on the radio. Lets you pretty make pretty much any mech you want provided you know how to pilot it well enough. Swords rule. Incredible sound design, very good computer voice alerts. Everything is Actual Size, which is big.

QuantumJump

After finally getting FROM games last year with Elden Ring, and loving mechs, I was very excited for AC6. It didn't disappoint. The customisation of your mech is unlike anything I've experienced, and the buildcraft allows bringing down the difficulty when needed (Zimmermans my beloved). 8/10

Morgan?!

Genuinely the best action game to come out in a while. I've never felt cooler when committing horrific acts of mass violence.

Alan Wake 2

Game of the Year Votes: 6
Runner-Up Votes: 3
Reviews: 4 | Discuss
Website
OpenCritic: 89
Epic | Playstation | Xbox

Kane

Alan Wake 2 is fearlessly and joyfully unique and charmingly indulgent, and filled with peerless visual spectacle unlike anything you'll see any any other game—until Remedy's next masterpiece. The whole medium is ennobled by their creativity and evident love for their art. An absolute triumph.

mrwonko

🎶 Champion of light…🎵Herald of darkness.
What a gorgeous game. The lighting is something else.
And exactly the kind of meta nonsense I'm into.

Teambo

A little condensed autumn spookyness. The vibes are on point.

Fysi

And now, we sing.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Game of the Year Votes: 6
Runner-Up Votes: 20
Reviews: 11
Website
OpenCritic: 96
Official Store

Noel

For the Ultrahand alone, this makes my list of top games of the year. Despite being not super impressed by the exploration of the overworld, I found myself having a great time playing this through - once I stopped wanting it to be Breath of the Wild.

The madmen at nintendo somehow figured out how to make a perfect game better. I have no idea how they made this or how it runs on Switch. The new powers are awesome, the world is huge and full of fun stuff to do. A miracle of game systems design. Would have been my GOTY any other year.

veerserif

Between the BG3 versus TOTK titan fight, this is where I land. Sorry BG3! You're lovely too! It's just that my brain's D&D space is already occupied! I loved TOTK's new ways to engage with the space, loved its contraptions, and also it let me build a combine harvester with swords, planks and hot glue.

Ranneko

The only AAA game I was able to find time to play through this year. There is always something to do, it felt like no matter how small a time I could steal to play I could make some sort of progress it stayed running on my Steam Deck for several months straight

Douchetoevsky

Nintendo really understands that video games are about play in a way that few other large developers seem to get. Just a joy to puzzle out how to use all the toys they give you in TotK.

Dr. Khelzor

Had my 2008-excited-for-Banjo-Kazooie-Nuts-&-Bolts-self played this game played this, it would probably be my favorite game of all time. Alas, I approached this game with the grim Akira-biked efficiency of a man with a day job. I'm sorry Nintendo, you didn't deserve this.

Gwathdring

I loved Breath of the Wild but had a few reservations. Tears of the Kingdom resolves most of them indirectly, largely by plastering more more into a AAA sequel than I've seen before. More to explore, more feels, more strapping rockets to hammers, and more shield surfing. 13/10

QuantumJump

I'm surprised by this; I didn't like Breath of the Wild at all. But tears of the kingdom takes almost everything I found disappointing about BotW and makes it incredible. The story is moving, the dungeon and shrine design is fantastic, the emergent gameplay is hilarious and engaging. 9/10

Avagad

An incredible follow-up to one of the greatest games of all time. Taking advantage of the familiarity players have for the first game and using it to enhance the sequel

Tyen

Lightening does strike twice

velleic

Not as good as BOTW, is my hot take. Still really great though.

Baldur's Gate 3

Game of the Year Votes: 32
Runner-Up Votes: 25
Reviews: 12 | Discuss
Website
OpenCritic: 96
Steam | Playstation | Xbox

Fredurix

After having Baldur's Gate 3 consume the last half of my gaming year and impeding my minature painting progress even more than usually, I have to restrain the urge to start a new game as a power-hungry dark urge sorcerer. I think that says it all. It's just that good.

Kane

The modern successor to the classic cRPG that RPG fans have been waiting for, BG3 somehow manages to be more ambitious in its writing and level and quest design than previous revivals like Pillars and Torment while still being accessibly modern and cinematic. It's everything I could have asked for.

Noel

It's the obvious choice, and the right one. A brilliant CRPG that actually got me to play a CRPG, mostly by being based in a combat system I was already familiar with. I have barely even started Act 3, and it's still the winner.

Fysi

Was my GOTY until I got to that section in AW2. If I were more a sandbox guy, I would suspect this would pip AW2 if I had more time this year to play this fully.

Spad 😬

As close are you're going to get to the experience of playing D&D 5e on your computer (including all the awkward sex roleplay), and let's face it you're never going to schedule that tabletop game, you're just not, stop kidding yourself.

Morgan?!

Karlach told me she believes in me and now I can do anything.

Avagad

You can have sex with a bear

I won't say it's "a ttrpg on pc" because it's not - it's its own incredible thing. Gives you a world you want to inhabit, and lets you affect it in more ways than you can imagine. I also haven't seen a cast of characters get people down bad like this since Hades. Now I just need to finish it...

mrwonko

30 hours in I already love it. Always happy when I can do weird shit and fail forward.

Jammy

nearly as good as neverwinter nights

Fiyenyaa

Disclaimer: I have not finished it. But it is such an incredible CRPG achievement that I have no choice but to stan. Interesting characters and great performances, my only criticism is that it should be using 4e mechanics

Teambo

At best, this feels like a D&D TTRPG session with a strict RAW DM. At it's other best it's a dating sim. ❤ Lae'zel. Single-handedly bringing the CRPG genre to the masses and it critically succeeds at that.

Honourable Mentions

Strong contenders that just didn't make it into the top 20.
(Click underlined items to see reviews.)

BattleBit Remastered

Kane

BattleBit stands defiantly against the degenerate crimes of modern game design: no battle passes, no microtransactions, no manipulation, no RPG mechanics, no compromising scale for flashy graphics. It brings Battlefield back to its roots, and by doing so unshackles the pure chaotic joy you remember.

Cobalt Core

tjhowse

Best Slay the Spire since Slay the Spire. Wit, charm and a meaningful positional layer atop StS' foundations.

Kryzn, Knight of the Salt Mines

FTL meets Slay The Spire. Adding the movement dimension to the deck builder logic was an inspired choice and adds a lot of depth, as does the ability to build the deck through different characters.Added bonus, a surprisingly good narrative hook that made me try different builds and gives an endpoint

Counter-Strike 2

Fysi

Honestly, this is here because I've spent hours of my life on surf maps as it was realistically the only thing I could play with a young baby.

Dota 2

kronatherm

Glick greep

Fiyenyaa

Dota is back for me after a 7 year break. The game is at once intimately familiar and radically different, but the main thing is that it remains a good time with 4 pals

Douchetoevsky

Quite possibly the Greatest Video Game of All Time.

Hi-Fi Rush

Jusant

Bollox

Would probably be my GOTY if I hadn't played a swiss horror game from 2021.

Marvel's Midnight Suns

Kane

Really, Midnight Suns is nothing special. It combines the very good combat system of Firaxis's XCOM with a deckbuilding mechanic, Marvel's characters, and a taste of MCU-esque banter. But it executes all of those things well, and is comfortable and fun without demanding too much investment from you.

Starfield

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

Bollox

Continues to be my grimdark comfort food.

tjhowse

Still a mainstay of our family gaming nights. We haven't dug into the new mega-update too deeply, but it seems like it's now much closer to the game people were expecting at launch.

Fiyenyaa

An aesthetic tour de force and absolute blast with a full group. Somehow the created characters have personalities that shine through thanks to great writing and voice acting, the set piece music is fabulous, and they get 40k looking just right

Citizen Sleeper

Noel

I slept on this, but it was excellent. Scifi story about an artificial person who strives to make a living on a spaceship still dealing with the fallout of deposing its corporate overlords. Well-written and atmospheric like no other. Great soundtrack, too.

Dawncaster

Ranneko

I have already spent far too much time poking around in this mobile first Spirelike. While it is very keen on its own lore, I like how varied the different characters feel, and the different builds they make possible

Kryzn, Knight of the Salt Mines

One of the best deckbuilders I have played, not just on mobile but in general. Optimized for the phone, fair pricing model, and a lot of depth. There are a lot of different classes and builds, and a lot of ways to experiment. Probably my most played game this year.

Diablo IV

Final Fantasy XVI

Hitman World of Assassination

Fredurix

I played HITMAN: Freelancer obsessively until I finally managed to complete a campaign. Fortunately I was then able to put it aside. But I'll be back.

Honkai: Star Rail

Ringwraith

Contains some of the most relatable texting, including someone using those roses! A character often acts like your weird stalker but you can absolutely refuse to play along and this mark their quest validly done. Astonishingly critical of the evils of capitalism despite being a gacha game. Also gay.

Pentiment

CannedLizard

A great game with the only downside is there are three other games that also need to get recommended ahead of it, because they touch on the same vibes/loops, but better (Night In the Woods, Disco Elysium, and The Pillars of the Earth).

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Street Fighter 6

Morgan?!

The smoothest and best balanced launch of a fighting game I've ever seen let down hard by a terrible monetization scheme for a full price game.

Teambo

An excellent introduction to Street Fighter, especially for new players. I've been told it has a single-player campaign but that sounds like a fib.

Douchetoevsky

I started playing fighting games in January of 2023 with Guilty Gear Strive, which I love but had some technical issues that turned me off a bit. SF6 came out fully formed and completely accessible. This is the first game to get me to go to locals. Great continuation of a classic.

The Case of the Golden Idol

velleic

Pretty good puzzle detectiving.

I literally smacked my forehead at a late-game realization of something I missed, which is always a sign of a good mystery.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

Bollox

I can't remember why they have to be naked to pilot the giant mechs.

Aliens: Dark Descent

Arma 3

Tyen

Every Sunday I get to play this with a lovely community of players. I look forward to it every week. It's given me the chance to be creative and I've been modding in new assets to give us some goofy outfits to wear.

Gwathdring

I've been playing ARMA for a few years at this point, and it's still the best multiplayer gaming experience I've had over the Internet. A lot of that comes from the community I play with, but there also just isn't anything like ARMA. It's weird, bit, awkward and wonderful.

Brotato

Cassette Beasts

Chained Echoes

malkav11

What if a JRPG bent over backwards to be as player-friendly as the genre has ever been? It's also a cool, thought out world, enjoyable characters, and a lot of neat mechanics. A slightly iffy translation is my only serious complaint.

Chants of Sennaar

Noel

A wonderful gem of a puzzle game about translating five different languages. A perfect snack-sized, well-scoped game with a great cel-shaded art style and a surprisingly affecting story about religion and connection.

Cities: Skylines II

Coffee Talk

Coral Island

veerserif

If my GOTY is a farm sim from the 2010s, special mentions to the game that kicked off my nostalgia trip. Coral Island is a great addition to the genre... but it needs another year to cook. Here's hoping 2024 does great things for it.

Cult of the Lamb

Jammy

I named my cult The Gym and I don't remember why

Darkest Dungeon II

Dead by Daylight

Avagad

This was the year this game finally "clicked" for me and instantly it consumed me. The best competitive multiplayer experience I've had in ages. Like an extreme game of tag, the fun comes from being chased or from being the chaser regardless of whether you "win" or not.

Deep Rock Galactic

Cordeos

My favorite of the 4 person coop games. This year I started playing it a bunch with an old friend and a new community. Its been great teaching people the game and just hanging out.

Lucy

Loved it despite playing it objectively wrong - tunneling in the dark with no company but robots, letting one class level and immediately switching to the next, mechanical progression be damned. What a great example of ambient atmosphere and a hilariously good appropriation of the "season pass".

Demon's Souls

mrwonko

After Dark Souls, I picked up a PS3 and Demon's Souls, but never got past 2-1. Until I picked up the remake. The gameplay holds up really well, and the graphical upgrade makes it a joy to look at.

Dwarf Fortress

Elden Ring

tjhowse

I'm playing this vicariously via my 10 y'old son. I am enjoying his "What... what? Is THAT? How?!?!" reactions. Good stuff.

Takuna

Still great! I've just been playing with friends in a pseudo-co-op campaign, as I've done for years with other soulsbornes. Traversing the open world is a bit of a pain in multiplayer, so we sometimes have to just go from point to point on our own, but it otherwise works pretty well.

Factorio

Lacero

I can quit any time I like.

God of War (2018)

Hades

Horizon Zero Dawn

Hunt: Showdown

Jagged Alliance 3

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

CannedLizard

What a surprise this was. Needs to be bought on sale to feel "worth" it, but plays like a game from an alternate universe where licensed games like this are good, and action-adventure games discovered playfulness.

malkav11

This is not the world's most ambitious game design, but it's colorful, imaginative, funny, and well written, with a very Guardians appropriate storyline and some real pathos at times. Held back a bit by QTEs (which you can disable) and shallow but at least manageable combat.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Gwathdring

I played both this year, but this one has a cat in a backpack (also a more compelling cast and the venom subsystem). I never clicked with Spiderman 2 back when, so this is my definitive web-swinging experience. It's in my top few games for movement ever with N++ and Mirror's Edge.

Mechabellum

Metal Gear Solid

CannedLizard

Somehow, playing on an emulator after having already played MGS 2, 3, & 5 multiple times over the years, this still feels fresh, new, and innovative. Made with heart.

megapenthes

I played the version from the Master Collection. The game stands up amazingly for the restrictions of its time, especially the PS1 controller. As the master collection says it's kinda problematic. Still the story is 50% saying genuine interesting things about world and 50% fighting a cyborg ninja.

Minecraft

Cordeos

Building stuff, still great.

Moonring

PlateUp!

Pokémon GO

Risk of Rain Returns

Tyen

The original kept me gripped and wanting just 'one more go'. The remake has don exactly the same.

Lucy

What a blast from the past! I'd long been considering getting Risk of Rain, one of my all-time favorites, for the Switch, and the release of Returns was the perfect excuse. Extremely rewarding to me as an expansion/coat of paint on the original, and now the clear choice for a newcomer or fan of 2.

Sea of Stars

Could have used a little more variation on the combat, but it was a lovely game that felt like a classic SNES RPG lost to time.

Signalis

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Stray

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Spad 😬

An open world game that doesn't feel like one; it somehow manages to turn the usual bullshit fetch quests and tedious crafting grind into something enjoyable, with just an incredible density of stuff to do, all with the customary Nintendo charm.

Timberborn

Lacero

Building things or dynamiting the map to push the water one way or another to irrigate crops, then building giant towers for beavers to live in so you don't waste the precious green ground is just so much fun.

Titanfall 2

Tunic

Victoria 3

kronatherm

Officially confirms Communism is OP.

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

Special Consideration

Wonderful games recommended by just one member of the community.
Titles in bold were that member's Game of the Year!
(Click underlined items to see reviews.)

Aeon Trespass: Odyssey

malkav11

This was a very risky Kickstarter back - hundreds of dollars to a first-time company doing an insanely ambitious boss battling boardgame full of giant miniatures and an elaborate story full of mythological allusions and one of the most creative settings I've seen. They knocked it out of the park.

Amnesia: The Bunker

Bean and Nothingness

Dr. Khelzor

A charming little puzzle game with a satisfying amount of complexity to it. I feel slightly contrarian putting this above Tears of the Kingdom, but frankly, it had the better puzzles, a more engaging story and has the underdog charm of feeling like it was made in a shed by a pair of boffins.

Bobo the Cat

Can of Wormholes

velleic

Great puzzles and great hint system. The game that finally answers the question: what if everything was a worm?

Cruelty Squad

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut

Lucy

Really blew my socks off. It takes something very special to get me into an RPG, and the photo-negative focus on interiority rather than your party/the end of the world was instantly fascinating to me. Also had a great balance of gaminess in there which felt really well-thought-out.

Dominions 5 - Warriors of the Faith

Dyson Sphere Program

Fallout: New Vegas

CannedLizard

Turns out that, even after a decade of humming-and-hawing at the game in your library, trying to work out what alchemical mixture of mods works...firing up New Vegas vanilla is still magical. Incredible writing, and such a sharp logistical world building that draws your right in.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

kronatherm

An all-time strategy game tied to an all-time friendship sim? That you can playthrough multiple times for drastically different stories?? This will also be next year's GOTY when I replay it.

Frosthaven

Hearts of Iron IV: Kaiserreich

Fiyenyaa

I continue to come back to this - the team behind this mod keeps it updated regularly, the world they have crafted gets more and more believable, and the mechanics of HoI4 are catnip to me.

In the Groove

Marvel Snap

Mundaun

Bollox

Frightening mountain goat petting game.

Nuclear Option

OTXO

Persona 5 Royal

Pokémon Unite

Prey

Project Zomboid

Runescape

Takuna

Look it's been a busy year and I needed something to do on a second monitor. 20 years later and it's still good! Mostly, anyway... It's aggressively monetised in an intrusive way. But it's been lovely to just have my little character mining away while I do other things. What sunk cost? Shhhh.

Stardew Valley

veerserif

I'm allowed to put my 23 Dec - 1 Jan hyperfixation game on here. It's valid. Hush. In all seriousness, 2023 was really a year for me to revisit old games that have been quietly updated continually for the past decade, and Stardew epitomizes that.

Super Auto Pets

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection

Thief: The Black Parade

Trials of Fire

zig13

Really makes my brain go whirr. Has a good balance of choice to keep my brain engaged and randomness to stop things from being stale.

Venba

Void Stranger

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Expansion Pass Wave 4 - Future Redeemed

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

A Mortician's Tale

ASTLIBRA Revision

Backpack Battles

BattleTech

Bayonetta 3

Spad 😬

A game that runs on rule of cool, with the same near-perfect combat system as its predecessors and just enough new stuff to keep things interesting. Who needs Hell when you have trans-dimensional evil?

Blasphemous 2

Bloodborne

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Caves of Qud

Citra

veerserif

Yes, the 3DS emulator. 2023 was the year I turned my phone and also my Steam Deck into a full on emulator experience and you know what? The nostalgia's been great. Shoutouts to EmuDeck for the Steam Deck in making everything easy and painless.

Conquest of Elysium 5

Crab Champions

Dangeresque: The Roomisode Triungulate

Dr. Khelzor

Nobody does Sierra adventure game pastiches quite like Videlectrix. A Homestar Runner game in 2023 - it warms my heart.

DCS World

Deadeye Deepfake Simulacrum

Dead Space

Deathloop

Death Must Die

Devil May Cry 5

mrwonko

I already finished this on PC, including again as Nero, but now that I have a PS5 I had to pick it up again for the Legendary Dark Knight mode with lots of enemies. Still a joy. This game understands that sometimes it's more important to look cool than to deal the most damage.

Dishonored 2

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dragon Dreams: A Taste of Adventure

Dread Templar

Dune: Imperium

eFootball 2023

Elsinore

Erannorth Chronicles

malkav11

The single most in-depth, crazy ambitious roguelite deckbuilder on the market and probably that will ever be made. Super flexible, super addictive. If it had a cool story (there's just a few bits and pieces) it'd be contending for GOTY. And it's all made by one guy.

Escape From Lavender Island

Escape from Tarkov

Fiyenyaa

Top and tailed the year with this one, it continues to be the only FPS I really want to play long term. High stakes, high adrenaline, high detail, high inventory management

Europa Universalis IV

Everspace 2

Fate/hollow ataraxia

Fear & Hunger 2: Termina

Fights in Tight Spaces

Final Fantasy V (Pixel Remaster)

QuantumJump

After realising I had hardly played any FF games earlier this year, I started playing through them from the start (#QuantumFFF on Cohost). I got through five this year. I never thought anything could dethrone IV as my favourite, but I was wrong. Great story, incredible mechanics. Can't wait for VI.

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

kronatherm

Has absolutely no right being as good as it is - turns out the trick to making a good Dynasty Warriors game is to have someone else do a redux of one of their best stories ever so players can learn even more about the cool kids of Garreg Mach.

Football Manager 2024

Forza Horizon 5

mrwonko

I got gamepass for Starfield, then mostly played this instead.

Forza Motorsport

Frog Detective 3: Corruption at Cowboy County

Cordeos

Can frogs wear hats?

Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut

Ghost Song

God of War Ragnarök

Gotham Knights

Grow Home

Tyen

A tasty little dish that I fondly remember

Guilty Gear Strive

Hearts of Iron IV: Old World Blues

Cordeos

A mod set in the world of Fallout. I find I enjoy smaller wars in HOI and this mod has tons of them

Helldivers

Takuna

I only just got around to trying it this year! I expected a hijinks simulator, but as the difficulty ramps up this is an incredible team action tactics game, with some levels feeling like puzzles. Incredibly dynamic, frenetic and frantic, with that perfect balance between control and chaos.

Hellish Quart

Fredurix

Advance! Retreat! Lunge! Riposte! Slash! Swish! Clink! Clank! (bleed. die)

Hell Let Loose

Heretic's Fork

Hexcells Infinite

Takuna

Sometimes you just want a game you can fire up, play for a few minutes and be done with, y'know? Something to just reset my mind from time to time.

Hitman: Freelancer

Hogwarts Legacy

Hole.io

HROT

Humanity

Hyper Demon

I Did Not Buy This Ticket

Immortality

Inscryption

Into the Breach

iRacing

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Jammy

It's actually quite boring but I need to justify my time investment at this point.

Lab Cat

Ranneko

A fun puzzle game, mostly emblematic of the great time I have had periodically poking through the Pico8 games. This one is a series of one screen sokoban puzzles

Levelhead

Life Is Strange: True Colors

Linelith

velleic

Beautifully simple puzzle game. Teeny-tiny design space but keeps expanding what you think is possible.

Lone Fungus

megapenthes

Solid metroidvania. Hollow Knight but instead of a bug you're a mushroom and it's less pretty. That still leaves a lot of wiggle room for being great.

Magic: The Gathering Arena

Dr. Khelzor

I thought I was free from the grasp of MtG, but then they went and made a perfect mechanical representation of that time Treebeard did a song painstakingly listing every living creature [Long List of the Ents] and they went and pulled me back in again.

Mars First Logistics

Mass Effect

Lucy

I finally finished it! What a great game once you figure out how to fly the ship. A much better game to do a first-run speedrun in than ES: Oblivion, I was very happy that it supported my roleplay of "urgent Shepard" without issue. Loved the broad-strokes worldbuilding.

Mass Effect 2

Lucy

Played 1, 2, and 3 this year. 2 is, as everyone else knows by now, a tour-de-force of applied nostalgia and efficient character relationship building. Never seen anything like the final sequence and probably never will again.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition

McPixel 3

MechWarrior Online

Metroid Dread

Metroid: Zero Mission

Mirror's Edge

Tyen

Earlier in the year I had a chance to look at modding the game. I learned a lot and really enjoyed picking apart the assets.

Misericorde: Volume One

Monster Prom

Morroblivion

Cordeos

Playing a remake of Morrowind in the Oblivion engine is very weird but also quite fun. Very excited for Skyblivion/Skywind when those come out.

Mosa Lina

MyHouse.wad

Douchetoevsky

Who knew one of the best modern literary horror adaptations would be a custom DOOM map?

My Work Is Not Yet Done

NEO: The World Ends with You

No Man's Sky

Bollox

Starfield Killer

NORCO

Octopath Traveler II

QuantumJump

Another game I liked much more than its predecessor. The music and visuals are best-in-class like Octopath 1, but the characters' storylines hit home a lot better, which gave me the impetus to keep playing long enough to really sink my teeth into the combat system. 8/10

OlliOlli World

Ooblets

zig13

Lovely comfort game to keep returning to

Orb of Creation

Outward: Definitive Edition

Party Animals

Path of Exile

Patrick's Parabox

Gwathdring

This is a pretty straightforward puzzle game. The puzzles are tight and some of them are quite tricky. It feels fresh and inviting--it won't break your brain or get you pulling out graph paper like a Zackitronics game, but it doesn't need to. It's properly tricky and it just works.

Pikmin 4

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Pineapple on pizza

Pistol Whip

zig13

It's amazing how long Cloud Head have supported this game with great tracks being added this year. The daily challenges keep it fresh and this is a great game for warming up/getting sweaty.

Pizza Tower

Douchetoevsky

Impossibly funky platformer.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

velleic

Alright, fine, fun and actually tricky Double Battles from the DLC are actually enough to overcome the bugs and performance problems.

Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator

CannedLizard

Perfectly creates the headspace of being an Alchemist, tottering around, trying to pawn off your random potions off the shelf (ones you made during your experiments) before sighing and making the precise potion your customer wants. This will fund your further experiments in the basement at least....

Prestige Tree

Avagad

I love clicker games. I've played a lot of clicker games. This one is one the best out there. Made by clicker game fans for clicker game fans.

Prime Mover

Dr. Khelzor

So it turns out that puzzle games which are complex enough to be Turing complete are exactly my jam. Maybe I'm just in an incredibly narrow target audience here, but it squeezes a lot of fun out of what is effectively a mix of programming and cable management. Pretty cool aesthetic too.

Psychonauts 2

Ranneko

They spent a lot more time trying to sand off the inherent issues with jumping around in someone's mind and permanently adjusting their very way of thinking. It was fun, I just wish I didn't have to constantly fiddle with which powers I had assigned

Purrgatory

Quake

Quake II - Enhanced Edition

Queer Man Peering Into A Rock Pool.jpg

Rain World: Downpour

Ready or Not

Returnal

Return to Monkey Island

megapenthes

Played some of this over Christmas with my parents and I think it's as charming as the old ones, and pays homage/references appropriately, whilst having a way for new players to know what's going on. We played on easy mode and it's been nice to have mostly straightforward puzzles. Easy story access

Reverse: 1999

Ringwraith

Two factions of magic users war across the 20th century as periods of history are erased by reversed rain. English acting with a lot of using their own languages. Characters include famous dog Pickles, a sword-wielding pair of gauntlets, and an extremely French girl. Gay. Unfortunately a gacha game.

Risk of Rain 2

Rogue Legacy 2

Rollerdrome

Roll Player Adventures

malkav11

A gripping mixture of dice placement and manipulation and storybook adventuring. Moral choices abound and there are secret artifacts to find through careful exploration. The writing is stellar and the gameplay is consistently exciting and thinky.

Sailing Era

SEASON: A letter to the future

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Severed Steel

Spad 😬

Diving, sliding, wall-running, slo-motion single-player FPS that knows exactly what it is and does it to perfection.

Shadows Over Loathing

Shogun Showdown

Slay the Princess

Just a fun, slightly unsettling time. A surprising amount of variation and responsiveness.

Spelunky 2

Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Sporcle

Takuna

Ok it has been a very slow year for games. I almost didn't have 5 picks, but then I remembered that I'd been entertaining myself on slow work days with geography quizzes. Er... it's surprisingly fun?? And hey, now I can recite every country in the world, and every capital city in Europe.

Star Citizen

Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

Storyteller

Strange Horticulture

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical

Subnautica: Below Zero

Fredurix

Doesn't have quite the sense of awe and wonder as exploring the seas of the original Subnautica (I have seen a lot of it before, after all), but a more cohesive story, and still lots of cool new discoveries.

Super Woden GP 2

Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga

Gwathdring

I also play Tactics Ogre this year--better if still mediocre story, more robust feeling, more grind. Both had bite to their encounters and properly tense turns where I had to let people die. Here, the unit upgrades were compelling and the squad-as-unit layout system was fresh and lovely.

Synth Riders

zig13

So many community maps available that have kept me entertained and fit over the year.

System Shock Remastered

Tchia

Tetris 99

Tetris Effect: Connected

The Banner Saga

kronatherm

Finally finished this after several attempts, the storytelling is excellent and the oddity of not wanting to finish enemies off but leave them in a weakened state still makes this feel unique among strategy titles.

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood

The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

Jammy

You feel somewhat bad. You feel somewhat bad. You feel somewhat bad. You feel somewhat bad. You feel somewhat bad. You feel somewhat bad. You feel somewhat bad. You feel somewhat bad. You feel somewhat bad. You feel somewhat bad. You feel somewhat bad. You feel somewhat bad. You feel somewhat bad.

The Invincible

Kane

The finest walking sim I've played yet, The Invincible is a respectful adaptation of the classic Stanislaw Lem novel, updating it for modern sensibilities without unduly modernising it. The dialogue between the two main characters is great and the desolate sci-fi landscapes are second-to-none.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie

Ringwraith

Confusingly named 10th game that's an extended epilogue and sidestory collection. Follows through on small detail consequences so well it retroactively fixes some of the inconsistent last game. Splits into small groups to avoid the huge cast problems. A new character sometimes says "danger zone".

The Outer Worlds

Thirsty Suitors

Tinykin

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege

Valheim

Vintage Story

Lacero

Just a legally distinct MineCraft? or is it actually good? It's extremely unfinished but the core gameplay of searching for rare metals, surviving bears and dragging yourself up to steel is great fun.

Wanted: Dead

Warframe

Spad 😬

Free-to-play 3rd person space ninja shooty slashy space combat open world mining conservation fishing skateboarding mech game with time travel. 4750 hours says I can't be wrong because the alternative is too painful to contemplate.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e

Wartales

We Who Are About To Die

What the Bat?

zig13

I feel like this is a perfect game to use to introduce people to VR. I have only played one session of it, but it hooked me and I kept at it progressing through a lot of the game.

Wildermyth

Word Trails

World of Horror

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

Yi Xian: The Cultivation Card Game

Kryzn, Knight of the Salt Mines

This pushes all my buttons. A PvP auto-battler deckbuilder. It looked initially like shovel-ware, but especially after the visual update passes it looks quite nice now. The deckbuilding is fun, and the competitive dimension keeps it interesting. Lots of different characters also add variety.

ZERO Sievert

ΔV: Rings of Saturn